oOo
Bella never told Edward that what had hurt her most was not the fact that this woman Zafrina had talked about his deceased wife – Bella had hardly listened to that.
What had hurt most was the way he had introduced her.
"Isabella Swan." Nothing more.
Not, "my girlfriend, Bella Swan," or "my friend Bella." Nothing to convey that they were more than acquaintances.
The way his fingers had let go of hers. That had hurt.
But then, she wasn't his girlfriend, was she?
They'd never talked about their relationship status.
Maybe she should change the line in her facebook account to "it's complicated."
Bella sighed and returned to her task, baking a cake for lunch with the family.
After last night's drama, Edward had taken her home with a cab and they'd had a glass of wine at her place. Well, two, in Edward's case.
They had talked about the incident, and she believed him when he said that he just had not been thinking, that he'd felt overwhelmed and out of his depth. Especially because Zafrina kept reminding him of Irina.
She couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it had to be for him.
Well, more precisely: she didn't know, because it was something Edward seldom talked about. Not that she was eager to discuss his wife with him, but it still was the proverbial pink elephant in the room.
They had sat with each other, his arm around her, his head on top of hers. It was easy to forgive him, seeing how sorry and downtrodden he was.
She just couldn't help feeling so… right in his arms.
She frosted the cake and drank a cup of coffee, then took a long hot bath, using the bath salts Edward had given her the other night. It smelled like lavender and roses, and it turned the water a pinkish-purple colour.
She thought of Edward, and she realized that she missed him, and that she sometimes even missed him when they were together. She had no idea what his feelings toward her were, and it was slowly but surely driving her crazy.
.
Lunch with the family was more lively than usual, due to the fact that Grandma Marie and Jackie's boyfriend Paul had joined the Swans. The whole family loved the Christmas season, and their Sunday lunches in December were always more festive than at other times.
Pookie greeted Bella wearing reindeer ears. She cuddled him and gave him the cookie she'd brought. Pookie wore the dog equivalent of a grin after that.
Bella was quite relaxed, and she tried not to think back to last night. Paul seemed to be a nice guy, and he even had inspired Jackie to get some information about various degree courses at the University of London. That, of course, awarded him some major brownie point with Charles and Renee.
Grandma Marie, who was in her mid-seventies and quite agile, talked about her own dogs, two dachshunds named Louis and Lestat.
Everything was swell.
Until Jackie piped up.
"So, now that Paul has joined our merry circle, when are we going to meet your mysterious Mr. Big?"
"That's an odd name for a person, isn't it?" Grandma Marie mused.
"It's not his name," Bella said, giving her sister the stink eye.
"Then why call him that?"
"No one does," Bella said, feeling her cheeks get warm.
"But Jackie –"
"Jackie is a moron."
"Bella!" Renee shook her head.
"Okay, what do you want? You want me to invite him over so he can join our merry circle?" Bella almost shouted.
"Yes, of course, Bells." Charles's voice was calm and deep.
She looked up at him. The love in his dark eyes made her feel better.
"Of course we would like to meet him, Pumpkin. But only if you feel ready for that. You know he'll be welcome to our house."
It was exactly what Bella needed to hear, and exactly what she did not want to hear.
Because Charles had it down to a T.
oOo
Thank you for all the lovely reviews. A note to guest reviewers – I can't reply to your comments or questions if you don't have an account. Someone asked me to please start writing this story again. Um, I am writing it. Every day.
I'm sorry if this is slow and short, but that's the way it is. Considering this story has no more that 36 000 words, I don't think it's going slow, anyway. If the chapters were normal length, I'd update once a week and we'd only be at chapter eight.
Thank you again, you lovely guys. Are you looking forward to Christmas as much as I am?
xoxo
your
harperpitt