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ENJOY!
10/13/2022
Chapter 19
EPOV
A month later...
I love my wife; I really do. More than life itself, but the last month, I've almost had to hide. Her hormones were on the fritz and she wanted nothing but sex. My poor dick had been rubbed raw. I literally had a sore spot on the side of my dick for a couple of days. I would never say that I was deprived...far from it. And I didn't want to deny her. She's my wife and I would do anything for her. I needed a break, though and I didn't have the heart to tell her.
Her cravings have even skyrocketed. Strawberries and chocolate ganache, any spicy food she can get her hands on and most of all, French fries with a chocolate frosty from Wendy's. She dips her fries in the frosty. I've tried it; it's not bad at all, but not exactly my food of choice.
Emmett says that Rosalie is no better. He's had to run out in the middle of the night for any craving she gets at three in the morning. We're dead men...that's all I'm saying.
So, through the grapevine, two weeks after the court hearing, David Dwyer filed for divorce, claiming Phyllis was an overbearing shrew. Bella still doesn't want anything to do with them even though we now know that it was all Phyllis Dwyer that was behind the whole debacle. David tried numerous times to contact Bella, but she ignored his calls and threw out any letters that she received. We also found out, David's illness is very treatable and has a chance at a better life now that Phyllis is out of it.
For the last week, Bella and I've had a house guest … Jasper. Apparently he and Alice have had a falling out and he's set up camp in one of our guestrooms. He's been quite the mopey git, and we want nothing more than for him and Alice to work things out. It's all about babies.
Jasper's ready. He wants to start a family and Alice wants to wait and be married first so, Jasper being the gentleman that he is...proposed. She accepted, but still isn't ready to set a date. She loves her career and wants it to be better established before she decides to toss her pills and become a mother. Bella and I understand, but we were also ready for a baby and marriage when Bella became pregnant. It was what we wanted and after Jasper saw how things were happening with us, he got the itch. He began craving marriage and babies more and more, which led to him groveling at our doorstep.
Bella talked to them, countless times, but there wasn't any budging. We were actually planning to have an intervention, but how do you plan something like that for two people who have separate opinions on things? I guess we'll find out.
Tonight, we were planning the sneak attack. It was only Bella and I who decided to do it. We love Jasper, but we want our home back. He wasn't exactly the neatest person in the world and his glum attitude is starting to affect us. So, I packed up my belongings and headed out of my office. I called Bella on the way to tell her that I'd pick up take-out for us so she didn't have to cook. She also informed me that Alice would be arriving at seven. Jasper was going home, one way or another.
I picked up Gyros for all of us, with salads. Another thing Bella seemed to be engorging on. As much as she ate lately, I was surprised she hadn't gained anymore weight than what she had. She was right on target for her pregnancy and thankfully, we were all still in the clear of anything medically going wrong. Thank God for that.
I walked through the door and hung my Parka on the coat rack by the door and then my keys. Bella was nowhere in sight, so I walked into the living room and found Jasper stuffing his hand into a bag of potato chips. Of course if Bella found out which ones he was eating, she would have a coronary and flip out, "Dude, does Bella know you're eating those?"
"Um...no. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to eat these. She's in your room doing something. She's been up there for the last hour," Jazz said as he stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth.
When he used his shirt to wipe his hands, I got even more irritated than I have been, "Dude, get a fuckin' napkin. Your shit's gettin' all over the couch."
"Sorry, you mind grabbing me one while you're up?"
"No... I haven't even said hello to my wife; get it yourself." I turned to walk away, but turned back, "By the way, I brought dinner home. We'll be out in a few minutes, so please wait for us before you touch the food."
"It's cool," he replied, nodding his head and planting his eyes back on the TV.
When I walked into the room, Bella was snuggled up under the blankets. She must've had a long day at work, so I climbed up next to her, "Baby?"
"Mmm..." She turned over to face me, "You're home."
"Yeah, sorry I'm late. I didn't forget to get dinner, though. I'll go set it out while you get up. You feel okay?" I rubbed my hand over our daughter. She knew it was her daddy and moved around to let me know she was awake.
She nodded, "Yeah, just really tired. I had so much stuff to do at work today and dealing with Jazz and his whiny ass, gets really tiring."
"All right." I placed a kiss on her forehead, "See you out there in a few minutes. Have you heard from Alice?" I stood from the bed and kicked my shoes off, exchanging them for my slides.
"She's still on for seven. Let's just hope we can get this hashed out between them so we can have our home to ourselves." She smiled as she tried to get up. I hopped up from the bed and helped her sit up. She was starting to have trouble getting up on her own.
She groaned, "You sure you're feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I think so. My lower back is killing me, right now," she replied, standing up and walking toward the bathroom.
"I'll give you a good back massage before bed tonight. How's that sound?" I hoped she was being honest with me and not underplaying the way she was feeling. I'd hate for her to get sick right now or worse yet, something be wrong.
She nodded, giving me a small smile, "Sounds good. Love you."
"Love you, too, baby."
I walked back out to the living room. I shook my head as I looked at Jasper. He had gotten way too comfortable staying with us. I didn't notice when I first got home, but he was only dressed in a T-shirt and his boxer shorts, "Can you at least put some pants on? You may be my cousin and Bella's your best-friend, but I don't wanna see that shit."
"I'm comfortable," he retorted, going back to switching channels on the TV.
I growled and walked into the kitchen. I heard Jasper call out to me, "You sound like a big ole bear when you do that." And for some reason, he had now acquired a southern accent. Him and Charlie were like two peas in a pod when it came to them miraculously acquiring a southern accent.
"Where the fuck are you from, Kentucky? What's with the accent?" His depression was really starting to mess with his head.
He laughed loudly, "I don't know, man. It just came out that way."
"You're freakin' possessed then; split personality, even. I feel sorry for Alice," I said, pulling stuff from the bags for our dinner then pulled plates down from the cabinet and placed our food on them.
Bella came walking around the corner as I sat the plates at the table, "Doesn't he own any pants?"
"I don't know, he's your best-friend," I replied, accusingly.
"He's your damn cousin. He better put some pants on before he sits down at this table or I'm gonna junk punch his ass," she said, irritably.
I walked away from the table, away from anymore bitterness and went to the living room, "Jazz, I'm to inform you that if you don't put any pants on before you sit down at the table for dinner, your ass is getting junk punched."
"What'd I do?" He asked, surprised at my message.
"Just put some pants on, please? I really don't feel like arguing with my wife, tonight." Hopefully my pleading worked because honestly, Bella and I didn't argue much at all, but I hated doing it, especially while she was pregnant.
He hopped up from the couch, grabbing his cane. Well, at least I think it was his cane, "What the hell is that?"
He still walked with a limp from the accident and slowly but surely, he was getting all his flexibility back in his knee and can endure more pressure on his leg. It was taking a while, but he was getting there.
"It's my cane," he answered, smiling over at me, "It's cool, huh?"
"When did you find time to..." I looked at the thing - his cane, trying to figure out what was all over it, "What are those? Rhinestones?"
"Yeah," he smiled, sheepishly, "Ya like?"
I looked at him, scrunched my eyebrows together, trying to figure out what the hell happened to his mind, "You bedazzled your cane?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Gives it character. I like it."
Bella walked into the room, "Oh, wow; I like it," she said, walking over to him and taking a closer look, "When did you do this?"
"Today," he replied, making his way toward his room.
Bella talked at his retreating form, "Did you not do any work at all?"
"I did. Just got bored with it and found something better to do," he said over his shoulder and disappeared.
"I swear, Edward, if his work starts showing up on my desk, I'm gonna kill him," she said with venom.
"You're the one who said he could stay here," I shot back.
If looks could kill, I was on death-row, "So, you're trying to say that you wouldn't have let him stay here? That it's my entire fault that he's been here the whole damn week, without even once, trying to talk to Alice? Or that maybe suggesting more than once that he could've stayed with his parents. I thought maybe one or two nights, not a whole damn week and who even knows if they'll even look at each other when she gets here."
"Look, I'm not gonna argue with you about this. And, no, it's not your fault. Don't go and get all pissy with me. I'm just as fed up as you are. He's a fuckin' slob." This was definitely not where I wanted this night to go. And I certainly didn't want my wife pissed off at me. I understood that we were irritated with the situation and now we were starting to take it out on each other.
"Takes one, to know one," she said snidely as she turned and walked back into the dining room. I wasn't even going to say anything about that little comment, so I bit my tongue. It'd only make things worse and all I wanted to do was eat dinner, wait for Alice to get here and hopefully go to bed tonight knowing that Jasper was safely tucked into his own damn bed, in his own damn home.
I sighed, walking over and plopping down on the couch. I scrubbed my hands over my face. I knew my dinner was getting cold, but I needed a minute to calm down before I said something that I didn't mean.
Jasper came back, sporting a nice wrinkled pair of sweat pants. How he managed to dress himself this past week, for work, was beyond me.
"What's up with you?" He asked, skeptically, making his way over to the coffee table to pick up his beer.
I shook my head, "Nothing...just tired."
It was a few minutes before seven when we finished with dinner. Bella and I were clearing the table when the door buzzer alerted us of our visitor. I didn't know how Bella conned Alice to come over, but thank goodness she was here.
I answered the door, and there stood a sullen looking Alice. Her hair was unkempt. It almost looked like mine on a daily basis, "Alice," I greeted, stepping forward and placing a small kiss on her cheek and guided her into the front hallway, "Thanks for coming."
"Well, Bella said Jasper wouldn't be here and said she really needed to talk to me, so here I am," she said sadly. I knew she was upset over the whole thing between her and Jasper. Who wouldn't be? I hoped they loved each other enough to work things out. I really didn't want to be in the middle of a love drama; playing the go between for the two of them.
"Bella's just finishing up the dishes. You can go in the kitchen or wait for her in the living room; It's up to you," I suggested, hoping Jasper hadn't come back from his room yet. I didn't want Alice darting out the door before Bella and I, at least, got to say our peace.
"I'll go say hello. Is she okay? She seemed upset when she asked me to come over." She looked worried and I could smack Bella's ass for putting the worry into Alice's head.
We started walking toward the kitchen, "She's fine. Her backs hurting her pretty bad tonight and she's pretty tired. They've been keeping her busy at work."
Alice sighed, "I haven't worked all week. I guess I'm lucky I'm the boss."
I didn't know what to say to that. I was glad Jasper dragged his ass to work every day. Just sad that my wife has had to deal with his mopey ass at home and work.
As we walked into the kitchen, Bella was pushing buttons on the dishwasher to start it. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled when she saw Alice with me, "Hi, sweetie. Thanks for coming over. How ya holding up?" She straightened up and wrapped her arms around Alice. A loud sob escaped her, "Oh, please don't cry. It'll all work out. You two love each other and would do anything to make each other happy."
"That's just it..." Alice sobbed, more, "We're not even communicating, right now. I wished he'd understand that I just want to wait another year before we start having babies. I'd marry him tomorrow if we could, but he wants babies right away and if I marry him now, he'll expect that."
"Oh, honey, I know and I think this week has given you two plenty of time to think about all your options. This won't last forever, okay." Bella pulled away from their hug, "How 'bout we go sit in the living..."
Jasper decided at that moment to come around the corner into the kitchen. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Alice. What happened next had me and Bella standing there like two gaping fish.
When Alice saw Jasper, she high-speed sprinted across the kitchen and jumped into his arms, his cane falling to the floor causing one of his rhinestones to break off and bounce across the floor, landing right in front of where Bella and I were standing, "Oh, God, Jazzy. I'm so sorry. I love you. Please come home. I'll marry you tomorrow and have your babies the next day if that'll get you home. Just please come home."
"I love you, too, darlin'." And ladies and gentleman, the southern accent is back, "but you don't need to marry me tomorrow or the next day. When you're ready and we can wait on the babies like you asked. I'll be patient and wait."
Bella and I were looking like fish out of water. All it took was getting Alice over here and getting her to see him. Why the hell didn't we try it sooner?
Then we started laughing. You know how Tom Hanks laughed in the movie Money Pit when the bathtub fell through the floor? Yeah, the near insanity laugh? The laugh you let out when you feel like you're at your wits end and all you can do is laugh?
That was us.
Alice and Jasper turned to look at us like we were on our way to the loony bin, "What the hell is so funny? And why are you laughing like that? You sound like you've lost your damn minds."
I waved them off and tried to catch my breath. Bella leaned against the counter to keep from collapsing to the floor from laughing so hard. We were delirious.
"That's all it took to get you to go home?" I asked in between each heavy breath I took after gaining control of myself, "You just had to see her and now you're going home? Fuckin' priceless."
"You act like you don't want me here, anymore," Jasper stated, looking in between me and Bella for an answer that we truly didn't want to supply.
Bella finally calmed down, "Oh, Jasper, we love you, honey, but you're a slob and your mopey ass was rubbing off on us. Edward and I don't normally argue, but you wanna know how many times we've snapped at each other this week? At the least, twenty. And all over stupid shit."
"Did I really cause that?" He put his mopey face on.
"Yes," Bella and I answered simultaneously.
"I'm sorry, guys. I'll just go to Mom and Dads, next time," Jasper said, looking sincere about his apology.
Alice shook her head, "There won't be a next time. We can't let this happen again. We need to talk more, babe. Communicate better, okay? You think we can do more of that?"
"Of course, darlin'," Jasper replied, with his form of a sexy smile just for her.
I shook my head, "Okay, I don't mean to be rude, but Bubba Gump, you need to get yo' shit and go home."
And that's just what Jasper did. It didn't take long. He was still living out of his bag. He hadn't even done his laundry the whole week he was here. I love him, but I was glad his head was finally out of his ass and on his way home.
Thank You, Alice, for coming over.
Thanks again,
Reason