Black eyes and Beer
The week passed much the same way with either Edward or I sleeping at the other's place, having a lot of sex and just... hanging out. We didn't want to go anywhere. We liked the little bubble that we created for ourselves.
That's not to say that neither of us worked. We did. I worked out and apparently, Edward jogged which is how he kept in shape. I also started my self-defense courses.
All was going fine until the third class.
Frankly, it was a little hard to take Aro seriously with his lisp. I kept imagining him in his dress from Halloween.
"Now, what we are going to do," Aro began, walking around with a very serious expression on his face. "Is practicing punching. We have shown you the basics of how to get away already. But sometimes that is not enough. Each of you will be taking a punching bag and I'd like you to hit it fifty times. Just like I showed you, ladies."
I was about twenty hits in when my hands began to ache, but it wasn't too bad. The woman beside me grumbled about it being too much and that she got the damn idea. It just made me snicker. I didn't mind doing it.
I was just considering maybe enrolling into a martial arts class when the grumbling woman did an amazing thing. She punched far too hard and tripped over her own feet. And then into me. I was in the process of punching when she came tumbling into me and when she did, she threw my fist right back towards me.
And right into my eye.
I landed on the floor and the throbbing pain on the right side of my face began instantly.
"Oh, shit," I whined, laying on the floor. There was six of everything and I was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to be like that. At all. And I didn't like it either.
"Bella!" Aro shouted in the background. The cranky old woman who fell into me had already gotten up and was still complaining about the punching. She didn't even apologize. I would have punched her if I could figure out which of the three I saw was the real one. I wasn't even sure she knew the damage she had caused.
"Ow," I muttered, rubbing my forehead.
"Is she conscious?" Someone asked around me. I would have rolled my eyes if it didn't hurt so much.
"Yes, she is," I said, trying to sit up but someone pushed me back down.
"You might have hurt yourself. I must insist you lay back," Aro said, rubbing my shoulder. "Someone go get the gym's nurse. We need her right away."
"I'm just fine," I said, trying to sit up again. Aro was having none of it though. Maybe I could punch him instead. There was only two of him in my line of vision, so I had a one in two shot of actually getting him.
"Class, why don't we go ahead and dismiss for the day? I'll see everyone on Thursday," Aro said loudly, waving his hands about to shoo off all the women that were hovering over me. I wasn't sure what they were looking at anyway. It wasn't like I was doing tricks or anything.
"How are you feeling, my dear?" The man said as he took my hand, squeezing it tightly.
"I'm annoyed," I blurted out and he smirked slightly. "I think I can sit up."
He shrugged his shoulders, pulling me up into a sitting position. When I did my head swirled in pain but it wasn't horrible. I had concussions before and this wasn't one. It was just a headache. I looked at Aro and he frowned deeply. "Oh, my."
"What?"
"Your eye is swelling and beginning to turn colors. You must have hit yourself hard."
"I've just got a bit of a headache now and I'll bet I'll have a bruise, but I think I'm fine. May I go?" I asked in frustration, feeling like I was in high school again. I was an adult and I should have been able to do whatever I wanted but it didn't seem to matter at the moment.
"No, I must have the nurse check you out first. We have to file a report."
"The woman who fell into me doesn't have to fill in a report," I complained like a child since I was going to be treated like one.
"She just fell. She didn't injure herself. You have visible bruising and we may need to take you to the hospital," he explained.
"I don't need to go to the hospital," I stated, crossing my arms and puffing loudly.
A pretty brunette in white scrubs came in all in a huff. "What happened, Aro?" She asked quickly, kneeling down beside me. She was acting like I had blood gushing from my head. Which I didn't.
After thirty minutes of examining and report filling out, they determined that I would be fine. I would just have a black eye.
A nasty one, at that.
Self-defense wasn't for me either, apparently. Or maybe it was Aro. He was just cursed.
When I got to my car I frowned as I looked into the rearview mirror. My eye wasn't completely swollen shut yet but it would be soon. I looked at the clock and sighed loudly. Edward was supposed to be at a wedding until almost nine that night and it was only eight. I decided to text him so that he could call me later.
I've gotten myself a black eye. Going home to lick my wounds. Call me later, please?
Thirty seconds later the phone rang. "What the bloody fuck do you mean you've gotten yourself a black eye?" He asked in a heavy accented rush.
"Just that," I said with a sigh. "There was this cranky old woman in the self-defense class and she fell and made me punch myself."
"You punched yourself?"
"Yes."
"In the face?" He asked as if he was shocked by the whole thing. It was me after all. No one should have been surprised.
"Yes," I sighed again in frustration. I was sighing a lot. "I'm sorry that I pulled you from the wedding. I should let you go back to work."
"No, no," he said quickly. "The wedding was... cut short. The ex-girlfriend showed up and the bridesmaids stomped the hell out of her. I'm at the grocery store right now. I was going to surprise you."
"Oh," I said in a soft giggle. "Is that the first time something like that has happened?"
"Not hardly," he snorted. "Look, I'm nearly done. Why don't you head over to my place and I'll try to make it at least a little better."
"You're going to need a lot of liquor to accomplish that," I muttered almost to myself. He chuckled, hearing me.
"I think I can do that. I'll be done in like ten minutes. I'll see you there?"
"I'll see you there," I said quietly.
All I wanted at the moment was to curl up in his arms and go to sleep. It had been officially one of the worst days ever.
Though I suppose anyone that punched themselves in the face was having a bad day.
I took me about fifteen minutes to get over to Edward's apartment but he hadn't arrived yet. I laid back in my seat, listening to music as I tried to make my headache go away. It so wasn't working.
My phone began to buzz again and I groaned in frustration, "ello?"
"Hey, baby girl! How are you?" My mother asked brightly.
Because she was exactly what I needed for my headache. "Fine, Mom," I lied, not wanting to explain the whole thing to her. "How are you?"
"Good!" She said happily. "What are you up to in a couple of weeks?"
"Working, working out. That sort of thing. Why?" I said suspiciously. I already didn't like where this was going.
"Well, Phil and I were going to go to Australia over the Christmas holiday so we decided to visit you for a couple of days since we won't be around. Have an early Christmas. How does that sound?" She asked. She was genuinely excited about this. I smiled slightly.
Though my mother annoyed the shit out of me sometimes, she was still my mother and I hadn't seen her in ages. "Yeah, that sounds great, Mom."
Edward pulled up beside me and he instantly frowned as he peered into my car. I gave him a smile and pointed to the phone. He nodded, showing that he understood and went to get things out of his trunk.
"So, we're thinking the fourteenth and fifteenth. That good?"
"Sure, Mom. That would be great. Look, my boyfriend just drove up and I need to help him get some groceries inside."
"Boyfriend? Since when did you get a boyfriend? Is it that boy that you were having troubles with around Halloween?"
"Mom!" I shouted, laughing. "Honestly... privacy. Do you know what that is? Listen, I really need to go and help him. I'll talk to you later."
"Fine! But this conversation isn't done."
"I figured," I smirked. "Bye, Renee."
The first thing out of Edward's mouth when he laid eyes on me was, "oh, my god! Are you alright?"
He put his hands on my cheeks, examining my face with care. I smiled slightly, turning to kiss his palm. "I'm better now that I'm with you."
He frowned, not like my answer for some reason. I just leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Let's get you inside," he said finally, shooing me away from the trunk before I could grab something.
"I can carry something," I complained.
"I've got it. Go sit down on the couch and I'll bring the rest up. Have you eaten anything yet?" He asked, putting a few cloth shopping bags filled with stuff on his dining room table.
"No, not yet. I was going to eat after class," I informed him.
"Good," he smiled. "I'll be right back. I've got a surprise for you."
He came back inside, kicking the door shut quickly with his foot. I came over to him to help him take everything to the fridge and I was a little surprised when he didn't shoo me away this time. Instead, he began to set up bottles all in a little row.
"What's this?"
"Ten beers from ten different countries. It's on your list. I decided since I was going to get out so early that I could surprise you. I got everything to make burgers for dinner as well."
"Oh! Edward..." I threw my arms around his neck. "This is awesome."
"You like?"
"I love," I corrected him, kissing his cheek. "I'll put these in the fridge."
"I'll get those. There are a couple that is supposed to be served warm."
I wrinkled my nose but shrugged. "Is there anything I can do?" I asked him.
"Go sit on the couch and I'll bring you an ice pack for your eye. Do you want some aspirin?"
I went to plop down on his couch because I didn't feel like arguing with him on this point. My head was hurting anyway. "Yes, please."
He came back a few minutes later with a small bag of ice wrapped in a towel with some aspirin and a huge glass of water. I drank the pill down before laying back on his couch and putting the bag on my eye. He pouted a little bit as he looked at my bruised face before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to my lips.
"I wish I could make this better."
"You are making it better."
He kissed my forehead softly. "I'm going to start dinner. You relax. We'll start the beer tasting right after, sound good?"
"Why do I feel like I'm going to get really drunk?" I laughed and he chuckled.
"It's a tasting. You're not supposed to drink all of it."
"Not suppose to," I muttered. "We'll see."
About thirty minutes later a meal of cheeseburgers, with cheese in the center of patty at that, on honey wheat buns with homemade ketchup and mayo, came to the table. When Edward told me that he made most of his own stuff, he wasn't kidding. He also made a spinach salad with pecans and strawberries with a sweet vinaigrette.
God Bless a man that can cook.
"This is so good," I moaned. You would have thought I had said something dirty the way Edward was blushing, smiling slightly.
"Eat up," he said, "you're going to need some stuff in your stomach to keep from getting completely sloshed."
"What if I want to get sloshed?" I pouted slightly, making him chuckle.
"Behave and eat."
We had beer from England, Jamaica, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, and India.
"Oh, my god!" I frowned, trying not to spit out the beer from Jamaica. "This is revolting."
Edward laughed, his face a little flushed. We had five bottles between us so far and it would appear that Edward was a little bit of a lightweight. I liked that, a lot.
"I tried to warn you," he snickered. "But oh no, it can't be THAT bad."
"I believe you now!" I made a little face, pushing the beer away from me. "What now?"
"Real beer."
"I thought we were drinking real beer." I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, better beer then," he chuckled, sliding the warm English beer towards me. I raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Try it."
"You try it," I said, almost like a child.
"I love this stuff," he laughed, taking a bit swig before passing it to me. "See? No harm done. Try it."
And much to my surprise, it was really good. He was a little bit too smug about that.
By the end of the night, we had shared six bottles together. Edward had the Canadian beer all on his own and I liked the one from India where he did not. The other two, the Jamaican and the Italian were not good. At all.
Overall, my favorite was the Swiss one. Edward's was the English, go figure.
"They had a whole section of beer," Edward explained to me, leaning back on the couch, his arm draped over my shoulder. "It was kind of hard to pick. I could have probably gotten ten more."
"Maybe another time," I said, snuggling into his side. We were quiet for a long time and I almost thought he had fallen asleep when I felt him stiffen slightly.
"Bella, can I talk to you about something?"
"Something wrong?" I asked, looking up at me with a slight frown. He went from extremely relaxed to very nervous very quickly.
"I hope not. Um, I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"Well, my parents are coming into town for Christmas and I'm going back with them for New Years. Normally I work, but they made a big deal of me visiting. And, well, I was wondering if you'd like to come to London with me? I've already talked to my parents about it and they'd love for you to come and visit with us, especially when I told them that you've always wanted to go to London and-" he rambled on and on. I put my hand on his mouth.
"Are you asking me to go to Europe with you?" He nodded, my fingers still against his mouth. "Really?"
He kissed the pads of my fingers finally, nodding. "Please?"
"I'd love to."
"Really?! Awesome! Great, good," he said, looking nervous again.
"Is there more?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I already bought your ticket so we could be on the same flight beside each other. I didn't want to take the chance that we wouldn't be. And they're totally refundable so if you don't want to go, it's really fine and I thought I would ask once you were all liquored up so-"
I laughed, covering his mouth again. "That's very sweet, Edward. And thoughtful. I'll pay you back."
He shook his head, making me frown. "Part of your Christmas present."
"Edward, you can't afford that!" I said. As soon as the words fell out of my mouth I regretted them. His eyes turned dark and his mouth turned into a deep scowl, something I had never seen on him before.
"I do realize that my line of work isn't as big of a money maker as yours, but I am not poor. I can more than afford this. I could live in a nicer place if I chose. I've just been trying to save money for the future. For a house. For a family. Just for... everything."
"I didn't mean it like that," I sighed, hating that I had obviously hurt his feelings. "I'm just so used to taking care of myself. I'm not used to someone else taking care of me."
"You'll just have to get used to it," he said, pulling my chin up to look into his fluid green eyes. They swirled with emotion, a torrent behind them. "I plan on spoiling you in every possible way. Now, say yes. Say you'll go to London with me."
"I'll go to London with you," I said, wrapping my fingers around his neck before pulling him down into a kiss.
Before our lips touched he spoke softly, "and the ticket is part of your Christmas gift from me. No more arguments about it."
I laughed, "fine. But I will find my own special way of paying you back."
"I have no doubt," he whispered before kissing me deeply. It was not long after that he took me to bed, making love to me even though I had a black eye. Maybe it was because of it. He was gentle and loving and I couldn't have asked for more. It was a great way to keep my mind off the pain.
The next morning I went home to work. I hated leaving at eight in the morning. I really did have a lot to do. Especially since I needed to work on a bigger Christmas gift for Edward. T-shirts and knick-knacks are one thing and are all well and good, but it wasn't enough. Not by a long shot.
But, I had an idea and hopefully, I could get it done before Christmas.
It was around noon and I was just about to take a break for lunch when my phone rang. It was my father. It was kind of odd to hear from him in the middle of the day and a slight panic washed over me. "Hello?" I said calmly, hoping not to show my fear.
"Hey, Birdie!" He said brightly. "I was on your side of town and I was wondering if you'd like to join your dear old pops for some chow."
"Oh!" I said relieved. When you were the daughter of a police officer you always worried. "Yeah, that would be great. I was just about to get some food myself. Want to get some barbeque? I haven't had any in ages."
"A girl after my own heart. I'll be over in five minutes to pick you up."
"Alright. See you then."
I got up and quickly got dressed in better clothing. Though I had already showered I was still wearing one of Edward's tee shirts that I had stolen in the morning. I slipped on a tank top and put a button down over that before putting on some jeans and chucks. I threw my hair up in a messy ponytail, frowning at my eye as I looked in the mirror. It looked worse than it did before.
Maybe Charlie wouldn't notice...
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE!?" He shouted as a way of greeting. "Who did this to you? Was it that guy you were having problems with? I'll kick his sorry punk ass. They'll never find the body!"
I laughed, rolling my eyes at his dramatics. "No, it was not Edward. That's the 'punk ass's' name. I started taking a self-defense course at my gym and this crazy old lady fell into me and made me punch myself in the face."
"You're not lying to me, are you?" He said, eying me seriously..
"Charlie, first off, if a male punched me I would have maced him. Second, Edward would never hit a woman so you don't have to worry. Third, have you met me? Do you know my luck? Honestly, could I make a story like that up?"
He thought about it for a moment, letting out a deep breath. "Girl, you did it good too."
"Didn't I, though?" I said, rubbing the side of my face. "Hurts like a son of a bitch too," I said, chuckling. "Edward freaked out when he saw it."
"So, I take it things are good with the boy?" He said, straightening up his gun belt. "Since I get to know his name now."
I chuckled at his 'I'm a cop and I could make him disappear' attitude. "Yes, they're great. Now, I'm hungry. Let's go."
When we got to the restaurant I ordered some chicken with corn fritters and a big salad. My father ordered an entire rack of ribs with a side of barbecued shrimp. I stirred my sweet tea with my straw, thinking about a few things I needed to tell my dad.
"What's on your mind, sugar?"
I shrugged. "A couple of things. First off, Mom and Phil are coming into town in a couple of weeks. They're going to be out of town for Christmas so they want to do it early."
He nodded his head thoughtfully before taking a swig of beer. "You said a couple of things. What else?"
"I'm going to London for New Years."
My father raised an eyebrow, looking at me with surprise. "Really?"
"Edward invited me to go with him and I said yes. It's from the twenty-sixth until the second of January."
"Wow. That's a big step. Going out of the country with someone, I mean," he said thoughtfully. "Sounds like fun though."
I was so glad that my father reacted so well. I was kind of nervous that he would give me a lecture about being responsible or something. Then it dawned on me... Charlie, even though he had his slips, actually thought of me as an adult.
It made me smile.
I took a sip of my tea to hide my grin before I answered him, "yeah, it does sound like fun."
If you're still enjoying this story let me know! Motivation helps so much.
Thanks for reading!