Chapter 37

I decided to bide my time doing inane chores that I didn't want to do. I changed into grubby clothes, cranked my stereo and headed to the garage. I had a lot of boxes in here that I had never gone through. I decided to re-open the ones with baby clothes in them and pull out all the girly things for Ben and Angela. This would give them more clothing and I had no need for my old baby things. Once I had the washing machine going, I opened up a box full of pictures of us growing up. I set that aside, intending to have Ben go through it with me. It was his childhood too and maybe it would help us out.

I was out there for what felt like ever, when I realized I probably only had a few minutes until Edward was going to call. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to stay at work all night. I jammed the items in my hand back into the box it came from and shut down the garage. I felt as if I'd accomplished something. My phone rang just as I was jumping in the shower, so I grabbed it.

"Hey, it's me. Dinner's going great so I'll be home within thirty."

"Perfect, I'm getting in the shower now."

"Didn't you shower this morning?"

"Yes, but I got dirty." I dragged the word out and he laughed.

"I'm almost afraid to ask."

"I'll tell you all about it, promise. I'll see you soon." I hung up, threw my hair into a bun and hopped in for a quick clean up. Since I washed my hair earlier, I just concentrated on my body. I dried off and threw on my Star Wars pajama bottoms and a tank top. If he was going to date me, he'd need to know how geeky I was up front. I grabbed my keys, stuffed my feet into sandals and drove to Edward's.

He was just getting out of his car, so I pulled in next to him. He came over and opened my door for me, kissing me as soon as I was standing. When we finally stopped tongue wrestling, he led me to the door, ushering me in. "Hi," he said, kissing me again, but chastely this time. "Nice outfit."

"One would think you hadn't seen me in days. And don't hate on my wardrobe," I said, heading to his kitchen to grab a beer.

"Hey, why don't you help yourself?" he mocked, reaching for one as well.

"I think I shall, mister. Come on, let's get this over with." I grabbed his hand and walked into his living room, kicking off my shoes once I got there. "Do we sit together, or will you need space for this?"

"Hmmm…" He pretended to think about it. "Let's share. " He sat down, taking me with him so I was sitting on his lap. Before I could say anything, he'd attached his mouth to mine again. I let him kiss me for a minute, before pulling away.

"Are you trying to get extra points or are you afraid there won't be any kissing after we talk."

"Neither." He smiled, patted my ass and shoved me to his side. "Are you ready for this?" he asked and I nodded. "How much about me do you know?"

"Not a lot, honestly. I'm not even sure why we'd never met."

"How long have you known Alice?" he asked.

"She's two years younger than me, so since high school."

"I thought you were older than that, "he said.

"Is my age a deal breaker?" I pouted.

"Not at all," he stated. "My parents died when I was twelve and I went to live with my mom's mom in Greenwich."

"That's not too far away. Alice made it seem as if she never saw you."

"She didn't." He looked sad, "It was too hard to go to the restaurant, and so I hid away from it. It's in my blood though. That's why I went to Farmingdale in the first place. However, I didn't intend to come back. "

I took his hand in mine, trying to show him a little comfort. "It's never easy to lose your parents, Edward. I can understand why you felt as if you couldn't be around any happy memories. "

"Thanks." He smiled and continued. "I met Claire junior year of college. She was a year younger than I was, but in all my classes. Her family was pretty well known in New York for their Italian restaurants. They have about five of them throughout the Burroughs." He finished his beer and got up. "I'm grabbing another one. You?"

I looked at my beer and realized I'd barely had any of it. "I'm good for now." He was back pretty fast and sat down at the other end of the couch this time.

"Claire and I hit it off immediately. We had a lot of the same interests and she loved the restaurant business as much as, if not more, than I did. We were inseparable going into my final year of school. We even talked about living together after I graduated, but it would depend on where I got a job." He took a few breaths. "Claire called her dad and got me a job at their Brooklyn eatery to start the day after I graduated, so she and I started looking for places closer to Brooklyn as that's the same place she'd be at as well. We found a place that gave her a 45 minute train ride to school but she said she was fine with it."

I shook my empty beer bottle and got up for another. "Did you want?" I offered.

"No, but thanks." He put his empty beer bottle on the coffee table. I was back in a minute and prompted him to continue. "Whenever you're ready."

"I'm not sure I'll ever be ready." He tried to laugh. "So nitty gritty time. I worked in Brooklyn, and my hours were crazy. I'm not even really sure why Stefan hired me. He's Claire's dad. He was doing the job I had the degree to do while I was pretty much a glorified bar back. It seemed as if everything was going okay though between Claire and I. She spent a lot of time at the campus kitchen or at home versus the restaurant, but it was expected as she was finishing up her final year of school.

"When she graduated, her dad gave her their second place in Brooklyn to run. With her on one side of Brooklyn and me on the other, things got crazy. We never saw each other and we lived too far away from work. I mentioned looking for a place closer, but it kept getting pushed to the back burner.

"Finally, she agreed and we spent weeks trying to find the 'perfect' place." He made air quotes. "Once we did, we still didn't see each other that often. It's odd how you can spend that many years with someone and not see the signs or any of the bad things.

"I had decided to surprise her at work one night. I took the day off and took a cab over to her place. They closed earlier on Monday nights so I knew it'd pretty much be her alone finishing her evening paperwork. I let myself in, because I had a key, and went to her office. She was bent over the desk being fucked by her head chef."

"Shit, Edward! I didn't see that coming." I scooted closer to him and squeezed his hand.

"Looking back on it, it all makes sense. Her refusal to try and talk to her dad about better hours for either of us. Her insistence that we work at different places. I found out later, he had been her high school boyfriend. "

"You never stood a chance," I commented, "Oh well, it's her loss. I still don't get your attitude with me, though."

He pulled me to his chest and put an arm around me, kissing my temple. "It's simple, really Bella. The last thing in the world I wanted or needed was to be attracted to someone I not only worked with, was a really good friend of my family. If things went sour, I'd have nowhere to run."

We sat in silence for a while, me taking in his story and Edward just running his hand down my arms every once in a while. He finally stood, took my hand and pulled me up. "Let's go to bed."

"I didn't bring anything to sleep in," I said laughing and twirling around in my pajama pants.

"Even better." He walked me upstairs to his room. "Did you want me to grab you a shirt and some boxers?" I nodded and he turned on his bathroom light when he walked to his dresser. Handing me clothes, he leaned in and kissed my lips softly. "I'm going to lock up. There's an extra toothbrush in one of the drawers in the bathroom."

I changed, brushed my teeth and took down my hair. When he joined me, I was comfortable under his blankets. "Thanks for telling me," I whispered.

"Thanks for listening," he responded, kissing my forehead and cuddling me under his arm. "Hey, you never told me how you got dirty," Edward said, pulling my chin up to look at me.

"Oh, I went through my past today."

"In what way?" His forehead crinkled.

"I have boxes in my garage that have been there since my parents died. Other than looking specifically for baby clothes the one time, I haven't gone into them."

"How'd that go?" He kissed my temple.

"Cathartic. It sort of brought me a bit of peace. I'm, not sure if I can explain it."

"I understand perfectly."

"It also gave me a way to try and connect with Ben again. I'm going to call him tomorrow." I leaned my head back down into his neck and closed my eyes. "Thanks for baring your soul to me tonight." I kissed his chest.

"You got it." He pulled me even closer and kissed the top of my head. I fell asleep feeling happy.

A/N: So there it is, the BIG reveal. I hope none of you were disappointed in it. Some of you had guessed previously, so congrats to you.

Thanks for reading and reviewing- we're in the home stretch, now