Unintended

~Chapter 21 –Meteor~

"So, what did Mr. Perfect say?" I asked Bella after she came back inside from calling her fiancé.

"He said to have a good time," she said with a smirk.

"Yeah right. He was just fine with you flying to the opposite side of the country with you ex husband?" I asked incredulous.

"Of course. He trusts me…he has no reason not to," she said casually while grabbing her bag.

We'll see about that – I thought to myself.

I called the Cullens to say goodbye, while Bella helped Rapunzel pack some stuff for the trip. We never discussed how long they would be there with me for, and I wasn't going to offer it up either. I wanted it to be open ended, because my goal was to not bring Bella back until she agreed to end her relationship with her stable reliably boring fiancé.

When we got to the airport, I decided to already crank up the charm, so I opted to fly private…which was something I rarely ever did. I just never understood it before. People rarely recognized me when in public, so flying first class was easy enough, and private was hell of expensive.

"Uh…do you always fly like this?" Bella asked as she looked around the plane.

"Of course," I lied.

"Seems like a waste," Bella said casually.

Fuck.

She didn't say it in an arrogant way, but I still should have expected it. Bella wasn't easily impressed with that type of thing.

Rapunzel, on the other hand, was over the moon excited to be on the lavish jet.

"Dad, can we fly like this all the time?" Rapunzel asked me.

"Uh…maybe not all the time," I said with a guilty smile, to a very annoyed looking Bella.

Rapunzel spent a few hours in the cockpit with the pilots, Bella buried her nose in a book, and I studied her features as she read. I let my mind wander to the 'what if', and I tried to imagine the way our lives would have been if I stayed. Perhaps we would be miserable or divorced anyway, simply because I didn't have control over myself back then, but perhaps we would have been happy.

Maybe we would have had a couple more kids. I probably would have been something lame like a mechanic or a handyman, but we would have had a nice house bought and paid for by my inheritance. Maybe our lives would be simple, monotonous, and just plain boring….but we would have been happy. We could still get there, we could still be happy, and we would; it was only a matter of time.

"So…remember when you were trying to teach me poetry?" I asked Bella.

She looked up from her book, and narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously. Did she really know what I was trying to do?

"Of course, I remember," she said reluctantly.

"I had a really difficult time with it," I reminded her.

"Yeah," she said confused as to why I was bringing it up.

"Well…I write all my songs now," I said a little arrogantly.

"Seriously?" she seemed surprised.

"Yeah….it's just easier to sing when the words mean something, you know what I mean?" I asked her.

"I guess I can see that," she mused.

"Yeah, before I could find a connection with the music, I was really an awful singer….like dying cats bad," I told her.

In all honesty, I was bragging a little; I wanted to impress her and make her understand that everything I had ever written was about her, in some way shape or form.

But instead of being impressed, she started giggling.

"What?" I asked, slightly offended.

"Oh…I'm sorry, I thought you were joking," she said feeling bad for laughing.

"Why would I joke about that? I'm serious; I was really bad until I started putting my own experiences into the lyrics."

"That's not true; you used to be an amazing singer," she said surprisingly.

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"Edward, you don't remember being in the church choir when we were eleven?" she asked seriously.

I thought about it for a moment, and then I shook my head. "No," I said honestly.

"You were the top soloist. I used to stand in the back row, and I was always in such awe of you…we all were. Trust me, those who knew you back then were not surprised by what you became."

"I don't remember that at all," I told her absently. "No, that can't be true. I was horrible when I first tried with the band."

Bella bit her lip. "Maybe you weren't really trying. I think after…you lost your family, you closed yourself off from everyone, even yourself; maybe you couldn't find your voice anymore."

It was true that I had tried so hard to not think about my sister and mother, that I forgot most of what my life was like before the night they died. Even with Bella telling me that now, I still couldn't bring up the memory.

My life was separated into chapters; the first was until I was thirteen when my family was murdered, which had been reduced to nothing but a few images and lingering nightmares. The second was full of anger and resentment, which lasted until Bella burst into my sky like a meteor. She was blinding in the darkness of my life then, and gone just as quickly. Then was a decade of nothingness; I played the part and did as I was told, but the memory of Bella's blazing light made it impossible to see the flickering flames that surrounded me. And now the new chapter was beginning. The last chapter, the only one that ever really mattered. I was going to get my family back, and hold on to that happily ever after with every last breath in me.

"So…I guess I wasn't just miraculously able to sing one day," I said with a laugh after a minute.

Bella looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated.

"What?" I asked.

"Your mom…she was a very good singer," she said carefully. "She used to teach…I took a couple lessons from her, but I was just a lost cause," she told me with an embarrassed laugh. Bella knew talk about my slaughtered family had been off limits for me, but things were different now. My family wasn't murdered, my family was right there on that plane with me. Rapunzel and Bella were all I would ever need, so even talk about the past in that way, wasn't going to get to me. I wouldn't let it.

"I wish I remembered," I said honestly.

"Maybe, somehow, someday you will," she said supportively.

That discussion was not in the plans. I was supposed to be wooing her, not the other way around. But every word that she spoke just made me fall in love with her even more. I'd like to think I was stronger now; I'd like to believe I could eventually accept whatever decision Bella made for her future, but I knew in that moment that I never could. I couldn't go on if she chose the other guy, not even for Rapunzel's sake. I needed Bella, there was nothing else to it.

We landed a few hours after that, and were greeted by a waiting car to take us to my apartment. It was getting late by then, so I thought it was best to go straight there so Rapunzel could get to bed. But the moment we got there, Rapunzel perked up and excitedly showed Bella around the place; after all, she probably knew it better than I did at that point.

"And this is my room, because it's bigger," Rapunzel told Bella.

"Oh…it's nice," Bella said as Rapunzel made herself right at home.

"We can go to a hotel," Bella told me quietly.

"No, you can't," I said seriously and then walked away, unwilling to continue to discuss the topic.

I showed Bella to the smaller of the two guest rooms, so she could get settled in as well. I felt kind of bad that she was stuck in that room, but then again, it didn't make sense to put Rapunzel in the smaller room when hopefully Bella would be moving into the master with me sooner rather than later. So, I said goodnight, and left Bella alone to get comfortable.

I tucked Rapunzel in and said goodnight to her as well, before going to the living room and texting Jasper.

Back in NY – E

Cool, how'd it go? - J

Saw Alice – E

No shit! Did she ask about me? – J

Nope. Sorry, U never came up – E

Fucking douche – J

I couldn't help but laugh at that. After more than a decade, the loser still had a thing for his high school girlfriend. It wasn't like they shared some deep bond the way Bella and I did, but he was definitely still interested.

You're a fucking rock star. If U want her, get your ass out there and get her – E

Is she single? – J

She's not married – E

That's not what I asked – J

She's dating someone, but what difference does that make? – E - I wrote, thinking about my situation with Bella. I wasn't into the whole cheating, home-wrecking thing, but sometimes people were just in the wrong relationship.

Touché – J

"Late night booty call?" Bella said unexpectedly. I looked up to see her standing there with a smirk. I guess she wasn't ready to go to bed after all…which was more than fine by me.

"No, it's Jasper. He still has a thing for Alice, so I was just giving him some details," I explained.

"Sure," she said jokingly as she came to sit on the couch with me.

"What? You really think I'd be texting a chick for a booty call with you and Carlie here?" I asked incredulously; although I did enjoy the small level of jealousy she was giving off.

"It's none of my business," Bella said quickly.

"But it could be," I said teasingly, but completely serious.

She just rolled her eyes.

I kept telling myself not to push my luck and move too fast with her, but it was difficult when all I wanted to do was pick her up bridal style, and rush her back to my room to make love all night.

"Is Jasper really still into Alice?" Bella asked with a smile.

"Would Alice be interested?" I asked her.

"Maybe, who knows," Bella said cryptically.

"What about her boyfriend?" I asked, even though I was actually just interested in her take on the matter. If she was ok with Jasper going after Alice when she had a boyfriend, then I'd take it as her subtle invitation to let me try with her.

Bella shrugged. "Jasper has every right to try; it's up to Alice on whether or not she'll go for it."

Game on!…Not that I needed her permission, or anything.

"But of course, Alice isn't very serious with her boyfriend. It's not like they're headed for marriage, or anything," Bella added.

Fuck.

As much as I wasn't going to let her comment detour my ultimate goal, I still didn't want to talk about it anymore at that moment, so I grabbed the remote, and was actually stunned at what was on TV.

"Hey look, it's that gag-worthy teen vampire movie you forced me to watch a long time ago," I said with a laugh.

"Oh, I still love this movie," she said excitedly.

"And, the guy is still a wimp when it comes to sex. How many of these movies are there now?"

"Five," she said quickly.

"And let me guess, he's still a virgin and she still wants him to bite her?" I said mockingly.

"No, they're married and have a vampire baby," Bella said with a laugh.

"UGH!" I said while throwing the remote. "That's fucking stupid. Vampires are dead, how the hell do they have babies?"

"Well, think about it, if he's dead and hard as stone, then he's always ready for action any time of day," Bella said with a giggle.

I just stared at her in disbelief.

"What? Oh come on, I'm not the only one who has ever thought about that," she said defensively.

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess I could see how rigor-mortis could be sexy," I said sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up," she said while playfully smacking me. "So, what's the plan tomorrow, anyway?"

"I have to go shoot this TV appearance thing, but it should only take an hour or two at the most. I figured afterwards, we could just hang out. Maybe go to the zoo or skating in the park or something."

"Ok…yeah, whatever you want to do. I've never been here before, so I'm up for anything."

"Anything?" I questioned with a smile.

"Well…I guess it depends what the 'anything' is," she said suspiciously.

"What, don't you trust me?" I asked with a sadistic grin.

She just smiled back, but didn't respond any other way.

We both finally went to our respective beds, and surprisingly, I had an even a harder time sleeping than normal. Bella was just two doors down from me, and it took every last ounce of self control I was capable of, to not go in there.

I then started to wonder what she would do if I did go in there. Would she yell at me, and tell me to go fuck myself? Perhaps she actually wanted me to go to her. Maybe she would just watch me as I touched her, and then let her body respond to mine the way it always had? Even if she wasn't ready to be with me completely, reconnecting physically wouldn't hurt, right? It would be easy, natural, we could fall right back into our amazing routine we had before. We could slowly develop our relationship during the day, and completely come together explosively at night.

But, who the fuck was I kidding? She was engaged, so there was no way she'd let me inside her. Of course, that didn't stop my body from reacting to the thought.

Fuck.

I tried to take care of it myself, but the truth was that I quickly lost interest. I didn't want my hand there; I wanted hers, so I opted for a cold shower instead.

The next morning, Rapunzel and I were making pancakes when Bella came out of the bathroom. She was fully dressed, but her hair was dripping wet from just getting out of the shower, and once again, I was picturing her naked. I thought about the time when she walked out of the shower, right past me completely nude, and I wished more than anything she'd do that again. I had only seen her naked one time without her being pregnant, and in that moment, all I could think about was the things I could do to her without having her enlarged stomach between us.

Fuck!

Needless to say, I had to excuse myself to the bathroom again.

Get a hold of yourself, Masen – I thought. I couldn't just pop one every time Bella was around, I needed to remember that I was a fucking adult, and not some adolescent zit faced inexperienced horny teenager.

"So, what time do you have to work today?" Bella asked me when I got finished in the bathroom.

"Uh…" I said while looking on my phone calendar. "Eleven thirty," I told her.

"Ok, well we'll just wait for you here then," Bella assumed.

"No, I want to go watch," Rapunzel pleaded.

"Yeah, you can definitely come," I told them.

"We don't want to get in the way," Bella said quickly.

"Trust me, there's always a ton of people at those things. No one will even notice you," I assured her.

"Oh, ok," she said.

The morning went by quickly, and then we headed down to the garage to get my car. I decided to drive, because I wanted to show Bella around the city a little, just to plant the idea that she could possibly live there one day. I drove her by the huge expansive library, museums, the best private schools for Carlie, and of course Central Park. She seemed interested by it all, but I had no idea if she understood the reason for me showing her.

When we got to the location of the shoot however, I realized that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to take them with me after all.

"Hey baby, you ready for today?" Tanya asked me.

"I had no idea you were going to be here," I said irritated.

"Oh, well Aro called me," she said while putting her arm around me.

"Of course, he did," I mumbled.

"Who's this?" Tanya asked me, referring to Bella and Rapunzel.

"Uh, my friends," I said vaguely. Rapunzel narrowed her eyes at Tanya, and then glared at me with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Tanya, I'll talk to you later, ok," I said suggestively, hoping she'd leave.

"Ok babe," she said before kissing my cheek, and walking away.

"Well, she seems…nice," Bella said with faux sincerity.

"Yeah, well she's not," I told her, without really telling her anything. I fully planned on explaining more about Tanya later, but that wasn't the time or place.

We went into the greenroom where the rest of my band was, and they all immediately greeted Rapunzel happily.

"Hey! You're back!" Garrett said to her, despite already knowing she was coming.

"Hi," Rapunzel said back. "Is Kate here?"

"Yeah she's with Tanya…hey, Bella," Garrett greeted her.

"Hi Garrett, it's good to see you," she responded as they hugged hello.

I finished introducing them, but Jasper pulled me aside to warn me about Tanya.

"Yeah, I know she's here. What the fuck is wrong with Aro? I told him I didn't want to do that shit anymore," I said bitterly.

"Well, all he cares about is your image, and with you being MIA lately, he got worried," Jasper explained.

"I don't give a fuck! I don't give a fuck about any of this shit, and as soon as my contract is up, I'm out."

"Dude, until then, you just have to deal," Jasper encouraged.

Tanya was my beard, so to speak. I wasn't gay, but I never had much of a desire to show up to public events with scantily clad models, the way a good rock star should; so Aro always hired us 'dates'. Tanya was mine, and Kate had been Garrett's, although, their relationship moved into something real. I really didn't care what my PR people and band mates thought of me, but they definitely cared what all our fans thought, so I had always went along with it in the past. But that was before I actually had something real to care about, so I refused to do it anymore.

"Man, my daughter is here; I don't want Tanya hanging all over me," I told Jasper angrily.

"Just explain to Rapunzel that it's not real," Jasper suggested.

"No. How the fuck am I supposed to explain this to a ten year old? It's disturbing, and I don't want her thinking this shit is ok."

"Let me talk to Aro about it then….Bella is pretty hot, maybe you can use her instead," Jasper said shamelessly.

"Fuck you," I said lightly. I meant to sound angrier, but it was actually a good idea. Even though I thought the whole thing was ridiculous, Bella was definitely more than sexy enough to play the part, and she was worlds better than Tanya the Mega Bitch any day.

"Look, I didn't want to tell you this over the phone, but we have to show up at the 'Heat' opening tomorrow night, too," Jasper said reluctantly.

"That new night club downtown?" I asked sourly.

"Yep, and Aro wants you bringing a date. So if you want to take Bella, then you better let him know today so he doesn't have to book Tanya."

"Man, I don't want to go to a fucking nightclub. Bella and Carlie are here; all I want to do is stay home and pop popcorn with a Disney movie," I said pathetically. I almost wanted to laugh at myself with how boring I had become over the years. The old me would have hated the guy I had become, but it was the absolute truth. I had no desire to go pretend to party.

"Look, I'll talk to Carmen about watching Carlie tomorrow night, but you have to go, so just pick who you'd rather go with," Jasper said.

"Fine. Talk to Carmen about Carlie, and I'll talk to Bella," I agreed grudgingly. Carmen was our manager, but really she was more like our band mom. She pretty much took care of any and all of life's needs, even the ones that went beyond the job. She had been with us for almost five years, so I trusted her completely with Rapunzel for the night, but that didn't make leaving her any easier.

I walked back to Bella and Rapunzel, who were chatting with Garrett and the other guys, and once again, I regretted bringing them there.

"Dad, what's a douche bag?" Rapunzel asked innocently.

I glared at each one of those idiots, daring them to come forward with who spoke that way in front of my daughter. Someone was seriously going to get a beat down.

"It was Ben," Alec said quickly.

My hand twitched, but it was time to go on, so I was forced to save my ass kicking for later.

We did our bit, I said what I was supposed to say, smiled in all the appropriate areas, and was so glad when it was done.

"Dad, that was so cool!" Rapunzel said when I came back over to them.

"Thanks baby," I said trying my best to sound happy about the entire thing. Despite how much I didn't want to be there, I had to remind myself that it was all exciting for her, and I didn't want to crush that.

"Yeah, you guys were really good," Bella added.

"Thanks," I said quietly, actually feeling rather embarrassed suddenly.

But leave it to Rapunzel to never let an awkward moment last. "So, what now?" she asked me eagerly.

"What do you want to do?" I asked her as the three of us walked towards the exit.

"Hey Edward!" Jasper called after me.

"Yeah?"

"Just talked to Aro. He wants Bella to meet with a stylist tomorrow afternoon."

"Excuse me?" Bella asked confused. "Are you talking about me?"

"Yeah…" I said while Jasper gave me an apologetic look. "Uh…I need a date to this club opening thing tomorrow night," I told her hesitantly.

"And, you want me to go?" she asked incredulously.

"Hey Carlie, do you want a candy from the vending machine?" Jasper asked, trying to distract her so I could talk to Bella alone.

"Edward, I can't be your date," Bella said to me quietly.

"Look, it's not like that. I just need an attractive woman to hang out with me, that's it," I told her honestly. "The truth is, I'm just going to go, make an appearance, and then leave."

"What about that other woman who was here before?" Bella questioned.

"Tanya? She's nothing. A hired chick to do what hopefully you'll do for me for free," I said with a smirk.

"And why would I?" she asked as seriously as she could right then. She tried to hide it, but I could definitely see a smile playing on the edge of her lips.

"Well, I can pay you if you want," I told her with a grin.

"What about Carlie?"

"I already have it handled," I said smugly.

"So…you want me to go with you to this club, to basically just be seen, and then we can leave?" she asked skeptically.

"Exactly. It'll be late though, so we may have to just let Carlie stay with Carmen for the night….but she'll love it. Carmen has a daughter just a little older than her, and I'm sure they'll get along great."

"I don't have anything to wear to something like that," she said in a last ditch effort to get out of it.

"That's why Aro arranged for you to meet with a stylist. They'll do your hair and all that girly shit, and make sure you have stuff to wear….you'd really be doing me a huge favor. I really can't stand that other chick."

"Who's Aro?" she asked confused.

"Oh, he's the big wig at the record label that basically owns us. We pretty much have to do what he tells us until our contract is up, which thankfully isn't too far from now," I told her.

Bella thought about it for a few minutes, and just when she seemed like she was going to say no, I asked her "please?" so she sighed and reluctantly agreed.

Thank god. I really had no idea how I'd make it through the night with Tanya.

Rapunzel, Bella, and I spent the rest of the day touring the city. Rapunzel wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty, so that's what we did, and I ended our day out by taking my favorite girls to one of the nicest restaurants in the area.

"What's es-car-got?" Rapunzel asked as she looked over the menu.

Bella laughed. "Escargot," she corrected her. "It's snails."

"Eww," Rapunzel said in disgust. "Who would eat that?"

I laughed. "A lot of people like it."

"That's gross…what's caviar?" Rapunzel asked then.

I laughed again, already knowing what her reaction would be….and I was right.

"Why would people eat fish eggs?" she asked after Bella told her.

She finally settled on the trout, but when it came whole, head and all, Rapunzel looked like she was going to be sick.

"I thought your grandpa was a fisherman?" I asked her amused by her reaction.

She shook her head. "He always takes the heads off before giving it to me."

"Here, I'll cut the head and tail off for you," Bella said while taking her plate.

But even with the fish fully dissected, Rapunzel still had a hard time eating it. She said it was because she had seen its face, and couldn't get it out of her mind, which I actually understood.

Bella had gotten pasta of some sort, and even though she graciously ate it without a word of complaint, I could tell it wasn't her thing either, and once again, I felt stupid for even bringing them there.

"Thanks for dinner, it was really nice," Bella said politely afterwards.

"Thank you daddy," Rapunzel said as well.

"Yeah…it was pretty gross though, wasn't it?" I said with a wink.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but…"

"Carlie!" Bella scolded her.

"Mom, he asked."

"No, it's ok, I completely agree," I told Bella. "Now, what do you say we go and get a burger?"

"Really?" Rapunzel asked excitedly.

"Of course, I'm starved."

Later that evening, after Rapunzel went to bed, Bella took out her cell and immediately started texting. I was lounging on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV, but Bella's damn texting was really starting to piss me off.

"Doesn't he know its late here?" I asked bitterly after awhile. I assumed she was texting her fiancé, and even though he was on the other side of the country, I still didn't like him interrupting my time with her.

"Um, Edward," Bella said hesitantly.

"Yeah?" I asked just as hesitant. I really didn't like her tone, because I knew she was about to say something that was going to upset me.

"Would you mind terribly…if you had another houseguest?"

Yep, I was pissed. There was no way in hell I'd let her stupid ass fiancé stay with me. Who the hell did she think I was?

"I'm not cool with him staying here with you. I know you're engaged and all, and you know I'm not one of those 'wait until marriage to fuck' kind of people, but…I just can't stand the thought of you doing that here," I said sourly.

"Huh? No, it's Alice," she said unexpectedly. "I sort of told her about Jasper asking questions, so she hopped on the first flight she could to get here. She swears it's because I need some company while you work, but I know her real reason," she said with a smirk.

The bitterness I felt immediately evaporated the moment she said 'Alice'. As much as I wanted time with just Bella and Rapunzel, having Alice there could actually be a good thing. Perhaps I could even get her to come to my aid and help me win back Bella.

"Uh, yeah sure. I'd love to have Alice here. You know, I'll set her up with the stylist too, and she can come with us to the club tomorrow night."

Bella laughed once. "Trust me, she won't need a stylist…but she'll probably think its fun anyway, so thanks."

I nodded. "So, when will she be here?"

Bella bit her lower lip. "In ten minutes," she said sheepishly.

I smiled. "Of course, she will."

"Sorry, she didn't tell me until just now. It's a good thing she didn't know where you lived, because I guarantee she would have just showed up without any notice whatsoever."

"Yeah, I'm sure," I agreed. "Here, just text her with the address and I'll call down to the door guy to tell him to expect her."

"Thanks Edward," Bella said sincerely.

"What are you thanking me for? She's my sister."

"I know, but after ten years I can imagine how all of us crashing your life, might be a little overwhelming."

I shook my head. "You have no idea how empty my life was without you," I told her intensely. "I just have no idea how I'm going to ever handle you leaving again."

"Well…we're just going to have to work something out, because we…I mean Carlie doesn't want to be far away from you either. It's amazing how quickly you two have become this close."

I nodded. "I don't know how I ever lived without…her."

We stared at each other for a long heavy moment, and I felt like we had an entire wordless conversation in that time. I poured my heart out and begged for her to understand, but even if she did feel our intense connection, she didn't say it.

Bella texted Alice while I called down to the door guy, but more than anything, I just wished I had another few hours with Bella alone. I didn't know if I would have told her how I was really feeling right then, but it still was amazing to be feeling it without distractions, regardless.

And then there was a knocking on the door….Alice had arrived.

Bella ran to open it, and Alice immediately walked inside, just the way Rapunzel had her first time there. Alice stopped, looked around and then said – "Oh, this is nice. Come on Bella, lets figure out what we're going to wear to this club tomorrow," before grabbing her arm, and pulling her towards the hall to the guest rooms.

"Hi Alice, good to see you again too," I said casually to myself. "Please, make yourself at home."

Alice came floating back quickly, and kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks Edward. And I really am happy to have my brother back," she said before hurrying back to Bella.

I really did love Alice like a sister, but I couldn't wait to get the stupid club thing over and done with. Hopefully then, Alice would be Jasper's house guest, and I could go back to concentrating on regaining Bella's affections.

****Oh Edward, remember how Bella gets when you take her clubbing? (Ch 5) You should be thrilled about this! Lol. - Coming Next!

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