EPOV
I'm not sure how, but Jasper managed to talk me down from the ledge I was on after Bella locked me out. The two of us have fought a lot over the years, but this was taking it a step too far. I heard her shuffling around in the kitchen before retreating to her room, and I finally chanced it and left mine to get something to eat.
I found a pot of soup on the stove with a note on the counter next to it. Chicken and dumplings. I know it's your favorite.
I sigh, turning the burner on to heat it up and grabbing a bowl for myself. I'll be damned if it isn't the best batch of dumplings I've ever had, but I'm still pissed at Bella. After I eat, I clean up and check the fire. It's almost out, and I close the glass doors on the grate before heading back to my room.
I pace around a little before finally crawling into bed and scrolling through my phone for a few hours and passing out. When I wake in the morning, everything is silent. There's no sound of anyone else in the house. No smell of coffee or food cooking. Bella isn't getting herself situated in the hammock in the loft. It's totally silent.
Making my way to the bathroom, I see the mirror fogged up slightly and realize that she has to be awake. I don't necessarily want to talk to her, but we have to survive four more days together; I'll have to see her or speak to her at some point.
After brushing my teeth and using the toilet, I walk to the kitchen to find the tell-tale signs of someone having been around. The nearly silent dishwasher is running, and there's a clean cereal bowl drying on a towel on the counter.
Frustrated by Bella's presence but not seeing her, I have breakfast and try to eat up as much of the day as I can. I snagged one of the bottles of bourbon, and I've been nursing it while lying on the couch reading when I hear her bedroom door creak open. I peek down the hall to see her slip into the bathroom. I get up quickly and stand by her door. When she comes out of the bathroom, she jumps a little.
Her face is splotchy, and her eyes are red and puffy. "Have you been crying?"
"Oh, uh, yeah." She wipes at her face with her long sleeves and sucks in a shaky breath. "Alice called and yelled at me. I'm really sorry, Edward. It was just a joke. I wasn't going to leave you out there any longer than I did. Now, Alice is threatening to kick me out of the wedding." She lets out a strangled cry. "Kick me out of her life really. And I'm just … I'm sorry."
Bella's sobbing in the hall, and I don't know what to do, so I just stand there, staring at her. "Um, yeah. It was just a joke. I'm mad, but it's fine. Whatever."
She nods, saying nothing, and pushes past me to her room.
The smell of bourbon reeks off of her, making me wince. "Have you been drinking in here?"
"Yeah." Bella holds up an almost empty bottle of booze, and I shake my head.
"You locked me out after we were getting along really well, and all you can think about is yourself? Our friends are so worried about us that they sent us here to hash everything out, and you're worried about not being in a wedding? It's just a wedding. Get a fucking grip, Bella."
I stomp away from her, grabbing a house key and slipping it into my pocket before walking outside. I just want some air and some space. Maybe I should call Jasper and have him come pick us up. It would be better than all of this.
"Why don't you shut up with your holier than thou attitude, Edward. It's not just the wedding. It's my entire friendship with Alice!" She stumbles a little coming out of the house, but her eyes are sharp as she glares at me.
"You're drunk. Go sleep it off." I jog down the short front steps and into the yard. It's slippery with mud from the rain and snow, but I just want to put the space between us.
"Is that your problem with me? Do you think I drink too much?"
"Yeah, I think you do. You're also kind of a mean drunk, but we all know you're a bitch." I shrug my shoulders and flip her off. I know I'm taunting her, but I don't care now. "You're so hot and cold. You were just crying and apologizing to me, and now you're trying to fight."
"Oh, I'll fight you. You always act like you're better than everyone. Always have to be the voice of reason. Settled in your career and your life before everyone else. You've always looked down on me." She steps down into the yard, keeping her distance. "You never gave me a chance, Edward."
"I look down on you because you're short!"
"I'm sensitive about my height! You know that." She's seething, but we're both a little drunk, and I don't care.
"You're sensitive about all the wrong things. You don't care about anything that you could actually change or things that bother other people." Putting my hands on my hips, I raise my voice a few octaves. "Oh, I'm Bella. I'm the smartest person ever. I read and know obscure things that make people feel dumb and uncomfortable. People don't want to hear about catacombs at a child's christening!"
"I'm Edward," she mimics my voice. "I like slutty girls, and I wasn't good enough to get into med school."
"Take that back. I told you why I didn't become an MD." I take a step toward her, and she moves closer to me.
"Yeah, you couldn't hack it!"
I've never wanted to hit a woman … ever. But Bella is a she-beast from hell, and I will have absolutely no regrets sending her right back into the pit. "Walk away, Bella."
"What are you gonna do?" She shoves me a little, and I chuckle, humorlessly. "Huh?"
"Don't push me. You won't like it. This isn't a game." I take a deliberate step back, but she comes closer to me yet again.
"Oh, it's always been a game between us, Edward, and you've always been losing." I turn away from her to take a deep breath, and that's when she takes the opportunity to throw cold, wet mud at my back.
Turning slowly, I find her smirking. I bend down swiftly, gathering the dirt in my own hands and throwing it right in her face. She shrieks, and the next thing I know, all five-foot-four of her is flying at me, and we hit the ground hard.
Between her screaming, my yelling, and both of us trying to get some well-aimed hits in, a rainstorm begins to fall around us. It only serves to make everything even more slippery, and our faces are smeared with watery dirt.
My head is starting to clear, and I let Bella pin me on my back as she straddles me.
"Who's the bitch now, Cullen?"
Her chest is heaving under the tight thermal she's wearing, and I can just make out her nipples through the dampness. I can feel my cock tighten in my pants and hope to God she can't feel it. I always knew there was a layer of attraction; I couldn't deny that Bella was good looking. I just assumed we were so annoyed by each other that it didn't matter.
I see Bella's eyes widen slightly, and I know she can feel everything. Her lips part slightly, and she grinds over me, causing me to groan out her name and try to push her off of me. Except, she's much stronger than she looks, or I'm drunker than I thought.
"Edward?" The rain is still falling down around us, hard. The temperature hasn't dipped, and I can feel the humidity settle in just enough. She loosens her grip on my wrists, and my hands travel up her thighs to her hips, and without really thinking, I guide her body to grind over mine once again. She and I moan together, and I move my hand up her waist, stopping just below her breasts on either side.
"What … what are we doing?" I'm panting, feeling sweaty and terrified all of a sudden.
"Touch me," Bella whispers, and when I cup her breasts over her soaked shirt and bra, her hard nipples seem to firm up even more under my touch. "Fuck."
Bucking up into her, I snake my hands under her shirt, and she immediately pulls it off and reaches down to pull off mine. "What are we doing?"
"I don't know. Shut up, Edward." She shifts, and I pull her leggings and underwear down, and when they get caught on her wet socks, I tug until one leg is free. Her fingers are scrambling to open the fly of my jeans, and when she finally does, I shimmy them down just enough.
We both take one hard look at each other, and before either of us can say anything, she crashes her lips to mine. I expect for both of us to snap out of whatever spell we're under, but the second I taste her on my tongue, I'm done for. I wrap my arms around Bella, pulling her even closer to me and driving my tongue into her mouth. It feels like a million tiny sparks are going off all over my body, and when I feel like I might explode, she pulls away. "Shit."
I nod after her. "Yeah."
She looks at me for another moment, her fingers curling into the hair at the nape of my neck, before adjusting herself and sliding onto my hard cock. We both groan at the contact, and she pauses before either of us moves.
"I've got an IUD, and I'm clean. I didn't … I mean." I shut her up by bucking into her, and she throws her head back.
"I didn't plan on this either. Just … shut up." Bella narrows her eyes at me, and braces her hands against my shoulders and begins to bounce up and down, building both of our orgasms. We're both panting, and I reach down with the cleanest finger I have to rub at her clit, Bella screams, rocking her body as she crashes over the edge.
Bella tugs on my hair and slams her lips to mine once again, and I can feel her pussy clench around me, and it sends me over the edge. Yelling her name, I come, and we both collapse into a heap in the mud.