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.
He canceled the reservation for the car that was assigned to pick Bella up, then started making the arrangements that he wanted for when her plane landed.
CHAPTER 57: BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
Bella's plane lands a little bit earlier, so she heads down to retrieve her bag in preparation to meet her ride to the hotel. However, on her way she encounters another author, Marion Johnson, who happens to be planning to attend the conference and they both move to retrieve their luggage. Marion inquires as to whether Bella had a ride to the hotel or if someone was meeting her.
"No, I had asked the hotel to arrange to pick me up, but I don't see any sign of them."
"In that case, come ride with me. My people are here and waiting over there to take me to the hotel." As she made that statement, she indicated the man waiting close by with a placard with her name upon it. Bella was more than happy to accept; she was too tired to wait around for someone to show up. Besides, she was curious to see if Alice's hint of what Edward might be doing in New York had some merit to it.
Once the luggage had been collected and handed over to the driver to be loaded into the vehicle, Bella and Marion were on their way to the hotel. Unfortunately unbeknownst to Bella, as they were pulling out, Edward's cab was pulling in.
He paid the driver, got out and went into the airport to wait for Bella's plane to arrive. He had a bunch of red roses in his hand that he wanted to give to her as a greeting gift. Sincerely hoping that his coming to New York to be with her and making a point of meeting her as she arrived, would impress her favorably to help him move further along in his plan to seduce her.
XXXXXX
Bella and Marion arrived at the hotel and checked in, and Bella asked the clerk to cancel her arrangements for being picked up at the airport. "I hope that I haven't caused you too much trouble because my flight arrived earlier than originally planned?" She asked the clerk as she was receiving her room key card.
"No ma'am. No trouble at all since the arrangements had been canceled by your gentleman friend, Mr. Cullen." She was informed. And that information totally caught Bella by surprise. "Did I just hear you correctly when you said that Mr. Cullen canceled my pickup arrangements?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"I don't understand on whose authority he was able to do that?"
"I don't know, ma'am. All I know is that the order was issued earlier in the day for the pickup to be canceled and that Mr. Cullen had left the information that he would be picking you up himself."
Not realizing that she was speaking her thoughts aloud, Bella wonders, "How did he know that I was staying here to be able to cancel my plans?"
"Excuse me, Ms. Swan, but Mr. Cullen is staying here also and inquired as to where any of the writer conferences might be being held." The clerk didn't hesitate to inform Bella.
Bella thanked the young man and turned to take the elevator up to her room before checking in with the person in charge of the conference. She also wanted to take the time to call Alice to let her know about what she had just found out about Edward Cullen.
XXXXXX
In the meantime, Edward is at JFK waiting for Bella's plane to arrive. Time seemed to be dragging so he glanced at the arrival board only to find out that her plane had already landed.
He started looking around trying to find her but no luck. So, he asked that she be paged over the PA system. And as he eagerly waited for her to answer the page, but with the passage of time still no results: no Bella. Feeling disappointed and puzzled as to what could have gone wrong, Edward tossed the roses into the nearest trash bin as he turned to leave the airport.
Walking outside, he flagged a taxi and told the driver to take him back to his hotel. On the drive back Edward kept trying to figure out how he had missed Bella; what in the hell could have gone wrong. It seems that he hadn't realized, yet, that Bella's flight had arrived a bit earlier than planned and that was where his plans had gone off of the straight and narrow.
As his cab arrived back at his hotel, Edward shook his head as his thoughts were brought back to the present and where he was. He paid the driver and exited the cab to enter the hotel and headed straight to the desk. He asked the clerk if there had been any word of Ms. Swan's arrival to which the clerk answered in the positive.
"Yes, sir, she arrived shortly ago, checked in and went up to her room."
Edward thanked the man for the information and turned away to head into the hotel bar for a drink while he tried to decide what his next move or moves should be.
XXXXXX
"Hey, Alice, do I have some news for you." Bella said as soon as her cousin answered the phone.
"You sound rather excited about something. Spill, cuz." Alice was quick to respond to what Bella had said and to how her voice sounded.
Without further encouragement, Bella jumped right into telling Alice all that had happened since last, they had spoken. Leaving nothing out, she told Alice what she had found out once she had arrived at her hotel about what Edward had been up to.
"You're kidding, right?" Alice couldn't resist asking with laughter threatening to take control of her voice.
"No, I'm not kidding. Right now, I don't know how I feel about his high-handedness. One way it is rather nice and endearing, but on the hand, he was a bit arrogant in overriding arrangements that I had made."
"Any idea what you're going to do about his sudden appearance and actions that he's taken where you're concerned?"
"At this point, I really have no idea what to do or how to manage this. I guess the best thing to do is to take it one step at a time." Bella told Alice.
"Maybe that would be best, but Bella, be sure to keep your guard up. Don't let him push you into anything that you aren't comfortable with."
"Don't worry about me, cuz, I'm a cop's daughter and don't trust at just the drop of the hat. You know that." Bella answered and then the two women talked about other things for a few minutes longer before hanging up. Bella wanted to call her dad to let him know that she had arrived safely and to let him in on the stunt that Edward had pulled. Maybe he could give her some insight from a man's point of view as to why Edward showed up in New York and taken the actions that he did.
XXXXXX
While Bella was getting settled in her hotel room and then calling Charlie for his advice, Alice didn't hesitate to give Rosalie a call to update her as to what Bella had told her.
The two women had a good laugh about how Edward's plan had gone awry and was wondering how he received the setback. Then they started discussing about what he might try next.
Of course, after they had hung from talking, each lady had to call their guy, Jasper and Emmett, to tell them what Bella had passed on to them.
XXXXXX
"So, Dad, what would you advise at this point?" Bella asked Charlie after telling him everything that has taken place since landing at JFK.
"Bells, you need to give the young man the benefit of the doubt, but still keep your guard up for now. It sounds like he is trying to change, so don't discourage the efforts that he's wanting to make unless they become uncomfortable for you.
"If that happens then just be honest with him and let him know why you're not happy with what he might be trying to do." Charlie advised Bella while trying to be positive about the idea that maybe Edward had learned his lesson in how to treat women.
"Okay, Dad, if you say so. You still haven't told me why you think that he would be pulling such stunts as what he seems to be doing." Bella reminded her dad.
"I would say that he is simply trying to impress you. He's seeking your approval since you are the first woman that has rejected his advances. So, now that he has had a taste of what is really unacceptable and is trying to change his attitude, I would encourage him to continue that change unless it becomes unreasonable like I told you earlier."
Bella thanked her dad for the advice and hung up while thinking about the whole conversation she had just had with Charlie. She came to the conclusion that her dad might be right, so she will give Edward a chance to continue with his change in attitude.
XXXXXX
"Are you telling me that after all of his interfering Edward's plans backfired on him?" Jasper asked while trying to contain his laughter.
Of course, Emmett wasn't showing any restraint at all since hearing about what happened in New York and how Edward ended up falling flat on his face. Only if Bella could keep it up by messing up all that Edward tries to do; it might make all the difference in how Edward started treating others in the future, he was thinking to himself.
"Hey, bro, I can't wait to tell Mom and Dad about this little setback of Edward's. They'll get a charge out of it just like we are." Emmett told Jasper.
"Em, you can't tell the parents about this; it will only embarrass Edward if he knew that we all knew what had happened to him."
"You're right and it'll do him some good. In fact, I can hardly wait until I get home and give Edward a congratulatory call about how well he's doing with Bella."
"Emmett, you're wicked and as much as I agree with you, I have to agree with Jasper. You can't at this point inform your parents about what happened to Edward in New York.
"He seems to be trying to change and you must give him that chance and help support him in his efforts.
"Also, Bella isn't beyond putting Edward in his place if the occasion should arise, so stay the hell out of it." Rosalie told her man.
A short while later Rosalie and Emmett left to head back to her place while Jasper stayed behind so he and Alice could have some quality time together before going to sleep.
XXXXXX
Bella got completely settled in her room after her calls to Alice and to Charlie. She had also notified the head of the conference committee that she had arrived, so she sat down for a few moments to decide what she wanted to do about Edward.
As much as she was willing to take her dad's advice, she was still curious as to what Edward's possible true actions might be.
'Oh well, no point worrying about it right now. She was going to watch and see what comes of his trip to New York where she was concerned. How he behaved would determine how she would respond to him.' She thought to herself.
With that decided, she called down to the desk to see if they might be able to tell her if Edward had returned to the hotel. And, if he had would they be able to let her know if he was in his room.
Once Bella asked for that information the desk clerk was able to tell her that Mr. Cullen was in the hotel bar. With knowing that Bella asked for Edward to be paged.
XXXXXX
Edward was in the middle of drinking his second drink of scotch on the rocks straight when he heard his name being paged. He quickly asked the bartender where he could answer the page to which the bartender placed a phone in front of Edward.
It totally surprised him when he heard the unsuspecting voice on the phone. A smile quickly spread across his face as he agreed to what the caller was asking him.
A/N: Well, Edward's plans didn't quite work out for him, but Bella arrived at her hotel with no problems. Charlie gave her some good advice and she's willing to give Edward a chance. What do you think Emmett is going to do: tell his parent and rib Edward about his failure to pick Bella up at the airport?
Thanks for reading and looking forward to hearing from you.