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Bella's teeth sank into a tender chunk of lamb. The tang of lemon and fresh herbs made her mouth water and she closed her lips around her fork to capture the juices that ran down the tines. Edward had remembered her complaint after breakfast and ordered much lighter fare for lunch; lamb shish kebobs, dolmades and a salad with creamy chunks of feta cheese and dark purplish-brown Kalamata olives. They ate slowly, washing each bite down with a robust and fruity sangiovese.
"Tell me about life in Seattle," Edward asked between bites.
"Tell me about life in Chicago," Bella replied with a playful smile.
Edward sat for several seconds with a look of concentration on his face before responding. "Well it's cold. And windy."
"Wow. I could have read that online. Or better yet, stepped back outside and felt it myself. I want you to tell me something unique to your life here in the windy city."
Edward laughed, swirling his wine in his glass, his fingers cupping the bowl gently and his wrist rotating in languid circles. "I've lived here my whole life. I don't really know what to say. People are louder, more brash here. It was definitely culture shock for me to go to graduate school on the east coast. There are more subtleties to conversation there. Here, you can be pretty confident that people will talk straight. If they think you stink they'll tell you. I'm not so good with innuendo."
"You could have fooled me," Bella teased.
"Different kind of innuendo. I don't hide my emotions well. I'm an open book for anyone who chooses to read me. That put me at a disadvantage over there. I felt walked on by my peers and my professors. Jasper is a great friend to have. He sees through people's posturing and translates for me."
"He sounds like a good friend."
"He's the best."
"You said he's doing research for his doctorate?"
"Yep. He double majored in business and psychology, received masters in both disciplines and now he's pursuing his doctorate in psychology."
"Holy crow! That is a lot of school. What is he planning to do with all those degrees? Wallpaper his bedroom?"
"Ha ha. No. We've already got it all worked out. He's going to be my right hand man. A business strategist with that amount of insight into the human mind will be invaluable during negotiations."
"I'm sorry, but I'm confused. How much time does a junior architect have at the negotiating table?"
"Not much. But I don't plan to be the lowly gopher forever."
"Aha. You're going to put your hard earned wages to work for you and start your own firm?"
"I have some money that my parents set aside for me. But yeah, I have plans for it. They aren't fully formed yet. My mom and dad have always encouraged me to plan big but start small. Maybe it comes from working with architecture and structural design, but I get how important it is to invest time in both research and planning so you can build the right kind of foundation, employ the best strategies and use the materials necessary to achieve the desired result." Edward's expression went from serious to playful. "I sound like a text book, don't I?"
"If my text books had looked and sounded like you, I would have been a 4.0 student." Bella was a bit surprised by her own words but she loved the pleased look and slight blush that colored Edward's cheeks. "Jasper sounds interesting. And those two areas of focus make a lot of sense. I can see how they would complement one another. In fact, some of the things you've told me about him remind me of my friend, Alice."
"Really? How so?"
"Well, for starters, she's an incredibly loyal friend. And she's intuitive. She'll be dancing around the fringes of a discussion or an argument and then pop in with the ideal solution that nobody else thought of yet. She sees patterns and follows them to their natural end. She's a school junkie, too. She's 26 years old, like me, but she's still in college. I think she's taking a page out of Jasper's playbook and collecting degrees. So far she has degrees in Art, Math, Finance and Interior Design. When I asked her how she could afford it she told me that when she was fourteen she took her pocket money and the money her mom and dad had set aside for her and started investing it. Under her dad's name, of course. Somehow she turned less than $4,000 into enough money to cover eight years of college tuition, pay off her parent's mortgage, and still take an international trip each summer. She's brilliant. Oh, and she designs all of her own clothes. Mine, too, for the most part."
"Sounds like a prodigy. I wonder what she was like as a kid."
"We met in middle school. Her parents adopted her when she was six and just bouncing around the foster system. Her mom was a social worker and could tell right away that Alice was different. She was non-verbal and people treated her like she was an idiot, but Tamara knew the moment she met her that wasn't true. When one of her foster families complained that she was scaring the other children by watching them too much Tamara and her husband chose to pursue adopting her themselves. From what they told me it took almost 18 months but they eventually were granted custody and took her home.
"Tamara and Cliff are total sweethearts. They tried for years to have a baby and Tamara was almost fifty when she met Alice so she knew she wasn't going to ever have kids. She's told the story of bringing Alice home for the first time more times than I can count. She cries every time. She says that when Alice walked up the front steps carrying her old brown backpack she stopped at the threshold, looked up at them and said, 'Thanks for choosing me. I would have chosen you if I thought they would let me.' Tamara says she couldn't speak for several minutes. It was documented in all her files that Alice had never said a single word and there she was speaking in complete sentences. They don't celebrate their birthdays, just the date her adoption became final."
Bella looked up from the chunk of feta she was chasing around her plate with her fork. Edward was watching her with a tear-filled smile that was an exact reflection of her own. "She does sound pretty incredible. I wonder how Jasper and Alice would react to one another if they ever met."
"I have no idea. It could be scary, though. Alice is kind of like a miniature tornado. She blasts through hobbies and men like they're tiny towns in the mid-west. Most of them don't know what hit them until she's already gone."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Who knows? She loves new. Most people can't hold her attention. She finds out everything there is to know about them, realizes there's nothing left to discover and loses interest. It's kind of hilarious but also sad to watch. These guys are picked up by an absolutely adorable, energetic girl. She wants to know everything about them. They are the center of her universe and they feel like the king of the world for a few weeks or months, if they're lucky, and then she tells them she's sorry but she's ready for something new. They walk away shell-shocked and confused because she got them, like she really understood them and reflected every one of their strengths and positive attributes back at them but still left. I ran into one of her exes a couple months ago at Pike Place Market. I was afraid he was going to be hurt or angry, but he's engaged to be married now and seemed really happy. He told me that dating Alice was an experience who could never regret but wasn't strong enough to take a second stab at it."
"I can see how that would change your perspective on dating. How does she react to your relationships?"
Bella felt instantly uncomfortable. They were skirting around quicksand and she felt completely unprepared. "Alice sees the good in everybody. Not everyone interests her enough to gain her attention, but I've never heard her say anything negative about anyone. She's been my best friend for almost 15 years and she's only ever been supportive of me and the people I choose to spend time with, romantically or otherwise. She's got such an eclectic mix of friends from her different classes and activities that I doubt she would ever judge me."
Bella picked up her water glass to hide her discomfort. The ice clinked against her teeth making them ache but she drained her glass before putting it down. She couldn't bring herself to meet Edward's gaze so she had no way of knowing what he thought about her answer. If he wanted to know if she was in a relationship, he would need to come out and ask her directly. She'd decide how to respond if and when he did. She felt the urge to twist her ring on her finger but it wasn't there. Her finger was bare. Her ring was still nestled deep in her coat pocket, a burning reminder of the truth. She wasn't in a relationship, but she wasn't free either. She was still wearing the marks of Mike's broken promise.
A/N: I recently discovered that I'm allergic to sulphates. I love sangiovese, but I can't drink most red wines. *sad face* It's good stuff, though! What's your favorite red?