Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer has that privilege. I am merely a plus-size girl trying to make it her own.
After walking the longest trail in the area, it was almost 1pm and I realized I hadn't had lunch yet. We wandered back to the house and I decided to run to Foster's Cafe for a nice bagel sandwich. I was standing in line, waiting patiently for my sandwich, when my phone sounded an incoming text.
You've got mail. -E
I took my bagel to go.
Chapter 9 – Motionless wheel
EPOV
I stared at the ceiling thinking about the day. I can't believe I just attacked that asshole for what he said about Bella. I mean, he pissed me off, yes. But I just launched myself at him.
I had to, though. You can't talk about someone as sweet at Bella like that without someone stepping in and shutting you up. And this time, that someone was me.
It fucking felt good.
What didn't feel good, however, was my fist which was now wrapped in a towel that contained a shitton of ice. It was not quite numb yet from the ice, so it was still shooting a healthy dose of pain up my arm, seemingly with every heartbeat.
Right at that second, I thought of Bella again and that heartbeat quickened, along with the pain from my arm. The ice must have been doing its job, though, because it hardly hurt anymore. All I could think about was her hair blowing in the breeze as she knelt in front of me and kissed me with tear-filled eyes.
I wondered what she was doing right then. Was she too busy with her friends to spare a thought for the guy who punched her would-be not-so-lover in his big stupid nose?
My phone chirped on the nightstand and I grabbed it with my one good hand.
It was Bella. Seems she spared a thought for me after all.
BPOV
I drove home quicker than I normally would have. I wanted to get to Edward's email and not have to read it on the tiny screen on my phone. My bagel sandwich was wrapped up and perched precariously in the passenger seat and I tried to keep one hand on it at all times in case I took a turn too hard.
I got back to the house and took the steps two at a time before I realized that I'd left the food on the car seat. I ran back down and ran back up faster than I thought possible. I opened the door and put the food on the counter before springing into the living room to see my beautiful Macbook sitting there waiting for me.
Inside that little box of wires and electricity was my email from Edward. I opened the laptop and waited for the tiny log-in window that appeared every time I roused it from hibernation.
Nothing came. The screen was black. I wiggled my finger around on the mousepad for a few seconds and again, nothing.
I shut the top of the computer and stared at it, willing it to wake the fuck up.
I opened it again and the log-in window appeared.
After breathing a sigh of relief, I typed in my password and hit Enter.
My background appeared and I was greeted with a quote I loved from my favorite book series, "Like everything in life, I just had to decide what to do with what I was given."
Best advice ever.
I brought up Chrome and navigated to Gmail.
Four new emails. The first was from Jake, the second Rose. One was from Tyler, a coworker, and the last from Edward.
I bypassed all of the others and went straight to his.
From: Edward Cullen
Subject: Case of the Mondays
Date: August 7 , 2009 12:48 PM EST
To: Isabella Swan
Bella,
Hope you're having a good Monday. Work is slow today, so I thought I'd do some browsing. Did you know that the two owners of Forks and Spoons are Americans that were adopted into an Asian family? That's where they got the idea - they fell in love with their parents' culture and wanted to devote their lives to it.
Amazing, right? To literally stumble upon what your life will be. I wonder what that's like, to not have to make a choice - to be born, or adopted I guess, into a life like that.
Ah well, sorry for the rambling. Told you work was slow, lol. Anyway, hit me up if you're not busy later.
- Edward
P.S. My hand feels much better today. :o)
I read it twice. It was surprisingly soulful and he seemed so sad. I remembered trying to ask him about his job at the club that night but he shrugged it off and turned the conversation back to me. Was this his way of reaching out?
I didn't want to seem desperate so I decided to check the other emails before I responded. Rose's said that Emmett would be over later and wanted to know if we could BBQ on the deck, the coworker wondered if I could edit some of his stuff, and Jake's email was short, seeing as he was leaving on his honeymoon, and contained the same information that Edward's had given me. I was going to do more of my own research, of course, but how funny that they had both told me the same things.
And how thoughtful. I had told Edward about Forks and Spoons in passing, never believing that he was actually listening to me talk.
I wondered if I should invite him along to the restaurant when I went on Thursday. It was in the middle of a normal 9-5-er's workday, but if he was the assistant manager, surely he could get away for an hour or so.
With Gmail opened back up again, I composed an email in response.
From: Isabella Swan
Subject: Noms
Date: August 7 , 2009 1:12 PM EST
To: Edward Cullen
Hey Edward,
Thanks for the information. I was already going to do some research and that was a great start.
If you want, you could come with me to the restaurant for the lunch rush on Thursday. My boss was going to come with me but something came up and eating alone is not as fun. So, let me know if you'd want to. I remembered that you were interested in the premise and if you were doing your own research, you might as well see it firsthand.
As for my Monday, I had a meeting this morning and I just got home. I will be around doing some editing for part of the day and research for the other part, so if work doesn't pick up, feel free to email back.
Hope you have a great day,
Bella
I grabbed my bagel sandwich off of the counter and got some juice from the fridge. I reopened the email from Tyler and began to edit the article he sent.
Two minutes later, I heard a ping coming from my laptop speakers. I noticed something blinking up in the tabs of Chrome and realized I left my Gmail up and someone was messaging me.
Edward.
My stomach did a flip and I wasn't hungry anymore. I put my sandwich down on the coffee table and clicked on the tab.
Edward Cullen says...
Definitely. The restaurant sounds great. Is noon good? I can take an hour at work and meet you there.
Isabella Swan says...
Hey, that sounds fine by me. I like to catch them at their busiest to see how they cope with the stress.
Edward Cullen says...
That makes sense.
I waited a minute or two to see if he'd say anything else but my curiosity got the best of me.
Isabella Swan says...
Work still slow or is it getting better?
Edward Cullen...
Slow and boring. Although, honestly, even when it's busy, it's still pretty boring.
I knew it. I knew he felt unchallenged at his job. I wonder if it would be overstepping a boundary for me to talk to him more seriously about it.
I decided that no, it wouldn't, because he was the one who brought it up.
Isabella Swan says...
So tell me what you'd rather be doing with your life.
I waited for a good 3 minutes before there was any movement.
Edward Cullen is typing...
JPOV
As sure as I was that Bella liked Edward, I was doubly sure that it was a bad idea for the two of them to get together.
Before Mike, Bella had been vivacious and outgoing, despite her believing she was a "fat chick".
After Mike, she turned inside herself and instead of owning up to her feelings, she shoved them deep down and barely even discussed what had happened. I know she had told my sister, because Rose told me, and afterwards Rose had also told Emmett. He had said something to Bella about it but I don't know how much information she actually let the big guy have.
It's ridiculously frustrating watching someone you love like a sister lose a part of herself. From what Rose said, Bella went to a birthday party for another friend. Mike didn't go because he rarely did anything social when it didn't involve his friends and either pot and/or beer.
There was a huge bar fight at the place where the party was being held so they called it an early night and Bella headed home. She walked into their apartment, the one she shared with Mike, to find him with his cock buried balls deep in some skinny blonde that he had apparently met online.
She flipped out and demanded that the bitch leave. Bella ran in the bedroom and slammed the door. After an hour of crying so hard she was popping blood vessels in her head, she walked out of the bedroom expecting to find Mike waiting to talk. Instead she found the two of them still cuddled up on the couch.
Next to them was Jessie. And the blonde was petting her.
Bella. Went. Crazy.
She ripped the blonde up by the hair and flung her across the room towards the door, telling her if she ever stepped foot in her house again, she would rip out her implants and choke her to death with them.
Jessie was her baby. In Bella's mind, to have that skank pet her dog was worse than finding her fucking her boyfriend on the couch.
She proceeded to slap and punch and bite Mike so hard that he cowered into a corner in the kitchen. He slowly slid down to the floor to try to get away from her, but that just incensed her that much more. She kicked him with everything she had and he cried like a baby on the kitchen floor.
She took Jessie in the bedroom and locked it. She stayed up half the night packing and the next day, she and Jessie left the apartment, only going back with Rose and I to pick up the rest of her stuff when we knew the douchebag wasn't there.
I left a nasty note on the bathroom floor with the pink strawberry-flavored lube that he has so distastefully left on the couch.
As sad and heartbroken as Bella was, Rose had told me that as she and Jessie hopped in the car to leave that morning, Bella had turned around to her fur daughter in the back seat and shouted, "Daddy's dead!" That had made me laugh until I cried. Only Bella.
See, Bella was special. She had a thick-skinned facade mostly in place due to years of being treated like a social pariah. She wasn't a skinny girl but she was far from being one of those dudes that had to be lifted out of their houses with a crane. She was beautiful and intelligent and Mike tore her down to within an inch of her sanity and self-esteem.
It's so unfair that all she did was love and give and all he did was ridicule and take.
Honestly, I think she was so excited to have someone interested in her for something other than checking "big girl" off of their To-Do list, that she let his many, MANY, flaws slip by the wayside.
She was finally at a place in her life where she was settled and her confidence was coming back. If I allowed her to hang around Edward, I knew she would get hurt.
He has never once dated a bigger girl. In fact, much to his detriment, his type was always thin and blonde. Bella needed someone safe; she needed someone who was used to dealing with insecurities. The only insecurities Edward had ever dealt with were his own. If a girl had "issues", as he called them, he tended to drop off the radar.
I don't think I could handle it if one of my best friends broke my other one. That part of my thought process may have been selfish, but there it was. My life would be easier if Edward would stay the hell away from Bella and I was going to make sure that's what happened.
BPOV
Edward Cullen is typing...
I sat and waited patiently.
Edward Cullen says...
It's not really that simple, although I do appreciate you asking. I feel like, even though I chose this path, it's not what I should be doing. I sit at a desk most of the day filing paperwork and dealing with employees that don't want to be here much more than I do. I mean, seriously, who knows what they want to do at age 17 enough to be able to pick a major and actually stick with it for the rest of your life?
Isabella Swan says...
I agree with you 100%, but...
There are always options Edward. Depending on what your major was, you could turn it any way you wanted in order to get a job that you'd be happier in, no?
Edward Cullen says...
Business major with a minor in IT. I'm doing exactly what my degree says I should be doing but it's not enough, you know? I've thought about this a million times. If I had my choice, I'd open up a little cafe that doubled as a piano bar in the evenings and on weekends.
Hold up. This man wanted to run a piano bar. Could he actually play or was he just a fan?
Isabella Swan says...
Do you play or do you just want to own the place?
Edward Cullen says...
Oh, I play. Music and food pretty much tie for the two greatest loves of my life.
I don't know why but I blushed as soon as I read his words.
Isabella Swan says...
Good choices. :o)
Before I could finish what I wanted to type, I noticed he was already replying.
Edward Cullen says...
I gotta go. Customer needs me. So, Thursday at lunch, right? I'm looking forward to that place. Need me to bring anything besides me?
Adorable. And amazing, it seems.
I think I'm in trouble.
Isabella Swan is typing...
Nope, just need you.
I froze a mere millisecond from hitting the Enter button and backspaced.
Isabella Swan says...
Nope. Just you. See you Thursday if we don't talk before.
Edward Cullen says...
We'll talk before. Later Bella.
He signed off and I floated up to la la land.
A/N: The title of this chapter comes from a song off the Garden State Soundtrack called In The Waiting Line. That whole soundtrack will change your life. Totally, for cereal. :oP
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