Chapter 11

The diner was packed for dinner and it was horrible. Two people sent food back, and one outright skimped my tip. I was pretty pissed and regretting the decision to not start smoking. Instead I planned on drinking wine once I got home. A lot of it.

I cleared my last table for the night and went to find Alice. She was huddled in the corner talking to Victoria. Since Alice's arms were on Victoria's shoulders, I figured she was consoling her.

"What happened?" I asked taking in Victoria's tear streaked face.

"Edward was a dick to her," Alice explained.

"All I did was ask a question about the food. Aren't I supposed to do that if I don't understand something? The customer has allergies." Victoria's sobs escalated, and Alice and I exchanged looks.

"I got this." I stomped off to find Edward. Lucky for me, he was debriefing the kitchen staff. "Edward?!"

He turned to glare at me. "I'm busy right now, Bella."

"I'll wait." I smirked and leaned against the nearest surface, staring him down. Most of the staff hid their smiles, except for Mike who outright laughed at me.

"Maybe I can do the rest of this, Edward. Looks as if you two need to talk." Mike gestured to me.

Edward stormed past me and upstairs so I followed him into his office. "I'll make this short and sweet, Edward. You are not allowed to yell at anyone unless they make a dire fuck up."

"How dare you tell me how to run my kitchen!"

"I'm not telling you how to run your kitchen. Truth is I don't care how you run it as long as it's efficient. However, when a server asks you a question about the food, it's for a damn reason. The customer needed to make sure there weren't any peanuts in the sauce. They're deathly allergic."

"Shit." He had the nerve to look contrite.

"Now, you will go and apologize to the new girl and hope she doesn't quit after such a lovely first night. Know why? If she does, I'm here way more than I am now, and I know how much you don't want that." I left him stewing and slammed into my office to grab my things.

Alice was waiting in the lobby for me. "Wine night?"

"Definitely. Mine or yours?"

"Let's go to yours, this way Jasper can show you all the new goodies he put in today."

"See you there." I hopped into my car and sat there taking deep breaths. Today was one of those days, and I was very glad it was over.

Alice parked next to me in the driveway and walked with me to the front door. "Jasper will be here in a minute. He changed your pass code, though. " She showed me a text message with a way too many numbers to ever be considered a pass code.

"I have to use all of those, now?"

"He said it's safer." She shrugged, and I unlocked the door. We both headed to the alarm so she could hold up the phone while I typed in three million numbers. I set it for armed, but home and went to grab us each a glass of wine.

"Is Vic staying around?" I asked, filling the glasses to the rim.

"Yeah, for now she is. I explained how Edward hadn't been there very long, and he was still adjusting. I hope it was enough to convince her to stay." she leaned over to slurp up some wine. "Think there are full enough?" She joked.

"Shut it, woman. It's been a shitty day. Did Edward apologize to her? I told him to." I carefully carried my glass into the living room.

"Hopefully," Alice said, veering to the front door to let Jasper in before they joined me.

As soon as he sat down, he brought up what he did. "I started by checking all the windows and doors. Previously, you only had sensors on the doors. When I saw the old pry marks on the window, I decided to see how easy it would be top break in here. It would have been real easy, Bella. So I shored up the windows and added extra sensors including glass breaks. Then I added motions inside as well as the motion flood lights out back and on the front porch. The system is designed to call the police and me if it goes off. "

"Don't they usually call me?" I asked.

"You'll be call number two. The police and I are at the same time. I changed your pass code as well as your password if the company does call."

"Do I really need all this?"

"Hush, Bella. We want to keep you safe," Alice chided.

"Fine." I pouted for a few seconds. "I need to make you dinner for all this work. Think about it and let me know. I can cook on Monday."

"Lasagna," they said in unison.

"I knew you'd choose that." I laughed and put on the TV, so Jasper could watch his sports stuff. We spent the next hour just vegging and chatting. Alice and I had too much wine. Sadly this wasn't a rare occurrence. I walked them to the door, locked the house and grabbed a big glass of water before heading to bed. Jasper was kind enough to put a new alarm pad in my bedroom, so I could arm everything from in there. I hated to admit it, but I did feel safer.

The next morning, it took me a few minutes to realize the very loud pounding wasn't my head. I reached for my phone to see what time it was only to notice I had four missed calls, two voicemails and one text. They were all from Ben. I decided to call him instead of get out of bed.

"You rang?" I yawned into the phone.

"Yea, we need to talk."

"Now?"

"Yea. Please. I'm out front."

"Are you the person pounding on my door?"

"Of course I am, Bella. Don't be an idiot."

"I'll meet you at the diner in thirty." I hung up and decided a shower was a must in order to wake me up.

A/N: Thanks to my BETA Twilightmomoftwo, who even though has a million other things on her plate, gets me back my chapters.

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