A/N: I know, I've been slack on updating this thing lately, but RL and all that shit right? I actually wrote a one shot with a friend for the Anonymous 80's Contest hosted by Naughty Heels. They are listed as one of my favorite authors, so go on over to the profile and try to figure out which story is ours. Every entry I have read has rocked.
Thanks to be my beta MaggieMay14 for not only betaing this chapter for me, but also ordering me tickets to New Moon! Woo Hoo!
BPOV
For the next two days I had an immovable object on my couch, which really sucked. Sure, I felt kinda bad for the guy for ending things with the Bridezilla from Hell that Rosalie had morphed into, but I didn't want him taking up residence in my living room. "You know we are moving soon right Em? I don't think the moving company will take too kindly to carrying your ass on the couch to the moving van."
Edward scoffed from the kitchen where he was busy making us a huge plate of nachos after I made a quick comment about craving tortilla chips and cheese.
"I just need a few more days Bella. I promise I will get out of your hair soon," Emmett said as he offered me his best puppy dog pout. This wasn't the first time it had been used or that phrase had been uttered, but it was the last time I would bend because of it.
"Off the damned couch. At least go take a shower or something man, it's been two days and I'm not even sure when you showered last." Emmett glared at me reluctantly, but I considered it a small miracle when he finally lifted his ass off the couch and padded off towards the shower. When I finally heard the water turn on, I immediately turned to Edward, with my hands placed firmly on my hips in defiance.
"You have to do something. I can't handle it anymore," I admitted reluctantly as Edward pushed the nachos across the counter, as if those would quell the anxiety I had about his brother squatting in our soon to be former apartment. Unfortunately, the nachos looked and smelled really good, so I began to dig in, much to the amusement of my husband. "I understand that you and Emmett have made amends for the whole engagement party debacle, but he cannot continue to live here."
"What should I do then Bella? Kick out my older, heartbroken brother?" Actually, that was exactly what I wanted him to do, but the way he said it made me seem like a complete bitch.
"I am just tired of him living on our couch and avoiding Rosalie. There are Pringles containers and empty Coke cans everywhere and I think I found part of a sandwich under the table yesterday. I'm not entirely sure what it was since it was green," I admitted reluctantly as Edward's eyes grew wide in shock at my discovery. "I understand his heartbreak since I went through it when we were apart so long ago, but he needs to do something about it. Either move on or get her back."
"I agree sweetie," said Edward as he came behind me and wrapped his arm around what used to be my waist and was now just my protruding stomach. "I think I've found a way to make both of our dreams come true, but it means coming face to face with a nightmare first."
"What did you have in mind?" I asked curiously. As though called on by a higher power, someone knocked on our door and I stared at Edward anxiously as he went to open it. Rosalie stood on the other side, looking nothing like the woman we once knew. Her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, she had huge bags under her eyes and literally looked broken. I felt some of the anger I had felt towards her suddenly fade away; however, until she actually apologized it would never truly be gone.
She didn't say anything when she first came into the room, at Edward's insistence. She didn't look around for Emmett, most likely unaware that he was even staying here on our little couch. Instead, I couldn't help but notice that her eyes focused on my ever expanding stomach. "You look good."
"Thanks. I wish I could say the same to you," I joked lightly as she gave me a small but tentative smile. "Have you heard of sleep? I hear it's all the rage with the kids these days."
"How come even though I've been a complete bitch to you for the past little while, you can still lighten the mood with jokes? I've missed that. I've missed you," explained Rosalie as I motioned for her to sit on the couch, which Emmett had vacated only five minutes ago. My heart feeling slightly pleased to hear that she had at least missed me.
"Let's blame the pregnancy hormones for my jokes. Perhaps today I just feel like being nice," I said genuinely as Edward groaned behind me. Rosalie and I sat down on the couch together and the tension in the air was suddenly thick. Rosalie was the first to speak, for which I was slightly relived.
"I'm sorry about the engagement party," she began as she reached over and grabbed my hand in hers. I didn't pull away. "I don't want to lay blame on anyone else, but I'll just say I am envious that you and Edward eloped. I love Emmett with all of my heart, but the pressure of this wedding is making me crack."
I reached over and gave Rosalie a tentative hug. At least she apologized, I thought to myself as I felt and heard her begin to cry. "I can't believe I let all of this wedding shit get in between you, me, Edward and Emmett. We were so close back in college and it was like the moment our engagement was announced, I began to alienate everyone close to me, even my best friend and my fiancée."
"Listen Rose, I didn't appreciate the way you confronted us at the engagement party, but I can understand the pressure you are under," I admitted genuinely. "You could have handled everything so much better. I would have started by not ruining your own party by confronting us about nothing in the front hallway. The fact that you thought we would purposely spoil your engagement party is laughable."
"I know. I shouldn't have accused you guys of trying to trash the party for starters," Rosalie said as I felt slightly relieved. She was right though, she shouldn't have said anything at the time. "I also shouldn't have come into the office and busted up your conversation with Esme and Carlisle. I don't even know why I did it to tell you the truth."
"Yeah, I must admit, as I've stewed about the situation for the past few weeks, I couldn't help but wonder what the fuck was going through your head that night," I said stoically, awaiting her response. I had many a restless night while trying to determine what the hell she had been thinking that night and never once could I come up with a plausible reason.
"I have no good reason for my outburst. I was so worried about the party coming off without a hitch that I assumed that anything that could go wrong… would go wrong. I think I believed all the crap my mother was feeding me about me not being good enough to be a Cullen and I was trying to over compensate," she said and I felt extremely bad for her. I had only met her mother once, but to say she was overbearing would have been a compliment.
"You shouldn't let your mother run the show Rosalie. You have a wedding planner, why the fuck aren't you using her?" I asked anxiously as she played with the end of her ponytail nervously.
"She quit."
"Why the fuck did she quit?" shouted Edward from the kitchen as he gripped the plate of nachos and brought them to me on the couch. I was surprised that he was finally adding his two cents to the conversation.
"Let's just say my mother scared her to death," she said with the tears now flowing more freely as she clutched at my maternity shirt and I pulled her back against me. "If you think I was a Bridezilla, let me tell you that my mother was a Mother of the Bride Nazi."
Rosalie then launched into several different horror stories involving her mother, their wedding planner and herself, all of which resulted in Rosalie crying even more. I felt bad for her, even if her comments at her engagement party were a bit devastating. I noticed Emmett come out of our bathroom fully dressed, but based on how Rosalie was sitting she couldn't see him.
"Rosalie, you need to ask yourself what the hell it is you want," I explained to her with a small hug. "The only thing Edward and I cared about was being together. What our parents wanted was of little consequence when we made our decision to get married in Las Vegas back in July. Follow your heart."
Rosalie nodded her head and looked at me with fierce determination in her eyes. "All I want is Emmett back. We can run off to Vegas and elope like you guys and I would be the happiest girl in the world," she said as Emmett walked further into the living room and began to speak.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me this two weeks ago before I left the apartment?"
Rosalie was quick to jump up off of the couch and looked shocked to see Emmett standing beside Edward in the kitchen. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, sounding defensive instead of relieved that Emmett was there. "I thought you were at your parents place in Boston."
"Why the hell would you think I was in Boston?" questioned Emmett as he crossed his arms over his chest, also in a defensive pose. I was on the verge of forgiving Rosalie for all of her comments and mistakes, but suddenly Emmett looked like he wasn't going to do the same. Jesus Christ, would I never get this man off of my couch?
"Okay, perhaps I should turn all Dr. Phil on the both of you," piped up Edward as I laughed at the thought of him mediating the romantic entanglements of his older brother and potential sister-in-law. "You love each other, so get off your fucking high horses and do something about it. My wife and I are frustrated by the ass groove that Emmett is forming in our couch. We are moving in a week and the last thing we need to worry about is the fact that the two of you seem completely unable to converse like fucking adults."
Emmett looked at Edward with disdain, probably because Edward was finally saying the things I had been saying to him for the past week. "Can we go talk in the bedroom?" asked Rosalie as she looked at Emmett with a small smile on her hopeful face. I nodded my head and she led the way as Emmett followed. I was hopeful that they would manage to sort out their differences, but I didn't see the same hope on Emmett's face.
Edward and I finished off the nachos on the couch as we watched part of the Jets game on the TV. We weren't really focused on the football game though since there was too much yelling and screaming coming from our room. I wasn't able to grasp everything, but there was definitely some sort of arguing going on about the fact that Rosalie wasn't honest with Em about what she wanted for the wedding and there might have been some discussion about her mother being an overbearing shrew.
After several minutes, there was silence. "Do you think they killed each other?" I asked Edward as he wrapped his arm over my shoulder and pulled me close to him.
"I don't think they killed each other," he said with a grin. "Let's give them a few more minutes though. I want to stay around in case Emmett needs help disposing of the body." Edward broke out into loud laughter and that was when we heard it; something was banging against our wall.
"If they are throwing anything in that fucking room, I will not hesitant to slap a bitch," I said as I stood from the couch and Edward followed me towards our bedroom.
"Perhaps we should give them a minute," said Edward as he tried to hold me back from our room, some small noises coming from the other side of the door. "I think they are sorting out their differences." I looked at Edward, my eyes disapproving of his choice and I threw open the bedroom door. My eyes were assaulted by Emmett's naked ass the moment we walked in as he was busy fucking Rosalie on our bed.
"Oh my god," I shouted out as Edward covered my eyes and pulled me from the bedroom. We both sat on the couch wordlessly for the next five minutes, until Em and Rose walked out of our now soiled bedroom, looking satisfied, smug and slightly apologetic. "What the fuck?"
"I thought you guys wanted us to reconcile?" asked Emmett with a shrug of his shoulders as Rosalie smacked him upside the head. Emmett began to gather up some of his stuff from the living room and I breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that he was apparently going to be leaving us and the confines of our couch.
"Of course we wanted you guys to get back together, but did you need to fuck on our bed to solidify it?" Edward asked with a small growl, clearly frustrated.
"I'll start the load of laundry and wash your sheets," said Emmett, a smug grin still on his face. "I won't apologize for fucking my fiancée though." Well, I guess the wedding was back on.
"Jesus Em, could you be a bit more crass?" I asked as he finished gathering up his shit from our living room floor and headed off to the bedroom with Edward. Sure enough, they walked out two minutes later with all of our sheets and Emmett started a load of laundry. "Regardless of whether or not you are washing my sheets, I am still burning them and buying new ones before we move into the new place."
As we watched the boys do the laundry, Rosalie sat beside me and actually asked questions about my life. She was interested when I told her about the new place Edward and I had purchased and she seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say about the Peanut. It felt good to just talk to her about random shit, almost as though I had my friend back, which was all I wanted when this mess began.
EPOV
The moment Emmett and Rosalie left our apartment, their lips practically glued together, it was a like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. When Emmett had come in and announced that he had broken up with her, I had to admit, I wasn't overly surprised. She had been hard to deal with in small doses, let alone every day like Emmett was forced to do.
The first night he arrived, we had sat on our couch drinking beers and I just listened to him speak. First and foremost, he apologized for the crack he made about the Peanut, and I quickly apologized in turn for making the remarks about the baby he and Rosalie didn't have. It hadn't been fair of me to hurt them they way I had, and he even confessed to me that although he wasn't ready to have a child, he was envious of me for being so strong. He had broken up with Rosalie because they couldn't seem to agree on anything anymore. She wasn't listening to reason and Em was struggling with the fact that we were no longer talking to one another. We spent hours just talking through our issues and by the time the night was done; we were stronger for everything and a wee bit drunk.
The next week went by in a flash and before I knew it, there were movers at our door, taking our boxes out into their vans and heading to our new place over in Bedford. I made Bella stay at the new house with Alice, coordinating the new things that were brought in and I stayed with the movers at our old condo to ensure everything went smoothly.
Once everything was finally moved into the apartment, Emmett and Rosalie joined us with three boxes of a pizza and a case of beer, plus some Diet Pepsi for Bella, since that was her latest craving. Although I insisted we keep it in small doses, which she scowled at me every time I mentioned it.
"Your move went faster than ours did," exclaimed Emmett as we cleaned a few boxes off of the coffee table and we all sat around, some of us on the floor and some of us on the couch. Emmett and Rosalie had moved into their new place near Central Park a week before their engagement party, so I couldn't help but think that it added to their stress, but I never mentioned it.
"Yeah well, our movers were top notch. Bella spent hours doing comparisons of various companies in the city before she even let us book anything," I said with a laugh as Bella took a bite of her slice of veggie pizza.
"Excuse me if the pregnancy has made me a perfectionist," she joked as Alice rolled her eyes at her. We both knew damn well that Bella was meticulous long before the baby came along; it's just that Alice was a little more thorough than her. "Okay fine, I was one beforehand. Is it wrong of me to make sure our move goes well?"
"No, not at all, laughed Rosalie as she took a swig of her beer. "So I think we should propose a toast to our friends here." She lifted up her bottle and we all followed suit, although I wasn't sure why the fuck we were toasting. "To Edward and Bella, for not giving a shit and doing things their way. To say we were envious, would be an understatement." We all clinked our glasses as I kissed Bella firmly on the temple.
As we sat and ate our pizza, Alice and Jasper regaled us with stories of her final semester of class, which was nearing its end as well as about the internship she was currently doing with Donna Karan. Jasper was busy at work, as per usual, but felt like the weekend was no time to hash out all this shit he was going through. I think I was actually relieved that I didn't have to listen to his work stories, since he had called me earlier in the week bitching about it.
Rosalie and Emmett told us about the new wedding planner they had hired and how they had forced all their work onto her. Rosalie had also driven to Boston on her day off and confronted her mother about her overbearing ways, which resulted in a long overdue fight between the two of them. Apparently things were going better between them though and Rosalie's mom was conversing only with the planner about things pertaining to the wedding, instead of bitching and complaining to Rosalie directly.
By the time all our pizza was done, the girls went to help Bella unload a few things in the bedroom, while I tried to unpack a few boxes with the help of Emmett and Jasper. "Did I thank you enough for reuniting me and Rose?" asked Emmett as he handed me a few books from the open box in the living room and I began to place them on the full wall shelving in our living room. I knew full well that Bella would eventually arrange them alphabetically, but I wanted to at least empty one box tonight.
"Did I thank you for the fact that my wife made us buy a four hundred dollar bedding set and then she tossed our perfectly good one in the dumpster at the old condo?" I asked with a laugh as Jasper looked at us with surprise. "When idiot and Rosalie here reunited, they consummated it on our bed in the middle of a fight. Bella and I were right on the couch in the living room listening for fucks sake."
"Didn't you and Bella do it on our bed in that small cabin in Massachusetts?" asked Jasper snidely as I rolled my eyes.
"Your bed wasn't made at the time but yeah and look where that got us. Bella got pregnant that night," I said with a grin. I wasn't upset that she had gotten pregnant; actually it was quite the opposite. That night may have resulted in an unplanned pregnancy, but it brought me everything I ever wanted. "If you two get pregnant from humping on my bed, I will laugh my fucking ass off. Then when Alice and Jasper try to have kids, I will force them to fuck on your bed." Emmett rolled his eyes and let out a low groan of disapproval as he handed me a few more books. Jasper had ripped open another box and handed it to Emmett and we kept moving along, slowly unpacking the boxes as we talked candidly about where our lives had led us.
"I know you hate talking about this shit Emmett, but you have to deal with the fact that I have sex with your sister. We don't need to talk about it, but considering that you and Edward are my best friends it's inevitable," said Jasper as he slid another open box towards Em. I think Em found it a bit disconcerting that Jasper wanted to talk about Alice to us, but when he did, which wasn't very often, I just tried to think of her as someone other than my little sister. "I think I might propose to her on New Year's."
"It's about time man. I think she's been secretly planning her own wedding since she was six," I added as I gave Jasper an awkward one armed hug. I shoved the books I was holding onto the shelf just as the girls walked in.
"Aww, are we interrupting some sort of male bonding shit?" asked Rosalie as I pulled away from Jasper and looked at her through narrowed eyes.
"Hardly. We were talking about football and violence," said Emmett as he stood up and brushed some dirt from his jeans.
"That's exactly what it looked like you were doing," commented Bella as she came up beside me and inspected what we had done. "It looked like if we hadn't interrupted you guys would be discussing finger nail polish before breaking out into Kumbaya."
"Did you want us to go get you boys some chick flicks down at blockbuster?" Alice added as I groaned at her and Jasper became our mediator.
"Sorry gang, as much fun as it has been eating pizza and being emasculated by my own girlfriend here, we need to get going. We're hitting some trunk sale in the morning and she needs me to be awake and able to carry lord knows how many shoes and dresses," said Jasper as I laughed loudly at him.
"Here you are commenting on being emasculated, but you just admitted to going to a clothing sale with your girlfriend first thing in the morning. I should go through our boxes and find the Gaydar I got down at Sharper Image because you are being so gay right now," I exclaimed as Jasper punched me on the shoulder gently. "You can't even punch me hard. Dude, you need to turn in your man card immediately."
"Trust me, he's all man," tossed in Alice as Emmett threw his hands up over his ears and began chanting loudly to himself. "I forgot he doesn't believe I have sex. God forbid I discuss it with you guys," added Alice. Jasper quickly ushered Alice out of the apartment before anymore sexual orientations could be discussed. Emmett and Rosalie helped us in the kitchen for a little bit before they ended up heading to their own home.
When everyone was gone, Bella relaxed in the bath as I searched high and low for a box that contained towels. Once she was done and I had managed to find her the fluffiest towels we owned, I helped her out of the bath and then we got ready for bed together. "I can't believe we own a house."
"I know," I admitted as I she laid down beside me and I curled into her side. "It seemed like so long ago that we bought that damned condo, but it was only two years. It's nice to have this place, where we can grow and have more kids." Bella's eyes grew wide at the mention of additional kids, but I didn't try to assuage her fears. "You do want more kids right?"
"How about I squeeze this little guy out first and once he's out of diapers we talk about it again. Carmen was telling me to make sure your kid was potty trained before you try to have another," said Bella with a yawn as my hand moved to her stomach, like it did most nights when we got ready for bed.
"Carmen also told you to name the baby Peanut because she thought it was a strong name," I laughed as Bella giggled slightly. I had met Carmen one afternoon when I picked up Bella for a doctor's appointment and she took me by surprise immediately. Not only did she hug me and then insist on checking my hands for my life lines or some shit like that, she then recommended dozens more baby names that were all shot down quickly like Peanut, Kai and Wayne. She was really pretty random with the Wayne suggestion, but I humored her anyways and mentioned how Bella and I were interested in Eugene, since we drove through Eugene, Oregon in the summer. Bella immediately shot down the suggestion of Eugene Cullen and we headed to her appointment, leaving Carmen laughing happily in our wake.
"Okay, so she doesn't offer the best advice, but she is a great boss."
"I'm not discounting her skills as an employer. I am however saying she will have no say in naming the little guy you are currently gestating," I said as I rubbed her stomach slightly and then lifted up her nightshirt to give the belly a gentle kiss.
"Can I just say, for the record, that you are officially the cutest guy on earth every single time to you do that?" said Bella as I leaned up and kissed her lips just as sweetly as I had kissed her stomach.
"Can I get that on a bumper sticker?"
"Christmas is coming up soon, so I will see what I can do," she laughed as she then got into position on her side and rested her head against my chest. We lay together and simply talked about the move and what we wanted to get done in the house first.
My parents were coming to town the following weekend to go baby furniture shopping with Bella and me, which made me slightly nervous. Sure, things were going good with my folks these days, but I knew they probably wanted to buy some four thousand dollar monstrosity of a crib and Bella would be completely against it. I had told my mother not to get overly excited about things, but I had a feeling I would need to rein her in a bit. Until then, I would just catch up on some sleep and hope she didn't cause me an ulcer when I saw her next weekend.
