A/N: Alright, the poll is still up, and will be up until I'm finished with this story. Which will not be as soon as I thought. It definitely won't end at chapter 25.

Also, if you think really hard, you should be able to figure out why Bella said no to Edward's offer. Still no? Well, she explains it in this chapter.

This is a filler chapter, so it might seem a little slow. Sorry. I had to get this through to get to the next thing.

Thanks to my beta, herinfiniteeyes for catching some dumb mistakes and helping me nail down a few issues.

Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter 24

BPOV

"Isabella, explain this," Mr. Morgan said. A magazine was flopped down on the desk between us. I was speechless. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

There, on the cover of some celebrity magazine, was a picture of Edward, at the premier. He was holding someone's hand, and she was no longer in the background where she was supposed to be.

For a second, I was more shocked that Mr. Morgan had recognized me. I barely did. I had avoided all mirrors that night, unwilling to wrestle with my self-esteem. It had to be me holding Edward's hand in the picture, because she was wearing the Calvin Klein wrap dress I'd worn.

I barely recognized her because she was beautiful. I knew that Alice and Rosalie had done little to me, wanting to keep me as close to myself as possible, but I couldn't believe the change. A playful smile rested on her slightly uneven lips and she blushed, looking at Edward, gorgeous as always.

I couldn't say anything.

"I thought you assured me you weren't taking advantage of our guests. I thought you knew our policies," he fumed.

"Wait, no, I didn't take advantage of Edward. We're friends. That's all. Nothing more," I could hear the sadness in my voice at that. I had left Hollywood without really knowing anything more now than before I went. Mr. Morgan jabbed the magazine cover with his finger, breaking into my thoughts.

"That is you. That is Edward Cullen. He was a guest at this hotel for five weeks a couple of months ago. You were working the first week of his stay. Unless you can convince me that you were friends before then…" He folded his arms across his chest and glared at me. I'd never been at the receiving end of one of those glares before.

I couldn't take my eyes from the magazine's front page. Another proof of Edward's fame. Another proof that we were from totally different worlds. I spent four days, seemingly comfortable, in his world, only to get slapped with reality my second day back in Forks.

If I was going to get fired, why did they let me work Monday night? Why not just call me up yesterday and tell me this news? The date on the magazine was Sunday, so Mr. Morgan had known all this before today. I was suddenly sure the premier pictures had been all over the tv, too. No wonder Edward had just wanted to spend Sunday at his house.

"I thought not," Mr. Morgan continued. "You used your position here as manager to get onto the red carpet. What, so you can get famous?"

"Of course not! It's not-." He cut me off.

"How dare you. Lauren informed me yesterday of how you've been bragging about Edward."

"What?! No, I didn't!" That witch! She was the one who told those teens Edward was at our hotel! "Edward and I became friends. That's all. He invited us to Hollywood and insisted I be his date to the premier."

"And how did you become friends? He was only here three days before you broke your ankle."

"Well, see, um." Oh boy. How would I explain this? I knew he wanted to fire me, but maybe he was giving me a chance to get out of it. The only way to possibly get out of it was to blame Edward for my broken ankle.

Even though it was partially true, it felt like I would be betraying him if I blamed him. Especially since it was my fault too.

"Okay, well, he was rude to me his first night here. I tried my best to accommodate his request, but it was the beginning of the season and we just didn't have the rooms. After that he kept trying to apologize even after I'd accepted it."

"And you became friends that way?" I nodded. "But that doesn't explain it really. You only saw each other three days before you had to take leave." I did some fast rewording.

"He was in the gym when I broke my ankle. I didn't want to disturb the guests with an ambulance, but I couldn't walk by myself. Edward and one of his bodyguards carried me to Edward's car and then to the hospital." Mr. Morgan took a deep breath and let it out. I'd never been a good liar so I had stuck as close to the truth as possible.

Unfortunately, I was an even worse liar than I'd thought. He'd misinterpreted the signs and thought I cooked the whole thing up.

"I'm sorry Isabella. You've worked here ten years and I had high hopes for you. We've never had any trouble out of you before now. In the past three months, though, you've been nothing but trouble. I hope to have celebrity guests see the Meadow Hotel and Suites as a safe, private, relaxing place to come to get away from people taking advantage of them. I cannot have my employees thinking it is okay to date guests."

"We aren't dating," I protested. His face flushed with anger and he flopped another magazine down on the desk. It was open to the center fold. I gasped.

Two glossy pages of pictures. Us at the Chinese Theatre. The almost-kiss at Tommy's. More from the premier. Leaving the restaurant after the premier. And each and every one of them was of us alone. None of our friends were anywhere near us. It looked like we were dating. And the headlines didn't help at all.

"I'm sorry Isabella. I'm giving you the option to resign because of your past record." He paused, waiting for my decision.

To resign seemed like admitting that I'd broken the rules and had done something wrong. I knew I hadn't. Edward had pursued me. He pushed to be friends and I had resisted as much as I could. It turned out not to be enough, because I was being punished for something I never had. Oh I sure did wish I was guilty, though.

I pushed thoughts of our relationship out of my head.

To be fired, though, was embarrassing. And it could make it extremely difficult to get another job. I bit back my tears, wanting someone else to have to do this for me. For the first time in my life I wanted someone else to take care of me.

"I did nothing wrong. But I choose to resign, anyway."

"You leave on good terms, and I will gladly give you any reference you may need." I stood up, annoyed that I would probably have to take him up on that offer since that was the only job I'd ever had.

I left his office and tried to get past Ericka. She wasn't having that.

"Bella! I'm so sorry!" She hugged me. "I tried to tell him that he's wrong, and that he should never listen to Lauren, but he's so mad. She's always wanted your job, and she's still pissed that you wouldn't let her little friends see Edward."

I nodded and told her goodbye. She promised to call me, but I doubted she would. Ericka was a few years younger than me and we weren't really friends.

I didn't have anything to gather, having already been ready to leave when Ericka arrived.

00000000000000000000000000000000

"Bella, you'll be okay," Alice soothed.

"Yeah, I mean it's not like that's what you wanted to do forever, right?" Rosalie tried.

"You're still working on your Master's degree, and when you get that, you can do so much better than the Meadow," Alice said.

Rosalie had found me in my room, crying. She had some news to share with Alice and me, and she'd come in, expecting me to be asleep, and fix us a surprise dinner. I surprised her by being still awake (not having slept at all), and bawling my eyes out. It wasn't until Alice got home that I was calmed down enough to tell them I got fired.

"Thanks guys. I'm really sorry Rose for messing up your surprise. I'm just messed up in the head right now. So much happened this weekend."

"Yeah, we know," Alice said.

"Actually, we don't know," Rosalie contradicted. "We haven't heard one bit of what happened, Alice."

"Oh yeah. We haven't," Alice smirked. They were trying to distract me. It wasn't really working because Edward was part of what was stressing me out. But I appreciated their efforts.

"So, Bella, what happened? You and Edward official now?" Alice begged. I took a deep breath. I guess I could tell them what happened. It might help them understand why I was hyperventilating over a job I didn't really want.

"Well, we didn't really talk about what we were, actually," I started.

"What?! You mean he had you all night Saturday and all day Sunday and nothing happened?!" Alice squeaked.

"Well, um, n-not nothing. We just didn't talk about what did happen," I whispered.

"Did he kiss you at least?" Rosalie asked. I nodded. They both squealed and hugged me.

"Oh, Bella, I knew it! I knew you two were great together! This is fantastic!" Alice bounced up and down on my bed.

"Calm down, Alice. It was just a few kisses. Like I said, we definitely avoided the relationship conversation."

"Bells, it's at least some progress. We thought Alice was going to have to lock you two in a room to get even that much to happen," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

I didn't know if I should tell them about Edward asking me to move in with him. They both knew how inexperienced I was and how determined I was to do relationships the right way. Rushing into anything was not me. I was serious, responsible, mature.

Getting fired changes a lot of things. I almost couldn't believe I was reconsidering his offer.

"Bella, what's wrong? Did something else happen?" They both looked at me with concern.

"Edward asked me to move to Hollywood. And I said no." They stared at me with their mouths wide open.

"Wow." They both said at the same time. I nodded again.

"I had to say no, guys. I mean, I love him, but I haven't known him very long. And I don't really know him that well. And he's always traveling to movie shoots and stuff," I tried to explain.

"We know, but Bells, you love him," Alice pointed out.

"How often have you been in love with someone?" Rosalie asked. "Not even Jacob had that feeling."

"You're not some flighty girl, falling in and out of love with someone at the drop of a hat. You know him well enough to love him. That's all that matters," Alice said. Then she got a drop of mischievousness in her eyes. "At least you're not like Rose here who thinks she knows if she loves a guy in the first two seconds."

At that I had to laugh. That was our Rosalie; always a bit more interested in physical chemistry than real love. She pushed me over onto Alice who pushed me back. And then she broke out in laughter herself. We were suddenly all laughing until we were having trouble breathing.

"Seriously Rose, you go ahead and tell us your news," I said, trying to change the subject after our laughter had died down.

"Oh yeah! You said something happened, right? Good something, we hope," Alice said. Rosalie flinched and hesitated. She looked at me like she was trying to gauge my mood and how close I was to crying again.

"I don't know if now is a good time to say it," Rosalie hedged.

"Come on. I need some good news right now," I begged.

"Ah, um, okay. But remember, this is good news." Rosalie breathed in deeply. "I'm moving to Hollywood to live with Emmett." Alice and I froze where we were. Rosalie getting that serious about a guy.

"See, I know I've only known him a few months, but guys, this is me we're talking about. I know you never believe me, but I really can tell about a guy in the first few minutes of knowing him. But with Emmett, it's been different the whole time. I've never met someone like him before. I'm a multi-faceted woman looking for a multi-faceted man who fits all my facets. And he does. He fits me perfectly." She stopped there, her face beet red.

I knew why she was hesitant about telling us, well, me. She was so sure about Emmett after only a few months. But then again, she was gorgeous. She easily fit into the glamorous world that Emmett lived in. There weren't the same complications, though, because he wasn't constantly in front of the camera.

"Oh, Rose. You're leaving us?" Alice finally spoke.

"Yeah. It had to happen someday. We can't just live our lives in limbo, right? Alice, you and Jasper seem to be getting pretty serious. Bella's bound to capture Edward eventually. If not, Jacob's still waiting."

I leaned over and hugged her, ignoring the whole Jacob thing.

"Congrats, Rose. I'm really happy for you," I choked out.

After a few more laughs and tears, Rosalie left Alice and me to go start packing. She was leaving in two weeks.

I just wanted to curl up in bed and call Edward. I had talked to him briefly Monday in between his interviews, and he was traveling today. He thought I would be at work tonight, and would probably call me at 6am, my usual time to get off work. I reached for my cell, planning to leave him a message if he didn't answer, but it rang.

It was Renee. With more great news for me. Really? Was my day not already shot to pieces? Why did this all have to happen at once? Maybe give me a week or two to deal with one thing at a time.

"Bella, are you sitting down?" She said, not even saying hello.

"Hello to you, too, Mom."

"Hi, now, are you sitting down?" I had to smile at her enthusiasm. I wondered what my eccentric mother was excited about this time.

"Yes, I'm sitting down."

"Okay, guess what! Phil got a job coaching a minor league baseball team!"

"That's great, Mom."

"Yeah, so, we need to spend lots of time together in the next few days, unless I can convince you to come with us."

"Huh? Come with you? Go with you where?"

"To Jacksonville, FL, silly! Didn't I tell you that's where the job is? Anyway, they want us down there and settled before Spring training, so we're leaving in a few days. As soon as we can get all packed, anyway. Isn't this great?"

"Yeah, sure, Mom. That's great that Phil got a job doing what he loves." I could hear how flat my voice sounded, but my attempts to sound cheerful were in vain.

"Okay, well, I don't want to keep you. I know you're at work, so I'll let you go. Love you, talk to you later! Bye!" I stared at the phone for a few beats before snapping it shut.

I had turned down Edward's invitation to move in with him. I had gotten fired from my job just for being photographed with Edward. Rose was moving to Hollywood. Renee was moving to Jacksonville.

What could go wrong next?

A/N: Poor Bella. I know, I know. This is a sad one, too. And it didn't have Edward in it. You're all probably hating me right now for what I'm putting them through. But that's just the flow, guys. Can you honestly say you'd read a story that was all kicks and giggles the whole time? Thought not. Gotta have a little conflict.

Good news is that it will be a happy ending, because I'm a hopeful romantic. And I'm trying to get the next chapter out faster than I have been, but life happens, and it usually happens all at once, just like with Bella.

Please, don't hate me!