123Hello readers!
If you're reading my other fic "The Newman-project" you'll notice that this Edward is also an architect. This fic was actually written two years ago and I never planned to publish it here, but then I thought why not? We'll follow Edward this Christmas and revisit Christmases from the past.
I hope you'll want to come along.
The twenty-first of December.
Coming home for Christmas had been a tradition ever since I moved to New York nine years ago. It was the one condition my mother had. I'd left as soon as I'd gotten my letter from New York's most prestigious school of architecture and then I had never looked back.
And never slept.
I had spent the past nine years staying up all night. My sister Alice told me I lived my life like a vampire. Truth was my mind was stuffed and it would never quiet down enough to let me get some sleep. Over Christmas, staying at a hotel in Forks I could get a few hours of sleep if I was lucky.
I took a shower and then went straight to bed. I contemplated on wether or not to pick up my sketchpad, but I resisted the urge. But then as a true workaholic I couldn't help but to open my lap top and look through some emails. There were two hundred of them. About eighty I could delete at once. After a while I told myself I had to stop. I decided on trusting my assistent Jessica for once. I sent her an email telling her I'd gone through some and that she could do the rest.
Tomorrow I was going to meet everyone again. My father, my siblings and their families... and Bella who always brought that tool Mike.
Once again I was the odd one out surrounded by couples.
I shut off the lights and closed my eyes trying to ignore that the bed was too big for one person.
When I woke up it was still dark out. I looked at my wristwatch in the dark trying to make out the time but decided that it didn't matter. I was wide awake. I went out for a run in the snow. It was pitch dark outside so maybe it was still night, but another check on my watch let me know it's six o'clock. When I got back in the clock was only seven, although it felt like I had been out forever. I took a shower intending to make it last atleast an half hour, but I could only make it to ten minutes before I got bored.
Then I got dressed. Black jeans and a pale-blue shirt. I spent a good five minutes carefully rolling up the sleeves. I simply had too much time on my hands.
I was still in work mode. I sat on the bed restlessly tapping my fingers on my knee. I turned on the television but there was nothing interesting on.
I looked at my lap top for a while, trying to resist it, but I couldn't. It took me one hour to deal with most of the emails. Five minutes later I got an email from Jessica.
"Good morning Edward,
Two hundred emails? More like twenty."
I realized I had a problem. My mother had always told me to leave work in New York, but work was in my brain so it would need to be distached from my body in order to do that.
"Was bored. Keep a look out during the day if you have time."
Jessica emailed back quickly.
"I work for you. So obviously I have time. Now how about you enjoy your vacation instead?"
I sighed and looked at my watch. It was 9am. I had time too. A lot of it. I took up my sketchpad.
I had started my own company as soon as I graduated from college. To my father's dismay it turned out that architecting seemed to be my calling in life. He was a doctor himself and had always envisioned that I'd follow in his footsteps. I did try, but it wasn't for me. The day I dropped out of med school to start studying architecture instead was one of my happiest and one of my dad's saddest.
But the company I started right after graduation quickly got successful and it seemed like an unstoppable force. Soon I was considered New Yorks "it" architect and in time not even my dad could ignore that. They claimed I was a natural, but it all boils down to two things: hard work and little sleep.
I sketched random things until ten o' clock. It was time to drive to my parents' place. I put on my shoes and grabbed my jacket and the bags full of presents. I put the presents in the trunk. Then with my hands on the wheel I took a deep breath. I had fooled myself into thinking I hadn't thought about Bella at all since I woke up and I hadn't - not consciously, but the truth was she's always in me, in everything I did. I could blame it all on work, but really she was the reason why I'd felt so restless all morning. I was going to see her today.
I began driving. It was like driving through a winter wonderland. The trees were heavy with snow and every house I drove by was heavily decorated with all kinds of lights. It was the twenty-first of December and I was much earlier this year than the previous one where I had flown in the day before Christmas day and left the day after. The plan this year was to stay until after New Years but I hadn't made any promises yet. While I always doubted it I knew the company would survive without me over the holidays and God knows I certainly had some vacation to put to use.
While in the car I tried to ready myself for "The Yearly Questioning of Edward". Another year where I didn't bring a girlfriend. Why? Why? Why?! Thirty-one and I've never brought anyone to introduce.
I sighed. I was almost there now. I could see the house: big, white and flawlessly decorated as every Christmas. Snow was falling now, slowly and the whole pitcure was straight from a fairy tale. I parked the car outside.
For a few seconds I stayed where I was looking in. It was like a commercial for the happiest family in America. My sister Alice was laughing with her husband Jasper in the kitchen. Her black short hair had grown since I last saw her. It reached her shoulders now and Jasper's blonde hair was almost the same length. He'd gone full on hippie. They were holding each other dancing and I smiled slightly at the sight. In a few hours my sister Rose would arrive with her husband Emmett. Then Bella with... Mike.
I knew I could sit there for hours, not daring to go inside and be the odd one out as always so I made a decision and let go of the wheel.
I took a quick look at myself in the mirror. I was as pale as always and my hair was a mess. But I was alive.
Time to meet the family.