Smoke

By: HammondGirl

All copyright and trademarked items mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. The remaining content is all the original author's. No copying or reproduction of this work is permitted without their express written authorization.

During her fifteen minute break at work, Bella Swan refused to mill around the employee lounge like every one else did. She knew she'd only be tempted to raid the snack machine when she wasn't hungry, or be forced to listen to the small clique of women who gathered there each afternoon to gossip about the new guy working in the mail room or the CEO in the corner office on the tenth floor. Instead, she went upstairs and out onto the roof. It was her own private little piece of Heaven, and the place where she hid her dirty little secret from everyone who thought they knew the real Bella…

But last Tuesday, she found out that it wasn't only her private area anymore. She'd been sitting in her favorite spot – a small area hidden around the corner from the door – when she noticed a small collection of cigarette butts piled next to the bricked wall. By Friday of last week, there had been at least a dozen of them stacked on top of each other, and she feared that somehow her secret would be discovered.

When she came up the following Monday, she'd hoped to catch the culprit red-handed to tell them to clean up their mess, but found only one cigarette butt instead of the fifteen or so she expected. Bella thought perhaps that her fellow smoker was hiding their habit as well, and figured the least she could do was share her private space with them. After all, they were cleaning up after themselves – something she'd always been meticulous about.

That afternoon, while she sat on the little bricked enclave enjoying the movement and sounds of the city, she heard the heavy door swing open and the tarred gravel crunch under someone's shoes as they approached. No one she worked with knew she was a smoker, so she quickly extinguished her cigarette and tried to hide the evidence behind her back. When she turned to see who it was intruding on her break, Bella heard a low chuckle and found him – the sexiest man she'd ever seen before – lighting up a cigarette of his own.

Realizing how ridiculous she must have looked trying to hide the fact that she'd been smoking from a complete stranger, Bella couldn't help but laugh along with him. Though she'd never had more than one cigarette per break, her last one had been cut short, so she pulled another from her purse. They met up every day after that during the week, never speaking, only exchanging a polite nod. On Friday afternoon, Bella found her new smoking partner bagging up the small collection of cigarette butts she'd starting adding to earlier in the week.

She smiled as she approached him, but when Bella pulled a cigarette out from her purse, she realized that she'd left her lighter on the balcony of her apartment the night before. "Excuse me," she said timidly, breaking the silence they had shared all week. "Do you have a light?"

He looked over at her, and for a reason she couldn't explain, Bella nervously bit into her lower lip as he walked toward her, extracting his pack of Marlboro's and flipping open the lid. She peered inside of his pack as he pulled out the small, gold butane lighter with the initials EAC etched onto the smooth surface. Cupping his hands to protect against the winds whipping around the high rise buildings all around them, he flicked the small disk, and Bella leaned toward him to light her cigarette. Before the blue flame ignited the thin paper, she noticed his scent and breathed deeply; it was musky, with a hint of tobacco.

After she took the first sweet pull of nicotine into her system, Bella leaned back away from him to go sit at her enclave. "Thank you," she said after she exhaled. He nodded as he retreated to his usual spot.

When he pulled his cigarette out of the pack, Bella watched as he cupped his hand around his mouth and pulled it back once his cigarette was lit. He took in his first drag with closed eyes, and Bella found herself leaning forward on her stoop to study his movements. With his eyes still closed, she watched as he brought his cigarette up to his mouth between his first two fingers. When he released it to inhale, Bella found herself intrigued as he pinched the filter between his thumb and pointer finger to pull it from his mouth.

His eyes met hers as he exhaled through his nose, and she watched the smoke dance away from his face. Bella dropped her eyes and tried to be inconspicuous about her actions by drawing on her cigarette, but she knew that he was watching her from the corner of his eye. She chanced another peek at him as he took another long drag, and when his lips parted, Bella found herself biting into her lower lip once more. She looked away, out over the edge of the building. It was going to be a two cigarette kind of break.

A/N: Nina! I hope you have a fuckawesome birthday & I promise not to bug the shit out of you in line (or lick your face) the next time we meet! ;)

Kisses from PFach,

HammondGirl