3
On Friday, I went with Alice and Jasper to the airport. Their plane would depart at nine o'clock. We arrived at six o'clock – Alice didn't want to be too late – and sat down on the benches, waiting for their gate to be announced.
I looked at Alice, who was bouncing her leg up and down, impatiently glancing towards the screen every five seconds.
"Alice, that won't speed it up, you know," I told her, talking about the fact that she was intently staring at the screen.
"Oh, I know," she said, sighing.
"Do any of you want anything to eat or drink?" Jasper asked.
"Yes, a bottle of water and one of those sandwiches, please," Alice asked. I asked the same and Jasper walked away.
"I'm going to miss you, Bella," Alice said.
"It's only one weekend," I told her, as she hugged me. "You'll be doing so many great things in Paris, you will hardly ever think about me." She laughed and shook her head disbelievingly.
Jasper returned and gave us our sandwiches.
"Thanks, Jazz," I said and started eating. We hadn't eaten anything for a few hours and were all very hungry.
"Gate 6!" Alice suddenly exclaimed and I looked up at the screen, seeing that she was right. We quickly finished our sandwiches and I walked with them towards gate 6. When we arrived there, Alice turned around to say goodbye.
"Have a lot of fun in Paris!" I said, slightly jealous.
"We will, thank you. Good luck for Monday," Jasper said. They would be returning Sunday evening, but they would probably arrive really late and I would probably already be sleeping.
"Bye, I'll see you Monday afternoon," Alice said and they both walked away. I waved at them and then left the airport.
I spent the entire weekend feeling nervous. I had seen which clothes Alice had picked out and was satisfied with them. I knew not what to expect and was dreading Monday morning.
The fact I would have a regular income if he wouldn't fire me immediately, was a comforting thought, but it didn't calm me completely.
I got a call from Alice on Saturday afternoon, telling me how it was in Paris. They had done most of the tourist attractions and were having a lot of fun. I was glad for them and told her so. She promised to take a lot pictures for me and she told me she had already bought something for me in Paris.
"You shouldn't have!" I said, though I appreciated the thought and was slightly curious.
"Don't get me started on that. Anyway, I'll try to call you tomorrow, but just in case, good luck for Monday," she said. I thanked her and hung up.
I met up with Rosalie on Sunday morning. She 'desperately needed' to shop, because she had been bored the entire Saturday. I agreed to go, though I wasn't looking forward to shopping.
I met her at Oxford Street and we spent the entire afternoon walking from shop to shop. Rosalie had urged me to buy a few clothes and she had bought quite a lot herself. Eventually, she allowed us to go to a book store. We entered and immediately the smell of books calmed me. I sighed as the few bags in my hands bumped against a book case and I lifted them, feeling annoyed.
I walked towards a random book case and started browsing through the books. As I had found a few books, I saw Rosalie talking to the owner of the shop. It was an older lady, but she seemed really nice. They were having a conversation, but I couldn't hear what it was about.
I found a few more books and made my way towards them.
"I'm done, Rose," I told her. She looked up and smiled.
"All right. I was just talking to this lovely woman here, Mrs Davies." I introduced myself to her.
"Do you want to buy those books, dear?" she asked, pointing towards the books in my hand. I nodded and handed them to her. I paid for them and we left the store, after saying goodbye to Mrs Davies.
"She was such a nice lady," Rosalie said. I agreed and we decided to go HMV next. Rosalie seemed a bit more excited to go there then she had been to go to the book store.
We entered the store and browsed through the CD's and DVD's.
We left the store without buying anything. It had gotten quite late, Rosalie told me it was already six o'clock. The stores were closing and Rosalie would be dining with Emmett. She took the subway to where she would meet Emmett and I returned home.
When I came home, I put the clothes I had bought in the closet and the books in the book case. I walked to the kitchen, wondering what I should cook for dinner. I opened the fridge and saw there wasn't that much to eat.
I decided to simply make spaghetti bolognese. I ate it while listening to the radio, feeling a bit lonely. It was ridiculous, because I ate on my own almost every work day.
When I had finished eating and had cleaned up the kitchen, I sat down in the living-room, mentally preparing myself for Monday. I knew what to bring along, what time to be there and when I could go home, because someone from the office had called me on Saturday.
I went to bed early, wanting to be completely rested the next day.
The following morning, I get up quite early, had breakfast and gathered all the stuff I needed to bring along. I took the subway to the office and when I arrived, saw that the same lady was behind the desk as when I had done my job interview. I greeted her and asked her what floor I needed to go to.
"Floor four, it's the cubicle that's in front of Mr Cullen's door. Your nameplate is being made and will be on your desk in a few days. Good luck on your first day. If you need anything, you can always ask me," she told me, smiling kindly. I was happy that I at least knew and got along with one person in the office. I looked at her nametag and saw she was called Madison Brooks. I thanked her and made my way towards the third floor, starting to feel nervous.
I quickly found my office and saw it was a simple but large cubicle. It had white walls – these were still white and hadn't turned yellow as in the room I had been interviewed in – and dark brown carpet. There was one large window on the right side of the wall and I could see a street. There weren't any paintings on the walls or plants on the floor yet. The desk was made of maple wood. There was a large, black desk chair behind it.
I sat down, placed my bag on the desk and realised I needed to buy a plant and perhaps some pictures or paintings.
The fourth floor – probably the other floors too – were open plan. The people in the other cubicles didn't take much notice of me.
I wondered if Edward was already in his office and I looked at the door behind me, where his office was. There weren't any windows through which I could look into the office and I didn't hear any sound, but I assumed he was in.
People were walking around, copying papers and writing things down, as I sat down and looked at them. I felt strangely out of place and I had no idea what to do.
There was a telephone on my desk through which Edward could pass me messages, but I hadn't had any yet. I picked up a pencil, put it back and sighed deeply.
I jumped up as I suddenly saw a red light on my telephone, next to the name Mr Edward Cullen. I picked up the phone with slightly trembling hands.
"Ms Swan, would you come in to my office, please," his voice asked me.
"Of course, Mr Cullen, I'll be right there," I said and I put the receiver down. I got up and walked to his door. I knocked on it and saw a few people turning their heads to look at me. I smiled politely, till I heard Edward's voice, telling me to come in. I opened the door and walked in.
He was sitting behind his desk, bent over a piece of paper. He was writing something down with a frown upon his face.
Without looking up, he pointed towards the chair on the opposite side of the desk and I sat down.
He didn't say anything for a while and I didn't dare to say anything to him. He eventually looked up and saw, as soon as he recognised me, how his eyes went big and surprise crossed his face. He quickly regained his composure.
"Ah, I see we've already met," he said in a cold voice. I wondered if he blamed me for bumping into him, almost twice.
"Yes," I said, not knowing how to react to what he had said.
"Well, nothing to do about that. I have a few tasks for you to do today." He handed me a large stack of papers and I took it from him. "If you wouldn't mind, I hope you can get as much of that done, today," he said, hardly looking at me. He turned back to the paper he had been writing on before. I wasn't sure if I should leave, but seeing he didn't seem to be going to say anything else and he was already writing again, I left the room.
I placed the stack of papers on my desk and sat down. I hadn't expected him to be quite like that, but I could understand. He was a busy man and didn't have time to get to know me. And perhaps he was also annoyed to know that I had bumped into him. Although, it would be unfair of him to dislike me because of that.
I started working on the stack of paper, glad to see I could handle most of it, only having to ask my colleagues for help a few times. When it was time to go home, I cleaned up my desk and picked up my coat.
I hadn't seen Edward since that morning and was slightly relieved. I wasn't very comfortable with his cold gaze. I was about to leave, as his door opened and he walked out.
His hair was dishevelled, as if he had been running his hand through it the entire day, and his tie hung loose on his neck. He had an exhausted expression on his face and it seemed to get worse as he saw me stumble, as I almost tripped over a leg of my chair.
I nodded politely, but didn't get anything in return, and I quickly made my way towards the elevator.
I tried to stop myself from sighing as he got into the same elevator as mine. The doors closed and we were the only two people in there.
"How was your first day?" he asked, clearly struggling to be polite.
"It was fine, thank you," I said.
"Good," he said curtly. He cleared his throat and looked at the buttons next to the elevator door. "Ms Swan, I'm not yet fully convinced you are the right assistant for me, but the other people who interviewed for the job were even more unfit. I hope you prove yourself to be useful and appropriate for this job. If not, I don't have another choice but to fire you," he said, not looking at me. I was about to reply, astonished he was so prejudiced, when the elevator doors opened and he walked away.
I huffed and also left the elevator. How could he say that? I had only worked here for one day. He didn't even have time to see if what I did was right or wrong. I admit, my résumé perhaps wasn't the best for this job, but that didn't mean I would be bad at it. He could've at least waited a few days before 'warning' me that he might fire me.
Of course, he did have to be very straightforward and business-like, he couldn't waste time being nice to the people he worked with.
I sighed, knowing he had every right to tell me what he had just told me. Even so, I felt an antipathy towards him that was, perhaps, not completely justified. I didn't even notice Madison smiling at me, as I left the building.
I took a deep breath and tried to remember where Alice and I had promised to meet. With everything going on, I groaned as I failed to remember the name of the place. I rummaged through my bag, trying to find my cell phone. I finally found it and called Alice. She didn't pick up and I dropped my phone back in my bag. I started walking away from the building.
I had to admit, this wasn't the best day of my life. The job was slightly disappointing, or perhaps it was better to say, my boss was a bit of a disappointment. And besides that, I didn't know where to meet Alice and she didn't answer her phone. I huffed and quickly looked away as someone walking past me gave me a strange look.
I decided to stop being so pessimistic and I put a smile on my face, albeit an artificial one.
I smiled at the people walking past me and continued to walk towards the centre of London, feeling convinced the place we would meet would be somewhere in the centre. After walking around for fifteen minutes, I tried to call Alice again. Thankfully, this time she did answer.
"Oh, hi, Bella! I was just about to call you. You didn't forget we had arranged to meet today? If you did, I can totally understand, you had some much to think about, with your new job and all…" she rambled.
"I didn't forget that we were to meet, but I hate to admit I did forget where to meet." She laughed and assured me it was no big deal.
"Come to 'Quo Vadis', you know where that is, right?" I assured her that I did and I hung up.
'Quo Vadis' was an Italian restaurant where we had had lunch one time and it had been delicious. Now she had mentioned it, our conversation from Friday came back to me and I wondered how I could've forgotten it. Thankfully, the restaurant was in Soho and it only took me ten minutes to get there.
"Alice, it's so good to see you! Wow, you've got quite tan. Especially for only being in Paris for two days," I said, as I had arrived at the restaurant. She thanked me and smiled broadly.
"It was perfect! Jasper took care of everything. He had made reservations for both nights at two very good restaurants and besides that, he had made completely thought out what to do. I've never walked so much in two days before, but it was worth it. I've bought so much! I'll show you tonight, for I have decided to stay with you. That's fine, right?" I listened and smiled as she talked in a fast tempo, as if she wanted to tell me everything within one minute.
"Sure, that's fine. I would love that," I told her. "I do have to get up at eight o'clock, but you can just continue sleeping. I suppose you don't have to go to work tomorrow, right?"
"No, tomorrow I'm free. From Wednesday I have to work again." I nodded and picked up the menu.
"Do you remember last time we were here?" Alice said, smiling with a twinkle in her eye. I frowned slightly and thought back.
It had been a Saturday afternoon and after shopping for a while, we had come past this restaurant and, being absolutely famished, decided to go here. I wasn't sure why she was looking at me like that, but I suppose it was because of what had happened last time.
The waiter, a young boy, probably two years younger than me, had developed an instant crush on me, from the moment we walked in. We walked in and he got a red head and stammered and stumbled as he led us to our table. Unfortunately, because of that, he dropped my salad on my lap. He was extremely shocked and I was sure he would have started crying, had not his boss come towards us. He sent the boy away and helped me clean up. Eventually, we had a free meal, but it had been extremely embarrassing.
"Please, don't even mention it," I said, blushing slightly as I looked around the room, hoping he wasn't here at the moment. I sighed as I didn't see him and smiled as I looked at Alice.
"So, how was your…" Alice started saying, before she burst out laughing, after which she quickly threw her hand before her mouth, desperately trying to calm herself down. I frowned and saw her looking behind me. I was about to turn around as I heard the voice of the boy from last time. I looked around and saw his face, with its blue eyes piercing in mine, as his face turned slowly red. He immediately turned around and walked away.
Alice burst out laughing again and this time I joined her.