Thank you all for the reviews that you left me! You guys are awesome.

Okay, I know I used to make song suggestions in WTDA, and I know I haven't been doing that for the sequel since I couldn't think of any suitable songs for the previous chapters. But from now on, if a song reminds me of the chapter, I'll be sure to let you guys know.

Another thing is I've recently updated my site. There is a SOUNDTRACK page on my website for WTDA. If you're bored, feel free to check it out!

OooOoOoOoOo

Soundtrack:

Won't keep my mouth shut anymore
I've had my share of closing doors
Now I know I'm not afraid
I know exactly what you'll say
But I'm sorry it's too late

-Mouth Shut

by The Veronicas

Chapter Ten

I didn't get the chance to talk to Edward the next day like I had hoped. He was up and out of the house before I was awake- no surprise there- but he kissed me on the cheek before he left. Normally I would have taken it for granted but in these kinds of days, tiny gestures like this could bring me the greatest amount of comfort. It made me hopeful that maybe things would get back to normal for us.

Vanessa was carrying a huge stack of document that hid her face from view when I walked into the office. She was obviously pissed, cursing Royce King to the deepest pit of hell under her breath while I helped her get the papers onto her desk.

"Thanks, Bella," she said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Those papers were pretty damn heavy. Boss-from-hell told me to look for one of the older pieces that dated back to the 1970s- don't ask me why. And you know how our older documents got mixed up in that bloody flood ten years ago! It'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack!"

I smiled at her with sympathy. Royce King was literally making everyone's days here at Media Today hell on earth. The only person here that actually appreciated his presence was Kendra-the-Slut since she just recently got promoted. We were upset about it at first. After all, the girl had done nothing but play hooker since Royce got here. But after being told from a very reliable source that Kendra's salary had not been raised and she still worked as Royce's dog, none of us complained. So pretty much, the only thing that had changed was her title. Everything else stayed the same for her and for us.

After I helped her sort the papers out, I went back to my desk and began typing away on my computer. Oh yeah, did I mention Royce made a new set of rules for his employees? Like one of those "Classroom Rule" posters that we used to have in kindergarten or elementary? He handed each of us an A4 paper and ordered us to glue it on our table so we could "remember what we were here for". Most of the rules were ridiculous; the one that I found the most difficult to follow was number eight: Do not talk to any of your colleagues unless it's an emergency or unless Mr. R. King has granted you permission.

Honestly. Where were we- prison?

Anyway, none of us took him seriously. I mean, it wasn't like he really was going to fire us for talking, was he?

It was hard to focus on our pieces with Kendra's heels clicking every second as she fetched his dry-cleaning or his coffee. Kendra didn't mind being his maid, of course. Like the big suck-up she was, she made sure to gush about how "wonderful" Royce was and how "fortunate" we were to have him take over the company whenever he was within earshot. Vanessa secretly told me she was bringing a handkerchief to the office tomorrow to stuff it in Kendra's mouth because the girl wasn't capable of shutting up. Tessa, who was usually the one to smooth things over, actually agreed with Vanessa. That was how bad Kendra was.

The clicking of the stilettos lasted the entire morning. I wanted to ask Kendra if she was ever tired of walking around all freaking day- not that I cared or anything- and if she might consider coming bare-footed to work just to let us keep our sanity.

Around noon, Royce let us take our lunch break after finishing an insufferable meeting with the staff of the Book and Author department, which- unfortunately- included me. Tessa practically skipped to her car while Vanessa raised her arms in the air and yelled "Air! Freedom!" as soon as we got away from Royce. We went to a deli nearby and were gossiping about how horrible Royce was when Donald, Jennifer and Larissa heard our conversion and pulled over some chairs so they could join us. They, too, had some very unpleasant things to say about the man.

Alice rang me in the middle of Donald's "The Downfall of Royce King" presentation. She was in Italy! How cool was that? Having a friend call you all the way from Italy?

"Alice!" I squealed into the phone. "Oh my gosh, I miss you! How's Milan?"

"Milan is Milan," she said, not as excited as I was when she said the name. Right. I suppose to big fashion designers like Alice, who had been invited to all the cool cities in the world to attend shows and such, going abroad wasn't something new or worthy of the anticipation. But still, Milan. I so wished I could go there. And perhaps I'd pay a visit to Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin and other famous European cities while I'm there, I thought dreamily. "I miss you, too, Bella! Say hello to my brothers and Rosalie for me, will you? I tried her phone earlier but it doesn't work."

"Sure. Let me know when you get back. I haven't seen you in forever."

"I will. I got all of you the greatest presents while I'm here. Oh, gotta run! Cruella De Marissa found me."

Cruella De Marissa was a chatty lady who adored Alice in every way. She was in her late forties and the reason she had Cruella installed in front of her name was because she had actually made a very unreasonable suggestion to Alice a year ago, asking if it was possible to make her a leather coat out of dog fur. Alice, being a huge environmentalist and a huge animal lover, screamed and asked the security to escort her out. Since then, Cruella De Marissa had been pleading with Alice to make her sixth wedding dress.

"Sorry, guys. It was a friend of mine on the phone and she was calling from Italy," I said when I went back to our table. Then I noticed that something was wrong. The earlier fire from a while ago- when we discussed how much of an ass Royce King was - was gone. In fact, they all looked worried. "What happened?"

Vanessa motioned me over and spoke quietly into my ear. "Kendra Willington was here a while ago. None of us noticed her coming in so we didn't stop with the Royce comments."

My heart lurched. Kendra, of all people.

"The good thing is," Tessa said, "We hadn't said Royce's name at all. We said he the entire time so she can't possibly hold it against us. Besides, she probably won't even tell him."

I gave her an odd look. What was Tessa thinking? This was Kendra Snitch-llington. Of course she was going to tell Royce. That was the kind of girl she was.

"Okay." Jennifer took a deep breath. "It doesn't matter if she heard us or not. Like Tessa said, we didn't say his name. All we have to do is keep calm and pretend we were bitching about somebody else if he asks."

Pretend we were bitching about somebody else. I could do that. I would do that. Grabbing my purse, I walked out of the store with Vanessa and Tessa, who had both grown stiff.

Almost everyone arrived back at the office at the same time from our lunch break. Kendra wasn't anywhere in sight- probably getting Royce his lunch- but Royce was sitting at his desk, sipping what seemed to be his tenth cup of cappuccino today. Then Kendra emerged through the doors at about two o'clock, holding a paper bag from Hagen Daz. Of course. How silly of me. Royce had already eaten; Kendra was only fetching his dessert.

The clicking of the stilettos carried on. I mentally scolded myself for not bringing earplugs and cursed Royce King to wherever he belonged since hell was obviously too good for him. Poor Dave Huang looked as if he was about to doze off. As the editor of this department, he was the one who got the most workload and the one Royce took his anger on if something went wrong with the issue. I felt really bad for the guy; the last time I talked to him, he said he'd only been getting about three or four hours of sleep every night.

The clicking finally skidded to a stop when it was getting close to six. I was grateful to have my hearing back but became irritated when I found Kendra Snitch-llington reading over my shoulder.

"Yes?" I asked. I took in what she was wearing- a halter top (in the beginning of December!) and a pair of tight-fitting jeans that looked a size or two too small. She had dyed her hair blond last week; it was quite a disturbing sight, to be frank. The color did not go with her skin. At all.

"Mr. King would like to have a word with you before you leave."

"Why?" That was a stupid question. It wasn't like Royce ever told her anything. At least, nothing important.

She sneered at me. "Perhaps to comment on your lack of commitment for this job."

Why did I ever bother keeping up the polite crap with her? She was always pulling a Lauren on me.

I laughed. "Lack of commitment? Then I should advise him to talk to you. After all, you are the master."

Her face turned pink. Glowering at me with hatred, she jabbed a finger in the direction of Royce's office.

"Are you going or not?" she demanded.

"I would, but you're in my way." I smiled patronizingly.

She scowled but walked away after muttering something so quickly that it was unintelligible. Vanessa, peeking from her desk, gave me a thumbs-up.

I really, really despised going into Royce King's office. Never mind he was an asshole; I'd dealt with many assholes in the past so I didn't really mind that part. But no. The guy had to be a major pervert, too. No wonder he was so keen on Kendra.

"Mr. King?" I called when I reached his door, attempting to keep the venom out of my voice. He was surfing through the Internet- for god knows what- so he hadn't seen me approach.

He raised his head and smiled when he saw me. "Ah, Miss Swan. Close the door behind you and have a seat."

I wasn't really comfortable with being in the same room as him without the door open. But the curtains of his windows were drawn so I thought I couldn't possibly be in danger. Besides, if anything happened, I could make a run for the door.

Suspiciously, I sat down on one of the chairs in front of him and placed my hands on my lap. He opened his drawer and got out one of the cards that I had seen him carrying around earlier. He handed it to me and smiled that same creepy smile.

It was an invitation to a social event hosted by Senator Collins in Sacramento tomorrow evening.

"Um…" I said, my eyebrows puckering with confusion. "Wouldn't you rather have Kendra there? She is the photographer." About time she made herself useful, I wanted to add.

He chuckled. "Kendra is going to be there. But I need you there too." He stopped short, his smile faltering. "As my date for the night."

I could feel the blood drenching from my face. His date? Did he honestly think I would agree to something like this when I even refused to look at him in the eye?

I gritted my teeth. "That's inappropriate, Mr. King."

"No, it isn't. Everyone loves office hookups. Besides, I wasn't thinking of introducing you as one of my employees. Let's just go as friends. As dates."

"I have a boyfriend, Mr. King, and I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate you asking me out. And even if he isn't in the picture, I would still refuse. Good luck finding someone available. I have work to do, so if you'll excuse me-"

Without giving him a chance to respond, I darted for the door. I curled my hand around the knob and was about to yank the door open when I heard him murmuring so smoothly that at first I thought I had imagined it.

"Excuse me?" I whirled around to face him.

He gave me a superior smile, like he had finally discovered my weakness.

"I said if you wish to keep this job, you'd think twice about my offer."

I couldn't believe my ears. He was threatening me with my job?

"I haven't done anything wrong," I told him sternly. "You can't fire me out of the blue like that. It's not legal."

He gave me a grim, sympathetic look. "Unfortunately, that I have to disagree with. See, I've been told from a very reliable source that you and five other of my employees have been badmouthing me today at around… I don't know, noon?"

Kendra. Kendra Snitch-llington. That bitch! No wonder she was looking so excited when she called me over to Royce's office. I wanted to deny it. I wanted to tell Royce that he didn't have proof to us talking about him. We could have been bitching about some other guy from the office or someone we all happened to know. But I couldn't do it. I didn't want to sink down to the level where I had to lie just to keep my job. My now crappy job. I couldn't do it. The disgrace, the shame… I would never be able to walk around with my head up because feeding him falsity would be like begging for my job. We both knew I was bitching about him. He wasn't a dimwit, and he must have sensed my strong dislike for him one way or another.

I wasn't that kind of girl. The kind that lied just to have an easier way out.

"So shall I have my driver, Bill, pick you up at seven?" He had he nerve to grin at me.

"You told me to think twice about your offer and I did. The answer is no. I will not accompany you to whatever the hell it is tonight."

His body grew stiff and his face turned stone cold. Then clenching his jaw, he said, "I don't think you understand, Isabella. I said-"

"I heard what you said. My answer is no."

"Well, in that case, you're fi-"

"Fired?" I gave a shrill, bitter laugh. "Oh, that won't be necessary because I quit!"

I stalked out of his office and slammed the door behind me. God. It felt so good to say "I quit". Incredibly, indescribably good. It had always looked fantastic in the movies and I'd dreamed of doing that since the day Royce began working here. I did it. I was unemployed but my heart was soaring with exhilaration.

"Bella, what happened?" Tessa was at my side the moment I came out. I didn't answer her question at first but instead, I let out a hysterical laugh. That got almost everyone in the office's attention. They stopped packing for the weekend and were all staring at me like I was nuts. Kendra included.

"I quit!" I threw my hands in the air, proud and triumphant. "I quit! I quit! I am free of boss-from-hell and he no longer has any control over me!"

They were still staring at me with the same awestruck expression. Dave Huang's jaw was hanging open whereas Vanessa just looked as if she was about to have me committed. Embarrassed, I fled to the parking lot.

Once I got to the car, I wanted to cry. I lost my job. I was unemployed. And it wasn't likely that Royce was going to write me a recommendation letter. I was basically screwed.

And to top it all off, as if my day wasn't bad enough to begin with, I still hadn't "talked" to Edward. I'm going to do it tonight, I promised myself. This time, no chickening out, no making up excuses, and no falling asleep.

I made myself a nice cup of coffee when I got home. There was nothing good on T.V, so I went into the bedroom, fell on the bed that I shared with Edward, and turned up the stereo until the music was loud enough to hurt my ears. I felt like a teenager all over again. I used to do this a lot back then whenever I needed to think things through, and as weird as this is going to sound, being trapped in a room with loud music blaring was the only place I could truly find peace. Renee never could understand this, but then again, what kind of mother could?

I lay on the bed for a good four hours. I didn't even bother making something for dinner; eating was the last thing on my mind. Instead, I made myself think of all the good memories that I had with Edward during our four years in college. I remembered how the moment Edward set his foot on campus, the girls were immediately eyeing him with interest and flirting. The bolder ones even gave him their numbers but Edward never as much as looked at little pieces of paper that they slipped him and would throw them away like they were used gum wrappers. I remembered how relieved I felt when I saw him do that every time. A part of me had been worried that things were going to end between Edward and me once we started college. I actually thought Edward was going to dump me since- let's face it- college was filled with older, more experienced, prettier girls. But he didn't.

I remembered how he used to make sure we did something special on our anniversaries. It was the same date as the night of the dance that took place so many years ago in ECA when he admitted how he felt about me. He would drive us to somewhere really romantic, like the beach, and we would have picnics there and tell each other how much we meant to one another. I loved those nights. I loved that no matter how busy he was, he would drop everything and put me ahead of everything on his sleeve. That was the kind of man Edward was.

I exited our bedroom and went pacing back and forth in the living room, simply for something to do. I stared at the photo frames that we had hung up together when we moved in; we looked so happy, so in love and so perfect. I seemed genuinely blissful in all of the pictures. I was either hugging him, kissing him, or cuddling with him. What wouldn't I give to be the girl in the picture again, to have the Edward in the picture back in my life- the one who was confident or cocky all the time; the one who would smile whenever he saw me.

I heard him pulling up in the garage and I froze instantly. I was feeling a sense déjà vu and I prayed that things would go more smoothly than yesterday. Taking a deep breath, I collected myself and slumped down on the sofa.

I heard the rustlings of his keys and every single fiber of my being screamed at me to bolt into our bedroom and pretend to be asleep. After regaining rationality, I realized how beyond ridiculous this was getting. When was I ever nervous to talk to Edward? It was Edward- Edward, who knew me better than my own parents. I couldn't run away and pretend nothing was wrong between us. Not this time. I had wimped my way out far too many times and it wasn't going to happen tonight.

"Hi Edward," I murmured when he came into view.

He glanced at me briefly and dropped his face, averting my eyes. I felt a sharp spasm of pain as a result to that.

"Hey, Bella. Aren't you usually in bed by now?" he inquired.

I swallowed. "Well, I was thinking since tomorrow is Saturday, maybe we can stay up a bit later tonight and just… talk. I know something's wrong, Edward. With you. With us. I want to know what it is so we can work it out together."

He gave an exasperated sigh. "Bella, nothing is-"

"Stop that!" I shouted indignantly, throwing myself up from the couch and running a hand through my hair. I couldn't take it anymore. "Stop saying nothing's wrong! Everything is wrong! I've been holding this for a long time and I keep on waiting for you to come to me. But you never did! What's wrong, Edward? Did I do something so horrible that you can't even bring yourself to look at me in the eye? Did I do something so unforgivable that you have to go out of your way to avoid me?"

He raised his head, staggered. "Bella, you didn't do anything wrong. I-" Then he sighed again. "Look, can we please not do this right now? I'm worn out and I really want to go to bed."

Tired. Always tired. What the hell were they making him do at the hospital? He wasn't even a real doctor yet, for Pete's sake. Besides, he wasn't the only one working in this house. I had a job too- or at least I used to, up until a couple of hours ago- and I never took it out on him. He was being so unfair. Did he care about us at all?

"Okay," I said, furiously blinking back the tears. "We don't have to do this right now." He threw me an appreciative look and was about to head for our bedroom when I added, "In fact, we don't ever have to do this."

"Bella-"

It was too late. Without looking at him in the eyes, I dashed out of the front door and stepped into my car.

Sorry if it's a bit angsty. I know a lot of you hate the fact that Bella and Edward are distant, but it's important to the story. Please bear with it:) I promise it won't last forever.

Many of you asked why Edward didn't just talk to Bella about his possible condition. Edward did give his explanations in Chapter Eight. His uncle from his mother's side died from a heart disease at a very young age and after seeing what it did to his aunt, he didn't want the same thing to happen to Bella. His mind is a mess right now; he's scared, he's unsure about everything... and sometimes the easiest way out is to pretend nothing had happened in front of other people instead of talking about it.

Please review! I love reading them and they always encourage me to write faster!

:: I have an One-Shot posted for The Epic T-rated Contest hosted by Bronzehairedgirl620, my Beta, and Daddy's Little Cannibal, who unfortunately isn't here to see the results of the contest. If you want something to read until my next update, it's on my profile. It's called "One of the Guys". It is my first one-shot so I would love to hear your feedback. I will inform you as soon as I know when the voting begins. There are other great stories submitted there so be sure to check them out, too. Thank you!