Un-betad
Characters aren't mine, that is all.
Dialogue Flex: "Very impressive," she said.
"So, this is Bella," a woman practically sang to Esme as she approached me. I had only just come outside after getting dressed, leaving Rosalie in Alice's hands as she finished her hair up. I wanted to make sure the tents were completely set up before everyone began arriving.
"Yes, Barbara this is Edward's wife, Bella," Esme jumped in. "Bella, this is Barbara White, her husband is one of our State Senator's."
"Oh wow," I say before I can hold my tongue, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"You too, my dear. I swear, it's as if you've taken this town by storm. First snagging our Edward, and now with your decorating skills. You've come up at every event I've been to in the past week," she informed me as I gulped. "I heard you made these?" She gestured to the diapers cakes and I nodded. "Very impressive."
"Thank you," I say genuinely. "I've always loved designing and writing, so I'm thrilled everyone has taken an interest in it. I just really love doing it."
"Well, keep doing it, and maybe I can arrange a time for you to drop in," she hinted. Word got around; I knew that, but wow! It was scary enough having Cynthia Brown's mother-in-law calling me from Pennsylvania asking when I could fly in, but a Senator's wife? Geez.
"I'll definitely keep in touch," I replied politely before shifting the conversation. "I'm so glad you could make it though, Rose is so excited for this party." Even though I was like Cambridge's newest toy, today was about Rose, and I'd be reminding people all day if I had to.
"Of course, we were so happy for Emmett when he married Rosalie, and now the baby. Who doesn't love babies?" Her smile was bright and beaming, but there was a certain measure of fakeness that kept me on edge.
The same edge remained as more and more people flooded into the backyard and into the tents. In all, our guest list topped two hundred women and yielded five tables of presents. Rosalie's shower was more like a lunch with a few fun baby games thrown in than like any shower I had ever heard of.
I stuck near Esme most of the time; branching out with the people I was comfortable and familiar with. All of the questions tended to be the same though. How was Edward handling his residency? How did my schedule look? Would I be next in line for a baby?
Later that night, as we organized the living room into gift central it was Rose who finally put into perspective some things I hadn't realized about my future life. I was so busy with everything happen in the now, that considering what life would be like twenty years from now, only gave me a headache.
"You looked burnt out and we haven't even started," Rose noted as I handed her the first gift. Alice was in charge of writing the thank you notes, Esme was keeping a list of who sent what, and I was taking pictures for a scrapbook and digital album online for people to view. Rosalie wanted to tackle as much of this as possible because she wanted to leave Cambridge with all of the thank you notes completed and mailed.
"Do you ever get bored seeing the same people and getting asked the same thing a million times over?" I asked honestly, and I turned just as Esme snorted and took a sip of her wine. Rosalie looked uncomfortable while Alice just looked at each of us expectantly.
"Bella," Esme finally recovered, "It comes easier in time. If you noticed, I stayed around certain people the majority of the day. It'll all come in time, and it'll be a while before you have to focus on all of it
"Esme is right, Bella," Rosalie interjected as she began pulling things from a gift bag. "You're the next 'Esme', but I don't think she's retiring any time soon." She shot a wink at Esme. "So, you'll have time to get used to it all."
"I don't understand, what do you mean?" I asked as I took a picture of Rosalie's holding up two very cute blue football outfits. She wore a huge smile and was definitely glowing.
"What Rose is trying to say is," Esme answered, "Is when I step down as front woman for this family, which is still decades away despite how old you make me feel, Rose. Bella, you'll be next in line to take my place."
"Shouldn't that be Rose? I mean, Emmett is older, and you…" my voice trailed off when Rosalie laughed ruining the picture I was taking.
"Oh, Bella, have you not seen that Edward is the golden child? Everyone loves Emmett, he's fun, loving, caring, but was a total troublemaker growing up. It was never anything serious, but still, everyone loved Emmett, but watched Edward. You didn't exactly get the warning you could have, but don't worry too much. This is years away and you're already doing a good job," Rose assured me, but I was still shocked.
I wanted to be quiet and out-of-the-spotlight like Rosalie, so I made a mental note to talk to Edward about all of this. Of course, the second my mind went to Edward I sighed. My heart was constantly skipping beats with him so far away and our few minutes here and there on the phone just wasn't cutting it. He still had the night I got home off, and I already bought a dress to wear. I'd be cooking dinner and we'd be staying in, hopefully reconnecting a bit on the physical side. God, I missed his touch and his lips, and…
"What has you all smiles?" Alice called out a few minutes later.
"Thinking about Edward," I replied honestly. "I just miss him, and I'm still not home for a few more days."
"How is he handling it all? I've gotten a few texts, but that's about it," Esme asked.
"As good as he can. He's dead tired more than not, but I'm taking care of him as best as possible. He should only be in the ER for like two more weeks and then when he goes to Pediatrics he said it should be saner," I explained as Esme's eyes went wide.
"Why the ER for so long? I think Carlisle spent a week there," she questioned.
"Because Dr. Sparks believes the best doctors are built on being thrown-in head first?" I replied sarcastically, though that is what it amounted to. "So, he's in the ER for a full month before his quick rotations start. He just really wants to get his hands on the Peds unit."
"Has he said anything about surgery?" I shook my head no. "So, he's set on Pediatrics? When I talked to him about it last he was still up in the air?"
"He seems to think so, but we'll see how it goes," I replied evasively not wanting to give more information than Edward wanted out. There just were something's that we talked about that weren't meant for common knowledge yet.
"Whatever makes him happy," Esme mused before we all went back to the task at hand.
In the end, it took two nights to get through everything, but Rosalie was pretty much set for the first year. She and Alice would be headed back before me while I attended two more appointments before flying back.
God, I just wanted to fly home…I wanted Edward.
Again, back to the, I don't even have words for this level of exhaustion, but I'll make up for the lack of updates this weekend and tell you about my new "Lake ON Property"...yeah, literally, under my house is a lake-thankfully, they're fixing it next week! I wondered why the area got so stinky...stinky water. Sorry if this chapter sounds off-it was needed, but I deleted it a million times before settling on this. If anyone has been to a baby shower, you know why writing one is boring. And it's just as boring as writing Bella going from house to house too. Oh, and I'm from FL, so I have NO clue who MA Senators are, I piked the name White randomly. Night!
