Thank you so so much for all your reviews, they mean the world to me. Had it not been nearly a decade since I updated a story I would've replied to all of you but honestly, I forgot how to. Oops :3

As usual, nothing's mine.

Chapter 3

"I'll tell her he had to fly out, that he went to Hawaii for work. Wait, no, Australia, it's farther."

"You just told her he was at your apartment with you like an hour ago."

"I can say that he had to leave unexpectedly, a bridge was falling down, and he had to go fix it."

Alice rolled her eyes, Bella had been freaking out about her mom's impromptu visit all morning, she kept coming up with wild and crazy scenarios that would explain Jacob's absence.

"Why don't you just tell her that you realized you're a lesbian? I could say I'm your girlfriend," she offered cheerfully.

Bella smiled despite herself. "Much as I appreciate the offer I'll pass; my mom would have a heart attack."

Her office phone beeped, Angela, her boss, needed her.

Bella had been working at Seattle Regional for seven years, got the job while she was still in college and worked her way up from part-time teller to credit lending assistant. She was making a steady income, had an office with a view and weekends off. By all means, it was the perfect job… if only she had a passion for it.

She had enjoyed learning about so many different things and was grateful for the various opportunities she had received while at the job but she felt stuck, Bella always knew she never wanted to be in banking for a living but trying to appease her mother and father and what they deemed was a respectable career for her, she accepted the job and had been here for so long she had no idea how to do anything else.

Dispelling her thoughts Bella knocked on Angela's door. To no one's shock Angela was hunched over, working on a puzzle. Bella had never met anyone more intrigued by puzzles than Angela Webber, in their time working together Angela had gone through thousands of puzzles, God only knew how she had the patience, and the time to work on those little pieces endlessly.

"You needed me, Angela?"

"Bella! Yes, have a sit, dear, how do you feel?"

"I'm doing okay, thanks for asking."

"Not long now, huh?"

Tight smile, "no."

"So, Bella, as you know I'll be retiring at the end of the year, the board asked me if I have anyone in mind to replace me and I mentioned you."

"Angela, I-" Bella was speechless.

"I know you have time off coming up and obviously we'll be amenable to that but as soon as you come back, I can start training you to be my replacement, you already know a lot of what I do and it is honestly more formality than anything else, the job is as good as yours."

Bella felt her throat constrict and she wrung her hands. Her future was never going to change, was it? She would be here until retirement, stuck in a job she barely tolerated. "Can I have some time to think about it? Things will be changing for me so soon and I honestly can't really focus on anything else right now."

Thankfully Angela understood Bella's position and let her leave the office without much fuss. They would talk about it later, for now Angela still had a puzzle to finish.

-PH-

A knock on the door made Bella jump. Was it her mom?

The door opened to reveal some guy who clearly did not own any combs at home.

"Hi, can I come in? I have a meeting with Mrs. Webber at 1 PM but I just needed a quick favor first."

Before she could react and let the man know he was in the wrong office, he sat down at her desk and started speaking.

"Ms. Swan, my name is Edward Cullen, we spoke a bit ago on the phone."

The name sounded familiar. "Are you the one who asked to be placed on hold?"

"Yes!" Maybe this plan of Edward's wasn't so far-fetched after all.

"Did you get what you needed?" she asked, only half listening to his response.

"No, see the thing is I'm a composer, I score films and I've been commissioned to score a new film and there is one jingle I heard here that is perfect…" the man trailed off.

To say Bella was confused was an understatement. "So, you want to listen to the hold music that plays on my phone?"

"Yes, please, just for a bit."

Bella debated within herself, clearly this guy was crazy but if letting him use her phone was going to get him off her case then so be it, she handed him the receiver and continued on her laptop, she was shopping online for male button up shirts so she could hang them in her closet and throw her mom off, she would have to fork over the extra money for an overnight delivery.

Edward was on tenterhooks, please let this be the right jingle.

A trumpet version of La Cucaracha started playing. He could not catch a break.

Defeated, he set the receiver down. "How many different jingles does this building have?"

"A lot."

"But how many would you say?"

"Over 200, there's a different jingle per phone."

Edward's shoulders sagged. "Ms. Swan, would you mind if I just stayed here for a minute and listened to the jingles? I won't even bother you; you won't even know I'm here."

"I work with my phone; I can't have the line busy for that long."

"But what if-"

Bella had had enough. "Mr. Cullen, was it? I am incredibly busy, and you have a meeting to get to, if there is nothing banking-wise I can help you with then I think we're done here." She called for Alice and had Edward escorted out. Her mom was due any second and she had no clue what she would say.

-PH-

The meeting with Mrs. Webber went better than Edward could've expected, after some hardcore begging and explaining why this time Edward would be able to make the payments on time, he was granted an extension, two weeks.

Once he secured the extension, he figured he might as well push his luck and ask to use Mrs. Webber's phone. Seattle Regional Bank's motto was We Are More Than Just a Bank, We Are a Family. Well, family help each other out. Unfortunately, that was not the tune he was looking for.

Edward left the office unaccompanied and must've gotten himself turned around some way because he came across a wide room filled with desks, it must be lunch hour because every desk was empty, he turned to leave and look for the exit but then stopped. All these desks were empty, there was no one in sight and so many phones within reach...

He looked to the right, he looked to the left and saw no one. Edward took a step into the room. Time to get to work.

-PH-

Renée Dwyer (née Higginbotham) knew that if there was ever a time to come help her youngest daughter this was it, it really was fortuitous timing that her British paperwork came in and she was able to travel outside of England. It's not that Renée was suspicious of Jacob or that she didn't think Bella knew what she was doing but Renée was beginning to think he may not be as involved as her daughter would like her to believe.

Her footsteps echoed down the hall.

She made it all the way to Bella's office and took a second to beam with pride at her daughter's accomplishments. She opened the door without knocking and saw Bella jump about a foot in the air and then go ashen.

"Oh darling! Oh sweetheart, baby let me look at you! Oh, I missed you, darling." Renée's exuberance was not matched. Bella was still shocked into silence, she only minutely thawed out enough to return her mother's hug.

"Oh darling, your office is brilliant! You've done so well, daddy and I are so proud," she smiled for a second as she looked out the window, "shame about the noise though. It's very loud here, isn't it? You know, darling in London all offices have double-paned windows, shocking that the States haven't caught up yet," she tsked.

"Where's your stuff, mom?"

"Well, darling, I know you said your flat is small, so I'll be staying with Sue. She's so brilliant, as soon as she heard I was coming she practically insisted I stay with her. I dropped my luggage off at her house before coming here."

Renée sat down on Bella's seat and faced her daughter. "Now, sweetheart, we have to talk about you and Jacob, where is he? When can I meet him?"

Bella somehow found her voice "Yeah, mom... I was actually gonna talk to you about that, something came up at wo-"

A knock at the door interrupted her.

Bella turned around in her seat and saw Emmett, the security guard dragging none other than Mr. Phone Jingles with him. Now what?

"Ms. Swan, sorry to bother you but this gentleman here says you know him and that you were expecting him."

"Yes, Emmett, he's harmless."

"Are you sure?"

At that, Edward was a bit offended, "she just told you I'm harmless, don't you think she would only say that if she knew me?"

During the kerfuffle no one noticed Renée's eyes narrow.

"Is this Jacob?" she asked her daughter.

Bella turned back toward her mother and opened her mouth to set the record straight but there was something about the expectant and surprised look in her mother's face, almost like she knew Bella had been lying about Jacob and was incredulous to be proven wrong that Bella was extremely annoyed by. She looked toward Edward Cullen and something she could not explain came over her.

"Yes, mom, this is Jacob," she smiled broadly "my boyfriend".

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!