Chapter Eight:

Edward's point of view

It's been one week since I got back from the field trip I'd been on, and one week since I was reintroduced to Bella… and that means it's been one week since I last spoke to her, and we shared that moment or whatever it was.

It was after I came back in from getting my luggage out of the car with my mom that I saw him sitting in the living room with her. How could we have shared that spark when she's staying in my house with someone else? That she's come all the way here from England, and is able to stay here with my family with someone else.

I release the tight grip I've got on the steering wheel and sigh. Why am I letting this girl that I barely know get to me so much?

I pull into the driveway at home, turn off the engine and sit in the idle car, staring at the house. I scoff, and open the door to get out of the car. I need to not try to plot ways to get her to be with me instead.

Get a grip, Edward. Seriously.

I walk into the house and leave all of my stuff by the door, and suddenly notice that it smells like cooking… I wander into the kitchen expecting to find my mom, but instead I find Bella standing at the counter chopping. I go to turn around and walk back out.

"Hello." She doesn't turn to look at me, just carries on chopping.

"Hi." I go to take a seat at the table. "I didn't know you could cook."

She stops very briefly, and I think I've hit a nerve. "There's quite a lot you don't know about me though, isn't there?"

Touche.

I deserved that. "What are you making?"

"A roast dinner." She turns to me for the first time since I sat down in here and smiles a blinding smile at me, and I am left breathless.

I recover from her stunning smile and frown. "A what?"

She laughs, and my heart starts to race. "I think, maybe you'd call it… a pot roast?" She tilts her head, and then shrugs. "But this is an English dish. I was bored, and I wanted to cook something, so I might as well cook something that comes from where I live."

I smile. "Well, it smells amazing."

She blushes. "Thank you."

I stand up. "Do you need any help?"

She shakes her head. "You've been busy, you don't want to be in here helping me."

I laugh, and walk over to join her at the counter. "I just offered my help to you and you're turning me down?"

She sighs. "Okay, well, you can chop the rest of these carrots and then when you're done you can chop those potatoes in half."

I pick up a knife and start to chop the carrots. We work in silence for what feels like hours, but can only have been a matter of minutes before I get fed up of the quiet. "You don't remember us meeting before, do you?"

Bella stops what she was doing and turns to face me, with a quizzical look on her face. "I'd remember if we'd met before."

I walk around and put the carrots I just finished chopping into a saucepan, and go back to the other side of the counter and chop a potato in half. "It was a long time ago." I turn to look at her and she raises an eyebrow. "It was eighteen years ago, if we're being exact." I know the exact moment she know what I'm talking about, her eyes dip down and I see her gulp.

"You came to my mother's funeral?" She looks back at me with tears in her eyes and I wonder why I ever decided to bring this up right now.

I only nod, and turn back to the vegetables. "It was only a brief meeting. We came because-"

"How old are you?" Her interruption surprises me.

"Isn't it rude to ask someone's age?" I grin at her and she has the decency to blush. "I'm kidding, I'll be twenty eight in June."

"I was only five… when it happened." She turns back to the food. "I don't really remember a lot." The conversation is ended by that sentence, and I finish chopping the potatoes in silence.

"I'm finished. Is there anything else you needed help with?" I put the knife down.

"No, it just needs to finish off now." She stirs some of the things in saucepans. "Thank you for your help." She goes to walk out of the kitchen, and words are coming out of my mouth before I have time to even think about it.

"I guess you wanna go spend time with your boyfriend now anyway."

Bella stops in the partition between the kitchen and the living room and turns back around to face me. My own face is flaming because of what I said, and her mouth opens and closes a few times. "My boyfriend?" She blinks at me.

I gulp, and cast my eyes downwards for a moment before looking back up at her. "That guy you're here with-"

Bella surprises me by bursting out into laughter, she laughs so hard and tears start rolling down her cheeks and she has to sit down at the table. "Oh my god! I can't believe that you thought…" She breaks back into a long peal of laughter, and I'm frozen on the spot, not able to figure out this reaction. Bella stops laughing and wipes the tears from her face. "Riley isn't my boyfriend."

My eyes go wide, and I run a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. It's so funny! Nobody has ever thought that before about him. He's my private secretary." She giggles. "And he's also very very gay."

Bella stands up from the chair she had sat back down in and leaves the room, laughing the whole way.

I rub my hands over my face, and then turn around to lean my elbows on the countertop and look out the window.

Way to go, Edward. Because there's nothing like completely embarrassing yourself.

Except... this means, that she doesn't have a boyfriend...