The Path We Chose
Chapter 24: Love Story, Suspended
We were famished by the time we made it through the back sliding door into the house. Nearly 9:00, and all we'd had to eat were a few grapes. Edward removed his jacket from my shoulders and I shivered.
"Do you want it back?" He asked, kissing my shoulder.
"Warm me with your lips."
He held my hips from behind, continuing his kisses along my back as he guided me around the counter. That was when we heard the voices in the living room. Dropping our belongings on the table, we followed the noises like curious cats to find our friends, all clad in their formal attire.
"Finally," Alice said, hand on a hip, her dark pink satin gown draping over her curves. She was stunning and not a little reminiscent of Holly Golightly. "We've only been waiting here for an hour."
"What are you doing here?" Edward asked, pulling me close to him, kissing the side of my head with a sigh, clearly disappointed that we were not alone.
"Nice greeting," Alice said. "We're here for Bella. What are you thinking, making her miss out on prom?"
"I asked her, she said-"
Alice interrupted. "If you're not going to take your girlfriend to-"
Edward interrupted. "She didn't want to go."
"Ahem. If you're not going to take her to prom, then we are going to celebrate prom night here. This is a girl thing, Edward. I don't expect you to understand. A girl needs her friends on prom night. That's a fact you're going to have to live with. Just like a big, white wedding."
"What?" Edward looked at me. I shook my head.
"Speaking of weddings, Bella…" Alice came toward me and lifted my left hand to ogle my ring and then hug me. "Congratulations!"
I looked at Edward, then back at Alice. "How did you know?"
"Jasper told me."
My eyes found Jasper in his black tux and dark pink bow tie.
"Emmett told me."
I eyed Emmett. He was wearing a jacket but no tie at all and his top shirt buttons were undone, his black vest open.
"Rosalie told him," Edward said, shaking his head.
Rosalie, in body-hugging, ruby silk, hit Emmett's arm. "I told big mouth not to say anything."
"I told you not to say anything," Edward said.
"Well, Edward, need I remind you that you also told me not to say anything that day I caught you and Bella in Dr. Denali's office, and we all know how well that turned out."
"Why did you tell Rosalie?" I asked Edward.
He took my hand. "Because I needed help setting up without you finding out and I also needed to know if it was even a good idea at all. I didn't want to blindside you, or upset you, or pressure you." His thumb brushed over my knuckles. "You don't know how nervous I was."
"You didn't seem nervous at all. Why were you nervous?"
"Because, I didn't know how you would react, but as soon as I saw the tears in your eyes, it was like I could breathe again."
"I told you I would never say no to you."
"Yeah, but I wanted you to accept because you meant it, not because you felt bad for me."
"I did mean it." I stood on tiptoe to kiss his lips.
"I know."
"Pardon me," Emmett said, "I don't mean to interrupt this beautiful, heartfelt moment, but there are other people in the room. I know when you two are together you have trouble seeing anyone else, but we are actually standing here. We're not apparitions."
"No, not apparitions," Edward said, "just uninvited guests." It was one of those times when Edward said the words, all the while making it obvious he didn't mean them. He walked toward Emmett and hugged him, thanking him for everything he'd done for him.
"You don't have to thank me, Edward. If this one doesn't work out, we'll do it again. Won't we, B?"
"As many times as it takes," I said.
"Double congratulations," Jasper said, shaking Edward's hand. "Emmett told me about Stanford."
And then we all hugged and some of us kissed before Alice said it was time to start prom.
"Alice," I said. "I will celebrate with you but I am not dancing."
"Why not?" Edward said. "You danced with me earlier."
"Yeah, but that doesn't count. We were dancing to creek music."
"What?" Everyone said, except for Edward who was kissing me.
"There are other ways of celebrating," Emmett said, lifting two over-sized bottles of champagne off the end table. "Sorry, B, you don't get any of this."
"Well, B needs to eat before any celebrating happens," Edward said. "Where are my parents?"
"Upstairs," Jasper said. "Alice bounced around telling them about her prom plans until they were dizzy and said they would leave us in privacy."
"Okay. Emmett, you open the Champagne. Bella, you come with me to the kitchen. Alice and Rosalie, you stand around looking pretty, and J, you can do whatever the hell you want."
In the kitchen, Edward hunted through the refrigerator for something to eat while I filled a vase with water for my flowers. It was hard to believe that mere moments ago I'd been sitting under the twilight sky on top of Edward in nothing but his shir - the shirt he now wore untucked as he pulled a leftover pizza box from the fridge. He heated up the last four slices, took the pepperoni off his slice, and I ate the other three. I told him that at this rate, he was going to get skinny while I got fat. He brought a hand to my stomach and said that it better get fat and then he kissed it before telling me he was going upstairs to talk to his dad. "No matter what happens with these intruders, you are sleeping in my bed tonight."
"Look," I said and held my left hand out to him, showing him the ring as if he wasn't the one who had put it there.
"I know." He smiled wide, kissing my finger and the ring at the same time.
I joined the rest of the intruders in the living room. They were already well into the champagne.
"Rosalie," I said. "Are you wearing your matching lingerie?"
Emmett and Jasper laughed.
"Bella! You are not allowed to take Emmett to a lingerie shop again. You don't need to know what I'm wearing under my clothes."
"Hey, your boyfriend was willing to tell me about more than just your underwear."
"Emmett!" Rosalie said as Emmett simultaneously said, "B!" Alice laughed the hardest until Rosalie turned on her.
"Okay, Alice. What are you wearing under your dress? Satin? Silk? Lace? I bet it's black and not all pink and pure like your dress."
Jasper held up his hands. "No way. If Alice answers this question, I'm leaving the room."
"Why?" Rosalie asked.
"Because it's bad enough imagining it. I can't know for certain what she's got on under there."
"Why not?" Emmett asked.
I grabbed the champagne bottle. "All right. I think you all need a little more champagne. If I can't drink it, I'm at least going to watch the bunch of you make fools of yourselves."
When I got to Emmett, he held his glass toward me, but I pulled the bottle back and looked into his eyes. "Let's get something straight first, big guy. In case you are unaware, Edward and I got engaged tonight. You are not to step foot in his room for even a second. If you go upstairs, I don't even want you breathing the air that seeps from his room into the hallway."
"All right, all right, I got it. Pour the champagne."
"You promise?"
"Yes, no breathing air. I promise."
"Okay." I poured his champagne for him.
Edward's arms slipped around me from behind and his whisper tickled my neck, "My bed. All night." I closed my eyes and let him kiss up and down my neck and along my shoulder not even caring who may be watching.
Emmett lifted his glass for a toast. But instead of toasting, he said: "You know. This isn't even true champagne. It's sparkling wine. The only true champagne comes from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France and most Americans have never tasted it. And these lesser champagnes don't even come close to compare in taste to the authentic French Champagne."
"That's interesting," Rosalie said, "and what do you want us to do with this information? Pour out the sparkling wine that is now in our hands."
"Oh no, babe. You are drinking that. I just want you to be aware of what you're really drinking and know that there is better stuff out there."
"I am well aware that there are always better options. But I am settling for what is right here in front of me."
"Settling?"
"That's right. Why should I look elsewhere when I am perfectly okay with what I have right here in my glass. I mean if the real champagne was here, sure I'd take a sip - maybe I would even prefer it. But it's not here, so…"
"Are we still talking about champagne?" Emmett asked.
"Well, yeah, aren't you?"
Emmett stared at her for a minute before Jasper said, "Brain-slammed. All right, Rose!"
Emmett shook his head at Rosalie's innocent smile. "Oh man, it is on!"
If that was meant to threaten Rosalie, she wasn't fazed in the least. "Edward," she said, grabbing his arm. "I know your body aches when you're not near Bella, but can I talk to you alone for a minute?"
He leaned down to kiss me first but it wasn't as enjoyable when you heard Rosalie in the background, "All right, kiss her goodbye because it will be the very last time you see her for the next five minutes."
Edward continued to kiss me through his laughs and I liked when he did that so I kissed him back. Rosalie pulled on his arm again.
"Wow Rosalie," I said. "Champagne makes you cocky."
"Bella, it doesn't make me cocky. It only enhances it."
"Well, my boyfriend better come back standing up straight and in one piece or I'm cutting you off for the night."
"He's your fiancé, not your boyfriend. Anyway, what's your excuse for being so cocky? You're in your second trimester so you can't blame that."
"I guess you bring it out in me."
"Finally!" She said. "The love of your life will be right back, sweet Bella, darling." She took him to the far corner of the room and I couldn't help but glance over at them every so often. Even when Alice came over to talk to me about school, I was distracted by the two of them in their nook by the TV.
Alice said something about Mike and Jessica having a huge argument in the cafeteria, but all I saw was Edward leaning in closer to Rosalie and I thought I saw her wipe a tear. Then Alice said something about how lucky I was it didn't rain tonight because my silk dress would have been ruined, but all I saw was Edward and Rosalie hugging. They hugged for a long time.
"Bella?"
"Wh-what?" I looked at her.
"Are you listening to me?"
"Uh-huh. But it's not like I'm ever going to wear this dress again, anyway."
"Bella. I said I'm thinking of having sex with Jasper."
My eyes left Rosalie and Edward alone, and shot toward Alice. "What! Alice, no, not until you're married."
"But it's prom night. It's supposed to happen on prom night."
"Says who? Cheesy movies?"
I caught her looking past me at Jasper. She was looking him up and down and biting her lip. "Alice!" I took her glass from her. "No more for you. You're not thinking clearly. Wait here."
I rushed, not a bit ladylike, over to Jasper and yanked him away from Emmett without so much as an "excuse me," and dragged him out the front door. I faced him before he had a chance to ask me what was going on.
"Jasper, you have got to be careful tonight. Alice is…Alice is…" Suddenly I didn't have the words to tell him, and wondered how it was really any of my business, other than my own desire to protect the virtue of my best friend.
"I know, Bella. I can feel it and it's killing me. If she doesn't stop, I might have to leave. Not that I want to go, believe me. Do you think she's really wearing black lingerie under her dress?"
"Oh God, you too? How do you make someone un-aroused?"
"Saying the word aroused doesn't help. I can tell you that."
I covered my eyes with my hand. "Can you handle it, Jasper?"
"If I can't. I told you; I'll have to leave."
"How can you leave her on prom night? You just heard her tell Edward how important it is."
"What's worse? Ruining her prom night by leaving or by giving into her - taking something from her when she's drunk?"
I looked past Jasper for a minute at the moon behind him. It was covered by clouds and its glow was a haunting blue accentuating the bright blue of Jasper's conflicted eyes. My business or not, I had to help. "Chocolate? Maybe that will distract her."
"Maybe just food, in general. Sober her up."
I left Jasper on the porch and headed back to Alice, dragging her away from Emmett and into the kitchen, but not before noticing that Rosalie and Edward were still in their corner. "Hey, B," Emmett said. "I really wish you would stop that. I was winning both times."
"You always win, Emmett," I called back, hopefully satiating his ego for the time being.
"What are we doing?" Alice asked as I started opening cupboards.
"Looking for chocolate." I knew we were out of cookies since I had eaten the last Oreo earlier today.
"Why? Are you having a craving?"
"Yes." I found some brownie mix, threw an apron at Alice and together we made chocolate brownies in our formal gowns on prom night.
Rosalie came in laughing at us and taking pictures, and I posed for her when she asked me to, relieved she was through with my fiancé.
"You look so domestic in that apron," Edward said. "I like to imagine you wearing nothing but the apron while baking." He untied my apron string like that would reveal my skin instead of my dress.
"What is in that champagne tonight? Seriously." Not that I didn't want Edward as much as he wanted me, but at that moment, my energy had to be focused on reversing Alice's drunken lust.
The smell of the brownies baking brought everyone into the kitchen. Emmett and Jasper had their fingers in them the minute I took the hot chocolate-filled pan out of the oven. They were both burning their fingers and kept pulling back, but that didn't stop them from grabbing at them again.
"You have to let them cool," I said.
"The hell you do," Emmett said clawing a chunk out and tossing it into his mouth.
"Save some for Alice," I yelled, " because she - she helped make them."
"Thank you, Bella," she said. "With these two around there won't be any left." But then Jasper shoved some into her mouth so we didn't have to worry anymore. The brownies were nearly gone within fifteen minutes. Even Rosalie had chocolate on her lips and teeth. I handed her a napkin and let her know there was chocolate in her teeth. She pushed me away, laughing as if I was joking but then she went to the bathroom to check her teeth anyway.
Edward came over and kissed me. "I love you and I don't have the strength to stay away any longer." His tongue found mine as mine found his. "I know you're a girl and everything and you need your friends on prom night, but…I need you on our engagement night. Let's go to bed?"
I nodded because I couldn't find my voice. Edward threw an arm around me. "Good night, everyone."
I went to my room first to change and I checked my closet mirror, standing only in my underwear to see if my little tummy bump had grown at all since that morning. It looked the same so I pushed my stomach out to accentuate it. That was better.
After brushing my teeth, I went to Edward's bed where I waited for him in just my nightshirt. As I waited, I looked out the window but it was too dark to see anything - only blackness or my happy reflection staring back. I wondered how different things might have been if we had decided to end my pregnancy. That thought, of course brought my hands directly to my stomach. Would we still be together? Would we be happy? I couldn't be sure. I did know that now, we were exactly where we needed to be. The three of us, Edward, Baby and I would travel our path together. I knew that there would be bends and cross-roads up ahead, but as long as we followed each other we would find our way to where our future waited.
"Hey," Edward said, exiting his bathroom. "That's the sight I've been waiting for all fucking night." His hand was on my thigh rubbing down my leg. I turned toward him to see his gorgeous self in way too much clothes.
"Take off your shirt and stop saying 'fuck' so much in front of the baby."
He covered his mouth. "I can't help it when I'm around you. Ordinary words aren't enough to express myself."
"All right, say whatever you want, just remove that obtrusive thing right now." He started unbuttoning but it wasn't fast enough so I sat up and helped him, and then his chest was finally there and I could touch it and kiss it.
"Finally," I said, running my tongue down the middle of his rib cage.
Thoughts and questions started flooding my mind for no apparent reason, other than the fact that my brain was that unpredictable. "Why did you choose to tell Rosalie about your proposal plans? Why did you ask her for help?"
"What do you mean? I told you why." He sat down on the edge of the bed.
"No. I mean, why Rosalie? Why not Jasper or Emmett?"
He looked at me for a minute and then frowned. "I don't know. I didn't even think about it. It was automatic."
"She's your best friend. Emmett and Jasper, they are, too, but Rosalie, she really is, isn't she? She was the only one who went uber-protecto on you when we became friends. They all knew about your past, but she - she didn't trust me easily. That doesn't mean the others don't love you, too. But Rosalie, if she could do anything about it, was not going to let you get hurt again."
"You're right."
"And you haven't been as close to her since I've been in your life?"
"No. But we're getting back there again. She apologized tonight for the way she treated you. She said that by pushing you away in the beginning, she hurt me more than you ever would. I told her she should apologize to you, not me."
"I think she did apologize when she brought me the maternity clothes. She didn't literally say sorry, but the gesture was enough."
"You are a generous person." He kissed me, but I was not finished with my questions.
"She was crying?"
He nodded. "She said that she was proud of me and that she knows everything will work out okay. You know, Stanford, you, the baby, us. And," he shrugged, "she said, she's missed me. She said that when I'd gone to talk to her about proposing, it was the first time in a long time she's felt the possibility of us being as close as we once were. She's been really afraid that by being rude to you she ruined her relationship with me for good. We had more than a few arguments over you. And you know that day we told everyone about the baby and things got so screwed up you left?"
I nodded.
"I was wrecked after you left and I planned on following you, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I went to Emmett's to blame everything on him, but that didn't go as planned, either. Rosalie was there and tried to comfort me and I asked her why she cared. Tonight she said that my questioning her feelings toward me was a huge wake up call. She knew then that she had really damaged what we had, and was afraid it might be irreversible."
"Oh. I'm glad you two are rebuilding your friendship, now. But what else? You were talking for a long time."
"We were just remembering the past. You're never going to believe this, but when Rosalie was little, she loved mud and she never wore dresses. She wore ratty clothing with holes in them most of the time because she was always getting dirty and her mom wouldn't allow her to wear any nice clothes. Everyone else sees beautiful, well-dressed, hair brushed Rosalie, but when I look at her, I remember knots in her hair and mud on her face." He started laughing. We both did. I couldn't imagine Rosalie looking like that. I asked if he had any pictures, but he told me that when she entered seventh grade and decided she was a girl she ripped all those pictures up.
"Now I have a question for you," he said, touching my nose.
"Ask me."
"Are you going to want a big, white wedding?"
I stared at him for a minute.
"Because if you do, it's fine. You know that, right?"
I stuck my hand out. "Hi, I'm Bella Swan. It's nice to meet you."
He laughed and took my hand and kissed it and then played with my fingers as he spoke. "It's very nice to meet you. Let's just skip all the getting to know each other bullshit. We're going to get fake married, fall in love, make love, make a baby, get engaged, get real married and live happily ever after like some Cinderella story you probably read when you were younger because you're a girl."
"Who's Cinderella?"
"You are."
"So, Cinderella had a baby before she married her prince?"
"Yes, it's just that no one likes to mention that part because it's frowned upon. In the story the pregnancy is represented by slave work and cinders."
"But the prince, he must be sought after by all the eligible women of the kingdom. How does he know the baby is his and that Cinderella is the one for him?"
He pulled one of my legs toward him and drew a line from my calf down to my toe, then aligned the bottom of my foot with the palm of his hand. "Because the shoe is the perfect fit." He kissed my big toe.
"He knows because of a shoe?"
"The shoe is special. It's made of glass and easily shattered, just like the heart. Through everything, all the changes and the running and the trials, the shoe never shatters because it belongs to both of them and they treat it like the world might end if it even gets a scratch."
"So are you saying that since our story ends with a happily ever after we should skip all the stuff in between?"
"No. I spoke to quickly. We shouldn't skip a thing. We should savor every last minute we have together."
"And what happens to the shoe?"
"Well… Cinderella has the other shoe, you see. And once the shoes are reunited, they place them on a pillow and lock them away in a strong glass case where their beauty can be observed but they can never be touched or separated again."
"I like that story."
"Of course you do. You're a girl."
I poked him in the waist. "You're not a girl. Do you like the story?"
He grabbed my poking finger and pulled me against him. "It's the best story I've ever heard."
Then we were kissing and there were no more questions and no more talking. All communication was through lips and body parts and breathing and quiet moans. Our bodies spoke to each other of love and life and future and hope as we consummated our engagement for the second time that night.
A/N:
Reviews are appreciated! :)
Oh! And if you haven't read Edward's outtake yet, that is when he visits Emmett's house. Click on my profile link to find the outtakes.
