BPOV

I woke up with the same crappy feeling of self worthlessness. Cullen heels, which were running away from my house, began sparkling again in my head. I watched him go, knowing that he could barely restrain from start running. What the hell? He started kissing me – and ran off himself, passing wind. I stayed in the company’s of wet panties and wrenching memories of the globally protruding dignity with which Edward pressed me against the door.

Spreading the peanut butter on the toast, I was biting my lips again, remembering his kisses. At first, teasing, studying, and then furious, deep. The taste of his tongue, slightly bitter from tobacco, fresh scent of his skin with a touch of musk cologne aroma, tingling stubble on my cheeks and his hands tightly gripping my ass. Jerk Cullen though marked me with them and... made off.
I was furiously plunging my teeth into the toast, imagining that this was Edward’s nose. To bite this asshole is less what I wanted now. My cell phone went off on the table Text message:
We need to talk.
How about dinner at Billy’s at two. E.

Hmm, how selflessly... You don’t have enough balls to call, coward-chief.
Ok, E. B.

I threw the phone on the table. I have completely lost my appetite. Tightening the hair in a ponytail, I ran across the face with a corrector to erase the traces of a lousy night, and added a little mascara and gloss. I gotta get out! I pulled the jacket from the hanger. Under it I discovered Edward’s scarf which he never took back. Oh, what the hell, I tightened it around my neck, and plunged again into the magical smell. Oh, well, what he wanted from the poor Forks’ bitches? I myself was ready to run out into the street and yell at the top of my lungs how amazing was the smell of Edward Cullen. And we just had dinner and kissed. What will happen after sex? Stop! I gotta get out. Like now!

I wandered aimlessly through the streets of Forks. What he found in it? Lodges, cabins, snack bar, tire service, cabins, cottages, the bar... the Bar? I turns out I came to “Billy’s”. My legs ached from the long heels, and the wind was whipping in my face with cold slap hurting me. I need to buy a comfortable warm shoes and a cap to walk longer. Oh, Swan, are you crazy? Or have you picked up this stupid addiction taking walks from Edward? Yeah right, airborne way. It’s only noon – I’ll wait for Cullen right in there. I pushed the door open. Contrary to my expectations, in the bar a few tables were occupied. Apparently, it was a tradition here to dine, not to eat supper. Behind the counter there was... not Billy. A man stood with his back to me. Broad shoulders were tense, but he was just wiping the glasses. I firmly stood at the counter.

“Hey there” I blurted out, taking off my jacket to hang it on the back of the chair. The bartender turned around. “Sam?!”

“Bells?” His face was lit up with half-hearted smile.
Sam Uley was a mechanic at the Smiths. We often met in the kitchen, in unison praising Charles dinners. Until he was fired. Because of me. Because of James. God, he seems to become even bigger and taller. It seemed to me that this was what the standard action hero, defending the validity of the world with his fists, should look like.
Sam came out from behind the counter and simply hugged me. I blinked back unbidden tears, remembering the day when I saw him last time.

“Baby Bells” Sam lifted me up off the floor.
I laughed.

“Hey, put me down, put down immediatelly” I growled.

“I did not expect that I would see you so soon,” he let me go and gently pulled me by the nose.

“Everybody knows, right?” I decided to test the waters.

“I do not know about everybody, but Charlotte told me everything. We are now almost neighbors,” said the big guy.

“Well, of course!” I just shook my head. Forks.
I climbed on a chair, and Sam returned behind the bar counter. He looked at me with sweet eyes, just like Billy.

“Baby, you’re so grown up now!” He said.

“For God’s sake, Sam, do not start! Yeah, like you a hundred years old. How much older you are than me?”

“I’m thirty-two.”

“Only some... eight years,” I clapped my hands in front of his face to get rid of this touching expression. “Enough!”

“Ah, yes... I’m here. You want to eat?” He decided to act a little bit as the bartender.

“Just coffee now,” I sang. “Do you work here?”

“Yeah, I am the main buyer. Today, Billy simply asked to fill in for him.”

“I see. Cool...” But I thought that all pleasant topics for conversation were exhausted...

“Sam, we are almost out of beer, please write it down,” from the kitchen came out beautiful girl, it seems she was a little older than me.

“Okay. Emily, this is Bella Swan” Sam nodded his head in my direction. “Bella, this is Emily, my wife.”

“Wow!” The only thing that I was able to exhale. “Lucky you, Sammy.”
Emily had a really stunning exotic looks of Native American. Exactly these girls, I always thought, should be close to the brutal heroes of action movies.

“I tell him the same thing every day.” Emily held out her hand, which I gladly shook. “Very nice to meet you, Bella. Welcome home.”
I twisted my lips into a sarcastic smile.

“We have this kick-ass soup for lunch today, I highly recommend.” Emily tied an apron at the waist. The waitress. I know everybody here.

“Maybe later? I’m waiting for a... friend.”

“What, Cullen?” Sam chuckled from behind the bar counter. “You better eat something, or you get wasted again.”

“Oooooook,” I drawled. “Billy or Jacob?” I decided to find out who snitched on me.

“First, Jake, and then Billy. Poor chief,” Sam was frankly making fun of me.
I blushed.

“Do you date with him?” Asked Emily.

“With whom?” I could hardly swallow my coffee.

“With Edward,” she specified.

“No,” I managed to say.

“Too bad. He is handsome.”

“Hey!” Sam shouted irritably. “I’m actually right here.”

“I heard that he was a perverted player,” I came up with a phrase.

“It is not true, Bella” oddly enough, Sam stood up to defend Cullen. I stared at him in bewilderment. “My advice to you, don’t listen to all this nonsense, Bells. They say a lot of stuff about you too. And only a little of it is truth.”
That’s how I was reprimanded for the first time in five years. The last time a similar tone, I heard from my mother, who gave me a scolding for the money I spent on pricey shoes.

“Say the same thing to Jake,” I jumped up in response.

“There is no point talking to him. Medical case,” again butted in Emily. “He is crazy about Leah and believes everything that this lecherous bitch tells him.”
I rolled my eyes again, but this time this was at her.

“The girl prefers mature men, she even hit on Sam. We’ve been already married back then – probably this is why she understood that she should not shoot the breeze about it...” Emily lifted her chin and went to bus the table.

“Yeah it is what it is, Bella” Sam wiggled his eyebrows.

“This is crazy,” I could only mutter.

“Yeah, it is nuts,” Sam nodded accordingly. “I can not imagine how Edward is standing all of this. However, the role of a hermit suits him.”
I remembered yesterday’s hermit’s kisses and made a sarcastic grimace. I suddenly felt the urge to take this monk by the scruff, and fuck his brains out, to knock all this Forks crap out of him.

“Hey, Bells, are you okay? You are sure you are no sick?” Sam frowned at me.

“Yes, I’m fine...”

“You suddenly became all blushed. You sure you are not running temperature?”
I pressed my palms against the cheeks, pleading the blood to run away from my face. What’s with me? In broad daylight and with witnesses I fantasize about sex therapy to a local police chief with a mixed reputation.

“Stop with this crap. There is simply hot in here, better pour some water in my glass...” And having thought, she added: “...with ice.”
I was playing with the ice cubes in my glass when the door opened and with cheeky walk Edward entered. Ok, so... Now even the way he walks turns me on?

“Hey, long time here?” He leaned across the counter to shake Sam’s hand.

“Yeah, she’s been waiting for ages,” the bartender chuckled.

“Shut up, Uley!” I barked.
Edward grinned odiously.

“So, I take it, you two know each other,” Cullen continued smiling, taking off his coat.

“Wow, you are so quick-witted,” I muttered, getting out of my chair. “What were you saying about the soup?”

“Do you want ice in it as well?” Sam continued making fun.

“Did I miss something?” Edward raised his eyebrows in bewilderment.

“It is Sam, who missed the lessons where they taught when it is the time to shut up and take the order” I walked towards to the table, again listening to the laughter in the back.
Creeps... I blurted out on a sofa in the corner. I liked this sofa in the first time: an intimate place. Edward sat down in front. Smirk on his face has gone, it was replaced by a completely impenetrable mine. Come on, let’s play amnesia, Cullen. I know how to play this game.

“So, what’s up?” I turned to him with the most innocent look.

“Not much, everything seems to be the same,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “How do you know Sam?”

“He worked at the Smiths,” I said.

“I see...”

Emily was already hurrying up to us with a soup.
“Hey, chief, how are you?” She smiled, putting down the plate in front of Cullen.

“I’m fine, what’s up with you? How’s Corinne?”

“Oh, yesterday she once again brought a puppy home. This is the third one. One day, these animals will eat me for lunch...” She wailed.

Edward laughed.
“I promise, when Corinne and I get married, we will take them all away to our place,” he said.

“You yap, Cullen,” Emily giggled. “Enjoy your food!”
She went away, unable to hide a merry smile.

“Corinne?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s their daughter. She’s so funny... I’ll introduce you sometime.”

“Right,” I muttered and buried my face in a bowl.
We worked with our spoons in silence. Edward was tinkering in the lasagna, and I was in a salad. By the time Emily brought the coffee, I could barely keep myself from asking.

“You wanted to talk about something?”

“Uh... Yes,” he took a sip from a cup, and lit a cigarette.
Great! I watched him smoking, hiding his eyes from me.

“Edward!” I barked.

“Damn, Swan, I would like to apologize...” He finally looked at me.

“You can take your apologies and stick them up your ass,” I again raised my voice. He apologizes for what? For a kiss or the fact that he ran off to catch up with the wind? In any case, he can stick it up his ass...

“Bella, damn, let me explain!” Cullen hissed.

“Go ahead, try,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

He took a long drag on his cigarette for the last time, put it out and said:
“I want you.”

“Excuse me?” Hallucinations... auditory hallucinations.

“I want you.”

“Say it louder, I could not make out.”

“May be I should stand up on a chair and notify all present?” Cullen snapped.

“It would be funny, babe...” I felt demonic grin spreading on my face. “My place or yours?”

“What?” Edward shook his head as if he caught hallucinations as well.

“Or are you busy? Then in the evening...” I made a depilation and put the most lewd lingerie in my imagination.

“Bella, were you listening to me yesterday?” He put a stop to my assumptions. “I’m not gonna sleep with you.”
I felt like someone had just poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me. What the fuck? He catches some special thrill when he breaks me off?

“I hope you understand now that you are contradicting yourself?” I decided to resort to logic.

“I understand it perfectly. Therefore, I beg you to help...”

“Help? Damn, Cullen, come over to my place tonight after work. I promise I’ll make you dinner and help you all the way,” fuck, I am trying to convince him to fuck myself. This is a complete bullshit.

“Bella, please, I can not. We decided yesterday that we would be friends, so...”

“Fuck you,” I got up and rushed to the bar counter, pulling on my jacket. “How much do I owe you?”
Sam raised his eyebrows, but did not have time to voice the amount of money because I threw twenty on the table top and rushed away from the humiliation, which soaked through me.
I almost ran down the street toward the house, cursing the fucking heels. Gray Volvo overtook me, pulled over a little further from the sidewalk. Edward got out of the car.

“Come on, let me drive you home,” he grabbed me firmly by the elbow and almost pushed into the car.

“You are so pushy,” I muttered under my breath.
Edward stepped on the gas pedal, without deigning me an answer. I stared out the window, biting my lip. In the tense, ringing silence, we drove up to my house. I reached for the handle to quickly get rid of Mr. I-want-you-but-won’t-sleep-with-you.

“Bella, wait,” he grabbed my arm, which immediately ached from the desire to squeeze my hand in his. I blinked, because the whole body suddenly stretched out to meet him. Stop!

“Do not get mad at me. I am so mad at myself for both of us...” He said quietly.
I was silently staring at my own knees.

“Bella, I like you,” he covered my fingers from the top with his other hand, and began gently stroking them. “I feel good with you. For the first time in a long time so... I do not know... as if we knew each other all my life. I do not want to lose a friend for the sake of trite sex...”

“Trite sex my ass” I decided to take offense.

“Idiot,” Edward hugged me. “Even for the sake of the most amazing sex ever... Look, I have too much respect for your father to let the good people of Forks hanging a title of another bitch of a fucked-up in the head chief of police. And anyway, you‘re here only for a year, so we better not start this...”

“I got it, ok. You don’t have to continue,” I buried my nose in his shirt. “Nice ride, by the way.”

“Would you like to go for a drive with me over the weekend?” Cullen chuckled.

“I still want to live...”

“Coward.”

“Go to hell.”

“Ok, I gotta go.”

I reluctantly peel y ed myself off of Edward.

“Go,” I said quietly.

“Bella, one more thing,” he waved a twenty dollar bill in front of my face, and then put it in my jacket pocket. “I am able to pay for the bar.”

“Whatever,” I snorted.

“I will call you,” promised Cullen, starting the engine.

“Later,” I got out of the car and trudged into the house to the accompaniment of squeaking tires.

Having plopped on the sofa in the living room, I buried my face in a scarf, which was again saturated with the Edward’ smell. Friends... Well, ok, let’s try it. But it will be damn hard for you to be my friend, Cullen. This I promise ou.

Если у вас есть пожелания или замечания, пожалуйста поделитесь с нами на форуме.