15DISCLAIMER: I don't own Twilight or any of the Twilight characters ... the one and only, Stephanie Meyer does.
This is unbeta'd so mistakes are all mine. The beta'd version will be up soon.
Chapter 2
I wake up the next morning feeling rejuvenized. The long flight over was a real killer.
I reach over to the side table next to the bed to grab my phone to check for any messages or missed calls. I see have a missed call from Renee. Oh shit. I totally forgot to call her last night to let her know I got here safely. She must be so pissed with right now!
I try to call her back but doesn't answer. I guess I'll try calling her again later.
Before going to the kitchen to fix myself something to eat, I check out every room in the house. I must say Ange has done well for herself. I've always wanted to buy a place of my own ... a 2 or 3 bedoom house, with a big swimming pool out the back, enough room for a big dog and a couple of kids. One day, I hope. Oh, and a husband too, of course. Funny that I think of that last!
"Bellaaaa!"
I run towards the living room and find Ange standing on the sofa, her eyes scanning the floor.
"Umm, what are you doing?"
"I saw a spider, Bella. I'm not getting off her until it's dead. Can you kill it, please?"
"Oh, poor diddums. Where is it? I can't see it." I get on my hands and knees to crawl around to find it.
I burst out laughing. "You can't be serious. A daddy longlegs? You're freaked out by a daddy longlegs?" I snicker.
"What a nice friend you are. I thought you would have remembered that I have a huge fear of spiders. I usually call Ben over to kill it or I get his best friend to come over if Ben is not around."
"I'm sorry I forgot. You gotta admit though, it is pretty funny."
"God, you can be such an insensitive bitch sometimes, Bella." Ange scowls at me.
"That's why you love me." I give her a toothy grin.
I go to the kitchen to grab a few tissues and walk back into the living room and pick up the spider. I go over to open the front door and let the imposter escape.
I walk back inside and tell Ange that I got rid of it.
"What are you doing today, gorgeous?" I sit down on the sofa and rest my head in my hands.
"I need to go to the dance studio to do some paperwork for Carmen and Kate. I'll only be a few hours. You can come along if you'd like?"
"Do you need me to do any food shopping? I can stock up on things for the party? Oh, and when were you thinking of having the party?"
Ange hums. "Ben said him and his buddies are off-duty tonight. Too soon? If it's too soon, we can organise it for another night."
"Are your girls able to come tonight?"
Ange nods her head. "Carmen said yes but not sure about Kate. I'll see if Charlotte can come along too."
"Alrighty then. Tonight is fine. I'll go and grab some food for it then."
Ange claps her hands with excitement.
"The party will be great! I can't wait for you to meet everybody."
"Me too, my friend. Me too."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LLI~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Angela leaves to go to work, I go have breakfast followed by a quick bath to shave my legs. I'd rather get that out of the way now as I probably won't have enough time to do so before the party tonight.
Twenty minutes later, I walk down to the local grocery store. Ange's house is only 3 blocks away from down town Los Angeles. Very handy. I love it.
Salami, check. Cheddar cheese, check. Daiya vegan cheese, check. Crackers, check. Gherkin and eggplant dip, check. What else? Hmmmm...
"Well, hello stranger! Bella, long time no see?"
I turn around to face whose talking to me. I cringe internally. Oh, kill me now, please.
"Hi Mike!" I say in the most enthusiastic voice that I can muster.
My eyes fly wide open in sheer horror as he steps forward to engulf me in a hug. He holds me for what feels like an eternity before he lets me go.
"I heard on the grapevine that you were back. I couldn't be happier see that it's true! It's so great to see you. It's been a few years since you've been over to visit Ange, yeah?"
"Yeah, it's been around 3 years."
Oh, God. I want to get out of here.
"How long will you be around for? We need to hang out. Would you like to go out for dinner with sometime?" Mike's voice is full of hope.
I squirm where I stand. "I'm sorry, Mike, but my diary is pretty full right now. Thanks for asking though. That's sweet of you."
"Can we exchange numbers then? Can I call you?"
Shit. Shit. Shit! What the fuck do I say?
I feel someone wrap their arm around me and I jump in surprise. I look over at Mike, who looks at this stranger next to me, with a big sour look on his face.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Cullen," Mike sneers.
Just as I'm about to look up at this Cullen person, this beautiful, velvet voice speaks.
"Nice to see you too, Newton."
I look up at Cullen and my mouth goes dry. I swear my heart has just stopped beating.
I've met some really good-looking, correction, RIDICULOUSLY good-looking men in my life but this man has really put them to shame. I can't think of just one word to describe him. Sexy?Handsome? Gorgeous? Oh, yes, but, so much more. He's THE epitome of all things beautiful. He looks at least 6'1, has a gorgeous mop of medium brown hair that I want to run my fingers through.
I'm snapped out of my internal thoughts by Mike.
"Bella, are you alright?"
I clear my throat. "I'm okay, sorry."
Mike gives me a confused look. I look at Cullen, who is giving me a panty-dropping grin. I get a closer look at his eyes ... they are bright green. Wow, so gorgeous.
He turns back to Mike and cocks an eyebrow at him.
"Newton, you're not harrassing this poor girl ..." He turns back me and winks and turns back again "... Bella, are you?"
Mike furrows his eyebrows at him. "Bella's an old primary school friend. I'm just wanting to exchange numbers. Is that a crime now?"
I frown. "I'm sorry, Mike, but I'm not interested in that way. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."
Mike looks crestfallen. "Oh, okay. That's alright, Bella. Thanks for your honesty."
He looks at Cullen again and narrows his eyes at him, returns his eyes back to me again and smiles shyly.
"Oh, well, good to see you back, Bella. Say hi to Ange for me. Might see you around!"
I nod my head. "See you around, Mike. Take care."
Mikes gives me a small wave, looks at Cullen up and down, shoots him a dirty look and walks off.
Cullen removes his arm from around my shoulders. I turn my body around towards him to look at him properly.
"Thanks for your assistance. You are my knight in shining armour." I smile sweetly.
He smirks. "My pleasure. It really looked like you needed saving, I'm glad to be of service."
"Yes, I did. Every time I come over to Los Angeles to visit my friend, I run into Mike and he hounds me to go out with him. He can't seem to take a hint ... not even when I know he's in a relationship with someone."
Cullen nods his head. "Yeah, that's him for you. He's a creep. I've never liked the guy."
I snort. "That doesn't seem to be unrequited. From the look on his face, it was like he wanted to remove your manhood or something."
Cullen throws his head back and laughs. "Oh, I'd love to see him try!"
Oh, this fine specimen of a man is cocky.
"Well, thanks again, uh, Cullen. I better keep on with the shopping."
"Please don't call me Cullen, my buddies call me that." He holds out his hand for a handshake. Oh, how I'd love to do more than just that. "Call me Edward."
"Bella. Well, you already knew that." I blush. As we shake hands, I feel some sort of electricity between us. My eyes go wide and my mouth opens and closes again & I gulp heavily. I remove my hand from his and check to see if he felt that as well. He's looking back and forth between my mouth and my eyes with an intensity that makes my legs want to turn to jelly.
I break the trance that we both seem to be in and decide to say something. "Thanks again, Edward. See you around?" I capture my bottom lip between my teeth with nervousness.
"I hope so, Bella. That would be great. See ya." Edward smiles at hesitantly.
I turn back to my trolley and start walking away when Edward calls my name. I look back at him.
"I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more of each other in the future, Bella. You can count on it." Edward grins me.
I'm at a loss for words so I just nod my head. "Uhh, sure..." I give him a cheesy smile and give him another wave before I leave him standing there as I go to collect a few more food items before I pay for them and leave.
What the hell just happened?
AN - Hi guys! Sorry it's taken me until now to update. Thanks for your patience. This chapter was fun to write. What did you think about Bella's encounter with Mike and Edward?
This is the unbeta'd version of chapter 2 ... cdrivanova, my beta, is reviewing it at the moment and I'll replace this with the beta'd version asap. :)
Thanks to cdrivanova and loopylou992 (my pre-reader) for all their help and support with this story. Thanks also to everyone who has put the story on Story Alert, on their favorites list & have put me on their Favorite Authors list & put me on Author Alert. I'm very flattered!