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Episode Four: The One on The Balcony
Don't panic. Don't panic. Don'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanic.
Bella swallows down the nausea rising in her throat as she stands in her room in Rose's apartment, staring at the nightstand next to her bed. It typically sits on her hand, her left ring finger to be precise, the weight of it serving as a reminder of her decision to move in here with Rose and leave her old life behind. But it's gone. Her finger is bare, and if the ring isn't lying on her nightstand, that means it's missing.
Don't panic.
Oh, but she is. She walks quickly out of her room and into the living room full of her new friends.
"Have any of you seen my ring?" Bella asks, clutching her ring finger as if the missing ring may somehow magically appear there.
"Uh, yeah, it's gorgeous," Alice quips, teasingly rolling her eyes.
"No, no, no. I can't find my engagement ring. I have to give it back to Mike today, and I can't do that if I don't have it!" Bella cries, tears stinging the back of her eyes.
It's bad enough that she has to face the man whose heart she broke with no explanation, but to show up without the ring? She sighs, exasperated she must do this in the first place. If it wouldn't make her a completely shitty human being, she would mail the ring to Mike in a certified box and cut her losses. But Bella is trying to turn over a new leaf, and she really can't afford the bad karma that would bring, considering how much she's enjoying her new life in the city.
She doesn't regret running out on her wedding in the slightest, but this particular consequence is really going to suck.
"Come on, guys, please help me find it!" She urges with a frantic wave of her hands. Edward is still at work, but everyone else is there; a fact Bella is quickly getting used to. No one ever goes home, it seems, but it's always a welcome distraction when things get too bleak.
Rose stands in the corner of her living room, chewing her thumbnail and watching as some of the most important people in her life rip her apartment to shreds. Her parents are coming over for dinner, and that means her nerves are at an all-time high. She's been cleaning non-stop for two days, and although she knows Bella's ring being found is more important than her parents' approval of her pristine home, the sight before her still sets her teeth on edge with anxiety.
Edward and Rose's parents are lovely, kind people, but their mother can be a bit...overbearing. Nothing Rose does is ever good enough in the eyes of Esme Cullen. On the other hand, Edward can do no wrong. He's the prodigal child, the golden boy. The nerdy kid that was always healthy, pulled the best grades, and never got into trouble.
All Rose wants in life is her mother to say one nice thing about her that isn't a backhanded compliment.
Bella is entirely aware of Rose's freak out and the reason behind it. Back in high school, she endured many rants about Esme and how hard she was on her only daughter, but unfortunately, Bella has a five-figure engagement ring to find, one she can't afford to replace. She'll check in on Rose after she finds the ring.
In her head, she frantically attempts to retrace her footsteps. She had kept the ring on since leaving Mike at the altar for this exact reason. Even though she no longer wanted any ties to him, she also couldn't bear the idea of losing the beautiful princess-cut rock he had given her. It was the right thing to return it.
She thinks back about what she's done today. She woke up this morning and had breakfast in the form of a bowl of cereal.
No, it's not in the cereal box, the silverware drawer, or on the counters or floor.
Okay, then she showered and got dressed for the day.
And it's not in the shower, on the sink, in the bathroom, behind, or around any lotions or hair products. Jesus, she hopes it didn't fall down the sink. No, she can't think like that.
After her shower, she…
Oh no. Oh. No.
The lasagna.
Rose had been so worried, so frantic about her parents' upcoming visit, so Bella had thought of doing something for Rose to make her feel better. All she wanted to do was help take something off her plate; she had offered to put the lasagna together.
Fuck.
Tiptoeing over to where her friend is frozen like a statue in the kitchen, Bella places a calming hand on Rose's shoulder to help gentle the blow she's about to lay on her.
"Rose, how badly will you kill me if I tell you I think my engagement ring is in your lasagna?"
Rose races to the glass casserole dish, ignoring the heat that's just cool enough not to burn her, and she lifts it, praying that it just so happened to be on a layer that's easy to get to. "Noooo. No, no, no, no, no."
"Uh, Rose, I don't think that's how you find a ring in a lasagna," Jasper quips, carefully pulling the dish from her hands.
"I can't look," she whines, covering her eyes and walking from the kitchen.
Without hesitation, Bella, Jasper, and Emmett dive into the perfectly prepared dish, Emmett with a fork instead of his fingers. He doesn't believe in wasting food. Alice makes her way over to Rose, placing her hands on her shoulders to begin a massage.
"Hey, Rose, can you try and calm down, please? You're throwing the energy all off. You've been all chaotic and twirly all morning, and not in a good way," Alice says in soft, soothing tones.
"Yeah, what's the big deal about your parents coming, anyway?" Emmett asks through a mouthful of cheese and noodles. "Your parents are great."
Rose groans, "Edward's parents are great. He can do no wrong. You see, he's the prince. They must have had a ceremony before I was born or something."
"Got it!" Jasper shouts and holds up Bella's engagement ring covered in sauce between his thumb and forefinger.
Bella sighs in relief. Now that it's found, it must be returned.
f.r.i.e.n.d.s
"Edward, can you come help me with the spaghetti?" Rose calls over her shoulder to her brother. Sighing, she presses her fingertips to her temples and rubs them in deep, satisfying circles.
She just needs a moment. One little moment to step away from her parents that have been shooting snide comments her way all night.
"You need help with spaghetti?" Edward whispers, nudging her with his elbow. Rose shoots him a glare, very tempted to stick the serving fork into his hand and call it an accident. "And you call yourself a chef?"
"No, asshole. Listen, could you do me a solid and tell them about your whole, 'wife being a lesbian and now knocked up with your baby thing'?"
"Ex-wife."
"Ex-wife, whatever. It just...it would really take the pressure off me here."
The last thing Edward wants is to disappoint his parents, but he'll do anything for his baby sister, even if it means taking the overbearing spotlight off her for a night.
Plus, you know, they'll find out eventually.
As the night goes on and Carlisle and Esme trade underhanded comments back and forth like they're playing tennis, Rose's fuse is getting shorter and shorter, while Edward pretends not to notice the impatient looks Rose is giving him from across the table.
Their mother pipes, "That haircut makes your face look round, dear. It's a good thing rounder faces are in nowadays."
Carlisle Cullen chimes in as well. "I see it all the time at the hospital. These women come in exhausted, trying to have it all. The perfect body, the perfect husband, kids, a career. I'm just glad our little Rosie isn't like that. The people that don't strive for greatness are the ones who never get cancer, I'm telling you."
Something he said reminds Esme of another topic, and she's suddenly eager to share. "Oh, we saw Bella's parents at the club, and they are not happy. I can't imagine running out on my wedding day. Then again, at least she had a wedding day to run out on."
She gives Rose a cold smile, which Rose responds with one of her own and a kick to Edward's shin under the table.
Ignoring the bruise forming on his leg from Rose's heel, Edward tries hard to navigate the conversation to all the ways Rose is an amazing person; how she's been there for Bella, how she's followed her passion with cooking, and is doing what she loves. How she's the most selfless person he's ever met, but their parents are like pit bulls latched onto a steak tonight, and they Won't. Let. Go.
He can't put it off any longer.
"So, I have some news for you guys," he offers a bit meekly.
"Oh, please dear, we could use some good news," Esme chimes, clapping her hands.
"Well, it's not exactly...well it is, in a way...but…" Edward takes a deep breath, unwilling to call the birth of his child anything but good. It's all the bullshit around it he could do without.
"Okay, here goes nothing," he begins. "Tanya is a lesbian, hence the divorce. She's living with a woman named Irina. Apparently, they're life partners now. And she's pregnant. With my child. That she's keeping, and she and Irina will raise together. With me, too, of course."
When he looks up, his dad's jaw hangs open, and his mom looks like she's about to faint. It doesn't take long, though, for her head to snap to Rose.
"And you knew about all this and said nothing to us?"
Rose and Edward can't reach for their wine glasses fast enough.
f.r.i.e.n.d.s
This place is massive, Bella thinks as her heels click against the paved driveway of Mike's home. It was supposed to be her home, too, if she had gone through with the wedding. She remembers being so excited when they picked it out together. Five bedrooms she was going to fill with kids, a giant kitchen where she would learn to cook, an expansive backyard with a pool she would spend her days' tanning by and swimming in to keep her figure.
Now it all just seems...empty. Superficial.
In the short couple of weeks since this world of hers came crashing down, she's realized none of this matters if you don't have people you love filling the place with laughter.
She laughs now as she remembers her new friends earlier today with their fingers deep in a lasagna mush to help her.
Rose's apartment may be small, but it's full.
It makes her feel full as she waits for Mike to open the door. Her finger presses the doorbell, her fingernails covered in cheap red paint bought at the corner store rather than the pristine gel polish she used to get redone every two weeks.
The Mike that opens the door is not the same Mike she last saw the night before their wedding.
He's tan. His teeth are whiter; his hair has been dyed, so you can't see the grays that peppered his blonde. His clothes are trendier. And has he been working out?
"Hey, B, come on in," he greets her enthusiastically as if it doesn't hurt one bit that she has to be invited into a home that was supposed to be hers.
She obliges, though, greeting him and following him into the opulent foyer.
How can this place go from everything she wanted to so fucking...suffocating, in just a matter of a few weeks?
"You look good. You got a tan," she says conversationally, sitting on one of the barstools in the kitchen.
"Thanks. I, uh, I went to Aruba," he replies, digging in the fridge for the peach juice he knows she loves.
"Mike, you went on our honeymoon by yourself?" Bella's heart breaks a little for her ex-fiancé. Mike isn't a bad guy, not at all. He just wasn't the one for her.
Mike clears his throat in avoidance at first. "No, actually. Jess went with me."
Bella stops. "My bridesmaid, Jessica?"
"Yeah, she...she kind of picked up the pieces," Mike replies with this faraway, lovestruck-idiot look in his eyes that makes Bella want to puke.
Come on, just because she doesn't want him doesn't mean that him going on their honeymoon with one of her best friends to do God-knows-what doesn't sting.
"Oh. Well," she pauses, reaching into the zippered pocket of her purse. "Here's your ring back. Thanks for, um...for giving it to me."
"Thanks for giving it back," he regards her with tenderness, and Bella is happy to notice there's no bitterness there.
Somehow they both know this was for the best, even if her timing to call the whole thing off couldn't have been worse and even if it hurt at the time.
She just wishes he wasn't so damn happy about it.
f.r.i.e.n.d.s
Bella never realized how beautiful downtown Seattle is. She never had any reason to hang out in the city before. Everyone is hanging out in her and Rose's apartment, talking about their latest dates and whatever else is going on, but she needed some time to herself, so she had stepped out onto the balcony to gather herself.
It's starting to get colder out, the city's lights bouncing off the wet streets littered with orange and red leaves. Fall has hit in full force, but out here like this, she can finally breathe. More than she ever could sitting on some expensive yacht or a beach somewhere.
She's still a little bitter, though. Jessica? Really? Of all the people Mike could have hooked up with.
She's so lost in her own world she doesn't hear anyone join her out on the balcony.
"You doing okay out here?" Edward's voice interrupts her thoughts, and she tightens her cardigan around as she turns toward him, giving him a soft smile.
"Yeah, I'm all right." A thought suddenly occurs to her, and she wastes no time. "Hey, could I borrow your phone?"
She has her own now, but they won't know Edward's number.
"Um, sure," Edward's taken back a little by the request, but he fishes his phone from his pocket anyway, handing it to her.
Bella has to check her phone to dial the number. No one knows numbers by heart anymore, but she's thankful when Jess doesn't pick up.
"Hi, Jess, this is Bella," she starts in the sweetest voice she can muster. "Listen, I just wanted to say congrats on you and Mike. I'm really happy you two found each other and...I just hope your kid gets his old hairline and your old nose!"
She ends the call with a smile, and when she looks back to Edward, his mouth is hanging open in shock.
"What? Too petty?" She asks innocently.
That's all it takes for Edward to dissolve into laughter, shaking his head as he slides his phone back into his pocket. It's the hardest he's laughed in weeks, and he relishes in how good it feels. "Isabella Swan, you're still such a mean girl."
"I am not!" She argues, shoving his shoulder while she laughs.
There's no denying that Edward is attractive. He's tall, lean, poised, and sophisticated. He has this crazy reddish hair he tries to tame, but he's rarely successful. There must be something in the Cullen genes that makes them complete ugly ducklings in high school, but total smoke shows in adulthood. His bright green eyes could always get to her, though, even when his face was covered in pimples, and those green eyes were surrounded by thick glasses.
He clears his throat, and she tears her eyes away from his face in hopes he didn't catch her staring. "So aside from that insanity, are you really okay? You can tell me if you're not, I get it," he offers to cut the tension that has suddenly settled between them.
He does get it. Out of all their friends, he's the one who understands what she's going through the most. Even though they've only reconnected over a matter of weeks, he can tell just by the look on her face that she's lost in her feelings tonight.
It occurs to him suddenly that this is the first time he's been able to look at a woman without seeing the edges of his vision tainted in red anger. Instead, he notices the softness of her expression and feels a connection.
It doesn't help that Isabella Swan has only gotten more beautiful with age.
She gives him a small sigh before she answers. "Yeah, I'm good. Just...you know, thinking about stuff," she replies.
Edward nods, stepping toward her slowly to lean on the ledge next to her. "Yeah, I've been doing a lot of that lately."
"God, I bet," she sighs. "I wonder how we got here; you know? Everything was so simple the last time I saw you and Rose."
"Yeah," he laughs humorlessly. "Who would have thought I would marry a lesbian, and you...wouldn't marry at all."
They share more laughter, but this is the kind that comes from two people sharing their misery. The kind where you're reaching out to the nearest human just to feel some sort of camaraderie.
"It's going to be okay, though," Bella states with a firm nod of her head.
"Maybe."
"No, it will. You're going to have a kid. That's amazing, right?"
Edward nods, looking out over the city before them. "Yeah, scarily amazing. It's just not what I pictured, ya know?"
"What did you picture?"
The quiet question causes him to turn his head and look at her over his shoulder.
If he thought she was gorgeous when she showed up in a soaked wedding dress, he's definitely not prepared for how she looks now as he glances at her over his shoulder. She's dressed so simply in a pair of fit but worn jeans and this chunky, knit, burgundy cardigan. Her eyes are bright with the possibilities of everything her future can be, her dark hair spilling down her back and blowing a little in the breeze.
He wonders when the right time would be to tell her about the almost debilitating crush he had on her in high school.
Taking a deep breath, he forces his eyes to look away from her and shrugs. "Not this. Maybe I'm still trying to figure it out."
Bella nods, placing a hand on top of his on the ledge of the balcony. He doesn't move his hand, most likely out of shock, but he's inwardly fixated on the way her skin feels against his own. "I think that's okay. Life gets boring if there's nothing to figure out."
"Yeah, I think you're right."
That's all he can manage to say with her warmth seeping into his hand. Considering he had vowed to stay away from women after everything that happened with Tanya, he finds himself perfectly content to stand here like this with her until she's ready to go inside, and not a second sooner.
Minutes later, though, Bella's head pops up, and she squints into the building across the street. She removes her hand to point to a light in an apartment window.
"Is that ugly fat man, naked?"
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