AN: I have a wonderful friend who has offered to beta my story so a big thank you to her for making this story better. Readtoomuch, you rock! If you are coming along for the ride then thank you for your time. Any errors are completely mine. Twilight is not mine, no copyright infringement intended.

So, how many of you figured out what the deal was with the Saran Wrap reference in the previous chapter? No worries if you did not know what to make of it - an explanation will follow later in this story. Use your imagination and I am sure you will figure it out. LoL!

For those of you who continue to follow this story, I would like to thank you for continuing to do so. Here we go again….

Chapter 9

EPOV

"Ok, bitch, I'm done for today." I reached over to grab the Saran Wrap and paper tape to cover Emmett's back.

Saran Wrap, shit makes me laugh every fucking time.

"Only keep it covered for 24 hours, because I want to get started on the shading as soon as possible, okay?" I pulled two long strips of wrap and gently applied it to his back keeping it in place with paper medical tape. "Get Ali or one of the subs at the club to apply Lubriderm on it a couple times a day and you fucking better not get it wet in the shower." I leaned back in my chair and looked at Emmett's still form.

It's a fucking miracle. For once, Emmett is at a loss for words.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, Emmett let out a loud snore. "Un-fucking-believable." I murmured to myself as I lifted my arm up high behind my head and then swung it down with as much force as I could muster and I slapped his ass. Hard.

"Sheeeee-iit! What the fuck, man?! That shit fucking hurt! I bet it will leave a fucking bruise. Not cool, man! What are the ladies going to think if I have a hand-sized bruise on my ass!" He yelled as he jumped off the table after his rude awakening. He winced as he gingerly rubbed his abused right ass cheek.

"That's what you get for falling asleep while I'm working my ass off on your art, fucker." I just laughed at Emmett's usual dramatics. "Keep the wrap on and don't get it wet, you know the drill." I stood up from my chair and stretched out my stiff limbs. I started the usual process of sterilizing my equipment and wiping down the table before pulling off my gloves and slinging them into the trash can.

Still rubbing his ass and pouting, Emmett was at the mirror checking out the outline I had just completed. I swear I could hear him mumbling about having the ladies put lotion on his ass as well as his back.

"Yo, E, you wanna go hit up Off the Hook and have a beer?" He flashed a sly grin at me. Off the Hook is a small hole in the wall joint that serves the most amazing garlic burgers, but I know the burgers aren't his primary reason for wanting to go there. A certain spitfire bartender named Rose was his real reason for his Off the Hook obsession. Emmett has been trying to hit that "Rosie" ass for two fucking years and she wouldn't even give him the time of day, to his chagrin. Her shocking denial had been a first for Emmett and what Rose doesn't realize is every time she denies him, she is only ensuring his continual pursuit of her.

"I know the real reason you want to go to that joint and I gotta' tell you, Em, I don't think I can support your stalker behavior any more. My days of enabling that creepy shit are officially over, my friend." He just stared at me blankly with a fake as fuck hurt look in his eyes.

Now for the fun part. Time to get him riled up!

"Have you stopped to think that the reason she hasn't fallen for your shit is because she bats for her own team?" I stared at him in amusement as his face turned bright red and his mouth opened and closed in a goldfish impression. My chest shook slightly from holding back my laughter while I waited for the Emmett show to being in 3, 2, 1... and ladies and gentleman, we now have lift off!

"What the fuck are you going on about, Cullen?! Are you trying to tell me that my Rosie likes pussy and not cock!" He yelled out and fell back against the mirror with his hands in his hair. Leaning his head back to stare up at the ceiling and lowering his hands to side, his face suddenly took on a dreamy look as his lips curved up. "Damn, you know what, I don't even give a shit as long as she lets me watch and it leads to some active participation from yours truly." He opened his eyes and gave me a big teeth bearing grin along with a playful wink.

I just laughed and shook my head at his usual craziness. Oh, and I definitely caught his "my Rosie" slip. Fucker is toast and he doesn't even know it. This should be fun to watch unfold, because I know "his Rosie" is one tough chick and watching Emmett be brought down by a woman like that is going to go down in Triple F history.

"You're on your own, Em. I have to head home to shower and change, before I go to Bella's."

Pushing himself off the wall and standing up straight with his hands on his hips, he turned serious eyes on me. "Please tell me you're not going to go over there and bullshit her with your pansy 'I am not the person for you, you deserve better' crap!" He shook his head and glared at me. "Fuck, man, I know you love her. Even a thickheaded motherfucker like me figured it out 2 seconds after you started talking about her years ago. Let me tell what else I noticed, the way she looked at you out in the damn parking lot... as though you hung the moon and stars every night just for her. So fucking cliche, but true. Don't fuck this up again, man!"

"Shut the fuck up! Emmett, you don't know shit about dick when it comes to me and Bella." I shouted back at him, raking my right hand through my hair.

"Bullshit! I'm calling your ass out on this one, E. We've been friends for years and not once in all of those years have you had a committed relationship and I know why. You have been stowing away the idea of you and B in your back pocket all this time. You need to man the fuck up, E! From what I could tell of Bella, she seems pretty fragile right now and if you fuck this up, you can take even the fantasy of you and her together and just toss it in the trash, man." He stalked towards me with purpose in every step.

"You know I usually value your opinions, Em, but in this situation, you would do best to keep them to yourself. I know Bella. I've known Bella and her parents her whole life and now I know how she reacted when she saw me... the real me. Her reaction cost me four years of friendship that I sure as hell am not risking now that I have her back in my life." I walked away to check on the security system before locking up and heading out.

"You know what, E, you can be incredibly obtuse at times. And right now, you are being one obtuse, stupid motherfucker. Just because Bella had a knee-jerk reaction back then, when she had absolutely NO idea what was going on, doesn't mean she wouldn't support you and your lifestyle." He shook his head as he walked towards me and placed his right hand on my shoulder. "You can't penalize yourself and Bella for a reaction she had at the age of eighteen with no background information or warning of what she saw, it's not fair to either of you, and you know it, man."

"How the fuck is doing what I have to do to keep her friendship being unfair to her?" I shook his hand off and walked away angrily, upset that Emmett was using my feelings for Bella to guilt me into starting something more with her, which would undoubtedly destroy the possibility of keeping her in my life.

As much as I want her, love her, and would love nothing more than to wake up to her beautiful face every morning for the rest of my life, I just can't. She deserves so much more than I can give her.

"Ok, let me ask you this, E, what are you planning on doing when Bella gets sick of waiting and she finds someone else to spend the rest of her life with? Huh? What are you going to do when it's too late? Because that will eventually happen, my friend, whether you want it to or not. What? You gonna pretend to be happy for her and play fucking godfather to her kids? The kids that should have been yours?" Emmett responded with a frustration-filled tirade. "Shit, man, you're the best man I know, and I want you to be happy and, bro, Bella is where you'll find your happiness," lifting his hands up as though he's giving a fucking benediction at church, "just listen to the great and wonderful Emmett."

"What the fuck, Em, when did you suddenly become some kind of fucking life coach trying to motivate me and all that shit?" I asked in disbelief. "You need to stop watching that Dr. Phil or Dr. Drew shit."

Yeah, Emmett was my best friend, but he knows jack shit of my situation with Bella and he needs to start keeping his lame ass opinions to himself. I know what's best when it comes to Bella. What? He meets her for 2 minutes and he thinks he knows her well enough and now has the right to tell me what was best for her.

I grabbed my shit and started towards the back door. "You can lock up, I'm taking off." I growled over my shoulder. "I'll hit you up tomorrow." I punched my way out the door without waiting for his reply. In all the years that Emmett and I have known each other, we've never had a disagreement like this and I have a feeling that today was just a preview of things to come between us on this particular subject.

"Fuck!" I snarled as the sky suddenly opened up above me and started to pour down in sheets of rain, drenching me completely before I even made it across the parking lot to my car. Sprinting to the car, I jerked the car door open and threw myself into the seat before slamming the door shut. I stared at the water running down my windshield and took a few deep breaths to calm down before I started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

Minutes later the rain had stopped and I arrived at my large and spacious loft, which was a converted and updated warehouse. This was home and with Esme's guidance, I was able to make this space into my own sanctuary. I kept the original rafters in the exposed ceiling untouched, keeping in line with the uniqueness of the space and originality of its warehouse roots. Darkly stained hard wood floors were installed though out with the occasional rug in the living areas. The actual loft area where my bed was located was fully carpeted with plush shaggy carpet that Esme had insisted on. Thank God for my mom, because I hated putting my bare feet on a cold floor when I got out of my nice warm bed. My place was a bachelor pad, but with a woman's touch.

Shit, next thing I know, I'll be subscribing to Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn or some shit. I think I need to keep Esme out before she designs a nursery or a fucking arts and crafts studio. Christ!

I pulled my fingers through the wet usual mess that is my hair as I made my way to the bathroom to take a much needed shower. I turned on the fuck awesome shower that had heads embedded into the tiled walls in front, back and above me spraying from all directions and started taking of my wet clothes and tossed them into the hamper. Once the water temp was to my satisfaction, I stepped inside and closed the already fogged up glass door. I could feel the tension in my whole body, as if it was tangible and could be touched, wash off my body as it joined the soothing hot water swirling its way down the drain.

How did we get here, Bella?

I leaned my forehead against the moist, but cool tiled wall, as thousands of thoughts and possibilities moshed through my brain. What Emmett had said to me earlier was fucking me up and making me second guess what I thought was the right thing to do. That pissed me off. As someone who had never been doubtful or uncertain about what to do or think, I'm pissed Em's making me think twice about what I need to do. No, I need to maintain my perspective when it comes to Bella. I have no other choice, but to distance myself from her if I can't get a handle of this overwhelming need to claim her as mine. I can do that and we can just be friends like we've always been.

Decision finalized, I finished washing up and I turned the knob to cut the water off. I grabbed a towel from the towel warmer and dried myself off before throwing on a pair of black sweat pants and my old gray and green Dartmouth Lacrosse Team T-shirt. Slipping my socked feet into a pair of Vans, I locked the door behind me and headed down to the garage. I jumped into my ride to head over to Bella's. My determination to hang onto my oath to Charlie by staying only friends with his daughter is the only thought that crosses my mind as I drove to her house.

I turned into Bella's driveway and turned the car off. I silently willed myself to be strong and not let the vision of Bella affect me the way it usually does. Fuck, she's so fucking beautiful to me, it hurts me to look at her sometimes. Long, thick, mahogany hair just begging me to wrap my fingers in it as I use it to guide my cock in and out of her sweet warm mouth, while she looks up at me with her big brown doe eyes that are always so full of some mysterious emotion I can't get an exact read on.

Fuck, this is not helping! The last thing I need is to approach Bella sporting a clearly visible hard on!

I tried will my painful erection down by thinking of anything but Bella. Shit, maybe I shouldn't have gone commando today.

I stepped out of my car and walked towards the front door to give a quick knock to let Bella know I was here before twisting the doorknob to open the door.

What the hell? She knew I was coming, so why the fuck is the door locked?

Our families were close enough that we normally don't even knock, we just usually walk right in. I guess maybe Bella was a little nervous being here alone, so she locked it. Makes sense. I pushed the glowing button off to the right side of the door to ring the bell and waited. Bella answered the door wordlessly and stood to the side to let me in. As I walked past her, I couldn't help but quietly breathe her in. Jasmine and lavender assaulted my senses just as it always had - she always smelled so fucking good!

Bella closed the door behind me and still not saying a word, led the way into the living room and took a seat on the edge of the same sofa I had slept on the night before. I purposefully sat down next to her with my body positioned sideways so I could look at her when we spoke. Bella did not mirror my position as she continued to sit straight forward with her eyes seemingly focused on a picture hanging on the wall across the room.

"Bella, look at me." I reached over and nudged her chin to point her face in my direction. When her face turned towards me, I could see she had been recently crying and it slayed me to the bone to think that maybe those tears were because of me.

"What's wrong, B, why have you been crying?" I whispered gently to her.

Her shoulders slumped a little. "I'm crying, because no matter what I say or do, you will never accept the fact that I want you. That I've always wanted you. Nothing happened between us before, because of YOU. You can deny it all you want, but you knew how I felt about you." Shaking her head and turning her face away from me, "You're just going to keep trying to convince me that we're just best friends, when you're just a coward! You're going to keep me in your 'friend' category with your ridiculous excuses that you're not good enough for me, or something equally stupid like I deserve more than you could give me. And I just can't take it anymore." She leaned forward and hid her face in her hands as tears slowly trickled down her face.

"That, Edward, is why I was crying and that is why I'm hurting. Because I'm pretty sure you feel the same way about me, but you're not going to do anything about it." She pulled her face out of her hands and looked me straight in the eyes causing me to pull back a little with the hard glint I saw in her eyes. "Tell me the truth, Edward. Now. If you can look me in the eyes, right now and tell me you don't feel the same for me as I do for you, I'll accept it and move on knowing that friendship is all there is between us. I can't stay in this fucked-up limbo anymore. Either we're friends or something else."

Oh, fuck, how in the hell am I supposed to keep my promise when she just poured her heart out saying almost everything I wanted to hear come from those beautiful lips? I can't tell her that I want her more than I want my next breath, and just the thought of her loving another man makes me want to crush my own nuts. I can't tell her that I would love for her to be mine or that I wanted to be the only man to ever touch her.

"I am so sorry, Bella," I lied, dreading the words the next words I had to say. "I never meant to do anything that might lead you on." She looked at me in shocked disbelief as I said the words she clearly wasn't expecting to hear. I could see the pain register in her widened eyes as she processed my response and I knew then that things would never be the same between us, no matter what either of us said. Any notion I had previously had that I could protect our friendship flew farther out the window with every heartbreaking word that came out of my mouth. "I love you, you know that, but there can never be the kind of love between us that you want."

And now I had to say the one thing that I knew would cause her to second guess my true feelings for her.

I lowered my eyes to her chin and lied some more. "Bella, you... you're like a sister to me." Liar! "You know that I would do anything for you, but I don't love you like that. I'm sorry, B, I just don't feel that way about you." I heard her sharp gasp for breath and as much as I wanted to pull her into my arms and take back what I had just said to her, I didn't. I couldn't.

I watched as Bella stood up and did her best to maintain her composure. But I could see her throat working as she swallowed repeatedly as her nose flared and her lips squeezed together. I had to look away, because I knew she was feeling rejected and humiliated and it was my fucking fault.

"Ok, Edward," she whispered softly before she cleared her throat. "I was wrong... so wrong to assume you felt more for me than you do. I just thought... I, Oh, God... I am so sorry I just made things even more uncomfortable between us."

"I am sorry, Bella, so fucking sorry." I reached out to her, clenching my jaw when she flinched away me.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Edward. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about what I saw and just left like I did. I'm sorry I wasn't a good friend and stayed away for 4 years. I'm sorry I just poured out my guts to you thinking you felt the same. God, I'm sorry!" She shook her head as she made her way to the front door and laid a trembling hand on her forehead. "You can't force yourself to have feelings for someone just because they would like you too. I know that. I was obviously wrong and confused. I'm glad we were able to clear that up, because it's obviously been my delusions that have caused most of this awkwardness between us," she said as she opened the door and stood aside while baring her teeth at me that I think was supposed to be a fake smile. "Okay, now that we have that cleared up, would you mind heading out? It's getting late and I am extremely embarrassed and really exhausted so I'm going to call it a night."

I knew I needed to do as she asked. I wanted to reassure her, but what could I say? What elsewas there for me to say? I stepped out the front door and turned around to apologize again, just wanting to say something, anything to remove that crushed look from her face, but it was too late. Bella had silently closed the door and locked it before I could even say goodbye.