Iris is a Goddess, she worked on this while crazy sick. Mad props to her. And to Sri, who reads this first.
Breakfast was usually quiet in the Newton house. Neither resident was a particular fan of an early morning, and this one was earlier than usual. Bella had an early staff meeting, and Mike needed to bring her by the store to get her car first. It was unusual for them to not speak to each other. They navigated their morning routines as if they were avoiding each other.
Mike had gone to bed early, hoping to catch Bella relaxed after her bath and before sleep. She lay on her side, her back to where Mike would be, forcing herself to breath evenly. She heard Mike's frustrated sigh as he checked in on her. When the mattress shifted under his weight, she consciously worked to keep her body relaxed, expecting him to put his arm over her as he pressed against her in their usual sleeping position.
She was surprised when she realised he had turned away from her, thought the surprise wasn't so much from his actions. He thought she was sick and sleeping. It made sense that he was giving her space. Her shock came from the overwhelming feeling of relief when he didn't touch her.
But this morning, the self-imposed, but seemingly mutual, segregation remained. Bella packed her lunch, last night's leftovers, and tidied the kitchen. Mike sat at the table, alternating long drags from his coffee mug and mouthfuls of cereal. A full mouth kept him from speaking up. He placed his bowl in the sink as Bella put her shoes on. He swallowed down the rising panic at how very good they were at avoiding each other.
Once they were together in the car, it became much harder to dance around each other. Bella contemplated coming clean. She could just tell Mike that she had met with Edward a couple of times and had talked about the circumstances surrounding their breakup. She held her tongue. There was no way to explain to Mike what they'd talked about. She already had so much to think about that she didn't know how to navigate with regard to Edward. How would she explain Edward without exposing the supernatural?
She sighed. Mike glanced at her but said nothing.
"Thanks for taking care of me last night." She picked her hand up. Last week, she would have put it on his knee. This morning, she pulled at the hem of her skirt.
"You feeling better?" Mike watched her fidget with her clothes. He knew there was something more to Bella's melancholy than a headache. "Why don't I just drop you off at the library? I can run your car over to you at lunch."
"It's okay, Mike. I left my book upstairs anyway. I'll nip in and get it before I go."
"I can bring it at lunch. Don't worry about it. Where is it?"
"Mike! I said I'd get it." Bella didn't know what caused her to snap at him. Was it was fear over him seeing what she was reading, or was it the lingering exasperation of Mike not respecting her lack of desire to have a baby? Whatever it was, her tone did not correspond to his concern.
"I'm just trying to help you out here. Relax. It's a fucking book." He muttered the last sentence under his breath.
They said nothing more to each other. Once they arrived, he opened the door to the store and turned off the alarm, and she headed up the stairs. Her book was just as she left it; spine against the wall. She grabbed it and stuffed it in her purse. There was nothing that indicated Edward had flipped through it the night before, but just holding it in her hand, she felt her world shift a little more.
They ran into each other on the stairs. Mike had one arm on the railing and one on the wall, blocking Bella's way down. Even though she was one step above him, she had to look up to meet his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She didn't elaborate about what. There was so much.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I've got to go to work."
"Later?"
She nodded, and he leaned in and kissed her cheek before moving out of her way. He watched her walk out the door before he continued on to his office. He'd decided to give her some space, and he had faith that she'd come around. Maybe it wouldn't be in time to adopt this baby, but eventually, she would change her mind. He knew not to push her.
He hated that Edward was the one who'd told him that.
Bella made it to the meeting just in time, which not only meant that most spots at the table were taken, but also that she had an audience to her entrance.
An audience to see her stagger as she saw who sat next to the director at the head of the table.
An audience, she was sure, to witness her hesitation at the door, obviously confused.
"Bella!" her boss, Tim, called out, drawing further attention to her. "Now that you're here, we can begin." As Bella pulled a chair from the corner to the table, Tim stood up and motioned for Edward to do the same. "I know many of you are familiar with Edward Cullen. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Edward lived in Forks with his family as a teen. They moved to California about ten years ago but have recently moved back to the area. Edward here worked a few years on Wall Street before realizing that finance wasn't his true calling..."
As Tim droned on, spinning the Cullens' fabricated twist on the past ten years, Bella watched Edward. He glanced at her, briefly, as he stood. For the rest of Tim's introduction, he kept his hand on the back of his neck and looked down. She'd learned this meant he was nervous or perhaps embarrassed. He wore jeans with a button-down shirt, suit vest, and no tie. He looked like he was in his late 20s.
"...We've had some great conversations over the past few weeks about where we'd like his foundation to invest. Edward contributed some further ideas about an expansion to the library. I was going to explain them myself, but I called Edward this morning and asked him to come in and introduce them to you. I have a feeling you're all going to be very excited about what this investment will do for our library."
Bella listened. She was initially reluctant to buy into his reasoning behind choosing the library as a beneficiary. Mike and Angela's suspicions echoed in her consciousness. Why did he choose the library? But as he spoke, she saw his enthusiasm. He cited research to support his vision for the future of their little branch. They would expand their reading program, partnering with local schools to organize peer tutors. He spoke of turning the library into a community center; retraining courses for adults out of work and lacking skills for the modern workforce, courses for life skills and recreation, programs for children and teens, a free clinic staffed by volunteers from the hospital. And it was all funded by the Pacific Northwest Trust.
His initial shoe-gazing shifted to conviction. Bella watched him confidently own the room. Of course he knew the right things to say; winning people over was just another trick in his vampire repertoire. She watched him answer questions, pretending to pause and think before answering the trickier ones.
The Edward before her was not the boy she'd known.
Bella left the meeting quickly. Many had stayed behind to engage Edward further. Bella wanted to put some distance between them.
The universe, however, wanted something different. Or at least Tim did. He followed Bella to her office and closed the door behind him, startling Bella.
"Bella, I didn't want to bring this up in the meeting, because I didn't want to spring this on you in front of everyone, but I'd really like you to lead on this project. You did a phenomenal job with the new addition, and I think you could really soar with this." This was high praise from Tim. She was flattered, yet she hesitated. Tim saw it. "Bella," he intoned gently. "I've lived in Forks a long time. I know there's a history between the two of you. Is that a problem?"
And there it was ‒ the ghost that haunted her in this small town. No matter what she achieved, there was still a part of her past people remembered; Bella Swan, daughter of the Chief of Police, missing for 12 hours over a breakup.
"No, Tim. I'd love to lead this. It's not a problem at all." She hoped it was true.
Tim shook her hand, told her they'd meet later in the day to renegotiate her contract, and left Bella to her thoughts.
But there was only one thing on her mind, and not long after Tim left, he was knocking at her door.
She said nothing to Edward as he entered but pointed to the seats in front of her.
She needed more time to process this. Last night, she thought the best thing for her to do was to walk away from their emerging friendship.
"I swear to you this is not a ploy," he pleaded, before he even took his seat.
"Can you read my mind now?" She glanced at him briefly.
"I don't need to be a mindreader to know what this looks like."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" She didn't look at him for very long, just enough to see the torment in his eyes.
"I was going to. Last night. I swear it. And last night, all this was was an idea. When I got home, Alice told me it was going to be fast-tracked, so I should prepare the presentation. But I couldn't prepare you."
"Why the library?" is what she asked, but what she really wanted to know was "Is this about me?"
"I really enjoy it here. After my first day, Tim and I chatted briefly, and I let him know how much. As far as he knows, I'm a burn out from Wall Street. He thought I'd last a day, and that'd be it. I know in that presentation he said we'd been chatting for a few weeks, but it was nothing formal. I'd throw out an idea here or there, and he'd like it, but he couldn't do anything because of the limited library budget. Before I left last night, I approached him with an offer from the Trust."
Bella said nothing. She barely moved as he spoke. She focused on her hands and her breathing. She was afraid of what would happen if she didn't.
"Please look at me. Please, Bella," Edward begged. "I've been honest with you since I came back. And I know that you still have no reason to believe me... Please look at me."
Bella lifted her head and finally made eye contact.
Edward momentarily relaxed his posture as he sighed in relief, but both hands went to his hair as he began to speak again. "Thank you. I am working on getting better. I started volunteering here, because I saw what working with kids did to Emmett. I chose here, because I didn't want to be in another school. Honestly, you being here..." Edward paused, dragging his hands out of his hair and down his face. They met under his chin so that he looked like an anguished man in prayer. "You being here was actually the only disadvantage I could come up with. I'm trying to get over you. Trust me. I didn't ask for you to be the lead on this project. But as your friend, I'm so proud of you." He offered a faint smile with his praise.
"You didn't secretly arrange this?"
"No. How do you feel about working with me?"
She paused to think, happy that he asked for her thoughts. "Honestly? It's going to be weird. I was just getting used to being friends with you. Now we'll have to figure out how to be co-workers, too."
"About the friends thing..."
She took a deep breath. She had spent last night oscillating between telling him they couldn't be friends and ignoring the lines they may have crossed last night. In all her thinking, she never considered he might be doing the same thing.
"Tomorrow's your day off, right?"
She nodded. This was not what she thought he was going to say.
"I need to buy a car. And I may have ended up in a bet with Alice... I was wondering if you would come with me. She thinks I'm going to get another Volvo. I'm not. I don't know what I'm going to get, but if you're with me, she can't see what I buy. If I can keep that from her, I win."
"What do you win?" Against her better judgement, she was intrigued.
"She buys me the car. Plus, I beat Alice at her own game. I can hold that over her for decades." Edward leaned back, finally relaxing.
"What do I win?" she laughed, not expecting an answer.
"You can drive it home. Or Carlisle's car. You can choose."
"Well then, I guess that all depends on what you choose, doesn't it?"
They made plans for Edward to pick Bella up in the morning. Neither mentioned, though both knew, that Mike was leaving for the weekend at eight. Edward would be there at nine. In the ease they slipped back into, Bella forgot that she had decided to keep him at arm's length. They both forgot he was trying to get over her.