Authors note: Thank you so much for reading this! It means a lot. It´s meant as a silly romcom sorta thing. So nothing is very serious. I enjoyed writing, so hopefully you guys enjoy reading :)

Bella's Aftermath

"Well, don't leave me hanging! What happened next?" Alice Cullen -the real Alice Cullen this time- asked eagerly, while she grabbed a cushion from the sofa she sat on and threw it playfully at Bella, who sat in her favourite chair.

Bella caught it in the air and placed it under her feet. Having worn heels the entire night always made her toes feel cold, and sharing a kettle of tea with Alice didn't exactly help in the slightest.

She made a face. Once she rushed back to the apartment, Alice practically waited behind the door to hear all about her miserable date with Edward and she now came to the part she dreaded telling the most.

"I kind of just ran away," Bella admitted, embarrassed as she thought back about her escapades from the evening.

"You ran away?"

"I hopped into a nearby taxi. By the way, I'm totally going to send you a Venmo for that."

Alice laughed and took a sip of her tea. "But why didn't you dine and dash like usual?"

Bella threw her hands in the air. "I couldn't help it, Alice! You should've seen him. Google didn't do him justice as he's much better looking in person," she sighed. "I simply panicked and aborted the mission. But don't worry, I've made sure to weird him out enough."

Alice frowned. "Oh god, what did you do?"

The corners of Bella's mouth lifted as she thought about the evening. The better question would be, what didn't she do? She made sure that their date was taken care of, and Alice wouldn't need to worry about a second one. Edward might call her eccentric at best. Creepy at worst. Hopefully, he was diplomatic enough to go with the first. People from his social circle were often polite enough to dismiss this sort of debauchery. Or at least, that was what Bella hoped.

"I was a bit unstable, to say the least. If you hear back from Carlisle, you could always say you were on your period and he might not ask further," she explained, even though she hated the period excuse with a burning passion.

Alice rolled her eyes and groaned on a nearby pillow. "Remind me again why you're going on these blind dates instead of me?"

"Because your father isn't allowed to know you're going on dates with a hot, blond woman. Emphasis on the woman part. Speaking of her, how is Rosalie?"

Alice's cheeks reddened. "Not important for now, but we're doing great, thank you very much."

Bella noticed her friend's cheeks and smiled. However, she didn't have long until Alice got back to her senses and accusingly pointed at her fingers.

"Back to you, Bella! So to summarize," Alice counted on her fingers. "One, Edward was late and you left your phone here, so you didn't know about it until he arrived, so you got worked up all for nothing."

"Correct."

"Two," she continued. "He was breathtakingly, heartbreakingly, dreamingly handsome."

"You can say that again."

"And lastly, you didn't even stay to eat. Instead, you ran away because you couldn't take in all his attractiveness at once. So now you're sitting here, eating whatever's left in the fridge." Alice waved at the grilled cheese sandwich in front of Bella, who sat straighter in her chair at the accusing tone of her friend. "That was a horrible date, Bella."

"Well, first of all," Bella pointed out. "A sandwich is a dinner substitute."

"Not if you were expecting mushroom ravioli."

Bella ignored the immediate sadness that followed this true statement. Damn it, Alice was right. She really wanted to try out that ravioli, but she shouldn't back out now.

"And second of all," Bella continued. "You forgot a very important fourth thing."

"And what's that?"

"That I'm supposed to be you, remember? So the date had to be horrible."

Hiding her face behind her black hair, Alice leaned forward and refilled Bella's tea. "Was he at least nice?" she asked in a tiny voice, one that Bella didn't recognize, so she put her hand assuringly on her friend's arm and squeezed.

"The dates your father picks out are always nice. A bit too posh for my own liking, but you know," Bella shrugged. "Different crowd than what I would pick out, but nice nonetheless."

"So, he was posh, rich and high-class?"

"That's right," Bella wiped the breadcrumbs from her favourite lounge pants. There was a small wine stain on it, clinging to dear life as it couldn't be washed off, but that was part of the charm. "All things that I'm not."

"Well you did have one thing in common, you know," Alice noted casually.

Bella stopped in her tracks. "Like what?"

"Like your shared love for coffee!"

"What are you talking about?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Come on now, Bells. You've googled him, right?"

"Yeah, to prepare myself for what he looked like."

"And you didn't stumble across his name?"

A nervous giggle escaped Bella's lips. "Edward, you mean?"

"Bella!" Alice raised her voice accusingly. "Don't you know who his mother is? We've read the same articles online. How could you have missed that?"

Bella held her hands up in surrender, as she knew there was no way she could win this fight. "I have absolutely no idea."

"Edward Masen. His mother's name is Esme. So Esme Masen. What is the coffee company you work for called?" Alice raised her brows and a cold chill ran down Bella's spine when she finally understood what was meant.

"Esmasen. Are you really telling me that…," she started, hoping her thoughts were wrong.

"... That the man you've been on a date with is the son of the CAO of the coffee company you work for? Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you," Alice added triumphantly at the same time.

Bella sank back into her chair, cursing her brain for being right. "Oh, shit. Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I didn't know you didn't know!"

Bella massaged the frown away that had formed between her brows and sighed. Well, apparently she had gone on a date with her boss and absolutely scared him off like some kind of creep. Luckily, she would never ever meet him again since the impression she gave him was horrible. It was unfortunate, but she had helped her friend and Edward and her paths would never cross again.

Unfortunate, but it could be worse. It could be ten times worse.

So she stood up, stretched her tired legs and nodded to Alice. "There's nothing I can do that could change the outcome of this evening, so I'd better get to bed."

Sunday morning, hours before she would wake normally, Bella's phone rang. No one who knew her dared to call her at this ungodly hour. And even if they tried, she likely wouldn't answer.

Bella reached out to her phone, ready to curse at the unfortunate caller, turn in her bed and sleep for another few hours.

She looked at the caller ID. That couldn't be. She looked again and the name was still there.

It was Edward.