A/N:
Sometimes, you just have to start for the words to flow again :)
With the reaction you had to yesterday's chapter, I knew I couldn't leave you hanging, and I guess this can technically be seen as a part 2 :P
Title: Three's a Crowd
Author: MarieCarro
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Bella and Rosalie are roommates and best friends. When the third friend of their BFF trio moves out to live with her boyfriend and her newborn baby, the girls need to find someone new, and it appears that someone just happens to stumble into their laps.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER 9
It was impossible for Edward to go to sleep. All he could think about was that Bella had refused to leave her room for the rest of the night, so he hadn't gotten the chance to speak with her yet about how she was apparently carrying their child.
Whenever Rosalie graced him with her presence, she only glared at him without saying a word, so he hadn't gotten alot of information out of her, either.
He couldn't take it anymore, so he threw his covers off and headed across the apartment toward the hall where the girls' rooms were. He paused for a second to listen for any sign that Rosalie would still be awake, and when he heard none, he continued to Bella's door. This time, he didn't bother knocking and just walked right in.
Bella wasn't sleeping either, but she was startled when he entered and almost fell off the bed. "Edward, I told you, I d—"
"Don't want to talk to me. Yeah, I heard, but here's the thing, Bella, you have to."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't have to anything."
"Yes," he insisted. "You do." He sat down opposite her on the bed. "First, please, just tell me how you are. Everything feels okay?"
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Okay? You think I'm okay? After everything that happened today, you think that's my predominant feeling?"
"No, of course not. I get it. It's a lot to process for you. It's a lot for me as well. I never thought this would happen. I thought we were careful."
Bella wound her arms around herself and looked away from him. "Apparently not." Her anger had mostly melted away, and it mostly hurt that he'd so blatantly lied to her.
Didn't he know her well enough to know that would hurt more than the fact he dated and slept with other girls before her? She'd already known that, and it hadn't stopped her from entering a relationship with him. But lying? That was straightforward abuse of her trust in him.
Edward sighed. "And Rosalie knows?"
"Yeah, it was kinda hard for her to not find out since she was there. It was all just a big mess. The emotions were all over the place, and so many tears."
He reached for her hand, and while her first instinct was to pull away, she allowed him to hold it. "I'm sorry. I should've been here."
"You were out." She shrugged. "You couldn't have predicted it."
"Maybe not. But still..."
"Yeah. Still..." Holding his hand made it difficult for her to think clearly because all she felt was the same sparks she always felt now whenever they touched. She really liked him. Perhaps even on her way to falling in love with him, but she was scared of what it would mean if Lily kept the baby.
Would Edward want to attempt a relationship with her for the child's sake? Or was Bella supposed to be the awkward third parent from the very beginning?
"So what's the plan?" she asked him.
Edward took a deep breath. "I can't say I have a plan at the moment. It was all sort of sprung on me, so my priority was talking to you. But I feel it's something you and I need to figure out together."
"So you want me to be involved?"
Her statement confused him a bit, but he went with it anyway. "I think that goes without saying."
"Not necessarily," she said. "We've only unofficially dated for a few weeks. There are no guarantees that come with that."
He looked at her for a long moment, really trying to figure out what she was saying, but it didn't make any sense at all to him. How did she figure she wouldn't have to be involved when she was the one who was pregnant?
"Right," he said slowly, but then forced his confusion out. Maybe there were hormones doing something with the way she was thinking that made it difficult for him to follow her train of thought. As it was, he didn't want to make her feel stupid. "Anyway, I think a kid is better off with both its parents around. You agree with that, don't you?"
Bella's stomach sank. He was gonna break up with her. But maybe that was for the best. "I do. I'm from a broken home myself, and I wouldn't wish that on any child."
"Good. Okay, we're on the same page then," he said and nodded to himself. He couldn't grasp that he was actually planning for his future family with his girlfriend of only a few weeks, but adulthood had come banging down his door a lot more suddenly than he'd expected, and he wanted to do the right thing by Bella.
She nodded along with him but had to bite her tongue to keep her building tears at bay. She hated that he'd already gotten close enough to her to break her heart. "So I guess that's it then." Her voice was shaking from suppressed emotion, but she didn't want to lay it on him and make everything more difficult.
He was doing the right thing, and she couldn't fault him for that. They were still friends, and that didn't have to change.
So she offered him her hand to shake. Which he accepted bewilderingly.
"Why are we shaking hands?" he asked when she didn't offer any clarification.
"Because I want you to know that we can still be friends, and I respect your decision." She climbed off the bed and went to open the door for him.
"Thanks?" He followed her, but he didn't feel like the conversation was done. He just couldn't see how they were talking about the same thing. "Remind me again what that decision is?"
Bella smiled softly at him. "It's okay, Edward. I'm not mad."
"Good," he said. "But seriously, what just happened here? Can you walk me through it?"
She looked at him and saw the genuinely confused light in his eyes. "What?"
"What?"
Bella crossed her arms and studied him closely. "Edward, what do you think we've been talking about here?"
He swallowed hard. "Uh, that you're pregnant?"
"What!?"
"Shhh!"
They both froze as they listened for signs that Bella's exclamation woke up Rose, but everything remained quiet. Bella grabbed Edward's wrist and pulled him away from the door and back to the bed.
"Why do you think I'm pregnant?" she asked as soon as they both sat back down.
Edward pointed to the wall separating the girls' rooms. "Rosalie told me when I came home."
"Why would sh—" Bella sat up straighter with an expression of deep thought. "What exactly did she say to you?"
"She said that you were pregnant."
"No. I mean word for word. What did she say?"
He gave her a weird look, but humored her. "She said she had a very interesting talk with my girlfriend. When I asked her what she meant, she said I knocked her, aka you, up."
Bella closed her eyes and sighed. "No, Edward, not me. I'm not pregnant. Lily is."
"Who's Lily? And why does Rose think she's my girlfriend?"
"C'mon, Edward, just stop lying," Bella begged him as she could feel her heart tearing apart again. "Please. I'm not mad at you for dating other girls before me."
"Bella"—he took a hold of both of her hands—"I've never dated anyone named Lily. I have no reason to lie about that."
"She obviously knows where you live. She came here and asked for you personally. She knows you're a culinary student."
"Lily? The same girl who called my phone earlier today?"
Bella shrugged. "Actually, she never said her name while she was here, but I assumed it was her, or it would be one hell of a coincidence."
Edward moved his hands from hers up to her face to cup her cheeks. "I'm telling you right now, I don't know why this Lily believes she's hooked up with me or how she got all my information, but I was hung up on you for months before we actually got together, and I wasn't with a single girl during that time. Please, Bella, you gotta believe me."
She looked at him pleading with her, and she saw nothing but sincerity. She'd lived with him for months and thought she knew how bad of a liar he was. Sitting opposite him now, there could only be two options: he'd either gotten freakishly good at lying or... he was telling the truth and Lily had mistaken him for someone else.
She decided he wouldn't go to such lengths to deceive her. That wasn't the Edward she'd gotten to know. "Okay. I believe you."
He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned forward to capture her mouth in a thankful kiss. Bella moved her lips with his and felt how the heaviness weighing on her for the last several hours lifted and left her feeling light and airy.
They were both so deprived of physical intimacy that the kiss soon became heavier, and not until she was on her back with Edward pressing every inch of himself against her body and breathing erratically into her ear did Bella remember the second crucial part of their odd situation.
She reluctantly pushed on his chest and he raised up on his arms, looking like he already knew what was on her mind, but that he'd hoped she'd wait until after both of them had gotten the release they sorely needed.
"If it's not you, then who? And why are they walking around using your name?"
Edward groaned and rolled off her onto his back. "I don't know, but whoever it is needs to own up to it and take some responsibility for all this shit."
Bella smiled and rolled onto her side so she was half-spooning him, her head comfortably supported on his chest. "You're such a great guy. I don't even know why I suspected you for a second."
"I can't blame you. All the signs pointed to it." He turned his head to look at her. "But I'm glad we sorted this out. I don't like fighting with you."
"Me either."
~~TAC~~
"It's such a fucking mess, and Rosalie's still pissed at me because she thinks I am the guy this girl is looking for," Edward complained the next day when he was having lunch with Emmett.
"Well, at least you did the right thing and talked it out with your girl—whom you have yet to tell me the name of, by the way." He pointed his fork accusingly at Edward.
Edward rolled his eyes at his friend focusing on the wrong issue. "Things are complicated at the moment, and we want to keep it to ourselves. What's wrong with that?"
"Relationships shouldn't be complicated in the beginning. I'd even dare say that's the only time they should be uncomplicated," he pointed out and stabbed a stubborn carrot sliding around on his plate.
"She and I aren't complicated. Everything around us is. But that's not the point." Edward leaned forward on the table. "This girl got pregnant by some idiot who used my information, and it almost ruined my life. I have no idea who the tool is and all I've got to go on for the girl is that she's blonde and most likely named Lily Randall."
Emmett choked into his drink and started coughing. "You said what?"
"Uh, Lily Randall?" Edward repeated and looked at his friend with concern. "You okay?"
With sudden urgency, Emmett started searching for his wallet and then placed the money on the table to pay for their food. "We gotta go."
"Why?"
"I'll explain outside."
They walked together in the direction of the sneaker shop Emmett worked at when he suddenly stopped Edward and pressed on his shoulder to face him.
"Look, Ed, my man... uh, when you punch me, can I ask you for a favor and aim for my stomach and not my face?"
"What are you talking about?" Edward grimaced in confusion. "I'm not gonna punch you."
Emmett nodded in shame. "Yes. You will."
Edward scoffed and moved to walk away, but then it clicked for him, and he turned back to his friend. "You! It was you!" He stalked forward and grabbed a tight hold on his shirt, most definitely catching some of his chest hair in the process, judging by the whimper escaping him.
To Emmett's credit, he didn't even try to step away or defend himself.
"You, Mr-don't-ever-give-your-real-name, huh?"
"Body, please. Not the face," Emmett pleaded and cowered. His knees had started to fold, and Edward was now towering over him.
"But why my name, asshat? Something wrong with the classics like James Smith or Robert Johnson?" He released Emmett from his hold, which caused him to stumble and almost fall over.
"It's easier to remember if it's a real person," Emmett said in a poor attempt at defending himself and Edward threateningly held his clenched fist in front of his face. "Not the nose. Not the nose. Not the nose."
~~TAC~~
Bella let out an incredulous laugh when Edward came home and told the whole story to her and Rosalie.
"I should've known Emmett was behind the whole thing," she said. "Out of all the creepy, chauvinistic—"
"Hey, stop it," Edward interrupted tiredly. "Emmett's never claimed himself to be a saint."
"Not true," Rose piped up. "He said it to that poor confused nun when he was in Italy. You told us that story yourself."
"Right. Forgot about that."
"Well," Bella said and stretched out on the couch, immediately attracting Edward's eyes, and she knew it. "You're not exactly an angel of God yourself. You thought you were guilty for a second."
Rose turned to him and stared intensely. "Yeah, but who did you think was pregnant? Do you actually have a girlfriend we don't know about?"
He cleared his throat and did everything to avoid looking at Bella. "I guess, yeah. Kinda."
"Wow. You're blushing." Rose grinned. "Must be serious."
"Hopefully eventually," he said, and Bella's own cheeks burned in response to his words.
"That means you'll introduce us soon, right? How long have you been together for?"
"Only a few weeks."
Her eyes widened. "Damn. And you already know it's serious? Didn't peg you for a hopeless romantic."
Edward shrugged. "There're a lot of things you don't know about me."
"Clearly," she said, and stood up from the couch. "Who here wants popcorn?"
"Make enough for all three of us," Bella said and Rosalie went into the kitchen. As soon as she and Edward were alone, she turned to him with a serious look. "I'm coming to your room tonight. It's the farthest away from Rosalie's, and even if we have to be dead quiet, that's not gonna stop me."
He gave her a pleased smirk. "My door is always open for you, and my bed welcomes you."
Bella did a quick scan over her shoulder before she walked over to him and gave him a quick, but deep, kiss. "I will never distrust you again."
"That's good to know."
The front door suddenly banged open and Bella jumped back from Edward just in time for Emmett to burst through, every emotion in the book coloring his face.
"Edward, Edward, Edward! I've fucked up, man! I've fucked up so bad."
Rosalie came running from the kitchen to see what was going on and Bella crossed her arms, looking at the crumbling man. "Yeah, we know. What else is new? Have you talked to Lily yet?"
He whimpered. "Yeah, and that's the problem."
"What? That you either have to grow up or start paying child support?" Edward said and leaned back in his seat, unbothered by his friend's distress.
"No, not that. She counted wrong, and she's not pregnant!"
"Then what's the problem?" Edward asked. "You can just go back to your man-whore ways and forget it all happened."
Emmett pouted and shook his head. "No, I can't. The ring I gave her was the real one."
Bella gasped and snorted a laugh at the same time, which produced an interesting pig sound. "Oh my god, what?" She didn't even try to hide her gleeful smile.
He nodded. "And she sold it for a thousand dollars," he whined and fell on his knees. "Mama's wedding ring!"
Edward and Bella looked at each other and couldn't stop themselves from bursting into laughter.
Rosalie cradled her bowl of popcorn and popped one in her mouth. "Karma just made you its bitch."
~~TAC~~
Bella had barely stepped through his door before Edward had her pressed up against it, his kisses urgent and intense, fueled by passion and sexual frustration that had been built up for too long. The scalding heat of his skin on hers muddied her brain as they tossed aside their clothes in a frenzy of need and desire.
Compared to their first drunken night together, Edward's hands were gentle, his eyes tender as he ran his fingers over every inch of her skin and softly lowered her onto his mattress. Bella's heart swelled with emotion as she gazed into his eyes. Neither of them talked, but words weren't needed. It was as if nothing else in the world existed.
Being deprived of each other for an extended period came with one positive thing, though, and that was the incredible intensity of their climax. Bella was amazed by how having to stay quiet made her aware of every little cell shooting pleasure through her body and even built on it to the point where she had to kiss Edward just so he could swallow her sounds.
They settled next to each other, spent and completely content, and neither wanted to part.
The same conversation they'd had so many times simmered just under the surface, but Bella didn't want to pop their post-coital bubble of bliss just yet, so instead she cuddled up against him and traced a fantasy pattern on his sternum.
"You know, out of pure curiosity," she said softly as to not disturb the peace. "What would you have done if I'd actually been pregnant?"
He chuckled and thought back to the hot mess of nervous energy he'd been in Bella's room the night before. "Can't we just forget how poorly I handled that situation and move past it?"
"I don't know," she said and shrugged. "I don't think you handled it that bad."
"That only proves you were as confused as I was." Edward shook his head and placed his own hand over hers on his chest. "But in a totally separate situation, if I'd found out you were actually pregnant, I'd first check to see if you even wanted to keep it in the first place. A secret relationship with no real plans for the future isn't exactly an ideal foundation to build a family on, after all."
"Hmm, I guess you're right about that. You're quite smart when you want to be."
"You had to throw the 'when you want to be' in there, didn't you?"
Bella matched his grin. "Obviously."
"Anyway, assuming Rosalie still doesn't know about us, and you'd want to keep the baby, my immediate next step would be to convince you we need to tell her, and then I'd suggest for you and I to find our own place. I have less than one semester left before I get my degree, so I'll make more money soon." He reached up and softly stroked her hair. "In the end, I think you and I wouldn't be the worst parents in the world."
Her heart stuttered as his words sank in. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"What do you think I'm saying?"
She rose on her elbows to see him fully, and his hand fell away from her hair. "Edward Cullen, are you saying you're falling in love with me?"
He gave her an incredulous look before he scooted back so he could sit up. "Bella, I stopped falling a long time ago. I thought you already knew I'm in love with you."
Bella blinked, and her breath escaped her with a soft whoosh. "Wow. Really?"
"Yeah. Why do you think I've been so adamant about coming clean with Rose? I want to be with you like a real couple. I want everyone to know you're my girlfriend and that I'm your boyfriend."
She had to process his words for a moment and looked away from him, allowing the information to settle. "I owe you an apology," she eventually said.
"Why?"
"Because I thought you wanted to tell her for convenience's sake. I had no idea you already felt like that for me." Bella shifted on the bed until she was sitting next to him. "I'm so sorry."
Edward nodded and swallowed as he suddenly felt nervous. "And what about you? What do you feel for me?"
He got a soft smile from her before she placed the gentlest kiss on his lips. "Oh, I'm definitely falling."
Even though they didn't make any solid plans on telling Rose about them, and they knew it would be best for them to part for the night to go to sleep, they lay back down and just enjoyed the warmth of each other's bodies.
Bella knew she had stumbled upon something unexpectedly great when Edward entered their lives, and that she, as unbelievable as it sounded, belonged by his side. As she drifted off to sleep, she was convinced there was no other place she'd rather be.
A/N:
Whew! Things got straightened out in the end, karma came for Emmett, which was exactly what he deserved, and we got an exchange of feelings there in the end. How sweet!
Now, compared to yesterday, I haven't started writing on chapter 10, so I don't know when that'll be posted, but I promise, I won't let it be another 6 months at least :D
Stay Awesome!