CHAPTER EIGHT
My day was already so much better than the day before. It was noon and I felt rested and on fire. I managed to stay away from Lauren Mallory, which is always a good thing. I managed to meet the Director of Photography, who most people called crotchetyCarl but for some reason, he had taken a liking to me but I did manage to find out his favorite sweet and acquire it from a local bakery. Hey, I'm not above bribing people.
During the resets, Carl actually let me hold onto his work pouch and hand him different things when he asked for them. In return, he showed me how to get the best angles to deal with lighting issues. This kind of education was far more valuable to me then he realized.
When Lauren came to set, I hastily made my way away from the filming and decided to help out poor Tommy with craft services. Craft service was sometimes the worst job when dealing with overly important people and their food; it quickly became a thankless job usually ending in someone getting yelled at. Essentially it was your job to provide a variety of snacks to the crew and cast and when meals were involved it was your job to go out and get the meals. Here was the hard part, sometimes you would order lunch and then filming would go long and the food would cool and then there was hell to pay.
I was having such a great day; I didn't even pitch a fit when Edward summoned me for my daily nap. However, this time I set an alarm to ensure my day wasn't wasted.
The day wrapped and we made our way home, I was getting up so early and getting home so late that I hadn't seen Alice in days. She pounced on me the second I stepped my foot in the door.
"How could you not tell me about your birthday? I thought we were best friends," Alice said displeased.
"Alice we've known each other a couple of weeks, I'm sure you have far closer friends than I."
"Don't change the subject, this is not about me. Now in order to make this up to me, I have kicked Jasper out of our room and we are going to get ready together. Go shower, get your outfit for tonight and come quickly to my room, there's work to be done."
I didn't dare argue with her, I knew that most celebrities were used to getting their way and when they didn't they go from heart of gold to rapid beast in two seconds.
The shower was amazing, I may have spent more time than necessary but I couldn't find it in me to care. Alice had the sink completely set up, it looked like a Niemen Marcus makeup counter. I was never one to take the time to put makeup on; when I did it was minimal. I think that's because my mom hadn't taught me, stating that makeup was an invention by men to keep their woman looking fresh.
I had just planned on wearing black pants and a nice top; of course, Alice was disgusted by my choice in clothing for the night's event and instantly took it upon herself to raid my closet. I did bring a couple of dresses but I always felt self-conscious of my legs.
"So has the filmmaking world been all you dreamed it could be?" Alice had tortured my eyebrows for the past few minutes.
"It truly is Alice; it has been all I expected and more. I expected a constant rush. The intensity. The bitchy actors, no offense."
She scrunched up her forehead, oh crap she took offense.
"What bitchy actors? Has Edward been giving you a hard time? Oooo I'm going to kick his ass." She was getting comically pissed off but I knew I had to stop her. As much as I like to see Alice stomp over to Edwards's room and kick his ass it wouldn't be right.
"Calm yourself, Alice. Of course, Edward has been great; I really lucked out with that one after seeing the two sad sprites that have to put up with Lauren Mallory."
She sighed dramatically and plopped down on the bathtub. "Lauren Mallory. You know I asked Jasper to not take this job because I didn't even want to be around her let alone Jasper, but Edward asked and of course, Jasper can't say no to Edward. She hasn't caused you trouble, has she?"
I fidgeted a little looking down.
"Bella! What did that bitch do?" She shrieked.
"It's not that bad, really Alice. It's nothing I can't handle. She just caught me off guard with her...bitchiness," I huffed.
"Bella you should tell Edward. If he knew..."
"No way," I interjected. "All Edward needs right now is one reason to renege on our little deal, besides I don't need someone else fighting my battles."
"What deal?" Alice was always so curious.
"I'm sure he's told you." She looked confused.
"I have to nap in order to spend my time wisely on set shadowing other working professionals rather than running around grabbing him coffee and answering his phone calls."
Her jaw dropped. Alice got up from the tub and walked around still in shock. I thought I heard her say 'impossible' under her breath.
"What's impossible?" I questioned.
She immediately snapped out of it and came back to the counter.
"Nothing." She looked at me and it almost seemed like she had a tear in her eye. She gave me a big smile and started messing with my hair. Ok, I already knew Alice was a little weird but she was quickly moving to a lot of weird.
She looked at me in the mirror and said, "Don't worry about Lauren and trust me when I tell you, she can't touch you." I sent a sad smile her way, I didn't want to tell Alice that Lauren didn't need to touch me she did enough damage with her words.
I do have to admit that after she was done with my makeup and hair I did see a vast improvement. We walked down the stairs at 8:15, which was fashionably late as Alice pointed out. The boys all waiting in their casual suits, which sorry but I do have to take a moment to make you jealous with my next words. Even though I wasn't lucky enough to sample the goods, I had a front row seat to a show that had more tight buns and abs then a Chippendales.
The restaurant that Edward chose was right on the lake and being the clientele that all of them were they were ushered in and given the best table with no wait. It's funny looking at our whole group, Emmett, Edward, Alice, Jasper and I, it would be really easy to play the game who doesn't belong.
Edward made it a point to tell our waiter that it was my birthday to ensure the best possible service; I was just hoping they wouldn't come out and sing some embarrassing birthday song. We were on our second bottle of wine by the time the dinner arrived, I had ordered the rack of lamb, a meal I was lucky to try once and fell in love with. This lamb was so tender that it melted off the bone and it may have been the best thing I have ever tasted up to that point in my life.
Alice decided that I was to be the topic of conversation for dinner, and started asking me questions. "So Bella, tell us more about yourself, I feel like I hardly know you." She took a sip of her wine.
"Well there's not much to tell, my mom's a teacher my dad's a cop. Filmmaking is my passion. Not so exciting over on this end of the table." It felt awkward to talk about myself; however, Alice felt I wasn't nearly uncomfortable enough and decided to ask a follow-up question. "What about your love life? What has that been like?" I don't know why but my eyes instantly went to Edward and my face flamed. Realizing I had just looked over at my boss, I quickly refocused on my wine glass.
"Alice, why do you want to know?" I asked irritated.
"Oh come on Bella, it's not that personal of a question, geez it's not like I asked you when the last time you got laid was?"
I choked on my wine, I was about to lay into her once I stopped coughing but it was Jasper who came to my defense, "Alice, that's enough."
I had never seen Jasper look at Alice with anything but a look of pure love, but right now even I wouldn't mess with him. Alice sat back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest, pouting.
"I apologize for Alice's rudeness, Bella."
I suddenly felt sorry for Alice I may not have liked her line of questioning but I certainly didn't want her to get into trouble.
"It's ok, but if she really is so interested in my love life, I think she'd be more interested in watching grass grow," I laughed trying to ease the tension.
"So, when was the last time you got laid?" Emmett asked suddenly obviously trying to be funny.
"Emmett, that's none of your damn business. I think we should just leave Bella alone, we are supposed to be celebrating her birthday not trying to get her to run for the hills," Edward reprimanded.
"Thank you, Edward," I said shyly.
Dessert came and they brought out a huge chocolate cake with sparklers on top. If that didn't make me feel special, presents came shortly after. Alice began pulling out small wrapped gifts from her Prada bag. I began to protest, "No guys, I'm sorry I can't accept. This dinner with you all was present enough."
"Bella accept the damn gifts," Edward said.
"This is from Jasper and me." Alice handed over a small square box, I pulled the wrapping off and took out a beautiful light blue silk scarf on top of it was a silver sparkly broach. "Oh wow, it's beautiful. Thank you so much, guys."
I didn't even want to think how much they all spent, but as my mother had always taught me it doesn't matter if it costs a penny or a million bucks, just smile and give a sincere "Thank you".
Edward handed me a slightly heavier small rectangular box, I quickly made do with the wrapping. It was an I-pod touch. I know that most people would look at this and see just an I-pod. But it meant so much more to me. The Mp3 player that I currently had was cheap and didn't hold a lot of music on it. I loved music; I always felt that my tastes ran wide compared to most people. I loved rock, rap, classical, Broadway, pop and nearly everything in between.
"I saw your banged up music player sitting out and thought I could help you with an upgrade," Edward said nervously. "If you don't like it…" I quickly interrupted that thought, "I love it. Thank you, this means so much to me."
Emmett pounced in dropping his gift in my place, "here's a gift card for iTunes, to help you with loading that sucker up." I didn't even unwrap it, but I thanked him.
"Thank you guys, this has been the best birthday in so long," I said sincerely.
"Let's all raise a glass, to Bella," Jasper said.
"To Bella!" Everyone said cheerfully.
We arrived back home, funny how I had only been here for a couple of weeks and this place was already home. Jasper pulled Alice upstairs with him, she had drunk a tad too much and he said it was time for bed. Emmett went off to his room.
I decided to go to the kitchen to get something to drink,
Edward followed me in. "Late night snack?" he asked.
I laughed, "Are you kidding me? We just ate; I'm so full I may not eat till my next birthday."
"I know I was just kidding."
"Thank you again for tonight, Edward. Even though I didn't want my birthday celebrated, it felt nice. So thank you for that." I sat down upon the bar stool and he slowly walked over to me stopping within inches of me.
"Bella, you deserve so much more. I wish I could make you see what I see."
My breathing felt shallow and I slowly swallowed, there were a thousand thoughts running through my mind but I couldn't tell you one of them now because in those next few seconds I found Edward's lips on mine. I closed my eyes imagining that this was all real. It wasn't until I felt the loss of them that I realized what I had just done.
"Oh, Oh my god, Oh my god, I am so so sorry. I don't know what happened, Oh god. Oh god, please don't fire me." I was up out of my seat ranting around like a maniac. My dreams momentarily collided with reality and now I had truly messed up.
Edward approached me grabbing a hold of my shoulders making me stop and look at him. "Bella calm down. I kissed you!"
What in the hell was going on?
He continued slowly enunciating every single word, "I kissed you and I've wanted to kiss you for so long. I have been having these feelings for you for so so long. I like you, like really like you."
I just stood there staring at him. It all the sudden made sense to me, like a moment of clarity. I began laughing; Edward was looking at me like I was crazy.
"I get it, oh that's a good one Edward." I began to walk away, "wow you almost had me going, where's Emmett. Emmett, you can come out now, the joke is over. Ugh way over," I said annoyed. I pick up my glass to refill it with water.
"Bella, I'm being serious."
"Yeah, sure you are and next week I'm having tea with the queen." I finished off with my best British accent which anyone would tell you it's pretty horrible.
Edward walked to me once again and took my face in his hands, "I'm serious Bella, and this isn't a joke. This isn't a prank. I like you. I want to date you. I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know me too."
I started tearing up, "Why are you doing this? This isn't funny anymore, Edward. Please stop."
I tried to pull away but he took my shoulders and held me in place.
"Why don't you believe me?"
"You like me?" I questioned harshly. "Why would someone like you ever like me? Your Edward fucking Cullen, you could have anyone in the world both men and women would fall at your feet and you could take your pick." I was starting to get loud. I was getting mad, the whole world felt out of balance.
"Who gives a shit if I am Edward fucking Cullen; you said I could have my pick. Well, I pick you. Why is that so hard for you to believe? Why do you always have to be so goddamn stubborn?" his voice was far more impressive than mine.
"Look you hold all the cards here, technically what I'm doing is crossing the line you could sue me for sexual harassment. All I'm asking for is one date, just one. Please give me a chance." I let out a small giggle, his words reminded me of the first day I met Emmett. He looked annoyed with my giggle so I explained, "sorry it's just that Angel told Emmett that I could have charged him with sexual harassment because he hugged me the first time he met me. You had to be there."
"So are you going to give me a chance?" Edward asked tentatively.
I stood there for a moment thinking, I mean on one hand what did I have to lose. Oh right, my job, Edward, Emmett, Alice and Jasper, Italy, the first time in my life where I feel like I am right where I belong, my future, everything I've worked for, pretty much everything. I couldn't allow myself to think for one second that Edward and I could walk off into the sunset and live happily ever after. I don't care what he thought, he was way out of my league and it was only a matter of time before this fleeting fog would lift.
"Ok" What the hell, you only live once right?
AN: Thank you for reading and reviewing.
STORY IS MINE. CHARACTERS BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.