Day 9

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Bella closed up Edward's parade paraphernalia box putting it inside the other surprise box that had appeared yesterday.

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She and Edward were busy stuffing themselves on turkey with brioche dressing, cranberry chutney, yam puree and mélange of wild mushrooms when the intercom squawked.

"Dr. Swan, we have a package."

She eyed Edward, who put his hands up, "Not from me."

She eyed the untouched pumpkin soufflés. Talking at the wall she said, "Can it wait 'til later?"

"Um, not really. It's food."

Even though they were working on their second servings, the tins of food in the room were still three quarters full.

"Why don't you give it to the service people, we have enough."

"No can do ma'am."

Bella shrugged her shoulders. She never would understand the system here. "Bring it in then."

While grateful for being remembered, she thought it would have worked better if the restaurants donating coordinated a little better. They had no place to keep leftovers and once she or Edward touched the food it had to be destroyed. After seeing hunger first hand, watching food go to waste was painful.

Angela wore an extra big grin as she wheeled in the cart with the wide, shallow box. "Special delivery."

The first thing she spotted was the miniature marshmallows.

"Where did this come from?"

"Your dad dropped it off." Angela backed away so Bella could come closer. "I heated it up in the staff oven."

Bella looked up. "Oh my God, is he still here?"

"His security clearance didn't come through yet. Sorry."

Bella knew this, because her parents misunderstood the requirements and had only applied for clearance on Tuesday of this week. It still stung, that her father had driven two hours to drop off Thanksgiving dinner for her and she didn't get to see him.

"He left a card, and said they'll come by next week."

Meanwhile Edward got up and poked through the box, "Hey, is this your mom's famous green bean casserole? Can I have some?"

Bella glanced at his mostly full plate. "Really? Instead of the stuff from the restaurant?"

"Moms cook with love. Of course I want some."

Bella took her plate from the table, and bumped him with her hip. "Not if I get to it first!"

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Too full, she pushed away from her plate.

Edward stretched his arms over his head. "Ready for some football?"

"I want to call my parents, my dad should be home now."

He thumbed at the door. "Want me to go?"

"No, my dad's not a big talker. I'll only be a minute."

There was laughter in the background when her father answered the phone.

"Dad, you didn't have to drive all that way…"

"Anything for my girl!"

"Thank you very much, I—"

"Bella!" Her mother must have snatched the phone away from her father. She sounded extra happy. Bella guessed she'd started on the eggnog and bourbon early this year.

"Thanks for all the food—"

"Did ya get the card?"

Bella had forgotten that Angela mentioned it, and looked in the box. A white envelope was wedged in the seam. She opened it with her finger and pulled out a card. A photo fell to the floor. Edward was quicker, bending over to grab it. Taken last year at Thanksgiving, Bella and her parents were seated at the table, Emmett standing behind them. Emmett. She was pretty sure this was the first time she'd thought of him all day.

Her mother was still rambling, loudly. She was sure Edward could hear every word. "—I didn't think you had a picture, that's just a copy so you can burn it with everything else when you get out of there, but I figured you were missing us, or missing Emmett at least—"

Her father came back on. "Your mom's a little happy. We're going to come see you next week."

She felt weird when her father hung up. She needed to at least call Emmett. What kind of girlfriend didn't…wait a second. She didn't call him, but he didn't call her either. Maybe he sent an email, maybe he was expecting her—

"Bella, I'm going to go call my mom. Up for a walk later?"

She nodded while Edward summoned his guard. Checking her computer there was an email from Emmett, saying he was going to a friend's house for Thanksgiving. She responded, requesting that they set up a time to skype. She'd finished filling the hazardous waste bag with their leftovers and was straightening her bed before her computer pinged that she had a response.

No laptop, catch you later

That was it. No miss you, love you, just 'catch you later.'

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Glancing at the computer screen she noted that Emmett was late. His last email had been the night before.

Happy Thanksgiving, Skype in the A.M.

It was after nine a.m. They both were early risers, she'd been expecting him since six thirty. Another email notification pinged. From Emmett.

Problem my end, Skype tomorrow sure

She was angry, but did she have a right to be? She'd barely given him a thought the day before. She'd been having a great time with another man. Of all the times Emmett had been on the road, he must have met dozens of women, and he'd remained faithful. Compare that to how she behaved the first time she has the opportunity to spend time with another man. Was that fair of her to be angry with him? Was he angry with her, putting off speaking with her intentionally? She wasn't used to this, her life to this point had been predictable. Deliberate. Boring.

The truth was she didn't realize she was bored until she met Edward.

She tried Emmett's cellphone but it went right to voice-mail. He was probably on another endless conference call. At the moment she didn't have any other options. She'd have to wait another day to speak with him. She hoped by then she'd know what she wanted to say.

-21 Days Day 9—

When you work with children, you learn to read unspoken clues. A toddler can't tell you what's going on. A nine year old might have been told to be tough and not give the whole truth. And babies, sometimes they just screamed.

Bella's posture changed when she looked at the photo. Something was up with the boyfriend, he could tell by her body language. He expected her to explain, even though it was fairly obvious, who was who in the photo. She was acting guilty. He, Edward, was making her feel guilty.

And he liked it. If she didn't care, she would have showed him the picture, made some comment about the where and when it was taken, but instead she shut down. He should have felt bad that he was messing up her relationship, but the jerk should have been the one delivering a meal to his girlfriend, not her dad. Where were the flowers, candies, favorite books from him? If the dude didn't want anyone going after his girl, he shouldn't make it so easy. They'd been here nine days, and nothing from the loser. Come to think of it, he'd heard nothing from Tanya in a few days, but he didn't care. Which was the point, a guy who didn't care, didn't go out of his way for his woman. He needed to get Bella to understand this, without making himself look like the bad guy.

First things first, he'd take her out for a walk. Second, make her laugh. Third, listen to her. Listen to what she says and, as important, listen to what she doesn't say.

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AN: Their restaurant meal came directly from the Thanksgiving menu at one of my favorite special occasion places, Restaurant Nicholas. Really pricey, really good. And no, I didn't eat there, I cooked for TDay.

Thanks to all the reviews, follows and favs. It never gets old and it makes me smile. SOrry about the lack of reply reviews, this daily posting during the holiday is harder than I thought.

What I'm reading when I should be writing: Gothic by author-self-insert