Chapter Five

The next morning I woke up around eight o'clock, and hopped into the shower, trying to clear the thousands of thoughts from my head. Even though I knew this wasn't a "date" I still felt like it was. I was going through all the worrying steps, what do I wear, how do I do my hair, does my breath smell bad..etc.

I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me as I walked out into the hallway leading down to my room. My cat Fluffy followed me.

I knew it wasn't very warm outside, and I could defiantly tell it was raining according to the sound of it hitting the roof of my apartment. After a very long amount of time, I picked out a black turtleneck, skinny jeans, and black boots to wear. I found some nice silver jewelry to go with everything. When I finally got dressed and looked at the clock it was already past nine. So I panicked.

I dashed into the bathroom, and quickly dried my hair. I didn't think I had time to do anything with it, so I just left my hair completely down. I had people tell me I had Taylor Swift-like hair. I never really saw the connection unless I left it completely down, and didn't try to tame it any. But they were right, my hair curled in the same tight curls that Taylor Swift's did.

I walked into my room and fished a black purse out of the closet and threw in the essentials, phone, mints, keys, gum, and wallet. I looked at the clock. 9:30. Crap.

I decided much to my dismay that fumbling with my contacts at this time would be a very bad idea, I would certainly be late. So I picked up my black rimmed glasses and put them on, no matter how much I hated them.

I fed my cat, grabbed my raincoat, and ran through the rain-soaked parking lot. I think it was a major blessing, because traffic through town wasn't very bad at all. I parked in front of the coffee shop, and noticed the car behind me...a black Mercedes. I had to wonder if this was mere coincidence, or if I was being stalked by someone, until it clicked for me.

I walked into the coffe shop and saw him standing there waiting for me. I could have died. He was still dressed just as professional as always, a nice sweater and dress pants. And of course, he was all smiles. I walked up to him and he turned to the hostess and said something. I didn't even know what it was. I hated him so much for doing this to me, for making me act like such a freaking idiot.

We sat down, when he looked at me across the table and laughed.

"What?"

"I didn't know that you wore glasses." He said.

"Oh what...do I look that bad?"

"No...no you don't. You actually look quite..."

"Stupid."

"I was going to say sophisticated, but think what you want." He grinned.

The waitress approached our table, and her eyes were glued to Dr. Cullen's face.

"Can I help you two?"

"Ladies first," He said, gesturing at me.

I looked from him, to the waitress. "Um...just a hot chocolate and a banana nut muffin."

The waitress scribbled down my order, looked at Dr. Cullen and giggled, "And you sir?"

"Just water, is all...thank you."

"Ok." She replied, as she walked away, still not taking her eyes off of him.

"Why didn't you get anything?" I asked.

"I don't do breakfast."

"Then why did you take me out to breakfast? It could have waited until lunch."

He laughed.

"Thank you for making me feel so dumb."

"Well according to you, you already were dumb because of your glasses."

"Shut up."

He laughed again.

"Hey, do you by chance drive a black Mercedes?"

"What, do you think that just because I'm rich that I like to blow all my money on expensive cars?"

I looked down at my napkin, it suddenly seemed interesting, "Well..um..yeah."

He laughed, and it rang throughout the restaurant. "Well you're 100% correct."

"So that is your car?"

"Yes, that's my car. Why were you wondering?"

"Because I've seen it almost everywhere I went, and I wanted to make sure I didn't have a stalker or anything."

"Yeah, but think about it...at least if you did have a stalker he'd have a nice car."

This time I laughed too.

"No don't worry Brooke, I'm certainly not stalking you."

I giggled. Oh great...I'm being flirty.

"Ok, so now that we know what car I drive...I need to tell you about that phone call."

I looked up at him as the waitress brought us our stuff and left.

"The girl that you talked to on the phone...Viviene."

"Yes?"

He sighed. "Well she's my girlfriend."

This felt like a stab to my heart. I knew he had a girlfriend at one point, but I guess I had forgot about it. But what bothered me even more was that I was bothered by this simple fact. I mean look at him. How could he not have a girlfriend?

But I noticed something in his voice when he said it, he didn't seem thrilled, lovestruck...or anything. He seemed more upset than any other emotion.

"It's a very long story."

"I'm here...I'm not going anywhere."

He sighed again. "All my life, all I've wanted is somebody that loved me."

"Do you really have a problem with that?" I asked.

He looked at me funny.

"Not that I'm saying I think you're attractive or anything." I played with my muffin, he chuckled at me.

"Well that's the thing. All people look at when they look at me is what they see on the outside and what they see in my wallet. They don't even begin to look inside of me, at my personality or anything."

"I get what you mean. It's kinda been the same way for me too."

"Well and I've been with so many women, but none of them are anything special...none of them were anyone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I think that's why I went ahead and adopted children, I just thought I'd always be alone."

This surprised me. Dr. Cullen was so smart, so sweet, so loving, so compassionate, and yeah...maybe being good looking didn't hurt, and yet he was worried that he would never find someone who would love him for more than his physical attributes.

"You won't be." I said. "You have someone out there for you, maybe you just haven't found her yet."

"Well the thing is I thought I had found her...in Viviene."

"But why haven't you?"

"Viviene and I have been together about three years now, and at first she was perfect. She loved my intelligence, my caring personality, my looks, and most importantly she got along fantastically with my kids. I thought I was falling in love with her. But after about six months into the relationship, I sort of just fell out of love. Not because of anything she did, just because I didn't feel the same around her anymore. So I tried to break up with her, and she went crazy. Turns out, she was the same as the rest of them, she just wanted my money and my looks, but she was a good actress. When I tried to break up with her she..." He sighed, "She made some threats. Nasty ones at that. Bought a ticket to Paris on my credit card and left. She always did like to travel, but now that's her excuse to stay away so that I can't break up with her."

"So she just goes wherever she wants?"

"Yes, and she doesn't even love me anymore. She just loves that my money buys her real nice fashions and flights to beautiful places. But she even made me sign a contract saying that if I ever tried to break up with her, question her, cheat on her, etc...there would be problems."

"What kind of problems?"

He looked out the window at the rain falling on the street. "I can't say that."

I felt for him, I really did. He was being kept prisoner by someone that didn't even love him.

"I'm sorry." Was all I could say.

He looked back at me. "It's not your fault sweetheart."

I was still confused, "But why did you want to tell me about this?"

"Because," he said, "My children won't believe me. I tried to tell them about it, but they only see Viviene's good side. Same thing for the rest of the public. I had to tell someone, and you my dear are unbiased, because you've never even met Viviene."

"Oh, I see." I said.

We sat and talked for another hour then. We talked about work, plans for the future, the weather, all sorts of things. We really lost track of time. It was like we had both known each other forever, and we had endless amounts of stuff to tell each other about.

When we finally were getting ready to leave, Dr. Cullen's phone rang and he answered it.

"Hello, Emmett? Yes son I'm leaving here soon. Bowling tonight? Oh I suppose that wouldn't be too terrible of an occasion." He chuckled. "Is that the best idea for little Bella though? Alright.....yes that's fine with me. Be back before four alright? Yes peace out to you too...bye."

I laughed. "What was that?"

"That was my son Emmett. Aprently my children want to go bowling tonight at the bowling alley in Forks."

"Bowling, sounds like fun."

His eyes lit up. "Would you like to come with us? That way our players will be even, four on one lane four on the other."

Could I really say no to a second "date" with him in one day. "Yeah, I'll be there."

He seemed so thrilled, it surprised me. "Great, we're all meeting there around five thirty."

"Alright...you can count me in." I told him as we walked out into the lobby and stood by the door. "And by the way...what was that peace out thing all about?"

He laughed. "Emmett's unusual. All of my children are very unusual."

"Am I going to regret this?"

"No no, I certainly hope not."

I giggled. I officaly hate myself.

"Well Brooke I had a nice time this morning...it was nice to talk to you."

"Yeah it was nice."

"So I'll see you tonight?" He asked.

I nodded, "Defiantly."

"Good." He took my hand in his and kissed it before he ran out into the rain to his car with a smile plastered on his face.

I was in shock...total complete shock. This kind of thing was defiantly not happening to me.

"Well hi there Brookie."

Or at least I wished this moment wasn't happening to me.

I turned around to see Paige standing there, glaring at me with such intensity that I think I lit on fire.

"I heard you got that job up there in Forks."

"Oh yeah." I responded. "Sure did."

"How?"

"Um...he picked me. He said he really liked my application, and I helped him out when some girl fainted while waiting in line."

"Well aren't we perfect." She said coming closer to me. "Do you know how much I wanted that job?"

"Paige, aren't you going to school for fashion design?"

"Yeah and your point?"

"Why would you care about getting a job in the medical profession?"

"Because the Doctor is freaking gorgeous hello! I was going to marry him thank you very much."

Yeah...right.

I suddenly found myself becoming very angry...jealous even? Why was I jealous...I had no reason to be.

"I doubt that Paige. You can't get every guy you want."

"Yeah because you have to take them all!" She screamed and people looked at her funny.

"Paige, I've only dated like two guys, and that was way back in middle school. They were in the book club. You never even spoke to them."

"Yeah but even if you didn't date a guy they all still liked you. They thought you were prettier than me."

"Sorry I'm not ugly. It's something I can't help."

She frowned. "What were you doing here with him?"

"With who?"

"The Doctor."

"He took me out this morning since we had the day off. He wanted to thank me for all my hard work."

"You expect me to believe that?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Yes...why wouldn't you?"

"It looked more like a date to me."

"It wasn't."

"How many guys kiss a girl on the hand when they say goodbye if they're not on a date?"

"He was just being polite Paige."

"Polite my butt."

"He has a girlfriend, why in the world would he go on a date with me?"

Her facial expression changed. "He has a girlfriend? I didn't know that."

"Yeah...well wouldn't you think that someone like him would?"

She sighed. "I guess so. But that still doesn't defeat my dreams...I'm going to get him to be mine someday...you watch!" And she left, storming out the coffee shop door. She forgot to open her umbrella. I laughed.

I walked out to the car and sat down, checking my text messages. I had about a thousand from Natalie...asking me how everything went. Since the day of interviews, her and I had kept in contact through text messages. I replied back telling her it went good, I encountered Paige, and that I was going bowling with his family tonight. I drove home, the rain splashing underneath the tires of my car.

As I walked into my apartment where I was greeted by my cat, I tried to sort through my emotions. Everything I had felt earlier today was so weird, so unusual for me. I had been jealous, heartbroke, and dare I say it, lovestruck. This was nothing I had ever felt before. It worried me. This proved to show that my feelings for Dr. Cullen were more than just crush-feelings.

I about screamed.

I suddenly realized this was it. This was the real deal.

I was in love.

No, no, no. I wasn't in love. I couldn't be in love. It wasn't possible. I went into denial mode.

I was so aggravated at myself. How could I do this? How could I just let myself do the one thing that I had never allowed myself to do before? Ever. I needed to talk to someone, and I knew that I had to talk to the one person that I trusted more than anyone in the world.

I grabbed my phone, sat on the couch with my cat, and dialed the all-to-familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Hey grandpa...it's me."

He sounded so happy. "Hey Brooke, how are things?"

"Oh...kinda not good."

"Tell me about it."

So I did. I told him about everything that had happened since the day I got the job, up until right now. He listened the entire time, not interrupting or anything.

"It worries me...because this is not me...I don't fall in love."

He laughed. "Brooke, maybe it wasn't you...but it is now. Did you really think you were going to be able to go your whole life without falling for someone along the way?"

I sighed, "No."

"Then this really isn't such a bad thing. Give it some time. You've only known him for a few weeks. Maybe in two more weeks he'll be yesterday's news. Besides...haven't you always liked that McDreamy guy?"

I laughed, "Yes grandpa, but he's a celeberity, that's different."

"You own his website don't you?"

"Yes grandpa."

He laughed. "I'm teasing ya. Listen Brooke....just give all this time ok? It's not as bad as you think it is to fall in love."

"Ok Grandpa."

We talked for a long time after that, sorta just catching up on things. Apparently my Uncle snagged some real great plane tickets to Florida. He was going to take his family and my Grandpa there next month. Grandpa sounded excited about that. After a while we said goodbye, and I messed around on the computer a little while before I went into the bathroom and put in my contacts. I pulled part of my hair up and left part of it down, like I usually did, and I already felt better. I didn't know if tonight called for a change of clothing, but I just decided that what I was wearing was fine. So I again grabbed my purse, grabbed my rain coat, and drove to Forks.

Forks was small enough that I knew exactly where the town's bowling alley was at. It was small, and a lot less attractive looking than the bowling alley I went to back in Seattle. But it was nice.

I parked next to Dr. Cullen's Mercedes, which was parked next to a shiny silver Volvo. I assumed that belonged to one of his children. Beside it was a large monster jeep, which confused me.

He was waiting for me outside, and actually came and opened my door for me.

"Long time no see." He said, and then laughed, "See you got rid of your glasses."

"Yes," I said, "I didn't want to humilate myself further."

"You never had reason to be humiliated."

"Who's is that?" I asked pointing to the jeep, trying to change the subject.

He laughed. "Emmett's...the Volvo's Edward's."

"Oh...okay."

He laughed again and led me into the bowling alley.

Ok, now I knew I had to be dreaming.

They all looked so out of place standing there in the less-than-tidy bowling alley. They all had the same pale skin, same gold eyes...except for one of them. They all saw me, and almost all of them smiled.

"Children..." Dr. Cullen said, "I'd like to introduce you to my assistant Miss Brooke Jeffers." They all crowded around him, looking at me. "Brooke, these are my children." He told me each of their names, pointing them out to me.

The short girl with the pixie cut who seemed like she was having a caffeine rush was Alice. Her husband and the blond who just starred at everything was Jasper.

Emmett was the loud and kind of annoying guy with curly black hair. His wife was the amazinly beautiful blond, and twin to Jasper, named Rosalie.

The most attractive of the three boys, with bronze hair was Edward, the owner of the Volvo. He kind of disturbed me though, because he kept starring at me and then Dr. Cullen with an almost aggravated expression on his face. He was with Bella, the only one out of the bunch without the gold eyes. She was engaged to Edward.

"Ok." Emmett said. "Me, Rose, Jasper and Alice are playing over here. Carlisle, Edward, Bella, and Brooke, you play over there." He said pointing to a bowling alley a little further down.

Dr. Cullen smiled at me. "Come on." He said as he led me up to where we were to bowl.

I got totally humiliated. Edward and Doctor Cullen got a strike almost every time they were up to bowl. At least I was better than Bella though, who came in last place the first time we played. I was still in shock, because all of his children were just as amazing as he was. However three of them disturbed me. Edward, Jasper, and Rosalie. Rosalie glared at me, Jasper wouldn't even speak to me, and tried to avoid me at all costs, and Edward would not stop starring at me. Alice and Emmett were welcoming, maybe too much so. Their energy was contagious though. I liked them.

But most of all I really liked Bella. I felt as though I related to her a lot in so many ways. Maybe it was that she too sometimes felt like an outsider when she was with this family.

I had a blast none the less. I actually played a one-on-one game with Emmett. He totally beat me, but it was fun. We stayed until closing time, before we left. The kids took their separate ways in their cars. Edward, Bella, Alice, and Jasper all piled into the Volvo while Emmett and Rosalie hopped in the Jeep. Dr. Cullen stayed behind with me as his kids sped off a little too quickly out of the parking lot. For a doctor, he didn't seem very concerned about that.

"I had fun tonight." I said.

"It looked like you did." He replied then kind of motioned toward the road his kids had disappeared on. "What do you think of them?"

I laughed. "You're right, they are unsual. Edward is kind of..."

"What? Attractive?"

I laughed again. "Well yeah....but I was gonna say scary...sort of."

"How so?"

"He won't stop starring at me. He looks real ticked off. I mean he was nice and all, but it was just weird."

He frowned. "I'll see what's up."

"Well thank you...for all of this...for everything today."

His smile returned. "Not a problem Brooke."

"See you at work tomorrow morning?"

"You can count on it." He smiled at me as I got in my car and closed my door. As I turned onto the road I looked back at him standing by his Mercedes, watching me.

At that moment, I realized I really didn't care. I didn't care if half his children hated me. I didn't care about Paige and her threats. I didn't even care that I was breaking my one personal rule.

It was at that moment that I finally just accepted it.

I was... indeed, falling in love with Dr. Cullen.

I hope you guys like it. If you have anything you'd like to say about the story so far, please write up a review. I always look forward to the feedback I get from my readers. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story!

~Hazl~