Bella
"What is your favorite thing about kindergarten, Charlie?" During our phone calls she often told me stories about school, however they were often about her friends' shenanigans on the playground. I never got to hear much about what she learned. While we ate dinner, I wanted to hear all about it from her.
"Story time," she said; her mouth was full of carrots but I understood her perfectly. Edward gave her a look that said, don't chew with your mouth full. Her sheepish grin was so adorable I wanted to take a picture of it to save forever.
"What kind of stories do you read?"
"Every story!" I laughed and took a bite of my ham. The dinner they had cooked for me really was delicious, I was impressed.
"Okay, so which story is your favorite?"
Charlie put her fork down and stared off into space. I supposed she was thinking very hard about her answer. I always did the same when asked about a favorite book. There were too many to choose from!
"The Cat In The Hat."
"That's a good one."
"It was my favorite when I was your age," Edward chimes in. I glance at him and smile. Since our reunion on the sidewalk I've stuffed my feelings back into the recesses of my mind. I don't think about his beauty and the butterflies dancing in my stomach. My only thoughts are for his daughter.
"Daddy can Bella and me play with my dolls?" Charlie asked as soon as she finished her dinner. I smiled at her and looked at Edward, applying the best puppy dog eyes I could.
"Can we Edward? Please?"
A funny look crossed his face but as quickly as it was there, it was gone and he was smiling and nodding. Charlie jumped out of her seat and ran over to kiss him on the cheek. Then she took me by the hand and led me out of the dining room. I felt a little bad, leaving Edward to clean up by himself. I hoped he wouldn't do it until later. Once Charlie was in bed I would help him.
"This is Amy and this is Clara, you can play with Clara." Charlie handed me the brunet doll and kept the ginger one for herself. We spent the next hour running around the living room with them. I lost myself in the game and didn't even notice the time pass. I also didn't notice when
Edward came and sat down in an arm chair overlooking the city. All of a sudden he was there telling Charlie it was time to get ready for bed.
"But I don't wanna Daddy!"
"It's a school night, princess," Edward said as he scooped Charlie up in his arms and nuzzled her nose.
"Will you stay for my bed time story, Bella?" Charlie asked, looking at me over her father's shoulder. Edward glanced at me as well and I nodded. I didn't want to leave them. It wasn't just because of my attraction to Edward (which needed to go away, dammit!), it was also because I couldn't stand to let Charlie down.
As Edward got Charlie into her pajamas, I wandered around their apartment. There was a plethora of picture frames in every room. Some hung on walls, some were placed on side tables and some occupied shelves. I noticed that nearly all of the photos were of their family. One of them was a picture of Emmett and Rosalie on their wedding day; Emmett was giving Rosalie a piggy back ride. Another was of a much younger Charlie holding a white kitten. My favorite was one of Edward and Emmett. They were much younger; Emmett was wearing a graduation gown. Edward's arm was slung across his brother's shoulder; the two of them were laughing, looking at each other and paying no attention to the camera.
"Bella!" I smiled and made my way toward Charlie's room.
Truthfully, I had expected a fully pink room with sparkles and princesses everywhere. Instead, Charlie's room was painted blue. Her comforter was a galaxy pattern, the kind I saw on every other girl's leggings during my meeting at Starbucks with Angela. The walls were covered in posters and drawings. I noticed many strange looking stuffed toys.
"What is this?" I asked, picking up on of the toys. Charlie gasped and Edward's eyes widened.
"That's a dalek!" Charlie exclaimed. I stared at the toy, completely confused as to what the hell a dalek was.
"It's from Doctor Who," Edward said. I almost dropped Charlie's toy when I heard the name of the show the dalek originated from. Jake had loved that show. I remember him telling me a few months before he died that he had just started watching it.
"Cool," I murmured. Charlie turned to the book that Edward was going to read to her, but Edward stared at me for a bit longer than she did. I just shook my head and he returned his attention to his daughter. Perhaps I would tell him about it later, but right now I had to smile and listen to Edward read Beauty and the Beast to Charlie.
It felt weird, hearing the fairytale in this setting. Charlie kept looking up at me and smiling. I wasn't Belle anymore, but a part of me worried that she knew that I had been Belle during her visit. Strangely, I didn't want her to find out. My hope was that she would continue to love me because I was her friend, Bella; not because I had once been her favorite princess, Belle.
When the story was over, I hugged Charlie goodnight and left the room so that her father could say goodnight to her without me intruding. I went to the kitchen and sure enough Edward had cleaned everything up. I suppose since I'm their guest, he didn't want me to do it. However, I wouldn't have minded. Personally, I like to do dishes with people. If one person washes while the other dries, it gives you awhile to talk. I wasn't sure if Edward wanted me to stay and spend time with him now that Charlie was in bed.
"You want something to drink?" I whipped around when I heard Edward, but he was closer than I had thought and I almost whacked him. He chuckled at my shock and at that I gently hit him on the shoulder.
"What do you have for beer?"
Edward poured two beers and we sat at the kitchen counter together. It occurred to me that a week ago he had been sitting here and I had been sitting at my condo in Florida. Now we were together, having a drink like it was something we did every Wednesday night.
"Bella?" Edward's tone was different than it had been a few seconds ago when we were exchanging stories about our cats.
"Yeah?"
"Do you mind telling me about what happened when I mentioned Doctor Who earlier? If it's too personal, you certainly don't have to. I've just been wondering."
"I don't think I want to talk about it tonight, if that's ok." I looked at Edward and he nodded. Talking about Jake made me experience many different emotions. I would feel happy because he was such a good friend, but also sad because I missed having him as a friend.
"What would you like to talk about then?" Edward smiled at me and my tummy did small flips. For the past few hours it had been easy to forget about how he made me feel. Yet, with one little quirk of his mouth he brought all of it flooding back. I was getting good at hiding it though because Edward didn't bat a lash.
"Anything." Edward's grin widened and something sparked in his eyes. I instantly regretted my words choice and wondered what he was going to want to talk about. He looked mischievous, a look that I had seen on his brother's face in the family photos I looked at earlier.
"So how many tattoos do you have?" Edward asked. My eyes widen and he started chortling; I swear he was laughing so hard that he even snorted a little bit.
"One," I muttered, taking a large gulp of my beer so that I wouldn't have to say anything else.
"Just one!?"
"How do you even know about it!?"
"Eh, your shirt rode up when you were playing with Charlie." Now it was Edward's turn to down some beer. I tried not to blush when thinking about my shirt riding up and him noticing. I considered the leggings I was wearing; they came up about as high as my regular jeans. After having the tattoo for about seven years, I knew that you couldn't see the entire thing when I was wearing pants; only the tops of some letters were visible.
"Well how many do you have then?" His question had sparked curiosity in me and now I needed to know about him.
"Two." My eyebrows rose and Edward smirked. Or maybe it was just him smiling; I had noticed during the night that his smile was slightly crooked. I needed to stop staring at him so much.
"Well what are they?"
"I have Charlotte tattooed on my chest. It's over my heart, for obvious reasons I suppose. The other one I have is kind of embarrassing."
"You have to tell me!"
"You haven't even told me yours!"
Edward had a point. I had strategically avoided discussing the tattoo that I had gotten in memory of my best friend. If I told him about my tattoo, wouldn't he want to know why I had gotten it? I had already avoided talking about Jake once that night. Could I do it again? I looked at Edward and then down at my hands clasped on the counter. I wanted to tell him. I just wasn't sure if I was ready to tell him.
"It says carpe diem," I admitted, keeping my head down so I wouldn't see his expression. When Edward's response was to start laughing, however, my head shot up. I glared at him and he held his hands up in defense.
"I'm sorry, it's just a little clichéd. When'd you get that? At eighteen?"
"Yes," I said seriously. I was growing angrier at Edward's attitude. He wouldn't even tell me what his second tattoo was because it was 'embarrassing'! He shouldn't have been laughing at my tattoo especially since he didn't know the story behind it.
"Well, I got my other one at eighteen too, so I guess I know what it's like to be young and not make great tattoo choices."
"I got mine in memory of a friend who passed away," I snapped. I stared at Edward as the words passed my lips and his expression changed. I instantly saw the pity that I hadn't wanted to see in his eyes. However, it needed to be said for him to shut up.
"I-I'm so sorry Bella." Edward looked at me, his eyes large and full of sympathy. "What happened?"
"He died in a motorcycle accident a few weeks after I graduated from high school. About a week before I left for college I decided to get it in his memory. It was his motto; he said it all the time. I know it is kind of a clichéd saying. I even made fun of him all the time for it. I figured though that it was the best way to remember him and he would've gotten a kick out of it too."
"Want to see mine?" Edward asked after a few moments of silence.
I grinned, the sadness I was feeling about Jake slowly drained away and was replaced by eagerness. Edward stood up and took off his sock. I couldn't see anything on the top or side of his foot so I was curious. Then he held it up and showed me the bottom. In big, kind of sloppy letters, was ANDY.
"Complete with the back ward N and childish handwriting," Edward said. He sounded very embarrassed but also kind of shy. I started to giggle; it was an amazing tattoo.
"I can't believe you got that at eighteen! You're finally able to go off on your own and get a tattoo and you get something straight out of Toy Story!"
"Shut up," Edward growled.
"Make me!"
Edward
She should not have said that, I thought. I stepped forward, took Bella's face in my hands and kissed her. At first, it was going to be innocent enough for me to brush it off as a joke. However, the parting of her lips kept me going. Something told me I should stop kissing her, but Bella returned the kiss.
"Edward," she whispered, "we should stop."
"Yes, I agree." One of her legs wrapped around me. Neither of us stopped. Neither of us really wanted to.
It felt like there was a fire in my stomach. How long had I dreamt of kissing Bella? Now it was actually happening and it was so much better than I had thought it would be. I felt her arms snake up around my neck. One hand was suddenly fisted in my hair while the other held tightly to my shoulder.
Moaning, I dropped a hand to her waist. As I trailed it down to her thigh I heard a soft moan escape from her lips and I wanted her even more. I lifted her other leg so that both were now wrapped around me. She tightened them, pulling me closer to her. I lifted her off of the stool and carried her to the living room.
Bella
Suddenly, we were on the couch. Even though my mind screamed that what we were doing was not right, my body screamed that it was. Edward had fallen back onto the couch so that I was straddled on top of him. I loved feeling like I had some power over him. I kissed him, darting my tongue inside his mouth and pushing my hips into his as I did so.
The groan it elicited from him was extremely satisfying. I moved my lips along his jaw and down his throat. One of his hands moved down to grab my ass and I gasped. I nibbled his ear lobe, sucked at where his neck met his shoulders and kissed the underneath of his chin. All the while he was groaning and pulling my hips closer to his own. I could feel how hard he was and it caused the warmth inside of me to spread even further. I wanted him so badly.
Suddenly one of his hands was pulling my face back to his. I felt a thrill at kissing him again. However, now his kisses were slower. His hands had loosened their grip and were resting lightly on my waist. I relished in kissing him. I had longed to kiss him for months. Being separated by a couple states and also having an agreement not to be together kind of threw a wrench in that fantasy of mine. However, now we were kissing.
"I'm kissing you," Edward muttered, his lips grazing mine as he said it.
"You shouldn't be."
"I know."
Just like that, we both stopped. I reluctantly opened my eyes and stared into his. They were even more beautiful from this proximity. With a sigh, I pulled myself away and went to sit at the other end of the couch. Edward sat up and wiggled around into a comfortable position. I tried not to smirk at the idea of him adjusting his erection.
We sat there silently and I wondered if we were going to talk about it or act like it had never happened. Personally, I had loved every second of it. With his silence, I doubted whether he had too. I decided that I would leave. We could talk about it again in a few days.
"What are you doing?" Edward asked as I got up from the couch.
"Leaving." I stared at him and wondered how he felt about me leaving. Did he want me to stay like I so desperately wanted him to?
"Don't leave, Bella," he said quietly. I stayed frozen in place and he stood up and wrapped his arms around me.
"I'm sorry for forcing that on you," he whispered into my ear as he stroked my hair.
I shook my head and looked up at him. "I reciprocated, you idiot. Nothing was forced."
Edward smiled a little but then it disappeared. "We still shouldn't have done that. We agreed that it'd be too complicated."
"I love being friends with you, Edward. Maybe we should ignore that this happened." I bit my lip after saying that and wondered if that was what I truly wanted. Edward nodded and stared down at me. He kissed me on the forehead and then stepped away.
"So, friend, do you still want to leave?"
"I probably should, it's getting late" I said, giggling at him calling me 'friend' instead of Bella.
"Put on your shoes and coat and I'll bring you down and help you catch a cab."
"I'm perfectly capable of catching a cab, you should stay up here with Charlie!"
"Eh, she's asleep. Plus what kind of friend would I be if I let a lovely lady like you go out there on the streets of New York at night all by yourself!?"
"You're ridiculous."
But I went put on my shoes and coat like he said and let him walk me out. When he put me in a cab he smiled at me, that dazzling smile that makes me melt and said, "I had a wonderful night, Bella." Then he shut the cab door, but not before I noticed the mischievous twinkle in his eye. As he walked back into his building, I was left wondering if he was thinking about the same thing I was when he said he had a 'wonderful night'.
A/N
I felt like this chapter needed a little bit of smut. I guess I also did at as a sort of apology for it being a bit late and also a bit short. I'm in college now guys, cut me a little bit of slack.