11

All Monday morning I had been wondering how Edward would address that evening, so I was quite surprised to find he didn't say anything at all.

At work, he walked by my desk with a frown upon his face. I was about to say something, but he had already closed his office door behind him. I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, as the fear that the entire evening had meant nothing to him entered my mind again.

I gave Emma a questioning look, wondering if she knew something, but she just shrugged. There was a possibility in my mind why he was acting like this, but I wasn't completely sure.

The rest of week continued in a similar pattern. I hardly spoke with Edward at all, and the few times I did, I noticed how uncomfortable he looked. I could see that he didn't want to speak to me at all and was trying to avoid me. I couldn't deny feeling hurt. By then I knew he was acting like this because of the date I had with Jacob.

During the date, Jacob and I had entered the restaurant, where he had booked us a table, and as I was looking around the room, I saw Edward sitting at a table in the back of the room. I gasped, but luckily Jacob didn't hear it.

I remembered how Jacob had told me that he knew Edward from his sister's magazine. I looked at Jacob and hoped he wouldn't recognize Edward.

My hopes were shattered as I saw Jacob's eyes narrow during dinner. He had been looking around, trying to get a waitress's attention, when his gaze landed upon Edward.

"Say, isn't that your boss over there?" he asked me. I feigned surprise and looked at Edward.

"I believe it is. What a coincidence," I said, trying to fake a laugh. Jacob shrugged, and was about to continue eating, when Edward suddenly looked his way. They looked at each other for a few moments – Edward's eyes narrowing slightly – but they both looked away eventually. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as Jacob focused on me again.

"Doesn't look like the guy in the picture at all," he muttered. I frowned questioningly.

"Well, it's quite dark in here, I suppose," I said. He nodded.

The rest of the night was quite awkward, though I wasn't sure why. Jacob didn't know about my feelings for Edward, so why had he acted so strangely? Perhaps because Edward had given him an angry look and Jacob had felt threatened. Or he had just picked up on the fact that I liked Edward during one of these two dates. I wasn't sure.

When Jacob said goodbye to me that night, we both didn't mention a third date. For some reason, we both knew this wouldn't work out. My feelings for him had disappeared, and perhaps he had noticed. Or his feelings had disappeared too.

Either way, we departed on good terms and I was grateful for that. I had already started worrying on how to break up with him. I knew that I had feelings for Edward and that it wasn't fair to continue dating Jacob with the little feelings I had for him. So the fact I had to break up with him had seemed inevitable. I was sad that it was over, because if Edward wouldn't or couldn't reciprocate my feelings, I would be left with no one. But it would've have been intolerably selfish to just keep dating Jacob for that reason, so that hadn't been an option.

Knowing Edward had seen me with Jacob, it hadn't been a complete surprise when he continued acting so coldly to me at work.

At the end of the week, Edward suddenly came out of his office and walked over to me. I was quite surprised, because it had been the first time since the business party that he voluntarily addressed me himself. I tried to prepare myself for whatever he would say, but I had no idea whatsoever.

"Eh…," Edward said, looking uncomfortable, "can I talk to you for a minute, Bella?"

"Yes, of course," I said, eyeing him. Why was he acting so awkward? I followed him into his office, starting to feel slightly nervous as the look in his eyes turned serious.

"I have some bad news, Bella," he told me slowly. I frowned questioningly.

"What is it?"

"Well, because of the financial crisis our company has to cut back and therefore we have to… We have to fire some of our people," he told me, looking at me with a worried look.

From the day that I had started here, I had prepared myself to get fired, but for it to actually happen still came as a bit of a shock. I wasn't sure if I could manage financially to lose this job, and it would probably take a while to find another job. God knows how long it took to find this one and the reason I got hired here was just because I was the only one who was even remotely suitable.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Why had he not prepared me for this? Why did he suddenly decide to tell me that I'm fired and not give me any time to accept it. And what about he business party?

"Oh? So, the party was just to soften the blow?" I asked through gritted teeth. He seemed surprised at my anger, but kept calm. "Was it just so that I knew some people in the business world who could help me find a different job after you fired me here?" A thought suddenly came to mind. "Did you know you were going to fire me at the time of the party?" I asked softly, but angry. He was silent as he looked at me with pained eyes. He had known. "Great," I muttered.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I thought it would be good if you knew some people," he said. "I didn't know that the party meant something more to you," he said softly, eyeing me carefully, probably afraid of hurting me.

"It didn't mean 'something more'. It meant the same thing to me as to you," I said angrily, not wanting him to know I felt something for him. He muttered something, looking sadly at the ground, but I didn't catch it.

"May I ask how you will work without an assistant?" I asked, suddenly very calm as I refused myself to let my emotions get in the way.

"I… We planned on hiring an assistant, who is less qualified and therefore will get a lower pay check," he explained, in a manner as if he had practiced this sentence beforehand.

"A less qualified assistant than me?" I asked.

"Well, you may not have had the best qualifications for this job, but you have some pretty good qualifications."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically, "that's a relief." We looked at each other intently for a few moments, while I was trying to control my anger. Suddenly I remembered something.

"This isn't because of Saturday, is it?" I asked slowly. He pretended to be confused.

"Saturday?"

"When I was on a date with Jacob and we saw you in that restaurant?" I asked, feeling embarrassed for asking this, but having to know.

"Please, Bella, as if I would ever let anything like that influence my decisions!" he snapped. I felt tears pricking in my eyes and I looked away.

"I'm sorry, I should've know you don't care about things like that," I said bitterly. He looked away, looking frustrated.

"You know that's not true," he answered.

"Do I?" I snapped. "How could I know that? Because you're always so open?" I asked incredulously.

"I don't think we should discuss this right now, Bella," he said angrily. "I believe we were talking about work."

"Yes, you're right," I answered truthfully, taking deep breaths to calm myself.

"Bella, we will make this situations as capable as possible to you. We will pay you until you have found a job, and we will help you find one," he said professionally. I sighed, knowing I couldn't do anything about it and that I'd better just accept it.

"Thank you," I said softly. He looked pained, as if me giving up hurt him even more than me being angry at him, and nodded.

I turned around and left the room, not wanting to look at him again. How could he have just taken me to that party under false pretences? He did tell me that it might be useful to know people in that business, but not because I was going to get fired! He should've told me earlier, at least before the party.

He had never given any indication that he wasn't satisfied with my work. And if I was too expensive, why hadn't they lowered my pay check? That would've been easier than to fire me and find a new assistant.

I knew they just wanted a better qualified assistant and this was their way of letting me go easy.

I closed his office door behind me and picked up a few of my things that were lying on my desk – the desk, I suppose.

Emma had stopped working as she worriedly looked up at me.

"What's wrong?" she asked me.

"I'm fired," I muttered, throwing a few pencils into my bag.

"What? No, you're not serious, are you?" she asked, shocked. I nodded angrily. "Finally he had an assistant who was nice and now he has to go and fire her." She took a deep breath and murmured, "Jerk."

"Well, I won't be seeing you that often anymore, I suppose."

"We have each other's phone numbers and address. Promise me we'll keep in touch," she demanded. I agreed and gave her a quick smile.

I was done with putting things in my bag and noticed I had to come back for the larger things.

"You'll see me here a few more times, I suppose. I still need to pick up these things and I'll probably have to have a conversation with Edward to arrange everything."

"Yes, I think so. I'm really sorry you got fired," she added softly. I shrugged and smiled.

"Nothing we can do about it. I'll just have to try and find a new job," I said cheerfully, not wanting her to be sad also.

I picked up my bag, waved and walked away. I tried to keep a brave face, even though I was feeling miserable.

Alice and Rosalie were both working at the moment, so I couldn't talk to them yet. Things with Jacob were over and it would only get complicated to call him and cry out on his shoulder, though that was an appealing option.

I went home and sat on my couch till Alice and Rosalie were back from their jobs. I called them and asked them if they could come over. They probably heard how miserable I sounded, because within fifteen minutes they were on my doorstep. I let them in, trying to hide the fact I had cried.

"Bella, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Rosalie asked frantically.

"I'm fine, sort of."

"You don't look fine," Alice said, eyeing me worriedly.

"I just got fired," I said softly.

"Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry," Alice said, hugging me.

"That's horrible," Rosalie said.

I sat down on the couch again and they joined me.

"Why would he fire you?" Rose asked.

"He said they had to cut back," I said.

"You don't sound like you believe that," Alice said, frowning.

"I was his assistant, so I naturally wondered how he was going to do his job without an assistant. He answered that he was going to hire a less qualified and cheaper assistant. But we all know he just wanted someone who was better at the job than I was," I told them.

"But you weren't bad at the job, right? You never did anything wrong," Rose asked, looking confused.

"Well, I didn't do anything wrong, per se, but I wasn't extremely good at everything either."

"Didn't he just take you to that business party, though? A bit weird to first take you to a fun party and then fire you the next week," Alice noted.

"Yes! That's what I thought and said. He told me that he wanted me to have connections in the business world," I said angrily.

"Do you now?" Rose asked.

"I do know some people, but I hardly expect them to be useful 'connections' for if I want to get a job. But I shouldn't worry about that, it isn't very likely I'll return to the business world. If it is possible, I would like to find a job which is more suitable for me," I told them.

"Yes, that's a very good idea," Alice said.

We spent the next few months preparing Rosalie's wedding. Rosalie was getting more and more excited, and Alice and I had a hard job trying to keep her calm. As a maid of honour, I had to arrange quite a few things, but Alice helped me a lot and I enjoyed it immensely. The wedding had been planned perfectly and when it was only two weeks away, we were sitting in Rosalie's apartment, chatting casually.

"I can hardly wait, I can't believe it's still two weeks," Rosalie said excitedly. I grinned as I watched her.

"Guys, I was wondering, do you think I should come with a date?" I asked them, suddenly. We hadn't talked about my love life very often after the disaster with Edward, so it had come to a bit of a standstill. I still missed Edward, but hadn't encountered him after he had helped me find my new job.

I was currently working as an English Literature trainee at the local college and I couldn't be more happy with a job. I was doing a night course to become an actual teacher and during the day, I worked at the college. It was quite demanding, but I knew this was what I wanted to do. I enjoyed working with the students and was glad it wouldn't take that long to finish the night courses and get my diploma.

Rosalie and Alice eyed me worriedly as they heard my question.

"Is there someone you want to go with?" Rose asked cautiously.

"No, not really, but isn't it weird if I came on my own?"

"No, of course not. Not everybody will be there with a date," Alice said.

"But a lot will," I said softly.

"Do you want to find someone to go with? If you go out a bit, I'm sure you'll meet someone," Alice said.

"No, if I go out to find a date for the wedding, it will be a rush to find someone in two weeks and I would just pick anyone who wouldn't be a complete freak." Rosalie laughed and agreed.

"I do think, though, that it might be a good idea if you go out again some time. To get back out there, you know," Rose said.

"Yes, you're right, I suppose. I just don't think I really want to get out there again," I told them honestly.

"I understand, I wouldn't either," Alice said.

"Perhaps you should call Jacob," Rose suggested.

"No, I don't think that would be good idea," I said immediately, chuckling.

"Fine, but how do you propose you are going to meet people?"

"I have no idea, but I'll be fine. That's what you've been telling me all along," I told them.

"Yes, and you will, but it won't just came to you. You'll have to do something for it to happen. The mountain didn't come to Mohammed, Mohammed came to the mountain," Alice said seriously.

"I didn't even know you knew that phrase," I said, laughing. Alice rolled her eyes and chuckled.