After a morning spent with my mermaid—slower and more sensuous than it should have been—I crept through the kitchen. The goal was to eat as quietly and quickly as possible. I was already late; I had to be at the shop for their six o-clock opening time. Eventually, when I would take on actual shifts, I would have to be in the shop as early as five o'clock for prep work. I owed Emmett a week of free coffee—his morning workouts prepared me for the daunting task of functioning before eight.

I thought I had eaten my cereal and cleaned up without making a sound, but Esme was standing in the foyer. She scared the life out of me. I yelped in surprise. However, it didn't look like I had woken her up prematurely—she was fully dressed, her hair neat and in place.

"Mom?" I asked as Esme gathered her belongings from her catch-all table and tossed them into her purse. "What are you doing up?"

"I have to be your first customer."

I blinked. I hadn't expected my mother to go into the shop at all, let alone wake up at the crack of dawn to be served a single cup of coffee by one of her three sons. "It's my first day, Mom. I don't think I'll be serving anyone."

"It's coffee, Edward. They'll let you pour your mother a drink into a cup."

There wasn't going to be a way out of this. I was going to show up to my first day on the job with my mother. All I could hope now was that it wouldn't be too humiliating.

"Are you going to drop me off, too?" I asked sarcastically. "Leave me at the door with a juice box?"

"Do not," she warned in an even voice. "It's too early."

Thankfully, when I explained the situation to Ashlie, she found Esme's request charming rather than obnoxious. "That's cute," she said after Esme left, announcing it was the best cup of dark roast she'd ever received with a playful wink. "And you're adopted, right?"

I was thrown for a moment by her familiarity with my living situation until I remembered that I explained my name change since my old job during my interview. "Yeah. Officially in January."

Her smile widened. "Even cuter."

I wasn't sure how to answer. She looked at me like she was either going to muss my hair or kiss my cheek, neither of which I wanted. Instead, she switched into business mode. "Wash your hands and grab your apron from the back. Your friend is already waiting back there."

I had already prepared a smile and a greeting for Angela, but both died along with my happiness when I opened the door to the kitchen. Lauren stood at the sink, wearing similar denim overalls the owners wore during my interview, her slick, blonde hair thrown into a bun at the top of her head. She grinned, pleased with my horrified expression. "What? Angela didn't tell you I applied as well?"

"She didn't." I wished I could be annoyed at Angela for this, but it was impossible. Angela was too sweet and harmless for her own good, sometimes. Too unassuming to see that her friend was actually a she-devil. Ignoring Lauren, I grabbed my apron from the rack, assuming it was intended for me because it was the biggest.

Angela herself stepped out of the restroom a moment later. We only had time to share a brief greeting before Ashlie came back. She went over the basics of what would be expected of us. Then, gave us a tour around the kitchen, storage area, and behind the bar. She taught us how to make the different drinks as they were ordered with the morning rush. When there was a lull, she demonstrated the least popular drinks, as well, and let us have those. So far, everything about the job seemed straightforward. Mostly counting and stirring and pouring.

Ashlie took a liking to Lauren right away. I tried my best not to hold it against her. When she really wanted to, Lauren could be a decent human being. It wasn't Ashlie's fault she had been fooled. Angela and I stuck together, hoping if we worked well together in front of Ashlie we would be scheduled together.

After what felt like far too soon, Ashlie had me take my first order and make my first latte. It wasn't anything fancy, but I still fretted over getting the proportions right. I stared at the customer as they took the first sip, looking for any signs that I had done a decent job.

He didn't react at all. I supposed no review was a good review.

Midmorning, Angela and I searched the back room, trying to locate the extra sugar Ashley had asked for without asking her to point it out again. From back there, we heard Lauren's pleasant customer voice begin to falter to her normal snarky tone as she struggled with a person's order.

"I'm sorry. But I don't understand what you want."

"We should probably relieve her," Angela suggested in a quiet voice. I agreed. No one should have to suffer through Lauren.

Bella stood at the register, looking frustrated and helpless and absolutely beautiful.

"I got it," I brushed past Lauren. "Hi, Sweetheart."

Bella's answering smile was weak with relief. Her cheeks were flushed with a deep red of embarrassment. I could throttle Lauren for purposely making my girlfriend's life more difficult.

I rang up my usual order and paid for it on my card. "I'll call your name when it's ready," I added a wink to the standard line for Bella's benefit.

After I finished the latte, I took my time doodling hearts and fish and heart-shaped fish on the cup. Bella was going to hate it—it was perfect. I made sure no one was watching as I filled my own cup with the latte and left Bella an empty cup at the end of the counter. When she came up to retrieve her order, her expression was just as unamused and mildly repulsed as I expected it to be. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you going to stay here a bit?"

She opened her bag and showed me that she had my laptop along with her book. I usually let her borrow instead of losing her to the public library for hours.

"Nice. I should be out of here by two. Will you be there until then?"

She nodded.

With a quick glance both ways, I leaned over the counter to press a gentle kiss to the perfect bow of her lips. My gaze swept over her body as she retreated to one of the tables at the back of the shop.

"Edward?" I spun towards Ashlie's voice. "Why don't you take your fifteen-minute break now?"

"Yeah?"

Ashlie chuckled at the enthusiasm in my tone, clear as day. "Go for it."

I grabbed my drink and hopped over the counter. Bella was still getting settled when I wrapped my arm around her waist and hauled her up to me for a kiss on her cheek.

She grinned at my appearance, but her deep chocolate eyes questioned it, as well.

"I'm on break. You have me for fifteen minutes."

"I have you forever," she reminded me.

As trivial as the word forever was, I still smiled. I sat next to her, instead of across from her. We both put up our feet on the chairs on the other side of the table.

"Do you like working here so far?"

"I do." I caught her up my morning so far. The bit with Esme had her giggling.

"It's nice that you get to work with Angela." Bella purposely avoided mentioning Lauren, which I appreciated.

"Yeah, working with Angela is probably the best part."

"Why?"

"Because she's fun and great. And I feel like I haven't been the best of friends to her recently, so I'm hoping hanging out this job together will fix that."

"Because of me?"

"No." I blinked, perplexed by the question. "Remember that whole thing with her and Ben and the concert?"

Of course she did. It was the first catalyst in that horrible week that ended with my suspicion from school and Bella unconscious in my bathtub.

"Well, we never really got the chance to talk about that because everything got… weird."

"Because of me." She said again.

"No, not because of you," The words came out harsher than I had intended. "Between her and Ben. I'm worried I screwed something up, and we haven't really had a chance to talk about it. I'm hoping that if we spend time together, Ben will come up, and she'll tell me what's up."

There was barely a lull in the conversation before Bella's question popped out. "If we weren't together, would you be with Angela?'

"No," I said, absolutely. There was no reason to entertain her bizarre hypotheticals again.

Bella didn't share that opinion and persisted. "Alice told me the whole family thought you were going to date Angela. They were all surprised when you brought me home."

As if I needed another reason to be annoyed with my sister. "When did she say that?"

Bella shrugged. "A long time ago."

"Yeah. Before we started dating, I spent a lot of time with Angela. And do you know what we spent a good portion of that time doing? Learning sign language." To really drive home the point, I switched to sign language halfway through my sentence. "For you."

"Would you have dated her if we never met?"

There was a time when I briefly considered pursuing Angela, but it was only when I thought I had no shot with Bella. But I certainly wasn't going to say that. If that got out, it wouldn't be good for either Bella or Angela.

"No."

"Even if I didn't exist?"

"Sure, whatever. Does that make you happy? If we never met and you didn't exist, I might have dated Angela."

Both of her hands fell into her lap, and the slumped in her seat.

"Yeah, I thought so." I yanked her chair closer to mine so I could drape my arm across her shoulders. I burrowed my nose in her hair. "What has gotten into you lately?"

She wiggled closer into my embrace but said nothing.

Her sisters must have said something to her. Something cruel to break her faith. Naturally, I would need to wait until Bella was good and ready before she would tell me anything.

However, just because I didn't know the details didn't mean I couldn't try to cheer her up.

"You know what? A date night is long overdue. How does another picnic on the beach sound? I'll feed you shrimp. I'll buy you flowers. I can even bring my laptop so we can watch Little Mermaid again."

Her expression was dreamy until I mentioned the last bit. Then, her lip curled in disgust. She hated the mermaid movies, despite the positive representation.

I chuckled. "Then, we'll watch my Disney movie: Aladdin. It's about an orphan." A quick glance at the clock told me my fifteen minutes was almost up. 'What do you say?"

She nodded.

"Perfect. It's a date."

I cradled the back of her neck for one, final kiss before I went back to work.

"I love you," she signed.

"I love you, too."

Late morning came with a rush of people in need of an iced, caffeinated drink to start their lazy, summer day. Instead of carefully instructing us on how to make individual drinks, Ashlie threw us into the fray.

By the end of the rush, I made six drinks—not counting Esme's or Bella's—and toasted one bagel with cream cheese all on my own successfully. Ashlie took her break, leaving her three trainees with the task of cleaning the bar and kitchen. Under the guise of taking out the trash, I went to the back room to check up on Bella, but found two middle-aged women sitting at the table she previously occupied. Frowning, I scanned the room, wondering if she relocated to a more private spot. But I didn't see her.

She wouldn't have left; it was so unlike her.

I amended that statement in my head. It was very much like Bella to randomly disappear. But we had plans that evening. She never ditched me when we had plans in place.

"Did you see Bella leave?" I asked Angela, who shook her head. "Hm. I must have missed her during the rush."

"Do you need her for something?"

"No. We just have a date after this. I figured we were going to leave here together."

"Hey Lauren," Angela called to her other friend, which was exactly the last thing I wanted to happen. "Did you see when Bella left?"

"Yeah," Lauren nodded. "I told her to."

"You what?"

Lauren eyed me skeptically. "We got busy and crowded. She was one person sitting at a table for four, so I figured it was fine to ask for her to clear a table."

I clenched my jaw. Lauren was no longer satisfied with being rude to Bella every chance she got. Now, she went out of her way to be cruel. "How dare you."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Oh, get over yourself. I would have asked any of my friends to leave."

I bristled at the word friend. "You will never tell her what to do ever again. In fact, don't even talk to her. Leave. Her. Alone."

"Try. And. Make. Me."

A sharp whistle cut the tension. Both Lauren and I straightened and took a step back from one another. Neither one of us realized how close together we had gotten in our seething argument. I was practically looming over her. Our new boss stepped between us. "Shut up. Both of you. Edward, no special treatment for your girlfriend."

Lauren smirked, thinking her fast friendship with Ashlie had saved her from getting in trouble, but Ashlie turned on her next. "Lauren, you cannot ask customers to leave. Especially not disabled ones. Think about how that could make us look."

I opened my mouth to refute the word disabled, but closed it again. To the rest of the human world, Bella was disabled.

"The girl's next drink will be on the house, and come out of your tips, got it? Now, get back to work. I don't want to hear anything about this again."

Lauren and I both muttered our acquiesce. With a hard nod of approval, Ashlie stepped back into the kitchen, presumably to the tiny office space they had crammed back there. Angela watched on with wide eyes as Lauren and I split, finding work to do in different parts of the store.

"It was nice that Bella came to see you," Angela said after a long stretch of silent work. I figured it was her way of making me feel better. "She's sweet."

"She's the sweetest. Is Ben going to stop by and visit you?" That was my way of prodding.

"He works as a camp counselor. He'll be gone all summer."

It answered the question I asked, but not the one laying underneath: are you and Ben still friends or did I somehow ruin that?

"That sucks."

"Kinda." She agreed, lightly. "But he loves it."

I wanted to ask her more, but Ashlie reemerged from the kitchen. "Are we empty?" she scanned the store. "Angela, switch the sign to closed." Angela moved away from me and my questioning. Then, Ashlie went over the closing instructions with is. Angela and Lauren finished their final tasks and breezed out the door with an easy goodbye before I had finished. Ashlie congratulated me for completing my first day on my way out.

I left the shop with little to no idea of how to find Bella. Squinting from the bright sunlight, I spotted a figure leaning against my car. I picked up my pace, hoping it was Bella. My heart plummeted in my chest when I got close enough to see that it was only Lauren. Arms crossed, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, she leaned against the door on the driver's side of the car, right over the handle.

I figured she was here to chew me out for getting her in trouble with her new boss on her first day, though it was entirely self-inflicted. "What?"

"It's crazy to me how hung up you are on that girl. How you'll do anything for her despite what she is."

For one crazy second, I thought Lauren somehow knew the truth. "And what is she?"

"A psycho liar."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, Lauren."

"I always knew, you know."

I wasn't going to play into whatever game she was setting up. "Please get out of my way."

Lauren spread her feet and stood her ground. "The question is, whether or not you knew."

"I'll save you the trouble: I didn't." I didn't have any idea what she was talking about, and I hoped playing along would speed things along.

"I volunteered at graduation, you know. I worked the sign-in desk."

"Cool," I responded, dismissively. I was about to walk around the car and crawl through the passenger seat, but froze. I remembered how Bella wasn't in the line-up of students. I looked down at Lauren's mouth, twisted up into an unattractive half-smirk. If she had done anything to Bella that day… James wasn't the only person I wished Bella would talk some sense into. "What did you do to her?"

"I saw her." She walked her fingers up my arm. When I tried to flinch back, she caught the sleeve of my shirt, "I saw her speak to that guy James."

Lauren was delighted by the horror that slackened my jaw.

It couldn't be true. Bella would never willingly speak to anyone. Unless, it was in self-defense. James had threatened her that morning. Perhaps he followed through sooner than I had expected him to.

"What did he do to her?" I demanded.

Lauren scrunched her nose, unsatisfied with my reaction. "Didn't you hear what I said? I watched her speak."

"What did he do to her!?" I demanded again.

"Nothing. They just talked."

That couldn't possibly be true; Bella wasn't a monster. She must have been assaulted by the brute and had to defend herself in the only way she knew how. No wonder she was acting so strangely. Checking to see if I would still love her as a monster. Wondering if I would rather have someone other than her. Obviously, I still loved her—especially if it was an honest mistake against a hostile attack.

The only question was why on Earth she didn't come to me for help.

"Get out of my way."

"You're not surprised at all."

"Please!"

"You knew this whole time!"

"Lauren!"

She curled her lip at my tone, like I was the one being rude in the situation. She stepped away from my car. With shaking hands, I shoved the keys into the ignition. Lauren said something else, but I paid her no notice.

I pulled out of the parking lot with uncharacteristic recklessness. As I tore down the highway, I ground my teeth in frustration. I had no idea if Bella would be at our beach, but she would know to meet me there. She needed me, now more than ever.

I turned onto the dirt path that led to Bella's private beach, praying that I didn't damage my car. Unlike Bella's truck, my wheels were too low to the ground for the all-terrain driving. I slammed my breaks as soon as I saw water and ungracefully stumbled out of the car where I dashed across the sand just until I reached the water's edge.

This private beach of Bella's had always felt special to me. It was where she told me what she was. It was where I confessed my love for her. It would now be the place where I hold her and swore to help her and love her through whatever mess she had gotten herself into.

"Bella!" I cried, my voice cut off by the crashing of a wave.

"Hello, Edward."

My stomach plummeted to my feet. Perched down the shore, just out of my line of sight, were three glistening, gorgeous mermaids.