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The Vigilante is not thrown at all by my appearance on the roof of the Cullen Building two days later. He's staring out at the city below, his mask on and eyes burning bright.
"Hey," I say and instantly feel stupid. Hey? What am I, fourteen? He turns to me, blinking once, one corner of his mouth pulling upwards slightly, almost as if he can't help it.
I wonder what his real, full smile looks like.
"Put yourself in any dangerously stupid situations recently?" he asks.
"No, but it's still early. Kicked any ass tonight?"
"Not yet." Another twitch of his lips.
We fall into silence for a long enough span of time that it becomes strange for me to keep staring at him. He's purposely avoiding looking back at me.
"Why do you come up here?" My question is almost lost in the wind. "I mean, I work here, I have an excuse."
"It's the tallest building in the city," he replies. "I can see everything from this spot."
"Everything looks so small from up here. The people all look like ants."
"I have better eyes than you," he points out. They flare brighter for a moment as if emphasizing his point.
"Yes, you do." My voice isn't casual anymore. Nothing about me is casual, because his eyes haunt my dreams and my headaches and the sound of his voice crashes over me in a feeling of rightness whenever he speaks.
He swallows hard before he says, "I have to go," and jumps from the ledge in front of him.
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My first crush was a boy named Jake. We were in the same 7th grade science class and he got assigned to be my lab partner. He was nice to me, which was reason enough to like him because everyone else pretty much pretended I didn't exist. But he always said hello to me in the halls and made small talk with me while we dissected fish. He was tall, the tallest boy in our grade and played the guitar.
I used to daydream about him in class, after school, before bed, at dinner, so often that my mom started calling that moon look I'd get my Jake-Face.
Wipe off that Jake-Face and eat something, she'd say, pretending to be annoyed. I think she was just relieved that there was something normal about me to latch onto. A tween girl with a crush on a boy.
But then he moved at the end of the school year and I mostly forgot about him. I think he lives in California now, working for a tech start-up but that's just based on a little bit of Googling.
I try to see if by looking him up, I'll feel those butterflies again. The little new-crush ones that flap around your stomach and make it hard to eat or sleep or breathe.
But there's nothing.
And I think I have a crush on the Vigilante.
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Edward Cullen is sitting at my usual lunch table.
I veer to find another place to eat but he says, "wait."
I flush at his voice.
"I didn't mean to chase you away, I thought maybe we could talk."
"Why would we do that?" I ask warily. Is he going to fire me?
I feel a little bad because he looks mildly uncomfortable, so I take a seat across from him. The lunch room is full already and every single person falls silent for a split second at the sight of us before they resume their chatter, no doubt speculating why Edward Fucking Cullen is sitting with a lowly secretary.
"So…" I prompt, pouring dressing on my salad.
"How are you?" he asks, his voice warm. He seems genuinely interested in my answer.
"Good...how are you?"
This is beyond weird.
"I'm fine, Bella."
The shock of him saying my name strikes my gut like a bolt of lightning and my heart is thundering so hard I'm afraid he can hear it across the table.
"Okay but really. Why are you here?" One corner of his mouth turns up. If he smiles at me, I will probably die on the spot.
"I think it's important to get to know my employees. You are one of my employees, correct?"
I nod. "What do you want to know?"
"How long have you worked for Ben?" he asks, resting his chin in his palm.
"Um, I don't know. A year or so?"
"And before that?"
"I was at a school, but funding got cut and so did my receptionist position in the office."
"That's a shame. The way we treat education in this country is pathetic."
"Totally," I agree lamely, dragging my fork through a clump of lettuce.
"Have you lived in this area long?" His lack of segue only seems to draw more attention to the fact that this whole thing is totally awkward.
"This feels like an interrogation," I mutter. "But yes, my whole life."
A small smile twists its way onto his lips. It rattles me to my core.
"I don't mean for it to feel that way. I'm just...curious."
"I'm really not that interesting," I sigh. He raises his eyebrows.
"I disagree," Edward Cullen insists. "I think you're far more interesting than you let on."
The intensity of his stare is enough to make me burn.
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