A/N: Thank you to those who have reviewed this so far! I do appreciate it I have already completed the whole story, it's just a matter of proof reading and uploading!
It was Saturday morning and I awoke to the sound of my cell phone vibrating. I rolled over and looked at the clock. It was almost 8:30a. This was sleeping in for me. Then I grabbed my phone off the night stand and checked it. I had a couple missed calls from Jacob the previous night; actually it was more like the early morning. He must have called me after he closed down the bar. He didn't leave any voicemails. I didn't think much of it. Jacob and I used to always drunk dial each other so maybe that's all it was… but if he was working then he would not have been drinking. If it was important then he would have left a message. That's when I noticed I had text messages also. Two of them and they were both from Jacob. The first one was at 3:12am and it read - I need to talk to you about something. Call me when you are alone. That didn't make any sense, what could he need to talk to me about at that hour? The second message was sent around 4am - I still need to talk to you but I will call you when I get up.
I got up and looked out the window. It was actually a decent day. The sun was shining which was a rarity. The weather was supposed to get snowy later on. Possibly even a bad snow storm. I read in the paper earlier in the week that if the storm made its way to Forks that it could be the worst in our history. I doubted it would happen though. As I looked out the window I thought about my previous night.
After working until almost 7p I went over to Angela's apartment. Her boyfriend Ben was over but he left so we could have some girl talk. He really was a sweet guy. I stayed there until midnight just talking. Most of the conversation revolved around Edward and whether or not I still had feelings for him.
"Do you still love him?" She asked me as she made me a cup of tea.
"I wish I could say no and that the past is the past, but I think I still do. I mean, just thinking about him makes my heart race and look at how I smile at his name." I sighed "I don't want to feel this way. We have not seen each other in so long. I want to get to know him again; he may not be the person he was."
"Maybe he's a better person. Maybe you two just were not meant to be together back in high school and college but are meant to be together now. Love works in mysterious ways." She told me.
"Thanks, Jacob." I teased. She already knew about my conversation with him from the previous night.
We sat in silence drinking our tea and thinking. Angela was not one to constantly talk. She was such a great listener and she never gossiped. I could trust her with my deepest darkest secrets.
"I really just want to spend some time with him and see what he's been doing. I want to know where his life is at. Is he married? Does he have kids? Where does he even live? There is so much I don't know that it really is foolish of me to let myself be in love with him. He probably doesn't think of me that way anyways." I said after finishing my drink.
"Are you serious Bella? Do you honestly think he came all the way here to find out why you were not attending the wedding just for Alice? I bet he jumped at the chance to come see you and the wedding was just an excuse." She winked at me as she said it. I wanted to believe her, I really did.
"Then there's Mike.. He has been so jealous. I mean we have never really been that close even though we're married." I was thinking about how to phrase what I wanted to say about my marriage.
"You two do put on a good show when you are out with everyone. Everybody thinks you are the perfect couple. Oh! Which reminds me, with all this Edward talk, I totally forgot to tell you!"
"Ok, I'm scared! What did you forget to tell me?" I laughed. It felt so good to just be a girl and hang out with my best friend.
"I ran into Jessica Stanley the other day."
"Oh I saw her at that new supermarket yesterday. She saw Edward and I talking in the coffee aisle." I rolled my eyes at the thought of her.
"This must have been before that then because she didn't say anything about him. She was asking me about you and Mike. Were you guys still married, how was your relationship and stuff like that. I told her it was fine but if she really wanted to know she should ask you two."
"Hmmm… that's interesting. Now that I think about it, she was on her cell phone when I was talking to Edward." I was remembering that morning's trip to the grocery store. I gasped a little "Oh..Oh... OH! You know what? A few minutes later Mike called me having a fit that I was there and he somehow knew Edward was with me!"
"You don't think Jess called him, do you?" she sat back in her seat as we both toyed with the idea in our heads.
"It's possible. She was not happy when we got married. I know that he was dating both of us at first when he and I were just having dates here and there… then I went to see Edward in Chicago and well, you know the rest." I stared at my tea as I tried to not think about the past.
"Yeah, and apparently so does Edward." she frowned "Why is Mike so stupid. That was such a terrible thing to say to Edward."
We continued to talk about it until poor Angela was falling asleep on her couch. That was my que to go home. The drive home gave me some time to think about my life in general and I decided I needed to make some changes.
I snapped out of my memory and started making my bed. I had slept in our guest room because I did not want to be around Mike. He was asleep when I came home so it was easy from me to crawl into bed in the other room without waking him.
I took my shower and got dressed. I decided to wear a cute pair of dark colored jeans that were pretty flattering on me. At least that's what I thought. Then I had on a low cut white ribbed sleeveless tank top. Over that I had a snug fitting white button up blouse. It was a sheer material, which is why I also wore the tank top. I kept the top few buttons undone because of the tank top. It was a nice outfit. Then I had black dress boots that were about calf high to wear with it. My jeans fit nicely over the boots. The heels were thick so I would not trip as much as usual. I was terrible in heels but I could handle the thicker ones. Then I blow dried my hair with a round brush to give it some natural bounce. After I finished my make up, which was foundation, mascare and lip gloss, I felt like a new person. I actually felt like I looked good. Tonight was Jacob's birthday party so I wanted to make sure I looked nice.
I headed downstairs to the kitchen for a bite to eat before I went out for the day. It was after 9a and Mike was up finishing a bowl of oatmeal. He looked me up and down but did not say anything. I grabbed a breakfast bar and some coffee.
"You were out late last night. When did you come home?" He asked without looking at me. He was pretending to be interested in the newspaper on the counter.
"A little after midnight." That was the truth.
"Am I allowed to ask who you were with?" He glanced up at me. I smiled to myself because I knew he thought I had been with Edward. I did not talk to Mike since my office and he had no idea where I went after work.
"Sure, I was with Angela at her place." I continued to chew my breakfast bar and enjoyed not giving him too much information about my day.
"Oh, Angela… well that must have been nice. I know you miss your girlfriends." He finally looked at me.
"Maybe I wouldn't miss them so much if I was allowed to see or actually talk to all of them."
Yes, I went there… and yes, he deserved it.
"I already apologized for the whole Alice thing. I called the phone company and took the block off your phone so she can call you whenever she wants now." He was not making eye contact with me.
"Thank You." I said flatly.
"How was your lunch?"
"I didn't take one. I had a sudden lose of appetite. I can't imagine why." I glared at him and he finally looked at me.
"Bella, I had to say that. Did you hear what he said to me? He's trying to blame me for him being here. He needed a taste of his own medicine!"
"Mike, it was mean and hurtful."
"I'm glad I hurt his feelings -"
"I was talking about mine"
"Oh"
"Yeah. Oh is right."
I had finished my coffee and washed my cup.
"Why didn't you come to bed last night?"
I shrugged and said "I didn't want to. I wanted to be alone"
"Oh. What about tonight? Where will you sleep tonight?"
"Probably in the spare room. I think its best for now. I need some time off from this so called marriage we have to clear my head on some things"
"So called marriage?" he almost looked hurt... almost.
"Mike, who are we trying to kid? We are not a happy married couple. I mean sure we've been married for a few years but being married and being in love are too completely different things"
"You don't think we're in love?"
"Do you?"
He just looked at me like I had hit him with a ton of bricks. I almost felt bad for what I was saying but it needed to be said.
"Is this because of Edward? I mean life was fine until he shows up what like 2 days ago and now you don't think we're in love anymore?"
"Yeah life was oh so fine. Where have you been? I feel like we have just been going through the motions and that's it." He just looked at me expressionless. "I guess it just feels like we are two friends who are legally married. I don't have feelings for you or this marriage. I haven't for a long time."
He shook his head "You don't have feelings for me anymore? When this happen? Let me guess. 2 days ago?" now he was getting angry.
"It's been like this for a long time. Honestly, I don't think I ever had feelings for you. We just -"
"We just what?"
"We just had a unique situation that we felt required marriage. We did what we felt was right at the time. And it may have been right decision for what we thought was happening. However I don't think it was the right decision in our hearts."
"Well it's too late now. We're married and that's that. So you can forget about running off with Edward, your mine." He growled at me.
That pissed me off "This has nothing to do with Edward! I haven't even talked to him since your little explosion of the mouth!"
He just laughed. This must have amused him somehow.
"I have to go. I have things to do. Are you going to be at Jacobs party?" I wished he wasn't but I knew he would be there.
"Yes, are we not going together?"
"No. I will go with Angela and Ben. You can find yourself another designated driver. Maybe give Jessica a call; I'm sure she'll jump at the chance." He didn't expect my comment about Jessica and he did not respond.
I went to closet in our foyer and grabbed a light jacket. Then I headed out the door without saying goodbye. I had said enough for one morning.
