A/N: NGL, I'm totally blown away by the love for an Emmett/Bella pairing. I didn't see that one coming!
All things considered, it was a pretty sweet gig.
Emmett snickered at his own pun and hummed as he stocked the shelves. It had been a slow day. Well, it was a damn cupcake supply shop. They really didn't have rushes. Yet, surprisingly enough, they always had enough business to be comfortable, at least as far as he knew. There had to be a reason they could afford to keep him on and at such a decent salary too.
"Has anyone ever told you you're pleasant to be around?"
Emmett glanced up to see that Carlisle Cullen had come to lean against the counter, poring over paperwork as usual. The Cullen family owned the little shop. It was typically Carlisle he saw.
"That's part of why Bella hired me, right? Gotta have a good attitude. No one wants to buy cupcake supplies from a grump."
"True, but there's a difference between a pleasant person and an always-happy person."
"Nothing not to be happy about," he said with a shrug, carefully lifting the newest cupcake stand out of its box. It was an ornate thing. Expensive and way too delicate for his tastes, but no one had asked him.
"I told you. I think Emmett's perpetual cheer needs to be studied under a microscope."
Emmett straightened up at the sound of Bella's voice. She looked tired, as per usual. As far as Emmett could tell, she hardly ever left the damn shop.
Tired but still pretty. Emmett had told himself about a thousand times that crushing on his boss wasn't a good idea, but common sense had never stopped him before. Apparently, it wasn't about to start now.
As Bella sidled up, Carlisle reacted automatically. He angled his body toward her, and as they bent their heads together to go over whatever Bella had brought for him to look over, he put his hand to her back.
Yeah. That was the other reason it was a bad idea to crush on his boss. She was the owner's girlfriend. Maybe. Probably. It was kind of weird. Carlisle had to be, what, at least a decade older than Bella? But hey, who was Emmett to judge? It wasn't his fault he was only twenty years old, and there was no way Bella would be interested in a guy like him.
Whatever. No skin off his back. The only reason the thought kept occurring to him was because he saw Bella nearly every day. So he noticed she was hot. He had eyes, that was all.
"Hey, did I speak too soon?"
"Gah." It wasn't so much that Emmett was startled to hear Bella's voice so near his ear as it was the way his body reacted to it. It sent a vibration that went straight to his dick, and that was a problem.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you." Bella sounded amused. "It's just that you look all concerned for once in your life. You got the brow furrow and everything."
"Oh, no. Not the brow furrow. I'll get wrinkles." He winked at her and was pleased when she grinned. He turned back to his task of getting the new display set up. "I was just concentrating; that's all. I don't think I could afford it if I broke this."
"Give me a break. You know we wouldn't charge you. Besides, you're surprisingly nimble."
"Why is that surprising, huh? You thinking about my size again, boss?" Okay, that was a little too double entendre-y. He cleared his throat, but he still smirked. "You think a big oaf like me can't be graceful?" He cocked his head to the side, considering. "I wanted to be a ballerina when I was four."
Bella giggled. She straight up giggled. It was a strangled sounding noise; like maybe she didn't want to laugh like that. Still, it was a nice sound, and Emmett found himself smiling back. She clapped a hand over her mouth as though to hide her mirth. "Sorry. I just pictured you in tights." She tittered again behind her hand.
"Why would you want to torture yourself with that image?"
"Anyway." Bella emphasized the word, ending that particular conversation. "I was going to ask you if you're interested in picking up a couple more hours. You don't have class tonight, do you?"
"I don't have class. You want me to stay until closing?"
"Yeah, if it's no trouble. Carlisle forgot he has dinner with his parents. You know he doesn't like me to close up alone."
Emmett couldn't blame the man for that one. The strip mall was a touch too dark at night for Emmett to be comfortable with Bella walking the empty parking lot alone. What Emmett could blame the other man for was leaving his girlfriend behind while he went to a family dinner. That seemed wrong.
But he was probably reading too much into it. Probably they just didn't want to leave him alone there. That was cool. Emmett was working on earning their trust.
"It's no trouble. You know I could always use the cash," Emmett said.
"Great. You're the best." She started to turn away but then turned back. "Oh, don't forget you have high tea at three, okay?"
"No problem, boss."
Another hour later, and Emmett was baking using the mini-cupcake maker stashed behind the counter. They had a cupcake of the day, and part of his job was to keep their little shelf stocked and the store smelling like baked goods. Carlisle wandered back in and scented the air. "That smells amazing."
"Today's special is churro cupcakes," Emmett said. "I took Alice to Downtown Disney for dinner last night. Special treat, ya know, because she got a good report card. We had a churro afterward, and I thought, I could make this a cupcake."
"Good plan."
Emmett hadn't ever been good at impulse control, so he shouldn't have been surprised when the next thing out of his mouth was completely inappropriate. "Hey, so. How long have you and Bella been dating."
Carlisle's head snapped up, his eyes gone wide. Emmett had to fight not to grimace. "Sorry. I guess that was a personal question. I was just talking." He turned back to his piping, arranging a careful leaf and ruffle design on top of the cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
"You just startled me," Carlisle said. Emmett was relieved to hear his voice was steady as ever and not angry. "Bella and I aren't a couple, though I'm flattered you would think that."
Now it was Emmett's turn to look up in surprise. "Really? You guys seem so close, I guess."
"We are close." Carlisle's voice was tender as he spoke. "But it's more of a little sister thing for me." A look of sadness came over his face then. "See, she married my much younger brother right out of high school."
"She's married?" Emmett blurted.
"She was." There was something so pained about Carlisle's expression. "The poor thing was widowed at twenty. There was a freak accident at the university they were both going to at the time. Edward was standing at the top of the stairs and paused to check a text, from Bella, actually. Another student was running—literally running—late to class. He came barrelling down the stairs without looking. They both fell down." He swallowed hard. "Edward didn't survive the head injury."
"Oh, man." Emmett rubbed his chest. His heart hurt. He thought about the sadness he saw sometimes in Bella's eyes. "That's heavy."
Carlisle sighed. "You know, when they married so young, I was worried for them. For what their lives would become. But what they had was so intense, it was almost scary. They had this beautiful life planned out. So many things they were going to do.
"When Edward died, everything changed. Mom and Dad asked Bella to come work for them mostly to give her something to do." He shook his head. "She's been great for our business, but I wish—"
He broke off then, seeming to realize he was babbling. "I'm sorry. I worry about her a lot."
"Hey, I understand what it's like to be a big brother. I don't know what I would have done if it was Alice." Emmett shuddered at the thought. The air around them seemed heavy, and that always made him uncomfortable. "So, big brother Carlisle, huh? How big of a big brother?"
"Ah. I was fifteen when Edward was born. Hence why I was so startled you'd think an old man like me could be with a woman like Bella. I just turned forty." Carlisle's lip twitched. "Edward was a surprise baby.
"I was too, so I know how great surprises can be." Emmett laughed. "Hey, you want to know something weird? You're actually older than my mom."
Carlisle's eyes just about bugged out of his head, and he gave a shocked laugh. "Really?"
"Yeah, I was a big surprise." He grinned. "Eleven pounds."
"Your poor mother." Carlisle gave him the once over. "Since we're apparently asking personal questions today, how old are you anyway?"
"Twenty-one next month."
"Ah. You could pass for older."
"Yep. I never had to get a fake ID."
Carlisle looked over at him, bemused, and Emmett winked just in case. Of course he'd bought booze before, but he wanted to give himself some room with plausible deniability with his employer.
At around two-thirty, the door opened. Emmett, preoccupied with a sale, didn't greet the new customer as he typically did. So he was a little startled when he heard a nearby voice whisper, "What the hell," a minute later.
Emmett wished his buyer a good day and turned to where his roommate, Jasper Whitlock, had sidled up and was leaning on the counter. His eyes were wide and incredulous as he looked around. "Dude," he said, taking in the hot pink walls and the advertisements for sparkly decorations. "I feel like I stepped into an episode of My Little Ponies or the Care Bears or some shit."
"Hey, I'm not the one who did the decorating."
Jasper looked at him and his grin got huge. "Oh, man. Who told you that you could pull off that apron?"
Emmett jutted his hip to the side and put his hand there. "Bitch, please. You know I look fabulous."
"You should have seen him the first day," Bella said, coming out of the back room in time to catch their conversation. "Our largest apron covered just the middle of his chest. We had to special order him one."
Jasper looked delighted at this information. "Please tell me someone took a picture."
Emmett rolled his eyes. "Jasper, be good. This is my boss, Bella Swan. Bella, this is my dumbass roommate Jasper." Emmett reached over and mussed Jasper's hair.
Jasper swatted at his hands. "Touch the hair at your peril."
Bella looked between them. "Your roommate, huh?" For some reason, it sounded like there were air quotes around the word roommate. "Didn't you say you live with your mom?"
"My folks didn't take well to me telling them I was a big queer," Jasper said with a grin. "Esme took me in, so Em and I are literally roommates."
"Oh. That's very understanding of her." She offered Jasper her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Same."
"The Stanley party should be here in fifteen minutes," she said to Emmett.
"I'm not going to forget," he promised. "In fact, I was about to get the tea ready."
"Thanks, Emmett." Bella disappeared again, clipboard in hand.
"They throw parties in here?" Jasper asked, looking around at the short aisles of cupcake making supplies.
"Tea parties, over there in the corner." Emmett pointed with his chin. He was busy arranging tiny tea cups on a large tray.
Jasper peered and then he scoffed. "That is a tiny table."
"Hey, that works out since they're tea parties for tiny people."
As though on cue, a clamor drew both men's attention to the doorway. Sure enough, there were four tiny girls being herded in the door by a harried looking blond woman.
"You are obligated by bro code not to watch this," Emmett said, wagging a finger at Jasper.
Jasper's grin brightened. "Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen."
So, of course, Jasper followed behind Emmett as he went to greet the girls. He exclaimed over how pretty they looked in their dresses. He indulged them when one of them asked how strong he was, and let two of them hang off each arm as he did a couple of curls.
"Okay. Now that I've done my weightlifting for the day, how about some tea and cupcakes?" Emmett asked. The girls cheered, jumping up and down. "Since there's only four of you munchkins, if you want to invite a friend over to tea, you can." Emmett patted a shelf filled with dolls and stuffed animals.
"How 'bout this one." A little blond girl named Jessica came to stand by Jasper. She clung to his hand, swinging it a bit as she stared up at him. "Will you be my friend? You want some tea?"
It was hilarious to watch Jasper's smirk fall. He got all flustered. "I'm not… I mean, I don't—"
"He'd be happy to be your friend." Emmett gave his back a couple of thwacks, holding back a chortle. "This is Jasper. Have a seat." He gestured to the truly tiny stools at the small table, giving his friend a shit-eating grin.
Jasper was a good sport, which wasn't surprising given how indulgent he was when Alice wanted something. Being Emmett's best friend, he'd likewise grown up with a precocious little kid puppy-dogging after him. Alice adored Jasper. When she was the age these kids were now, she'd announced she was in love with him.
So, Jasper sat, looking utterly ridiculous with his long legs pulled almost up to his chin. He entertained the girls as Emmett served tea—really fruit punch—and an assortment of miniature cupcakes he'd made for the occasion. Emmett took particular pleasure when he broke out the crowns they gave as favors. He set one primly on Jasper's head, much to the delight of the girls.
One of the girls, another blond named Rosalie, seemed dour, never really getting as excited as the others. So, Emmett made it his mission to make her smile. By the end of tea-time, she was giggling. It was a reserved giggle, but a happy one. And right before he announced it was time to clean up, little Rosalie got on her stool and launched herself into Emmett's arms. She didn't say anything, but gave him a big smooch on the cheek.
As though feeling eyes on him, Emmett glanced up and noticed Bella standing across the shop. She was watching him with a gentle smile he'd never seen on her before. When she noticed he'd seen her, she straightened up, turned, and headed again for her office in the back.
A/N: Hope that brightened up your Monday morning.
I'll see you soon.
