Sunday Morning
Bella's POV
The three of us took our time getting up on Sunday since we'd been up late watching movies and talking. Plus, if Angela and Ben were half as sore as I was, I doubted they were moving any faster than I currently was as I walked to the bathroom for a hot shower at almost noon.
Stepping under the spray, I smiled. Every ache and pain was worth it. My new place had looked beautiful when we left: great colors on the walls, full of beautiful, hand-picked furniture, and already a place I was looking forward to calling home. The only bad part was the fact that in just a few short days, Angela and Ben, friends who'd become more like the siblings I never had, were moving.
I finished showering quickly, wanting to get out there and inhale some caffeine and Ibuprofen to get my mind and muscles working again. As I toweled my hair dry, my stomach wasn't quiet in its reminder that it was time for food, as well.
There was a knock on the door, and then Angela quickly walked in after I unlocked the door for her. "Good morning, Miss Hungry Bella. I could hear the beast from out in the hall!" She grinned as I pretended to swat her with the towel I had in my hands.
"How long have you been up?" I asked, finishing drying off before moving to my room to get dressed in the capris and shirt I had out on the bed.
"Just long enough to shower, which is where Ben is right now. I thought I'd come chat with you about plans until he comes out."
I nodded. "Sounds good to me," I said, smiling. "Aside from my clothes, I don't have much left to pack—some CDs, DVDs, and video games, my bathroom stuff, and everything else in my room. That's pretty much it. I figured I'd just move the hanging clothes as is and all the folded stuff in laundry baskets, so I should only have two or three boxes of stuff, which means an hour or so at most. I'll leave the things I need for this week unpacked with a bag and box everything else up and stick it in my car and run it over later sometime. Other than that, I'm at your mercy." I got down on one knee, hands clasped in front of me and head bowed. "Please, Mistress, be gentle." Of course, the giggling ruined the effect I was going for, which made Ang laugh even harder.
"I suppose I can take it a bit easier on you, slave, since I like you. But don't let it get back to the others, or I'll have a full-on riot on my hands, and you do know how I hate the possibility of ruining my manicure!"
We collapsed on the bed in a fit of giggles. We both knew that it hadn't been that funny, but there was going to be a lot of stupidly silly jokes this week, if for no other reason than keeping the tears at bay.
"Okay, seriously, what's on the schedule for today?" I asked, my giggles finally subsiding.
She thought for a minute. "Well, the company has rented us one of those Pod things, so we'll start boxing things up and moving them into that. It should be delivered after two o'clock today."
I interrupted with a question. "When, um, do you have to leave?"
She sighed. "They want Ben there early on Saturday morning for meetings and what not before he starts work on Monday, so we're leaving mid-afternoon on Friday. The Pod people—" she paused as we both laughed at that image "—will pick that up just before we leave and then drop it off in the private, key-carded, manned-gate parking garage for Ben's company until we find a house we wanna buy. Until then, they're putting us up at the Extended Stay Hotel near downtown, which is great quality, I've been told."
I grinned. "Already being treated like a prince and princess! Nice!"
She laughed and said, "Yes, I guess it does bode well for the new position, doesn't it? Anyway, back to the issues of packing. My first thought was to tackle the kitchen. I'd thought that after we ate breakfast, we could make sure all the dishes and cookware were clean and pack them up and then live off plastic silverware and paper cups, plates, and bowls for the week. But then I realized that we still have a lot of food in the freezer and fridge that we should try to cook and eat, so then I decided to save the kitchen for later in the week. Basically, I thought we'd do what you're planning: make sure all the laundry is clean, and pack all the clothes, bedding, linens, and what not, aside from what we need for this week. We'll also keep a few boxes of clothes with us at the hotel so we have plenty of things to wear while house hunting and stuff. So to make a long story short—"
"Too late!" I laughed when she poked me in the ribs.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," she said sarcastically, "today we'll all work on clothes and stuff and then move into the living room. You and I can wrap pictures and breakables, while Ben starts packing up the movies, games, books, and things like that."
"Sounds good to me. Thinking back to the kitchen, have you guys thought about all the food in the cabinets and fridge that doesn't get eaten by the end of the week?"
"The refrigerated stuff will either go to you, if you want it, or will be trashed. Most of the stuff left will be condiments and things like that, so no great loss. The canned and boxed goods can go to you, or we can donate them to one of the shelters or someplace else in need."
"Oh! That's a great idea! I may take a couple of things that Sue didn't buy when she was here, but most of it can definitely be donated. The soup kitchen downtown would be a great place, don't you think?"
She nodded. "That was my first thought, too." We heard the pipes make noise as the shower in their bathroom shut off. "Let's go start breakfast so it's ready when Benji gets out."
I chuckled at her use of his hated nickname, much like Eddie was for Edward. Thinking of Edward had me smiling as I walked into the kitchen, and I quickly wiped it off my face so I wouldn't have to admit to Angela what had me grinning like a fool.
"Hey, can you slice some bananas and strawberries to go into the cereal for you and Ben, please? Thanks, Bells," she said as she got out the bowls, cups, and silverware we'd need.
A couple of minutes later, Ben came in, and the three of us sat down and ate breakfast while Ang and I told him what she and I had talked about.
"Sounds good. I'm off this whole week, so you guys don't have to do it all yourself," Ben added.
"Okay," I mumbled around a mouthful of Honey Bunches of Oats with sliced bananas. "On to a different topic. When's the wedding?"
"Girl time! I'm gonna go eat and watch TV in the living room while you guys talk," Ben said, grabbing his bowl and glass of OJ.
"Chicken!" Angela said, making us both laugh when Ben just nodded and grinned as he left the room. She turned back to me. "Honestly, I don't think either of us have thought of a date yet. I don't wanna wait a long time, but since I'll be in Seattle without you or my mom, all the planning will have to be done over the phone and the computer."
"Do you think you'll have it in Forks since your parents are there?"
She nodded. "With both sets of parents there, as well as the rest of Ben's family, it just makes sense. Dad will wanna officiate, I'm sure, but I'm thinking about trying to convince him to let the Associate Pastor do it so he can walk me down the aisle and just enjoy the day. That way he doesn't have to worry about performing the ceremony in tears."
We both laughed, knowing that as funny a picture as that made in our head, it was most likely exactly how it would go down.
"Well, let's see. You could always be a Christmas bride. I don't mean necessarily on Christmas Day, but around that time in December. If you want the weather warmer than that, you'll either have to really rush to get married pretty quickly or put it off almost a year."
"Yeah, that's true. I'm not sure I wanna get married in the middle of winter. You know how nasty Forks can get—all slushy and icky gray from dirty snow and stuff on the ground. If we weren't moving, I'd say we just rush to do it soon, but maybe it's best to try to plan for either May or June. Maybe even April. It might still be a little cool, but the flowers will be blooming, so it should be pretty." She smiled at that, as did I, since I knew how much she loved flowers. "That would give us anywhere from eight or nine months to a year to plan. A little longer than I wanted, but under the circumstances, probably the best I can hope for."
"Well, you know I'll do whatever you need me to do."
She grinned. "I just assumed you would know this, but I'd better ask to be sure... Would you be my Maid of Honor?"
I couldn't help it. I squealed with excitement. "Of course! Like you even have to ask! Is Ben gonna ask Chris to be his Best Man?"
She nodded. "I think so. I mean, he's his only brother, so it would make sense to me, but he might ask his dad instead. Who knows."
We finished eating and sat talking about other things that needed done before they moved.
Ben walked in a few minutes later. "Is it safe to come in? No rice or penguin suit talk?" He came farther into the room to wash his breakfast dishes when we laughed and nodded.
"So, Ben, how does next spring sound for the wedding?" Angela asked as he sat beside her at the table.
"Honestly, whatever you want is fine with me. You know my only stipulations: no pink, short reception so we can get to the honeymoon faster, and no Bella."
I reached over and pinched his thigh.
"Ow! Okay, okay! Geez, I'll wear pink!"
We all laughed as he rubbed his thigh.
"That's what you get, smartass," I said, grinning.
After a few more minutes of relaxing, we decided it was time to get to work. Ben opened the closet and pulled out a huge stack of new, broken-down boxes, three rolls of packing tape, and three thick, black, permanent markers.
"Here, Bella," he said, handing me five of the boxes, a roll of tape, and a marker. "This should be enough boxes for your stuff, but if not, just come grab more. I can always make a run to the store to get more later in the week if we need to." He looked back in the closet. "Of course, I got fifty, so I doubt we'll need more, but I guess we won't know until later."
"Thanks, Ben. I appreciate it. I could've just gone to the grocery store and gotten apple boxes and stuff, but these are much nicer."
"No problem. Now, someone put on some music and turn it up so we can all hear it while we pack!"
I was standing closest to the stereo, so I flipped it on, made sure it was our favorite rock station, and then waved with an elbow since my hands were full. "Have fun," I said as I headed to my room to start packing up my stuff.
Two hours later, Angela poked her head in. "How's it going?"
"Sadly, I'm pretty much finished. All my clothes and bathroom stuff are packed, aside from what I'll use until Friday. My books, movies, and the rest of my games are packed except for a couple of books I'm reading right now. So..." I shrugged. "Most of my stuff is already at the new place," I said, feeling another surge of pride and happiness at the thought of the bookstore and my new neighbor.
"Good! Ben's finishing up a few things in our room. I had him get all the pictures down from our room and the hall. He stacked them in the kitchen on the table so we can wrap them in newspaper before we box them up. Wanna come help me?"
"Sure! I was just waiting for you to be free, so I'm ready now."
We were in the middle of wrapping pictures when Ben called out that the Pod guys were here. Angela opened the curtain, and we watched them situate the big box off to the side of the yard. Ben signed a clipboard, took the papers the guy held out, and then the truck left as he walked back into the house.
He came into the kitchen and sat down to help wrap some of the pictures. We laughed and talked, mainly about what they were going to look for in a house and about the wedding, while we wrapped.
After the pictures were finished, we moved on to other packing until late in the evening, when we collapsed and ate pizzas from the freezer while we talked long into the night. Over dinner, Angela did admit to having been worried about not being able to give the library a two-week notice when she quit the past Friday, but she said that they had understood and had told her not to worry about it.
Ben gave up around two in the morning, but Ang and I stayed up another hour and a half, looking through some wedding magazines she'd picked up earlier in the day at the store. Since Angela had quit the job at the library, she wouldn't have to get up for work the next morning, and I didn't have much left to do before opening the store, aside from running a few ads in the local paper, so we weren't too concerned with the late hour.
"G'night," I mumbled, smothering my yawn behind my hand.
Angela laughed. "Good night, sweetie," she said, bumping my hip with hers as we stepped close to my door.
I closed my door behind me, then turned off my light, pulled off everything but my T-shirt and panties, and collapsed into bed, falling asleep almost before my eyes could even close.