Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or characters, no income being made, only fulfilling a creative whim.

Chapter 1

Bella's POV

The alarm clock went off at 5:15 normal for a weekday morning. I reached over blindly to hit the snooze button as I wanted another ten minutes. Although why I bothered was beyond me. It would not make a difference. My morning wakeup call would be arriving shortly. Why do I even set the alarm clock? My three cats were all the alarm I would need. Rudy, Shackleton (or Shack as he is so lovingly referred to) and Dexter always made sure I was up. As far as they were concerned my only function was to feed them and keep their litter boxes clean. It was the same thing every morning regardless if I went to work or not. Each one of those darlings would make their presence known by walking over my stomach or back or whatever part of my body was acceptable as a landing surface.

Wiping the sleep from my eyes I rolled out of bed, my hair a complete cluster fuck like it was every morning. As much as I loved the fact that my hair was long and thick the truth was it was annoying at times. Each time I thought about cutting it off I quickly dismissed the thought.

"Bella, seriously I think it would be so much easier just to cut this all off. You know a cute bob?"

"Cute bob? Uh...yeah like Victoria Beckham? Well I am not ready to make drastic changes yet. But thanks Audra, you know I value your opinion."

I recalled the last conversation with Audra at her salon. She wanted to do some crazy shit to my hair because of the thickness and the texture. But the truth of the matter I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself than was necessary. I was content to look plain and just ordinary. I was nothing special. Just another brown haired brown eyed girl. Yet Audra would take every opportunity she could to convince me that a few layers or more recently the bob would just make my face pop. It would more importantly showcase my eyes. As she said 'the eyes are the windows to the soul' I am not sure where she quoted that from but regardless I wasn't eager to let anyone into my soul let alone inside my head or heart for that matter. There wasn't much there for anyone to really give a crap about. I never would tell Audra that. I mean we had a pretty good relationship since she had been doing my hair for several years now. But I kept it light and easy going, nothing too serious and certainly nothing too deep.

I was twenty four year's old and although I had been on my own since I left foster care when I turned eighteen I was unsure as to where my life is going. I went through the motions as I got through life the best way I knew how. Wow, this is getting too deep this early in the morning. I made my way into the bathroom to relieve my bladder and following me were my three male companions. The meowing of my three loves washed over me like a sweet symphony which always made me smile. No matter how bad my day was. I could always count on these guys to bring me back to a good place.

"You know guys why is it that I can never pee in peace or do anything else in this bathroom without you following me in? Yes, yes I will feed you."

Shack wrapped himself around my legs weaving in out of them as he did every morning, as if I could forget that my loves were hungry.

I quickly washed my hands then walked into the kitchen as three furry figures rushed past me. Every morning and night it was like this. Hell it was like this whenever I came into the kitchen. It was as if these cats had been starved, I mean really by the looks of them you can see how well fed they were. Rudy especially, who was the pudgy one out of the three of them.

I opened the fridge and grabbed the cat food, quickly pulling their bowls from the cabinet to the right of the kitchen sink. The clanging and clamoring of the bowls hitting one another raised the excitement to another level as Dexter stretched and kneaded my legs, which by the way hurt as my legs were bare because I wore only a t-shirt to bed last night. Ouch! I can't be mad at him however. He is such a beautiful tuxedo cat and the baby. I recently adopted him from the local shelter which I think Shack and Rudy question my decision since he is a terror.

After a nice long shower and blow drying my hair I dressed in a pair of black slacks and a red sweater with a square cut neck. My fashion sense consisted of mainly jeans, t-shirts several sweatshirts. I went for comfort rather than style. I owned maybe two skirts and one dress. I was not one to show off my legs, not that there was anything to show off. I was thin but certainly was not what you would call voluptuous. I was far from having any real curves and I was short! At five feet two inches I was vertically challenged. One would think because of this I would opt for plenty of heels. Not me. Besides the fact that I would mostly kill myself as I was a complete klutz I enjoyed flats and more importantly my Nikes.

After quickly eating a bowl of cereal I washed my bowl and spoon, wiped them dry and storing them away. I hated leaving dirty dishes. I didn't consider myself anal retentive but there were a few things I had to have in order. One was the kitchen. I made another stop in the bathroom to brush my teeth and gave myself a once over in the mirror. The reflection was the same as every day. With my backpack over my shoulder I made my way down the stairs out the front door calling out my love to my babies.

Mondays were always the hardest for me. As a customer service representative for Wolf Ski and Snowboard Mondays were exceptionally busy starting in September and going through the end of January. The ski shops were busy over the weekends and if it was a good season, with lots of snow, even better. I had only been with the company for a little over three years. I lucked out in 2009 during the second half of my senior year at Peninsula College when I participated in an internship program which placed me at Wolf's. My degree concentrated in business management. I started out in a customer service admin position. The position focused mainly on order entry and filing.

During the preseason selling period order entry was a large focus on the department along with mailing order confirmations to our customers. I would like to say that orders were always entered correctly but I would be lying. If it wasn't our error then it was the sales representative who fucked up and believe it or not customers did as well. I was not perfect but I was a hard worker, a team player, and at the end of my internship I was offered a permanent position.

The commute to Wolf's was less than fifteen minutes from Forks in a town called Beaver. It was a nice ride in, surrounded by plush trees and flora. With the amount of rain we received in these parts we had an abundance of greenery. This morning for some reason I was caught behind some slow poke. I was running a little late as I couldn't find the pair of black flats and had to end up wearing a pair of black clogs. Not that I didn't like the clogs but I wanted to wear those damn flats today. I was agitated, more so than usual for a Monday and was blaring my horn at the moron in front of me to pick up the pace. Starting to feel my face get flushed I blew past him ready to flip him the bird when I gazed quickly and realized he was an older man.

I can be such an ass!

So I would be a few minutes late. It's not the end of the world. I was quickly reminded how a reckless act could have devastating results. It was a hard lesson learned. One I lived with every single day of my life. My mother and father were killed in a car accident when I was only five years old. Memories of them are vague at best but what I can remember I kept locked safely inside my heart.

~SyP~

Today was going to be hectic. My boss Frederick Smith, the Director of Operations for Wolf's had been working on the relocation project. A new fifty thousand square foot building was going to be built in Beaver only a couple miles away. Our customer service department had grown to the point we had to reconfigure the layout in order to make room for additional cubicles for the additional employees hired. We had to rent off site warehousing space as well which had been a nightmare. You can only imagine what a cluster fuck that was. So after several meetings some of which I had been involved in as Fred seems to see me as not only the Customer Service Team Leader, (yeah that's right I had been promoted), but also a good sounding board for the plans for the new building. I actually liked that he leaned on me as much as he did. It gave me a greater sense of purpose in my life.

Angela on the other hand didn't. Angela Weber was my best friend who I had known since I moved back to Forks. In her opinion I was on a one way street to burn out city. I was consumed by my job which didn't free me up for extracurricular activities. Angela wanted nothing more than for me to find a nice guy and settle down. She was in a relationship with a really great guy named Ben Cheney. I was happy for her. But me having the same thing, I didn't see that happening.

My thrifty Ford Focus pulled into the parking lot at 8:10. Crap I was ten minutes late, not something I did on a regular basis. And although the phones didn't open up until 8:30 I was always here by 8:00. It was one of my quirks. I liked to get to work early. It gave me a chance to settle in, enjoy my coffee and maybe have a quick chat with some of my co-workers before the day got into full swing. Especially today since E & E Designs was scheduled to meet with Fred and the rest of the relocation project team. They were the firm that won the bid to design and construct our new corporate headquarters. A highly reputable firm based in Port Angeles. The company was founded by two brothers. I believe Fred told me that the name of the company stood for the brothers' names. The only thing I remember for sure was that the last name was Cullen. I knew the family name had clout around these parts. Believe it or not they were from Forks as well however I didn't know them since I kept to myself. I wasn't sure who was attending the meeting from the firm, all I knew was that Fred asked me to be there.

~SyP~

I walked into the reception and Sarah was there to greet me as she is every morning.

"Good Morning Bella!" She had the sweetest smile.

"Good Morning Sarah. How was your weekend?"

"It was lovely; Harry and I took our grandsons for the weekend. Needless to say we were exhausted by Sunday afternoon." Sarah laughed.

"I know they keep you on your toes but I also know how much you love every minute of it."

Sarah flashed that bright smile of hers as I made my way to my department. One thing I was anxious about regarding the new building was where my new space would be. According to the plans customer service would be facing the front of the building surrounded by wall to ceiling windows. The land where the new building would be situated was a wooded lot. I can't remember how many acres other than I know there will be lots of trees and we would be abutting wetlands so no further construction would be allowed. That made me happy that although we would be disturbing nature no one else would. I guess you could say I had a reverence for nature and the wildlife. That was something I had inherited from my mother.

"Bella, so how was the weekend?" As soon as I heard that voice the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.

God, I can't stand her but I turned around and plastered a big smile as I greeted office gossip and more Jessica Stanley. She had the knack in always finding a way to know the latest shit that was going on. I suppose partly why was the fact she had screwed half the field force as well as a few managers in house. She disgusted me but she was also Fred's assistant so I had no choice but to play nice. I don't know if Fred had ever gone there and to be honest I didn't want to know. The last thing I needed was to get dragged into soap opera bull shit with my boss playing the leading man. Ugh, just the thought was enough to make me want to throw up. Don't get me wrong, I have no interest in Fred romantically (oh God now that's a visual I need to purge from my mind), or any man to be honest. But I liked Fred. He had been very good to me. He pushed me to spread my wings and venture into unchartered territories regarding my career here at Wolf's. But I couldn't think of him and Jessica in a sexual way. It's was too disturbing. Let me just say I wouldn't be surprised if Fred had banged her. After all she had been banged by so many one more wouldn't make a difference.

"Jessica, hey how's it going?"

Jessica took her left hand and smoothed it over her dark blond hair flipping it over her shoulder. I didn't like her but damn, she did have beautiful hair. It was the only nice compliment I could give her. Everything else about her just made her plain ugly but I played the game.

"Oh pretty well for a Monday. You know weekends go by so quickly. I never know if I am coming or going." Her voice laced with saccharine.

I had to refrain from choking back laughter as I so desperately wanted to say something smart assed but I kept my mouth shut and kept those thoughts to myself.

Oh I bet you were not the only one coming or…Bella careful.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. It seems like we just left here." The urge to roll my eyes was strong but I behaved.

I wanted to get the pleasantries out of the way so I could get to my desk and see what my day was going to look like.

I popped my head into Fred's office which was on my way to my cubicle and wished him a good morning. "Hey Bella, we have the Cullen's at 10 AM Jessica has got the east wing conference room set up for the meeting."

"Yes, 10:00 AM, I have it marked on my calendar."

Not only did I have it marked on my calendar but I had set a reminder on my iPhone (which I loved by the way) in the event I got sidetracked which in this business and particularly in this office happened all the time. I announced my good morning greetings as I entered my department.

The next hour or so passed quickly as I checked my email, as well as the faxes for any orders that may have come through over the weekend. The phones were a little quiet for a Monday morning. It was the middle of September and it had been a bit warmer than normal. I took advantage of the quiet to organize the crap that was piling high on my desk. If I was not up to my eyeballs in paper work then it was with reps in my department that needed help or direction for one thing or another. Fred kept joking that he was going to put a ticket counter outside my cubicle since I always had a line forming. Yeah, Fred could have a sense of humor.

I checked my phone it was 9:55 AM, it was time to get my butt over to the conference room.

"Eric, I will be in a meeting starting at 10, not sure how long it will last but if you need me I will be in the east wing conference room my cell will be on."

"Okay, we got it covered here." Eric replied in his usual happy go lucky self. I loved this guy. He had a witty sense of humor and always seemed to know how to lighten a tense mood, which did happen on more than one occasion.

I walked down the corridor and headed to the conference room. I could already hear Jessica giggling. I prayed to whatever divinity that would listen to my plea that I would be able to tolerate listening to her go on and on about whatever the hell it was she was talking about today. Have you ever met someone that just by looking at that person could put your over the edge? Well Jessica definitely was that person. She was like nails on a chalkboard. And God help you if you ever try to compete for some guy's attention, it was more than a game to her it was serious business and she didn't take to losing well at all. Thank God I didn't give a rat's ass who she'd banged, who she was banging or who she wanted to bang in the future.

"I heard that Lauren is dating Tyler."

I rolled my eyes as I walked past Jessica to take my seat across from Fred who was already sitting at the table with coffee in hand. Fred and coffee always a pair, I had lost count on how many cups he drank during the course of the day. Me? Well I made my normal stop at the Starbucks before coming into work for an iced coffee. Depending on how I felt determined what flavor I wanted. This morning it was French Vanilla.

The phone rang and Jessica answered. "Thank you Sarah, I will be right out."

Jessica hung up and told us that the Cullen's had arrived and walked out to greet them. Here we go. If these guys were remotely good looking she would be foaming at the mouth in no time flat. The thought alone was making me cringe.

All too quickly the sound of giggling was back. Oh dear God you can't be serious. Bella, just breathe and let it roll off your back.

The door opened and Jessica filed back in followed by two men. The first Cullen that entered was tall and husky; he had quite a body, very brawn. Man he was big. His hair was brown and kept short with the slightest wave to it. His eyes were the bluest I had ever seen along with the cutest dimples. He looked like a big teddy bear. He was dressed in dark brown slacks with a crisp white shirt and brown jacket, no tie. His brother was just as tall if not slightly taller. He wasn't as massive in bulk, more lean but definitely in great shape too. His hair was longer; it seemed to have a mind of its own as it was a bit of a mess and it was brown with copper highlights. He wore black slacks that molded his legs like a second skin and a pale yellow dress shirt covered by a black jacket.

"Fred Smith may I introduce Emmett and Edward Cullen of E & E Designs." Jessica announced in her sweetest voice. And the hair on the back of my neck was not only standing at attention but ready to go overboard.

Fred extended his hand and shook Emmett's the tall brawny Cullen and then shook Edward's.

Before the two Cullen brothers took a seat Fred made the remaining introductions to all in the room.

"Last but not least, this is Isabella Swan. She is part of my Customer Service Team and will have an input on how we want the new department designed in the new building." I loved Fred. He always made me feel like I was an integral part of the process no matter what it was.

I shook Emmett's hand who gave me a big smile along with a wicked wink. His hand was warm and large. I gave him a nod and a "pleased to meet you" greeting.

"It's nice to meet you Ms. Swan." Emmett's voice was booming but pleasant.

I looked at Edward and my breath caught in my throat. He was beautiful. His eyes captured me immediately. They were the deepest shade of green which reminded me of two emeralds that sparkled and shined. The top two buttons of the shirt were open that revealed more of his neck and I could see some chest hair peeking through. Damn me for always having a critical eye and such attention to detail. I didn't know why but the sight of that open neck made me a little weak in the knees and suddenly I was feeling warm and moist in places that had no business feeling this way. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest and I wondered if he could sense it.

Shit, what was up with that?

Before he even reached out his hand to me I could feel it. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing, not in the bad way when Jessica's voice went through me. This was something more, something physical and raw. I couldn't really put a name to it. I had never felt anything like this before. I was nervous that my cheeks were burning up as I know I was blushing.

What the hell?

"Ms. Swan, it's a pleasure to me you." His voice was something out of a movie. So smooth almost melodic in tone. When his hand touched mine I almost jumped, as if I had been shocked or had felt the effects of static electricity. It ran throughout my body. Was it just me or did he feel it too? Crap, this was so alien to me, I had never experienced anything like this and frankly it bothered me that I could be so affected by this man I had only just met.

I cleared my throat and responded praying to God my voice wouldn't crack and uttered simply…

"Likewise…"

A/N: I would love to hear your thoughts. So please give me your feedback. The fic will be told from alternating POVs, Edward's will be up next week. I have several chapters already written so I hope to update weekly.

Much love to Jlynn and DennaRose who are my betas. Not only have they been my second and third pair of eyes but they have also been an incredible sounding board in helping to shape this story. Your girls rock my world! Love you!