Chapter 3

Seattle

2 weeks later...

BPOV

Dinner with John and Liam went well. They left to go back to Seattle two days after they came to see us. We were able to get the wheel going on the Jones account and gave our instructions to Tyler and Eric for the week that we would be gone.

My direct line rang and it was Alice. "Hey Bells, are you done for the day? We have to go shopping for our trip?" she asked.

"Ali, why do we have to go shopping? It's just a one week thing, I think we have enough clothes to bring," I told her.

"Don't say bad things Bella. No one can have enough clothes. Come on, let's get Rose and go. I'll talk to our assistants." With that she hung up on me.

Alice will always be Alice. Honestly, I should have expected this, but one can hope that it would slip her mind. After a few minutes she came into my office with Rose in tow jumping around. "Ok Bella, let's get going." She said while pulling me out of my chair. I grabbed my purse and was literally dragged out of my office. We took Rose's car since it can carry the most things.

When we got to the Prudential Center she pulled me into every store possible and made me try on so many clothes that I lost count already. I started complaining that my feet hurt and I wanted to go home or at least just sit down. But Alice, being Alice, went into the shoe store and bought me some flip-flops.

After almost 6 hours, we decided to call it a day and go for dinner in Top of the Hub. Afterwards we went back to the office, Ali and I got our cars, since we all had to go somewhere that day, then made our way home.

When I got home, I started a bath and poured in my strawberry bubble bath. I tied up my hair and climbed in the tub. The water was so nice and warm that it relieved all the knots in my muscles. When the water started to get cold, I put on my panties and a tank then I climbed into my bed and fell asleep.

I was awoken the next day by someone going through my clothes and throwing things around my room. I rubbed my eyes and sat up to find Alice beside an open suitcase choosing what clothes I should bring.

"Ali, what are you doing?" I asked her.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm packing your suitcase," she answered with a duh tone.

"I can see that. I can pack my own things you know. Why don't you just leave that to me and you can pack your own stuff?" I said.

"Oh, I'm done packing. If you want you can just go cook some breakfast." She dismissed me. So I just brushed it off and made my way to the bathroom then to the kitchen to find Rose with a cup of coffee and the paper.

"Hey Rose, how long have you been up?" I asked her. Looking at the oven clock. It said it was 8:30 a.m.

"Just about an hour, so I came down and started coffee. How about you?" She answered me.

"Oh, me? I just got up against my will since some little pixie decided again that I can't pack my own stuff. I said I can do it myself and she should just pack her own stuff but she brushed me off and just told me to make breakfast." I said shaking my head.

Rose just laughed at me and said "Yeah, she was up at 6:00, I think. All her bags were already packed when I got down. See, there in the foyer she has two suitcases ready to go."

"OH," was all I could get out. "So what would you like for breakfast?" I asked her.

"Pancakes would be nice. Strawberry to be exact," she answered me with a smile on her face. So I made the pancakes and by the time I was done Alice came down with two suitcases for me. She sat down in one of the chairs and started to serve herself.

"Alice, why do I have Two suitcases?" I asked.

"One is for your shoes, silly. Look it's not even as big as the other one," she answered then put a piece of strawberry in her mouth. I just shook my head and smiled.

We spent the rest of the morning just fixing and finalizing things for when we're away. Once we were sureeverything was set, we all went to bed since we had the morning flight.

We got up early the next morning, we had asked Angela to take us to the airport so we won't have to use the extended parking there. So she got to our house where she left her car and we took our Volvo XC 90, which we all purchased together for instances like this that we would need to carry a lot of stuff and made our way to the airport.

We had about a six-hour flight, opting to fly commercial this time. When we got to Sea-Tac we went to wait for our luggage then we made our way to find Tony, John's assistant, waiting for us by a stretched Hummer. He waved at us then helped us with our bags as we got in the car and drove us to the Edgewater Hotel.

When we got to the hotel we checked into our suites, waited for our bags to be brought up then decided to meet in the lobby at about 6:30 to go to dinner at Ivar's down the road.

I was again amazed at the accommodations. I know we always tended to avail of the finer accomodations but I'm still stunned nonetheless. We each had a Waterfront Junior suite, complete with a flat screen TV and a king-size bed. My bags arrived, I started to get ready then a little passed 6:00 I decided to go down to the lobby and wait for Ali and Rose.

EPOV

Two weeks had passed and we were getting ready to go Seattle for the seminar we were to attend. We chose to take a later flight since I had to cover again another late shift the night before. I was waiting for my dad, Emmett and Jasper to come and get me since my dad offered to take us to the airport that afternoon. They arrived a while later, so I got my things into the car and we made our way to the airport.

After arriving at Sea-Tac, we made our way to the car rentals to pick up our car and drive to the hotel. We got an Audi Q7 for this trip and made our way to the hotel.

We got to the hotel a little past 6:00 p.m. Emmett and Jasper went down with our bags to check us in and I went to park the car. The valet pointed me to the nearest available slot and I made my way to park over there.

I got out of the car and took some time to appreciate my surroundings since I haven't been here in quite a while. After looking around I started to walk towards the lobby. As I entered the hotel something, or should I say someone, caught my eye.

In one of the chairs in the lobby reading a magazine sat a small petite lady, with pale skin, and beautiful brunette hair. For some reason she seemed to be glowing. I just stood there staring at her when Emmett called me over to the desk.

"Edward! Come here, you need to sign this," he called to me. Thankfully she was so engrossed in what she was reading that she did not see me staring at her. When I got to then however, Jasper was smiling wickedly at me.

"Bro, it seems you're all googly-eyed" he said with a laugh. "You were staring at her so intensely I thought she was going to melt." I just shook my head and smiled and got the pen from Emmett and signed the form. As we gathered our stuff and turned around, I saw that the beautiful lady already had some company, a tall blonde and a small girl with spiky black hair. She stood up and left the hotel.

As they were walking out the pretty brunette was talking with the small girl with dark spiky hair, but the blonde one seemed to be looking in our direction. I just brushed it off as I told Jazz and Em it's time to go to the room.

BPOV

While I was waiting in the lobby for Alice and Rose, I picked up a magazine and started reading some of the articles. I was so engrossed in it that I didn't hear them come up to me. Alice tapped my shoulder to let me know that they were ready so I returned the magazine to the rack and got up to leave. As we exited the hotel Alice started throwing ideas at me for the Jones project which I listened to attentively but noticed that Rose was staring at someone in the lobby.

"Rose," I called out to her, "it's impolite to stare you know," I smiled.

"I know, Bella. But did you see that guy? He was so cute! Tall with dark brown hair and so buff," she said with a hint of a sparkle in her eye.

"Rose, are you ok?" Alice asked. She seemed to also have noticed the expression on Rose's face.

"Yes I'm good. Let's go get us some food," she answered.

So we made our way to Ivar's. We placed our orders and decided to sit outside where the seagulls would perch on the railing. We threw them a fry once in a while and they would catch them expertly in their beaks. After we finished dinner we enjoyed a bit of the scenery then walked back to the hotel. When we got back, we decided to call it a night since the seminar would be starting the next day.

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The seminar wasn't too bad the first couple of days. We had lectures on people skills and management strategies. This is the third day of the seminar. We had a short lecture in the morning followed by group dynamics. So we were divided into smaller groups to share our experiences on the topics discussed. We were divided so none of the people in the groups know each other. Since the three of us were put in different groups we decided to meet for lunch.

During the break, Rose had a funny expression on her face. It was like she was ecstatic and in awe at the same time. When we were seated after getting our food I asked her what was up with the face. "Rose, why do you look all giddy?" I questioned.

"OOHHH! Do you remember that cute guy you caught me staring at in the lobby when we got here?" Alice and I nodded we did. Then she continued, "Well, he was in my group and he was more fascinating than I thought he was. He's also an engineer and works in a hospital. He's being considered team leader for the biomedical department so he, his brother and his cousin were sent here since the other two are also up for promotion." She narrated excitedly.

"Oh, is that right? Does this mean Rosalie Lillian Hale has met her match?" I said sarcastically.

"Well, we'll never know. Though I am attracted to him I'm not one to make the first move. If he does like me he has to seek me out," she retorted. Alice and I just smiled and shook or heads. After a little more chitchat it was back to work at the seminar.

Rose ended up hyper and cheerful the rest of the seminar. Saturday night we were to meet up with my mom and dad and the 2 other sets of parents for dinner since we were going back to Boston the next day. We decided to meet in Todai. They were well-known for their sushi buffet. At about 6:00 p.m. Tony picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the restaurant. We made our way up to the restaurant and saw our parents sitting in the far end.

"Bella! Hey baby, how are you doing?" my dad said running to me and giving me a big hug.

"I'm good dad. Everything is going really well." I told him turning to hug my mom.

"That is good to hear, sweetheart." She then turned to Rose and Alice and asked, "How's my Isabella's social life? Does she still have one? Does she have a boyfriend she's keeping from me?"

Rose and Alice started laughing and I started to turn pink. "She has s few suitors but they're not up to our standards so the answer to that would be none at the moment." Rose stated.

"Aw, Bella, you have to go out more." My mom said.

"That's what we've been telling her!" Rose and Alice said in unison.

Gosh, I have to put this to an end. "I'm hungry, let's eat." I simply said.

Dinner went quite well after that. Our parents questioned us one at a time about what was going on with work. They in return told us how they are doing here. We all ended up going to the hotel café and having a nightcap. At around midnight, we all decided to call it a night. Our parents said they would be over tomorrow to bring us to the airport.

Upon waking the next morning, I took my shower then fixed up all my things so I'd be ready before I met with our parents for brunch. I went down to the coffee shop to find mine and Rose's parents already there. I went to them then sat down. Shortly after the rest of the party arrived.

We again talked about anything that we could think of until it was time to go to the airport. When we were ready we found the Hummer waiting for us outside. The bellhop put in all our bags and we all got settled in for the ride.

We got to the airport, checked in our bags, said our good-bye's and made our way to the gate. We were walking and I noticed Rose suddenly smile at something then just left us standing there. I looked at Alice with a "what-the-hell" look and she just shrugged her shoulders at me.

We stopped at a bookshop going through at the magazines when we heard Rose calling for us. "Bella! Alice! Come over here I want you to meet some people," she yelled. Alice and I finished paying for our purchases and went over to her.

We walked over to her and I noticed the tall, dark-haired, bulky man she described earlier. There were two other guys there, one tall blonde guy with blue eyes and another tall guy but this time he had messy bronze-colored hair with green eyes.

"Girls, this is Emmett Cullen. The guy I told you about. And this is his brother, Edward, and their cousin Jasper. Guys these are my best friends, Bella and Alice," She said. Apparently Jasper was the blonde and Edward was the one with the copper hair.

"Hi," Alice and I said together offering our hands for them to shake.

"Hello," the two guys said taking our hands.

Rose continued looking at the guys. "Bella is our architect and Alice is in-charge of interiors and landscaping." She then turned to Ali and me and said, "Edward is a trauma doctor and Jasper is a psychologist." She finished.

"Really? Where are you guys from?" Alice inquired. Asking no one in particular.

"We're from Boston. We all work in the Boston University Medical Center." The guy named Edward said.

"That should be nice to work all in one place and get to be with each other." I commented.

"Yes it is. It's a good support for all of us." The guy named Jasper commented.

After a few minutes of chitchat our flight was called for boarding. We were seated in business class so we got to go aboard anytime we wanted. Apparently the guys were also in business class and were seated near us. We were told that we were about to taxi so we all took our seats. I was seated beside Emmett. After takeoff, Rose tapped me and asked if I would like to change with her. I said yes since I had some stuff to run by Alice anyway.

After another six hours or so we landed back in Boston. We then went to the luggage claim and the guys helped us with our luggage and walked us outside. I pulled out my blackberry to call Angela just to find her outside already waiting for us.

"Do you guys have a ride home?" Rose asked I guess out of courtesy since we would not fit in the XC90 unless we sit on top of each other.

"Yup, my dad is over there." Emmett replied pointing to a blonde man, so youthful looking that you would doubt he has two grown sons.

"Oh, ok then, I hope to see you around. Take care, guys," Rose said.

"Same to you girls," Emmett replied and the three of them waved to us and we waved back then got into the car.

Once were in the car, Angela, being the efficient person that she was, gave us an update on the Jones project and other things we needed to know. One thing she said was really unexpected.

"Oh, one more thing, The Bostonian called and wanted to interview the three of you for the magazine. Some successful professionals under 30 article or something like that." She said. I just nodded my head but Alice and Rose were jumping up and down in their seats.

"Oh my gosh! This is so exciting." Alice said pulling out her own Blackberry. She held it to her ear and said, "Hey Mel, Angela just told me about the magazine article. Can you get in contact with their wardrobe person and set up a meeting? I have to make sure that all our clothes will look fabulous." She waited a while then replied, "Thanks Mel, you're the best!"

"When is this shoot supposed to be, Ang?" I asked.

"Within this week. Ash, Mel, and I will fix your schedules so you can have two free days this week. One for the pictorial and one for the interview. Let us know if you'd want to do it together or separately." She stated.

"We'll do it together. The pictorial and interview. Please ask them if they can do both in one day since we have to see that the Jones account stays on track." Rose told Angela.

"Ok, well, we're home. I'll help you with your bags then I'll get going," Angela said.

After settling in I walked Angela to the door. "Thanks so much Ang! You really are the best. You make my life so much easier."

"Hey, no problem Bella, you're not that hard to work with and I really enjoy what I do. I'll get going and see you tomorrow." She told me.

"OK, drive safe. See you tomorrow," I watched her until she pulled away from our curb then turned and walked into the house and just fell into bed.