A/N Okay, here is chapter two. This is really quick for an update, but I got such good reviews I was so inspired and then BOOM! Chapter two was born.

Thank you all for your kind reviews!

Belle closed her eyes and counted to ten before she knocked on the door.

When she did, it was her mother who opened it, and her disapproving look said enough.

"Where have you been?" She asked, placing her hand on her ample hip.

"I took a walk." Belle replied. "And may I remind you that I am twenty five years old?"

Martha rubbed her temples. "Yes." She said. "I know that you are twenty five. But you live under my roof. And your father and I have set rules for our household."

Belle winced as she was once again reminded that she still lived with her parents. After splitting with her fiance Gordon, she had decided to move back in with her parents. Not a day passed by in which her mother did not remind her of this fact.

"Mom... can you just let me in?"

Martha said nothing, but moved aside so Belle could enter. She looked around and saw that the dinner dishes had already been cleared away. Her stomach clenched when she was reminded of the food she had missed.

As if reading her mind her mother said, "There's a plate in the kitchen for you. Your daddy is in there too. He wants to talk to you and he's had a hard day, so please don't be rude and rebellious."

I love how she talks to me like I'm a thirteen year old girl. Belle thought. But she didn't complain because she was starved and the smells wafting from the kitchen made her mouth water.

Her father was seated at the kitchen table reading the Sunday newspaper that he hadn't had time to read that morning because they were in a rush to get to church.

She cleared her throat and sat down in the chair across from him, setting her plate of chicken and mashed potatoes down in front of her. She took a fork full and was about to begin eating when her father set down his paper.

He did not look amused.

"Baby Doll, you didn't show up for dinner." He stated. "And you didn't do your mother the courtesy of telling her that you wouldn't be here."

"I'm sorry Dad," She apologized. "I took a walk and lost track of time."

He smiled and reached over the table to pat her hand. "I understand Sweetheart." He said.

"And I respect the fact that you are a grown woman. But please, next time you decide to take a `walk' make sure you inform your mother and I about it."

Belle almost laughed out loud. In the same breath he told her she was a grown woman and then he made parental boundaries.

She spooned in the last of her mashed potatoes and drank the last swallow of her diet coke. She stood up and handwashed her dishes and then walked up the stairs to her room to brush her teeth and get ready to go to bed. She walked into her bathroom and began brushing her teeth. After throwing on a pair of old ratty pajamas, she padded down the stairs in her favorite slippers and plopped down on the couch with her latest read.

Her mother entered with a cup of tea and handed it to Belle.

"Listen Arabella," Her mother began, "I'm sorry for how bad things have been lately. Your father is just upset about having the bakery open on Sundays and about you breaking off your engagement. Your father and I... well, we think you and Gordon should have stayed together."

"But I didn't love him, Mom. I know maybe to you and Dad it was a match made in heaven, but to me it wasn't. I didn't love him and I know he didn't love me."

Martha reached for her daughters hand. "Couldn't you have learned to love him?"

Honestly Belle didn't know. She had no idea what that kind of love felt like, but she knew that she and Gordon didn't share it.

"I don't know Mom. Is love something you can just...learn? How did you feel when you met dad? Wouldn't I just know when I found the one?"

Her mother got frustrated like she always did when faced with a question she couldn't answer. The look on her face reminded Belle of when she used to ask her mother for help with trigonometry.

Belle took a sip of her earl grey tea and waited for Martha to say something.

"I'm just afraid that you'll never find anyone." She said quietly.

"Oh mom!" Belle laughed, pulling her mother into her arms for an embrace.

"I'll find someone someday." Secretly she was thinking of Sydney, but she shut the thought out of her mind as soon as it came. They would never work together. She shook his image our of her head and focused on reassuring her mother that she wouldn't be a spinster.

After a few more minutes of talking with her mom, she decided to go up to bed and read.

She kissed her mother goodnight and called a goodnight down to her father in the basement, and then headed up stairs to bed.

The next morning she got up at six thirty and took a steamy hot shower, then went downstairs to where her Mother was preparing breakfast. She poured a cup of coffee for herself and for her father and then helped her mother finish up breakfast.

When breakfast was over and all the dishes were washed she headed over to the bakery where she handle customers and baked more pasteries .

At five o'clock she she closed up and went in the bathroom to apply an extra layer of mascara and lipgloss. Not that she wanted to look good for a certain somebody or anything. She just did it for...fun.

Double-checking to make sure that the watch was in her purse she walked down to Gold's Watch Repair. She had picked a good one. This watch had a broken band, the screen was cracked and she figured something was wrong with the cogs or something because it didn't work.

She pushed open the door and heard the ting of the bell that she was starting to become familiar with.

"Ah Miss French, good to see you remembered to bring in your watch." Sydney said, standing up from the table of broken watches he was working with.

"How could I forget?" She replied with a smile.

He gently took the watch from her hands and inspected it over his glasses. Still adorable! Belle thought.

"Hmm..." Sydney said. "This watch has been through some major abuse. I daresay that your license to have watches should be confiscated, Dearie."

She laughed at his joke and tried to stop her heart from fluttering at the way he had called her Dearie.

"I didn't take very good care of it, did I?" She laughed. "I'll be kinder to it, I promise. Just fix him up best you can, Doc."

Was that a smile she saw on his face? A smile was an unusual feat for Sydney Q. Gold.

"I can fix it. But it'll take a few days. Come back Wednesday night and I should have it fixed."

Belle beamed at him. "Thank you. I'll see you Wednesday."

She tried to calm herself down and pretended that she was not severely anticipating their next meeting.

"Oh, and Miss French?"

"Belle." She corrected him.

"Oh yes, Belle. I just wanted to tell you that you look...stunning."

There were those butterflies again, and those butterflies had a mind of their own. Because there is no way that Belle was controlling her next actions. She walked over to where Gold was sitting, bent down and kissed his cheek. And then she was gone.