Chapter 9 - The Talk


We stood there for minutes, silent. Edward kept looking around the room while I studied his expression and tried to figure out what was going on in his head since he wasn't speaking. I walked over to the couch and took a seat. He remained standing, facing where I'd been by the door and looking all over.

"Are you going to say anything, Edward? You claim you need to talk to me, so start talking."

My words snapped him out of whatever mental process he'd been in the middle of and he focused back on me. "I'm a coward and an asshole, huh?"

"What?" I furrowed my brow in bewilderment.

He produced a piece of paper out of his pocket and held it up for me to see, "Remember writing me this?"

I smiled and let out a small laugh, "Well it's true. You are a coward and an asshole, and I really wish you'd get the hint and leave my apartment."

I wasn't known for having an attitude. Everyone I've ever encountered in my life would say I'm a loving and kind girl. Even during those pesky teenage years, I never once talked back to my parents. Then again I rarely got into any sort of trouble, but that was beside the point. I am not the kind of person to get angry or be rude to someone, but that ship set sail hours before. My patience and self control were long gone now.

"Bella, can you stop being so hostile?" he put the note back into his pocket.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "No."

"You're acting like a child."

I scoffed, "Well excuse me, old man. I'm sorry I'm not as wise and collected as you. Although, you did just run around my apartment like a psycho."

The only thing that would have made my response better would have been getting his reaction on camera. He completely froze. He immediately went from frantic and crazed to sneering vehemently. I fought back a smile.

Minutes went by and the silence was starting to irritate me again. "Are you going to say anything or are you just going to keep staring at me like a pissed off twelve-year-old? If you're not going to talk, you need to leave."

He raked a hand through his hair, "What the hell happened?"

"What are you talking about?"

Edward looked from the ground and back to me, "With us. What happened with us?"

"Are you serious?" I snorted. "You kissed me and ran away. You even dodged me for weeks and now suddenly you want to sort things out?"

He took a seat next to me on the couch and slumped his shoulders, keeping his gaze locked on the carpet, "I didn't mean to kiss you. I really did just wanted to be your friend and keep our relationship platonic."

"You kissed me, Edward." I reiterated.

"I know, I know! It just happened and I didn't know what to do so I left. I drove up to Seattle an hour later and stayed with my sister for a couple days while figuring out what I wanted to do."

"You have a sister?"

He looked at me and smirked, "Yeah and you met her tonight. Jessica is my little sister."

"You two look nothing alike." I blurted without thinking.

"She's adopted."

Reality came crashing down on me all of a sudden. I don't know why I had felt so betrayed and hurt from this man. I didn't truly know him, we'd hardly even talked about our lives and who we are. We had only really joked around and spent time together without sharing anything of more value.

"I didn't know that." I stated plainly.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me. We've never really talked about it."

My gaze moved from him to the floor, "Yeah, I'm starting to see that now. I just feel like I've known for a lot longer than I have so everything is catching me off guard."

"Well, the good news is," he placed a hand on my forearm for a brief moment and removed it before finishing, "we're going to talk and I mean really talk about things. I have some explaining to do."

"No shit, Sherlock." I retorted.

He let out a small chuckle, "Okay, going back a few weeks ago after that kiss, I drove up to Seattle to stay for a while and clear my head. My sister had more free time in her schedule and we did a lot of talking and she helped me."

Edward fell silent and I waited for him to continue, but when he didn't I spoke up, "Helped you with what?"

He went back to vacantly staring at the coffee table and wringing his hands, "Leah was my girlfriend for the past two and a half years. When I decided to take the job offer and move, she told me we needed to take a break and get some space. She isn't too keen on the whole 'long-distance-relationship-thing' and I agreed that decision was probably for the best. You see, I didn't just take this job down here because it was a better opportunity. I needed to get out of Washington and see something else and evaluate where I wanted to be in life and that included figuring out if I wanted to be with her. She was pushing marriage on me and I needed a way to find myself and be on my own for a bit."

"Okay, so she was your girlfriend," I paused and processed the info. "Now what is she?"

"I told Jessica all about you and what happened, she helped me figure out that I was just missing having someone there for me and being a companion. I surprised Leah the next day after some serious thinking and I popped the big question. I didn't know that's what I was looking for until I moved here."

"So Jessica knows who I am and everything then?" I asked, knowing I'd get to the other part in a moment.

He shifted his body weight, "Not exactly who you are specifically, but she knows about you. I didn't give her your name or anything."

"Why did you pretend you hadn't met me before when we were being introduced?"

I saw him grimace out of the corner of my eye, "I didn't want to have to explain this to Leah. She gets jealous easily."

"She's a model, what the hell does she have to be jealous of?" I muttered.

Edward laughed and shook his head slightly, "She isn't a big time model. She mainly just models for clothing stores online and sometimes for me."

I cringed, "Eww, I don't want to hear about you two doing kinky shit."

"What?" He looked at me with wide eyes, "'Kinky shit?' I meant I've taken pictures of her for her portfolio before and I used her in a few shots for my job once."

I stood and walked into the kitchen, ignoring my own embarrassing outburst and changing subjects, "Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

"I'll just take a glass of water."

When I returned to the couch with two glasses in my hands I noticed the worried expression, "You okay?"

"Was I really acting crazy when I came in here?"

"You're kidding, right?" I paused and our eyes met, showing me that he in fact wasn't kidding. "You ran around my apartment like a chicken with its head cut off for a solid five minutes."

"The blinds! I had to close all the blinds or she might have seen us."

The proverbial light bulb over my head lit up as it all clicked. "How long has Leah been staying with you?"

"I'd say it's been a little under two weeks."

Leah = the mystery woman in his bedroom.

One problem had been solved and answered. No wonder he hasn't been letting me see into his apartment anymore. Although, I doubted he even knew I peeped in on his life as much and as often I did.

"But, she's going back to Seattle tomorrow. She has a photo shoot lined up."

"Well good for her." I stated plainly.

"So," he turned his body toward mine. "Now it's time to talk about you."

I furrowed my brow again, "Excuse me?"

"I didn't come all the way over here just to talk about me. I shared with you, now you share with me. It's call reciprocation."

What a smartass.

I leaned against the back of the sofa, wishing I could melt into the soft fabric and stuffing. The day had been overwhelming and exhausting enough without this addition. I just wanted to disappear for a little while and be by myself. Instead, the guy across the way sat beside me asking questions about my life after spilling his guts.

"My life really isn't that entertaining. I lead a rather boring life, unlike yourself."

He stared at me with intrigue, "Who was the man you were speaking with in Esme and Carlisle's backyard?"

"What?" I couldn't help but gape at him.

"I saw you talking with a blonde man on the path near the river. Who is he?"

The urge to become one with the couch became stronger.

"Edward, that's really none of your business." I stated.

He sighed, "How are we ever going to be friends if you don't confide in me like one?"

So that's why he was really here...

"You want to be friends? After kissing me and avoiding me? After lying to me?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Woah, I didn't lie to you. We never talked about our lives, we just kind of skipped that part of things. It was partially my fault, but you never asked either. I'm trying to make amends. I had no idea you knew the Cullens, I didn't expect you to be there tonight and find out that way. Honestly, I was going to come over and talk to you regardless. I just had to rush that part because of the way the evening went or else I was going to wait until after Leah left to explain myself."

I watched him intently as he spoke and the way his green eyes looked into mine, I knew with all of my heart he was telling the truth.

"I believe you." I muttered.

Edward sighed in relief and relaxed his posture a bit, "Now please, will you just share with me like I've done with you? Was that man a guy you're seeing?"

I let out a loud laugh, "Oh that's funny! No, no. Eric is definitely not a man I'm seeing."

"Who are you seeing then?" he asked.

"I don't feel comfortable discussing this."

The smile fell from my face and I shifted my gaze to the floor.

"Why not? We're friends. We should be able to talk about these things. I told you about my love life. To be fair, you should tell me about yours." he pushed. I could feel his eyes boring into me and I shifted uncomfortably but remained silent. "Come on, it's not rocket science."

"I'm not seeing anyone and it isn't really by choice either. I've never had a real relationship with anyone before. It's embarrassing. I'm nearly twenty-three and I can't even say I've ever had a boyfriend."

I folded my arms across my chest and sunk down even lower into the couch cushions, the shame and embarrassment washed over me.

Great, now he thinks I'm weird and pathetic. Awesome.

I couldn't even look at him when he started to respond, "You've never had a relationship before?"

"I guess I've had one, but it really doesn't count. We spent three months seeing each other and I thought we were a couple, but I was wrong. He didn't care about me. That all happened a little over a year ago. I've never felt the need to have a man in my life to make me feel complete. I've never liked people that feel they need a partner to survive and go from one person to the next. I do just fine on my own and I've always preferred it that way. But, with Rose getting engaged it's really sunk in how lonely I am. I've never been ashamed of myself before, but I'm starting to feel like a freak of nature." I confessed.

Edward placed his hand on my arm for a second and gave it a gentle squeeze, "You're no such thing. Thank you for sharing that with me, I'm sorry I pushed it."

I shrugged and finally looked up at him, "I'm an only child. I am not one to confide in people, even my best friends don't know many deep and personal things about me. I keep to myself. It's much easier that way."

"I'd really like to be your friend, Bella." he smiled.

I nodded, "Okay."

Even though I had more questions left, I couldn't handle anymore information being thrown at me. Exhaustion swooped in and I started getting tunnel vision. I was ready to fall asleep right then and there.

He must have noticed my demeanor change because he got to his feet quickly, "Thank you for listening, Bella. I'm sorry about everything that happened before. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Get some sleep. I'll see you soon."

I got to my feet and walked with him to the door, "Yeah, goodnight, Edward."

I closed it behind him and trudged off to my bedroom. It didn't take long before I drifted off to a nice and peaceful slumber.


Why hello there, lovelies!
I know this chapter was short like the others, but I wanted to get it out quickly for you guys.
I've been taking so long with my other chapters that once inspiration struck I just went with it and put a few other things on the back burner to get it done.
I'll be starting the next chapter soon and I plan for that one to be a bit lengthier.
I have lots of little ideas and plans in mind for this story so keep on reading!
This next chapter will definitely be taking a bit longer than a matter of days before it's posted. So be patient with me guys.

I hope you enjoyed this bit!
I'd love to know your thoughts on the conversation Bella and Edward just had.
Would you believe him?
Annnnnnnnd remember: I love reading all of your reviews. You guys are awesome!