A/N: So it turns out that having two jobs and going to school is stressful and time-consuming. Go figure, right? In any case, I'm very sorry for the infrequency in updates, and can only hope that readers like this little ditty enough to stick with it. I know I will. Have some fun with Mr. Masen today, he's feeling very emotional.
Disclaimer: I still have my group chat and my Twilight book club and I'm still writing and working hard but it definitely didn't turn me into Stephenie Meyer.
*
Edward was sitting in his office when five o clock rolled around. He was working on the schedule, with only minimal swearing involved. He checked the time, logged out of his computer and went to retrieve Bella from the break room.
Only she wasn't in the break room.
He sighed deeply, knowing that he would have to venture out into the den of wolves and make his way to the warehouse to go retrieve her. It wasn't like he could leave her here to decorate all night. She would definitely enjoy that, he knew, but she would be upset that she didn't finish her homework. So he snagged his jacket off a hook, pocketed his keys and wallet, and headed back onto the floor.
Where he was immediately accosted.
"Hey, boss, since I came in today-"
"Which Emmett asked you to do."
"Yeah, but since I did, can I have next Friday? There's a party I'm dying to hit." Seth had his hands clasped in front of him and was following Edward on his path toward the warehouse.
Edward shook his head and let out a low whistle. Since becoming the customer service manager, he'd been exposed to far too many instances of emotional bribery like this. He couldn't stand the begging. And saying no to Seth, who was like a little brother to the entire store? He hadn't quite managed to master that. Bella had tried to help him, but had declared it a lost cause after Edward had worked one of Seth's shifts in his place when he couldn't get anyone else to cover. Bella had said that it seemed like blatant favoritism, but Edward had argued that Seth was just the only one to ask. He'd also looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting that in any universe his blatant favoritism would be directed at Seth when Bella was right there.
"I'll see what I can do, Seth."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, boss!" He headed back toward the service counter, pointing back at Edward with purpose. "You will not regret this!"
"Try again."
"You will not regret this forever!"
"Better."
Edward continued on his way toward the warehouse, and was stopped once again, this time by Alice. Since becoming Bella's friend, Edward had also been exposed to far too many instances of his cousin exploiting their relationship. Not for nefarious purposes, of course, and she never blackmailed him, Alice was just very aware of the fact that anything that made Bella happy would be a priority for Edward.
"Cuz!" she said, voice dripping with false innocence. Oh no.
"Ali… what do you need?"
"It's not so much a need as a want." She was staring up at him with those big green eyes of hers, the color they shared with Esme and his own mother, and he knew he was going to cave.
He kept walking toward the warehouse, gesturing for Alice to follow. "What is it, Ali?"
"I'm planning a Halloween party, very small, just a few of us, and I was wondering if we could have it at your place?" She also clasped her hands in front of her, and poked her lip out in a pout. Was there some sort of class they all took to learn that?
Edward shot Alice a wry smirk. "And we can't do this at your apartment because?" he asked.
Alice pouted her lip out even further. "Bella can leave early to study back at our place if we have it at yours. She doesn't want to have to clean up or intrude on you when she needs to sleep." Alice dropped her hands. "Not that either of you would mind. And I'm going to clean up."
Edward slapped his hand to his forehead. "I'm going to regret this."
"No!"
"Try again."
"A little! But your costume will be fabulous, I've been working on it for a week already." She jumped up and down a few times and then started to head back to her racks. "Thanks, cuz!"
"You're welcome!" he called after her, never removing his hand from his face. "Goddamn, I'm a pushover," he grumbled to himself.
And then, he entered the warehouse.
And his jaw dropped.
He'd walked into Santa's Village.
There were trees and trains and candy canes and ornaments and snowflakes and God, the lights. In the middle of it all stood Bella, bathed in the glow of the Christmas lights, hanging one last ornament on a massive twelve foot tree with one hand, and directing warehouse workers rolling oversized trees and decorations toward an empty corner with the other. She was breathtaking in the golden-red-green wash of light, the colors doing beautiful things to her skin and hair. She had this almost unconscious smile on her face, and her eyes were bright with joy and reflected lights.
If she looked like this the entirety of December, he was dead meat.
"Laurent! Marcus! Please be extra careful with the train! It has to work come Thanksgiving!" she said to two burly men moving the large locomotive across the warehouse floor. Laurent smiled at her and nodded, and Marcus, true to form, maintained the emotionless expression he wore on a near-constant basis. Edward had once seen him emote, but it was because Esme had joked about getting him a girlfriend, and the emotion was anxious dismissal.
"Yes, boss," Laurent said, sending Bella a wink. She giggled, and Edward tried very hard not to be jealous. For one thing, he had no claim on Bella and even if he did, Laurent was just like that. For another thing, it was absolutely ridiculous to be jealous that he hadn't been the one to make her giggle. It made no sense, but here he was. For yet another thing, Edward was well aware that Laurent was hooking up with Jessica.
"I'm not your boss, bud, but I'll be sure to pass that wink on to Esme," Bella said, shooting Laurent a smirk.
Laurent laughed as he dragged the locomotive into the corner. "I'll do that myself, thank you!"
"And she'll love it." Bella finally looked up, then, as the ornament was put in the perfect place, and she stood back to admire the effect. "Edward," she said, gleefully, when she saw him standing at the warehouse entrance. "Time to head home already?"
Edward was still slack-jawed, as he'd been since he entered the warehouse. He snapped his mouth shut. "You did this?" he asked.
"Yes."
"In eight hours?"
"Yes.
"Without the aid of a methamphetamine?" he asked, gazing past her to the overstuffed corner full of Christmas decorations.
"Does a trente iced coffee with four shots count?" she asked, scrunching up her face adorably.
"Depends on what the shots were of."
"So far as I can tell, it was espresso." She tucked her left arm into the crook of his elbow, and patted his forearm with her hand. He looked down at it, eyes drawn immediately to the small yellow roses adorning her index finger. Edward's lips turned up involuntarily at the sight of it. "Come on, I'm making manicotti." She started dragging him back towards the break room.
"Manicotti?"
"And garlic bread," she said, smiling up at him and waving back to the warehouse workers as they made it to the floor.
They strolled through the aisles arm in arm, discussing Bella's day of decorating and the finer points of Italian food.
*
"Do we need asiago?" Edward called out to Bella from his position in front of the cheeses. They were at the local Safeway, getting the ingredients for Bella's manicotti plans.
Bella appeared from around the corner, a package of flat pasta in her hands. "Ricotta, Edward, we need ricotta. You already have mozzarella and parmesan at your place." She dropped the pasta into the basket Edward was carrying and pointed at the correct dairy products.
"I do?"
"Unless you had a cheese fest without me, then yes, you do." Bella smirked as Edward dropped the cheese into the basket.
"You have got to stop stocking my fridge," he said, giving Bella an exasperated look. "Kind of undercuts the 'me taking care of you' thing I'm trying to do."
Bella giggled. "As nice as it might be to have you take care of me, we're going Dutch for the time being. I like to take care of you, too." She steered him away from the cheeses toward the register. "Now, let's get the heck out of here and get cooking. I don't want to be doing homework until two in the morning."
They rounded the corner of the cereal aisle, and abruptly stopped. There was a couple planted in the middle of the aisle, kissing. Kissing was probably too light a term, though. They weren't sharing a quick kiss over the Lucky Charms. They were doing what Edward's mother would call necking.
"Oh. My. God." Bella was staring, mouth agape at the couple, but she didn't look shocked. She looked… disgusted? "I can't escape you two anywhere!" she shouted.
The couple broke apart with a strange suctioning sound, and turned to look at Bella and Edward. The woman grinned, and the man rolled his eyes.
The woman tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder, and gave Bella a wink. "Hey, Bella! Fancy seeing you in the Safeway," she said, taking the man by the hand and leading him over to Bella, before letting him go to give Bella what appeared to be an incredibly tight hug.
"Kate," she squeaked out, her voice muffled by the ironclad grip of the woman holding her, "please… let go."
"Hey, uh," Edward started, a little unsure of how to approach. "Can you put my friend down? She's small enough without being compressed." He reached around Bella's back and started to pry off the woman's arms. She let go before he could finish, though.
The woman eyed Edward up and down, cocked an eyebrow, and turned to Bella. "Bells," she said, keeping her brow reaching for the heavens.
Bella groaned. "Kate, don't start."
"Bella."
"Kate." Bella crossed her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes.
Kate glanced back over at Edward, and a huge grin took over her face.
"Come work at my family's firm," Kate said, turning her megawatt smile onto Bella. "You can quit your retail gig, and begin doing unspeakable things to this ma-"
"Hi! I'm Garrett," her male companion said, extending a hand to Edward. Edward shook, gratefully. He could feel his ears starting to burn.
"Edward Masen," he said. "Nice to meet you."
The girls had studiously ignored them.
"I like my retail gig, Kate." Bella's arms crossed over her chest and she cocked her head to one side. "And to be frank, your father scares the bejeezus out of me."
Kate grinned, and it was somehow all canine. "Okay fine, but you have to admit there would be… benefits." She turned her lupine smile onto Edward, then, and he felt very much like a chicken cutlet. "Bella, it's rude not to introduce people," she said, tossing Bella a quick wink.
Bella sighed like the burden of introducing Edward to this woman was physically weighing her down. "Edward Masen, Kate Denali. Kate, this is Edward. Try not to scare him off, he is a very dear friend." Edward smiled reflexively at her words, and Kate's eyebrows shot skyward once again.
"Nice to meet you, Kate," Edward said, extending his hand. Kate shook it with a firm grip, and Edward thought she must have touched something woolen recently, because her hand was so static-y it shocked him. He tried not to let his surprise show on his face, certain that showing any weakness to Kate would be like a salmon jumping directly into the mouth of a grizzly bear. Her brows slowly lowered as she smiled warmly at him, and she shot Bella another meaningful glance, although Edward couldn't quite decipher what meaning it was full of.
"It's good to finally put a name to the face. Bella refused to send me a photo-"
"Because that's weird!" Bella interjected.
"-but she talks about you or giggles at her phone almost constantly, and I've been dying to meet the man behind the myth." Kate grinned over at Bella who was tomato-red. Bella slapped her hand onto her forehead and sighed.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Gotta catch me first."
"So how do you all know each other?" Edward asked, desperate to change the subject from his apparent mythical nature. He could tell that it was making Bella uncomfortable. And he didn't want to seem clingy or possessive, but Bella had honestly spent most of her free time with him over the last month or so, and he'd never met or heard of Kate and Garrett.
"Law school," Garrett said, scratching his head and reaching for a box of Cocoa Pebbles. In Edward's opinion, he looked more like an Art History major than a lawyer, but who was he to judge? Edward mainly wore t-shirts with bands on them and he had a master's in communications. Looks could be deceiving.
"We had all of our lower level classes together," Kate said. "We were in the same study group, and then Miss Philanthropy over here picked Family Law as her specialty, leaving Garrett and I stranded in Business Law alone."
"One," Bella started, lifting fingers to tick off of her list, "philanthropy is not a dirty word, Kate. Two, you are not alone, you have each other. I am alone. Three, you act like we don't still meet up once a week to study, which we do." So that's where she was so late on Thursday nights. She turned to Edward. "Kate and Garrett are planning to be the entire legal department for Kate's family's electrical engineering firm. Her father was pretty upset about it, considering that Kate could rewire and design new systems better than half of his employees by age twelve." She smirked over at Kate, obviously proud of her friend.
Kate rolled her eyes. "Yes, and I'm quite tired of giving everyone I meet static shocks and spending hours trapped and surrounded by wires. I'd much rather surround myself with paper and arguments." The shock she'd given Edward made much more sense now.
"No one ever gives your father any trouble!"
"Precisely. I won't have to do anything. I'll be sitting in my office planning my wedding and subsequent vacations." Kate grinned.
"Honey, I haven't even proposed yet," Garrett said distractedly, reaching over Kate's shoulder for a box of Reese's Puffs. The man liked his sugar cereal, that was for sure.
"Technicality," Kate said, waving her hand through the air as though dismissing Garrett's comment. Clearly this subject was a well-worn one, and not a touchy subject at all. They discussed it like they were discussing the weather.
Bella rolled her eyes and started to edge her way around the couple. "Well, this has been fun; see you guys Thursday," she said, making eye contact with Edward that clearly meant Let's go, let's go, let's go!
"Bye Bella!" Garrett said, even as Kate snatched up Bella's arm, preventing her escape.
"Not so fast, you never told me your Halloween plans last week. It's the last year of school, we have to go all out!" Kate was giving Bella a version of the puppy-dog eyes, except they were more like Doberman eyes. Menacing and coercive.
Bella heaved another heavy sigh, and threw her hands up before they slapped back down noisily to her sides. "Ali's throwing a party. You know, my roommate? I have to attend that, and then we all have class in the morning, so I'm dipping out early."
"My God, you're so responsible," Kate said, sounding slightly disgusted. "Fine," she continued, "we're in."
"What a lovely invitation you've just extended yourself." Bella rolled her eyes.
"And Garrett, don't forget Garrett," Kate said, smirking.
"Like I could," Bella said, gesturing over to the tall man. "Now, we really have to go, Kate!" Bella snagged Edward's arm and started pulling him up the aisle toward the registers. "As you were!"
Kate laughed and grabbed Garrett by the collar, taking Bella's order literally. Edward quickly turned away as their lips met once again. One time seeing that was enough for the week. Or the month. Or his lifetime.
*
Turns out, manicotti is one of the many things Bella is excellent at making, as was meatloaf, and pot roast, and chicken kiev, and his arteries clog, and his heartrate increase.
"Whoa," Edward said, taking another large bite.
"Oh stuff it," Bella said, waving her hand in dismissal. "It's pretty hard to mess up pasta and cheese."
"No it isn't," Edward countered, pointing at her with his fork. "Do you know how many times I burned boxed macaroni and cheese back in undergrad?" He quirked up an eyebrow at her. "It was enough that I was worried they'd kick me out of college for being an idiot." He took another bite, overstuffing his mouth with the marinara-soaked concoction.
Bella giggled. "You're going to choke, oh slayer of macaroni." Edward rolled his eyes and kept eating.
"How'd you get to be such a great cook? It doesn't really have anything to do with the law. Unless you count the law of thermodynamics." Edward rested his head on his hand as he waited for her response. His mother would be horrified to see him with his elbow on the table, and in the presence of a lady, no less.
Edward, however, couldn't find it in him to care when Bella smiled softly with a faraway look in her eyes that he was beginning to recognize. This story would include her parents. Bella let out a small sigh. "Well," she began, "my mother is an… inventive cook." Her smile broadened. "Most of her inventions are inedible, so I started learning early on that if we were going to eat something that didn't get delivered to our house covered in grease and cheese, I would have to make it."
Edward's brow furrowed involuntarily. "Seems a little unfair."
"I felt that way too, for a while," Bella said, still smiling, "but there was so much that my mother could do, could teach to me, that doing this thing for her was alright."
"But weren't you always the one doing the adult things?" Edward was confused. A few weeks back Bella had told him that she'd known how to pay a bill since age ten, and how to grocery shop from twelve. It seemed as though Bella took care of her mother.
Bella took a sip of her soda and shrugged. "For a long time, I thought that way. I resented the fact that I grew up so fast." Her face scrunched a little, as though she was struggling to find the right words. "But, just because I did those things, didn't make me older. I was still a kid. Sure, I could cook, and I made sure she remembered the bills, and that we made it to a grocer at least twice a month, but Mom…" She beamed, and Edward could see that her nose was a little red, and her eyes were a little glassy. "Mom was the fun. Mom made me have adventure, and creativity, and passion. Her constant shifting from phase to phase just meant that I now know how to weave a basket, make a friendship bracelet, rudimentary pottery, oil painting on canvas, ride mountain bikes, scuba dive. She never gave me an idea that I couldn't do whatever I wanted. She got me my first library card. When I first became interested in law, she bought every great lawyer movie in cinema history. Her slight flightiness prepared me to take on the world, logistically, but she made me believe that I could take it on creatively, too." Bella took a second to swallow, hard, and watched as her napkin wrung round and round in her hands. She was afraid he wouldn't understand, he could tell. She was worried that Edward would judge her mother. "I'm not jaded, and I'm not bitter, and I still believe that one person can change the world, and that people are all, inherently, good." She took another sip of soda, and sniffled once. "Mom was a huge part of that." She giggled. "And all Charlie could cook was fish, and to be frank, you can only eat fish fry so many times before you demand run of the kitchen. That was my main chore at Charlie's place, and he took care of almost everything else."
"You miss them," Edward said, smiling sadly at her.
Bella squeezed her lips together. "Very much."
Edward reached over and stroked the back of her hand where it lay on the table with his index finger. He wiggled the rose ring on her index finger once, causing her to giggle again.
"It's easier with Charlie," she said. "He's close. I only see Mom a few times a year." She ran her free hand through her hair and reached for her glass again.
Edward just nodded, knowing that there was no way for him to fix this for her, and desperately wishing he could. Sometimes, he knew, a person just needed a friend to talk it out with.
"You know," she said softly. "She would just love you." And she laughed, loudly, at some private joke all her own.
Edward smiled. "I'd love her too."
"How do you know?"
"You're you. And she was part of that."
Bella blushed deeply, and Edward grinned. He loved making Bella blush. He was starting to (he reasoned with himself that he was just starting, because he couldn't rationalize saying he was fully in love after knowing her for a month and a half) fall more and more in love with everything about her. Her reactions to him were a personal favorite, but he loved the way her nose scrunched when she laughed, and the little wrinkle between her brow when she concentrated, and the flames in her eyes when she argued or railed about something. Her passion for social work, and her desire to better the world, and the way she smiled when she spoke about Esme, and the deep abiding respect she had for Emmett and Rosalie as parents, and her devotion to her team, and even the disgustedly angry look she had on her face when they happened upon Garrett and Kate earlier.
There wasn't anything he wasn't fascinated by, anything he thought required no further study. If her brow twitched just so, what did it mean? Exactly how many smiles did she have? He'd been keeping count and he was up to six. When she looked at him like that, blushing, did she want to kiss him? Did she want him to kiss her? He wanted to kiss her again, more than anything. Was that what she still wanted? Edward thought it was, because sometimes, like now, when she looked at him her eyes glassed over and she seemed very far away. He couldn't possibly be sure that was why, though. He may have been experiencing a very powerful form of wishful thinking.
Edward knew he could spend his entire life trying to figure out what was going on in her head, and the idea scared him. He'd known, from the first moment she sat next to him, with her tequila and her tight jeans, that he was done for. If he was being honest with himself, he was already imagining their children and the life they could share.
But he wasn't being honest.
He was being practical, and Edward was not quite yet the kind of man that Bella deserved. She deserved the best, and he was only fair-to-middling at the moment. And in his never-ending quest to be the best for her, Edward knew that kissing Bella was out of the question for the time being. He'd just have to learn exactly what that look on her face meant, and exactly how many smiles, and just how much he was willing to sacrifice first.
So he got up, and he took their plates to the sink, and he started to clean as Bella headed over to the entertainment center. He watched her over the breakfast bar as she went to the exact right cabinet and the exact right shelf to find what she wanted on the first try. He watched as she expertly worked his television and Blu-Ray remotes, and turned on a favorite of theirs, Gilmore Girls, for background noise as Bella did her homework and Edward updated his resume and researched local advertising firms.
Bella didn't know that's what he was doing. She thought he was messing around playing games or reading ridiculous listicles. The plan had always been to find himself a job that required his degree. And he loved working for Carlisle and Esme more than he'd ever hoped to, but he couldn't let Bella quit her job there, not before she was ready, and certainly not for him. So every night, after dinner and before Bella ditched her homework to watch whatever movie or show they'd put on, Edward was trying to find a new job.
That was how Edward felt he could be the best for Bella. Finding himself a career, and taking the obstacle away for her, easing her mind and being the man she deserved.
"Edward?"
He glanced up from the dishes to see Bella on the couch, with his laptop open on her lap.
Shit.
Edward had left his resume open on the laptop after ditching it for dinner. "Why do you have that?" he asked, his voice a bit strangled as he started to panic.
"I forgot mine downstairs and was going to check a fact," she said, matter-of-factly. "What is this?" Bella asked, her brow furrowed as she scanned the page.
Edward snatched a dish towel off the counter and dried his hands as he exited the kitchen. "Well. Uhm," he broke off, unable to think of anything he could tell her. What was he going to say? "I'm quitting my job for you"? "I'm wretchedly in love with you"? "I'm trying to deserve you, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible"? Or the worst: "I was making a very big decision that affected myself, my family, and my best friend and I wasn't planning on telling any of you about it"?
Bella glanced up at him, brow still furrowed. "Are you trying to find a new job?"
"Maybe."
"Why?" Bella shook her head. "I know that this, that advertising and P.R., still remind you of Chicago, I know that it all still stings." She gestured to the laptop, "Why would you want to leave something that makes you forget that time, that woman? Why would you want to leave what's making you happy?" She sounded so confused, so hurt, that Edward recoiled a bit.
Edward sighed. "I love working where I do, with the people that I work with," Edward started, "Bella, you know that. But we both know that the work isn't what makes me happy, isn't what makes me forget." He sat on the very edge of the couch, far enough away that he wouldn't intrude on her, but close enough to reach out.
"Then why would you want to limit our time together? Don't you like working with your best friend?" Bella was staring at her hands on the keys of the laptop.
Edward leaned forward and took her hand off the laptop before clasping it with his own, entwining their fingers. Her hand fit his, so well, so perfect, he never wanted to let go.
"I love working with my best friend. I want my best friend to be in my life forever." Her eyes shot up to his, and one corner of her mouth lifted involuntarily. "I have plans for it."
"You do, huh?" she asked, her smile growing just a fraction. "Pray tell, what do these plans involve?"
"You and me, and nothing else. No obstacles." Edward was really laying himself out here, but he couldn't seem to keep the words in. Not when he was discovering a seventh smile. "In my plans, that's what you want too." He let his eyes lock on hers, probing, searching the deep brown for hints or clues. When he didn't seem to find any, he stared instead at their hands, clutching each other.
He heard Bella take a deep breath.
"So," she said, and Edward looked up to find her perusing his resume once more. "Got any leads? Your resume could use some proofing, and lucky for you I minored in literature for undergrad." She started tapping on keys, making adjustments to the page. She glanced over at him, out of the corner of her eyes, and bit down on her bottom lip.
It looked like, just once, everything might go according to his plan.
*
A/N: Let me know how you're feeling! Halloween party next, some fluffy fall fun afterwards!