Bella's Point Of View
Going to work on Monday morning was the last thing I wanted to do (every single Monday morning), but this particular Monday morning was the worst. Every time I'd bump into Edward, he'd act as if everything was fine between us. And it was really starting to annoy me.
It only became worse as the day dragged on. Just before lunch, he called me into the office. When I asked him ever so sweetly what he wanted, he just yelled at me to "come into his office now".
I nervously walked up to his office door, drew a big breath in and out, and quietly knocked on the door, hoping that he wouldn't hear it and forget that he wanted me to come into his office.
"Come in."
Great. He heard me.
I slowly opened the door, and saw Edward sitting behind his large, antique mahogany desk, furiously scribbling something down. He didn't look up from the paper he was writing on. He just told me to sit down.
I sat his rather large, rather comfortable leather couch, waiting for him to stop writing and tell me the purpose of this visit. When he finished his note, he turned and faced me, all business like.
"Bella, I'm so sick of this awkwardness between us. Tell me what happened from the morning we woke up together up until yesterday that caused all these problems between us. And I will try to fix it."
"Well Edward, the real problem here is that I thought that we were "together" in a sense, and I thought that it would make sense if we went to the charity event together. And you failed to mention that your ex-girlfriend was in town, and that you were taking her to the event instead of me. And that I found all this out from your brother."
He looked at me thoughtfully for a second, then asked me the last thing I ever expected him to ask me.
"Would you like to go to dinner?"
Why was he asking me out to dinner? Does he think that dinner will automatically fix things? He lied to me multiple times and...oh my god! He just asked me out to dinner. We are going to dinner. Together! Oh yeah. One small problem.
"What about Heidi?"
"What about her?" How could he be so stupid? I mean, she was his girlfriend. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Don't you have plans with her?"
"If I did have plans with her, why would I be asking you to dinner?"
What do I do? Do I say yes? No? Say that I'm seeing someone else? I've never been a good liar. If I did lie, he'd see right through it.
"Let me just check me schedule and get back to you."
I looked up at his face and saw him give me one of his ridiculous (ridiculously sexy) smirks.
"What is so funny?"
"Just that fact that you have a schedule. I mean, apart from work, you have nothing else really going on."
"And how do you know this?"
"Bella. I came over to your house on a Friday night, and you were doing work, while your friends were out."
Great! So now he thinks I have no life.
"I'll give you my decision by the end of the day."
As I was trying to walk out of his office, I managed to trip on something (not sure exactly what it was, as his floor was covered in carpet, and nothing was left lying around), and fell flat on my face. Not exactly the exit I was going for. And of course, Edward was laughing at me. I'd give it about five minutes before the whole office hears about this.
I turned around and told him that can forget about dinner, and stormed off to my office, slamming the door behind me.
I wanted to forget about what just happened, so I threw myself back into my work. I was in my own little world when I heard a knock at the door. I looked at the time on my computer, and noticed that I just missed lunch.
"Come in."
The door opened and Emmett's head popped around the door.
"Hey Bells. Missed I missed you at lunch."
It was quite funny how much time Emmett took off for lunch considering that he partly owned the company. But Emmett and I always went to lunch together. It was sweet of him to think of me.
I stretched, as I have been sitting in the same position for around about three hours.
"Yeah. Sorry. I had a lot of work to catch up on."
"No problem. I bought lunch to you instead." He said holding out a bag from my favourite sushi place.
"Have I told you how much I love you Emmett?"
"Multiple times yes."
I opened the bag, and inside were three tuna hand rolls of sushi. Yummy.
"My favourite."
"Bella?"
"Yeah Emmett?" I looked up at him, and answered with my mouth full. I know that it wasn't good manners, but he had seen me puke behind a bush once, so I guess he's seen worse.
"Can you just throw Edward a bone, and say yes to his invitation to dinner?"
I stopped mid-chew, appalled at the fact that my friend was taking Edward's side. Well, they are brothers, so naturally, he'd take his brothers side.
"Why would I do that?"
Emmett sighed, as if I should already know the answer.
"Because he likes you. How can you two be so utterly stupid?"
I mulled this over for a second. I was aware of the fact that Edward wanted me, but he managed to screw everything up. So do I give him a second chance?
"Fine. I'll allow him one dinner. But if he manages to screw this up again, I am over it."
"Thanks Bells. It's not only Edward you're helping out. All of us are suffering due to Edward's emo-esque behaviour."
A phone started ringing from Emmett's office.
"Emmett?"
"Huh?"
"Phone."
"Bye."
He was probably running back to his office, making it look like he was sitting at his desk all day, actually doing something. But then again, maybe not. It wasn't exactly a secret that Emmett did absolutely no work.
Finishing off my sushi, I finally summoned the courage to go back into Edward's office and agree to go to dinner with him. Let him buy my love back.
So I stood up, wiped invisible crumbs off my skirt (I was a bit OCD about my clothes getting the tiniest crumb on them) and took the necessary steps up to his office.
Just as I was about to knock, I heard something that sounded like a woman giggling. What if Heidi was in his office right now? What if I walk in and they are in the middle of an inappropriate situation? Well, that's their problem. I knocked anyway. No answer. I guess that means that I can just go in.
And when I did enter, I found Heidi straddling Edward in his chair. Great! So much for that second chance.
Heidi was the first to see me gaping in the doorway.
"What can we do for you Bella?" How could she have to audacity to be annoyed with me?
"Huh" Edward's head tilts to the side and finally sees me standing there. I wait for him to offer some sort of explanation. When he doesn't, I get seriously annoyed. Wasn't he just asking for a second chance?
"Nothing at all. Thanks for your time."
"No problem darling. But you should really learn to knock. It's just common courtesy." She sneers at me.
"Thanks for that Heidi. I'll be sure to remember that next time."
I shut the door so hard on my way out, I'm surprised I haven't broken the glass on either side of his door. Second chance my eye.
What was most surprising was that all Edward did during my conversation with Heidi was just sit there staring at me. If he really wanted a second chance, should he really be with Heidi right now? NO!
There was a soft knock at the door. I already knew who it was.
"GO AWAY !"
"Um, not Mr. Cullen. It's Heidi."
I look up from the computer. My god, it is her.
"What can I do for you Heidi?"
"You can stay away from Edward."
"Excuse me?" Now she was demanding that I stay away from my own boss. "Heidi, that's virtually impossible. We work in close proximity with each other."
"I know that. But guess what you don't know?"
I rolled my eyes at her. "What don't I know Heidi?"
"What you don't know is that Carlisle is like a second father to me. And I can easily get you demoted. But this situation can be easily avoided. Just stay away from him."
"Are you really that desperate?"
"No sweetie. Not desperate. But I am serious. Stay away from him, and you can keep your job. He was mine first."
I scoff. "How old are you? Five?"
"Carlisle?" She said in her best "I'm an innocent little girl getting picked on" voice. Damn it. She knows his office is right opposite mine. And his door is currently open. Within seconds, he was standing in my office.
"Hello Bella. Heidi. What a pleasant surprise! Was it you that called?"
"Yes it was." She looked at me in warning. The woman is crazy.
"What can I do for you?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but I interrupted her halfway through her sentence.
"She just wanted to say hi. That's all. Bye Carlisle."
Carlisle looks at me as if I'm crazy.
"Okay...Heidi, nice to see you again. Bella?"
"Yeah?"
"Back to work." He looked at me again, shook his head, and walked back to his office. Wonderful! HE now thinks that I REALLY am crazy.
I turn to Heidi.
"You heard the man. I have to go back to work. You can go now."
"Sure. But first, do we have an agreement? Stay away from him. Understand?"
I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly. "Sure."
The sweetest smile spread across her face, and looked at me as if we've been best friend forever. "Nice to meet you Bella. Bye." She turned on her Stella McCartney clad heel, and walks out of me office.
That woman IS the epitome of all thing evil.
God help us all.
Edward's Point Of View
Monday morning. Time to make things right with Bella. While I'm not particularly sure what I've done to make her hate me so much, but I wanted to fix it. So I came up with a plan. I would ask her out to dinner.
I was somewhat nervous about asking her out, as I had no idea what was going on between us in the first place. She would probably say no, but I would continue trying to make things right with her.
I picked up my phone, and dialled Bella's extension. When she asked me, ever so sweetly, what I needed, I just told her come into my office now.
There was a light knock at my door. It was Bella, and she obviously didn't want me to hear her, as if she didn't want to be here.
I was nervous about talking to her, so I took out a notepad, and began to furiously scribble "notes" down. I didn't want her to think I was lazy.
"Come in."
I was still "writing notes" down, even after she sat, to give me a minute to think of what to say first.
I cleared my throat and began talking. "Bella, I'm so sick of this awkwardness between us. Tell me what happened from the morning we woke up together up until yesterday that caused all these problems between us. And I will try to fix it."
The problem was that I decided to take Heidi over her to the charity event, even though we were "together" and that she had to find out about Heidi through Emmett. Because, apparently, Emmett couldn't keep his mouth shut. I was going to tell Bella about her. Honest.
My ingenious answer to our problem? Dinner.
Her answer? She told me that she would have to "check her schedule" which was quite funny as I knew for a fact that she usually spends her entire weekend staying home. I really didn't mean to laugh at her, but I knew that she really had no reason to say no.
She glared at me, and turned to leave, when she somehow managed to trip on her way out. This time, I couldn't contain my laughter, and burst out in a fit of laughter. She slammed the door on her way out. But hey, at least I knew what made things awkward between us. My constant lying and Heidi. I could fix one aspect, but not the other.
I called Emmett, to tell him once and for all to stay out of my personal life. It took him about ten rings to finally answer the phone.
"Hello."
"It's Edward."
"Hey Eddie! What's up?"
"Could you please stay out of my personal life? Because of you, Bella hates me, and Heidi is under the impression that I want to get back together with her."
"How could I say no to Bella man? She's my friend. And she gave me these little Bambi eyes. It made me feel bad that I knew something that she so desperately wanted to know."
I suddenly felt really bad about taking this out on Emmett. It was partly his fault, but majority was mine.
"It's fine Emmett. But next time would you let me tell her something this big?"
"Next time, don't try to keep stuff like this from her."
"Next time mind your own business!" I yelled at him.
"I have to go."
Emmett hung up on me. I always usually did that to him. And I was surprised that Emmett actually yelled back at me. He was always so happy and calm. Wow. I really did bring out the worst in everyone.
I tried to take my mind off things by throwing myself back into my work. I had a lot of work to catch up on, because Heidi demanded I take her to dinner.
There was a knock at the door, momentarily distracting me from my work. I looked up at the clock on my wall, and realized that I had missed lunch. Oh well, I never really went to lunch.
"Come in." I wasn't really in the mood for visitors. I just wanted to finish my work.
"Hi Edward. Just thought that I would bring you lunch. You always "forget" to eat lunch when you're working so hard." I looked up and saw Heidi standing over me, holding a takeout bag from the local deli. She still remembered my favourite lunch spot, and what I loved to order.
"Thanks Heidi. You can put them on my table." I said, gesturing to my little side table.
I started ignoring her, thinking that as soon as she put my food on the table, she would leave. But no. The ever persistent Heidi practically crawled into my lap.
"What are you doing?" I really wanted her off me and started to come up with gentlemanly ways to get her off me.
"Remember all the good times we had when we were together?" She asked while snuggling closer to me.
I knew exactly what she was trying to do.
"Do you remember all the bad times we had?" And there were plenty of them. She hooked up with three of my best friends while I was out of town for work. And when I found out, she took no responsibility for her actions. She blamed it all on my friends. And being the idiot that I was, I believed her. Needless to say, I haven't talked to them in about ten years.
"Do you always have to bring this up? Didn't I say that I was sorry?"
"You did. But when I went out of town for business, you went behind my back and did it again."
"AND I WAS SORRY!" Her eyes started welling with tears. Great! I made her cry. I really was a horrible person.
I took a deep breath in and out. Heidi always made things more dramatic than they really were, and I really couldn't deal with drama and tears right now. "Sorry Heids. I shouldn't have bought that up."
She put her head on my shoulder, and buried her face against my neck. She then started kissing her way up my neck. And, god, did I forget how good it felt. So, going against my instincts, I let her continue.
I was thoroughly enjoying this, and I thought it only fair to reciprocate. This made Heidi giggle, and it made me happy that I managed to make her stop crying.
I didn't realize what was going on until Heidi pulled away from me.
"What can we do for you Bella?" Heidi asked in her "extremely annoyed" voice. I actually moved my head to see what caused Heidi to use that horrible, horrible voice, and saw Bella standing in my doorway.
"Huh?" What was Bella doing here? And when did she knock?
Bella looked directly at me, obviously expecting an explanation as to why Heidi was currently situated in my lap. But being the idiot that I am, I just continued to stupidly stare at her.
"Nothing at all. Thanks for your time" Bella finally responded, being the first to break the awkward silence.
"No problem darling. But you should really learn to knock. It's just common courtesy." Wow. Heidi and some balls to say that.
"Thanks for that Heidi. I'll be sure to remember that next time." Bella responded, rudely. She then walked out, slamming the door behind her.
How could Heidi do this to me? I was trying to fix things with Bella. Heidi really does ruin EVERYTHING!
"Okay Heidi. You need to leave." I said while attempting to remove her out of my lap.
"Okay. Will I see you tonight? I made a reservation at Nobu. I know you love that place." Could she really not take a hint?
"I don't know Heidi. I have a lot of work."
"Give me a call if you can make it." She winked at me. Obviously trying to look sexy. "See you soon."
She finally left my office, finally leaving me all alone. Well I definitely didn't want to see Heidi tonight. All I really wanted to do was see Bella. But Bella said no to dinner. So tonight, it looks likes it was going to be me, my large, and extremely lonely penthouse, a bottle of scotch, and large quantities of paperwork.