DESIDERATA

Things I own: The Rob Pattinson edition of GQ.

Things I don't own: Anything Twilight, dammit. But I still have fun playing with my Edward Cullen action figure…

CHAPTER THREE: ALL THE SMALL THINGS

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." – Galadriel, Lord of the Rings

"Geez, Rose, chill. I'm only being polite!" Jasper says, shaking his head.

"Well, grab it and let's go. I'll meet you back in the car," she says as she huffs off through the door, out to the car, and disappears inside with a slam.

BPOV

"What a pair of arrogant asshats!" I scowl, before I have a chance to catch myself; I had momentarily forgotten that Jasper Whitlock is still standing in front of us, waiting to pay for his coffee. "Oh, sorry about that! Verbal diarrhea once again. I seem to be suffering from that a lot lately." I attempt to laugh, feebly.

"Aw, don't pay any attention to them. Edward can be awfully intense, and Rose just hates the world. They aren't so bad once you get to know 'em," Jasper explains.

I glance over at Alice, who is being uncharacteristically quiet and still throughout this entire exchange. "Yo, Alice, you still in there?" I say, waving my hand in front of her face, which hasn't taken its gaze of off Jasper since she first saw him. His eyes drift off towards Alice when I speak to her, and the two most definitely share a "moment."

I ring up the order, when, suddenly, Alice's hand stops me. I furrow my brow in confusion at her, but she simply says, "No, Bella, this one is on the house," smiling shyly up at Jasper.

He pops a huge grin in return, "Well, I will just have to return the favor the next time we're in town," giving her a big wink.

Alice smiles coyly at him now. "So, you will be back in town after all? Mr. Cullen didn't seem so certain," her voice trails off.

"Yeah, that's the thing about Edward. He is really private, and wants to avoid any undue attention. He's kind of obsessive about it. Rose calls him a control freak, but she's one to talk!" Jasper laughs.

I'm watching all this unfold in amazement, because it is so surreal. Jasper Whitlock, THE Jasper Whitlock, is standing here, alone, in Alice's Café, talking to us like he's an old acquaintance. Just this morning, I was totally dissing Jessica and Lauren for their Internet gossip-mongering ways, and here three of the Masen Masterworks players are. Unreal. Then there's Alice, staring into Jasper's eyes, and I could swear that he is looking back at her just as intently. I really don't think I'm reading into anything here. WOW. Just

W-O-W.

Jasper clears his throat awkwardly, realizing that Rosalie and Edward are waiting for him in the car. "Well, I should probably skeedaddle," he says with what appears to be genuine reluctance. "But, you know, I'm sure we will need a coffee connection for the cast and crew once things get started, so I'll make sure to talk to Edward about it before we finalize our plans. Do you have a card I can pass along to him?"

""Oh, that would be so nice of you, Jasper! Let me go grab one," Alice says before darting back to her office.

Impulsively, I grab a Cheshire Cat Grin and hand it, waxed paper and all, to Jasper. "Here, give this to Mr. Cullen. Tell him I said he needs an attitude adjustment—hopefully this will do the trick. If he doesn't recognize what it is, just tell him it's a grin. People do that, sometimes," I say, smirking at the thought. I'm pretty pleased with myself, even if I am acting impulsively.

Jaspers laughs, "Like I said, Edward is just private. He laughs plenty when he's in his element, but I'll be sure to give it to him. You know, Alice is kinda like a little hummingbird, isn't she?" he says, switching subjects, plastering a goofy grin on his face.

"Yep, that's Mighty Mouse for you!" I giggle in return. By the time I finish my sentence, Alice reappears with her card.

"Just in case you need it, I wrote down my cell phone number on the back. Feel free to call me, or umm, have Mr. Cullen call me, if you have any questions about getting things set up. Of course, we would be honored to help out with the crew's needs while they are in town," Alice explains.

"Well, I'll see you two ladies soon! Alice, Bella, it has been a genuine pleasure meeting you today," Jasper says, giving us a salute as he walks out backwards, not breaking eye contact with Alice the entire time. He backs himself into the door, quickly turns around, and walks over to the open car door. He steps inside and the limo briskly pulls away from the front of the shop.

Alice stares at the doorway, silently, for a good minute after he leaves. I don't know that I have ever seen her speechless. This is definitely a first.

"Hey Alice, star struck, much?" I state, as I shake her shoulders, attempting to have her rejoin reality.

"Oh. my. god. Bella, did you see him? I don't know that I've ever seen a more beautiful man in my entire life!" she swoons.

"Um, Alice, he's a movie star. That's kind of what they're paid to do. If he wasn't swoon-worthy, he wouldn't be a film star, now would he?" I'm just trying to get her goat; on the inside, I'm thinking the same thing.

Yeah, right, Bella…you're thinking about those green pools of heaven that nearly caused you to pull out your v-card and get it stamped!

"He seems so nice and laid back; I'd never expect that. They usually seem like assholes when you meet them in person…" she sighs.

"Alice, how many actors have you met face to face before? Is there something you've been hiding from me all these years?" I giggle at her.

"You know what I mean, Bella. They are so beautiful onscreen, but then you hear all those stories…"

"What? You mean like, National Inquirer kind of stories? OK Magazine stories? What, exactly?" I push.

"Just never mind. I'll dream about him tonight. I'm certain of that much…" she says, poo-pooing me dismissively.

I find myself having to admit that Alice was right. Alice is kinda creepy like that sometimes, and it freaks me out when her dreams come true. I just can't seem to get those green eyes out of my head. It isn't just that he is stunningly beautiful, which, of course, he is; it is more the intensity of his gaze that gets to me, like he can see into your very soul. It looks stern yet smolders at the same time. I didn't think such a combination was possible, but the living proof had been here just moments ago. If Masen Masterworks is truly going to be filming in town, we were going to have our hands full on multiple levels.

Alice's voice brought me back into the moment.

"C'mon, Bells…let's finish cleaning up and go home. I can't wait to tell Emmett all about our new adventure!"

"I think the word 'adventure' might be overstating things, but yeah….let's get outta here. I'm bushed."

I pack up some leftovers from the Café to bring home to Charlie. Someone needs to make sure that man eats. If left to himself, god knows how he would survive. That's another good reason I have for not moving away to go to college. I worry about Charlie on his own. The man may be Chief of Police, but that all stops the minute he leaves his office, I swear!

As I make my way into the kitchen, I let my dad know dinner will be ready in a minute or two. When I call him to the table, we talk briefly about our respective days. The conversation is never long or heady; we're both pretty quiet people. But I feel compelled to share the Masen Masterworks thing, because it could ultimately have an impact on the Forks police, for security reasons.

"So, Charlie, we had the weirdest thing happen in the Café today," I start.

"Let me guess, something about a movie being filmed here in Forks?"

"Yeah, I guess I should have known you'd have it on your radar screen. What do you know about it?"

"Well, the producers stopped by today to give us an update on their plans for the film. Wanted to make sure they would be able to comply with local law enforcement. They use their own security firm, of course."

"Do you know when they'll get here? Or how long they'll be here?"

"They're supposed to start filming in about a month, and it will take about three months, according to the director."

"Oh, you met the director? What did you think?"

"Didn't really impress me one way or the other. He seems like a pretty quiet and serious man. Certainly didn't say much. Why are you so interested?"

Yeah, quiet, serious, and a total asshat. You failed to mention asshat, Charlie!

"I'm not particularly interested. They just stopped by the shop for coffee today, so we met them briefly. It's the only thing of interest that happened today, is all."

Charlie responds with a "Hmph." That is the extent of our compelling dinnertime conversation. Granted, it is about 100% more conversation than we typically have, so that is notable in and of itself.

We finish our meal in silence, with Charlie heading to watch ESPN while I clean up the kitchen. It is only about 7:00, but I'm wiped out, so I kiss Charlie goodnight and head up to bed.

God, I'm such a wild woman. Beat and bushed by 7:00. In bed by 7:30. Such a party girl, Bella! Wait, did I just say 'beat' and 'bushed' in the same sentence? Mind totally in the gutter, like always!

I snuggle into my bed, hoping to fall quickly asleep. My mind chooses not to cooperate with my body. I surprise myself with how actively alert I am, and I find myself returning again and again to Alice's premonition, the green eyes, and the asshole the eyes belong to. I acknowledge that there is more to Alice than meets the eye; she really is a remarkable little creature. Her dreams do creep me out, but this one also catches my intrigue.

What if Alice is right—that somehow, these green eyes were meant to be a part of my life?

Come on, Bella! You know it was just a dream, nothing more.

Yeah, but I can at least imagine a lover with gorgeous green eyes, can't I? I mean this is my subconscious, after all!

I shake my head and sigh deeply. It's never a good sign when you start fighting with the voices inside your head. I know at least that much…

I reposition myself in bed, and try once again in earnest to fall asleep. I peek open one eye to check on the time: 8:02. Damn. My mind starts to wander again, and it keeps going back to green eyes.

Jesus, obsessed much, Bella?!

I peek open my eye again: 8:05.

Dammit! I'm never going to fall asleep!

I officially give up. I grab the laptop from my desk and return back to my bed. I fire it up, type in my password, and decide to surf the web. Maybe I can find a good fanfic to dig into to help me fall asleep; none of my books appeal to me at the moment. I get an errant thought in my head, and decide to go to the Masen Masterworks website. Just for shits and giggles. I'm surprised when I see their latest project, The Noble Savage, highlighted on their homepage.

WTF? This afternoon Cullen was acting so cavalier about the entire project, and here it is highlighted on their homepage? He is even a bigger asshole than I realized! We could have just gone to the website and read about it for ourselves!

Then I notice that the website was updated 30 minutes ago, so it appears that the posting is new.

I wonder who does their website management? Wouldn't it be weird if Cullen was updating it right when I was obsessing over Masen Masterworks?

Yeah, Bella, Edward Cullen does all that menial work by himself, and OF COURSE he was thinking of you while he did it…there could be no other explanation! Get a grip, girl! Reality is slipping away from you rapidly!!

I can't imagine why this asshat has me so obsessed! Why can't I just fall asleep and stop thinking about him? Before I even know what I'm doing, I find that I'm searching the website for details about Edward Cullen. It doesn't take more than a few clicks of the mouse to find what I'm looking for. His photo is a profile shot; his elegant left hand graces his forehead. His long, lean fingers are curled up in his hair. You can see the sharp angle of his jawline. His look is pensive. His eyes don't look directly at the camera, just off to the side. His brow is thick, and his green eyes glow—they practically jump off the screen. He has a yummy 5:00 scruff. His lips are utterly kissable. He is wearing a charcoal colored jacket, black v-neck t-shirt underneath. His hair is disheveled, but not in a bad way—it seems to convey the message, "I've been thinking hard all day and running my fingers through my hair helps me think better."

Oh, who am I kidding? It looks like he's been in the sack for 12 hours straight, and that his lover used his hair to direct him to all the right places!! Wow, I'm hornier than I thought!! I just used the words elegant, glow, yummy, kissable, and disheveled to describe Edward Asshat Cullen. Something is definitely wrong with me…

I break my gaze from the website to see what time it is: 11:12.

Jesusfrickingshitchrist! I have to get up in less than four hours!

I quickly shut down my laptop and set it back on my desk. I cuddle into my bed, turn my back away from the clock, and will myself to sleep. The last thought that enters my mind is that Alice Mary Brandon, my BFF in the world, planted a seed in my brain that has unwittingly taken root.

A/N: If anyone is interested in making a banner for this story, I'll happily accept! I just don't have those kind of skillz.