A/N: Sorry for the wait, I hope no one fell off the cliff. T-ball has started again and who's team mom? None other than yours truly, So I'm sorry if my updates become a little less constant. I'll do my best at keeping the updates coming as long as I keep getting comments. Speaking of which, I would like to hear from all of those who have read my story all the way through, even if you want to review anonymously. JUST REVIEW PEOPLE!!! Thank you and I'll shut up now.

Chapter 7

BPOV

I sat there. Neither of us spoke for the first few minutes. We just stared at one another, waiting for the other to start first. I didn't know what to say. Part of me was angry at him for coming by the shop.

I had received all of his missed calls. Wasn't it a given that I didn't want to talk to him if I wasn't answering the phone?

A small part of me didn't like to see him upset like he was now. But I wasn't going to be the one to break the silence, so I sat with my jaw tight, my face void of any emotion, waiting for him to say something.

"Bella," he moved from the door and made his way to the counter.

I felt the need then to address him. "Jacob, what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I can't come by the shop anymore or what?" his voice was a little shaky.

I let out a deep breath before answering him, "I'd prefer it if you didn't. Unless of course you have a new found love of reading."

"Yeah, well I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing. I've called you a million times and you won't answer," he said, running his big hands through his hair.

I looked down at my hands on the counter, not sure of how to tell him to leave me alone without breaking him any more than I already had. I didn't want to hurt him, but what he did was unacceptable. I couldn't just sit there and let him think he played no role in the way things went down.

"Jake I...you know when I said it was over....that kinda meant that I didn't want to see you..." I trailed off.

"Yeah I figured as much, but I also it figured it wouldn't hurt to try." We both were quiet for a few minutes, so I chanced a glance at him and saw a look that pained me beyond belief. He had tears in his eyes, and I could see the man that had been shattered into a million tiny pieces.

"Paul came by this morning," he finally broke the silence. "He said he saw you last night."

Huh?

I didn't remember running into Paul last night. I hadn't seen him since the hospital. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Oh yeah, what did he say?" I asked, seeing if my conclusion was correct.

"He said he saw you with that doctor guy at West End. That you two looked pretty cozy together." A slight look of anger crossed his face, but he quickly recovered, obviously not wanting to give himself away.

WTF???

"Wait, what?" I asked. I figured that he had probably seen me at the coffee shop, since that was the only place I had gone yesterday. But I didn't understand the last part at all. Cozy??

"Look, I know we aren't together now, but I just...out of all the people I know Bella, I never expected you to be one for cheating," he said while shaking his head. He let out a deep breath and raked his fingers through his hair again.

Cheating? Me? Yes, I was there last night, with Edward. But cheating? Maybe it's just me, but I thought you had to be with someone to cheat on them. Pretty sure that's the way it works. Then if finally made sense to me what he was thinking.

Part of me wanted to laugh at him, for being so ridiculous. But a bigger part wanted to yell at him. The latter part won.

"What?! You know, out of all the people I know Jake, I never would have taken you for one to believe gossip. You and your little friends assume too much. All of you look too deep into things, and I can't believe you have the audacity to come into my shop and accuse me of cheating on you when I'm not even with you anymore." It felt good to yell like that. But I wasn't done yet.

"You are completely absurd if you think that I would do something like that. I can't even...UGGHHH!!" I growled, throwing my hands in the air.

"Bella, I'm absurd? Why don't you look in the mirror sweetheart, you left me because you thought I would do that. That I could do that. So who's absurd? And how can you expect me to think any different when he was touching you Bella? People don't touch like what Paul described if they haven't been together for a while." he slammed his fists on the counter.

I couldn't find it in me to justify my actions to him. I let my face fall blank, and stared him in the eye. "You know, you're right, Jacob. I am absurd. For ever letting the thought cross my mind that you could be a decent person and move on from this. That you could just let go and call a spade a spade. Now, if you don't mind, run and tell your little pack of buddies, that I don't need them sticking their noses in my business. They can stop running back and telling you whatever cockamamy bullshit they come up with. I don't need a bunch of over grown buffoons keeping watch over me. You need to just leave because I can't do this,"

I turned to walk to the back when I felt a big hand grab my shoulder and spin me around until I was flush against his chest. I looked up to his face while trying to push him away. His arms snaked around my waist and held me tightly to him.

"Bella, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Please forget what I said. Please come back home. I don't like it without you there. I can make this better, I really can. Just please don't do this," the hurt he was feeling seeped into his plea.

"Let me...go, Jake." I growled at him while still pushing him away.

"No Bella, please don't let me go. I don't want us to be apart. How did we get here? I can't stand losing you," he had a tear running down his cheek when the door to the shop opened.

"Hey Bella, can you help me...oh..nevermind I'll just...yeah, I'm gonna go." Angela looked at us and walked back out of the shop after dropping some boxes on the floor right inside the door.

Jacob released his hold around my waist and stepped back. He quickly wiped at the tear as it slid down his jaw line. "Here, I better go. I just wanted to give you this," he said as he laid a blue velvet box in my hands and then turned for the door. "I'm sorry Bells. I love you," he said looking back at me over his shoulder.

My hand gripped tightly to the little box as I watched him get into his truck and drive away.

I stared out of the door wondering what was going through his head to make him think he could come down here and ask me to come back. Angela broke me from my train of thought when she slammed another box down on the floor.

"What was that all about?" she asked me, placing her hands on her hips.

"I..uh..I don't know." I stammered lamely.

"Okay. Well, do you want to talk about it?"

I looked down at the box in my hand, and shook my head no. I was curious to see what was inside the box, but scared out of my mind to actually know.

"Can you help me put these books up? I still need to go back out to my car and get the rest," she said as she headed back out into the rain.

I went to the back and put the little box in my purse, then turned to grab the boxes that Ang had brought in. I carried them over to the counter and started opening them up. We spent most of the day going over inventory of the new shipment and shelving them as well. We didn't have many customers, but that was most likely due to the torrential downpour we were experiencing. Rain was common for our little town, but the amount of that day must have been record breaking.

It didn't seem to let up any until just before closing. I counted down the register and made my way to my office in the back to put the money in the safe. I grabbed my bag and met Angela back out front.

"So what are you doing later?" she asked while pulling her coat on.

"Not much, probably just go home and wallow in self pity," I mumbled the last part, but she heard me anyway.

"Bella, if something's bothering you, you know you can always talk to me right?" she was always so kind. She never would push when she knew I didn't want to talk about something. I loved Angela, but sometimes, I just wanted someone who would put me in my place and make me talk about it. I figured if I was forced to get it off my chest, it'd feel better later. But Angela wasn't the one who'd be up for the job.

I tried to smile and reassure her that I was only kidding, "I'll be fine Ang, I'm just going to stop at the store and grab some things I need, then I'll head home and soak in the tub for a while."

"Okay, if you're sure," she said and then embraced me in a big hug. I returned the hug and then turned to shut off all the lights in the shop. I turned on the porch light and locked the door behind us.

When I left the shop I stopped off at my favorite convenience store to pick up a few things I needed. Six things to be exact.

When I grabbed my six pack of Jameson's and made my way up to the counter, I had to fight back the giggle that was trying to break through my lips when I saw Jessica Stanley's face. Her eye shadow was a bright pink with a lime green line through the middle of the crease in her lid, from the bridge of her nose and curled up on the other side by her temple like a scroll. It may have been a cute idea, but the pink looked as if someone had poured Pepto Bismol on her eyebrow and let it run down to just below her eye. The bright pink lipstick that matched the eyeshadow wasn't doing her any favors. If I had to guess, I'd say she let a four year old do her makeup.

I bit my lip to hold back my laughter. She looked at me puzzled, probably wondering why I couldn't keep eye contact with her. If I did, I would have totally lost the small amount of composure I had left in me. I paid for my ale, and made my way out of the store.

I drove home faster than I normally would, being a police chief's daughter and all. Not to mention the rain. I was a little impatient to get home and free my mind of today's events with the help of my new bought friends. These boys were going to help rid me of my problems, if only for tonight.

I walked into my house and dropped the keys and ale on the table by the door. I slipped out of my shoes and made my way to my room to gather up my things for a bath. While I was in there, I went ahead and took my hair down, and slipped out of my work clothes. I tossed them in the hamper by my door on my way out before shutting off the light.

I walked back out into the living room to get my ipod out of my purse. When I reached in for it, I felt the velvet of the little box Jake had given me earlier that day. I grabbed the Jameson's and the box and made my way to the bathroom.

I turned on the water and poured in some of my cherry blossom bubble bath. Then I undressed, eyeing the little box on the counter the entire time. I grabbed a bottle from my six pack and sank down into the warm water.

The water was almost too hot, but that and the beer helped me to relax. I let the water dissolve all of the physical aches in my muscles while the beer worked to lessen the load on my mind. I mulled over all the things that had happened today.

It seemed odd to me that Edward asked me to dinner. Why would he want to go to dinner with me? He barely knew me. Sure, I had enjoyed talking with him, he was kind and easy to hold a conversation with. But dinner seemed in a whole other realm than coffee did to me. I still couldn't understand why he seemed somewhat apprehensive whenever he talked to me. He was a man who brought life into the world, for pete's sake. You had to be somewhat confident in yourself to do something like that for a living.

After wondering about that for a little while, I let my mind drift to Jake. My eyes drifted to the little blue box once again. Without even opening it I knew the contents. It's what I had always wanted, but was never able to obtain. I couldn't imagine what it could mean.

Why now? Why would he do this now? Didn't he understand what I meant when I said I was through? Undoubtedly not.

I loved Jake, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't deal with the way he always seemed to be so damn oblivious to my desires. My biggest one being to be married to him. To have a family with him, and to grow old and grey with him. Why did he have to do this now? Why not a week ago? Why not years ago. He had nine years to give me that. But of course not. He waits until after we're broken up.

I sat in the tub until the water turned cold and my six pack was gone. I wasn't much of a drinker, so when I decided it was time to get out of the tub, my balance was once again AWOL. I stumbled over the edge and grabbed hold of the towel bar just in time to keep from bashing my forehead into the vanity. I toweled off on the way to my room and plopped down onto the bed face first.

I passed out and woke up to the screeching sound of my alarm. The pain in my head was screaming as I reached to turn off the noisy contraption.

I laid my head back down and closed my eyes. I didn't want to get up, but I didn't want to leave Angela at the shop alone again. I rolled over and ran my hands down my face trying to prepare myself for the light that I knew was going to make the pain in my head ten times worse.

I squeezed my eyes together tightly before opening one slowly. Ouch. So maybe one more day of Angela running the shop wasn't the end of the world.

I reached for my phone with my eyes closed, still somewhat laying down. It took me a minute to find it, only to knock it on the floor. I groaned as I had to pull myself up and reach to grab it. When I leaned down, I felt as if my brain was clawing my forehead, trying to get out.

I grabbed my head with the hand that I was coincidentally holding my phone in, and recoiled quickly when I felt the hard plastic smack into my forehead.

Yep, definitely not going in today.

I finally managed to find her number in my call log and listened to her voicemail. I informed her very annoying, high pitched shriek of a message that I would not be coming in because I was feeling under the weather. Hey, everything's annoying when you're hungover.

I wasn't lying. I just didn't feel the need to inform her that I had drank myself stupid, and had a mind boggling hangover. I hung up and finally realized I had not put on any clothes last night.

Oh well, that can wait.

I rolled over and crawled under the covers, burying myself completely from the light of day. Just as I was almost out, I heard the jingle on my phone, signaling a text. I groaned as I reached for it, only to find a number I didn't recognize.

Good morning, Bella. I hope u have a gr8 day, n I would like 2 c u soon. If that's ok. -Edward

I text him back quickly.

Today's not good 4 me. Bad headache. Maybe tomorrow??

He returned my message in record time.

Hmm, need a dr to help with ur headache?

I blushed at his comment, not really knowing what to say.

Not now, just going bak 2 sleep. Will call l8r.

His reply was simple.

Sweet dreams, Bella.

The smile that fell across my face hurt my head like hell, but I didn't care. Even though this day had gotten off to a bad start, things seemed to be looking up.

A/N: Sorry only BPOV, Jacob was sulking too much and didn't want to provide his for me, and Edward was busy bringing life into the world all day after his texting, so maybe next chapter.

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