Although revised, Stephenie Meyers own all characters noted here.

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Unexpected

Chapter 2

Alice's POV

"Why in the hell do I listen to you?" I threw my red charcoal pencil at my best friend, successfully making contact with his chest. The pencil did more good as a projectile than a design tool as I was just too distracted. How could I concentrate on fabric color when she was in every single thought?

"Umm . . . first off, ouch," he said rubbing his chest and picking up the pencil from where it landed, handing it back to me. "Secondly, I only suggested it. I didn't think you would actually do it." Jasper leaned against my fabric table. I knew he was waiting on me to finish the story.

"I left, okay! I chickened out and instead of facing her the next morning, I left." I dropped my head to my desk on top of the half design I had spend the last three hours on and was in no way near a completed concept. I was ashamed. I was nothing more than a custardy coward.

"You what?" Jasper was straight up on his feet. Had his eyes popped any harder they would have certainly rolled out of his head.

"You heard me." This time I threw the fabric samples. "I was looking at her gorgeous face as she held me and I just knew I couldn't bare the heart break if she turned me down, or laughed in my face." I was almost to tears thinking about my almost rejection.

"How the hell did you know she was going to reject you?" Jasper's mood swings were taking me. I looked upon his chiseled face as he stared at me sternly, arms crossed. I must have taken too long to answer. "Ali, what aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing, you know the whole story!" I stood and started pacing, quickly summarizing the situation. "I met her at the club, took her to my room, we had unbelievable sex, we fell asleep and I left her a note saying goodbye." I felt so much regret for that last part. I was just too big of a coward to face her.

"Jazz, you've seen the girls she picks up." I raised my voice, "I am nothing compared to them." I looked down at my small frame. Yeah, I had great breast but I was so un-proportional. My hair was short, and not to my own choosing; I did with it whatever I could. Spikes were just easier to deal with. I was as short as the pixie I was described to be. I was just plain. Nothing about me would hold someone like Bella. Gorgeous Isabella. I continued to mentally berate myself as I picked at imaginary lint on the template that hung from the olive toned mannequin's body.

"Mary Alice Brandon!" I cringed at the sound of my full name. I always felt that it made me sound too old; like I was born sixty decades too late. "You are far from plain." Jasper made his way to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, laying his head atop of my hair.

"Oh yeah? Than why didn't she want me?" The tears I had been holding back, the tears I only allowed myself to cry when I was alone at home, managed to escape.

Jasper squeezed me tighter. Taking a deep breath before answering, "Babe, you didn't give her a chance to."

Jasper stepped away from me, taking my original seat at my desk. I had known Jasper since we were teenagers. He always made me feel better but not even he could fix this one. I patiently waited for him to give me the same ol' drivel about how I am so worth it and I would find the girl of my dreams one day soon. To my surprised that line never came.

"You did the right thing though." This time my eyes popped as I looked up from the mannequin. "Not that you aren't a great catch, Alice," Jasper held up his hands in defense realizing how his statement sounded, "but she probably would have rejected you because it is in her nature to do so. That whole 'I'm looking for something meaningful' was just a pick up line. We know the kind of person she is."

I didn't really want to hear what Jasper was saying but I knew he was right. I had dated others just like Bella: serial one night-standers, I called them.

"We know they aren't looking for anyone to truly be committed to. All they want to do is have fun for one night. They don't do commitment. If you did do something miraculous and they called you the next day, the most you would get were a couple very casual dates. Than the next thing you know you see them making out with some guy in the middle of the movie theater's gallery."

I had to laugh when I realized Jasper was reliving his recent heartbreak at the hands of one Edward Cullen; a serial one night-stander that appeared to be turning into something until suddenly it wasn't. Jasper just couldn't stop crying over that one.

"I'm so sorry darlin'," I wrapped my hands around him this time. Two broken hearts trying to mend each other. Jasper didn't want me to go through what he went through, and I loved him for that. What Jasper didn't know was that I was already there.

"We have excellent taste in mates don't we darlin'?"

"Yeah, maybe we should just be with each other. I would date you Ali, if you weren't such a girl," Jasper joked.

I playfully slapped his arm after erecting myself. "I don't want your boy cooties anyway."

I walked away from Jasper and resumed my seat, turning my missile/design pencil around in my hands. I kept laughing at Jasper. He actually was quite handsome with those blond waves and baby blue eyes. I think Jasper and I were married in a past life or another universe and that was why we were so close. We were soul mates of another kind.

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Ali. You are not a custardy coward," Jasper poked fun of my catch phrase, "you are smart, beautiful and the best damn designer in all of Texas."

"Thanks, Jazzy." His words were sincere but they weren't enough. He knew that. I had to pull myself out of this in my own time.

"You're welcome, sugar." Jasper gave me a peck on the cheek. "Hey I have to get out of here but how about we go out tonight? Get us a few drinks and find a couple people to take our minds off those ass holes."

"Bella is not an ass hole," I shrieked a little too loudly. "She volunteers with foster homes, participates largely in breast cancer awareness programs, and she does a lot of work with the animal shelters. She is a great person."

"Alice! Am I going to have to disconnect all of your internet devices again? What did we learn about Google Stalking?" Jasper looked too much like my dad at that moment.

"It makes me look like a deranged person and one day soon it will be illegal." I hung my head like a child. Jasper just shook his head at me. "No thanks on the night life tonight though. I'm really not in the mood. Besides, I am so behind and the show is just over a month away." I said as I laid my hand down on my sketch pad.

"Oh yeah. I am so excited for you. Well don't get too stressed out, you are going to blow them away just by being there."

"Thanks, Jazz."

"Okay, well I'm out. I'll call you later. Bye, love."

"Bye," I said as I watched him walk out of my store front design shop.

I tried to go back to work on the red and yellow pencil skirt with matching Goth ruffle shirt but my heart and brain were in constant battle for attention. Presently my heart was winning. I gave up on the design and went to inventory. I was going to have a lot of work to catch up on and the last thing I needed was to halt production to wait on more materials.

Home sweet home. I tossed my design pad and bag on my sofa and made a "B" line to the refrigerator. I needed a tall glass of Moscato, ASAP.

As I poured the wine, my mind went back over my day. Maybe I should say my mind went back over how unproductive my day was. I didn't get any templates completed or updated. I had to recount inventory and I jammed the sewing machine three separate times. This was getting ridiculous. I was not going to let this beautiful, generous, goddess of a woman interrupt my life.

That however was easier said than done.

It had been three nights since I approached Bella at the club and I could still feel her all over my body. Isabella was the epitome of everything I loved about being with a woman. She was soft and warm. She smelled like vanilla and was worthy of being eaten. Her long brown hair was flowing like chocolate milk and her eyes where a perfect match. I could still taste her on my lips. Everything about her was alluring and captivating. That was how she was able to get whoever she wanted; we mere mortals didn't stand a chance when near her. What woman would be crazy enough to tell her no?

Yeah, I was sure of it; "no" was not a word Bella had ever heard. Except for maybe, "No, please don't stop."

Everyone was attracted to her physically but I loved her much deeper than that. I saw how good she really was. The whole bad girl/player side she had going wasn't quite accurate when you put all the pieces together. I was in every single piece and I knew that it was fate pushing us into each others lives. Bella just had to stop fighting it so damn hard.

The foster home Bella volunteered with, Brighter Day, was the same home I spent the first eleven years of my life, before I was adopted by the Brandons. I still go there and read to the toddlers and throw parties for the teenagers. I helped organize the various fund committees for the beast cancer awareness campaigns all over Texas. It was a passion of mine ever since my adopted mother died of the illness when I was only nineteen years old. I also made all the doggie tuxedos and ball gowns for the "Pick-A-Pet" Adoption Ball. We had been in each other's lives for years, but she never saw me, and I only saw her in dark smoky clubs.

I didn't understand how we never ran into each other at those events. Surely had I ever seen her at any of the events I would have fallen in love with her then. I probably would have had the courage to face her, seeing instantly we had something in common. No, instead I was taken by her beauty under the influence of one too many fruity drinks and the hazy of a smoke machine and black lights. The first time I laid eyes on her, I couldn't pull myself away. I could feel the pull in my chest as I tried to inch closer to her through the packed club. She seemed to be staring directly at me as well. My heart sank to my feet when I realized it wasn't me that had her attention. The tall blond with the mini skirt beat me to the love of my life and began pulling her away. So many other times I thought were going to be my night to finally speak to her, and I would be horribly let down to see she was with another. Eventually I stopped trying, praying I wouldn't see her when I went out. A prayer that was never answered.

Everything I found out about her, I was a part of in one way or another. It had to be fate pushing us together. Then why didn't my love see me the way I saw her?

I redressed, completely unaware of how I had showered in complete oblivions. That was how a lot of things got done the last few days. Bella took up the front of my brain, everything else was secondary. I rubbed the foggy bathroom mirror, realizing I didn't recgonize the face that stared back at me. The was the face of a heart broken woman. What was so sad was that I broke it myself. I never gave Bella to chance to accept me or run from me. I had all the pain without any of the good memories that normally go along with the relationship resulting in a heart break. There was no joy in me; weeping over a never existing lost love.

I lay across my bed and waited for sleep to claim me. Not even in my slumber was there an escape from the heartache of not being with this amazing woman. Every single night since our time spent together I dreamt of her touch, her smell, her hot sex, and her love. The beauty in seeing her in my dreams was that I wasn't rejected or humiliated there.

I was hers and she was mine.

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