Chapter Three

A/N: I think I got the warped files fixed. Hopefully. Thanks for reading and your kind reviews!

"So, let me get this straight… He protected your car from theft, moved it into his own personal garage instead of having it towed, made you a two course maybe-more-but-you-didn't-stay-long-enough-to-find-out meal heavy on verbal foreplay and light on the chatter and you high tail it out of there because why?"

Bella cringed. When it was put that way it did seem pretty petty and unkind. "Because I'm an idiot?" Bella groaned, but she knew what Alice was thinking because it was also what she was thinking.

"Well, yeah!" Alice huffed, arms crossed and glaring. "You leave me no choice."

"What?"

"I am going to call Jake."

"What?"

"You are clearly not moving on from him. You are scared of the big bad hurt. I think one executively placed grudge fuck is order to get him out of your system once and for all because you are tossing this perfectly viable fuck toy off to the next chickadee that fluffs her feathers at him."

"You and him would be perfect together," Bella muttered.

"Oh, don't tempt me." Alice snickered, pulling at the sheet on her bed. She had washed them three times before they made it into the drier and that was only because Bella moved them for her.

"I don't want Jake back but I also don't want a fuck toy. I don't know what to do."

"Answer these questions as fast as possible without thinking. Okay?"

"Okay," Bella hedged side eyeing Alice as she put the pillow case on the pillow.

"Do you want sex?"

"Yes."

"Do you want sex with Jake?"

"No."

"Do you want sex with Seth?"

"The pizza guy?"

"Don't judge. Yes or no."

"No. Also, he's married."

"Not the point. Do you want sex with Edward?"

Bella sputtered, even though she knew it was coming.

"That is a HUGE yes." Alice sighed. "Neon sign yes. It's like he's got his cock in your mouth already. You can't even say it because it's already in there."

"You are so bad."

"Get shoes on." Alice didn't look up, just typed into her phone without looking.

Bella glanced at the pj's they both were wearing and the night masks they were playing around with. "No way."

"We're just going through the drive through. I want fries. You don't even need to get out. Go wash your face, get shoes on, we're going."

Bella moved through their apartment as quickly as she could. She left her pj pants on and put flip flops on. She grabbed her keys, purse and met Alice at the door.

Five minutes later and several places that served fries come and gone Bella started to get suspicious

"We're not going for fries are we?"

"Of course we are," Alice snickered. "I know the perfect guy who makes them."

"I should have known."

"You want something long, hot and salty in your mouth and you know it. Fries are a great alternative."

"How are we friends?"

"You love me."

"Not the point." Bella watched as the club came into view. It was full of patrons and all of them were dressed to the nines in skimpy black dresses. She didn't know what the theme was but knew they were horribly underdressed. "We can't go in like this!"

Alice shushed Bella as she answered the call on her phone. "Hey, Edward, we're here."

"How do you have Edward' number?"

Ignoring Bella, Alice nodded as if Edward could see her before turning around the whole building and right into the garage. It was already open and Bella could vaguely see Edward standing in the shadows inside.

When the headlights lit up the garage, he grinned widely, looking like an angel, but like a sinisterly sexy angel in another form fitting dress shirt and pants.

"He can't see me like this."

The car idled slowly forward into the garage and stopped.

Edward walked toward Bella's door and opened it, leaving Alice to open her own.

"Thank you," She flushed, trying to cover her chest. She didn't put her bra back on thinking they weren't going to get out, but it was too late. Edward already noticed.

"What brings you two here?"

"Fries," Alice moved around the car like she had been there a thousand times before. "Edward, meet my best friend Bella, Bella, this is my friend, Edward."

"You know each other?" Eyes darted at Alice.

"Since diapers, probably." Edward grinned.

"Shush you. That was only one time and in rush week in college." Alice turned to Bella, "everyone was in diapers. It wasn't some fetish thing, if that was what you were thinking."

"I was thinking more like since babies. Though, I can't stop thinking of either of you in diapers."

"Just Alice and the other girls were in diapers." Edward laughed. "They were cloth ones, at least. I was in the fraternity that countered hers so we got the full, humiliating show."

"So you go way back. Why am I just hearing about you now?"

"He moved back here about a year ago, but I had no idea. We were friends, but we didn't keep in touch. I met him again that night at the club. He introduced me to Jasper."

"So that's his name? The bucking bronco?"

"Yes," Alice sneered. "Don't make me safe word the conversation."

"Safe word the conversation?" Edward was vastly amused. He led the women into his home, which you could hear the throbbing club music.

"Yes. One has to instantly zip lip on the conversation and it all stops there."

"Ah, I see." Edward nodded, intrigued on what kind of conversations were safe worded and if any were about him. But instead he said, "She and Jasper hit it off and I was told to watch for your arrival and let you know that she wasn't going to make it."

"Which you didn't do."

Edward shrugged and gave a devious smirk. "I was distracted." He sauntered up to her, lining his body with hers, touching her with his fingers across her skin. "Could you blame me?"

"Is this what he was doing because I don't know how you resisted?" Alice sighed.

Bella took a step away from Edward and he darted his head to Alice with a bit of annoyance.

"Jasper's looking for you, Alice. You'll find him upstairs in the club."

"Oh!" Alice moved as fast as her legs would take her. "I'm sure you two will be fine without me! But I am taking my keys so she can't escape you again."

"Thanks," Edward laughed but Bella wasn't amused, Alice stilled at the door where she wouldn't be seen by Edward. "I will call Jake so help me-" she mouthed giving her friend a glare.

"Those last few seconds were totally awkward." Edward sighed.

"It always is around her." Bella moved from one foot to the next feeling very inappropriately dressed. Edward motioned for them to sit down on the couch.

"So who's Jake?"

The heat coursed over Bella's face like wildfire. "You heard that?"

"I'm used to the noise here so I've adjusted to hear other things when the club is going and I'm not working, like the television or random other things. I easily heard Alice though I respect your privacy if you don't want to tell me. I must say, though, that I don't enjoy competition."

"There's no completion. The retelling is just like living on a graveyard and digging up bones. Some things should just be done and buried, but yet they're a constant reminder."

"So you don't want to say?"

"He's my ex-fiancé. He left me a week before the wedding."

"With who?"

Bella wasn't expecting the question. Most people gave their sympathies with darting eyes trying to make their way away from the awkward conversation. But Edward didn't. He sat patiently waiting.

"One of my bridesmaids- they went on our honeymoon together."

Edward took in a sharp breath. "Ouch."

Shrugging, "I don't want him back, but I would like for him to someday feel the pain he caused me."

"He most likely will," Edward pulled her long hair off her shoulder. "Not with you but with something else. It all goes around. But that isn't for you to decide, right? You get to go off and live your life and make new choices and have new love interests."

"But I'm not…. Making new choices or having new love interests."

"You're here with me."

Bella turned toward him for the first time with new eyes. "I am here with you."

"So the moving forward part has already started."

"I can't go there again-"

"What path? The Jake path?"

"The whole thing."

"Well, it's too late for that. You're already moving forward in this direction." He pointed at himself then grabbed her chin and stared right into her eyes. "Nothing is being decided today and if there's a choice to be made we can make it." He was aloof and smiling and it made it hard to disagree so Bella just nodded. "I'm overdressed." Edward announced, jumping up from the couch.

"You're going to change? Aren't you working tonight?"

"I was- but then my plans changed."

"Don't change them for me."

"Too late. Already did."

"I could go. I should go."

"You could stay. You should stay." His eyes were hard on hers until she got his point and nodded. "I'll just go change and then we can make those fries you're wanting."

Against every bit of her self-preservation she said, "I'd like that."

.

The thumping of the club was almost calming as Bella sat in the dark grey living room. It was a couple of hours later, with a movie droning on and an empty plate of cheese fries that Edward cooked. Bella and Edward were cuddled on his comfy sofa. There wasn't anything that felt off, or weird, it felt nice. Something neither of them had had in a while. As the movie credits rolled on, Edward muted the music and only a bit of the music and thumping bass could be heard from the club.

"I was married once." He said quietly, feeling her stiffen instantly.

Bella's breath hitched in shock as she turned her head to look at him, "Where is she now?"

"She could be anywhere, I suppose." Edward shrugged. "I really don't know."

"What happened?"

"In the end we wanted different things. When we first met, we had plans to start a restaurant, to make a home and a family. I was working a lot to make the funds needed for the restaurant; she was taking night classes for art after she had a grand idea to decorate the restaurant with it. Anyway, she fell for her life drawing model. Apparently, he was quite the catch, tall dark, and comfortably naked in front of strangers and a free spirit in bed, so she said. It was new and different for her which was exciting. He sprouted off dreams of seeing the world, caravanning across the states and then jumping on a flight to wherever they wanted to explore there. She was all in; signed the divorce papers and before the ink was dry she was off to some place in New Mexico. But they didn't have any kind of plan or income, really, other than what she brought into the relationship. He was about as ambitious as a snail and that relationship fizzled once the allure wore off and the money ran out. Apparently, living in a van isn't as appealing as it looks on TV. She eventually found her way back home and then to me. I just couldn't- you know? It was too late to try again. I just couldn't trust her anymore."

"So, we have similar heartache."

"It would seem." He grinned, "But isn't it just a bit of backstory in our love story?"

"Love story, hmm?" She grinned back at him as he nodded.

"It could be a love story if you were open to that kind of thing."

"I would actually like to try a new love story."

"Good… first, time for bed." Edward could tell her instant anxiety but he ignored it as he turned off the television and led her into his bedroom, then bathroom to brush teeth. They met back in the bedroom when he moved in front of her, kissing her softly on her cheek by her ear. It made the fairies dance over her giddily. "I usually take the left side of the bed, but whatever side will do."

"Right is fine." She whispered.

He nodded and moved away from her, pulling the smoky colored sheets aside before getting into bed, still in his pajamas.

He motioned for her to join him. It was her choice. If she turned tail to go home, he'd understand that as well.

With her choice made, she got into the bed with a soft smile and laid on the pillow as he turned to turn out the light. They were instantly surrounded in darkness as she felt her heart thundering as he moved over the bed. She could feel his soft breath again for a moment before he kissed her lips goodnight.