Devotion 17
Yes, the regret was immediate and very strong. Edward saw the apartment for the first time. Really saw it. He put his bags in the kitchen, went in the living room, remembered he had frozen food, went back in the kitchen. The freezer was caked in white frost. He could barely fit his two boxes of food in there.
He threw the rest in the refrigerator part, cranked it to ten, slammed the door.
What? This place was a mess. Esme's offerings were still strewn across the counter, a few things on the floor. He gathered those, dumped everything in the sink. The rest was past straightening out. He gathered everything up and put it in the oven. After several mad throw-ins he got the door to stay closed. He looked around. Plates? He had a pack of paper ones. Got those back out of the oven and put them on the table. Only had two chairs and one was outside.
He hurried to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He pulled his shirt to his nose and sniffed. He couldn't tell how repulsive he was. He smoothed his long hair back with water and ran a hand over the near-beard on his face. No time to worry about it. She'd already seen him.
He looked at the toilet because girls had to sit. He flushed it. It was bad. He remembered the bleach wipes and hurried to get those. Once he got started he kept going and there was a knock on the door.
His heart was hammering around as he stood there, noticing the disgusting pile of wipes, one still in his hand. He got a bag out of the kitchen for trash. And there was a lot of trash. "Yeah!" he shouted toward the door as he picked up a couple of bottles and righted the library table and got the pile out of the bathroom.
He opened the door holding the trashbag and out of breath.
Bella stood there with Shanni. Each of them held things, like they were a couple of waitresses and he'd ordered a three-course meal.
They looked clean and…stable. They were too good for him.
"Alice cooks," Bella said passing him. Delicious smells.
"She cooks," Shanni said also walking past.
They went in the kitchen.
"She'll be along," Bella said from the other room.
Edward was still holding the knob, the door open, the smells of the food lingering.