Chapter Twelve
Disclaimer: Twilight and its characters are the property of Stephenie Meyer. This story however, is mine, and all similarities to real persons are just that, similarities. Hope you enjoy this journey with me.
We now return to Bella and a bit of a time jump. Bella's show for Jake was Friday night; this helps speed past all of that until Monday.
After a breakfast of coffee and donuts, Edward, Alice and I had spent all day Saturday making calls to the various vendors to cancel the wedding. Thankfully I was able to get some of the money back, but I was still stuck with a wedding dress I couldn't use and a honeymoon I didn't want to go on.
Alice suggested that I try selling my dress on Craigslist since the dress shop wouldn't give me a refund; it wasn't like there would be any real marriage prospects in the future, and I never really liked it anyway. It was hard enough trying to buy a wedding dress off the rack that fit, let alone looked good on me, so I was relegated to one of the four the store carried above a size eight. What amounted to a satin T-shirt with a never ending mass of tulle was never what I imagined my wedding dress would look like anyway; it's not like I was sad to see it go, other than the sentimental reason that it was supposed to be my wedding dress.
I'd listed it on Sunday night after getting home from dinner with Jasper, Alice and Edward. I was so fortunate to have the best friends in the world to support me after what Jake had done. Was I upset that the wedding I had been planning was off? Not as much as I probably should have been. Sure, it was embarrassing to have to call all the vendors and cancel the arrangements I had with them, but it was more devastating to have to call all the wedding guests. Luckily Edward was able to help me send back all of the wedding gifts Jake and I had received.
Damn, I loved that Dyson.
I should have known something was wrong with my relationship with Jake all along. All of the signs were there; they were so obvious to me now.
"Bella, do you really think you should have dessert? That's going to be hard to work off for a girl like you."
"You really should put in more time at the gym, sweetheart. It's important to for a girl to keep her figure."
"No, I'm going out with the guys tonight, babe. Why don't you hang out with Alice and have a girl's night in?"
"That skirt makes you look bigger, don't wear that."
The rest of Sunday, I purged my apartment of all things "Jake". I stripped the sports posters of him off my walls and cleared what clothes of his I had from my closet and drawers. A Seahawks coffee cup, a team ball cap, his toothbrush. I should have been surprised by the minimal amount of things he had in my apartment, but I wasn't. In the entire ten years we were together, rarely did he ever stay the night at my place. Yes, we had a sexual relationship, and yes, we spent time together, but if our relationship had to be judged by the amount of Jake's personal effects in my apartment, we would have lost that contest. I had more of Edward's stuff here than I did his.
All of Jake's things were sitting in a single black garbage bag by the front door, ready to go down to the dumpster Monday morning. The last thing I wanted at this point was to see him, so tossing everything out was the best option. I was surprised that he hadn't come back or even tried to call me since he showed up Friday night and I told him to leave.
Alice called me Monday morning to ask if I needed help at the travel agency and I told her I could handle it myself. Mrs. Cope at the agency was very understanding about handling my predicament, but sadly, there was no way she could issue a refund.
"What we can do Miss Swan is take your former fiancé's name off the itinerary and if you decide to take a friend along on the trip, just give me a call and we'll have that name issued on all of the documents instead." A few clicks on her computer later, I had a new batch of paperwork issued to Isabella Swan and Insert Name Here.
Now that my "honeymoon" was paid off, I wondered if one of my friends would be able to go to Portugal with me as "Thank You" for helping me out the last few days.