Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight.
It was the day before the auction and Bella still hadn't gotten one thing she wanted to accomplish done. She wanted to buy a new dress and shoes and get her hair done the day of but she had forgotten to call and set up an appointment and now it was too late. She would have to call her friends Jessica and Angela and see if maybe they could help her with her hair and her makeup. She took a personal day to go shopping since none of the dresses she had would work.
Edward's sister, Alice, who had been her best girl friend before Bella had severed ties with Edward had called and Bella found it hard to get off the phone with her after not talking to her for two years. They had both broken down and Bella promised to not shut Alice out again no matter what the situation. Alice met her at the mall in Port Angeles and deemed herself Bella's personal stylist for the day. They went to store after store and hadn't found anything that either of them thought would work.
After getting lunch Alice was able to talk Bella into going to a few more stores and in the last store they went to Alice saw a dress that she said would knock the socks off any guy who saw Bella in it. It was a black knee length chiffon cocktail dress with a sweetheart neckline and it fit Bella like a glove. Alice had been able to talk Bella into wearing a pair of heels but only if she was able to give them to Angela after the auction since she would more than likely never wear them again.
Jessica and Angela agreed to come over Saturday morning and were happy to find out that Alice would be coming over as well. The two had been on Bella's side from the beginning but had missed their friend terribly. The four of them had been friends since middle school, long before Edward had sunken his fangs into Bella and made her believe that he was someone he wasn't.
Alice talked animatedly about her fiancee and upcoming wedding. His name was Jasper and he worked at the ranch where Alice took riding lessons. Alice had chosen to go to college closer to home than her brothers had and had gone to the University of Oregon and still lived there, only coming home for holidays and birthdays.
"It's so good to be around the three of you again. I don't hardly have any girlfriends in Portland," Alice said with a sigh.
"Tell me about it, I was in man land when I went to UDub. My graduating class had maybe a dozen girls and over a hundred guys," Jessica retorted.
"NYU had a lot more students than that but there were more guys than girls," Bella informed them.
"Lets face it, it might be a guys world right now but us girls are about to change the whole game," Angela affirmed.
The girls all agreed and it wasn't long before Bella was ready. Alice was the first to leave after promising to come over with Jasper before they went back to Oregon. Just before Bella was about to leave she saw a car pull into the driveway that she didn't know. She watched from behind the curtains of her kitchen window as Edward got out of the car looking just as gorgeous as ever. His copper hair was shorter than when she had seen him last, shaved to fuzz on the sides and back and styled on top. He took off his silver lensed aviators as he walked up the walk way to the door. She booked it to the door, beating him by seconds.
"What are you doing here?" she asked coldly.
"I thought that you might need a ride," he said smoothly, his smile easy.
"Not from you I don't. How did you find out where I lived?"
"I asked around. Turns out Mike Newton's tongue is pretty loose once you get a couple of beers in him."
"Remind me to thank him," she said rolling her eyes.
"I thought that we could put the past behind us," he said reaching out to stroke her arm.
"It's going to take a lot more than a few sweet words for me to forget what you put me through. You're not wanted here," she said pushing past him once she closed the door and locked up.
She left him standing there and spun her tires as she pulled out, kicking up dust and rocks as she pulled around his car. She smiled smugly, hoping that she had done some damage to his precious Volvo. How dare he show up at her house! Who did he think he was? She wasn't the naive twenty-one year old that she had been when she had broken things off with him nearly three years ago. She had done a lot of growing up and maturing since then and she was not going to be fooled by him again.
She arrived at The Lodge half an hour early like Esme had asked her to and signed in before going back to the employees lounge where all of the other suckers who had gotten roped into being auctioned off were gathered. She saw a few people she knew but most of the small crowd were from out of town. She talked with Tyler Crawley, wondering how no girl had managed to convince him to throw in his single card. Out of all of her guy friends from school he had been the nicest and most shy around girls, she hoped that the girl he ended up could handle that.
Esme came in a few minutes before the show was to start to give everyone a rundown of what was going to happen and give them a list of who was going when. Bella would be near the end so she was stuck in the room for the next hour and a half with nothing to do. Esme left and everyone started to talk amongst themselves once more as people started to file out in groups of five. The door opened but Bella didn't notice anyone had entered until the person sat next to her. Edward's cologne filled her nose making her tense and nervous.
"We got off on the wrong foot earlier. I didn't mean any harm, I promise," he said soothingly.
"Thank you for the apology but could you please leave me alone?" she asked with all the niceness that she could muster.
"I thought that we might go out for a drink later," he offered.
"Did you not hear me? Please go," she said, her eyes pleading.
"Leave her alone, man. She doesn't want anything to do with you," Tyler said from across the room.
Everyone else watched with mild curiosity as Edward placed his hands on his knees before standing. He cast Tyler a venomous look before exiting the room.
"You okay, Bella?" Tyler asked.
"I'm fine. Thank you," she said with a nod.
"What a douche bag," Tyler said under his breath.
It was another fifteen minutes before Bella's group was escorted back down the hall leading to the dining room. No one that she knew was in her group and Tyler had given her a reassuring look before she walked out of the room. Esme talked about the person who was on the stage on the other side of the curtain but it sounded like back ground noise, barely registering to Bella at all. Someone pushed her forward and held open the curtain for her, she blinked twice adjusting to the light as Esme gestured politely for her to come closer.
Jacob's heart skipped a beat as he took her in. That had never happened before. Her hair was swept up into a french twist with a few tendrils framing her face showing off her neck which he had never realized was so beautiful. The only jewelry she wore was a diamond necklace that he knew for a fact didn't belong to her. He stared at her in wonder as he tried to keep his new found emotions in check. Why had he never seen her this way before? Why now all of the sudden?
"Here we have Isabella Swan. Her hobbies include cooking, reading and long walks on the beach. The bidding will start at fifty dollars."
Bella's eyes scanned the crowd looking for Jacob. She had been required to turn off her phone once she had entered the employee lounge and he hadn't texted her to let her know if he was coming for sure or not. She found him along with a group of their friends in the second row of tables. His eyes made contact with hers as she heard Esme continue to call out to the people who were bidding. When the bids had reached two hundred dollars she started to search the crowd to see who was bidding. It wasn't any surprise that Mike was among the five men bidding. She hoped to God that he would run out of money soon. Edward's paddle was raised after he called out a bid of five hundred dollars. Carlisle tried to reason with his son but Edward would not be deterred. Her eyes flitted back to Jacob, they were a mix of anger, aggravation and fear.
Jacob couldn't see the person who had placed the five hundred dollar bid but obviously Bella wasn't happy about it.
"Did anybody see who that was?" he asked in concern.
Embry feigned a stretch in his seat since he was closest to the stage and sat back in his seat quickly.
"You're not gonna like it," he warned.
"Who was it?"
"It was Cullen."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Jacob said with a growl.
"We've gotta do something, quick. Jake how much money do you have?" Jared said quickly
"Not as much as he has," Jacob said with a heavy sigh.
"How much?" Jared asked again.
Jacob pulled his wallet out and counted out six hundred dollars.
"Six hundred," he called, thrusting his paddle into the air before Esme could get to three.
"Everybody pool your money in," Embry said, pulling out his own wallet.
Everyone did as he asked without question and he counted the money quickly as Edward put in another hundred dollar bid. Embry held up three fingers to let Jacob know that he had already counted three hundred dollars.
"Nine hundred," Jacob called, his paddle in the air once more.
Sam and Seth picked up handfuls of money but no one noticed that Jared was glaring at Paul who gave him a look that even instilled terror into Quil at times.
"I know you've got money in your shoe. Pull it out," Jared commanded.
"You're holding out on us?" Sam said, his head flying up, giving Paul an accusatory look.
"That money is to buy a ring for Rachel," Paul said, his lips forming a hard line.
"I'll give you my mom's engagement ring," Jacob promised.
"What the hell are you doing with your mom's engagement ring?" Embry asked.
"Dad gave it to me a few years ago. If you give me the money the ring is yours."
Paul huffed and puffed, grumbling as he reached down to pull off his shoe. Edward bid another hundred and as Seth put in his stack of cash.
"That's only a hundred," he said with a sigh.
"I'm up to two hundred so far," Sam said still counting.
Where in the hell had his friends come up with this kind of cash? Jacob shook his head, dismissing the thought as he upped the bid to fourteen hundred. Paul slammed his money down on the table making the beer bottles rattle.
"It's five hundred," he said darkly.
"Would you chill? Rach is gonna like having something that belonged to Sarah more than anything you could have picked out," Jared chided.
Edward bid fifteen hundred and Jacob's eyes went to the stage. Bella stared at him, giving him a pleading look. She had never looked at him like that before. He had to do something.
"Sixteen hundred," Jacob called out.
"I see that paddle Sir, thank you very much," Esme said with a pleased smile.
"Seventeen," Edward said quickly.
"Two hundred more and that's it," Embry said with a sigh.
"I can get another hundred from the ATM. Add it," Jared said leaving the table quickly
"Two thousand," Jacob countered.
"Not all at once man, jeeze," Quil said, his eyes wide.
Carlisle stood abruptly, his hand firmly on Edward's arm, pulling him through the aisles.
"He should have done that five bids ago," Quil said, rolling his eyes.
"Two thousand going once, two thousand going twice...Sold to paddle number one nineteen," Esme said, banging her gavel loudly and Bella heaved a sigh of relief.
"How is this going to work? What are we going to get out of this exactly? 'Cause Leah is not going to be happy when she finds out that I just handed over four hundred dollars so that Bella wouldn't have to go out on a date with Cullen," Sam questioned
"I say we get her to make us dinner," Quil offered.
"Yeah, she has to make us whatever we want," Paul agreed with a nod.
"Jake should at least get a date out of it. I mean he was the one who started it," Seth said, adding in his two cents.
"I think it should be Em, he's the one who came up with the idea to put our money together," Jake said, shaking head.
"You should get to go out with Bells as long as she wants to," Embry disagreed with Jacob.
Jacob looked up to the stage to see that Bella was already gone. He gathered the money together and went to the table where the money was being collected to turn it in. Jared met him there, out of breath from running across the street to the ATM. Bella was coming out a side door when he turned around to make his way back to their friends. She beckoned him over with a finger and he walked the short distance to her without thinking twice.
She tucked a stray hair behind her ear, shifting nervously from foot to foot when he finally stood in front of her.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
"Did you honestly think that I would let him win?" he asked, his voice low.
"I know, but thank you just the same. I can give you and the boys the money back," she offered.
"No, they don't want their money back," he said with a shake of his head.
"What did you have to promise them to get them to do it?"
"I have to give Paul my mom's engagement ring and there was talk about you making dinner," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"Steak, Porter House," Quil said coming up behind Jacob.
Bella laughed before nodding in agreement.
"Why stop there? I want twice baked potatoes," Jared added.
"Pie," Paul quipped.
"Beer, and lots of it," Seth said joining the conversation.
"Do you have anything special that you want Sam?" Bella asked the older man.
"Garlic knots would be awesome."
"Steak, potatoes, beer, apple pie and garlic knots. Y'all aren't asking for a lot. And what about you?" she questioned, looking up at Jacob.
"He gets to go on a date with you," Seth informed her.
"It's the least you can do. He did save you from going out with the Spawn of Satan," Embry reminded her.
"What can I do for you?" she asked Embry.
"I don't need anything," he said with a shake of his head.
"Are you sure?"
Embry nodded with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. She knew exactly what she could do for him. She was going to need to give two of her closest friends the nudge that she had been meaning to give them for the five years that they had known each other. It was the least she could do. The others left leaving Jacob and Bella alone. They stood there awkwardly letting silence fall over them.
She couldn't believe that he had actually done it. She knew that he wouldn't like what was Edward was doing but that was not how she thought things would turn out. She had half expected Jacob to yank Edward out of his seat and drag him outside for the beating of his life. She looked at him out of the corner of her to find him staring at her with a faraway look.
"What?" she asked cautiously.
"You look really nice," he said with a shy smile.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
"We don't have to go out on a date if you don't want to."
"That would mean that all the work that you and the boys did was for nothing," she disagreed.
"I can think of something else that you can do to pay me back."
"I am not cleaning your house or the garage. I will not stoop that low," she said giving him a pointed look.
"Then you leave me with no other choice. Bella Swan, will you go out on a date with me?" he asked with a easy smile.
"Don't make a joke about it," she said, rolling her eyes.
"I am dead serious," he said with raised eyebrows.
"One date?"
"One date."
"Okay," she said with a nod.
"Can you leave now that you're done?"
"Yeah, it's almost over anyway."
She went to get her things from the lounge and Jacob waited for her by the front door. They walked through the parking lot side by side, Jacob taking her hand so that she could navigate the parking lot in her heels. It wasn't out of the ordinary for them to hold hands but was out of the normal was the warmth that spread through Bella's stomach just by touching him. Somehow in the course of the last hour they had passed the fine line between friends and more than friends.
She couldn't explain it, but tonight she had seen a side of him that she had never noticed before. His smile seemed a little warmer, his eyes shined a tad bit brighter. What had changed things? Could she really have developed feelings for him after all these years of being friends? They were going to need to sort their feelings out before they moved forward.
He leaned against her car as she unlocked her car and opened the door. The door was a barrier between them as she leaned against it with her arms resting on the frame. He looked down at her, not wanting to leave her. He drummed his fingers on the frame on either side of her arms, his eyes searching her face.
"I should go, I've got some research to do for an article and I still need to go grocery shopping for my dad tomorrow."
"I can do the grocery shopping for you. I've gotta go anyway for my dad," he offered.
"You don't mind?"
"I'll call Charlie in the morning to let him know."
She put her hands over his to stop his nervous tick.
"Thank you," she said, her eyes finally meeting his.
"Come by the house tomorrow? I'll make dinner."
"That's our date? You making me dinner?" she asked, her eye brows raised in intrigue.
"No. I still haven't figured that out. Once I do, you'll be the first to know. So, dinner tomorrow night?"
"I guess that I can fit you into my schedule," she said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Oh thank you. You are too kind," he said with a wry smile.
"See you tomorrow," she said pushing away from the door.
She stepped to the side so that she was within his reach and he pulled her to him. She hugged him, letting him hold her as tight as he dared and the hug lingered for longer than she intended. He was the one who pulled away first, kissing her forehead before stepping away from the car. He watched her drive away, standing where he was long after she had driven off. Where were things headed for them? Did his feelings for her run deeper than he had originally thought? Did she feel the same way? So many questions swirled through his mind. He would get his answers when she came over, he wouldn't let her leave until he was satisfied with the answers she gave him.