*edited as of 9/2017

Author's Note:

I want you all to keep a few things in mind; my characters are not perfect. They are real people (Fictional, but you get the idea) and structured that way because of the life experiences they dealt with.

Bella's will jump to conclusions easily because she's been hurt so many times. You have to remember that she's been cheated on in every relationship she's had, so when anything doesn't go as planned or she's sees something she automatically thinks of the worst. She's stubborn right now so she's going to be set in her ways. She's not perfect and she has a lot of growing to do but don't fault her for her way of thinking.

Edward isn't used to chasing after anything. He's been like that all of his life. He is truly his father's son. He has a hard time dealing with his emotions, tries to avoid it at all costs, and doesn't like when things don't go his way and yet he's a man on a mission to find love. Edward's irrational right now because of the way he's feeling because he's not used to feeling that way so he'll do and say anything to try to get the girl.

A lot of you are worried about Maggie….well I'm not going to reveal anything so you will just have to wait and see how she plays into the story, whether it's big or small.

Chapter 8

"Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary."

-Oscar Wilde

Isabella's POV:

Fuck! What was he doing out there?

The one person I dared not to think about and yet seemed to consume my every thought was right outside my door.

And what did I do?

I slammed the door in his face.

I had every right though.

Who in the hell did he think he was showing up on my doorstep like that?

How did he even get my address? Two months later and I had somehow left a paper trail somehow that led him to me and my apartment.

"Bella are you okay? Why did you close the door like that? Is it our food? Do you need more money?" Bree rambles suddenly.

"Uh no, just give me a moment okay?" Bree eyes me skeptically but heads back towards the living room.

Okay Bella, think. Just think.

The person you've been practically drooling over for the past two months is right outside your door.

Not only that but he looks like sex on legs and you just want to jump him and ride him reverse cowgirl style.

And there went my hoo ha.

The way I saw it, I only had two options here.

One: I could just ignore the fact that he was outside my door and go back to my comfortable couch with Bree and drool over the hot ill-tempered doctor…or

Two: Put my big girl panties on and figure out why the hell he was here.

Come on Swan, you are better than this. Woman up.

Ignoring my inner panic and wondering where in the hell my common sense had gone, I decide to do the later and quietly pull my door open.

Sure enough, he's sitting beside my door with his head in his hands. He looks up as the door opens with tired green eyes. MG quickly gets ups and I wince as I see the slight redness around his nose from where the door slammed against his face.

Fuck he still looked hot….

I almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

And then for some reason I felt a lot of anger surge throughout my body.

Anger for making me feel this way about him when he was nothing but a cheater and the audacity of him somehow finding me and showing up to my house

"What in the hell are you doing? Are you out of your mind showing up on my doorstep like that?" I bark out.

"I..I" MG stutters pushing away from the wall. I watch as his hands go to his hair where he begins tugging at the strands

I definitely liked it better when my hands did that…. but no…no I needed to focus.

"I had to see you." MG breathes stepping closer to me where I immediately become overwhelmed by his delicious scent. It makes my head swirl but I'm determined not to let it affect me so much.

"See me? You don't even know me." MG's eyes darken and he continues to step closer and closer until I can feel his breath against my skin with each breath he took. My hands are pressed against his chest and I should be pushing him away from me but they do nothing but grab his shirt to anchor him from moving.

If this were anyone else, I'd probably be screaming bloody murder but I felt myself grow silent as he began to speak.

"You're Isabella Swan. The brown eyed waitress who captured my attention one lonely night. The woman I danced with; who intrigued me with her snarky but cute remarks and then shared an incredible night with. So tell me I don't know you." He says with so much conviction in his voice that it nearly made my knees weak.

" I had to find you. I couldn't forget you." MG presses a tender kiss to my cheek and I feel my skin come alive from his touch. I feel his smirk as he pulls his lips away.

Thank goodness, I had the door for support.

As much as I wanted to believe his words and deep in my heart I could hear and see his honesty, my mind thought otherwise.

He's a cheater remember? He has a wife and kid!

I was not going to be made a fool again.

"No…. I mean I don't even know you. I…I don't even know your name and… what we had was just a fling." I reply in a monotone voice that sounds foreign to my ears. "I mean…I don't even know your name and I don't know how you found me, but please leave." I urge, trying to look at anything but the beautiful face before me.

"Isabella please." He pleads.

"I can see it on your face, you know you don't want me to leave and you know it. " MG implores. I shake my head.

"Sorry, please go before I call the cops." I ignore the crestfallen look on his face pull away from his grasp. I give him one final glance before quietly closing the door. I press my face against the cool wood of the door until I was sure I could hear his footfalls down the hall.

When I hear another knock on the door, I'm glad to see that it is in fact the deliveryman with our food. I quickly pay for our food and my legs feel like jelly as I head back into the living room.

When I come back to the couch I see Bree putting in the second disc of House to continue our marathon.

"Jesus what took so long? I thought the delivery guy tried to grab you are something." She giggles digging into one of the cartons as I handed the bag over.

Suddenly I wasn't so hungry anymore.

My stomach was in knots and I felt like puking. From my peripheral, I see Bree set down her food, turn off the television and focus her attention on me.

"Bella are you sure you are okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." I could hear the concern in her voice. I briefly glance over at Bree.

Could I confide in her without her somehow using the information against me? She was dating my best friend after all and he did tend to have a good judge of character.

Besides it wasn't like she could steal a nonexistent boyfriend right?

"If I told you something, would you keep it just between us? That means no telling Diego because I know he'll overreact." I ask. Bree looks at me with wide blue eyes and nods her head eagerly.

"Remember no telling Diego." I push.

"My lips are sealed, now dish." She gives me a two-finger salute.

I then proceed to tell her all about that night involving my mystery guy and how he approached me. How our bodies moved in harmony on the dance floor and how it led to one of the most passionate nights of my life. I explain how he made me feel as if I were this passionate succubus who wasn't afraid of anything and how I had cowardly snuck out that night ashamed of my behavior. I then told her how MG as I had dubbed him since I didn't know his name, consumed my thoughts and how I felt like I was seeing him everywhere I went. I then told her about how I had seen him in the park with a beautiful brunette and baby that looked just like him. I then concluded my rant by telling her how just a few moments ago, it was him that sat outside my doorstep with a plea, how he had touched me and how I told him to go away or face the cops for trespassing.

Once I was finished retelling my story, I'm sweating slightly and suddenly sexually frustrated. Bree takes a big gulp of her wine.

"Um wow." She shakes her head.

"Uh a little feedback would be appreciated." I push. She hands me my glass and fills it to the brim.

"You need that more than I do." She twirls an inky strand around a finger.

"Now you want me to be completely honest right?" she asks. I nod my head.

"You sure?" I nod my head again.

"Well quite frankly both of you seem to be idiots." Bree grins grabbing a carton.

"Okay…wait what? How am I an idiot? I didn't even do anything." I defend.

"Exactly, you put yourself in this situation. If you had just been straightforward and said that "oh this is just going to be a onetime thing, no strings attached kind of deal" and hadn't ran out on him in the middle of the night like your ass was on fire, then maybe you could have left an explanation and he wouldn't have showed up like that on your doorstep. I mean you guys didn't even know each other's names, which in my opinion is very important before deciding to spread your legs to the high heavens don't you think?" Bree states through a mouthful of orange chicken.

"Well that's blunt." I huff.

"Well hey you asked for it. Now don't get me wrong. Him showing up at your place out of the blue and somehow finding out your name is definitely stalker material but also weirdly sweet in a Stockholm syndrome kind of way." I give her an incredulous look.

"He can be an axe murderer for all I know."

"And yet you slept with himmmmmm." Bree mocks in a singsong voice.

"I know. And what good sex it was." I finish, grabbing a carton of my own and begin eating. Bree winks at me and turns the television back on. We continue our marathon until it's late and Bree makes motion to head home for the night. She's barely out the door when I pull her into a hug that shocks her and me. She pats my back softly.

"Thank you Bree. Its nice to have a girlfriend to talk about how I've been feeling lately." I admit. It was very liberating telling someone the things I had on my mind from a female's perspective and not automatically be hit with bias. Had I told Diego all of those things he would have a coronary and wouldn't let me out of his sight. He just as bad as my father when it came to that kind of thing and I didn't need that kind of stress in my life.

"Anytime Bella, anytime." She waves.

….WLTYAS….

If I thought I could get MG off my mind, I was seriously mistaken.

He was determined to make me remember him and boy was he succeeding.

Having him so close again only intensified the memory I had of him that night. It seemed like I couldn't even sleep anymore, because once I closed my eyes he was in my dreams seducing me, taking my body to places that I knew he could only accomplish.

Not to mention there were constant reminders of him all over my apartment.

The first time I received flowers from him was the night after our brief conversation in the hallway.

I had thrown them in the trash and then dug them out of the trash and before once again throwing them back in the bin. It seemed like the more I threw them away, the more they seemed to arrive at my door. They never had a note, but it didn't take a genius to realize who they were from.

They were always orange roses and they were beautiful.

I'd never seen them before and I was glad that they weren't traditional red roses.

Those things symbolized love and let's get real here…love was nowhere to be found…at least not here it wasn't/

Maybe fascination and a lot of lust but definitely no love.

It was my curiosity one night that led me to find out what the orange roses meant and the description alone brought a smile to my face.

The fiery color of an orange rose immediately conjures up passionate thoughts of romance.The orange rose has mainly come to be regarded as the symbol for desire, enthusiasm and passion. Being a literal mixture of the colors yellow and red, orange roses were often seen as a bridge between the feelings of friendship symbolized by yellow roses, and love associated with red roses. Giving a bouquet of orange roses could be a sign of emerging romantic feelings and the desire to move a relationship beyond the stage of friendship.

Now of course it wasn't all of those things but it was still somewhat cute in a way.

God, I was turning into Bree.

My apartment looked like a mini florist shop and while it was all beautiful in that rom-com fashion, it didn't stop my determination to get this guy out of my head. I was once again turning back into that sappy girl that I didn't want to be. Every time my heart tried to rule, my mind clicked in to the fact that he was just another man that would somehow end up hurting me and I couldn't take the hurt.

I just couldn't.

I vowed to never let a man rule over me like that ever again.

With my new frame of mind stronger than ever, I began gathering all the flowers he'd given me and thrown them all into a large trash bag, leaving one solitary flower as a reminder.

I quickly head outside and throw the flowers away in the dumpster where I swear I see a bronze head of hair passing by. I head back inside to get ready for work. I had a long shift ahead of me and could not deal with any more distractions for the rest of the day.

I wasn't going to let this guy get the best of me.

Uh oh Bella's back to her old way of thinking but don't worry our Edward will be back next chapter with more tricks up his sleeve because he's a planner remember, there's always plan A,B,C,D…and well you know how the rest of the alphabet goes.

So many follows and so few reviews, I know you're out there and I really appreciate the feedback. Most of this is off the top of my head; I have no relationship experience and used my knowledge of books and movies to get my inspiration.

Thoughts? Leave it in a Review!

See you next chapter,

Xoxo Sylvia Cullen