A/N – Twilight + Characters = NOT mine, although if anyone wants to give them to me for Christmas, I won't object. Lol
Thanks for all the great reviews. I love getting reviews! Best Christmas gift ever – expect maybe Edward himself. Special thanks to DeydreamBeliever, Isabela is Online, browneyedgirl1984 and BellasMommy for their awesome ideas and reviews. You guys Rock!
BPOV
"You called Mr. Johnson?" I shrieked at her, easing my way into traffic. "Are you for fucking real Alice?!"
"Yes, I am for fucking real Bella." Alice replied calmly. "What's the issue anyway? You know that man has a permanent hard-on for you; he'd do anything you wanted. Might as well take advantage of it."
"Do you realize that it's against the law, Alice?" I said, trying my best to keep my temper under control.
"What do you mean?" Alice asked confused.
"I have a clause in my contract with Cullen; that states something like I cannot solicit any of their clients if I leave the company – something about trade secrets and confidentiality."
"Oh, well no, I didn't know that." Alice said looking a little concerned, but just as quickly perked up. "But how's Edward gonna find out? I'm not going to tell him, and I'm sure you can get Mr. Hard-On to keep his mouth shut."
"Shit, Alice. Not cool. Besides, we don't have three girls to work that party."
"Yes, we do." She smirked.
"Alice," I warned. "Don't tell me…"
"Yup! You, me and I'm pretty sure I convinced Rosalie to join us as well. She didn't want to stay with Cullen either, after hearing you left."
"Wonderful!" I cried sarcastically. "I'm really fucked now! Alice, we can't solicit any employees either. If Edward gets wind of this I'm totally screwed."
"Seriously, relax Bella. He's not going to find out. Besides, it'll be fun. Mr. Pitch-a-Tent told me he wants us dressed as bunnies! We have got to go shopping soon. I want a really hot outfit!"
I rolled my eyes; leave it to Alice to get excited about shopping for sexy bunny uniforms. I glanced down at my blackberry when we were stopped at a red light and noticed a total of eleven missed calls. Who keeps calling? I've been with Alice all day, and she's the only one crazy enough to call me a million times a day.
I went to my recent calls menu and my stomach did a back-flip. They were all from Cullen Industries or Edwards blackberry. I don't think Edward has ever called my blackberry this many times, in all the time I worked there. Shit! He must really be pissed.
At that exact moment, a message popped up on my screen 'Isabella, please give me a call and we can discuss the situation.'
I could feel my heart picking up speed and my anger building. What's to discuss Asshole? You chose to promote Victoria instead of me – and I decided to leave. End of fucking discussion.
Blaring horns behind me brought me out of my thoughts. Oh shit – I didn't notice the light change to green. I stepped on the gas and accelerated a bit too quickly in the busy downtown area, I stomped on my brake, stopping only inches behind a silver Civic in front of me.
"What's wrong?" Alice asked, gripping the dash in front of her.
"Nothing." I said automatically.
"Okay, give me that," she said as she grabbed my blackberry out of my hands. "What's got you all distracted?" I tried to grab it back, but she held it away from me looking at the screen. A burst of laughter erupted from Alice.
"What's so funny?" I asked, annoyed.
"He's already starting to grovel back! I knew this would happen, but I thought it would take at least a week! He must really be desperate!" Alice's laughter was still in full volume as I grabbed the blackberry and stuffed it into my coat pocket.
Alice had expected Edward to grovel? For some reason, I could never picture Edward begging for anything. He always got what he wanted, or at least that's the way it seemed.
He was way too macho with too much pride to beg for anything. I'm sure it's a definite inconvenience with us being gone, but I'm sure he's already got others lined up for interviews.
He probably just doesn't like the fact that someone walked out on him, I thought. That had to be it, his pride and ego were bruised knowing that two employees left and it was on their terms. I knew that by my walking out, it would've surprised him, but I had no idea I would get this type of reaction. Eleven calls. One message. Shocking.
"So, should I respond?" I asked Alice nonchalantly.
"No way!" Alice said smiling devilishly. "Let him continue to beg."
"Alice, that's not nice."
"Who's trying to be nice?" She asked. "Do you think Edward was trying to be 'nice' when he promoted Victoria? Give him a dose of his own medicine. It'll do him good. Trust me."
"I know what he did was wrong Alice, but I'm not sure I'm the right person to give Edward a dose."
"Stop being so weak, Bella! Come on. He's the competition now, remember? He's not your boss anymore!"
"You're right, Alice. No responding." I said as we pulled into my apartment complex.
I struggled to ignore the vibrating in my pocket. No responding, I kept repeating to myself. Don't give him a chance to talk you into going back. I'm not going back! No responding! I'm not going back! I continued my inner chant as we made our way up to my apartment.
EPOV
This girl is going to be the death of me, I thought as I tried calling Isabella for what felt like the hundredth time. Chasing after a girl was definitely new territory for me. Usually I was running away from them. Well, she can't ignore me forever, I thought as Victoria strode in my office.
"Edward, did you want the new listings for the week?"
"Yeah, can you just forward them to my email? I gotta step out for a bit and will look at them from home."
"No problem, boss." Victoria said with a wink as she left. I smiled at her obvious attempt for flirting. Not going to happen, Victoria, I thought to myself. Although, I can't really blame her for trying, I have also been known to be a bit of a flirt with her.
But, if she thought that our relationship was going to go further than that, then she was sadly mistaken. Victoria was not the type of girl I wanted a relationship with – although, maybe a good fuck is what I need, I thought.I haven't been with anyone since that night with Bella. Not with Victoria. I couldn't blur those lines with her – she would expect more in the future and there was no way I was prepared for that – not with her – not with anyone, except maybe one person. But even that wasn't going to happen. Shit, the girl wouldn't even answer my calls!
I stood up from my desk and pulled on my black suit jacket that hung on the backside of my chair. I shrugged my arms into the suit and grabbed my briefcase that rested on its side at the corner of my desk.
I will talk to you today, Isabella. I'd go home and change from my regular work attire, thinking that being a little more casual would help Bella feel comfortable enough to talk. I won't go until later this evening, hopefully she'll have calmed down a bit by then. I knew she was mad, and I would do whatever I could to make her feel more at ease. I got her address from her file at work - not an easy feat to do without Victoria finding out. I didn't want anyone knowing how badly I wanted and needed Isabella to come back to work. I haven't even started thinking about a replacement for her, although Victoria's been talking about nothing else today. – I have to get her back, and that perky girl Alice too.
BPOV
"So, have you thought of a name?" Alice asked, as she plopped herself on my couch.
"No, I haven't even considered a name," I said while hanging up my black trench across the back of the stool in the kitchen. "Have you?"
"I've been throwing some ideas around, but nothings really sticking."
I started thinking about how important a name could be to the success of a new business. We need to find something that is catchy, something that is easy to remember, something easy to recognize. Swan-Brandon? No – too cliché. We needed something that would fit both Alice and I. Bella, Alice, Brandon, Swan…that's it!
"How about B.A.B.S.?"
"B.A.B.S.?" Alice asked confused.
"Babs." I said. "Like Barbara Streisand, Babs. B. A. B. S. Bella, Alice, Brandon, Swan."
"I LOVE it!" Alice practically sang, as she jumped up from the couch and wrapped her tiny arms around my neck. "Oh my god! It's perfect, Bella!" I matched Alice's enthusiasm and hugged her in return.
"Okay, now I'm really started to get excited, Alice. I think this may actually work out." I couldn't contain the huge smile that was forming.
"Of course it will! Did you really have any doubt?" Alice asked unwrapping herself from me and grabbing her laptop out of her designer bag.
"Now, time to find a place to hold the hottest new nightclub." She said as she started to type rapidly. "There are a few commercial properties available in Belltown. We'll actually have to go see them to decide if they're worth it."
Alice was moving her fingers with lighting speed over the keys as she searched for the perfect space. "Look at this one! I think this is it!" She suddenly shrieked.
"Alice, you can't know that this is the one, you just started looking." I said with a roll of my eyes.
I looked over Alice's shoulder to see a renovated ground floor commercial space. Twenty foot ceilings and loft space. Wow, it's on one of the highest traffic corners of the city, Huron Street. I read further into the listing to see that it included polished concrete floors, full restaurant kitchen and the space took the entire corner of the block – twenty foot glass windows across the entire front. I stared at the screen, speechless. It did look perfect.
"See, I told you!" Alice said sticking out her tongue at me.
"Okay, Alice" I said, trying to be the rational one. "There has to be a catch. How much is it?"
"Ummm…" Alice said, scrolling to the bottom of the screen. "Only…two point four million." She whispered, obviously heart broken.
My hope depleted as quickly as Alice's. Fuck, we can't afford that.
"Oh, well." I sighed. "Next?"
We looked at a few others and decided that they were either too old, too small or in the wrong area, they were however in our price point. Our excitement was quickly being replaced by agitation. Did we really expect this plan to simply fall into place? That's not how the real world works – we had to get creative.
"Alice," I said. "Go back to the first listing you showed me."
"The one for two point four million…dollars?!"
"Yeah, that one." Alice pulled it up again and I scrolled down to the bottom of the screen to see who currently owned it. If it was who I thought it might be……BINGO!
"Bella, it's two point four million….dollars!" Alice repeated.
"Yeah, but I have an idea. Can you arrange a showing?"
"Sure." Alice said with a touch of hesitation, not sure where I was going with this.
An hour later we were huddled on Huron Street, outside of the vacant commercial space peeking in the windows. The agent for this property was late. We did say five o'clock, right? I thought, as we stood outside in the blistering space looked even better in person – the polished grey concrete floors gleaming through the tall windows. There was no furniture and I was definitely not a 'visionary' person, but even I could picture a long dark bar across the back wall with high stools with people mulling about. The high ceilings gave an understated elegance to the space – while the large stone fireplace located at the front entrance gave it a warmth and presence like nothing else.
"I know," Alice said, reading my mind. "It is perfect!"
"Don't get too excited," I told Alice. "My idea may not work." Although, I had a pretty good idea that we'd be the only ones bidding on this property.
"Can't you please tell me?" Alice whined.
"No." I stated simply, as a slight blond woman walked up to us.
"Sorry I'm late." The blond woman said extending her hand out to us. "I'm Sue. Sue Clearwater." Her blond hair cut in a severe bob, the wind whipping it around her sharp features. She was very pleasant looking, for being in her mid to late forties.
"I'm Bella." I said accepting her hand. "And this is my associate, Alice."
"Nice to meet the two of you." Sue said as she also shook Alice's hand. "Shall we?" She motioned for us to enter the space after opening up the large glass doors.
My stomach had a touch of butterflies as we made our way through the space. I could definitely see us owning this place. I desperately wanted to own this space. The ground floor was one large space and off towards the back, the large restaurant kitchen was situated.
"The kitchen is fully equipped," Sue talked as we walked through the large cooking area. "As you can see, we have the sauté station, grilling station, fry station, and of course the kitchen line." Okay, I thought. I have no idea why there were so many stations, and why we needed them. I peeked over at Alice and could see that she felt the same way. She shrugged her shoulders and I raised my eyebrows. Sue didn't seem to notice our lack of knowledge as she led us up the stairs at the back of the kitchen.
"This is the office space." Sue continued talking as we walked around the large empty space. "You can overlook the ground floor from here as well." Sue walked us over to the dark, thick railing overlooking the gleaming concrete floors. Alice was floating on cloud nine as she skipped over to the railing. I knew it was going to be a tough task bringing her back down to earth after this tour.
We finished the tour looking at the luxury bathrooms located on the ground floor to the right of the kitchen. Even the bathrooms were outfitted in all modern finishes. "Thank you for meeting us on such short notice, Ms. Clearwater." I said shaking her thin hand once again.
"Not a problem, Bella." She responded. "But, please call me Sue."
"Okay, well thank you Sue. Can you please let us know when the seller is opening up the bidding?" Although, I didn't think it really mattered.
"Absolutely!" Sue said with a big smile. "It should be in the next few days. I have a couple more showings scheduled for this week, so it should follow that."
Alice and I made our way back to my apartment and huddled on the floor with Chinese take-out, white wine and a mountain of papers scattered around us.
"Okay, so I called my mom," Alice said between bites of chicken chow mein "and, I think she's on board with us. She's willing to become a partner, as long as we're willing to give her run of the kitchen."
"Awesome," I replied, eating my mushroom fried rice. "Esme can definitely have the kitchen. I don't want to be anywhere near there!"
"Excellent! Now, we have to think of who else we're going to need. We're going to have to hire a deejay, doormen, security, runners, bartenders, servers, kitchen staff, and cleaners. Can you think of anything I'm missing?"
"I have no clue! I've never done this before." I said while swallowing my last bite of rice. I reached for my almost empty glass of wine – I know I said no more drinking, but come on, it's only wine! And, I'm only feeling a little flush from it.
"Well," Alice said, filling up my glass, "we'll let my mom take care of who's needed in the kitchen and we'll take care of the rest. We can't really do much until we secure a space."
"You're right." I agreed. "Let's just take things one step at a time. Hopefully we get the Huron Street space. Keep your fingers crossed."
"Believe me, I'm keeping everything crossed! Okay, I'm pooped!" Alice said, while standing up and stretching her tiny arms above her head. "I'm going home."
"It's only eight!" I argued.
"It may only be eight, but I didn't get to sleep in, unlike someone else I know!" Alice said with a yawn.
"Okay, okay." I said standing up. Whoa, head rush! Shit, I was tipsy. For fuck sakes, I didn't realize the wine was affecting me so much. "I think I should get to bed early tonight too."
"Yes, you should. We have a full day of shopping tomorrow! Bunny outfits here we come!" Alice giggled as she helped me clean up the mess we made in the living room. "And, I think Rosalie is coming with us. We'll be by your place in the morning. Think you can be ready by ten?"
"I think I can manage, Alice." I said throwing the last of the Chinese food in the garbage under my sink.
"Cool, cool." Alice said gathering up the mess of papers on the floor. "I'll take our notes and organize them tonight."
"See you in the morning, Alice." I said while giving her a big hug. "And, thank you….for everything."
"No problem! That's what I'm here for." Alice said with a smile, as she reached for the door handle.
Alice swung the door open and we were both stood frozen, staring at what stood before us -- Edward Cullen.
A/N - This chapters a bit longer - please let me know if you like the length longer -- I won't be able to update as often, but I'll still update at least once a week. Okay - Review! Review! Review!