ASL Chapter 16

Time Goes On

Epov:

"I'm sorry but I need to take this. It's Tanya." I said to the beautiful woman who was my date tonight. She smiled and nodded for me to go ahead, "Hey. What's up?"

"Ethan wanted to know if you would like to join us for breakfast tomorrow before we take him to school."

It had been almost two years since Tanya and I got divorced and tomorrow we would be taking our son for his first day of kindergarten. He was incredibly smart and had dealt with everything so well. He had reminded me daily for the last couple of weeks not to forget his first day of school. A couple of weeks ago Tanya and I both took him out to shop for school supplies.

We were able to make it through our divorce quite amicably. I let her keep the house and the car, and I took the money in our savings account and we went our separate ways, for the most part. We were both very active in our roles as parents to Ethan. We got together to do something with Ethan as a family at least once a month. Usually it was lunch or dinner and a movie. But what we really wanted him to know is that we were both here for him even if things did get awkward between us at times

I had moved out of my parent's house and into my own apartment not far from the bar. It worked out better because I worked so late at night and Mom was always freaking out about me driving when I was tired. I understood her position and I didn't want her to worry any more so I had her help me find the place and furnish it. Not only was it within walking distance to the bar, but Bella's apartment as well.

Mom made sure that my place was in a good neighborhood as I would have Ethan staying with me a lot. Those first few overnight visits were a bit difficult as I did not know how to cook much, but I tried. With some help from Emmett, I was able to learn to make a few things that were healthy and edible.

Tanya and I didn't always see eye to eye on everything. As soon as the divorce was final and I had my own place I started hooking up with random girls that I met at the bar. There weren't a lot of them, although the way Tanya behaved you'd think that I'd had a line of women out my door every night, or that I was hiring hookers or something like that. But I will admit that I did go a bit wild for like the first year before I met a girl that I dated for a while. That ended about six months ago when I broke up with her because we were having a major difference of opinion regarding the subject of marriage. She wanted to marry me but I did not want to marry her. She was pissed and did not take me breaking up with her well at all. She started throwing things at me and swearing at me and threatening me. I called Rose and had her come over to get Allison out of the apartment to avoid her trying to sock a domestic abuse charge on me or anything.

I was relieved that I had never introduced her to Ethan. It was a rule that Tanya and I had agreed to during my 'wild period'; no introducing the person that we are dating until we know that it is serious. Tanya was the only one that met that requirement so far. She started dating this clown named Felix a few months after our divorce. I'm not being mean; the guy works as a clown. She'd hired him to perform at Ethan's fourth birthday party and by the end of the afternoon he'd asked her out on a date. They've been together ever since. Six months ago, they decided that Felix was going to move into the house with Tanya and Ethan. I was glad that she had found love again and was happy in her life. I was really happy that it helped bring Tanya and me to a new understanding and calm in our lives as co-parents.

I'd spent the last six months alone but I've been quite busy. Garrett decided that he was ready to retire and move south with his wife, so he offered to sell me the bar. It took a couple of months to get the loan from the bank to go through, they demanded a co-signer, and although my parents offered I was reluctant to take them up on their offer. Mom finally convinced me to do it by taking me to lunch and kept at me about all the reasons that they wanted to help me with this, until I finally agreed to it. So for the last four months I've been the happy owner of Garrett's. I really didn't change anything. I figured since everything was going well and I already had a good, happy customer base, I'd leave unbroken things unfixed.

A couple of weeks ago Bella got a call from her friend Angela, who was in tears. She had lost her job and had been unable to find another one and was about to be evicted from her apartment. Bella convinced Angela that she should move to Seattle and stay with her until she could get on her feet. Angela wasn't really in a position to argue since she had a fifteen month old little girl to worry about.

Bella asked me if I would help her move Angela and her daughter across the country. Did she actually think that I would say no? I knew that she wouldn't want to ask Emmett, he and Rose were finally able to get her pregnant and their twin daughters were only six weeks old. Jasper and Alice had just taken in his cousin's seven year old daughter temporarily. Maria was a single mother in the service and was being stationed overseas in a country where she couldn't take Lucy with her. She was an adorable little thing and very polite, and the whole family had fallen in love with her immediately.

So I left the bar in my family's capable hands and flew to Florida with Bella to help her move her friend to Washington. Angela's car got repossessed just days before we arrived, so Bella and I put her and Mia on a plane and drove a U-haul packed with Angela's belongings back to Washington. I was also able to meet Bella's mom and her boyfriend while in Florida. Her mom was a very unique person. I was glad that she lived on the other side of the country, to be honest.

I wasn't blind. I knew that Bella was a beautiful woman and I had been attracted to her, on some level, since the day I had met her. We had a special friendship that was hard to define. We were close and we confided in each other about most things in our lives. We hung out whenever we had free time. She was not only one of my best customers, but she was always willing to pitch in and help out at the bar. Not that my family wasn't willing to help, because they were, and had helped me quite often. Bella was just Bella. I would make sure that if there was a rugby game on, it was playing on a TV in the bar, just for her. But it was during those four days sitting in that truck alone together and sharing hotel rooms that something sparked between us and led us to be sitting here on a date together.

I realized that I was still sitting on the phone and had yet to answer Tanya, "Sure. I'll be there for breakfast but right now I need to go. I'm…uh…I'm on a date with Bella."

"Bella Swan?" I was a tad worried about how Tanya was going to take that. I knew that she and Bella were friends. I mean, they weren't best friends but they did hang out together on occasion.

"Yeah."

"Edward, that's great. But why the hell would you take a call from your ex-wife while on a date! Oh my God. I'm going to hang up and you apologize to her right now." She hung up the phone before I could respond to her.

"Sorry about that. It's just…"

"I understand, Edward. I know that Ethan starts kindergarten tomorrow. Alice has been crying about Kara starting too. She designed a special dress for Kara to wear tomorrow. She's been fussing with it for weeks."

"That sounds like Alice." We finished our dinner and went for a walk down at the pier for awhile. Not wanting the night to end just yet, I took her for an ice cream cone for dessert. We talked and we joked around while we walked. I loved to hear Bella laugh.

Unfortunately, we had reached the end of our night and I had to take her home. When we reached her building I walked her into it and up to her door. As we stood in front of her door in absolute silence, I kept a hold of her hand. I moved my free hand up to her face, leaned forward and kissed her before I asked her for a second date. She smiled and giggled a little before responding, "I would love to go out with you again." I kissed her again before waiting for her to go into the apartment. I listened for her to lock the doors before turning and leaving. I wasn't ready to go home just yet so I headed to the bar to check on things and do some paperwork.

Bpov:

Angela had called me sobbing and terrified. She had lost her job a couple of months ago due to the office she worked for being shut down. The doctor had died quite suddenly. She told me that her car had been repossessed last week, she was behind on the rent, and now she found a notice that she was being evicted. I told her to stay put and start packing, help was on the way. I called Mom and luckily Phil was home, so they went to Angela's, packed her up, and brought her and her daughter back to their house. That night I called Angela and we talked for a couple of hours and by the time we hung up I had her convinced to move to Seattle.

I was nervous to ask Edward to come with me to help. He just bought the bar and needed to be there. But his parents were more than happy to run the bar for him in his absence. Emmett volunteered to pick up Angela and her daughter, Mia, from the airport. He had seen her picture in my apartment and knew exactly who to look for. According to what Angela told me, she was walking through the airport when this huge guy grabbed her and hugged her. She was about to scream for security when she realized that it was Emmett. Edward had showed her a picture of him from his phone so she would know who to look for at the airport, just to be safe. Emmett drove them back to my apartment where Rose and the twins were waiting for them, got them settled, and took care of them until Edward and I made it home.

I was so furious with her ex-boyfriend, Ben. That man better hope he never runs into me or Edward and his brothers-in-law. That was another reason I didn't take Emmett with me. He would have snuck out and gone after the guy. Edward, I knew, wouldn't do anything stupid like that. He wasn't worth going to jail over, he was a loser whose precious daughter was fifteen months old and he had never bothered to try to see her. Angela had called him and told him about Mia being born. He didn't even respond to her, he just hung up the phone. That was the last time Angela attempted to involve him. She didn't even put Ben's name on the birth certificate. I don't understand how a father could treat their child that way. My main solace is that one day he will regret pushing them away and it will be too late.

Edward was a good guy and a great friend. He was always there if I needed him. I loved the way that he cared about Tanya, even if he didn't love her or was married to her anymore. If she needed help, he'd find a way to help or get her the help. It wasn't unusual for Edward to be that way. He would help any of us out if we needed it. There were a few times that he had had to ask us for help. I actually loved working beside him behind the bar. I've done that a couple times while he was looking for someone to work for him permanently. It was hard to find someone dependable. Just before we left for Florida he found a girl that was great. Jane was a seasoned bartender that loved to entertain the customers with stories and jokes as she filled orders. She could mesmerize a crowd with her personality. The guys that hit on her thought she was joking when she told them if they get too fresh with her, her girlfriend would beat them up. I've met Heidi and I'll tell you that I'd be afraid of angering her. I'm just saying…

If I was being truly honest with myself I had wanted to be with Edward for a long time. I knew that I was attracted to him before he and Tanya got divorced, but there was no way that I'd ever have acted on it then. I don't go out with married men. I don't care how bad the marriage is, you leave before you cheat. Not that Edward would have cheated on Tanya. He wasn't that type of guy. I mean he was willing to stay with her for the rest of his life and be miserable, knowing that he was never going to love her the way he did before the accident, just to honor the commitment that he had made her. Then right after the divorce he went a little wild. I didn't blame him for that at all but again, I was not interested in being a notch on his belt so I sat back and let him get over it. I think that it was a good thing for him to do. I know that he's been a lot happier and settled since he got it out of his system.

I didn't just sit around home waiting for Edward to 'grow up'. I dated a little bit here and there. I knew that there was never going to be a guarantee that Edward and I would ever go out with each other. He had never shown any indication that he was even interested in going out with me until we spent four days in a U-Haul together. Then there was the sharing of the hotel rooms. It wasn't that we could afford separate rooms; just that neither of us saw a need to waste money for two rooms when there were two beds in one room. It went fine on the first night, but that second night we had stopped and picked up some beer after dinner and drank it in our room while watching a movie. Not that I am saying that we did anything improper.

We were both lying on what would be my bed watching the movie and laughing at how corny it was when it happened. I admit that I started it by grabbing the pillow out from behind his head and smacking him with it. He tried to grab the pillow back from me, which only started a tug of war. I still have not figured out how it happened but I suddenly I was straddling him, trying to beat him with the pillow, when he got it away from me. It was when I leaned forward that I looked down in his eyes. It happened before I realized what was going on; he grabbed my face and kissed me. It was an amazing kiss and it was a little heated but it didn't go beyond that. I wouldn't have let anything more happen even if he had tried. I wasn't that type of lady.

It wasn't until we got back to Seattle and he was getting ready to leave to go home, promising to come back in the morning to unload the truck with the help of Emmett and Jasper that he asked me out on a date. I didn't need to think about it, I just said yes. He kissed my cheek and left. After he left, I started thinking about Tanya and wondering how she was going to take this. She was my friend and I didn't want her to be mad at me, but I really wanted to go on this date with Edward. She really didn't have any room to be upset, if you ask me. They've been divorced for a while and she was living with another man, and it wasn't like Edward and I were having an affair before they split up. Damn. Then I realized that I sounded like I was trying to justify it.

I had to get my mind on another subject so I called my dad and told him that I was home safe and sound. He asked me when I was going to come to Forks to visit him again and I promised that I would try to get down there soon. It might be nice to take Angela down there with me, too. She'd enjoy the peace and quiet of the small town.

I had an amazing time on my date with Edward. He must have, too, since he asked me out for a second date. When I got inside after Edward brought me home from our date, I found Angela waiting for me with a couple of beers from the fridge. We sat on the couch while I told her about every second of my date with Edward and we gossiped like teenage girls.

Angela had only been living here for a few days and already I loved it. I had always thought that I enjoyed the solitude of living alone, but having them there in the evening was great. Since Edward only lived a couple of blocks from the bar and normally walked to and from work he was letting Angela use his car. Esme had offered to watch Mia until Angela could find a job and afford day care. I knew that it wouldn't take her long. I had insisted that she move up here as I knew of several places that were hiring pediatric oncology nurses. That right there proved what a strong woman she was. I don't think that I would have to the emotional strength to work in that field.

I went to bed thinking about Edward and our date, both the one that we'd been on tonight and the one that we had planned. I wondered where he'd take me and what we'd do. Then I thought back to my promise to my dad to come home and wondered if Edward would like to drive down with us. Never before had I wanted to introduce a guy I was seeing as my boyfriend, mainly for their safety. Edward, though, had nothing to worry about with my police chief dad, Charlie already loved the guy. Although, that could be because Edward promised to always give him all the free beer he wants when he visits me in Seattle.

A/N: Happy Saturday! It's almost Saturday here. I am off to the Amana Colonies in the morning and won't be back until Sunday night. Unless I get arrested for sneaking into the pool of the hotel next to ours then my return will be delayed, which consequently would delay the next posting of Living Life.

Ok. First I need to say a big thank you to Sweetpea123 for betaing this and a few other things I've sent her way. Chapter 17 is done and on its way to her tonight and 18 is over half way done. Reviews will get a teaser!

Next I want to tell you about a little one shot that I'm writing for No Kid Hungry. There are a lot of kids out there that don't get anything to eat after lunch on at school of Fridays and breakfast at school on Monday. Summer is coming and these children will have to suffer longer waits between mealtimes. This cannot continue. Please think about donating to this cause or to your local food bank.

The title of the One-shot is A Path Less Taken. Summary: Edward is a rich spoiled brat with a tragic past. Bella has her own demons she's had to fight and runs the Homeless Shelter that Edward is assigned to for his community service after his latest DUI arrest. (author's warning: I've wanted to junk punch this Edward several times already)