A/N: Time to clear the air and figure out what they're doing! Oh, and why don't we meet Emmett while we're at it?
Chapter 10
"Yeah, we probably should have that talk now, huh?"
"You know that's not what I meant, right?" I ask calmly, wanting her to know there's no pressure to do this now.
"I know. But, there are some things I want to say."
My teeth dig into my lip as I search her face, trying to decipher what she's planning to say. I put the remains of my sandwich down on the foil and take a deep breath, steeling myself against the possible rejection. "Okay, go ahead."
She lets out a noisy breath and looks down at her fingers, which are now picking apart the bread in her hand. "This … thing between us," she starts, still not meeting my eyes. "I don't know how to define it, or if I want to define it.
"I want you to know that in my mind, my marriage to Jasper has been over for months. Even before I decided that I wanted a divorce, we were basically living two separate lives. Like I said before, I barely saw him, and when we were together, we still weren't really together."
She looks up and finally shows me the emotion on her face. Her eyes lock on mine before she starts again. "Being with you has felt more comfortable than anything has ever felt before. The night I got here … when you kissed me … I think I was less stunned that you kissed me, and more stunned that it felt so right."
I want to grab her hand and tell her how right it feels for me, but this is her show. I bite back my emotions and let her continue.
"I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship, or what that even means." She chuckles a bit at herself. "And, I guess part of me feels like it should be too soon anyway, but another part of me feels like I've waited forever to be as happy as you make me." Her eyes are pleading with me, but I'm not sure what for. "I think what I'm really trying to say is that I have no idea what to do."
"Bella," I say, taking her hand in mine now that it's my turn to talk. "First of all, I want you to know that you make me happy, too. The things I feel with you …" I shake my head, smiling to myself. "I've never felt with anyone else. But I'm willing to take this as slow as you want. Just because we're living together doesn't mean anything has to change. Although if you told me that you needed space, I would understand and would give it to you.
"I won't delude myself into thinking that having a 'real relationship'—whatever that even means—will be easy, or that we won't have to deal with people who disagree, but I'm prepared to wait if you need me to, and to work at it if you want to."
Her fingers lace with mine. "So, nothing has to change?" she asks me.
"Not if you don't want it to."
"I don't want it to."
"Thank god," I say, pulling her across our picnic and into a hug. We both laugh in relief.
"At some point," she starts with her face buried in my neck. "We'll have to tell Esme and Carlisle."
"I know," I say on an exhale. "How about we wait at least until we're all moved in here? That way, if they're really against us, we won't be able to hear them yell from across town."
Her giggles erupt into full blown laughter. "Good point," she says when she calms down.
Smiling down at her, I run my thumb over the blushing swell of her cheek. "God, I love to see you smile." I lean in and kiss her lips softly.
She hums as we break apart. "You've made me smile more in the last few days than I have in the past two years."
We eventually finish our picnic and put the remainder of the champagne in the refrigerator, leaving the pillows and blankets piled up in the living room. After getting dressed, Bella sends Esme a text to let her know we got the apartment and were getting some things set up, but that we'd be home for dinner.
Using a napkin, we start making a new list for the apartment. Instead of furniture and bedding, this list contains the true essentials: toilet paper, a coffee pot, food that won't spoil. The small general store in town is our next stop for the day.
Bella pushes the cart and directs me on what to grab from the shelves. We work our way up and down the aisles, acting like a well practiced team. I'm amazed that we fill the cart in no time, and then head back to the apartment to unload our bounty.
Once we have everything put away, Bella takes a few pictures on her phone to show Esme. I assure her that Esme will probably want to come over tonight to see the place for herself so she can help decorate, but she wants the pictures anyway.
We head back to the house around four o'clock and Bella tells me she's going to call her friend in Phoenix. During our trip to the store, we talked a little about what furniture she wants to have shipped and what I have from my college apartment, so we've made a mental list of what we'll still need to buy. We've got our own bedrooms covered—I convinced her to take the master bedroom—and decided we'll each outfit our own bathroom. She is fairly certain she'll get her dining room set, so the only major things left will be for the living room. We plan to just split the cost of whatever we buy to furnish it.
I send a quick text to Emmett asking if I can borrow his truck one day when he gets back. His rapid response lets me know he's already in town and I can use it whenever I want. I decide to invite him for drinks tonight since we haven't seen each other in a few weeks, and I also need to butter him up a bit to borrow his muscle in addition to the truck. He readily agrees, so we plan to meet at The Rat, a hole-in-the-wall bar in town that we like, at eight o'clock.
I laugh over dinner when Esme insists on going over to the apartment with Bella tonight to check it out, claiming she wants to help us decorate so she needs to see it for herself. I tell them to have fun on my way out the door to meet Emmett.
He's already at the bar, beer in hand, when I arrive. We give man hugs and back slaps, and then Emmett signals for another beer from the bartender. Once my beer has arrived, we make our way to an empty table off to the side and out of the way.
"So, you're moving in with the little woman already?" Emmett doesn't beat around the bush.
I chuckle at his candor and begin to explain the situation. "Yeah, she needs her name on a lease to prove residency in order to file the divorce petition. With no job lined up, there was no way she could pass a credit check, so I offered to help."
He sips his beer and I watch his reaction carefully, but he doesn't give anything away. "Have you guys talked about what's going on between the two of you?"
I nod and take a large gulp of my beer. "We talked some today," I tell him while I pick at the label on the bottle. "Essentially, it boils down to the fact that we're both happy with the way things are right now so we don't plan on changing anything. We'll tell my dad and Esme once we're moved in and everything is settled down a bit. Hopefully, the divorce papers will be filed by then, too."
"Let me get this straight," he says, narrowing his eyes. "Your wet dream, since you were sixteen, is going to live with you and is willing to fuck you on a regular basis?"
I close my eyes and laugh loudly at his assessment. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."
"Well, fuck me, man!" he exclaims, slamming his hand on the table and causing several people to look in our direction. "You're living every man's dream!"
His antics cause me to laugh again. Leave it to Emmett to break it down like that.
Our discussion moves on after that and I finally get around to asking for his help with moving some of my stuff, which he readily agrees to. I have a lot of things stored in the basement of the house from my last apartment in college, so Emmett suggests we get it done this weekend. This way, whenever Bella's stuff arrives from Phoenix, we'll be finished and able to help her out.
We end the night early since Emmett has to work the next day, with plans to start the move on Saturday morning.
Esme and Bella are at the dining room table when I get back to the house. Bella's got a list in front of her and a laptop off to the side.
"Hey," I greet, taking a seat at the table. "What did you think, Esme?"
"It's really nice, Edward. More spacious than I expected."
I smile at her assessment, hoping that makes her more comfortable with the situation. Turning to Bella, I tell her, "My friend, Emmett, is going to help me move my stuff out of the basement on Saturday. He's willing to help whenever your stuff gets here, too."
"Thanks, that's really nice of him," she replies. "I don't think it'll be necessary, though. I spoke to Angela today, and she's going to pack my personal things, but I'm going to have to hire movers for the furniture anyway. It'll just be easier to have them move everything in when they get here."
"That makes sense," I agree. "Any idea when she'll be able to do it?"
"I'm hoping in the next few days, since she's got the time off before school starts back up." She bites her lip and pushes her hair behind her ear before continuing. "I called Jasper earlier, too," she says quietly. "He tried to fight me at first, but once I told him that the divorce would be filed any day and he's free to be with Alice, he kind of gave up. He's back in Arizona, thankfully. I guess he couldn't ditch work for too long."
I let my shoulders sag in relief. "That's good. So, we don't have to worry about him showing up out of nowhere anymore?"
She nods and Esme takes her hand. "Yeah, I'm glad he's gone. Anyway, I gave him a general idea of what I wanted from the condo and told him I'd email him the list, which is what we're working on now."
"Cool. Well, I'll leave you ladies to it, then." I tap my hand on the table and stand, wishing them a good night.
"Edward," Bella addresses before I can leave the room. I turn to look at her, seeing a shy smile on her face. "Thanks again … for everything."
"It's no problem, Bella. None at all."
A/N: If I missed replying to your review, please accept my apologies. Fanfiction has a new security feature which causes errors more than it should. You know I love each and every review, and I will always try to respond.
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