I don't own twilight. I own my characters' experiences, pasts, and internal struggles.
Bella walked to her acting class as usual. It has been five days since Edward showed up at her place unannounced, and while she is not torn up trying to decide what to do, she wants him to think that and so has yet to call him with the verdict.
Once the class starts, they do their usual routine. They start out with their acting couch Maria telling them what they will work on today. It's almost always an emotion, and today is no exception; they are working on anger. After some light instructions, they break into groups with each two people partnering up, and as usual, she partners with Tony.
Tony and her go over their scenes together and each one of them criticizes the other's performance. Halfway through their work Maria reaches them while making the rounds and observes their work. She gives them some pointers but tells them that for the most part, they are doing great.
They go over the scenes a couple of more times until Tony tells her, "Hey since you have a casting call after this, why don't we go over your scenes?"
She initially declines not wanting to tax him, but after much persuasion she agrees. They go over her scenes a couple of times. Her character is minor but her scenes are important to the plot of the movie, and while Ted keeps telling her that she has the roles in the bag and the casting call is just a formality, she doesn't want to take her chances and doesn't want to feel like she didn't earn it, so she has been working her ass off to make sure that she is not taking the shot of someone more worthy.
As they are practicing they hear, "this is not the scene I gave you." They both turn around and realise that Maria has been watching them train for a couple of minutes. Bella is embarrassed by getting caught doing so but Peter isn't.
"Isabella has an audition after the class and I was helping her practice for it," Peter tells Maria.
"Then show me what you got," Maria tells them. Peter smiles at Bella and they act out the scene together. Maria watches them and tells them to repeat it multiple times and through them gives them pointers. Once satisfied with their performance specifically hers, she leaves them to their device. Once the two hours are up, they collect their things to leave.
When she is in the doorway Maria calls to her and says, "good luck in your audition and call to tell me how it goes."
She leaves the audition with a spring in her step. They liked her performance and Ted wasn't even there. They loved it and told her so. She was initially nervous and ended up stuttering while creating them, but she got her act together and impressed him which got the part. She decides to walk home since the walk is not that long. On the way she sends Edward a message that she is going to stop at his place the next morning. She has been giving him the cold shoulder long enough. They need to go back to business.
Is it possible that her decision is influenced by her good mood?
Yes.
Does that mean it's wrong?
Nope, enough time has passed.
She passes by a cake shop and decided to buy cake to celebrate at home with Seth and the kids. She walks the rest of the way more carefully than before since she has cake with her.
"Guess what I brought with me," she yells from the doorway of the apartment after she locks the door. Adam comes running towards and once he sees the box in her hands he starts clapping his hands and jumping up and down.
"Peter, Seth, Mummy got cake," he yells for her. She walks into the house and finds Seth and Peter lying on the couch waking from their slumber.
"What's the occasion," Seth asks her righting himself while holding Peter to his chest.
Bella drops the cake on the counter then takes Peter from him as she tells him, "I just auditioned for a role and got it."
"What? Bella that is huge. Why did you not tell me you were auditioning today," he asks her jumping to his feet.
"And if that didn't work out have that failure hanging above my head for the rest of our lives, no thanks," she tells him looking at Peter who is still not up and whispers, "you hear that Peter. I got a role. Things will get better."
They spend the rest of the day eating cake, take out and watching a movie together, and for the first time since she moved in she is able to breath and feels like thing are on track. She let's go of all of her fears, and demons and pretends that she is the 16 years old kid that got in the car with her mum.
She rings the bell of his door then waits.
And waits.
And waits.
She starts tapping her foot on the floor in irritation and looks at her watch. She told him she will drop by at 8:30. He arrives at his office at 9 o'clock which means that he is supposed to be up. She rings the door again. She looks at her watch again; it's 9:40.
Are you kidding me. I have been waiting ten minutes for his ass to open the door. There better be an emergency. A fire or something.
She rings the door again; this time pressing the button for one minute straight. She is not above giving him a headache or scaring the crap out of him if it means he will finally answer the door. She hears clicking of shoes coming her way as she taps her foot on the floor.
The door swings open and she is greatest by air. She looks down and finds a short woman with blonde hair wearing a baggie shirt and nothing else. Automatically, Bella's bitch persona gets to action before her nice one can act heart broken.
"Where is Edward?" she demands.
"He is in the shower. Who are you?"
"His girlfriend," Bella replies and watches as the colour drains from the woman's face; she looks down at her attire and starts stuttering, but Bella waves her off and tells her, "Dont worry darling. We have an open relationship. You have nothing to worry about, although the open time is typically between 10 PM and 8:30 AM so maybe I should be angry," Bella finishes as she checks her watch.
The woman gets flustered as she steps out of the door to let her in. She tries to say something but the sound gets stuck in her throat. Bella walks in and keeps her coat on as she looks around the living room and notices the various clothing pieces thrown around the furniture.
She looks at the woman as she asks her, "how long has he been in the shower?"
Something comes out the woman but not intelligible, she clears her throat twice then says, "15 minutes."
Bella nods her head and the woman tells her pointing towards the bedroom, "I will just go and change."
"Dont do it at my expense. This is not an unfamiliar sight," Bella tells her but it has the opposite effect on the woman as she looks sick and flees to the room. Bella leans back and scrolls through her phone as she waits for Edward to finish showering. The woman returns wearing most of her clothes and offers to make her coffee while she waits for Edward to finish showering.
"Ohh sweetie, I know my way around his kitchen. If I wanted, I would have made one for myself," Bella tells her. The woman blushes as she ducks her head and looks down at the coffee dropping in the mug from the coffee machine trying to look busy.
Liar liar pants on fire.
She doesn't know that I am lying so my lies don't count.
Finally they hear the sound of the bathroom door open and she hears him calling, "Emily who is at the door?"
Emily looks at her unsure of what to say then relies, "can you come please."
A few seconds later the sight of a wet Edward in a towel greats her. She subtly looks him up and down taking in his defined arms and shoulders and chiseled chest.
She drinks him in as she raises an eyebrow at him and say, "you have got quit the decor sense. A bra over a light lamp. How inventive, tacky but inventive non the less."
Only then does Edward notices her but by then she is already up and on her feet, "Isabella?"
"I will be waiting for you in your office. Don't disappoint me by being late."She hears him call her name but ignores him and leaves the condo.
She finally breathes out once she is outside of the building. She doesn't know how she kept it together that long but she did. She marches quickly to his office angry at herself for getting her hopes up. She doesn't know when, but at one point she thought that he genuinely liked her and for a hot minute she started liking him too.
For a hot minute she thought that she found one of the good ones.
See I warned you. Good thing we found out early on before you had your heart set on him.
Shut up no one asked for your opinion.
She blinks her eyes trying to stop the tears from coming. She is disappointed in him. She knows that they are not real; she is not delusional. She knows that he doesn't owe her anything, but doesn't he owe it to himself? He claimed that he liked her multiple times, doesn't he owe it to his heart to be honest with it?
Wouldn't he want to stay faithful to himself?
The way he reacted with this whole Aro thing was not one of someone who was worried over business. It was of someone offended, and not by a small scale. What should she make of that? That he is the kind of a person who separates sex from love, someone who thinks that cheating on your spouse is okay since, that he likes her but enough not to get his dick wet with another.
Or maybe he never liked her he was just charmed by her looks. Once he got to know her he realized that her looks aren't enough to offset the rest of her. She is a single mum who is broke. Her personality is not that great. Her looks can only take her so far. On top of that, they aren't her own, to begin with. It is everyone else's property, not her's. You can't own something when it is your only selling point.
She stops walking and stops a cab. She is tired of walking and her feet are killing her. She hails a cab and tells her the direction as she gets comfortable in the back seat. She takes out her compact mirror and fixes the make up under her eyes. Once done, she sinks back into the seat and prepares herself for their face off in his office. She knows it's not a face-off and that she is being dramatic, but this is how she needs to think of it to take her emotions out of the equation.
She breathes deeply in and out with her eyes closed when she hears, "you look like you are preparing for war." She opens her eyes and finds the brown eyes of the taxi driver starting at her.
"You have no idea," she tells her as she laughs. She is preparing for a war against her heart.
"You had the look I have whenever I am taking a break from my kids by hiding in the bathroom, it is what I like to call a warrior's rest."
"You have kids," Bella asks her surprised that a female taxi driver has them. In her head, working as a taxi is not worth the pay and more expensive than child care.
"Yes I do. Lilly and Matilda," she tells her while pointing at two pictures hanging from the rearview mirror.
"They are beautiful," Bella tells her softly as she stares at the pictures of the two red head dolls because the only way to describe the beautifully girls in the pictures is as dolls.
"I know. I am lucky to have them."
Bella is quite for a couple of minutes before she say, "Are they smart. Make sure they are smart. Beautiful is good but being smart is far more useful. It pays the bills. Never let them attach their worth to their looks," she tells her wistfully. The taxi driver nods her head as she takes a left then comes to a stop.
Bella gives her twenty dollars extra and tell her, "for Lilly and Matilda. I know what it's like to be a single mum. I have two boys of my own." Then Bella gets an idea and asks her for her name and number.
"I don't have a car and I would rather not wait around for a car to show up when I can call in advance," Bella tells her after she gets her name and phone number. Of course, Bella doesn't also tell her that dealing with a taxi driver one on one is cheaper than a car service or Uber.
She enters the building and catches the elevator before it closes. She prepares in her head what she will say and tries to imagine every single possible thing Edward could tell her in the time it takes for her to reach the 30th floor.
Once the elevator reaches its destination she steps out and walks towards Edward's office. She waves at his assistant whom to her credit doesn't tell her anything or stop her from entering his office and then waits for him to come. It takes him 10 minutes of her scrolling through her phone to arrive.
"Open relationship?" he asks taking her by surprise. That was not a statement she expected him to open with, but she knows how to keep up with him non the less.
"As far as everyone is concerned we are dating, but we can be with other people. That sounds awfully a lot likea open relationship," she tells him shrugging and not missing a beat.
Before he can get behind his office she stands up and tells him, "come here," then leans forward and fixes his tie making it too tight, "I was a bit skewed to the left."
He loosens it a bit as he tells her, "I expected you to be a bit angry," pauses for a second to raise his office phone to his ear and say, "get me my usual. Do you want anything," Edward says directing his question to her. She tells him her preference and he regalls it to his assistant.
They are silent for a couple of seconds then he says, "like I said. I expected you to be a bit angry but you have surprised me by how chill you are by the entire thing."
"I am not the one how has made it clear that I am interested in the other, so of course I am not angry or hurt over you sleeping with someone. That said, I am not too happy with the way you conducted the entire thing."
"What does that even mean?" he asks her not sure how she expected him to conduct it. She doesn't expect him to clear it with her first, does she?
"It means that when as far as everyone is concerned, you are in a committed relationship, your booty call shouldn't ever answer the door and if the door is answered make sure your underwear is not hanging of furniture in the living room like art decor. Which speaking off, how is it that your underwear was in the living room yet you outerwear was in the bedroom? Did you take off part of your clothes in the bedroom only to realize that the bed is too small so you decided to conduct the rest of your business in the living room?"
They both burst into laughter by the end of what she was saying acknowledging that the clothes debacle didn't make any sense. He shrugs his shoulder as he hers a knock on the door and gets up to take the coffee from his assistant.
"Maybe you should ask her," Bella tells him as he hands her the coffee mug.
"That won't be possible. She said and I quote, you and your girlfriend might be okay with this, but I am not comfortable with getting involved in this."
"I don't blame her. This is a mess if you ask me," Bella asks laughing lightly at the strange topic they have found themselves discussing.
I hope you loved reading this chapter. Tell me you thoughts in reviews. All constructive criticism is welcom.
Some of you guys mentioned the trauma Bella suffered and how it is informing her worldview and the way she is acting and I am happy that you guys are seeing it through that lens and not judging her harshly.
Until the next chapter,
Stay Safe.