BPOV.
I look in the mirror. My long dark hair is pulled over my shoulder. My eyes are dark with eyeliner, and my lips are painted a sickly shade of pink. It really isn't my style, but I dress the way I'm told to.
You see its all part of my job.
I like to see myself as a helper. I help women leave unhappy marriages, I help them to escape. You might think that I'm a bitch, but I just think I'm confident. I know what it is like to be in a marriage that you really want to leave, but can't.
The women I work with have many different reasons for staying. They don't want to hurt anyone; they don't want to look like the bad person. A lot of them say the same thing though; if it was him, then it would be okay. If I could pin a reason on him to leave, then I would.
That's were I come in.
I'm called many different names in my profession.
Whore. Hooker. Home Wrecker.
However, I don't see myself as any of those things. I help women who can't help themselves. So with there permission, I meet up with there husbands, and work my charm. I dress in a way that will appeal to them. I do my research and know the things that will interest them. Then I make them an offer that so far no one has been able to refuse.
Me.
You may think that it's conceited of me to think that I'm irresistible to all males, but it really isn't like that. Because it's never me that these men fall for. It is the illusion of what they think they want. Once the deed is done, the wife has an excuse to leave, and I just simply disappear. I never use my real name, I never look like myself, and I have never once ran into an old client. I have a strange life sure, but I have a life that I love.
My phone rings and startles me for a moment.
"Hello?" There is a slight pause before a nervous sounding woman answers.
"Hello, this is Mrs. Cullen. I rang a few weeks ago."
"Ah yes, I was starting to think that you had changed your mind." It had been a while since she had first rang me.
"No, I haven't. I just wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing," she says.
"And are you sure now?" I ask. Se pauses once more before answering.
"Yes, yes I am."
I'm not convinced but I agree to meet her the next day anyway. Once I have hung up, I finish getting ready for tonight. I have been working with my latest client for the last month, and I'm hoping that tonight will be the night the deed is done. Because, honestly, this guy is starting to get on my nerves. I don't blame his wife for wanting to leave him; I wouldn't to live with him either.
I meet James at a local bar. It doesn't take long to convince him to take me back to his apartment. It takes even less time to get him into a compromising position just in time for his wife, Victoria, to walk in and "catch" us.
Victoria and I had finalized our arrangement just a few days before, and it all played out just the way we planned. I leave Victoria and James to it and head home. It takes about and hour to dive to my apartment in Port Angels.
It is empty when I get in, which means that my roommate, Rose, is still at work. I have two messages waiting for me on the machine. I press play as I walk pass and into the kitchen to heat up last nights Chinese food. One for my mom, asking for her annual yearly update of my life and to inform me that my brother is on his way up for a visit.
Great.
The second is from Rose, saying that she is staying over at her boyfriends tonight.
So I guess it's just me tonight. After I tidy around in the kitchen, I take my food into the living room and pull out James file. I keep a file on all of my clients, both the wife and the husband. It the easiest way to keep track of everything, especially when I'm working with more than one couple. It can get confusing and I can do without mixing up two different guys.
Once I have checked that everything that I agreed to do for Victoria have been done, I put the file away with all the others that have been completed. I've never been as happy to finish a job before, usually I can take whatever is thrown at me, but I have just found the last month so draining. I just hope that my next job isn't as bad.
I pull out a new file. I have very little information on Alice and Edward Cullen, but that is what tomorrow will be about. So far, I know their ages, both twenty-eight, one year older than me. The wife teaches second grade and her husband works at Forks general, specializing in pediatrics. So they both like kids, I'm not too sure how I can get that to work in my advantage.
Other than that, I know they married at eighteen, and have no children. This is good, because I am very reluctant to take on a job where children are involved and only do so very rarely, and in extreme cases.
I put the file in my bag, I will take it with me in the morning, and will hopefully get more information then.
I spend the rest of the night watching T.V and preparing for tomorrow. The next morning I make my way to a small café close to where I live and find Mrs. Cullen already there waiting for me.
I walk over to the table and she looks up when I stop at the seat opposite her.
"Mrs. Cullen, I presume?" I ask, holding out my hand. She stands up and takes my hand, and nearly knocks her coffee over in the process.
"Yes, that's me. And you're Ms. Hale?" I smile in response and take a seat. Like I said, I never use my real name, not even with the wife's. In my experience there aren't many people in this world that you can trust. So I'm certainly not going to offer any unnecessary information to someone I don't even know.
"So, let get straight to it, shall we?" I ask as I pull out the file from my bag. She looks a little taken back at my abruptness, but I don't see the point in idle chitchat when we can be disusing the things that matter.
"Um, OK," she says as I signal for the waitress. After I have ordered my coffee, I start with my questioning or as Rose calls it, my interrogation.
My style may seem a little harsh, especially to someone like Rosalie, who preferred to take on a more gentle approach when she was in the business, but I have found that it works for me.
Mrs. Cullen answers all the questions that I ask her, some a little more reluctantly than other.
My file is significantly fuller by the time my coffee arrives. This means its time to move on from the facts to the more personal items.
"So, Mrs. Cullen –"
"Alice," she corrects. I smile and continue.
"It is time for me to move on to the more…difficult questions, OK?" she nods as she picks up her paper napkin and begins to tear little piece of it.
"Well, first of all I need to know your reason for wanting to leave." I pick up my pen, ready to write down her response.
She nervously starts to chew on her bottom lip and crosses then uncrosses her legs. "Well, um…is it that important? I mean, why do you need to know?"
I put down my pen and take a deep breath. "Its important that I have all the facts, I can't do my job properly if I don't know all the details."
"Well, I don't know, it isn't just one thing, and more like loads of little things that have just built up over time," she finally says.
"I see. And is there any reason why you can't just leave? I mean, has he ever done anything that makes you think leaving would be difficult?" She scrunches her nose in confusion.
"I don't understand what you mean."
I roll my eyes and pick my pen back up. I though I was making myself pretty clear. "I mean has he every been violent toward you or anything?"
"What? No, no, nothing like that. Edward wouldn't do that."
"OK, well back to may original question then, why don't you just leave? I mean you have no children and nothing else holding you back, so why not just leave?"
"Because I can't," she finally replies, barely above a whisper.
"Why?" I press.
"Look, I have known Edward and his family all my life. I grew up just down the street from them and love them like they are my own family. I can't…I can't have then hate me, and if I leave Edward, they will. It's selfish, I know. But, they will forgive Edward, I just know it. But they won't forgive me."
"I see," I say I as write down what she has just told me.
"I bet you think I'm a horrible person for this, huh?" she asks as she continues to rip her napkin to shreds.
"It's not my place to judge," I tell her without looking up.
"But you must – judge I mean. It's got to be hard not to."
"Like I said, it's not my place to judge." I finish writing and look at what I still need to ask.
"It wasn't always like this, you know. We used to be happy."
"I'm sure you did." I pull out a clean sheet of paper and my phone. I pick up my coffee and wait to see if she is going to stop the way this conversation is going or if I'm going to have to do it for her.
"We used to talk about moving out of here, and going somewhere new, but we never did. I always wondering if things would have been different if we had, what do you think?"
"Mrs. Cullen –"
"Alice," she corrects once more. I sigh as I place down my coffee cup; I have to stop this before it goes too far.
"Look, I'm sure you are a nice person, and that when you got married you had the best intensions. But putting that a side for a moment, lets just get one thing clear. We aren't going to be friends. Ever. You are paying me to break up your marriage, OK. Not for us to become BFF's."
"I know that, I was just –"I hold up my hand, effectively silencing her.
"I understand, really. Its just, as you can imagine, in my line of work becoming friends with the people I work with never ends well. So, while it is important that I find out the details, I am not here to be your friend or your marriage councilor, do you understand, Mrs. Cullen?"
She looks at me in shock for a moment, but slowly her expression changes from hurt to pissed off.
"Yes, Ms. Hale, I understand. We aren't friends; you are just the woman who is being paid to sleep with my husband."
I smile at her as I shake my head. Its good that she is getting all this out earlier, the longer she holds it in, the worse it will be on everyone when she finally lets it out.
She turns and stares out of the window. "I think I may have made a mistake in coming here, maybe I should just leave," she says.
"If that's what you want."
"And it's that simple? I can just leave and pretend like none of this happened?"
"Yes, if that's what you want. No one is forcing you into this, Mrs. Cullen. If you decide to do this then it will be your decision, no one else's."
"And what about later on, what if I change my mind then?"
"Then it becomes…complicated. I invest a lot of time and energy into my work, and I don't like to have my time wasted. That's why I have these meetings, if you are having any doubts at all, this is the time to share them, because once everything has begun, it gets very hard to stop it."
She looks back down at her hands and is silent of a few moments.
"I'm not sure this would even work. I mean even with our problems, I just don't see Edward doing something like this."
"I think you'll find that I can be very persuasive when I want to be," I tell her as I pick my pen back up. She doesn't look like she is about to flee the café any time soon, so I might as well carry on with my research.
"You don't understand. I have known Edward since we were children. He isn't easily fooled. And he isn't the type to cheat." She shakes her head and looks back up at me.
"All men cheat, Mrs. Cullen, it's just a matter of time."
"You can't possibly believe that," she says.
"When you do the job I do, for as long as I have it's not too hard to believe, now smile."
I hold up my phone and take her picture. Its just one of the many things I do to help with my work. She blinks in surprise at my sudden picture taking, but before she can react to this, I am already moving on to the next thing. Like I said, I don't like wasting my time.
"Do you have a picture of your husband?" I ask as I pull out one of the many forms that I will need her to sign if we are going to continue.
"What? Um, no, not with me."
I pull out one of my cards, write my email address on the back, and then slide the card over to her.
"Here, when you get back, e-mail one to me please." She nods and takes the card off the table.
"I will need you to sign this as well," I tell her as I pass the form over.
"What is it?" she asks, taking the form off me.
"It's a confidentiality form."
"Seriously?" she asks, her eyes scanning the paper in her hand.
"Yes, seriously. I will need you to sign it regardless of the decision you make."
"OK. Do you do this with everyone?" I nod.
"Yes. Anonymity is very important in my job. As it would become a very difficult job to do if people knew who I was."
"I wasn't going to tell anyone," she says as she signs the form. "I mean, why would I?"
I smile and take the form off her and put it in the file. "I sure you wouldn't. Its just procedure."
"So, what now?"
"Now the ball is in your court, so to speak. If I haven't head from you in two weeks, I will assume you have changed your mind and I won't contact you again, and will expect the same from you." I pick up the file off the table and put it in my bag. If I don't leave soon I'm going to be late and Rosalie is going to be pissed.
"And if I don't change my mind, what then?" she asks as I stand.
"Well, then we will meet once more, make a plan, goes over some do's and don'ts, and prepare for the first meeting."
"Between you and Edward you mean?" I nod just as my phone starts to buzz in my pocket.
"Yes, now if you excuse me I have to go." I pick up the rest of my things and leave her alone at the table.
"Rose?" I say into the phone as I head for my car.
"Bella? Where are you? You're going to be late."
"I'm on my way, the meeting when on a little longer than I expected," I tell her, pulling open the car door.
"Oh, is your newest client getting cold feet?"
"Yeah. I'm not sure about this one; in fact I won't be surprised if I never see that woman again in my life."
"I'm sorry; I know how you hate wasting your time."
"Its fine, I'll get over it."
"Good. Now hurry yourself up, with got a party to attend."
"Right, I'll be there in ten. Oh, by the way, I got a message from my mom last night. Apparently Jasper is on his way up," I tell her as I pull out of the parking lot.
"Really? Well then, I guess it's a good thing this newest job isn't going to work out. Paying double agent around Jasper is never easy, that boy is just too damn perceptive for his own good."
"Yeah, your right. Well, I see you soon."
"See you soon, bye." I hang up the phone just as I pull up at a red light. I glance at my bag and can see the corner of the file sticking out of it.
Rose is right; it's probably a good thing it isn't going to work out. I could do without Jasper finding out what his little sister does for a living, or any of my family for that matter. They just wouldn't understand, so it's better that they don't know.
However, with Jasper hanging around for the next couple of weeks, it is certainly going to make things interesting to say the least. Like Rose said, he really is just too perceptive for his own good.