Monday morning rolled around and I planned on telling James about what had happened. He deserved to know. He needed to stop worrying about me. I was better, apart from the feeling of wholeness that I had lacked since the "incident". I got up as usual and went about my morning routine. A quick shower, some cereal for breakfast and a quick stop at Starbucks for James's and my coffees. When I got to the office, I attended to the pending work and made some calls. Everything seemed to be going fine. Yes, fine. Not great or superb even though we did make some good deals. Everything just seemed...boring...bland...monotonous.
At around 3 pm James called me into his office saying that we had a new client to deal with. It was rare for me to not know about a client as I was James's secretary and usually knew his schedule like the back of my hand. Today was certainly an exception. As I made my way to James's office, I decided I was going to tell him about what had been going on with me as soon as this new client left. I walked into his office, stopping mid-stride when my eyes locked in with a very familiar pair of green eyes. "Bella, I'd like you to meet Edward Cullen, a new client of ours. We'll be taking care of his financial needs and........" James trailed off as soon as he caught on to the fact that neither Edward nor I was paying the slightest bit of attention to his introduction. "Bella, are you okay?" Asked James. That caused me to break eye contact with the brilliant green eyes that I had been so mesmerized by. "I'm fine" I replied and then turned my attention to Edward. "Hi" he breathed. "Hi" was the brilliant reply I managed to squeak back out. Suddenly the feeling of wholeness overwhelmed me and I realized that the reason I'd been feeling so empty had something to do with Edward's lack of presence. I knew for sure that there was something wrong with me. It sure as hell wasn't an after effect of what had happened in the underground pass. No, it definitely wasn't. I was over that. I was sure. "Wait, do you two know each other?" I couldn't answer. I was too busy basking in the feeling of wholeness and trying hard to concentrate on not throwing myself into this man's safe arms that made me feel like I was home. I didn't need to reply though because Edward did that for me, confirming for James, that we did happen to know each other. That's about all the interaction we had for the rest of the afternoon while James droned on. James talked about how we were planning on handling Edward's real-estate, accounts and so on. I found out that Edward happened to be rich. It didn't matter to me though. I would feel safe in his arms even if he wasn't well-to-do. I wasn't that kind of girl. The "gold-digger" sort. I sat through the meeting slightly dazed and disoriented by the fact that Edward was sitting across from me. He seemed distracted too. James wasn't an idiot. He'd have had to be an inanimate object to not catch on that he didn't have our full attention spans. By the time the meeting was over and we walked out of the office, James so very kindly didn't bother following us out. He sensed something. At that moment I adored James for not following us out even though I knew he needed to go over a couple of numbers and his schedule for the next day with me urgently. At the same time I knew the questions would flow shamelessly from his mouth the minute we were alone. I dreaded that in a way, but I knew that it wouldn't let me back out of the explanation I owed James for my strange attitude these past weeks. We stepped out and Edward's close proximity bothered me, in a good way. He then gently drew me to a secluded area in the office. Once we knew we were alone, he cupped the side of my face tenderly and asked "How are you doing?" "Not too well." I answered him truthfully. This seemed to bother him a great deal and his forehead puckered in what I could only pass off as worry. "Why not?" was the next question that followed. Again I honestly answered him. "Because I feel an emptiness that I never did before and I know it's not an after-effect of what happened that night. It's because you're not there and now you're here and I feel all better." I mentally chastised myself for this. I knew I couldn't take back my words and even if I could I wouldn't, but I didn't want to scare him away at the same time either. He frowned for a moment before moving on to the next question. "Great" I thought to myself. "He's being nice and pretending he didn't hear that." "Are your friends back in town?" "No" I answered. Again, he frowned. "Then why didn't you call?" This was a question I didn't know I had been dreading, but the minute the words fell from his lips, I knew that if I had thought about seeing him again and questioning me like this, I would have dreaded this particular question. "Uhh...I don't really know. I guess I didn't want to bother you." "You wouldn't bother me by calling me?" He paused for a minute before he started talking quickly, his face a mask of regret. "I'm sorry I'm being pushy about you not calling me but I worry about you and I don't have your number and I shouldn't be bothering you like this I'm sorry. I don't even know how you feel about men after what happened. It was rude of me to pry and be so insensitive. We never have to have another conversation regarding anything but my financial state and things like that. I don't even know if you want to be my financial adviser after this. You don't have to. You don't have to ever speak to me again if you don't want to. I sincerely apologize." He began to walk away, I reached out and grabbed his hand. "No. Don't go. You being worried about me is very considerate. I kind of..like it. I'm not sure about how I feel about men but I told you....I feel better with you here. You weren't being insensitive. I don't know why you would care about someone like me though. I'd love to be your financial adviser and you have nothing to be sorry about."
He looked at me, shocked for a second. I knew he wasn't judging me. He was too warm and kind to do that. I also knew that he had to feel something about me to talk like this to me and I'm not sure what it was but..... seem protective of me? Standing there, I didn't care if he let me down. I was hoping he didn't though. I wouldn't know how to get rid of the emptiness if he did. Suddenly after he seemed to have recovered from the shock, a smile broke out over his face and then he spoke. 'How long are your friends out of town for?" The question puzzled me but I answered anyway. "For a few more weeks." His grin got wider, playful. "Well, since they're out of town for a few more weeks, you'll have no one to call and I'm assuming they're abroad, and international calls are expensive. So you could always call me, that is if you need something, even if you don't you don't need a reason to call. It wouldn't bother me Bella. I'd be honored for you to call me. You do have my number though, don't you?" He spoke like he knew it was under my pillow at home, like he knew I stared at it a whole lot. I just smiled in return. I was happy. No. I was ecstatic. I was whole. We both knew that this wasn't just about me calling him in need of something, though we were certainly playing to that tune and with that he he reached down and brushed the back of his fingers across my cheek gently and leaned down and murmured sweetly into my ear something about it being impossible for anybody especially him to not care about someone like me. Then he kissed my forehead, turned around and walked away with a smile playing at his lips. And then, prudent me did something bold. Well, bold for me. I called out "Oh Edward, you can call me too, you know, if you have questions about your you know.... finance and things." He turned back with that smile still at his lips and somehow, it widened. He then walked out of my sight. Once he was out of sight, I mentally cringed. He didn't have my number. Why would he bother calling me? All my insecurities came flooding back to haunt me, bringing along with them my feeling of emptiness I had grown used to these recent weeks. With that I turned around dejectedly and walked back into James's office to face the inevitable.
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