BPOV
"He says he needs space," Jazz says using air quotes.
Edward takes a sip of his beer, his other arm resting loosely behind me on the back of the booth. "Do you ever think he's testing you?" he asks.
"Testing me, how?"
"Maybe he wants you to put a ring on him."
Jasper's face sours causing Edward to hold his hands up beer and all.
"What do you think, Bells?" Jazz asks me.
"Edward might be right, Ali might be trying to force your hand," I say before taking a bite of my pasta.
"I caught him fooling around with Demetri," he says after a minute.
"You let that shit happen with that open arrangement you two have," Edward says, pointing his finger at him around his beer. "You complain when he goes off with Dem or Caius, but you don't stop it."
Jazz glares at him.
These two were wired the same way, they were cool guys as a front, but total softies in reality. Jasper was a monogamist whether he'd like to admit it or not, I think Ali was too but he liked to push Jasper to his limit. He wanted to know that he cared.
"Maybe reach out to him," I offer.
"Couldn't hurt, I guess," Jazz mumbles.
"So you listen to her?" Edward scoffs in disbelief.
"She's smart and oh so pretty, Ed," Jazz teases.
"Don't be jealous, I'm wise," I tell him with a kiss.
"Wise," he snorts against my lips.
I hum in response before pulling away to go back to my pasta.
"Aro's heading over," Jazz says.
I watch the restaurant's head chef and owner, Aro Volturi, walking to our table with his hands out. Aro was pale beyond belief with black hair in a slicked-back ponytail. His beedy gray eyes moved over our table.
Edward described him as very Italian before we got here, he said he'd probably stop by to talk. Aro basically recreated his whole menu and this was his reopening. Jazz had invested in a small portion of the business but Edward wasn't completely sold on him yet.
"Edward," he greets, kissing his cheeks. "Jasper," he repeats the gesture on Jazz. When he pulls away from Jazz he eyes me with growing curiosity. "And who do we have here?"
"Aro, this is my partner, Bella."
He steepled his fingers under his chin. "Short for Isabella?"
I nod.
"And you have a bambino on the way? Busy, busy boy," he tsks at Edward.
Jasper covers his laugh with his hand.
"Such a beauty your beloved Isabella is," Aro says, pinching my cheek. "You've been hiding her."
"Never," Edward smiles my way. "Bell prefers her privacy."
"You hide this face, why?" Aro frowns at me.
"Aro, you're making her blush," Jazz teases.
"Such a beauty," he murmurs, touching my cheek, as I get a little creeped out.
Edward and Jazz both look on the verge of cracking up so I assume this is just how this guy is or it's a culture thing.
"Isabella, I hope you allow us to have a photo with you and these bello men for our social," he insists.
I wipe my mouth on my napkin.
Edward awaits my answer with a cautious gaze, but when I tell Aro I'd be happy to, he looks surprised. Jazz looks a little stunned as well.
"Perfezionare," Aro claps.
He leaves us to finish the rest of our dinner but sends over more of what the boys were drinking. After our plates are cleared a petite blonde girl comes over to our table. She introduces herself as Jane, her camera is in hand with release forms.
"You know, you don't have to do this," Edward says as he signs his forms.
"You don't want to be photographed with me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I'd love to, but I know this isn't your thing," he says, handing Jane his forms.
"Maybe I want to be seen," I say, signing my name and handing my forms to Jane.
"So if I post this to my Insta, you'd be fine with it?" he asks skeptically.
"Sure," I shrug.
Jazz is grinning at this conversation while he waits to be photographed. These two looked like models in their button-downs and perfect hair. I'm sandwiched between them in a soft cream cashmere sweater covering my very pregnant body. This was compromise and courage.
Edward was sneaky with a kiss to my temple when the flash went off. I turn to him when Jane leaves, his smile is bright and crooked.
"What?"
"Nothing, this was a surprise is all," he says.
"Ed, you're going to make her go back in her shell if you don't stop," Jazz teases as he rises from his seat.
"We're leaving?" I asked confused. "The waiter hasn't brought the check."
"This was a business dinner, Aro is trying to woo Ed," Jazz explains, throwing a hundred on the table as a tip. "But Ed here wants to be wined and dined before he puts out."
Edward is shaking his head, and follows suit with the tip. "I just want to know more about what Aro is thinking, he's tempestuous when it comes to business."
He takes my hand helping me out of the booth and holds it all the way to the coat check. He makes sure to help me with my coat, bending down for a kiss once he's straightened out my collar.
"Edward—" is called from behind us, we turn to see Aro. "I do hope to see you soon," he says, taking Edward's hand into both of his. "Please also bring your precious Isabella back too."
"I'll be in touch," his smile is cool charm.
Jazz says his goodbye to Aro as we wait for him outside. Edward pulls me to him to warm me from the chill of the bitter February air. "Have a good time?" he asks.
"The food was good and the atmosphere was interesting, do you think you're going to invest?" I ask playing with the ends of his hood.
"I want to, but my gut is telling me to wait it out. Aro is nice and all but he had a drug problem a few years ago, which is why his last restaurant went under. Jazz says he's clean but I want to make sure he's able to handle this venture before I dump cash into it," he kisses me slowly and sweetly. "I have more than myself I have to think about."
"It's so fucking cold out here," Jazz moans, making his presence known.
He had great timing.
We say our goodbyes, the guys man-hug, and then Jazz pulls me in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He leaves with Pete and we leave with Sam.
When we get back to Edward's place, we go to his room to get ready for bed. He strips off most of his clothes, the longer we're together the more I've picked up on his little habits.
In the beginning, he only wore his briefs to bed as a courtesy to me, when I wasn't here he liked to sleep nude. So the more I stayed he asked if I minded, who was I to tell him no in his own home, also I was a fan of his ass.
I liked to be a little clothed when I slept, but I stuck with either larger t-shirts and boy shorts or tanks and boy shorts. I got hot when I slept but needed to be somewhat clothed. That was my comfort.
I struggle to get my pants off but Edward moves to my side to help me. I feel my face heat once he's able to get them down my legs. He looks up, noticing my embarrassment. "Hey, you're growing our girl don't worry about it," he says.
"I know—" I huff out a breath.
"What is it?" he asks softly.
"Sometimes I feel like an alien in my own body," I say quietly, playing with my fingers, I look at him biting my lip before confessing. "My hands and feet are swollen all the time, I can't bend down…" or be bent over. I'm not telling him that I miss the way we used to fuck because that might make me sound selfish, but I do.
Out of all the men I've been with, Edward might have been the best at sex. He had a sixth sense about how to work me over. It was the thing that surprised me most about him when we first hooked up. He was either good due to instinct or he was just observant, but he was always very generous with making sure I got something out of it.
He brushes my hair back waiting for me to continue. "You can be honest, Bell, it's just me."
"I always thought that I was in tune with my body. I teach and practice yoga for fuck's sake," I snort out a humorless laugh. "But throughout this pregnancy, I feel like my body keeps betraying me. My mother talks about pregnancy being this beautiful experience and that giving birth makes you one with your body and child— I'm not feeling that yet."
I'm not full-on crying but there are tears and I feel terrible for unloading all this on him as he's crouched in front of me.
He brushes his thumb under my eyes. "I'm sorry," he says.
"For what?"
"That you're struggling," he says sincerely.
"I feel bad for even feeling this way," I tell him, putting my head down.
"You are allowed to feel however you want Bell, you're growing a life inside you. I can't even fathom how weird that is."
"Because you get to stay in the best shape of your life?" I sniffle hating him a little for that.
"I'll stop going to my trainer," he offers, looking dead serious.
"No, don't do that." I'd only be punishing myself.
I take a minute to tap down all my self-pity. His hands are on me soothing and calm, he helps get me into one of his t-shirts that is starting to be stretched out by me.
He's gotten so helpful in trying to make me comfortable that I realize maybe he's been on to me all along. I see it when he helps me get situated on my side. I have this body pillow that's supposed to help but it's awkward, Edward however, is a pro at getting me settled with it.
He takes his briefs off, throwing them in the hamper, he strides to the bed slipping in behind me. He's not touching, he's hovering.
"What are you doing back there?" I ask, trying to look behind me.
"I don't want to make you feel worse," he says carefully.
"You can touch me, Edward," I murmured.
Instantly he's close and holding me. His hold is firm. I know he's there for me, he's just being cautious after everything I've told him. These are things I've felt since I found out I was pregnant, the more I think about them I wonder if something is wrong with me, that this kind of detachment can't be normal.
"Thank you," he says in the darkness.
"For what?"
"For trusting me, I know it can't be easy to admit that you feel like this— thanks for not shutting me out."
I hold onto his arm that's wrapped around me, he kisses the back of my head and we drift off not saying another word. I'm alone with my thoughts but I don't feel as alone in this as I did previously. He was the only person I shared this with.
I wake up with a groan, his hand is rubbing my back as I try to stretch. "Morning," I mumble.
He brushes my hair back with his fingers, moving to kiss my lips. "Mmm, good morning," he says, nipping at my lips.
The nips turn into slow kisses then they get deeper until we're wrapped around each other. As much as I want him in me it seems like too much of an effort. Lately, it's not in the intensity of the moment, it's a discussion around the huge protrusion of my stomach.
So now he's grinding into me as I ride his thigh, we don't break eye contact as we move. Our mouths only hover as we breathe into one another. He cums first removing his thigh from me but replaces it with his fingers creeping into the side of my boy shorts to finish the job.
We lay in bed unbothered for a bit before joining the world for the day. Edward throws clothes on to get us breakfast, I still see a slight concern in his eye but I kiss it away.
I reach for my phone on the nightstand after he leaves seeing I have quite a lot of notifications. I open Instagram seeing I have a large number of follower requests, I choose to skip them to see I'm tagged in two posts. One is linked to Aro's restaurant the other is linked to Edward's account.
I look at Edward's photo and smile. It's captioned "Great food, great company." with hashtags belonging to Aro's restaurant campaign. Jazz and I are smiling at the camera but Edward's eyes are closed as he kisses my temple, with his palm on top of my stomach.
He looks so serene. His love for us radiates in the image with over fifty thousand likes. I then make the mistake of scrolling through the comments.
2Cool4U98 - Noooooooooo
BrklynDiva88 - How did she land him?
NYCGrl411 - Who is the bitch, she came outta nowhere.
OGBrooklynite718 - This is why he was sniffing around his ex, no one wants to bang that.
I drop my phone because only skimming has made me crawl back into my internal doubt. I don't want to look at the comment on Aro's page. People are trolling on social media, but to see those kinds of comments didn't help me.
That's how Edward finds me when he comes in with our plated deli breakfast, curled up with my phone teetering on the edge of the bed. He sits everything on the nightstand trying to figure out what went wrong in such a short time.
"Look at your post comments," I mutter.
"I never read the comments because they're usually bullshit, Bell," he says lying in front of me. "Complete bullshit," he repeats, touching my face.
He's right, they are, but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt all the same.
He rests his forehead against mine. "Sometimes I wish I could get in here," he nudges his head lightly to mine.
"Why?"
"I'd love to know your thoughts," he says simply.
"Even when I'm mad at you?"
"Especially when you're mad at me," he chuckles. "Don't you get it, Bell? Your thoughts are the most important ones to me."
This makes me fall in love with him a little more.
"What are you thinking?" I ask him quietly.
His nose nuzzles mine for a second. "That I'm lucky you finally gave me a chance," he murmurs. "I still don't think you realize how in love with you I am."
"What do you love?" I asked, placing my palm against his scruffy jaw.
"I love that there is no agenda when it comes to you, Bell. You are a true original," he kisses my cheek before moving back to rest our foreheads together. "People think they know me but they only want pieces of me— of my success. You couldn't give two fucks if I had a penny to my name. You don't take my shit when I'm being an ass, you are strong— stronger than you think. Your heart is as beautiful as you are on the outside, you spend your days actually helping people live longer, more fulfilling lives. There are so many things I love about you but the top thing I love right now is that we created our girl together, and we get to be her parents together— we're on this crazy ride, you and me. There is no one I would want to do this with but you, Bell."
He wipes at the tears that are falling down my cheeks.
"Who would have thought you had such a way of expressing yourself," I laughed through my sniffles, cupping his face.
I don't want to upstage his words by telling him the reasons why I love him. My reasons mirrored his mostly, there were differences though. I loved that he was confident, but not arrogant. He was comfortable in his own skin and knew who he was as a person.
He was kind to people within the foodservice industry whether it was at one of his investments or just a random deli in Chelsea. He bartended when we were in college, which is why I think he understood the struggle.
He was right we were in this together and I knew that he wouldn't let me down. We were beginning a new chapter in our lives, and I was not going to let him down either. We would navigate this one day at a time.
A/N:
bambino - masculine baby/ reference to the baby when gender is unknown
bello- masculine beautiful
perfezionare - perfect