588Hi :)
I wanted to make a small introduction to this story before we start off. To do an "all human" version of Twilight has of course been done a MILLION times before and it's a bit of a weird thing I think since we strip away something essential, that of the Cullens being vampires, but then again I guess it's so easy (and entertaining) to interpret and/or make your own version of Bella and Edward. Needless to say I love all human Twilight otherwise I wouldn't write this story.
Obviously womanizer/douchebag Edward has been done before and we've met Bella as the hopeless romantic wanting to tame the rough around the edges bachelor... Yeah this is another one of those stories, but I love those! Hopefully I can add a bit of my own flavour and style to it so I'm hoping you'll want to read it anyways. Alright I'm done, enjoy :)
When I decided I wanted to be an architect I had this vision that I was going to be my own boss and decide my own hours.
Yeah... Not so much.
The Newman-project. I have a feeling it's going to be The never ending-project.
We have barely begun and already it feels like it's going to be a long ride. I've been brainstorming this entire weekend (my weekend off, mind you) for ideas and the sketches are strewn across both my livingroom table and the kitchen benches. In fact on every possible surface. It has never been this apparent that my love life is lacking. To think back to the time when there instead used to be old take-out boxes for two left on the table... It feels unreal and just a bit depressing.
If Jessica Stanley, who is my boss, is going to give me crap for being late to the big Monday meeting, I'm going to lose it, for real! Bella Swan, the crazy lady over at Stanley Projects- yep, that would be me. Not only did I manage to get some work done (without actually getting anywhere), I managed to squeeze in a last minute date Sunday (!) night which turned out to be pretty horrible. I should have known something was wrong when the guy insisted we'd go out on a Sunday. I mean, really? A Sunday? Rose had to save me from that one showing up at the restaurant pretending to be in some serious pain. My excuse? I had to drive her to the hospital.
The guy who shall remained unnaimed was understanding, but didn't quite get it.
"So your friend ran all the way here to demand you take her to the hospital? She knows there's ambulances for that right?"
I'd panicked, but thrown out some excuse that went something like "she's got other issues too. Thanks for dinner, bye!" and then I was out the door. Then Rose and I had gone to a local bar near my place for some drinks. I have vague memories of crying publically over my ex James that I'm trying real hard to not remember at all as I'm getting off the subway on my way to work.
My Sunday had been slow and had way too many hours. Why on earth some of those hours didn't simply move to my Monday where I could better use them, I don't know, but here I am running to Stanley Projects from the subway. It doesn't matter how I plan my morning or if I skip breakfast or not, I must be cursed or something to always run five minutes behind everyone else. With my hair all over the place (not literally, obviously) I have a seat next to Rose my breath caught in my throat.
"What's the reason for this assemble?" I pant.
Rose turns her flawless face towards me. Her eye color is some kind of mixture between blue and violet ala Elizabeth Taylor and her blonde long wavy hair is in no need of styling since it's naturally just perfect. Rosalie is the most beautiful woman I know, but she's got an awesome personality which means I can't hate her.
She quirks one eyebrow and looks mildly put bored to death.
"Have you noticed there's an "ass" in the word assemble?" she asks me.
"I haven't thought about it. Thank you" I answer in a hushed voice.
Rose is also one of the brightest, if not the brighest person I know but when she says things like this it makes me seriously reconsider if she's putting her brain power to good use or not.
"You should be glad you're late. To miss five minutes of this thing... Oh what I would give!" she whispers dramatically. "But I can't sneak off again. I've already done that." She sighs deeply and I get where she's coming from.
"Why can't exciting things ever happen on Mondays? Something out of the ordinary?" I question.
"To keep our expectations down for all the other days?" Rose guesses.
"Depressing" I mutter under my breath.
We both turn our eyes to the person standing by the podium in the big meeting room. Jessica Stanley, of course the owner of Stanley Projecjts: the most successful architecture company in New York. I sigh while watching her speak animately flapping her arms around. The words "me" "myself" and "I" are repeated constantly.
"Have you noticed there's a "me" in the word meeting?" I mutter tiredly.
Rose laughs under her breath and knows exactly what I'm talking about. It's a reoccuring subject in the coffee room. I let my eyes sweep across the room in search of something remotedly more exciting than Jessica's constant blabbering about our on-going projects I already know more about than her. My eyes suddenly come to a halt when I notice the man sitting in between Ben and Mike. Without thinking about it I immediately straighten up and squint my eyes to get a better look of what could possibly be just the sexiest man I have ever laid my eyes on. He looks pretty content smiling a bit while listening to Jessica and I'm completely transfixed with his appearance.
"What?" Rose whispers noticing my focus has shifted.
I'm about to say "nothing" when she sees what I see.
"Holy fuck! He's a god. Look at that jawline.. That smile..."
"That hair" I fill in taking in his messy coppery colored hair. "Sex hair!" Yeah I said it. Sex hair. His skin is pale and smooth from where I'm sitting and... Sigh. I and Rose ogle him indiscreetly all the while blocking out Jessica's annoying voice. She doesn't manage to get our attention until she mentions a new colleague.
"His name is Edward Cullen. Edward, let's get you up here so everyone can get a good look at you" she says excitedly.
Suddenly the room is applauding and when I notice that my perfect man is the one rising from his seat all I can do is to clap my hands excitedly as well. I mean we're about to get a good look of this Edward Cullen, thank you Jessica! I and Rose try not to to drool as he walks up to the podium. I've never noted a man's walk before, but this is like watching a runway model in real life. It's almost ridiculous and I find myself blushing as I watch Edward Cullen take his place next to Jessica.
"Edward's new to all of us. No one has ever met him before" she introduces him stressing the words.
"A weird introduction, don't you think? I mean, isn't that what introductions are for? Because he's new?" I whisper to Rose who snorts loudly earning a few looks from people around us.
"They've slept together" she answers without any doubt to her voice.
"How do you know?" I ask her feeling a pang of jealousy at the thought.
Rose nods at Jessica.
"I heard some gossip about it the other week. Never got his name though, but they did say she'd slept with someone who was coming to work here... Besides it's quite obvious I think" she says nodding towards the stage. "Look at how uncomfortable Jessica looks. I bet he never called her back."
I look at Jessica and notice that she indeed looks uncomfortable as she can't seem to decide what do with her hands and her mouth is doing a weird thing like she can't decide whether to laugh or cry. Her eyes are nervously fixed on this Edward Cullen. She looks kind of pleading and desperate. If Jessica was a comic there'd probably be a speech bubble at her head saying "call me!".
I decide Rose is right.
"How did you think they met?" I whisper back.
"Coffee room said bar" Rose whispers back.
I inaudibly scold myself. Damn that Newman-project taking up so much time. Apparently I've been missing out on some juicy gossip lately. Somehow I find this fascinating. What am I saying? Somehow? I know exactly why I find this fascinating. How do you get with a guy like him? I mean, the way he looks... It simpy doesn't happen in real life that someone hooks up with someone who looks like that. Only in the movies and we're not in Hollywood. We're in New York. The men here are fairly good-looking in general I guess, but Edward Cullen? He's a head-turner! I've never encountered one. Jesus Swan, you're drooling! Stop it. I look at Jessica instead, but I can't look at her without picturing the two of them together. I mean, Jessica is pretty I guess. She's blonde, big boobs. Tall. Man, I wish I had bigger boobs. I wish I was taller. I sigh. I need to focus on this. What the hell are they even talking about? I knew they were going to talk about the Newman-project which logically should interest me since I'm head architect on it. Focus damn it! Come on now, focus. Your team will probably ask questions about this.
"I'm looking forward to working with all of you and to share ideas and..."
While I'm transfixed of the sound of Edward Cullen's voice, which is smooth and sexy, I can't pay attention to what he's actually talking about. Swiftly I look at Rose. I notice she's ogling Jessica and Edward too and it doesn't seem like she's listening very intently either.
"Good for her" she whispers to me sounding quite impressed.
I roll my eyes at her comment and right when I do this I somehow manage to make eye-contact with none other than Edward Cullen who's not talking anymore but standing more in the background while Jessica has taken over again. But I figure I must be imagining things. He really can't be able to see me all that well from where he's standing. Afterall there's light by the podium. Where I'm sitting it's quite dark so he must be looking straight into the audience. Not at me.
Just in case I smile swiftly at him hoping he'll just move along with his eyes and focus on some other spot in the room, but he still focuses on me and while I know he's really looking right into my eyes, I still hope that my eyes are the only part of me he sees. That way he won't recognize me later on as the person who rolled her eyes at him (though not on purpose). I focus on Jessica for a few seconds. When I look back at Edward Cullen he's still looking at me. What the hell? Soon he looks away and I feel my heart pounding so hard out of nervousness it's about to explode.
He really thinks I rolled my eyes at him!
I want to hide. No die. Die is better.
"Jesus Bella you look like a tomato who's seen a ghost" Rose notes.
"Thanks that makes me feel a whole lot better. You couldn't have gone with just tomato or ghost, you had to combine them?" I whisper back annoyed.
She smiles.
"I think someone has the hots for the new guy" she notes.
I snort but blush against my will. Damn that blush.
"It's not like I know the guy. Right now all we know is that he's a..." I trail off.
"Hot piece of ass?" Rose fills in.
I sigh. No words have ever been truer. Edward Cullen really is a hot piece of ass. In the same moment I decide I don't like him very much. I mean he is provocatively attractive plus he has already slept with one woman at Stanley Projects who happens to be the c.e.o. Obviously he's a manipulative womanizer and probably a smug one I note judging by the way he smiles suddenly when Jessica mentions his name. He just loves the sound of his own name! Jesus. I scoff irritatedly under my breath. When the meeting is over and I make sure that Edward Cullen has left the room, I run upstage to the podium and gaze out in the audience. To my fear I notice that the rest of the room doesn't look quite so dimly lit from up stage. That means he saw me pretty clearly and will probably recognize me as the woman who rolled her eyes at him. Damn it! But I ask myself, what does it matter? He'll probably be right in assuming I don't like him very much so what does it matter if I rolled my eyes at him or not? Right? Right? I find myself doubting. Crap!
"Bella what are you doing at the podium? You look like you're looking for someone."
I look in the direction of the voice. Angela is standing right below the stage peering up at me from behind her glasses. Bless Angela. She's one of my favorite co-workers because she puts up with my quirkiness.
"You, I was looking for you!" I lie and sound real excited about finding her.
Angela looks slightly confused but shrugs her shoulders.
"Well here I am. Should we go?" she asks.
Okay, so now I'm confused. I see Rose waiting in the doorway looking at me expectantly.
"Are you done with the podium Bella?" she questions.
"We were supposed to meet in the Newman-project room?" Angela reminds me.
Problem is I don't remember it at all. I knew all that ogling had to come with some consequences. I had no idea what Angela was talking about but apparently Rose had heard about it too because she didn't look at all confused. I leave the podium and together we go to the fifth floor where we have our project room. That's when I discover I've left my notepad in the assembly room.
Damn it.
So I take the elevator down again and get my freakin' notepad and then go up again. Finally I reach our office space. I'm the last one one and when I try to close the door behind me I forget I can't multitask so I drop my notepad and out flies all the loose papers I've stuffed in between the papers.
"Just like Mondays should be like right?" I joke.
Angela laughs and Rosalie rolls her eyes at me but smiling at the same time. They're so used to my clumsy ways by now that that's all they can do. On my team we are a total of three people. A bit strange considering the Newman-project is the biggest project we've had in a long time, but I guess it makes sense too. Angela, Rose and I are the best suited architectures for this particular project and to add some more people to this just because doesn't seem like a great idea.
But as I look across the room I notice that there's now a fourth person in our team.
It's none other than Edward Cullen.
He must notice my poorly hidden surprise. He's not smiling but there's a gleam in his eyes I can only interpret as he's finding something rather amusing. Probably me and the fact that I've forgotten to close my jaw. Great. He must think I have no control over my myself at all. First I roll my eyes at him and now I can't seem to close my jaw. Get a grip I tell myself.
"Oh right, Edward Cullen is it?" I say casually. "Will you be joining us today?" I ask hoping his answer will be no because I can't handle having him in the room looking like that, and then the fact that I out of accident rolled my eyes at him. Before Edward Cullen can answer for himself, Angela answers for him.
"Actually Bella, Edward is going to work with us on the Newman-project" she says smiling a little.
What the hell?! Instinctively I look at Rose and she's hiding her mouth with her hand. I just know that she's smiling widely behind it probably trying to keep from laughter. Damn her! Then I look at Edward Cullen who is smiling a bit.
"That means you'll be with us until..." I trail off.
His green eyes are boring into my very soul. There's some wicked kind of gleam in them and I feel completely lost.
"The project is finished, yes" he fills in looking at me searchingly as if he's awaiting my reaction.
That could be a very long time. My own words from earlier echoes in my mind "Why can't exciting things ever happen on Mondays? Something out of the ordinary?". This is most definitely out of the ordinary because suddenly I can't see how tomorrow is going down at all and it's freakin' terrifying! I manage to plaster a wide smile on my face hoping it looks natural enough. Just answer casually Swan, I tell myself.
"Great!" I answer but even to my own ears my voice is high pitched and nervous.
Oh God. How do I survive this?!