Assumptions Chapter 11
Dreams
BPOV:
Carlisle sat and talked with us for a while before he decided that he should head back across the street before Esme woke up and panicked when he was gone. I wandered into the kitchen and started washing our dinner dishes while Edward went back to reading. It was another hour before he made it to the point where I had crashed and burned. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad but I was stuck with no idea how to fix the disaster that my book had become.
I made the decision that no matter what Edward said to me tonight, I was going to go back to Charlie's fishing spot in the morning and try again to get some writing done. After I was done with the dishes I went to throw a load of laundry in the washer. When I turned around I was surprised to find Edward standing right behind me, "I'm done." I just nodded and followed him back to the living room and sat down next to him on the couch.
"First of all, thank you for letting me do this. After the way that I've treated you I can't believe that you trusted me with this."
"That makes two of us. I never let anyone see my unfinished manuscripts. So where did I screw up?"
"I don't think it's a matter of screwing up, Bella, I love the direction you've gone and most of the scenes that you wrote, in theory. I mean, I see the potential of them if you can get the anger out of them. Mostly it's the character of Celeste, here she starts off being normal, well normal for her, at the beginning of the book and then, all of a sudden, there is all this hostility coming from her that isn't her. I'd like to think that I know your characters just as well as you do. I'm sorry if that is arrogant, but it's true. She would never behave as rudely as you have her acting and that right there is where your problem is. Let me ask you this, you were half way through chapter eight when your boyfriend broke up with you, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"I knew it. That is where the shift is. It's like you were taking your anger and venting it through the story."
I grabbed the computer from where he left it sitting on the coffee table and started rereading that chapter for the hundredth time. Edward started pointing out specific instances of what he had been noticing and I was dumbfounded. I had read that chapter at least a hundred times and never noticed that my characters were acting so outrageously out of character that it was shameful. I had had no idea that I had transferred all of my anger and resentment into my book. But now that I knew where and what the problem was I knew how to fix it. I was already formulating the scene and dialogue in my head. I was so thrilled to be over the block that I nearly grabbed Edward and kissed him. Luckily, I thought better of it and didn't embarrass myself like that. I really didn't see Edward reacting well to me jumping him on my father's couch.
Edward and I talked about the book for another hour before he decided to head home to go to bed. I, however, curled up on the couch with my blanket, a cup of tea, and my laptop and went to work. About midnight I got up and grabbed the remainder of the pizza out of the fridge and ate it cold. The last time that I remembered looking at the clock it was three in the morning.
I was writing a sex scene between two of my main characters when I looked up at the kitchen door and found Edward standing there with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Without taking his eyes off of me he stalked into the room and sat down on the couch beside me. He was sitting as close to me as was humanly possible. He pour each of us a glass of wine and handed me mine. Our eyes locked as we took our first sips of wine. He grabbed the glass out of my hand and put both of them on the coffee table and then pulled me into his lap.
He pulled my face closer to him and started to kiss me. There was more fire and passion in that kiss than any other I'd ever had in my entire life. It wasn't long before he started kissing my jaw and neck, making me moan. And his lips weren't the only part of him that was wandering. His hands were on my ass and pulling me closer to him. I could feel him and he was so hard against me and it only made me moan more. I removed my hands from where I had them threaded through his hair and pulled my nightgown off, leaving me completely naked on his lap. His shirt joined mine mere seconds later as I struggled to get his jeans unbuttoned.
The rest moved so fast and before I knew what was happening I was riding him at a frantic pace but it felt so amazing. I was almost there. I was so, so close and I could tell that he was too, when there was a banging on the door. It startled both of us and Edward jumped up so fast that I went flying off his lap and hit the coffee table.
The next thing I knew I was laying on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. The banging on the front door came louder and this time it was joined by Rose calling out for me. I sat up and was confused when I realized that I was still dressed in my yoga pants and t-shirt that I had been wearing the night before. I looked around and saw that my computer was lying on the floor beside me and I realized that I must have fallen asleep. I wanted to cry when it hit me that it was all just a dream. It was a fucking amazing dream, but still just a dream.
I got up and stomped to the front door, wanting to yell at Rosalie for having the worst timing in the world and waking me when she did. I never got a chance to because she started freaking out the second I opened the door, "OH MY GOD! Bella! Your head is bleeding."
"It is?" I asked reaching up to my forehead only to realize that I was, indeed, bleeding. Rosalie pushed past me into the house and ran for the kitchen. She returned quickly carrying some ice wrapped in a towel and my purse.
"How do you not know that you have a head wound, especially one that obviously needs stitches. We need to get you to the ER. I'm so glad that Carlisle is on duty today so he can take care of you."
I looked down and noticed for the first time that Bree was sitting on a chair on the porch playing with a doll. Rose scooped her up while herding me to my car like I was about to bleed to death at any second. I tried to reassure her that I was fine but she was not about to listen to me. I gave up and climbed into her SUV and all of a sudden I realized I was feeling dizzy.
EPOV:
It was a never ending stream of customers since I opened the doors this morning. I didn't even get lunch and I was now starving. I didn't get days like this very often but I was grateful for them when they came around. That didn't mean that I wasn't completely exhausted by the time that I walked the last customers out of the store and locked the door behind them. I surveyed the store and it was a complete disaster from people carrying books around and then changing their minds. I just don't understand why they have to just drop the books wherever they were standing. Why not put it back right or just give it to me? Cleaning up this mess was destined to be an all night project.
I was stuck reorganizing a whole shelf of romance novels that ironically included Bella's when there was a knock on the window behind me. I turned to see my father standing there, waving at me. I pointed at the door and went to let him in.
"I figured that you would be having dinner with Bella tonight. It's getting late, shouldn't you be getting ready to go over there? " He asked me as he walked in and went to sit in the chair behind the cash register.
"We don't have plans to get together tonight. Why would you think that we did?"
"Oh. I just assumed that… I was going to have you call me and let me know if she was alright. Rose promised to stay with her until she had to go home and start dinner and I just thought since you've been spending so much time together lately you would be heading over there."
"What happened that Rose had to stay with her?"
"She hit her head pretty hard this morning and cut herself bad enough that she needed stitches."
"How did she hit her head?"
"I never did get that out of her. But falling and tripping are common experiences for Bella. I tell you, it was a true dejavu moment for me. Do you know how many times I had to fix her up when she was a kid and came to visit Charlie? The girl is the original definition of a klutz."
"Yeah, I've seen that a few times since she's been here this week. Maybe I should go check on her. Just to make sure that she's alright. Are you sure that she didn't have a concussion?"
"I'm sure about that. I would have called Esme and sent her over to watch over her if that was the case. She's dealt with plenty of concussions with your brother when he was playing football." Dad stood to leave, "I better get home to my supper before your mother starts worrying about me. But hey, if you need an excuse for stopping by Bella's, your mom was going to call on her tomorrow to invite her over for dinner. Ask her for us will you? And then let us know."
"Sure, I'll ask her." Dad walked out of the door and I locked it behind him. I stood staring at the mess that was my store for less than a minute before I was out the door and on my way to Bella's.
I pulled into the drive way and immediately noticed that Bella had all the lights on in the house. It took several tries of knocking on the door before I saw her running down the stairs to let me in. I almost yelled out to her not to run and sure enough, she slipped a little at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily, she was able to catch herself before she fell and smacked her head one the stairs. I groaned when she laughed at herself like it was funny that she was so accident prone.
"I guess you heard?" she joked as she opened the door.
"Yeah, Dad stopped by the store. He was worried about you."
"Did he ask you to come check on me because Rose refused to leave until she absolutely had to?"
"Actually, mom wanted to know if you would join us for dinner tomorrow."
"Oh." She looked taken aback, "You know, yeah, I will. There's something that I need to talk to her about." I followed her into the living room and watched as she flopped down on the couch, "Hey, I wanted to thank you again for your help. I was able to get a lot of work done last night."
"It was really my pleasure, Bella. So how did you hurt yourself, anyway?"
"Uh, I just fell and hit my head on the coffee table," she mumbled while blushing. I didn't get how she could be laughing about slipping a minute ago and now she was blushing and being evasive? There was some that she was not telling me. I tried again to get the truth out of her but she refused to elaborate. I gave up quickly, not wanting to irritate her and changed the subject, "So what were you doing upstairs? I knocked several times."
"Oh, I was in Charlie's room setting up boxes."
"Boxes?"
"I have to start packing up Charlie's things, Edward. Trust me, I don't really want to do it, but I have to do it."
"I know that, Bella. I've been expecting it. Doesn't mean that it's easy for me to think about, but I'm a realist. Do you want some help?"
Her head shot up, "You'd be willing to help me?"
"Yeah, I think it could be therapeutic, in a strange way."
"That was my thought when I decided to just do it. I thought that putting it off wasn't going to make it any easier." She was right. Doing it tomorrow or next month, it wouldn't make a difference at all. It was going to be hell going through all of Charlie's belongings and deciding what to keep, what to give away, and what to throw in the garbage. That part was going to make my heart hurt. I couldn't even think about having to throw away anything that belonged to Charlie into a garbage can. Is that what all of our lives were reduced to? After we were dead, if our family didn't see the value in our most prized treasures, they just ended up in the garbage, no matter how much it meant to you when you were alive?
A/N:
ok. I am so sorry about last week. I meant to warn everyone when I posted chapter 10 that 11 would be delayed and I forgot to add it to the author's note. It was a busy week for me with my office moving and then I went away for the weekend. Which, I can tell you that floating around a hotel pool when you have said pool completely to yourself really helps your creativity. It was so good for me. Thank you to Sweetpea123 for her awesome betaing skills. Next week should be on schedule and reviews will get teasers.