Happy Saturday!
First of all, thank you for all the reviews and alerts!
Some of you have picked up exactly on what is going on. If things feel a bit "stilted" between these two at times, that's the entire point!
They're navigating a huge shift in their relationship: from coworkers where Edward wasn't strictly Bella's supervisor, but was/is a few rungs higher in the corporate ladder, to boyfriend/girlfriend. It's a big change, and between the two of them, Bella tends to overthink things, whereas Edward's been pining for her for so long that he just wants to go full throttle, and adjustment period be damned. Which is where Em's advice to "give her time" comes in.
If two people actually TALK about their relationship and their expectations, it's not that they're handling it like a business transaction-more like a HEALTHY relationship, where you know, people TALK and TELL their partner what they want.
Usual disclaimer applies - I still don't own any of it. I just like to play with the characters ;-)
Team Momo wouldn't exist without Midnight Cougar and Alice's White Rabbit with their red pens, or without AGoodWitch, Driving Edward, Mel, Maplestyle, and Eternally Addicted who pre-read and tell me if I'm off my rocker or not.
Reminder on chapters: unless indicated, odd-numbered chapters are in EPOV, even-numbered ones are in BPOV.
Today we hear from Bella. Ready? Here we go.
Chapter 6 - BPOV
I hadn't realized how much I needed another girls' night until Alice came up with the idea this morning. So many things were happening around us.
Tonight, we were meeting up at Rose's . Because it was Friday night, she told us to bring an overnight bag. We'd sleep off our inevitable hangover at her place.
Emmett tried protesting. I told him to stop whining and take his brother for a beer. Sniffing the potential for razzing and quizzing Edward about our fledgling relationship, Em did stop complaining and sauntered away to his brother's office.
Why am I stuck with babysitting duty? Thank you for unleashing him on me, darling.
Edward's text about it had me in stitches. This carefree, sarcastic Edward who cracked jokes still surprised me most of the time. And this continuous discovery warmed my heart every single time.
By elimination. Em doesn't qualify for girls' night. You're welcome. ;-)
The three dancing dots on my screen indicated Edward had time to kill at the moment, and after checking the time, I realized he must be on the way to catch his flight from Ithaca back to Atlanta.
He'd already bitched at the dearth of suitable flights—in Edward's book, that meant either non-stop flights or with specific layover times in desirable airports. I didn't envy Alice's job one bit. Despite his sabbatical from the firm, he obtained the concession to still rely on her whenever he needed an assistant's help. Carlisle didn't mind, and it didn't make any sense to dump the assignment on some other unsuspecting member of staff who wasn't as well-versed in all of Edward's quirks.
Fine. Message received. But tomorrow night, you're all mine, Miss Swan. :)
The smiley was a new development. The Edward I knew didn't do smileys.
Warm all over at his implication, I replied in the affirmative and got back to work. That pitch wouldn't edit itself.
Three hours later, Alice, Rose, and I left the office, determined to have a work-free night of gossip and entertainment. When we got to Rose's place, we changed into PJs as we always did for our girls' nights and plonked on her couch.
"Y'all know where the takeout menus are, don't you?" Rose asked from the kitchen.
Alice and I hummed our assent and started leafing through her extensive collection.
"Do you reckon she ever cooks?" Alice asked.
"Hell, no. What if she breaks a nail?" I replied louder. I knew Rose would hear me.
"Bella Swan, you traitorous wench. What did I do to you?" she yelled back.
"Ah, so you're listening. Just checking."
"But, no, for the record, I don't cook. I have better things to do with my time."
We all laughed because we knew the punchline to this.
"Like Emmett?" Alice asked.
"Of course," Rose replied without missing a beat. "Now, what are we eating tonight?"
"Does the burger place deliver, Bella?"
"Oh, Em's place, you mean?"
Alice nodded. "Yeah, that place where you always go with him for pints and burgers."
"They do in fact deliver. Burgers?"
Rose considered it for a second. "What the hell, it's Friday night, let's live a little. Burgers it is."
An hour later, after tipping the delivery guy who'd tried to finagle a date from Rose only to bomb spectacularly, we sat around the coffee table, armed with smash burgers, fries, and milkshakes.
"So, Bella," Rose started. "How's it going with Edward?"
I should have expected her to pounce at the first occasion, but I'd let my guard down because of the girls' night atmosphere, which allowed Rose to catch me by surprise and almost choke on a bite of my bacon cheeseburger.
Alice sat within reach and patted my back.
"Thanks, Alice."
"No problem. Now that we're certain you're not dying and you don't need the Heimlich maneuver, spill."
I chewed on that for a while, made sure nothing was going down the wrong pipe, then sat back and looked at them. "He's … intense."
"Is it good intense or bad intense?" The question came from Alice, and it surprised me a bit. She knew the guy a little more up close than Rose or I could claim. She'd worked for him for years, after all.
"I don't know. He's just …"
"Bella, are you feeling forced into this relationship in any way?"
"Rose, are you asking as my friend or as the HR lady?"
She scoffed, but then replied. "As your friend. What the fuck do you take me for?"
I sighed and mulled over her question again. "No coercion. I want to be with him. I'm twenty-eight, have a career. I make my own choices." I smiled as I thought about him. "And please don't think he'd ever coerce me. He's not like that."
"Hey, I've been dating his brother forever. But you're my best friend, and you're my primary concern in this. Is he treating you well?"
Alice interrupted her. "Back up the wagon. Aren't we stuck on intensity still? I didn't hear an answer to that."
"Jeez." Rose rolled her eyes. "Another anal-retentive, detail-oriented pain in the ass. See why Alice and Edward work so well together?"
Rose addressed her rhetorical question to me, but Alice had enough self-awareness to chuckle at it. Edward's extreme attention to detail was legendary at the firm.
"More like she's the only one in the office who won't run away screaming at his filing system," I replied.
At my jab, Alice acted all incensed while Rose laughed so much she spat her iced tea. "Don't distract us with one-liners, Swan. We want to know."
"Fine. He's swoon-worthy. A true gentleman, attentive and romantic. He's sweet, caring, and protective. I can see myself with him long-term, and he's hinted at it. Like he's got a future all mapped out in his head. We've been on what, two dates?"
"So, you didn't get legally horizontal yet?"
"Jesus, Alice. That's your boss."
She snorted. "Exactly. I know what he looks like, Bells. Give me a break; the man is smoking hot."
I smiled, remembering our impromptu dinner at the start of this week and the way his forearm muscles flexed as he moved around his kitchen.
"Look at that, Ali. Someone's got the hots for your boss."
I threw a pillow at Rose, but she fended it off, and it landed on the floor. "Do you want an answer, or are you happy taking the piss out of me?"
They laughed in my face because that was how we functioned—with a good helping of self-deprecating humor—but sobered up quickly with deep breaths.
"Sorry," they said in unison.
"Go ahead, Bells. I swear we're not trying to razz you. You know that, right?"
I smiled at Rose. "Yeah, I know. We're good."
"So, Mr. Intensity?" Alice insisted.
"Like I said, sometimes, it feels like too much too soon. I don't know how to take his behavior, and it scares me a little. Heck, the other night at dinner, he hinted that he wanted us to fill out the relationship disclosure paperwork with HR. After one date. What if this implodes in my face in a month? I'd still have to work with the man and see him socially. Emmett won't cease being one of my closest friends just because his brother dumps me."
Rose tut-tutted at me; although, it looked comical because she started lecturing me while wielding a French fry in her hand. "Has it ever occurred to you that disclosing your relationship to HR sooner rather than later protects you more than him?"
I frowned, not understanding where she was going with this. "How so?"
"Well, if it's on the books that you two are dating, there are measures in place to make sure it's all above board, and nothing threatens or taints your status at the firm, your performance reviews, or anything else of the sort. Of course, he's on sabbatical now, so that makes things easier on our side. His status at the firm is 'frozen' for the next six months or so, and even so, he won't be involved in your performance evals when the time comes."
"Oh. I didn't think of it that way. Thank you for giving me some perspective. I just thought it was Edward being hasty."
"I can't speak to that; I don't know him well enough to say one way or another. Talk to the man, Bells."
"Yeah, I'm kicking myself because that's the same thing I told him on Monday."
"Follow your own advice, for fuck's sake." Rose grinned. "Then fuck him and report back. God knows that would be prime gossip."
I was too stunned by Rose's zinger to reply.
Rose the friend and HR lady had some words of wisdom. There are always at least two sides to every story. Meaning, yes, maybe Edward wants things officially official with HR because he's so proud and happy that he wants to shout it from the rooftops, but that doesn't negate his keen desire to protect Bella and her reputation. We already know how much he appreciates her professionally; he'd never stand for her professional achievements to be tainted in any way IF he had a way to prevent it.
Next week, back to Edward!