I DREAM OF RAINBOWS

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

Then fur began to fly from the first meeting with Mr. Edward Cullen himself. For some reason he thought that I was part of the total deal and everything has been in a complete upheaval from that point onward.

Oh, well, I guess I had best fill you into all of the events that have led me to this point of getting ready to pull the plug on the whole project and kick the shit out of asshat Cullen.

CHAPTER 2: MOVING FAST

Believe it or not, it all happened the day I finished my manuscript, reread it for the umpteen time to edit for any errors, was finally satisfied that it was ready to send in to my agent whom I'd hired awhile back, for him to submit to a publishing house for consideration.

After that I simply got ready for work and forgot all about it as I was fully expecting a rejection slip to come in the mail telling me 'nice try, but, not good enough' type of contents. You know the type of impersonal letter I'm talking about; the one that is nothing more than computer generated with no warmth in the wording whatsoever, even though, someone, somewhere is mistakeningly thinking that it does convey a compassionately no deal. So, imagine my surprise when no letter came, but, a visit from a very excited agent.

He found me in my office at work one day, interrupting my concentration as I was quickly reading through some manuscripts from other up and coming authors as well as some established authors that was assigned to me exclusively to handle and that were trying to make it to the top of the best seller list once more. Those were the easiest to read as they really held my interest from start to finish, but, sometimes an unknown will cross my desk that has the grace and polish of an accomplished piece of work. That it is so outstanding that I take it to my boss for further evaluation just to give it a fair chance of becoming published.

Of course, not that I'm disloyal or anything, but, the publishing company that I'm working for isn't one that I wanted to submit my manuscript to. It just didn't seem ethical to me somehow. So, to try to keep down the accusation of favoritism in case my book was published, my agent did submit it to a different publisher so I could feel that it had a fair look through.

"Damn, Mark, what has you so hyper?" I had demanded after telling him continually to 'wait a minute' only to see him squirming around as if he was a 'cat on a hot tin roof' type situation. It had finally gotten on my last nerve which brought me to demand an explanation in the tone of voice that I'd used to him.

"You won't believe it, but, you'll never guess what's happened. Nope, you'll never believe it. Even now, though I've checked things out, you'll still never believe it. Not in a million years are you going to believe me." The man kept going on and on in the same vein until I snapped on him totally.

"What in the hell are you talking about and you better spit it out this time, or, get the hell out of here so I can get some work done."

"I tell you you'll never beli-" Mark Strollman never made it any further with what he was about to say before Bella held her hand up to stop him mid word. "All right, but, take my word for what I'm about to tell you. For once I heard I did take the time to verify the information to make sure it was correct and factual." And, with that said he paused for dramatic effect, at least, to him it was for that reason.

"What are you talking about man? I'm getting tired of asking."

"I got word back of an almost unheard happening and it has to do with you."

"Okay, I guess. Am I supposed to guess what it is that you're talking about? Or am I going to hear about it anytime soon?"

"I've been telling you, but, you're not listening." Mark told her a bit impatiently.

"No, Mark, you haven't said anything that made any sense except that I wouldn't believe it."

"I got a letter in today from the publishing company and, although, it's unusual to have a first manuscript published by the first publisher it's sent to it does happen and that's what's happening to your book.

"Normally, a young writer would have to foot the bill to a certain extent to have first manuscript published by any first time submission, but, in your case that isn't necessary."

"What did you say?" Was all that Bella could manage to get out since her surprise was as great as what Mark had predicted.

"You're about to become a published author and at no expense to yourself." Mark told her in plain English with the biggest smile humanly possible to have spread across his face. It was kind of comical to see since it was that big.

Bella was speechless as she was trying to give her brain time to catch up with what Mark had just told her. He was right about it being unique to have a first time manuscript published by the first publisher you have submitted. Normally, you go through a list of rejections before getting one that accepts it. And Bella allowed her thoughts to wander off into a 'what if' set of circumstances that all newly published authors seemed to do from her understanding with some of her established clients and new ones as well. Now, she could be counted amongst their list as she was following the same path it seemed they had when they first got accepted.

But, she was jerked quickly back into the present as Mark cleared his throat rather loudly in an effort to regain her attention. "You haven't been listening to a single word that I've said for the last few minutes." He admonished her with a bit of laughter in his tone of voice. The joy that was evident upon her face was the same as to what he was also feeling.

Mark was new to the agent game and Bella was his first client. The agency he had joined were quick to see his potential, they said, and moved to have him as a member of their business family. After that he was assigned to handle only new applying clients so they could see how well he took care of them. So, this acceptance in this short amount of time with his very first client was exciting for him as well as it was for Bella.

He felt like he was finally proving himself worthy to be in the business that he had chosen for a career. Of course, not all of his clients were from the world of books, some were from sports, entertainment and the industry behind the entertainment business. The firm had wanted to put him out there with models, but, he drew the line in that area; it definitely wasn't his area of expertise as that spelt trouble and he had no desire to dance off into it. That would really lead to mess up after mess up and no redemption whatsoever from anyone if he had to handle any women models. No, that was definitely not any area he wanted to be involved in at all. Of course, Mark had forgotten that men were models as well.

Both agent and client quickly pulled themselves back to the situation before them and Bella asked, "Well, Mark, what is the next step that we need to take now?"

"I need to go over the contract and then discuss the payment being offered before I can even allow you to sign on the dotted line. Although, I must say that from what little has been mentioned in the letter which I have here for you, the terms seem to be fair.

"You do know that I'm new to this area of business, so, I want to confer with others in the agency to make sure you're being offered the best deal possible. That way I would feel like I'm doing right by you, the agency and myself." He explained to her with a smile lighting up his face and being reflected within his eyes. His excitement was definitely showing.

"Okay, I'll check with my boss from this end as well to see what would be a fair offer. That side of the business is outside my area of experience. It generally falls to the bosses and not the editors. Hopefully that information will help to give you a basis as to how to gauge their offer against two unbiased sources.

"Then I want to have an attorney look over everything before I sign any sort of paperwork concerning the deal."

"Thanks. That would be great. Bella, thanks for being so understanding and trusting in this matter. I just want to make sure that I don't let you down as I'm finding my way in this business. So, I can understand why you might want to have an attorney to look over everything."

"So far, Mark, I feel that you're making all of the right moves and decisions to look out for my interest. But, I hope that you do truly understand as to why I want an attorney to give the contract a final going over."

"I most definitely do. It was something that I'd recommended when you came to me to be your agent. You need to make sure that you're covered legally. I would be doing the same thing if I was in your place."

XXXXXX

"Who would ever have thought that I would be doing this? My book hitting the best seller list and one more city left to end this book tour. It's been fun, at least, in the beginning, but, now, it's just plain tiring. I'll be glad to get home and have my life back to normal."

"Bella, what are you going to do once you're back in Seattle? Look for another job or start another book?"

"Mark, I'm not quite sure. I can understand why I was fired, but, it still hurts. I knew that I was going to have to take a leave of absence to do this tour, but, to be told that I had betrayed the trust of the company that I was working for was an entirely different thing altogether.

"I felt that I was doing the right thing telling you to take my manuscript to other publishing houses and not to the one I'm working at. I really believed that my manuscript would be published by them just because I worked there and felt that anything I was told wouldn't necessarily be the truth.

"Now, that decision, although, I would still make the same one if presented with the same circumstances, is coming back to bite me in the ass."

"I think they were being a little over the top too, but, what can you do?"

"I don't know, but, I will take a bit of time once we're home to decide which direction I need to go now. It isn't that I need to work, but, I do like to feel like I'm using my education to the fullest and have meaning to my life.

"To me it's a crime for someone that doesn't need to work to just spend their life in useless pursues of desire. It's also a waste of money and time. That isn't how I was raised. I need to have purpose to my life." Bella was trying to explain to her friend and agent.

"Believe me, I fully understand. I don't have the same luxury of finances as you do, but, I admire how you want to give your life meaning."

"Let's get off of this morbid subject and finish up the tour and then head home. Once there we can let loose a bit and then I can decide what I want to do next. However, you can count on another book." Bella finished speaking with a smile as she had suddenly gotten an idea for a new story.

XXXXXX

Once the plane had landed both Mark and Bella had gone to collect their luggage so they could go to their separate homes and see about relaxing for a change.

Bella entered her home, dropped everything where she stood once the door had closed behind her and moved towards the bedroom. At that point all she wanted to do was to sleep until she couldn't any longer. She was that bone weary from the constant traveling and book signing from this tour.

As she had told Mark, in the beginning it was fun and exciting because it was new, but, it didn't take long for the newness to wear off and the exhaustion to start to set in. She felt like she was lucky at times just to remember what city they were in and not worrying about where they would be next. So, it was no wonder that she was glad to be home and to be able to fall into her own bed for however long she wanted to.

But, as fate would have it she was startled awake in just a matter of hours by the constant bang on her front door.

A/N: Bella is learning first hand that even being a best seller author is hard work. But, it seems that the publishing company she was working for took a dim view of things once they found out about her going to a competitor to have her book published. Were they right in being so hardnosed about it all?

And now that she's back home and getting some rest someone or something is banging on her door demanding attention. What's going on?

Your thoughts and comments as always are welcomed.