"Edward, get out of here!" she exclaimed. Why was she so worried about her fiancé seeing us? I raised my eyebrow to question her.
"Trust me," she pleaded. Without saying a word I leapt up and dashed out the back entrance of the room.
Once out of sight I had to stop to
catch my breath. I wanted to stay in that room with her so bad. Who
cared what Mike said? Since my mother died this is the first time
that I wanted to live for someone other than myself, and I surely
wasn't about to let that go. The feeling was too real that I could
actually touch it.
I finally made my way back to the third class
deck. Carlisle looked at me with question etched all across his face.
"What happened to Bella? What happened to you?" he asked.
"I ran," I stated.
"Gosh, Edward is that how you treat a woman who shows preference in you? You run from her?" Esme asked smart talking. She giggled at little bit.
"Preference? What do you mean by that?" I asked her. Surely I heard wrong.
"Isn't it obvious? She has a thing for you," Esme said pondering the subject.
"She is first class. She wouldn't be interested in someone like me. After all she did just want to thank me," I explained to her. How could an angel such as her ever show any thing slight of interest in me?
"Edward, do you really think that poorly of her?" Esme asked shocked.
"I don't think poorly of her at all," I spat back with venom in my tone. "What are you trying to infer?"
"Well, obviously you do if you think her to be so shallow," she spat back. She then turned to face Carlisle. "Your friend is completely blind."
"Not all women are bad and gold diggers," Carlisle stated.
"This is no woman," I stated plainly.
"Yeah, we know. Angel," Carlisle stated. I began to ignore them by walking ten feet away and stared at the twelve o clock sky. In about six hours I was going to have to face a whole bunch of first class people and tell them how I saved their Bella.
How was I going to do this? I know nothing about etiquette. I sighed as I spent the rest of my day out on the deck.
Time ticked by as six o'clock dusked on me. I straightened my hair in the mirror of our room with my hands. I glanced at the mirror to make sure my face was clean and my hands began to shake.
"You can do this, Edward. You got this in the bag," I said to myself.
"Um…are you alright in here?" Carlisle asked making his way into the room after walking Esme back to hers.
"Fine."
"As long as you don't make a habit of talking to yourself," he chuckled.
"We all do it Carlisle, its when you start answering yourself that you have to worry," I replied smartly. "How am I going to do this?"
"Easy up, Edward. So you are going to meet her people. Big deal."
"Her people happen to be tremendously able to handle themselves financially," I muttered. I was beginning to feel sick. "Are you going to be alright here tonight?"
"Who me? We are worried about you?" Carlisle spoke fatherly. Great he was about to start one of those lectures again. "Edward, I love you like family. If you love this girl then fight for her."
"How can I love someone I don't know, Carlisle?" I asked.
"I seen how you look at her," he stated. "If that's not love then I don't know what is."
Carlisle bid me farewell as I made my way over to the first class dinner room. Every woman was in a sparkling expensive dress and every male was in a suit. I felt strangely out of place as I searched for any signs of Bella. She was nowhere to be seen.
"What are you doing down here, man?" asked a woman with silver hair and gray eyes. She eyed me condescendingly as if I was some sort of threat.
"Now, now dear, I'm sure he is just lost. Sir, this is the first class dinner room," the man next to her said putting an emphasis on first.
"I'm supposed to be meeting someone here," I replied. I hated boogey people.
"Edward," I heard Bella's voice call. I immediately spun around at the sound. She ran up to me and gave me a hug. Oh, how her scent was so intoxicating. I never wanted to let go of that embrace, but all too soon she pulled away to look at the man and the woman.
"You were waiting on Miss Bella?" the man asked confused. The woman's expression looked just as shock.
"Yes, Eric, Mike and I invited him to dinner. This is the man that saved my life," Bella explained to the man.
"Pleasure," the woman nearly spat not daring to shake my hand.
"Lauren, Eric, this is Mr. Edward Masen," she introduced me. Just like the woman Eric didn't dare shake my hand.
"Well, it's good that you were around then is it, dear boy?" Eric said almost short of words. He took several steps back to avoid contact as if I had some sort of disease.
"Shall we be on our way?" Bella asked me aware of Eric's rudeness.
"Alright."
I followed her across the room to a group of three women. As we made our way to them they all eyed me suspiciously. First class people had no manners at all. We stopped once we were in front of them.
"Edward, this is Alice," Bella introduced.
"Nice to meet you," Alice said smiling taking my hand in hers. She was the first one since I had been here. Alice was a tiny little thing with short black hair cropped all over her face. She had big bug eyes and a huge smile. Her and Bella had to have different dads.
"This is Rosalie," Bella introduced next. She nodded her head not taking my hand and smiled at me. She looked at me as if I was some sort of threat also. She had long blonde hair that came down to her back. Her lips were full and rosy. This woman was vivaciously beautiful, but she didn't even compare to Bella.
"And this is my mother," Bella said at last pointing to a woman with brown hair. This was the only member of her family that took any resemblance in her.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Masen," she greeted also not taking my hand.
Rosalie and Bella's mother turned around and walked forward leaving Bella by my side and Alice staring at me.
"What are you planning to wear?" she asked me. I laughed at the thought of me in a suit, and pointed to what I had on.
"No," Alice said as if she was demanding me. I cocked my head to the side to look at her shaking her head.
"Alice," Bella pleaded. What was going on?
"I said no! Come with me," she almost shouted grabbing my hand and trailing me off somewhere. Bella shortly followed. "No, Bella, go sit down with Rosalie and mom. Mike should be arriving shortly. I'll be back with Edward."
"But Alice," she begged.
"GO!"
With that Bella scurried off to catch up to her mother.
"Can I ask you where we are going?" I asked a little puzzled by this predicament.
"To our dressing room," she replied. "I refuse you to embarrass yourself with the people we will be sitting with."
"You are going to dress me?" I asked confused.
"You got it, buddy," Alice explained.
Once inside the dressing room, Alice started pulling out suits from a trunk. While she was busy I surveyed the room. It was so cultured. In third class we didn't even get a dressing room. Everything was so grand. Then that's when I spotted it. There was a twilight colored dress hanging on a hanger in the corner of the room. I recognized it almost immediately. The first time I saw Bella she had this dress on. I didn't notice my mouth was open in awe until Alice started waving her hands in my face.
"Earth to Mr. Masen," Alice called. I snapped back to earth almost immediately.
"Edward. Please call me Edward."
"Well, Edward, here is your suit," she said handing a black suit to me. It looked kind of big.
"Where did this come from?" I had to ask.
"My husband," she replied. She frowned at some thought she was having. "Listen, Edward. I know what we seem like to you, but Bella's different. Every time we go out to buy dresses she insist on staying home and listening to the piano. This life isn't for her. I knew that from the day she was old enough to talk. She doesn't love Mike. And I can see the look in her eyes when she spotted you today or the way she talks about you."
"Bella talks about me?" I asked as my heart skipped a beat.
"Yes. Almost too much. So I just ask of you, tell her before she marries him," Alice pleaded. How could she know what I wanted to tell Bella? Was she some sort of physic?
"What do I tell her?" I asked her looking for some help.
"You tell her exactly how you feel," Alice explained. "I've seen a change in Bella since she met you and you two haven't even known each other for that long. Freaky how love works sometimes."
The corners of my mouth turned up at the word that Alice had just used. I quickly put on the suit and met Alice outside of the dressing room where she was waiting for me.
"You look dashing," she said smiling.
"Are you sure your husband won't mind me in his suit?" I questioned not wanting any kind of quarrel to spring upon Bella's family or me.
"Positive," she said beaming. She wrapped his arm around my arm and escorting me back to where the dinner room was. I had to laugh. I told myself the day I wore a suit someone would have to force me and all it took was a tiny female no bigger than a seventh grader.
She steered me over to a table where I recognized Bella and Rosalie sitting at. Her mother and two fairly large men surrounded them. Across the table was the man, Eric, and his wife. They glared up at me from their plates. Mike was on Bella's side clearly holding Bella's hand underneath the table. I remembered Alice's words about how Bella did not love him and that thought forced a smile on my face.
"Good evening, Mr. Masen," Mike greeted too politely to be him. If one more person called me Mr. Masen I was going to snap.
"Edward, please call me Edward," I explained loud enough for the whole table to hear so that I won't have to repeat myself.
"Good evening," Bella greeted smiling up at me. Her smile was so radiant. Carlisle was right I could do this.
"Jasper, dear, I let Edward wear one of your suits," Alice said notifying him. The tall man with curly blond hair nodded in approval. From her intimidating ways I could tell who was in charge of their relationship.
"I'm Emmett," the larger of the two men greeted. He had curly brown hair that framed his muscular face. He looked highly dangerous. Even more odd is that he shook my hand.
I sat down in between Alice and Bella's mother and looked at all the forks and spoons surrounding the tiny glass plate. Great. How was I going to figure this out? Alice gave me a tiny wink telling me that she was going to help me through this. I let out a sigh relief.
"Great. Lets eat!" Emmett boomed.
