Disclaimers: All characters of Twilight belong Stephenie Meyer. In no way do I own them. Only the character that I invented, Adaline, belongs to me.
Enjoy or not. Cheers.
Chapter 9
He closed the door then turned to look at me with that tender look again.
'Mayday,Mayday! I sense an awkward situation coming!' I thought as I stopped laughing.
"You have a beautiful laugh Adaline."
"Is that so. Thank you. Shall we continue with the visit?"
He looked amused at my evasion, "you really can't deal with compliments, can you?"
"Well, my mother always say that I need to learn how to accept compliments and that I am emotionally challenged. I can give you her number so that you may bond over those glorious qualities of mine." I said with a sarcastic smile, then turned around to go to towards the next door, "I got those qualities from my father by the way."
"Don't worry, those qualities are part of your charm. Perhaps I shall give you a compliment everytime we meet so that you get used to it." He said as he caught up to me.
He had an angelic expression on his face. I gave him a blank look.
"I am sure you are doing this out of the goodness of your little heart," I said ironically. "Only your face looks angelic but your character is another matter altogether. And thank you for the warning, I will make sure to evade you in the future."
"Can you? This is a small town. I am also acquainted with your father and know where you live." He said with a grin as he stopped in front of what I assume is the door to his office.
"You are enjoying bantering with me, aren't you?" I drawled out as I faced him directly with my arms crossed. "So what? You are going to practically stalk me so that you can compliment me? Should I expect to wake up one night to find you below my window, waxing poetry about my eyes? If so, warn me beforehand so that I can find a long wig or extremely long extensions to throw out of my window for you to climb up. I can be the Rapunzel to your Romeo. We will just have to make sure that neither my father nor any nosy neighbours catch us because that would be extremely awkward to explain."
He burst out in uncontrollable laughter at that.
"I can just imagine it on the news! [FORKS DOCTOR CAUGHT AT CHIEF SWAN'S HOUSE BY THE POLICEMAN HIMSELF. THE CULPRIT WAS TRYING TO CLIMB UP TO HIS DAUGHTER'S ROOM VIA A RAPUNZEL WIG!] " He said between laughter as he leaned against the door.
"Yes and in my statement I'll say that it was all your idea and that I want you to pay for the hair implants I'll have to do. Because who in merlin's name can hold a man's weight by their hair in reality? I am sure to have bald patches from where the wig has been torn off together with my hair." I drawled off
He laughed even more at this. I couldn't resist the small smile that curved my mouth at seeing him being so carefree and having fun. It was not my purpose to do so, but I am glad that I made him laugh. From what I have observed and from the little I have heard from my father, the good doctor was normally quite self-contained and always had a congenial smile on his face. It was good to see him in a relaxed state and a genuine smile. It made him look younger…and more charming… Ahem, anyway I quite enjoyed our banter too.
'The good doctor can be quite fun to talk to. Seems like he and I can get along quite well.'
"Very well then, I shall willingly take the blame and pay for your hair implants."
"Now, enough with the ridiculous conversation please. Let's carry on before Alice and Jasper come back."
He let out a few more chuckles, "as you wish, my lady. This is my office. You may come in." he said as he opened the door.
'My lady….? Okay, whatever floats your boat.'
" No need, I'll just have a quick peek…" I poked my head inside and was amazed by all the books held by the shelves all around the office. The shelves took the majority of the room and even nearly reached the ceiling. The big windows directly facing the door offered a great view to the forest outside. To the left there was a large desk with a leather chair and to the right there was an electric fireplace. Near the fireplace, there were a nice thick cream rug, a small table and two comfortable arm chairs. The office was done in light brown and creams. The furnitures were all some kind of rich dark brown wood. The combination of the smell of old leather, old books and wood was extremely pleasing.
"Even your office looks amazing. The corner near the fireplace looks so cosy."
"Thank you. You may come here to borrow and read some books if you wish."
"That's generous of you. Won't it bother you to have someone in your personal workspace?"
He smiled gently, "I assure you that it won't be a bother at all Adaline."
"Very well then. Thank you for your offer. I will have to ask you for some recommendations at a later time. Have you read all those books?"
"Most of them yes." He said as he closed the door after I stepped away.
"So you are a bibliophile. Your repertoire of random knowledge must be really good then." I said with a small smile as we continued on to the next door.
"I wouldn't say that."
"You are saying that just to be modest," I said teasingly as I rolled my eyes. "There is nothing wrong with having a lot of knowledge Carlisle. It just shows that you are a cultured man."
We stopped at the last door. I turned to glance at him to find that he was staring musingly at me. The good doctor was closer to me than I thought and this close, the blue flecks in his eyes were more obvious. It created an ambiguous atmosphere.
I tilted my head a little and asked lowly, "is something the matter?"
"No, not all. I am just pleasantly surprised. You are quite mature and have good reasoning for someone your age." He took a strand of my bangs and teasingly gave it a light tug, "I am glad to have met you," he finished with a mysterious smile.
"Oh thank you." I gave him a wide smile, "you are not so bad yourself. I have to say that I am starting to enjoy your presence Dr Cullen. You grow on people, just like fungus."
He threw his head back and laughed, "I don't think I've ever laughed as much as I did today. You are a breath of fresh air and joy Adaline. Thank you." He finished with a grin.
" I assure you that I do not do it on purpose. Now, no more mushiness please." I said with a small grin.
He shook his head lightly at me and finally opened the last door, "this is the computer room. Emmett mostly uses it to play online games. We all have our laptops, but we use this one sometimes for important things that demand high performance."
The computer room was completely white with black furniture. There were thick blackout curtains at the windows. The desktop on the left was fully equipped with all sorts of gadgets and held a luxurious apple computer screen. The rest of the room was surprisingly bare, except for the black cloth covering part of the wall in a corner.
'It looks like when you go to take passport photos.'
I had just finished inspecting the room when I heard a car. I went to the large windows and saw that Alice and Jasper were back.
"The two traitors are back." I muttered lowly to myself.
My suspicion of their hearing was confirmed when both of them raised their heads to look at me. I gave them a deadpan look.
'You two are really dunderheads. Really, you must be grateful that the majority of the population are slow, stupid and eager to bury their heads in the sand.'
" It seems like you will finally get to eat. Shall we?"
"Yes we shall. Thank you for the tour Carlisle." I said as I passed him to go down the stairs.
"It was my pleasure."
When we reached the living, Alice was waiting impatiently for us.
"Did you have fun while we were gone Addy?" She asked with a smirk as we approached her.
"Yes, so much fun. Looking at rooms and being shown bathrooms really made my day. Why, that big plant in the corridor had me absolutely giddy. And you? Did you have fun getting food?" I drawled with a raised eyebrow, deliberately ignoring her intended meaning.
When all else fails, sarcasm is always your best friend. Jasper let out a small snort and got glared at by his girlfriend. The good doctor was trying to hide his laugh and failing miserably.
I turned to him, "you are not fooling anyone. If you want to laugh then laugh already."
He finally let out his laugh out loud and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Your witty reactions and responses always take me by surprise!" Alice exclaimed. "Now let's go feed you."
With that she took my hand and marched me to the kitchen. Carlisle and Jasper, both sporting a grin, dutifully followed behind us. When we reached the kitchen, I was dismayed to see all the bags on the table.
"Are you trying to feed an army? Who, in merlin's name, is going to eat all this food?!"
"We took a bit of everything as we didn't know what you liked. Don't worry, we can give anything that is not eaten to shelters." Jasper said calmly.
"So what do you want?" Alice asked from the other side of the island.
I looked at them blankly for a while before saying to myself, 'Go with the flow Adaline, just go with the flow. How is that saying again? Ah yes! YOLO and all that jazz.'
I took a deep breath, "do you have any pasta in there?" I asked as I leaned in to peer into a plastic bag.
"We do! Here they are." With that, she pushed a plastic bag towards me.
There were different sorts of pasta in there. I chose the arrabiata one.
"This one is enough. Thank you both."
'…. Right now I only have suspicions, so I am not sure whether they eat or drink anything. I also do not feel comfortable about them paying for my food and that they had to buy so much due to my presence. At least the rest of the food won't go to waste… I want to give them their money back for the food….but I think that it would seem ungrateful and rude. I am also quite sure that they would refuse… But still, nowadays it is also considered bad manners not to ask whether they wish to have their money back…What in merlin's name is this conundrum?!'
Just as I was hesitatingly opening my mouth to speak, Alice quickly interjected, "Don't worry about the food cost, Addy. You are our friend and we were the ones who invited you. We would be horrible hosts if we let you starve, wouldn't we? And also, it was Carlisle that paid for everything." She said playfully with a wink.
I closed my mouth with a click and gave her a deadpan look.
'Oh that makes it better….NOT! It doesn't make it better! Not at all, you hellish pixie!It's okay Adaline. Remember, keep calm, go with the flow and YOLO.'
I turned to the man in question, who was standing a little away and watching us with an amused smile, "Thank you then, Carlisle."
"You are quite welcome Adaline." He said with a mischievous grin.
"Do you want to eat in the living room?" Alice asked.
"On that pristine white sofa? No thank you. May I eat here." I asked the good doctor.
Politeness never hurt.
"Of course you may." He responded. "Treat this house as yours Adaline. You don't have to ask permission for everything."
'…No comments…And Alice wipe that look from your face. You look as if you are watching a romance movie taking place before your eyes…Ugh, just thinking about cheesy romance movies makes me shudder.'
Surprisingly, the good doctor pulled the chair for me and looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I could clearly see the laughter in his eyes despite his neutral face.
'I just know that he is doing it on purpose knowing that it'll make me tick!'
I resolutely didn't look in Alice's and Jasper's direction as I took the seat and let out a small 'thank you' with a blank face. I ignored the fact that my ears were a little hot and started eating.
My late lunch was passed with me eating and talking about Alaska, of all things, to the other three between bites. I didn't even bother asking them why they were not eating. Alice spaced out for a little while during the conversation.
I had just taken my last bite of food when she suddenly asked, " Addy, did you ever have a boyfriend?"
That last heavenly bite nearly went down the wrong passage and I started coughing like mad. Carlisle's and Jasper's head had snapped to Alice when she asked that stupid question but they quickly turned it back to me when they heard me trying to hack up a lung.
Carlisle quickly went to get me a glass of water while Jasper got up to stand beside me and started shifting from foot to foot. He looked like he was facing an existential crisis.
'Seriously, I am here hacking like mad and you are conflicted on whether to pat me on my back?!'
Fortunately, Alice got up, pushed him to the side and gently patted my back. Carlisle came back with the water and I gratefully took a sip. The good doctor replaced Alice in patting my back. What a wonderful sight I was with my blotchy face, tearing eyes and my hair half out of my bun.
I gratefully took a deep breath after the coughing had subsided and gave Alice the 'big eyes'.
'What the bloody hell Alice?! That question came out literally out of nowhere! What correlation does Alaska and boyfriends have?! Are they renting them out there, or something?!' I tried to communicate to her.
"Can you breathe better now Adaline?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes I am, thank you. My food just nearly went the wrong passage. Nothing serious."
The good doctor's eyes were now dark and he still had a concerned look on his face. Jasper, the poor soul, now had a relieved look on his face.
Alice had apparently discarded the meaning behind the look a gave to her as said, "so, did you?" She had a confused frown on her face.
My face was flushed red as I reluctantly let out a "NO!" at the same time as Carlisle said "Alice!" in a reprimanding voice. Jasper just stood rigidly beside Alice and glanced at each of us.
Of course Edward just had to choose that time to come to the kitchen. It made the atmosphere more awkward. He and Alice shared a look then turned to look at me at the same time.
"Are you sure?" Edward asked.
I gave him an incredulous look.
'How the bloody hell can I not be sure?! Unless I have dissociative identity disorder and one of them got with someone while I was unconscious?!' I thought sarcastically. ' Of course I am bloody sure! And this is none of your bloody business anyway!'
"Yes!" I exclaimed with an expression that clearly said I thought they were off their rockers.
Carlisle opened his mouth to reprimand them again but abruptly closed his mouth again. I guess some sort of conversation, that I couldn't hear, went on because I could only discern the slight movement of their lips.
'Yes, let's just leave poor me hanging here like a flash of wild pineapple amongst roses. And suddenly going silent is not suspicious at all. After such an awkward question too.'
The silent Jasper suddenly asked, " did someone ever asked you out several times? And you refused each time?"
I gave him a weird look, "how do you know that? In fact yes. Some dunderhead, who is the son of my mother's previous friend, was quite persistently trying to ….woo me. I think I was fifteen/sixteen years old at the time. I can't remember clearly. Sweet merlin, I can't even remember his name and his face! He gave up after I bluntly told him that he was getting annoying and to go look up the definition of the word 'no' in the dictionary. I may have also implied that he was stupid and that my neighbour's dog rated even higher than him in my book…"I muttered while innocently looking to the side.
They burst out laughing at that. I rolled my eyes at them.
"So how about a movie?" Alice asked abruptly with a clap of her hands. She had a smile back on her face.
We all blinked stupidly at her at the sudden change of subject.
'Really?! You put me on the spot with that bloody question, which you could have asked me in private later, and now you want to watch a movie? I don't even like to watch movies. '
I was going to tell her just that when she totally ignored me and went to the living room. Edward and Jasper followed behind her. I looked at their backs dumbly before clicking my mouth shut.
"I apologise on Alice's behalf . It was quite rude of her to ask you such a personal question. The least she could have done was to ask you about it in private. I assure you that I will be having a talk with both her and Edward later." Carlisle said lowly while softly caressing my back.
'Has his hand been there all this time? I didn't even notice it. Granted, I was otherwise occupied… Why is he leaving it there as if my back was conquered land?'
" I am quite a private person, so I didn't really like this situation but don't worry about it. I am unfortunately quite used to it. My mother has done the same thing many a times to both Bella and I in all sorts of public settings. Especially before her friends. Sometimes, the questions were even worse." I replied as I unconsciously reached up to untie the rest of my hair.
Carlisle's hand abruptly stopped on my back. I turned to look at him and saw that he was staring at my hair and discreetly sniffing the air.
'Great, the sniffing weirdo is back. Don't tell me that my hair smells bad. I just washed it yesterday.'
"Your hair is so beautiful and smells good. It looks like caramel." He said as he took a strand of my hair between his fingers. He brought the strand to his face to smell it all while looking into my eyes. His eyes were extremely dark again.
'Okay this is getting weird and too much. Time to retreat. Movie here I come,' I thought as I felt my face get a little hot.
"Oh thank you. Shall we join the others?" I didn't even wait for him to answer and turned to walk rapidly into the living room. I resolutely ignored the chuckle behind me.