A/N: Really, do you think I own these characters? Cause I don't.
Chapter 10
KPOV
I kept replaying the conversation Rosalie and I had over and over in my head. It just seemed ridiculous. A beautiful vampire was attracted to me.
Edward seemed to spend more and more time at the coffee shop, watching me work. I had to admit the perplexed look he gave whenever I took Rosalie up on her advice to translate poetry to Gaelic was priceless.
"You know I thought Gaelic was a dead language." He muttered as I reached over him to wipe down the tabletop.
"I'm practicing. I think its going to make a come back." I couldn't help but smile. I was enjoying the power I had to frustrate him.
"I'm assuming my dear sister informed you of my gift."
" She may have given me a heads up. But it was only fair. You seemed more than content to have an advantage over me."
"Well, it appears I was justified. It was an advantage I needed."
Edward spent the rest of the after noon in the coffee shop. After I caught him staring at me for the fourth time, I couldn't take it any longer.
"Do I have something on my face or something?" I asked getting irritated.
"No. Why?"
"You keep staring at me."
If vampires could blush Edward would have. He suddenly looked embarrassed and tried to change the subject.
"So, how late are you here until tonight?"
"I'm closing so I'll probably get out around eleven or so. And I open tomorrow so I need to get home afterward."
"Oh." I could tell he was disappointed.
I didn't want him to think I wasn't interested so in desperation to make any conversation I blurted out, "So tell me about Bella."
Oh my God. What was I thinking? Immediately after I said her name I regretted it but there was no backtracking.
He took a moment before he responded. I couldn't decide if he were choosing his words carefully or whether he had never thought how to answer a question like.
"What exactly do you want to know?"
"If you don't feel comfortable telling me you don't have to. Its just that Rosalie told me about her when we first met and well I'm curious about the only human to ever hold your attention."
"She was my first love." He spoke this so quietly I could barely hear him.
The lunch rush was over so I sat down opposite him.
"I had never experienced anything like it before. I suppose living so long an seeing so much had made me cynical as to the range of experiences one could have but she made me feel things I would have thought impossible. She made me feel human again. She redeemed me."
Okay, how was I ever going to compete with that?
I had let my mental guard down and Edward heard that thought.
"But it's over. It's been over for years. She helped me grown and move on from being a stubborn, skeptical vampire. I guess its comparable to your high school sweetheart. For those years your lives revolve around each other and you help each other move on from adolescence to adulthood but eventually you both move on. Its hard but its best. Ours was more intense but isn't everything when dealing with the supernatural."
I was speechless. I hoped with all my soul that he was being honest with me and more importantly with himself. I hoped that he thought of Bella as being a growing experience and the she was part of the past.
"Bella taught me how to love another person but I think I'm finally ready to put all those lessons to use with someone else. With my future."
He looked me directly in the eyes as he said this. It caused me to almost fall out of my chair.
"I believe you just made me swoon."
"Sorry, occupational hazard of hanging around with vampires."
Just then a group of about fifteen kids walked in. I could tell they were going to require constant supervision and Edward saw this too.
"I'm going to head out, I think I've monopolized enough of your time. But maybe tomorrow after your done work we can hang out?"
"Absolutely." This was the first time I had given into my desire to spend more time with him. We both broke out into wide grins. His was crooked.
I couldn't help but watch him as he mad this way out of the shop. He was so smooth and graceful it was like he was floating.
The noise of kids demanding brownies brought me back to reality. That was the thing, being around Edward made my life feel like a fantasy and at any moment reality was going to come crashing in on me.
The rest of the night went without incident.
It was about ten minutes until we closed and I was bent down behind the counter putting some dishes away. I heard the door open.
You've got to be kidding me. I hate when people come in so close to closing. I was only offering take-out I decided.
Before even getting up I shouted, "Can I get you anything to go?"
That's when I heard the door lock.
I hesitated. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach. It tells you something is wrong; it tells you to run. I had that feeling. I didn't want to stand back up but I knew I had already given away my location.
"Hello. Can I, umm, help you?" I asked standing back up.
There were two of them. They were dressed in white beaters and black zip up hoodies and jeans.
"Yes, Bitch. You can get on the floor." The taller one shouted raising a gun in my direction.
I did as I was told. This could not be real. I was going to die at work the day before my first date with Edward. This was the first thing I thought about. The second thing I thought about was how stupid it was that my last thought was going to be that I missed my date with Edward instead of being bummed about dying in general.
Both men made there was over to the counter. The smaller one was carrying a metal pipe. In one quick blow he hit the cash register and it opened.
He quickly shoved the money inside into his pockets. It wasn't much considering I had made the nightly deposit into the safe in the office. I hoped they didn't know about that. The problem wasn't that I didn't want to give them the money, I didn't care about that. The problem was the safe only allowed me to put money in, I didn't have the combination to get it open to take money out.
"Get up!" The tall one shouted again.
As I stood he grabbed me by my hair and dragged me back toward the office. I realized they knew about the safe.
Once we got inside the office, I was thrown to the floor in front of the safe.
"Open it."
"I can't. I don't have the combination/"
He raised the gun and crouched down next to me placing the barrel of the gun next to my temple.
"It would be in your best interest to figure it out." He whispered into my ear. This made the threat all the more terrifying.
I fumbled with the dial, each time the door remained locked. I could tell the tall one was getting agitated.
I felt a hard thump against my head. I reached up to where I felt the blow and felt something warm and sticky. I realized I had been hit with the butt of the gun.
"Whoa! Hold on there bro." The shorter one called.
Thank God, at least one of them had compassion. Maybe I wouldn't die after all.
"There are lots of fun things I want to try with her and I want her to be conscious. I like to hear them scream."
Nevermind.
With that I felt my hair being ripped back again. The movement knocked me off balance and I was on my back. The tall one used his knees to pin down my wrists. He was above my head looking at the shorter one who I couldn't see but I assumed had taken a position by my feet.
I felt him press his hands against my legs, using them to spread my legs further apart. I tried to force them back together but he grasped my thighs and pushed.
I tried to scream but before any sound came out the tall one used the pipe to press it against my windpipe.
I was on the verge of passing out when suddenly the pipe was released. I was prepared to feel more unwanted touching but that too had stopped.
I heard a gunshot and then two loud blood-chilling crunches.
In an instant I was flying. I felt the wind in my hair as I was carried through the air. Then everything went black.