Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight universe and characters.

Chapter 10

EPOV

Prior to the night he challenged Bella to a play-off, I had really never given Jacob Black much thought.

Throughout our teenage years, he had gone to school on the rez, and throughout college, I had gone away to school while he remained in the area. It was a fluke that he worked in the theatre, as, to my knowledge, he didn't have any sort of theatrical aspirations in the least. His work with the theatre consisted mostly in carpentry for sets, and general maintenance of the building itself. He was a trusted employee, though he tended to keep to himself and the other people he grew up with.

I had seen him play at The Black Sow of course, but I wasn't a big fan of his musical repertoire that consisted of bland Top 40 hits, current and past. He did have a bunch of local groupies, but he wasn't full of himself either, which was somewhat surprising. He had asked both Jasper and I to play with him on one occasion or another, and I sometimes filled in for one of his buddies if they were desperate, but we had never really hit it off. He got along better with Jasper and had always seemed a bit on edge whenever I was around.

I knew that he was interested in Bella when she first set foot in town, but that was true of almost every single male in the vicinity. It wasn't until that evening that I really understood how close they were. Jacob was a few years younger than Bella, but the age difference didn't seem to bother either of them.

It was easy to see that she had developed an easy closeness with him; she laughed frequently whenever he was around, and if I had been pressed to speculate, I would have guessed that they had developed a sort of brother/sister relationship within the past month. She didn't seem to be bothered by his attentions; at least, not like she was bothered by Mike Newton's pursuance.

However, it was clear after her performance that some shit had gone down. He could barely look at me without projecting total hostility, something that had been absent before Bella's arrival. While we had never been friends in the past, I had actually thought he was a decent guy, until he started shooting me dirty looks, making rude comments under his breath, and totally avoiding my presence at work.

Under any other circumstance it might have bothered me, but for once in my life, I felt both anger and jealousy towards another person because of a woman. Every witty comment that they passed back and forth on stage heated my temper, and his not-so-subtle glances at her body as she strutted across the stage was far more annoying than any other person's gaze towards her.

It pissed me off, mostly, because I was worried. It was clear that I had missed out on a lot of Bella's life in town, because I had not even been aware of close she had become to Jacob Black. She had also mentioned another name earlier that evening, Marcus. Though she had easily drawn him as being someone she had worked with in the past, I couldn't help but think about how casually she mentioned his name.

The quiet Bella that I had come to know was the person who I thought she was. Yet, to participate in a night like tonight, and with the showmanship, confidence and zest that she possessed, all that too was equally exhilarating and shocking. What the fuck did I even know of Bella Swan? I thought frequently during each new number. She deserved every single person's applause while she was onstage. She was an amazing musician, and had excellent pitch not to mention an easy patter that she maintained with the audience between songs. She wasn't one for jokes, but she had a dry wit that was evident whenever she spoke to the crowd.

I was surprised when she came back to the table with a fiery expression and a flush in her cheeks. She told me that everything was fine, but it was obvious when Jacob came back out to put away his gear from the stage that something he had either said or done had bothered her. After she took her drink of tequila, she reached over for my hand, and I was pleased that she had chosen me over him. Later, though, I drove myself crazy thinking that maybe she did it just to get back at him for something, and not out of any true feelings for me.

"Get a grip, Edward," Alice told me several days later, hugging me close to her as Jasper finished bringing her luggage to the car.

"I don't know what you are talking about," I protested, running a hand through my hair.

"Shut it, and get over yourself. We all saw what happened, and it was obvious to each and every one of us that she chose you! She may not be ready to date you, we talked about that, but isn't it clear that she likes you? That she'd rather be with you than anyone else?" Alice demanded.

I nodded unconvincingly and Jasper approached me, "Edward, dude. You've got to relax. Look. In about five minutes you'll be on your own with her. Take the time to just chill out. Help her with her project and have fun with her at the movies. I'm sure that Bella's looking forward to spending time with you alone just as much as you are. Don't fuck it up by overthinking."

I nodded again, and was able to pull it off convincingly.

"There you go," Jasper nodded back, satisfied.

I took their advice.

Not wanting to seem desperate, I waited a full half hour after Jasper and Alice's departure to knock on her door.

"Hey, Edward!" she greeted me with a smile, and opened the door wide for me to enter.

"Hi Bella," I greeted back, glad that she seemed happy to see me.

"Are you interested in taking a look at something?" she asked, leading me to her spare room.

"Holy shit," I breathed, never having seen it before.

She waited a few minutes while I took in my surroundings.

One long wall was filled with photos, framed and unframed of every imaginable subject material: celebrities; musicians; artists and their known work; silhouettes; instruments and buildings. Another wall held makeshift bookcases, and those that couldn't fit were stacked neatly in towers along the floor. A desk with two laptops and a desktop computer faced the wall with the windows, alongside a long table that reached to the end of the room. On top of that was her electric keyboard plugged into the desk top, and underneath were several filing cabinets and an old milk crate filled with cds. She had left her closet door open, and it seemed to hold jackets, shoes, and sporting equipment. The top of her desk held all sorts of wires and connectors, dvd and cd spools, post-it note pads, and dozens of pens in multiple colours. I was surprised to see a package of rolling papers alongside several packages of what appeared to be Canadian cigarettes. A coffee mug and an empty bottle of Corona was sitting near her leather desk chair.

"Fuck, Bella," I swore, unable to focus on any one object. Every few seconds a new surprise like a Darth Vadar memory stick or Klingon Bird of Prey warship pencil sharpener caught my eye.

She grinned, and allowed me to scan the titles in her bookcases, and said, "Hey, do you want anything to drink? Eat?"

"Got any more Corona?" I questioned trailing my fingers along spine after spine.

"Yeah, hang on, I'll be back in a few minutes," she told me, seeming pleased about something.

There was no rhyme or reason to her collections of books. Sci-fi hung out with Westerns and classics, Sarte with Stephen King. Her pile of dvds contained action and zombie movies as well as an interesting pile of cds with the titles Dirty 1 – 30. I fell more in love with her by the second.

She came back with two bottles of beer, and motioned for me to sit down on her chair, and leaned over me to boot up one of her laptops. For almost an hour we sat and watched clips of her project; pieces that contained more footage of her playing a variety of musical instruments, choreographed dance pieces, and geographical settings that I knew were both of downtown Toronto and even streets around town.

She explained her intentions in completing her project, and asked, "So, now that you know what we are working with, I've got to finish up a few more indoor stage shots. Wanna work on it tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," I told her, my interest piqued.

"I've got a storyboard that I can send you to your email address at work, or if you have a gmail or other addy that's not work-related, I could send it there."

"I've got a gmail," I told her, and quickly gave her my address, wanting to share every available opportunity for her to contact me however she desired.

"Cool, I'll send you it later tonight, and also give you a list of things we need to gather up from the storage area at the theatre. I'll have the lighting design ready, and maybe you can also help me with some taping tomorrow, too. What the hell, it'll save me time if you really want to be my assistant tomorrow."

I looked at her, and it was evident that she was well prepared for the work that we were about to do, as well as excited about the follow-through.

"Did you want to do anything tonight if we are working tomorrow?" I asked, trying to sound casual, "Maybe we can grab a bite to eat and catch that movie?"

"Perfect," she said, "I'm starving. Maybe we could go out for a steak or Chinese buffet? How about after that, we go out for some real beer?"

I didn't know how much further I could fall in love with her, but I was pretty close to heaven at that moment. She gave me a wide grin, and practically skipped out of the room, searching for her keys and wallet.