Disclaimer: I own nothing of Twilight. Just still a fan.

Note: I've decided to start putting one of the songs that seems appropriate to the chapters, the title per se does not explain it.


Chapter 2 : Queen of the city - Joshua James

I made one more walk around Rose's boutique, my hands were hesitating to touch anything, god knows how bitchy she can be. We met when I was working on a hotel renovation on 5th avenue, she supplied some of the furnitures I needed for it, and since then as any professional interior designer we exchanged contact. New York was a big city, full of potential for my profession, suppliers fought to have a commitment deal with us, to put their brand out there.

Rose's was far too proud to be a suck up for her boutique, that's when I knew, we will be stuck together.

I looked up she was signing a delivery, the young man took back the form, stumbled in front of her, apologised without making eye contact. I felt bad for him then smiled, that beautiful heart of hers sure hid well under that scary carapace. She flipped her gorgeous hair, seductively flashed a smile to the guy and shut her boutique's door.

"Coffee?" She asked.

I nodded "I'm gonna need something personal too, something that says 'Sorry for drowning your apartment'" I let myself fell on the chair in front of her desk. She put a mug of coffee next to me and pointed at a half plant half flower, that I learned was an Azalea Bonsai, it looked girly, but I smiled thinking of Eric, it's gonna push his nerves. In a funny way

She was wrapping the plant into a beautiful white package. My eyes wondered around her desk, everything was no neat and organised. She took a seat in front of me, and warmed her hands holding the mug, her red polished nails tapped on it. We finished up going over the list of furnitures I needed, she noted the ones that needed to be delivered directly from the warehouse.

I told Rose, that I was gonna need more things soon, since my apartment was probably going to need a new look when it's fixed, that followed the story of my adventures of that night.

"So you were at Emmett's, huh?" She nonchalantly said typed on her keyboard avoiding my eye contact.

"That's all you got from my story?"

Emmett was head over heels when he saw Rose with me the first time, he made multiple moves but got turned down every single time, before he got tired of her playing hard to get and moved on. It was a taboo to talk about but I know she regrets it, but too damn proud to act on it.

She rolled her eyes at me "And also that you got the hots for you best friend new boy friend"

"Not true, we do not know if they are together!" I shrugged

She turned the chair to face me, deeply sighed and shook her head.

"He was totally checking me out" I added thinking it totally defended my thoughts.

"Bella .. Is it worth it? I can offer myself to go with you and help you pick up any guy at the bar"

"So nice of you, but if you want to come to Emmett's bar, you don't have to use me as excuse, you know that" I winked at her which got me the death glare.

"Why do you think Tanya didn't tell me about them? You think she doesn't trust me?" I wondered out loud

"Well not judging by your sexual thoughts towards the new guy, he might also be the one that is not trusted…"

I shivered remembering his eyes, his body, his voice … The whole thing was a mystery still. It has been two nights that I'm crashing at Tanya's couch. When I woke up the next morning the apartment was empty. Tanya was the senior editor of an online magazine, recently it had been booming which made her super busy. Over the two nights I have stayed over her place she canceled dinner twice. We shared the same air but definitely not the same schedules.

Edward did not come back either.

After multiple trials, I left Rose's boutique with a 'If I change my mind, I will meet you for one drink', it was a total polite no. She was stubborn to admit she wants to go after him and sad to actually see him indifferent to her.

Eric stood still for what seems like hours looking straight at me, I waved the plant with my best smile. I saw in his eyes that he lost his own war, my smile grew bigger and I made my way to give him a huge kiss on the cheek that he managed to swiped angrily.

"Sit down" He ordered me and put a beautiful frosted cupcake in front of me. I smiled seeing him adjusting the plant I just got him on his counter proudly.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I dipped my finger in the vanilla frosting before sucking my index moaning, Eric was a fucking genius, my clean hand reached into my pocket and unlocked my phone.

90% I can make dinner tonight. You in? - T

Down. In or out? - B

Miss me some good Swan made dishes *sad emoji*- T

I texted her back agreeing to cook tonight. I took my purse from the chair next to me, put back the trash in the bin. Eric told me the apartment should be done in a couple of days and he would call me when it's done.

Growing up me and my dad suffered from my mom super feminism, protesting that the kitchen should be a forbidden ground for the woman, and we had to practically learn every cooking book we could find.

Tanya came home a couple of minutes before the timer of the oven rang letting me know the veggie lasagna was ready.

I put up some plates around the kitchen table, Tanya kicked off her heels near the couch, letting out a small scream of happiness when her feet straightly touched the ground. She put her hair up into a messy ponytail. She gave me a kiss on the cheek, rubbed her two hands together in a universal sign of 'cannot wait'. She moaned after two first bites, she congratulated me, even if I knew my around the kitchen, compliments always gave me an extra boost

"So Edward Cullen, huh?" I let out looking down at my plate.

Her fork stopped in mid air near her mouth "You know about him?"

"Are you for real? He was here Monday night"

She opened her mouth, slowly nodding her tongue swirled around her teeth. She then smiled "Well then" and went back to her plate.

"Why didn't you tell me? why the secrecy" I pushed

"There is no secret, I wasn't aware I needed to let you know of my every hookup"

I opened my eyes "Hookup? Is that what you guys are?"

"Jeez Bella!" She dropped her fork loudly on the plate, clearly annoyed by my questions. But quite frankly I was the one annoyed, might be due to all the secrets, or might be that I slightly wished for something else.

She signed and closed her eyes, then slowly opened them her blue eyes stared into mine "We are getting to know each other, I guess? Not in a traditional way if you know what I mean" She smirked.

"I just do not have the time to think of 'The talk or what he is to me', I did not mean to hide it from you I swear, there are just other important things we talk about rather than my orgasms" She added.

"Orgasms? Wow … Who knew that Cullen had it in him"

"I know right?" We shared at laugh, before digging in our plates once more.

I did not know why I was so curious, may be I was feeling protective… Tanya did not fill her heads with man drama. Ever. She was always career focused, the only time she shared her time with a different gender was in college but once she got a C she freaked out blamed it on Eli and broke things off.

It was true, we never shared stories of random hookups unless it came with a story. However I do consider our former classmate turned into a total fox was a story to be shared. A little voice inside of me let me know that all of these worries might only be related to small jealousy. I was never jealous of Tanya, we grew up together and I know we only wanted what was best for each other, there was no competition we had different hobbies, different types of men, different lives in general.

Tanya rinsed the dishes before placing them into the dishwasher. I stood in my chair looking at her, she was what the media let you believe what the true beauty, thin, blonde, creamy skin, her face was the closest thing to a barbie doll face. She smiled when she caught me looking at her, her hand caressed my brown hair, thanking me for dinner.

There was absolutely nothing that could make me jealous of her, I pushed away the awful feeling and went to get ready to meet Jasper.

I stood outside to Emmett's bar, my left hand looked for a lighter in my coat pockets. I dabbed frustratedly failing to make contact with it.

A lighted up lighter appeared next to me, inviting me to light up the cigarette that was hanging from my mouth. I looked up at Jasper crooked smile.

"You're late" I let out.

"First round on me" He apologised, putting an arm around my shoulders.

"McCarthy, two beers" Jasper shouted as soon as he pushed the bar doors. Emmett looked up, gave us a genuine big smile. He opened two bottles of beer in the corner of the bar, before putting them in front of two empty stools.

I made my way through the bar, there was a red head bending over the bar, giving Emmett a view of her cleavage, she kept tilting her head from one side to another, laughing loudly at everything Emmett does. She turned to our direction, when I sat down. Her yes grew bigger when she saw Jasper next to me. She watched him lift himself on the stool and drink from his beer, she bit the side of her bottom lip, begging him silently to notice her.

I laughed at Emmett disbelief face. Jasper was a pretty face, he made heads turn his way everywhere he went.

"He's with me, sweetheart" I said, gently poking on her shoulder.

She looked at me with disappointment, then brought her attention to Emmett, who was nonetheless thrilled to have her back.

"These kind of situations make me feel better about our 35 years old deal. At least I know my kids will be pretty" I joked turning to look a Jasper.

"Like you needed people to remind you that I was a catch, you'll be lucky if no one locks you up and you end up with me" He teased me, getting another sip of his beer.

A lot of people in college thought me and Jasper had a thing. A drunken night led us to talk about the rumour, we ended up laughing and made a deal to get together at 35 if neither of us got a half, until then we will give the world a chance of having us available.

Jasper and I went from one topic to the other sharing laughs and more beers. It was so easy being around him. A couple of beers later, I felt my phone vibrated through my purse, I took it out only to notice it was my work phone. The code said it was coming from NYC, I looked at the watch and decided to ignore the call. 11PM was a late hour for any sort of emergency.

I raised my hand calling Emmett's attention who was still in deep conversation with the red head. He blindly put another beer in front of me and went back to charm his next one night stand. Another vibrating sound came from my purse, I heavily breathed out and took the phone out, this time it was my personal phone.

"Hello?"

"Bella? This is Edward. Edward Cullen" His voice was so deep and hesitant.

I froze for a minute, Jasper questioned me with his eyes. A smile formed on my face, my unoccupied hand rested on my collarbone.

"Well, hi there" was the only thing I could think of

I heard his breathing from the other side of the line "Sorry to call you on this cell, Tanya gave it to me. Your work phone let me with no answer"

"You've been tracking me down, huh?"

"Hum…"He hesitated mumbling some stuff I could comprehend over the phone "I actually have a work proposal for you, I thought a phone call would be more appropriate than email. I'm sorry if …"

"… Relax Eddie" I teased him using the nickname. Jasper looked at me with an amused expression. I knew then I was using my flirting voice, I cleared my throat and looked away from him.

"So what kind of work proposal is so urgent that has to be made at this hour?"

"Shit … I'm so sorry Bella, I did not see the time. I'm still in the office." He replied " I sometimes forget the notion of time, but that is just me"

I smiled picturing him rubbing the back of his neck nervously like he did in the kitchen that night.

"How about we set an appointment in my office, normal work hours?" He proposed

"Sounds good. Is Friday alright?"

"Friday might work, afternoon?"

"It's a date" I agreed.

His voice again rumbled, i laughed, he probably took the word date literally. We hanged after confirming the hour. I put the phone back in my purse. Took my beer, and questioned Jasper why he was looking at me.

"You're smiling like that chick next to you" He replied.

I didn't know if I should look more into his phone call, or if it was purely work like he said, after all Tanya was the one who gave him my number. But the amount of beer in my system let me to whisper fuck it


First chapters are going slow, I want first to settle around the world and the characters.
Also I will be posting every 5 days, the story is made just working on transitions.