Chapter 10

Alice was on the phone when I went into her office, so I took a seat. She finally hung up and raised an eyebrow. "How'd it go with dickface?"

"I love that nickname." I laughed. "I don't know, to be honest. I basically told him to shove it."

"Did you threaten him with Mom?"

"No, I reiterated how I was in control of the money and if he wanted any, he should be nice to me, at least at work. Interesting thing happened after that, though."

Alice looked around, before leaning in. "Do tell."

"Jake came up to apologize, and Edward heard me yelling at him, so he came over to make sure I was okay."

"That is interesting." She rubbed her hands together and leaned back."I have two servers coming in today to interview for our places."

I frowned. "That's kind of sad."

"Yes, it is. I think only one person will work for now. On the upside, we have way more responsibility."

"Is that really a bright light?" Alice laughed, and I stood. "I'm going to grab some food. Want me to bring you back anything?"

"No thanks, I have coffee and Danish, courtesy of my handsome boyfriend."

"Speaking of boyfriends, why did I give you keys and codes to my house if you're only going to forget them?"

"As if I knew I'd need them this morning. Sheesh, you're harsh today. You need more coffee or candy. Now, shoo and let me work. "

I laughed but left her alone and went to grab something to eat. "Hi Mike, what's the soup today?"

"Don't you think eating on the company's dime is a bit much?" Edward sneered.

"I asked a question, not demanded gallons of food," I rolled my eyes, looking for peace, but none was coming. "It will be much easier to be nice to you if you just didn't speak to me." I turned my back, grabbed a coffee and left the kitchen.

I heard Mike saying something behind me, but I kept my head high and didn't turn back. Instead of going upstairs or to see Alice, I decided to take a break outside. I sat on the pallets from that morning's delivery and closed my eyes, trying to calm down. I had just achieved my version of calm, when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Jasper.

"Hey," I answered.

"Hi, Bella. I'm at your house, and I think you may want to consider motion detectors, some flood lights, and we should sensor your windows."

"Why? Did someone try to break in to my house?" I stood, ready to head over there.

"Well, it looks as if someone tried to pry open a window, but the marks are on the old side. I think we should be careful. I've got the stuff in my car; as long as you tell me I can, I'll do it today."

"Go ahead, thanks. I owe you dinner for this." I sighed, hating this day altogether. I found Alice in the kitchen when I went to grab some water.

"Mike told me what Edward said to you. I'm going to talk to him." She ran her hands up my arms to soothe me.

"Alice, don't. He obviously hates me, and I don't need you to get in the middle. It's not fair to you."

"Are you sure?" I nodded. "Fine, but one more time and I'm calling Mom. I don't want this atmosphere at work."

"Duly noted. What time are the replacement girls coming in?"

She looked at her watch. "Ten minutes. We're lucky because they each go to school, but at night. This way they can take our day shifts." She linked her arm with mine. "Let's sit out front and wait for them."

"Speaking of school, I'm considering actually going to campus for classes next semester."

"Really? What changed your mind?" she asked, sitting in our favorite booth.

"I need to meet people." I grabbed the napkin bin and started to roll.

"People or boys?"

"Preferably, men." We laughed and rolled until the first girl came in to interview. I rolled napkins while Alice semi- interrogated the poor girl. She shook our hands and bolted pretty fast. "Why were you so mean?"

"I have my reasons. Let's see how the next one does." We looked up to see bright red hair heading our way. "Have a seat, Victoria." Alice gestured to the other side of the booth. "This is Bella."

"Hi." I waved.

"Let's get into it." Alice attempted to interrogate this poor girl, but she held her own. "You're hired. Come on back, and we can do paper work. Can you shadow us for the next three days?"

Alice got up and headed to her office, with Victoria behind her. "Who's that?" a voice to my left asked. I looked over to see that Jake was standing there.

"New waitress." I barely glanced at him, before getting up and bringing the rolled napkins to the staging area.

"Bella!" He jogged to catch up to me. "Can we please finish our conversation from earlier? I want to make sure you understand how sorry I am about the other night." He pulled my arm so I'd turn to look at him.

"One- let go of me, right now." He dropped my arm. "Two-I get that you're sorry, but unless this is also an apology for being an ass as well as a promise to not act like that ever again, including not asking me out, I'm not interested."

Jake opened his mouth and shut it as Edward joined us. "Jake, are you bothering her, again? I'm sure I heard her tell you to leave her alone." he crossed his arms over his chest, and looked down at Jake.

"I was…"

"Doesn't matter," I interrupted and left the two of them shooting daggers back and forth. I headed to my office to change into my uniform. I had about an hour until I had to report to the floor. I hoped the night went fast; all I wanted to do was go home and pretend today never existed.

A/N: Thanks to each and every one of you that's taking the time to read this story. Keep your reviews coming, because some of your theories are awesome!

Thanks to Twilightmomoftwo for being the bestest BETA, ever xoxo