Disclaimer: I don't own twilight.
Chapter ten
Edward and I talked about the details of our date after I agreed to go with him; he asked me if Saturday suited me and I said that it was fine by me. I tried to let him tell me where were we going. But he refused and said that it was a surprise, which frustrated me and made me even more nervous. My day after that was pretty quiet; I went to the store, few customers came that day: only a sweet woman who I genuinely liked named Angela and a couple of teenage girls that were shopping for prom already.
Alice called me after I got home from work. She asked me about yesterday and I told her everything Alice's style (in great details and exaggerations). She laughed when I told hear about the fight and declared that she was going to love Leah. The entire call I felt something weird in her voice; her usual excited voice sounded even more excited. I brushed it off: Alice would always be Alice.
After hanging up with Alice, I watched some TV and ate the pizza that Leah bought on her way home from work, and then went to bed. I woke up the next morning early to go to the store; I was recently discovering these days that I wasn't much of a morning person. I prepared breakfast this morning since Leah wasn't up yet.
"Good morning." I called as I heard her sleepy footsteps enter the kitchen. She mumbled something that sounded like good morning, and went to sit on the kitchen's table.
"I really need to star-" she stopped, "holy shit, you're cooking?" I looked at her to find that she was staring at me with wide shocked eyes and her jaw ajar. She looked so...so... so hilarious. I couldn't help myself, I laughed so hard, I almost dropped on my knees. "Why are you laughing? This is serious!" she scolded, "Princess is cooking and I am not sure if it is even edible."
Her insulting words about my cooking skills silenced my laughter and I glared at her. "I love cooking very much, and the food I make is certainly edible!" I protested, indignant.
"Then why did you never cook?" She said raising her eyebrows, challenging me.
"Because you always wake up before me," I pointed out, rolling my eyes.
"Whatever, I just hope this breakfast doesn't end up with a trip to the hospital." she sighed. "I wonder if I'm sane sometimes."
"You? Sane?" I teased, and she glared at me. She shut up after tasting my breakfast and finding it delicious. She mumbled a hurried thanks, escaping my smug reaction, no doubt. I washed the dishes and headed upstairs to get ready for work. Leah had left me the truck to go to work. I started to set up the store as soon as I got there. As the day dragged by, with the amount of customers that came, I suspected that it would be a quiet, boring day just like yesterday. I was folding some clothes and putting some on hangers, my back was facing the door.
"Good morning," a velvet voice startled me, making me drop the nightgown I was folding.
"Good heavens, Edward, you scared me." I took a deep breath, putting my hand on my heart trying to prevent it from jumping out of my chest.
"I am sorry, it wasn't intentional." He apologized, smiling sheepishly; his expression was so cute and boyish that I couldn't resist smiling and blushing.
"You are forgiven." I said, avoiding his eyes. My feet looked really interesting all of a sudden. I felt his gaze at me but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. A couple of seconds went by until I felt a warm gentle hand lifting my chin up to look at him. His eyes were warm and captivating and I found myself held as prisoner in them. At the immediate thought of prison I looked away, breaking our staring contest. I cleared my throat trying to come up with something to say.
"Err… if you don't mind me asking but what are you doing in a lingerie store?" I asked trying to lighten the mood, flashing a teasing smile at him. "Do you have some special girl you want to buy something for her?"
"I don't know," he said thoughtfully, "I don't have sisters and I am sure as hell that I will not buy lingerie for my mother or grandmother. Ever."
"You don't have a special girl that you are not related to?" I asked still playing along.
"Well, there is this one girl," he said as he leaned closer so he could whisper in my ears, his breath smelled intoxicate like mint, coffee and cinnamon. "But it's still very soon for lingerie."
I almost fainted when I heard his husky voice whisper those words to me, I was about to turn my head toward his lips. I wanted to kiss him so badly but I didn't have the chance. "SURPRISE!" two very familiar female voices squealed, making Edward and I jump away from each other. I didn't think that my face had ever been that red in my life, and that's saying something. But what comforted me the most was seeing the blush that covered Edward's face, too. Aww, he was so adorable. I couldn't find it in me to understand how he could one minute be a sexy, heart stopping man and the other a five years old kid that his mom caught him stealing cookies from the cookie jar. Before I even had the chance to speak I was crushed into a bear hug by my two best friends.
"Oh, Bella, we missed you!" they harmonized, squealing.
"Guys…can't….breath." I gasped, trying to let them know that I was on the verge of suffocating.
"Sorry!" they both apologized synchronously as they released me. The three of us laughed at the absurdity of the situation. I forgot that Edward was there until I heard a throat clear which brought my attention only to him. Rose and Alice looked at him and then at me a couple of times.
"Uh umm... girls, this is investigator Edward Cullen, Edward these are my best friends and almost sisters Alice and Rosalie." I introduced them awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you, ladies," he smiled, a faint ghost of blush still haunting his cheeks. They greeted him by a simple nod and gave me a you-are-so-going-to-spill look.
"I think I better get going," he said after a couple of minutes of awkward silence, "goodbye, ladies, see you later, Bella." He looked at me and winked before heading toward his car.
"Just for your information, Bells, I approve of officer sex hair with all my heart." Alice said smirking at me.
"I TOTALLY agree with you." Rose said her gaze still on Edward as his car pull out of the store's driveway. "Is that for sale?"
"Rose!" Alice cried as I blinked at her and said incredulously: "Rosalie, are you checking him out?"
"No, I am checking his car," she said, "you know me, I am not into men; I am a car lesbian."
Her familiar joke made me smile, because I knew how true that joke was. Cars were Rose's lovers, addiction, obsession call it whatever you like, but make sure to know that the relation between cars and Rose is sacred. "I really missed you, both," I said affectionately, my voice almost broke from the amount of the emotions that I put in that statement.
"Yeah, yeah, we know, life isn't the same without us." Alice teased "but you managed to get along just fine." She said the past sentence as she got a mischief glint in her eyes and raised her eyebrows suggestively. They didn't start interrogating me right away; instead they allowed me to have a couple of seconds to arrange what I was going to say... but as I had just said, they gave me seconds.
"Soooo, care to explain why you didn't tell us about officer sex hair?" she asked the question so casually, so normally that anyone that didn't know her would think that it was indeed a normal topic, but I knew better than that. She was just sharpening her claws so she could bounce at me if she sensed the slightest hint of vulnerability. So I took a deep breath, held my head high and answered her in a very determined and sure voice, or at least I thought so.
"I forgot."
"You what? Isabella Marie Swan you are a freaking liar." She accused as she narrowed her eyes at me.
"Am not!" I argued, but the tone of my voice and the movement of my hands that was flying around randomly really gave away my anxiety, "I just… I …"
She and Rose were wearing the same sympathetic and encouraging masks, trying to get the real reason behind me hiding Edward from them. "You know you can tell us everything, right?" Rose said as she patted my shoulder reassuringly.
"I guess I was -am- afraid," I sighed.
"From us?!" they both asked at the same time. I should really tell them to quiet doing that. They were starting to freak me out.
"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to judge him, or say that I wasn't ready yet or something." I said, wringing my hands nervously and avoiding their eyes. I admit that I was a bit afraid from their reaction.
"Oh, honey, we are not going to judge you or him and if you feel that this is right, then to hell with our opinions." Rose said.
"But with Jacob…." I trailed off truly confused.
"Jacob was a jackass, but we would have ignored that if you were truly happy, Bells, but you weren't." this time it was Alice who spoke.
"But I was happy with Jacob!" or so I had thought.
"No, you weren't, you settled for Jacob because he was safe and made you comfortable," she stopped for a second then continued, "and for some bizarre reason you thought that Jacob was the best man you could ever get, which is so not true. You need to see yourself clearly, Bells, you are the most beautiful, caring, faithful, smart, funny and I can keep the list going for days but in the end you still wouldn't believe me." Tears welled in my eyes by the end of Alice's speech.
"Then if I told you guys that I am going to a date with him, what would your reaction be?" I said, half-joking half-serious.
"We would tell you to keep your hands to yourself, because we are not ready to be aunts yet." Rose said seriously, and I choked.
"You are both incorrigible." I smiled, shaking my head at their stupidity but secretly thinking that I was truly blessed to have such good friends. After the emotional moment pass, I suddenly remember that I didn't know how they came here or when. "Alice, Rose, how did you both come here and when did you arrive? Why didn't anyone tell me that you were coming to visit me?"
"We kind of wanted it to be a surprise, but why are you asking? Are you not pleased to see us?!" Rose gasped as a look of mock hurt cross her features and she puts her hand over her heart, but of course I wasn't fooled.
"Shut up, drama queen." I roll my eyes at her overly dramatic reaction. Rose and I laughed, but we felt like something is missing. Alice was being quiet in a very frightening way. "Ali, are you alright?" I put my hand on her shoulder to shake her lightly.
What happened next was something that scared the shit out of me, and when I use the term scared the shit out of me, it means that I almost pissed in my pants and Rose was no better. Let's try to clarify the situation for all of you. After I shook Alice's shoulder gently, she quickly turned her gaze to look at me and screamed the most high-pitched scream ever. I was sure that people who live in Antarctica must have heard her, but she didn't only scream, she practically tackled me to the floor.
Rose stood there staring at us, Alice was still screaming and a couple of incoherent words may have fallen out of her mouth and I lying under her with the most terrified and shocked expression. "OH…..MY…GOD…DATE…..SEX HAIR!" that was all Alice was saying as Rose dragged her up to save me.
Her screaming didn't stop though, it only stopped when Rose decided to slap her. I looked at her incredulously. "What? It was for her benefit and I was starting to lose the ability to hear." I didn't argue with her, really, because even my ears were still ringing painfully.
"Alice, are you okay?"
"You are so going to spill because you have hidden important things from us." Her calm and composed voice scared me even more than her screaming.
"I don't know what you are talking about." I try to keep my voice soft to avoid another screaming fit.
"You have a date with Mr. Officer Sex hair." At the mention of Alice's strange but true nickname for Edward and the word date, I blushed.
"Ha, you blushed; then it is true." She smirked.
"I thought you were joking." Rose said, her shock plain but she didn't sound upset or angry.
"I was half-joking" I said.
"I need details, give me details" Alice said her tone urgent. So I told them everything; how I met him and that this store is his grandmother's and that he asked me out the day after the opening of this store. "It seems that he is really sweet." Alice said after I finished. I looked at Rose trying to see her reaction. She looked thoughtful.
"Rose?"
"Look, Bella, truthfully I think this Edward really makes you happy but you have to remember that he works in the police department which makes dating him a risk," I really hoped she wouldn't say that, "but since he makes you happy then maybe you should take a chance, it's not like you are going to marry him or something. And this running is temporarily until Jasper proves that you are innocent."
"Then..?"
"Do what makes you happy Bella, but be careful," she said, smiling softly, "and tell that officer that your friends are not afraid of whopping his ass if he hurts you."
"Oh, group hug." Alice said as she circled us both. In that moment I felt like the luckiest woman on earth, I had great friends that will always no matter what support me and I had a date with Edward Cullen next Saturday.
