Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all things Twilight. No copyright infringement intended. ©2025
Chapter 15
Bella
"Edward," I squealed. "You are so crazy." I lightly tapped his shoulder.
"It wasn't me." He held his hands up in surrender. "It was Stanley's assistant." Edward chuckled. "His eyes were as big as saucers by the end of that meeting."
"Did it end well?" Althea asked.
"For my client, yes. But not so much for Stanley's client." Edward smiled.
"Have you ever had to go to court?" Peter asked.
"No," Edward shook his head. "I work my ass to make sure none of my clients have to ever go to court."
"He's a badass," Althea interjected, laughing.
Ever since Edward and I met at the coffee shop, we have talked every day for the past two weeks, sometimes two or three times a day.
Tonight, he came over to Althea and Peter's house to cook one of his infamous dishes: salmon seared to perfection paired with creamy garlic, lemon, and herb sauce, homemade mashed potatoes, and asparagus.
Althea jumped up and down when she saw Edward making his triple-layered chocolate cake.
Edward waved his hand dismissively at Althea. "I wouldn't say all of that. I'm just doing my job."
"Stop being so modest," I turned my head, looking him directly in the eyes. "You are a badass. Accept the compliment, Attorney Cullen." I smirked.
His beautiful green eyes twinkled, as he smirked back at me.
"Well," Peter spoke up. "If you all don't mind, Althea and I will have our dessert in our bedroom."
"Okay," Edward nodded, not taking his eyes off of me. "We'll take care of the kitchen."
"You'll do no such thing," Althea argued. "Just put your plates in the dishwasher and I'll take care of the rest in the morning."
It was Friday evening, and no one had to be at work the next day.
"Yes, ma'am, your honor," Edward joked, finally turning his eyes away from me.
Althea threw her linen napkin at him. "Oh, shut up." She rolled her eyes.
"Edward," Peter stood up, rubbing his stomach. "Everything was delicious."
"Thanks," Edward nodded.
"You know you're always welcome to come over and cook anytime, right?" Peter's smile was wide.
"You know I don't mind. It's one of my ways to release stress." Edward said.
"You can come over and release as much stress as you would like." Althea teased, taking her and putting her plate into the dishwasher.
"You sure you all won't get tired of me?" Edward asked.
"No," I quickly replied, covering my mouth with my hand. I'm sure my face was as red as a beet.
Edward's grin was wide.
Althea tried to swallow her smile but her deep dimples gave her away.
Peter cleared his throat, "Alright baby, what movie do you want to watch?"
He was always so cool and smooth in my embarrassing moments. That was one of the reasons why I loved him so much.
She stared at me for a few beats more before turning to answer Peter. "I'm in the mood for something relaxing. I had a day in court, so let's look at It's Complicated."
"I'm good with that, Honey," Peter leaned down for a quick peck on the lips. He put his arm around her waist, gently guiding her out of the kitchen.
"Good night Bella and Edward," Peter waved before they were completely out of sight.
"Good night," we said in unison.
I silently waited because I knew Althea was going to say something.
"Sweet, sweet dreams Bella and Eddie," She sang-song before we heard the bedroom door close.
Edward and I both snorted, shaking our heads. She was the only Edward allowed to call him Eddie. Not even his mother could call him that.
"I knew her crazy ass wasn't going to miss an opportunity to say something." I laughed.
"She wouldn't be herself if she did," Edward commented, as he grabbed our plates to put in the dishwasher.
"Would you like some more wine?" I asked.
"Nah, I'm good. I still have to drive home."
"Are you about to leave now?" I bit my bottom lip.
"No," he reached for my hand. "Unless you're tired and ready to go to bed."
I shook my head, squeezing his hand. "Let's watch a movie or talk."
I cleared the glasses from the table, wiped the table down, and turned off the kitchen lights.
Edward stood in front of the wall of movies in the family room. "So, what are you in the mood to watch tonight?"
"It doesn't matter to me. I think I want to do more talking than anything."
"Okay, Sweetheart. Whatever you say. How about I turn on music instead?"
"That's good." I agreed.
Moments later soft jazz came from the TV as Edward sat on the couch leaving some space between us.
Edward had been a gentleman the entire time. It was obvious that the chemistry between us was still there, Althea had so eloquently pointed that out to me earlier today.
"So, what's on your mind?" Edward asked.
"First of all, I wanted to thank you for being here for me. It means the world to me, Edward. Between you and my family, you all are helping me get through one of the hardest times in my life."
He scooted closer to me. "Bella I wouldn't have it any other way. When I said I wanted to be here for you, I meant it."
"I know you did," I reached for his hand. "You're a good guy. Always have been and that's why I don't understand why you're not taken already." I bit the inside of my cheek. It was hard for me to think of him being with another woman. Even though with all the time that had passed, I knew he'd been with other women. But now that we were getting close again, it made me cringe.
"Bella," he chuckled. "We've already been through this. I'm not in a serious relationship with anyone nor do I have a situationship either."
"I know but—"
He cut me off. "Bella," He paused looking deep into my eyes. "What if I don't want to be with anyone else? What if I know exactly who I want? What if I realized too late that I was a bumbling idiot and let the best that happened to me walk out of my life?"
"What?" I blinked.
"Please believe me when I say, I'm not trying to push you. I promise you I'm not. You know I wouldn't do that to you, Bella." He ran his fingers through his hair with his other hand. "That sonofabitch has put you through enough. I won't add to it, Sweetie. We can talk about this later or whenever you're ready." He pleaded with his eyes.
"What," I cleared the lump in my throat. "What if I'm ready now," I whispered.
I was tired of wondering what could've been had we made a different decision years ago. Maybe had we both not been so pig-headed things would have turned out differently.
I had been fighting to push the envelope for months. When I stayed on that island, our supposed honeymoon, Edward was one of the few people I thought about. Being away from everything and everyone gave me time to really think about some of the decisions I'd made. He wasn't the only idiot.
He studied me for a moment. "What are you saying?"
"I want to talk about it now." My voice rose slightly. "Please tell me, Edward." I wanted him to know I meant what I said so I met his intense gaze.
"What exactly do you want to know?" His eyebrows rose with interest.
"I want to know everything. Whatever you're willing to share with me." I closed my eyes to take a calming breath.
"Do you think now is the best time to talk about this? I mean with you going through a divorce…"
"Edward," I interrupted him. "I know exactly what I'm going through. Us talking about it now or later won't change a damn thing." I pulled my hand out of his stood up and began to pace. "I am divorcing Aaron. There is nothing he or anyone else can do to make me change my mind. When I was alone in Fiji, with nothing but time to reflect on how I got to that point, it made me look at me." I pointed to myself. "Not what he did or didn't do but what in me made me settle for him in the first damn place. The red flags that I saw, why in the hell did I ignore them." My lower lip trembled.
"Bella," he stood up and embraced me. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, honey." He whispered.
"No, Edward," I shook my head and pulled away from him. "I did this. Now I have to face the consequences of my actions."
"The hell," he stepped closer to me. "You don't deserve these consequences, Bella. People marry the wrong person every day but that doesn't warrant actions like his." Edward cupped my cheek with one hand, gently rubbing it with his thumb. "Okay, so you made a mistake."
My laugh had an edge to it. "A mistake is when you don't know. I won't say I knew everything, but I had this gut feeling something wasn't quite right about him. Both my parents tolerated him because of me. I knew they didn't want me to marry him, but they aren't the type that try to run my life." I huffed out, shaking my head. "I messed up, badly."
"Aw, baby, don't say that." He tried to comfort me.
"It's the truth. There are times in our lives when we have to own what we do. So, here I am owning it. But that doesn't mean I have to stay in it."
"That's right. You don't have to stay with him." He agreed.
I wasn't going to be deterred by talking about my scam of a marriage. I still wanted to know. I laid my hand on his chest. "Please, can we talk about it, now?"
"Sure, whatever you want." He nodded his head. "But let's sit back down, first."
After we got comfortable on the couch he began. "I felt like the biggest fool after you left my apartment. Before that stupid argument, we had five blissful days. We barely went out because I didn't want to share you with anyone else." He laid his hand on top of mine. "I wanted those five days we shared to be our every day. I knew when you left it was going to be a long time before we saw each other again. I freaked out. I panicked when I saw you packing."
"Edward, what made you think it was any easier for me? Remember when I told you I wanted to shower alone?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "I thought that was kind of strange, especially since we'd taken showers together the entire time you were there."
"I did that because I didn't want you to see me cry. I began to second guess my career choice because I wanted to be with you so badly."
"Oh honey, I didn't know." His tone was soft.
"I know you didn't. I managed to pull myself together before coming out."
"And the moment you came out, me being the jackass I was, not realizing what you were dealing with in the bathroom, I wanted you to choose between me or your career." He exhaled, shaking his head. "You had every right to leave. Who in the fuck did I think I was? It was inconsiderate and selfish as hell."
"Yeah, it was." That caught me off guard. It was like he did a complete one-eighty from the Edward I left before I went into the bathroom. I had never seen him so demanding.
He snorted. "You're not supposed to agree, Bella."
"It's the truth." I chuckled.
His playful expression changed. "I tossed and turned all night, upset with myself for not driving you to the airport. I was too messed up to go to class the next day. I kept my blackout curtain closed and didn't watch TV, or listen to music or anything. I turned my phone off…"
"I know because I tried to call you and it went straight to voicemail." I cut in.
He turned his head quickly. "I didn't get a message."
"That's because I didn't leave one."
"Why?"
"Because I was too chicken shit too. At the time I felt like if you didn't pick up the phone maybe that was my sign, that we shouldn't be together." I shrugged.
"Seriously?" He frowned.
"I never said it made sense. I was just telling you my thought process. Hindsight, it wasn't one of my brightest moments."
"No," he chuckled. "It wasn't."
"I don't remember getting any messages from you either, Mr. Cullen." I playfully shot back.
"I was too ashamed of myself after I thought about everything. Bella, I gave you an ultimatum. I was in school carrying a fifteen-credit hour load, plus working, missing the hell out of you. I hated you were so far away from me. I wanted to hold you every day, but I couldn't. What made it worse is when I saw my friends with their girlfriends all the time it pissed me off because I knew that would never be us." He explained.
All of this information was new to me. I had no idea he felt like this.
"It was rough on both of us. But I thought we had talked everything out and decided we were going to deal with the distance because we knew it wouldn't be forever. When did that change?" I asked.
"It was something that slowly ate away at me. I thought I was strong enough to do the distance relationship thing but when weeks went by without me hearing your voice or when you did call, I missed your call, it showed me just how weak I was." He swallowed. "I had never loved someone as much as I loved you." He sighed. "I was trying to hold on to you so tight, but I ended up pushing you away." He looked down.
I gently raised his chin so he could look me in the face. "Sweetie, both of us are to blame. Neither one of us was good at communicating our feelings that day." I smiled. "Our egos were too big. Then to top it all off, instead of calling you to talk things out, I sent you that Dear John email."
His forehead wrinkled. "I still remember sitting in class when it came through. I immediately opened it, excited to finally hear from you. I knew after you went back your schedule was going to be even more hectic." His knee bounced. "By the time I read the second sentence I knew what was next. If I hadn't been in class, I probably would've thrown my laptop." He stared at me intensely.
"I'm so sorry," I mumbled. "I got scared and thought the distance would eventually break us up so I thought ending it quickly would make it hurt less." A lonely tear rolled down my cheek. "I had never been so damn wrong in my life. With every word I typed, it felt like a piece of my soul was being ripped from me."
He gently wiped away more tears of my tears that I hadn't realized fell. "That's how I felt reading it. I guess I wanted to torture myself because I read it again but after that, I closed my laptop and left." He chuckled. "It's not like I was going to hear anything being said anyway."
"For us to have such high IQ scores, we're not that smart, huh?" I snorted, shaking my head.
"Yeah, it makes me wonder," Edward confirmed. "So, I guess it's safe to say that we both messed up, horribly. We did a whole lot of assuming."
"Yeah, we did." I nodded. "I'm glad we were able to move past that and still be friends afterward."
"If I'm being completely honest, Bella, that was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I've always wanted more with you but when you introduced me to Aaron…" He stopped talking and shook his head.
"I know. It showed you that there wasn't a chance between you and me. When you brought Tracy to that dinner party, it appeared you were happy and had already moved on. So, I thought that was my cue to do the same." I shrugged.
"Later that evening I ended things with her. I knew it wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't going to string her along." He bit his bottom lip. "Bella, I've realized that I've compared every woman after you to you. It's not fair to them and it wasn't fair to me either. I was tired of going through the motions. That's why I've been happily single." He chuckled.
Althea told me things didn't work out between the two of them. She thought Tracy wanted Edward to commit but he wasn't ready. Needless to say, I never saw her again after that night.
When our little group would get together, Edward had a date or two, but it seemed like it was nothing serious because I wouldn't see them again either.
"Is that how you want to stay, happily single?" I asked.
"Not really, but the right woman would have to come along." He smirked.
"Ah? And who might that be?" I tilted my head to the side.
"Well," he looked down at our joining hands. "She's about five feet tall, one-hundred ten pounds, with the most gorgeous big brown eyes, that seem to be able to see straight to my soul. She knocked me off my first the moment I saw her, and I haven't been the same since." His eyes sparkled when he smiled.
"Is that so," I blushed. He still knew how to turn my face red.
"Absolutely so." He teased. "And you know what else?"
"What?" I giggled.
"She's definitely worth the wait." He gently rubbed his thumb across my hand. "I'm perfectly happy spending as much time with you as you will allow me to. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it."
I leaned in cupping his cheek. "Edward you don't need to do anything. You've done more than enough just by talking to me every day. Look at what you did today, you left the office early to come over and cook for us. You're doing too much already."
He leaned into my touch more. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." His eyes were bright and glossy.
I was flooded with warmth all over my body. I knew what I wanted to say but for some reason, it wouldn't come out.
"Bella, I know you've got a lot going on right now, closing this door with Aaron. But I want you to know that I am here for you—completely. Take as much time as you need to heal from this, sweetheart. I'm here for the long haul," He licked his lips. "You just let me know when you're ready for more."