I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of my story.
Author's Note at the end.
She walks into the restaurant and gives her name then gets led to their table which has four seats. Marco trails behind her looking like he is in a world of his own.
"Babe?" Bella states waving her hand in front of his face. He looks up and finds her looking worried.
"Is everything okay? For the last minute you have been spaced out. I get that you like to think and be in your own bubble, but I think something is wrong," she tells him after she takes his hands in hers and looking into his eyes.
For a second Marco thinks of telling her what is truly wrong, but instead, he says, "I am okay. I am just trying to figure out the logistics of it all." He could have told her what truly ails him, but he knows that it would have been too distracting for her. They need to be on their A-game. A distracted Bella doesn't aid that. He will tell her once they go home.
"Hey guys, I hope we didn't keep you waiting," He hears Tanya say behind him. He curses under his birth. He thought that he would have more time before the Asshole and the Crazy Chick arrived. Taking Bella's lead, he doesn't get up to greet them.
"So, have you ordered anything yet?" Tanya asks having made herself comfortable beside him. He doesn't like her proximity, but it's too late to change things.
Bella tells her that they haven't done that yet which makes Tanya start telling them the best items on the menu and before Marco knows it, he is muttering loud enough for everyone to hear, "please do enlighten us, it's not like we come here weekly for lunch."
Everyone at the table stares at him. Tanya is looking bothered and offended, as if she can't comprehend someone not worshiping the ground she walks on. Edward's reaction is the night, if her reaction is the day. There is the annoyance of course, but beneath that there was amusement. Someone was having too much fun seeing his fiancée mocked.
"Okay, this," Bella states pointing a finger at him, "is how I know he has a deadline coming up. The pettiness and passive-aggressive behavior." It's not. It's nothing more than a convenient lie in an inconvenient time.
Marco tries to sheepishly look at Tanya who slaps his back lightly and states, "it's fine. I can be like that too when I am stressed at work."
The waitress shows up then, and the four of them make their order. And from there on Tanya launches into her chatter.
Everything is going well with Bella, but as she raises the lemonade glass to her mouth, she hears something that gives her pause, "Which is why we decided that he will get half of my shares in daddy's business and I will get half of his trust fund."
"You did the exchange already?" Bella asks to which Tanya nods her head. Bella smirks as she raises her glass to her mouth and drinks more of the lemonade. She knew that Edward had an ulterior motive and here it is.
Their meals arrive, and aside from the occasional comment, they eat quietly. Once done Bella excuses herself and gets up to go to the bathroom.
In there, she makes a phone call, washes her hand, and exits only to find Edward waiting, "It hurts. doesn't it?"
She looks confused at him as she folds her hands across her chest and says, "I don't know what you are talking about."
He walks toward her and says, "It hurts to see someone you care about move on that brutally, and not give a damn about what you want," by the time he is done speaking, his face is mere inches away from her face.
"Let me think," she whispers tapping her finger against her chin, "No it doesn't. It wouldn't hurt me if you moved on,", "Yeah, sure that is why you looked like someone ran over your puppy in the board room. You might have tricked your husband with your shiny smile my dear, but I know you better than to not see through it."
Ignoring everything he said, she continues speaking, "where was I before I was rudely interrupted? Oh yeah, it wouldn't hurt to know that you moved on, and I am definitely not hurt since I know that you didn't move on."
"Oh yeah? What makes you so confident that I didn't move on?" he asks taking a step toward her. With her being taller than average and wearing heels his steps makes their lips close enough to touch.
She smirks while looking at his lips and says, "You would love for me to be heartbroken over you, isn't it? Want to beg you to please not marry her and wait for me to divorce Marco? Oh please, Edward. I love you Edward. I can't leave without you Edward," she mutters the last three sentences in an airy voice.
His eyes are hooded as he leans forward almost kissing her, "you would love that but my dear there is one problem, you couldn't have given half of your trust fund to her."
Akin to someone slapped to the face, he steps back and mutters, "you think that."
"Oh dear I know that couldn't happen. Emmet tried to do it as a 10th-anniversary gift for Rosalie and he couldn't do it. He would have needed to spend three years going to the bank account every single day to make it happen."
She steps closer to him and puts her palm against his face then leans close to whisper, "Next time you are lying to make me jealous, make sure your family hasn't debunked you already."
She winks at him and then walks back to their table. She knows it wasn't for her, but why not antagonize him by saying that if she can? As she walks to the table, she finds Marco sitting alone. She looks around worried that Tanya somehow saw her with Edward together, but thankfully she finds her by the bar.
She finds more than four people standing around her and fawning at her to make sure she is happy with her presence in the restaurant. She looks around and notices that aside from their table, every table has at least one person looking at her.
It is then that she understands why Edward is doing what he is doing and why their engagement party is during the annual ball.
He choose a place where everyone who is anyone, where all of their business associates will be present for a reason.
He will publicly humiliate her.
Hello lovely people,
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and i hope that it answered some of your questions. I would like to remind everyone that Bella is an agent on a mission. Most of what she does comes from a place of necessity rather than choice.
Also, if you haven't checked out my other story, please do. I will highly appreciate it.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe.