"She bangs, she bangs!
Ooh, baby when she moves, she moves!
She looks like a flower but she stings like a bee…
Like every girl in history!
She bangs, she bangs!
Wasted by the way she moves, she moves!
No one ever looked so fine,
She reminds me that a woman's got one thing on her mind!"
I giggled as my dream boy spun me around and continued to sing that old Ricky Martin song to me.
God, he's a great dancer…
He spun me around again and stared into my eyes as he sang the last part of the song. There was something tender in his gaze that made me reach my face up to his to kiss him lovingly.
His lips were a centimetre away from mine, and…
"BELLA-ROO!!!!!"
I groaned. And my perfect moment is gone…
"What, Ali- AHHH!!!!" The little devil pounced on me and made me fall off the bed! Blast you, Alice!
"Good, you're awake. You dressed well yesterday, but I know you, and you only did it for the first day of work. Today, I'm dressing you!" exclaimed Alice.
I sighed. There was no point in contesting Alice, she always got what she wanted anyways. I nodded my head.
"Finally, you've learnt not to argue with me," she said with a smile. "And by the way, your mom called last night after you went to sleep. She said she wants you, me, Rosalie and Jasper all to go to dinner with her and your dad tonight. She says she's inviting a friend, a Dr. Jacob Black."
"Why can't that lady just understand that I'm perfectly happy on my own? She doesn't have to keep setting me up with guys. Her choices never work out for me. Remember Eric Yorkie? That was a disaster. And Tyler Crowley. Why can't she figure it out? Every time I go to see her she asks me about me love life. It's getting annoying. I don't need a man to make me complete!"
Alice chuckled as she listened to my rant.
"She never said anything about setting you up."
"But we both know her. That's exactly what she's trying to do. Don't try to deny it, Alice."
"Well, just give this guy a chance… who knows, this time it might work out… You know, this guy works with Jasper at the hospital. We'll ask Jasper about this guy later," Alice said. " At least go to this dinner. Dating him isn't mandatory. If you don't like him, I doubt you mom will force him on you."
"Fine, I'll go," I grumbled.
"Do I get to choose your outfit for dinner as well?" she asked. When I nodded, she squealed and threw some clothes on the bed.
"Get ready for work, and put that on. We'll decide what you're wearing later when we come back home." She pranced out of the room.
Half an hour later, I was in the kitchen eating breakfast and was dressed in the skinny black pants, long-sleeved white button-up shirt and black waistcoat that Alice had picked out for me.
Alice joined me with her own bowl of Waffle Crisp cereal. We ate and set out for work.
Again, Rosalie arrived at the store at the same time as us. The routine morning greeting was exchanged.
"Morning, Rose."
"Morning, darlings."
We got the shop ready for the day. Customers were scarce, which I couldn't understand, since Alice's creations were the best I'd ever seen.
Jasper came in when we closed for our lunch hour. All four of us went across the street to a Subway outlet for lunch.
"So, I hear your mom's trying to set you up again," Rosalie said, picking at her salad.
"I see Alice has been gossiping," I said, playfully glaring at the pixie. She was innocently drinking her Coca-Cola. Oh God. She's drinking Coke. She's going to be hyper later.
"Actually, Alice only told us about the dinner this morning. I heard yesterday from Dr. Black. He was really excited about meeting you. He hardly stopped talking about dinner all day," Jasper said, taking a huge bite of his Italian B.M.T. sandwich.
"Oh, Jesus," I sighed. They all laughed.
"Well, tell me about this Dr. Back."
"First of all, it's Dr. BLACK," Jasper corrected me. "And I don't really know that much about him. Remember I only started working here within the last year. I haven't gotten that close to many of my colleagues. But I don't like Jacob (Dr. Black). He's got this arrogant attitude since he's filthy rich, and his parents are high up in society."
"Just what I need, a society snob," I grumbled. "My mother's taste in men for me is even worse than my own."
We finished eating and got ready to go back to work. I suddenly felt the bottle of water catching up with me.
"You guys go back to work, I need to use the restroom," I said. They went back across the street to the store, while I made my way to the restroom to relieve myself.
As I was about to exit the Subway outlet, a tall man with russet coloured skin, dark eyes and black hair stepped in front of me. He was dressed in a dark blue suit. He had an arrogant, self-centred air about him. I tried to step to the side of him, but he blocked my path again.
"Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?" He flashed a smile at me that would have been charming if he hadn't been so cheesy and annoying.
"Oh, walk by again, please. But this time, keep walking." I retorted. He was so obviously unused to rejection, he was frozen in shock. I walked around him and out the door. By then he had recovered from his shock. You would think that he would learn not to use a pick up line AGAIN, but this guy was a special case apparently.
"Are you religious? Because you're the answer to all my prayers, and your body's like a temple," he called as I was about to cross the street.
"Sorry, there are no services in this temple today. Or ever, as far as you're concerned," I called over my shoulder and crossed the street. "Idiot," I mumbled to myself.
As I entered the store, I noticed there was only one customer, who Alice was attending to. I went to the cash register and Rosalie came and stood with me.
"Jasper went back to the hospital, right?" I asked. Rosalie nodded.
"Bella, why did you take so long in the bathroom? I was about to come back over to see if anything was wrong, you were gone a whole fifteen minutes," she said.
"Fifteen minutes? Really? Well, it's not my fault. This arrogant jackbackside with really lame pick-up lines was trying to get me to go out with him. He was really starting to piss me off," I said. I huffed in annoyance just thinking about him.
"Jackbackside?" Rose laughed.
"I've been trying not to curse, and jackbackside is not a curse."
"Bella, darling Bella, where do you come up with these random words?" she giggled. "Oh my God, that's so going to be my new favourite word, haha!"
Alice finished with the customer, came over, and was told about the , too, laughed at my random word.
We made it through the rest of the day with only 9 other customers.
Alice needed to advertise more, since that was the only reason I could think of as to why more people wouldn't come to the store. Her creations really were fabulous, and weren't unreasonably priced. But then, the cost of advertising the store was rather high. I decided to talk to Alice about this later.
Rosalie came over later that day so that we could all get ready for dinner and leave together. At least, that's the reason she voiced out loud. I knew she just wanted to play Bella Barbie with Alice.
Anyway, we got home, and relaxed for a bit before Alice decided that we needed a whole three hours to get me ready for dinner. ( I rolled my eyes at this)They sent me to shower and wash my hair while they gathered their torture devices. When I stepped out of the bathroom in a bathrobe, they sat me down facing away from the mirror, so I could see the 'amazing ' transformation when they were done.
Alice at once started to blow dry my hair while Rose did my nails. When Alice was done, she tied up my hair half-way and curled the ends. She and Rose stepped back to admire their work, and I swear, their eyes were lit up like a child's on Christmas morning.
They put on make-up for me, a little more than I was comfortable with, but I could live with it. It's not like I cared what this guy thought of me anyway. Then, Alice ran to her room and came back with a black garment bag in her arms.
"Bella, I made this for you last week, waiting for an occasion to come up so you could wear it. And, don't you dare fuss about it, you're wearing it tonight," Alice said, wagging her finger like a mother scolding a child. Rose unzipped the garment bag, and the two of us gasped in unison.
"It's beautiful, Alice," murmured Rose.
"More than beautiful, it's GORGEOUS. Thank you, my favourite little pixie!" I exclaimed.
The dress was a sleeveless, A-line, knee-length, emerald green cocktail dress that flared out at the waist. Breathtakingly stunning. I loved it even more, because it was the colour of my dream boy's eyes.
"Put it on, Bella, while Rose and I get ready. We'll be down in half an hour," Alice said, skipping down the stairs.
Obediently, I put on the dress and turned towards the mirror. I gasped. Alice and Rose did wonderfully. I looked like a princess. I couldn't believe the woman in the mirror was me. I was still standing there when Rosalie and Alice came downstairs and were ready to leave.
"Ok, Bella, if you don't stop staring at yourself, we're leaving without you," Rose said as she rummaged through the set of keys in the bowl. She pulled out a key with a hot pink heart shaped keychain, so I figured we were taking Alice's Porsche 911 Turbo. That car was a birthday gift from her parents when she turned 21. Yeah, Alice's parents were rich, too.
Rose was wearing a white halter-back dress that reminded you of Marilyn Monroe. As princessy as I looked, so looked ten times better. Alice was wearing a similar dress to mine, except hers was blue, and more slim-fitting.
We got into the Porsche, with Alice driving. She turned on the radio and Poker Face by Lady Gaga came on.
"Mum mum mum mahMum mum mum mahI wanna hold em' like they do in Texas PlaysFold em' let em' hit me raise it baby stay with me (I love it)Luck and intuition play the cards with Spades to startAnd after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heartOh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-oh-ohh-oh-ohI'll get him hot, show him what I've gotOh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-oh-ohh-oh-oh, I'll get him hot, show him what I've gotCan't read my, Can't read myNo he can't read my poker face(She's got to love nobody)Can't read myCan't read myNo he can't read my poker face(She's got to love nobody)P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker faceMum mum mum mahP-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker faceMum mum mum mah"
We all loved this song, and we sang along. When the song came to an end, a lame joke popped up in my head, that sucked so much, it was actually funny.
"Hey, do you know how to wake up Lady Gaga?" I asked. When both Alice and Rose shook their heads, I delivered the punch line.
"Poke her face! Haha! Get it?" I burst out laughing. They chuckled too, but more at the fact that I thought the joke was funny.
"Wow, Bella, your jokes never get any better. They're still as stale as ever," said Rose, shaking her head in mock disapproval.
I sighed. I knew my jokes always were and always would be lame.
We pulled up at the restaurant, and got out of the car.
"Welcome to Senses, do you have a reservation?" The maitre'd asked.
"We're meeting people here under the reservation 'Swan'," I told him. He nodded and told us to go to the table on the private platform at the back of the restaurant.
We followed his directions, and when we were in sight of the table, where my mother, father and their guest were already seated, I froze.
"Bells, what's the matter?" asked a concerned Rosalie.
"Guys," I managed to choke out. "That man sitting with my parents. That's the man they want to set me up with.""Yeah, we know this already, Bella. That can't be what has you in this state," said Alice.
I shook my head.
"The reason I froze up was because that man… He's Mr. Jackbackside."