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​Life has not always been good to Bella Swan. Born mixed race in the deep south, orphaned as a child, and made a widow at a young age, she uses her photography not only as a way to make money but as a way to grow and heal after serious trauma. Luckily she has wonderful friends by her side to help her, too. She’s not unhappy, but she’s barely scraping by. 

Everything changes though when she’s offered a job taking pictures of up and coming Australian actor, Edward Cullen, for a full week. 

Eddie seems almost picture perfect. Kind, handsome, intelligent, rich. But, we are always more than what we appear in a snapshot.

A Sexy Serial Soap opera

Rated M for Mature, intended for an adult audience. Reader Discretion is advised.

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5/31/2019

Episode Thirty-Two: Charity

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Episode Thirty-Two: Charity

I had to wake up earlier than I wanted to the day of the show. We would be practicing, setting up, and running through the whole thing once before it even began that evening. It was going to be the first time in a week I would be away from Edward for any amount of time. I felt bad for leaving him, but he assured me that he had to work out properly and then go shopping for real winter clothes. He also wanted to do some looking into our snow trip some.  

There were a hundred people all involved in the show somehow. We had real actors and singers who did this sort of thing regularly at the theater and then people like me who did it only when Demetri asked. Demetri was the proud MC for the night, weaving himself throughout the show that he wrote. In two hours he would have five costume changes and a half dozen musical numbers. Demetri always wanted to be a Broadway performer, and this was his chance to shine every year since he started running the theater.  

Alice would be playing the guitar in a couple of parts. No one was getting her to dance. Or sing. Nor was she doing anything solo like me. She had too much work to practice that much.  

There were other makeup artists helping others, but Demetri was personally doing mine and Alice's. He ordered us lunch while he was working on our hair and we gossiped like we did when we first became friends a decade and a half before over a slice. The only difference was now we were all old, we joked.  

Two single roses were sent backstage, one white and one red, for Alice and I. They were from Edward with the message, “break a leg.” 

“Aw, I love him so much,” Demetri gushed. “What a classy boy.”

“He's a keeper,” Alice agreed as she looked at the handwritten card. “Someone has good penmanship. Look at that.” She showed Demetri the card. 

“That's Eddie’s. He likes to write his ideas out by hand a lot. All of his notebooks are insanely neat. He'd kill at bullet journals,” I replied as I slipped the card into my purse to keep. 

“That would be a good Christmas gift,” Alice mused out loud. “For me to get him. Don't steal it. I'm trying to finish my Christmas shopping before December this year.”

“What are you getting me?” Demetri asked.

“None ya business is what I got for you. Mm, I did order Bell's gift that we were talking about on Thanksgiving. It may or may not get here on time.” She turned to me, “sorry.”

“I'm going to California for three weeks so, that's fine,” I said softly. 

“Good thing you're having it shipped to my place,” Demetri replied. “Sunny warm LA for Christmas sounds delightful.”

“We're going to go somewhere cold, too. I don't know where though. Edward is planning it,” I told him as I sat on the couch in his office with my feet tucked underneath me. I was wrapped in a thin silky robe of Demetri’s. It was red and had Asian themed decorations on it. He definitely bought it in Chinatown for ten bucks. 

“Girl, he is so romantic. I need me a rich man like that,” he continued praising him. Edward won him over by talking to him about makeup seriously on Thanksgiving.  

Alice turned to him with a smirk. “You did marry a rich man. Riley comes from money.”

“Yes, but that boy she is dating is filthy fucking rich. I was googling him, as you do. Forbes had an article on him. Forbes money, bitch,” Demetri snapped his fingers, pointing at Alice. “That's what I'm talking about.”

“Ugh, that makes me so uncomfortable,” I bemoaned.

“I don't think he's going to let it go to his head,” Alice said thoughtfully. “He doesn't seem the type.”

"It's not being humble though, it's anxiety," I complained. "But, I think you're right. He's very generous and empathetic. You know, he had this thing to help him make money when he was first starting out where people could donate to him. But then he started making real money, but he still had the donation thing. So he switched it so that the money was going to different charities. And he's so thoughtful about who he picks. He does a lot of research to make sure it goes to the right people. He is so into his charity work, too. He's very proud of the things he's done. It's really nice, actually," I told them honestly.  

“Yeah, I know. He asked if he could put CfA as his charity of the month. He says December is his biggest donation month,” Alice said through a mouth full of cheese. “He said he can't promise an exact amount but that he will match anything that is donated.”

“I didn't know that,” I admitted in a tiny voice. I could have cried right there. Lifting my head up and holding my eyes wide so I wouldn't mess up my makeup, I sniffled. 

“I hope it wasn't a surprise or something,” she said. “He didn't say.”

"I don't know. We've not talked about it. I haven't looked at that content any either," I admitted. "All his bonus stuff, I mean. I guess I should. There is so much, though. It makes me feel weird." 

“I did it,” Demetri whispered like we weren't the only ones in that room. “He has so much stuff with you on it already. He's just so nuts about you. It's cute. There is a supercut of you making him laugh with a serious face. It's so you. So fucking funny. It’s not super obvious that you’re dating, but being in the know...”

“Really?” I laughed, embarrassed. I could definitely think about some videos we made where he could farm that material from.  

“It was worth the five dollars alone.”

I bit my lip for a moment and sighed. “Okay, I guess I have to watch it now.”

"Unless he's asked you to, I don't think you have to," Alice replied. I nodded, deep in my own thoughts, the rest of the time we got ready. She knew how I hated to watch myself as an adult.  

The event started at seven to a sold-out crowd of five hundred. Demetri began the show in a full pink ball gown. Think Glinda, the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. By the time it got to our part, he was wearing a sequined tux. 

I was to dress as a traditional pink ballerina in the center of a small round spinning platform. I held my foot in the attitude position, my leg high behind me with my arms curved gracefully around me as the tinging tunes of a music box started. Demetri offered me his hand, and the real song began. A bouncy short song about being a rebel just for kicks. The lights were so bright I couldn't see a soul besides Demetri. 

The dance we did was a mix of everything, ballet, and more modern. Demetri pulled my bun free for me to shake my hair loose to the beat. The best part of the performance was when Demetri pulled at my top, and it unfurled in its true black sequin glory with a wild black tulle tutu that had been hiding underneath. He spun me around the stage on my toes until grabbing me and bending me back in a flip that landed in some splits. With a great swing of his arms, he slid me across the full stage. I jumped up on my knees, then on the tips of my toes in a ballet walk across the hardwood. I pirouetted several times and made a leap back onto my spinning platform, going back into my original position as the song ended and the music box song began to play again.   

There was massive applause from the crowd as the curtain dropped, and I ran off to get ready for my next part. I downed an entire bottle of water while I tried to catch my breath. My chest hurt. I was getting too old for this bullshit. I bruised my thighs when I slammed down in the splits. I might have broken my ass. 

“You have been seriously holding out on me,” a message on my phone buzzed while I changed in Demetri's office. It was followed by a long series of emojis including a surprised face, mind blown, heart eyes, clapping hands, and a dancer.

“I told you I was a dancer,” I answered back quickly. “Thanks, but I’m not that good.”

“But, like... You're a legit dancer. Like you have real moves. Ballet moves.”

"You are so so so sweet and biased. I stopped dancing seriously a decade ago, and I'm rusty as fuck. I'm so sore. I might be dying right now, actually. Like legit. My chest." I sent him a gif of Sanford and Son with Redd Foxx grabbing his heart dramatically. 

“lol You did great though,” he sent a series of hearts in a rainbow of shades. 

The song I was singing was at the end of the show. Demetri gave a little ending monologue about the importance of music and dancing to all the young gay kids out there as I strummed along behind him with my banjo. I was wearing a sweet little black suit that he had picked for me. It was black and had a nice jacket with short tails. The pants were capris and showed off my super high red high heels that matched my long fat tie done in a nice Windsor double knot. It took me three tries to get it right. My lipstick matched perfectly. 

When he finished speaking, I stepped forward to begin singing The Rainbow Connection. The first part I was alone but then Demetri joined me. And then slowly, all of the others who were in the show began to fill the stage to finish. When I glanced over, Demetri had tears streaming down his face as he continued to sing.  

It took an hour or so for the theater to empty out. It took Edward thirty minutes just to make it backstage to me with a large bouquet of roses in the whole rainbow with tons of baby's breath.  He had been sitting beside Riley, Rosalie, and Emmett. I flung myself at him, hugging his neck tightly as I pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“You look incredible,” he told me genuinely, holding me back to take me all in. 

“Yeah, this queer groomsman’s look ticks so many boxes for me,” Rosalie informed me, giving me a hug before giving one to her sister who was standing beside me. 

“Oh, I should skip the dress next wedding then?” I teased with both hands in my pocket, doing a little pose. “Demetri has such good tastes.”

“Those shoes are everything,” Riley complimented. “I bet you can't dance in those.”

“I used to be able to. But it's been a while. So, I guess we'll find out, won't we?” I giggled, feeling exhilarated from the performance. 

We were the last people out of the theater. The club was a short distance from the show, and we walked the few blocks, stopping for tacos at a truck parked on the side of a street.  

The club was packed, the music blasting out of the front of the building with lines of people coming out of it. We were on a list though and slipped right in. I heard someone whisper Edward’s name as we walked by. I held onto his arm proudly. 

Demetri bought the first round of drinks, I bought the second, Edward the third, and Rosalie bought the fourth. And then Riley decided to get a couple of shots for everyone. I was already pretty drunk when Demetri pulled me onto the dance floor first. We got down hard to the rap song playing loudly around us. I didn’t know the name of it. 

“Your boy got hit on twice while you were away,” Riley laughed, teasing Edward when I came back to the table. 

"You're just mad I'm getting hit on more than you," he joked right back. Demetri laughed, kissing his husband, who looked a little sour. Usually, straight guys were easier targets. Edward was unphased.  

“I'm not surprised. He's sexy as fuck.” I winked at him. I downed my drink in one go and pulled him onto the dance floor with me. 

Dancing this time was a lot more fun than the last time we had gone to a club together. We were both laughing, our hands all over each other as we ground to the music. The floor was so packed we were pushed close together. It was so hot inside even though it was only twenty outside. 

Edward danced with Alice and me with me in the center. Alice wasn't as good a dancer, but she was a lot of fun when she loosened up. We sang the songs that were playing loudly to each other, bouncing drunkenly to the beat. Then Rosalie and Emmett joined the gang. It reminded me of going clubbing in my early twenties.  

I was elated. It was the only way to describe it. My face hurt from smiling as much as I was. It was two in the morning when we dragged ourselves from the still bustling club. We were all still too wound up and drunk to go home, so we found a twenty-four-hour diner. It was empty inside, but they were doing a swift delivery business.  

We stayed there for two hours talking and laughing over fries, coffee, pie, and cake. Rose and Emmett were the first to give in and then Riley and Demetri convinced Alice to come back to their place to sleep. She would go to the theater and pick up all our things the next day to take home. We had left a ton of shit locked up in Demetri's office. 

“Shall we go back to the hotel?” Edward asked, sweetly smiling at me from across the booth when we were all alone finally. He reached forward and took my hand, smoothing his thumb over my knuckles. 

“Do you want to take that ferry ride I was telling you about?” I asked. “It'll be sunrise soon.”

His smile grew so wide. “I would love to.”

We sat on the deck on the ferry, alone in our little area. Edward hugged my waist to keep us both warm as we watched the sunrise behind the Statue of liberty and Manhattan. I didn't have my camera, so we settled for taking pictures with our phones. He looked so handsome with the golden light behind him. When he smiled at me, it made my heart melt. 
It was already dark when we woke up that Sunday. We considered it a lost day to sleep and hangovers, ordering a giant cheese plate from room service to have with one of our bottles of wine. We watched Netflix, taking turns picking what to watch. We watched Blade Runner first since he had never seen it before. Next, I chose the first episode of a murder documentary that had just been released that I had been wanting to see. When Edward picked the next episode, I was surprised. 

 He frowned at me, “I hate it, but I need to know what happens next.”

We watched all four parts. Edward ranted about it for an hour afterward about the flawed justice system, violence against women, and state of mental health care. It made me giggle. Not at what he said. I agreed with him on most everything he said, but he was so young and fiery about the things he was passionate about. He was so intense. If anyone could change the world, it would be him.

“Well, you know there are charities for all those things,” I reminded him. 

"It's not enough, though." 

“You've already given more than the average person does in a lifetime. Don't stop now, of course,” I smiled at him sweetly. 
“Money is one thing but look at how much time you've put in. Rosalie was telling me at the show that you helped Alice more than anyone with CfA and that you've given thousands of hours to help her. She said you put your career on hold to help Alice get started and that you gave her a lot of the money she needed.”

“Aiden did that. And she got most of the money she needed from her dad when he died,” I explained. 

“You were married. That was your money, too.”

“Not really,” I shook my head. “I did help her get it started. Worked in the office. Me and Rose were her first leaders. It's taken years to get it to this point. I'm glad Alice is so business smart because she's just grown this thing to crazy heights. I don't do as much as I used to, obviously though.”

“Alice told me you did five big trips just this year and that you've done over thirty-day trips. Sometimes doing three or four a week.” Well, they had chatted, didn't they? It made me feel a little self-conscious. 

"To be fair, one trip was overnight, and another was two nights. I did do the long two weeks one this year. We went to Mexico. They needed translators. And, most of those day trips are only two hours long. It's not entirely out of the goodness of my heart, I do get paid something," I reminded him.  

“Twelve a bloody hour,” he replied. “Is that even minimum wage here?”

It was kind of annoying that he had so many facts to pull out of his ass. “No. It’s fifteen, I think.”

“I thought not.”

"But, I do get pictures which I can make money off of," I explained to him. "Nothing I've done will compare to the money you can give. I can see you in twenty years donating the kind of money that eradicates diseases. Or builds schools. Maybe make your own nonprofit to focus on whatever you care about." 

“Now that's a goal to work for.” He smiled at me as he stroked my hair. “I'm glad I know someone who has experience starting a successful charity.”

“I'm sure Alice would be happy to help,” I teased. He smiled and kissed me before we fell back asleep for the night. 
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5/31/2019

Episode Thirty-One: Photoshoot

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Episode Thirty-One: Photoshoot

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

I walked over to the dresser that had my camera bag resting on top. I changed the lens and brought it over to Edward. “This one will be good to start with. I like it for indoor lighting. It doesn't zoom, so if you'd like to do that, I can switch it to another. I also have another that's better for close up detail,” I explained to him. “I have all my lens with me and filters if you want to experiment.”

“You are so casual.” He took it from me. The camera looked so much smaller in his hands. 

“I'm excited, to be honest,” I told him with a little smile.

“I don't know where to start. I don't know how I want you to pose.”

“The best pictures aren't posed. Just take the camera and take a picture when you're ready. When you see something you like or want more of, tell me,” I replied as I walked over to the table with all our toys and pulled out the boxes with the shoes. I then removed the robe and threw it over the chair. 

“Damn,” he murmured.

“If I looked down I'd get my nose stuck.” I wiggled my torso in my corset with a silly grin.

He chuckled and took a quick picture. I laughed in surprise, covering my mouth with my hand automatically. Edward took another picture and grinned. “Okay, I like that one,” he said, looking at the result.

As I removed all the packaging from the shoes, he came to stand a few feet in front of me. He slowly went to his knees and took a picture of me from that angle. Even upon his knees, he was still taller than me by maybe an inch or so. He sat back completely and took another.  

I leaned down and flicked a lever on the camera. "That will put the picture on the screen, and you can turn it so you can see it from other directions. And you can press the screen to take a picture as well." 

He angled the camera up towards me from nearly the floor. Focusing the picture, Edward took an eye leading shot of my striped red and white leggings. 

“Yes, that helps. Thank you.”

I turned around and wiggled the green bows on the back of thigh highs. When I looked back to see his reaction, he took my picture quickly three times in a row.  

“I love your bow tattoos.” He ran a gentle finger over the tiny black bow I had on each of my thighs just below my ass. They were only about the size of a quarter. He leaned in and kissed one of them. He took a rather close up picture of my ass. He leaned in and then took a little nibble out of the other thigh, making me squeak in surprise. He took another picture of me laughing. 

“Shall I put the shoes on now?” I asked him. 

“Mm, yes, please.”

He took a picture as I leaned down and another as I bent my leg back to put on my heels with my foot in the air, my hair hanging over my shoulder. 

"So, do I look silly?" I asked as I walked toward the glass balcony door. The lights were beautiful, and frost was starting to form around the glass edges.  

“I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.” He continued to watch me from his spot kneeling on the floor. “Lean against the door,” he directed me. 

I pressed against the ice cold glass and inhaled a deep breath. I brought my thumb up to my mouth, just the tip brushing against my teeth before I realized what I was doing. I arched my back against the door, my skin rebelling against the cold. Edward took pictures in quick succession. 

“Turn your head to the side.”

I turned my head to one side, glancing back at with only with my eyes. One of my hands rested against the glass and the other on my stomach. I felt a little shy, and my cheeks were a bit warm. The way he was watching me was fire. 

I couldn't stand against the glass for long, so I went to the table to turn on the playlist on my phone. I had made a music list just for this night of all my favorite sexy songs. An indie song started the playlist off.  

“Sit in the chair,” he said, still on his knees. I pulled out the wooden chair and sat in it with my ankles crossed delicately to one side and my hands on the arms. He took one of my hands and brought my knuckles up to his mouth to lightly kiss. “My queen.”

I scoffed and laughed despite myself. “What are you trying to do to my ego?” I asked him in his accent, teasing him. I made a popping sound with my lips. 

“I worship you.” He was so intense and sincere.

I brought my heel up and pressed it into his shoulder gently, pushing him back a little. He grabbed my ankle, kissing the top of my foot. I brought my hand up to my mouth to hide my grin, biting at the corner of my pinkie. 

Carefully he brought my leg up so that I was sitting with it over the arm. I adjusted in the seat, letting my legs spread a little. I slid my hand over my leg that hung over the chair, brushing it against the inside of my thigh. 

“Is this what you want?” I asked him.

"Yes." He leaned in, kissing my inner thigh before pressing my legs further apart. Edward took several pictures, adjusting my body how he wanted it. He was gentle but firm in his touch. Everywhere he touched tingled as he slid his warm fingers firmly over my body. He was so serious as he took my picture.  

“Go to the bed,” he finally said when he was satisfied. 

Edward took pictures of my back as I carefully crossed the carpeted distance. I drew my hair over my shoulder, feeling a little self-conscious about what he saw and if he liked it. I sat on the edge of the bed and leaned back on my hands. He finally stood back up from his knees and walked closer to me. He took pictures from above me, looking down at me from his full height. I reached out and tugged his button-down shirt free from his pants. 

“Lay back,” he told me. 

I fanned my hair out around me as I laid out on top of the comforter. He took several pictures before he knelt over me, his legs straddling my own. Edward brought my arms above my head, letting his hand smooth over my stomach before he got up once again. I could see his erection straining against his tight jeans. 

“You are perfection,” he said from behind the camera. 

I once again brought my foot up to push on his chest. He took pictures with it resting there. When he was done, he tugged me to the edge of the bed, making me giggle. I slid to the floor in front of him on my knees, looking up at him wickedly. Slowly, I undid his jeans, but that's as far as he would let me go. Edward took me by the chin and took a picture of my face looking up to him. I lightly kissed his hand, sliding my hands up his waist.  

Edward pulled away, leaving me on my knees on the floor while walking over to my camera bag. 

“Which one is the one with the zoom?” He asked as he glanced over his shoulder. 

“The two longer ones at the very end of the bag. Get the shorter of the two.”

He found it and quickly changed the lens. He turned around, playing with the zoom for a moment before he figured out where he needed it. Then Edward went to go sit in the wooden chair. 

“Take off the corset. Slowly.” His voice was so smooth and firm. He knew exactly what he wanted. 

Oh, I like this so much.

Edward looked so obscene with the Manhattan lights behind him and his top three buttons undone of his nice white long sleeved shirt from behind my camera. His expression was so consuming, hungry to see every part of me. I felt so warm. 

The hooks were along the front. I undid each gradually, holding his gaze as I did. He leaned forward, biting his lip as he took several pictures of the process. When it dropped to the floor, I let my fingers trace over the lines that had marked my skin from the tight green garment.  

"Turn around," he told me firmly, feeling more comfortable and in control of the situation. "Shake your hair loose." I did as he asked, swung all of my hair gently so that it would fall down my back. "Perfect. Look back at me." 

I glanced back, basking in his instructions. 

“Now your panties,” he commanded. I let the fabric carefully roll down my ass then down to the floor. Stepping out of them, I kicked them to the side. I turned forward again before walking towards him again.  “Lean against the glass again.”

My skin was fire against the icy door. Goosebumps instantly formed, and my nipples became all that much harder for it. I slid one of my hands between my legs, closing my eyes when it brushed against my clit briefly. He took pictures of the moment, watching me intently through the lens.  

Edward turned the camera off and placed it on the table among the bags and things. “Come here.”

I closed the distance between us, and he took my waist in his hands as he lightly kissed along my chest. I stroked his hair, working my fingers through his silky soft, auburn strands. He brought his hand slowly down the outside of my thigh, down my calf, and all the way to my ankle. Taking it in his hand, Edward brought it my leg up so that my foot was on the arm of the chair. I stood in front of him with my legs opened wide for him.  
"You're always so wet for me," he said in a deep warm voice. His hand moved along the inside of my thigh before he brought his lips to kiss the spots he had just traced. I watched with my lip between my teeth as he gazed up at me hotly. When he kissed right between my legs, I gasped in pleasure, my fingers digging into his hair.  

Edward held my quivering body up with his hands on the back on my thighs as he buried his tongue within me. 

“Fuck yes,” I moaned out my pleasure as my head lolled to one side. He worked me slowly, bringing me to a slow orgasm. 

He pulled away, looking too happy with himself with my cum on his chin. 

I picked up the camera and went to change the lens again. He watched me curiously. 

“Unbutton your shirt,” I instructed him. 

Edward grinned a little shyly, but he did what I asked, taking his time with each button. Sitting back in the chair shirtless, he watched me as I took pictures of him in the nude except for my stockings.  

“Stand up and take off your pants,” I told him quietly.

He wasn't nearly as graceful as he wanted to be, tugging them off with his feet and kicking his jeans to the side. Self consciously his arm hugged his waist. I wasn't going to have any of that.

“Turn around,” I commanded. I snapped a picture of his fine ass in his tight black briefs.  “Take them off now.”

Every part of him was delicious. But damn, that ass. 

He massaged his stiff erection for a brief moment, leaning on the glass with his other hand. It was a second of relief against the strain, and it showed on his face. Edward was just as aroused as I was.  

I put the camera away. Walking to the table between us and began to remove things from the bags, I neatly lined them up for him. He watched for a moment before coming stand behind me, his erection pressed into my back as he kissed my shoulder. 

“Hm, what shall I use on you first?” He whispered to me seductively as he brushed his fingers down my arm. First, he picked up the leather bound wrist cuffs in one hand and took my wrist in the other. He pulled my arms tight behind my back, linking my wrists together. Edward pushed his face into my neck, kissing and sucking at the nape aggressively as he held onto my hips. 

He took the blindfold into his hand, then led me to the bed. I sat on my heels with my hands still behind my back. I closed my eyes with a little smile as he slid the fabric over my eyes. 

For the first time that evening, he brought my mouth to his in a kiss. He had been so careful not to smudge my red lips for the pictures. Now he was hungry for them, savagely taking them. When he pulled away, I breathlessly fell back onto my ankles.  

The cold air made everything feel electric around me. Every second he didn't touch me the tension built up in my stomach. When his fingers brushed along my shoulder blades, I jumped a little, but he kept me steady.  

I felt the wand drag along my stomach before he put it on it's lowest setting. His chest pressed against my back as he traced the toy along my thighs. His other hand was sliding around my neck with gently squeezing fingers. 

"I'm going to fuck you until scream, and then I'm going to put that ball gag in between those exquisite lips of yours." 

He gave me no time to react, pressing the vibrator against my clit. I moaned, curling in towards the sensation. Edward turned it up once and then again. My thighs began to shake with the effort. Gently he pushed me forward until my cheek was pressed against the mattress. 

Slowly, he moved the wand over my clit and lips before pressing it against my entrance. I could feel my cum dripping over my skin. Then I felt a new toy pressing inside me as he brought it back to my clit. I bucked back against it, pushing it further inside. The feeling was amazing.  He worked it in and out slowly before finally turning it on. 

The pace was slow at first, a gentle in and out, but then as the toy became slick, he fucked me faster with it. I came quickly with the extreme sensation. His pace increased, and he turned it up until I was crying out loudly into the blankets. When he finally pulled them away, the relief was only for a moment because he grabbed my thighs and forcefully pulled my legs apart. I was propped up with my face pressed deep into the mattress. 

“Edward!” I gasped his name as he began to suck on my aching clit. Then he slid his tongue back and as deeply in me as possible, his hands on my thighs to hold me up. “Oh, god. Edward, please. Fuck!”

When he sat up on his knees behind me, he grabbed the links between the cuffs to force me backward. He pushed his erection inside of me, meeting no so resistance whatsoever. 

“I love how you cum,” he growled as he fucked me rougher than he had ever fucked me before. It was so good. 

I dissolved into a screaming mess, the tears flowing from my tightly closed eyes. He was so big, and his rhythm perfect. The toys he used had made me so sensitive. He called out with his own pleasure, panting with the effort of it. We were both sweating despite the room being very chilly.  

He unhooked my hands and pushed me onto my back. But instead of freeing my wrist, he pulled my arms up and tied me to the metal headboard. Edward kissed my lips again before lavishing attention to my breasts.  

And then he left the bed again.

“Open your mouth,” he said in a firm voice, his fingers stroking my cheek. 

I did what he asked and felt the tip of his erection against my lips. It was wet, and a bead of cum dripped from the tip. I licked at it hungrily, taking it into my mouth so I could suck on him. His hand rested softly on my cheek as he fucked my mouth. He grew impossibly harder, moaning with my affection. When it became too intense, he pulled away.  

“You're going to need this. You're going to be very loud in a moment,” he whispered confidently in my ear as he tightened the ball gag into place. 

He threw my legs apart wide and began to eat me again, this time with his fingers inside of me instantly and aggressively. I squirmed, twisting against my restraints. Edward knew my orgasms well enough already to know when they were coming and how to push me over the edge. He then replaced his fingers with the toy from before. 

I moaned against the gag. His lips were suddenly against my ear, the toy still inside of me. “I want one more before I fuck you again.”

Then there was a new toy, a different one, on my clit. It began to suck and massage. I began to scream against the ball in my mouth as I gushed all over the blankets, my back wholly arched off the bed. If I had not been attached, I would have probably thrown myself to the floor.  

He replaced the toy inside of me with his erection, the sucking toy still on my clit. While he fucked me, I had just one very long orgasm. Edward was able to last so much longer than I expected. I cried in relief when he pulled the toy away after he finished inside of me again. 

Edward removed the gag first to kiss me and then lifted the blindfold away. He released my hands, and I curled into his body.  

“I thought it was your birthday,” I said gleefully as I flopped on my back with an arm over my eyes. 

He laughed happily, “God. Damn.” 

“Do you like eating pussy that much?” I asked breathlessly. “Because you do it like it's your job. You got a degree in it. Extra certifications. Studied in the jungle with monks or something.”

He continued to laugh shyly, pushing his face into the pillows. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“All or just mine?” I teased. 

“Mm, I'd say all but especially yours. Because, damn... You cum so easy for me. I could lick you for hours." Edward looked so pleased with himself. He rubbed his hand over my ass hungrily.  

“You better feed me before you try that again. Get me some liquids at the very least,” I joked jubilantly, stroking his hair. 

“Yes! Absolutely. Good idea. I am hungry, now that you mention it.” He was still grinning ear to ear.

It took me about ten minutes to be able to move my legs enough to scamper off to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I had to wash my face off, lipstick from my cheek to my neck. I even found some on my hip somehow. I pulled my hair up in a bun to be more comfortable. His t-shirt was on the floor, so I slipped it over my head to wear as a dress. It went past my knees, the long sleeves dangling over my hands. Edward was waiting for me in only his sleep pants in the bed.  

As I looked at him, something dawned on me. "I just realized I haven't given you your gift yet." 

He raised an eyebrow. “That wasn't it?”

“No,” I laughed. “Of course not.” 

I went to my luggage and pulled out the gift bag that had been safely tucked inside. Taking it to him, I crawled onto the bed beside him. Before he opened it, he kissed me soundly.  

“Thank you.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder. "Happy birthday, honey. Are you having a good day so far?" 

“The best, obviously.” He grinned as he pulled things from the bag. The Drake's Cakes were on top. “Oh, I remember you talking about these,” he laughed as he sat the pile on his lap. 

“For a video, of course.”

“Oh, nice! Maybe this can be our dessert?” He smiled at me charmingly. 

“Do you want to make a video tonight?”

“I think that's a pretty awesome backdrop for a video, don't you?” He pointed towards the glowing Manhattan skyline. “I mean if you want to.”

I kissed his cheek. Whatever he wanted. “Of course. Sounds fun.”

“Let's see what else is in here. Oo, wine. Yes. Very nice. We should put these in the fridge for later.”

“They should pair very well with our Drake's,” I teased him. 

“Maybe we'll order some milk to have with them,” he offered as he rifled through the bag. He pulled out the shave kit next.

“That's more a gift for me.” I nuzzled his super soft cheek. “I love how smooth your skin is.”

“Oi, very fancy. Let's see what we've got here. It's something all bundled up.” Edward pulled out the one most wrapped in tissue paper. He unwrapped it, tossing the paper onto the bed. “Oh, it's a Plexie clock! How fun. I've not seen this one before.”

“That's because it was handmade by someone local. I found it at a comic book shop not too far from here,” I told him. “They had all kinds of good stuff. There is one more thing in there.” I poked at the bag. 

Carefully he sat the clock down beside us on the end table and pulled out the other heavily wrapped thing. It was cumbersome, which is why it was at the bottom of the big bag.  

“Yo, it's so detailed!” Edward geeked out when he unwrapped the statue.

“You can pose it.” I moved the little robot's arm up. The little storage locker in his stomach popped open so he could hide something in it. “I know how much you like your shelf so I thought I'd get you something for it that is one of a kind.”

He took my face in his hands and brought me in for a deep kiss. 

“Thank you. I was expecting more lingerie,” he teased. 

“Oh, you'll get to see those soon enough. But, it's like an advent calendar. You get a new one every day.”

“That sure as hell beats lollies,” he smirked at me. 

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me to a pair of crotchless panties and a teddy,” I sang to the tune of a Partridge and a pear tree. “On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a bra sized thirty-two triple D!”

"You are so weird, and I adore you," he laughed, hugging me to him. "I love everything you got me. It's been the best birthday. I've never been so happy. Thank you." 
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5/31/2019

Episode Thirty: Toy Store

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Episode Thirty: Toy Store

Demetri lived only a short walk to the Brooklyn Bridge. Alice took all the leftovers home with her when she went back to the apartment. I was too keyed up from the long day to settle down, so we decided to walk along the pathways by the water.  

It was a beautiful, but cold night. The sky was clear, and the paths were free of ice, but there was still snow on the grass. Edward and I walked arm in arm, the wind off the water making my lips sting.  

“Where shall we go on our snow trip?” He asked. 

“I don't know. I don't really want to ski. It scares me, to be honest,” I told him. “You can if you want to. I'd love to take pictures of mountains though. Maybe we could go hike.” I shook my head. “I don't know. I mainly want to be with you. Why don't you just surprise me?” I teased. 

"I could do that. That could be fun," he said thoughtfully. "Yeah. Okay. I can plan the perfect romantic weekend away for us." 

“I don't mean for you to do all the work. I was joking.”

“No, it's not working. It gives me something nice to plan out. It'll give me something to look forward to when I have to be away from you again.” He rubbed a gloved hand over my face. 

"I'd want to put money towards that," I commented. 

He shook his head. “No. I got it.”

“That's not fair.”

“Alright. Then you can pay for the next weekend trip. You plan it out and make it a surprise. Then it'll be fair.”

“I'm going to hold you to that,” I said seriously. 

“Good. I hope you do. What do you think? Again in January or shall we have a quick trip before I go to Sydney in mid-February?” He asked. “Spring seems like such a long time to wait for another little trip.”

“We'll have to look at your schedule.”

He shook his head again. "How about you figure out a date, and I'll make the time." 

I smiled at the idea of it. "Alright. Let me do some research then, on what I want to do exactly. I want to make it a good trip." 

“Research? Sounds exciting,” he grinned. “I want you to know I'm going to take out all the stops. And bring your passport, just in case.”

"Oh, Canada could be fun," I said thoughtfully. "You know, if you bought yours, we could go to the Falls. You could probably make a video about it." 

“That is something to consider.” Edward stopped walking as the glass-encased merry-go-round came into view just under the glowing Brooklyn Bridge, the Freedom tower just behind it. “This view is stunning.”

"I like taking pictures here," I agreed with him. I had taken pictures all over Brooklyn and especially Dumbo at that point since Demetri, and I often went walking around his home.  

“I've never gotten to do much in New York besides work. I'm glad I can explore with you. I feel I might have the best guide. I want you to show me all your favorite spots.”

“I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy that. Some are kind of out there. And so weird,” I told him honestly. “It's not the normal tourist stuff.”

“Good.” He hugged me.

“Sunday then. Why don't I take you to a couple of places that I really like?” I asked him. “We'll have to rent a car. It's just easier that way.”

“Sounds great.” He was holding me very close, his face looking down into mine. 

“What do you want to do tomorrow? You really haven't said anything,” I asked. “I want your birthday to be perfect.”

“I really really really just want to stay in bed with you. Like, for reals though. All day." He pressed a little kiss on my cold nose. "And be naughty." 

I laughed, “there is one place we could go then.”

"Where?" He asked, innocently. 

“A toy store.”

“A toy store on Black Friday? Why? Wouldn't it be very busy?” He asked, obviously confused. It had been a long day after all. 

“Stop and think for a moment.” I looked at him in the eyes and gave him a second to think his response through again.

"Oh. Right. Adult. An adult toy store. I am a naive boob." He shook his head, angrily at himself. "Wait, do you mean it?" 

I gave him a funny look. “Why wouldn't I?”

He rolled his eyes, mostly at himself. “I don't know. I just said I was a naive boob, Bella.”

“I guess if you don't want to, we could always order stuff online and have it shipped but we wouldn't get to play with it tomorrow,” I offered instead.

He bit his lip for a moment. “What would you like to get?”

I shrugged. “Anything you'd like. I don't have anything right now. And tomorrow we can do whatever you want with it.”

“Whatever, eh?” He asked in a silky voice.

“Whatever you want,” I promised him. 

“Ooo… That feels dangerous. I don't even know where to begin,” he admitted gleefully.

“Do you need some ideas?” I asked sweetly. 

Edward held my cheek in his palm. He almost seemed worried. “I just don't want to do something you don't like.”

“Alice once printed out this fun crazy long BDSM list of things that you could put if you were into it or not. Yes, no. Maybe. Done it, hadn't done it. Everything from kissing to extreme fetishes. I feel like I need to just fill that out and give it to you for some light reading.”

His face lit up. “Yes, please. That would be very handy. I'll take any printed manuals I can get.”

I laughed at his stupid comment. “Why don't we do something you've never done before? Is there anything you've wanted to do? Any position? Any toys? Anything you want me to wear? We can do those pictures we were talking about.”

"I think I'd like to think about that for a little while before I answer. But I would like to go to the store with you. We should, at the very least, find something to keep you company while we're not together," he said in a flirty tone as he leaned in to kiss me. 

It was my turn to bite my lip when he pulled away. “I haven't had anything like that in a while. I don't even know what I'd want.”

"We could get a few different options and test which one is the best," Edward offered.  

“These rating videos are getting out of control,” I teased. 

“We've done the lube. Now the vibrators. Whatever will we do next?” He joked playfully in his video voice.

I giggled, hugging myself to his side with his arm draped over my shoulder. We caught a cab back my apartment to get my things and went back to his hotel for the night. 

We slept in a little in the morning. Edward ordered an elaborate breakfast spread from room service. He had brought several cannabis oil vape pens with him just in case he couldn't sleep, but he hadn't needed them yet. I was not sure how much he thought he was going to use, nor was I going to ask how he got them through the airport security. He let me pick one from his selection, and we snuggled back into bed while we waited for it to arrive while we watched a movie on Netflix.  

The meal arrived under silver domes filled with bacon, sausage, waffles, fruit, and orange juice. We still had the unopened champagne from the other night in the small fridge, so we made ourselves mimosas.  

Once breakfast was done, we washed up and got ready to brave the city for a short while. It was colder than it had been the day before, and the streets were filled with people. Edward was clearly struggling with the weather.  

“Let's order you some better winter clothes online and have it overnighted,” I suggested as I watched his teeth chatter. 

“I'm just a p-p-pussy,” he said through his teeth.

“You just need some thermal stuff. You're in LA winter clothes, not New York winter clothes. You'll need some stuff for the trip anyway,” I told him, a little amused.

“I didn't realize there was such a difference. And, yes. I realize how dumb that is now. I'm sorry, I was born in the heat. I'm good at hot. I understand it. I don't understand this. It's actually hard to think.”

“You did just vaped a bunch of strong weed and had a half bottle of liquor. It could have something to do with that,” I pointed out with a smirk.

He whispered, “I'm not that high. How can you be so relaxed with these temperatures?”

“Seriously, baby. Thermals. It's hot in Texas, too. You get used to it though after a while. Come on, we're almost there.” I tugged him toward the store.

When we got to the place Edward joyfully got one of the hand baskets, making me laugh at his giddiness. It was a massive store with tons of shelves of toys, shoes, clothes, and movies.  

“I've never known what to get,” I admitted to him. “Vibrator wise.” I looked through a rack of corsets sets. “What's your favorite color?”

"Blue. Or red. Purple." He shrugged. Edward brought up a tight-waisted under the bust corset that was a dark purple with black ribbing. "Wow. That looks painful." 

“It's not supposed to be on long.”

“Yes, true.” He put it back with a little face. 

“Do you see something you like?”

“I'm feeling very shy, suddenly,” he said as he took a deep breath through his nose, looking at me with a little smile and big green innocent eyes. 

“I want you to pick something for me,” I said in a soft, silky, voice. “Anything. Really. I just want to see. Costumes, kinky, weird. Basic as fuck. I don't care.”

“I don't know where to start,” he whispered again.

“Look around. We have all day,” I assured him with a soft smile. “It doesn't have to be any of this. It can be stockings or shoes. A collar. A funny hat, perhaps?”

He chuckled, “no. No hats, I think.” 

I walked to the wall of pantie hose. I picked out a basic pair of thigh highs, black with a black satin bow, and put it in the basket. I knew I just needed something to get him started.

Edward considered something for a moment before he pulled a pair of opaque white ones with a lacy top of the same size and put them in as well. His expression made me giggle. He looked too pleased. 

“I like the red and white striped for Christmas,” I pointed out with a giggle. They had little green bows on them. Edward grabbed them as well and tossed them in. 

“Wait! You don't have to grab everything I point out,” I laughed.

“No, I like them, too.”

“Then at least get the right size,” I snorted. 

“Oh, right. Sorry,” he chuckled, putting them back and looking for the right one. He leaned forward. “I might like taking pictures of you in these,” he whispered into my ear. 

“We should look for stuff to match,” I suggested. “Maybe silky green, like the bow. It’s very Christmassy.”

“Yes, I like that idea,” he agreed.

We went to search through the racks for the right outfit to go with the stockings when his phone began to ring. 

"Christ, no," he muttered as he took it out of his pocket. "Sorry, I have to, or she won't stop," he said to me as he began to turn bright red. "Hello, Mum. You're up early today." 

“Oh, no...” I cackled at his uncomfortable expression on his face. He was fully expecting to talk to his parents later in the evening. 

We walked over to the shoe section where there was hardly anyone around. It was too cold and loud for him to talk outside.  

"Thank you. No. Yes, I know. I don't suppose I can call you back?" He asked frowning. He then rolled his eyes and plopped down into one of the chairs. I snickered, going to look at the outrageously high heels. "I see. No. I'm in New York this week. Yes. Yes, I did tell you. No. No, Mum, I did. I swear, I did tell you. No, I'm not working. No, I told you I was taking a vacation for my birthday. Yes. With my girlfriend. Yes, I've told you about her. Yes. Yes. No. No, Mum. Mum, I did. Mother!” Edward snapped as I pulled out a high pair of black shiny faux leather heels with a silver buckle on them. They were five inches tall. 

I sat beside him, tugging off my boots to try on my shoes. He had his hand over his eyes. 

"It's not my fault you don't listen to me when I speak. Okay. No. Yeah, Mum. Obviously, I'm busy if I asked to call you back, but you ignored me. I- I-... ugh, Mum. Please? I really can't talk. I'm shopping. Shoe shopping. No. Not for me." 

I put on both heels and stood up to my new height. “Oh, I'm almost tall.”

“No, darling, you're not,” he smirked at me and winked. Edward rolled his eyes again at the phone. “I was talking to Bella. My girlfriend. Yes, I have. She's trying on shoes. If she wants them. Actually. No, actually. She-. Bella is American. She's from Texas. I'll send you a picture later. Nana's spoken to her. No. Of course on the phone, you daft koala.”

“You daft koala,” I laughed as I walked around, trying to see if I could walk in the shoes. I could. Somehow. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

He pulled the phone away from his mouth and covered the speaker. “You're not helping, first off. Second, the only woman I'm kissing with this mouth today is-” He brought the phone back to his ear. “No, Mum. Yeah. Why don't you put Dad on the phone so I can say hello to him before you have to go?”

I put the shoes back in the box and Edward slid it into the basket without a word. 

“Hi, Pops. How are you? That's good! I'm very well. Thank you. Oh, thank you! I am having a very good day. Me and my girl are out in Manhattan. We're probably going to spend the evening in. I need a break. Yeah, she's the best. Alright, Dad. No, don't give me back to her. She's fucking nuts,” he laughed. “I'll talk to you later. I love you both. Bye.”

He threw his head back, covering both of his eyes.

“Okay there, cowboy?” I teased, putting my boots back on.

"I swear to Christ, one day she's going to make me insane. It's like seven in the morning there, and she's arguing with me like a bloody lunatic. I am so glad I am on another continent right now." 

“She does have great timing,” I teased.

“Right?!” He stood up. “Okay. Let's try this again, shall we? Those shoes are perfect. How can you walk in them?”

“Practice. I intended not to wear those for very long either.”

We went back through women's lingerie. With his hand on my back, we looked through the lace, silk, and satin until he found a taffeta green bone corset embroidered with silver swirls that he liked. 

“Are you sure you don't want a hat?” I pointed to the Santa hats jokingly. 

“Perhaps a bow,” he teased back as we finally moved to the toys. I picked up a satiny red collar from its hook to look at it. “Or, that.”

I put it into the basket while maintaining eye contact with him. “I know you enjoyed spanking me. Are you into BDSM?”

He visibly swallowed. “I'm not really experienced.”

“That's not what I asked.” I looked over the paddles, bondage gear, and ball gags. “Have you tried anything else?”

“Tying up and blindfolding. I realize it's not really hardcore,” he whispered.

“Not everything about BDSM is hardcore. It's not like I'd expect you to have hogtied and hung someone in a gimp suit from the ceiling while hitting them with a cane and calling them dirty names.”

“That is so specific it's concerning,” he joked.

“I've never hung anyone from the ceiling or even seen a gimp suit in person,” I promised him. “I've definitely done some hitting and name calling though.” I pulled down a riding crop and smacked it into my hand. I raised an eyebrow in his direction. 

Edward took it from my hand and put it in the basket. 

I laughed loudly, “ah. No. Not that one. It has a rubber end. You don't start with that." I put it back and got one made out of softer leather. There was also one that was pink and had a star at the end. "I'm the BDSM fairy, and I'm here to fuck you up right." I tapped the star end in my hand. Edward laughed. 

“Kinky Godmother.”

“Bip-di bop-pi-di bondage, baby.”

He picked out a kit with all sorts of beginner stuff for us to play with. We also got some more lube and a couple of fun lotions and creams that were supposed to make things tingle. 

Then we got to the vibrator section. I knew more about what I didn't like than what I did.  

“I've heard good things about this kind,” I pointed out one of the wand style vibrators. He put it in our already full basket. “Seriously, stop just grabbing.”

"Why not?" He grinned. "It's my birthday, and I can buy whatever I want." 

“Though that is true, you're just having fun picking out all the dirty things now. Look how much junk we have,” I whispered to him. 

Edward looked down at me happily. “I fail to see a problem here. We said we’d test them out tonight and see what you like best. We can't do that if we don't have a wide selection. You need choices.”

I laughed, “I was joking about that part.”

“Well, I'm not,” he said into my ear.

One of the ladies that worked there came up to us. She had big pink hair and a nose ring. She was super cute. “Hi. Can I help you with anything?”

“Actually yes,” Eddie said in his more professional voice. “What are your best selling toys for women's pleasure? Top five.” I could have died there. I couldn’t imagine my face. He was so loud. Purposely so.

"Well, if you're interested in this style, I would recommend this brand right here. It's a little bit cheaper, and it also has a spot for regular batteries, and it's USB rechargeable. It's one of our top selling." She showed him the box. He put the other back quietly and grabbed her other suggestion. He then proceeded to buy the other four she suggested as well.  

He just kept shoving little things into the small hand basket until it was overflowing. The sales girl took it from him so he could go pay for it. 

I decided to live in blissful ignorance of the cost of his shopping spree and went to glance through the shoes again. I didn't need to know how much money was going into my vagina.
 
The sun was already going down by the time we got back to the hotel. It wasn't even five in the afternoon yet. We stopped off at a drug store for batteries, a couple of bottles of wine, and candy. Because there was nothing, you needed more after a wild night of drunken sex than sugar.  

We had so many thick plain brown bags in our arms. At least we didn't stand out amongst the shoppers starting to thin out as it got colder and darker outside. The low was going to be in the teens, and it was going to get windier.  

His phone rang just as we got into the room. 

"Oh, it's my Gran," he looked at the name on the screen. She wanted to Facetime with him.  

“I'm going to get freshened up,” I offered as we put all the bags on the table. I searched through them to find the things I needed.

“Hello there you, gorgeous woman!” He said with a shit eating grin into the phone. 

“There is my beautiful baby on his birthday!” The older woman said very loudly. And then she sang him a happy birthday. 

I could have cried. It was the sweetest thing. He looked so happy. I loved watching him.

Edward put his hand over his heart. “Thank you so much!”

“Have you spoken to everyone today?” 

"Mum called. The girls sent me lovely messages. And I talked to Nana last night, but you were the only one to sing me a happy birthday. They all tried, and I told them no. Only Grandma Jane can do it right, I told them all," he said in his performer's voice again, but it was adorable. He clearly made her very happy.  

I slipped into the bathroom. 

First, I changed into the corset, panties, and stockings. They were a little silly but fun. Then I decided to do my makeup to match since he wanted pictures. Green eyeshadow and bright red lips seemed like a good idea. At the drugstore, I got a small Christmas bow themed choker. We would save the collar for later. I wrapped up in a robe and came out of the bathroom to find him still talking to his grandparents. He sat on the edge of the bed, his coat and boots off.  

“So, what does she look like?” I heard an older male voice ask. 

Edward looked up at me and smiled. “Well, she's very petite. A tiny thing and right fit. Very fit. She's got the longest, curliest, black hair that goes all the way to her bum. And her eyes are the most amazing thing. She's got one blue eye and one brown. It's bewitching.”

“She does sound enchanting. I can't wait to meet her. She getting ready for your hot date?” The man teased his grandson. 
Edward chuckled at his choice of words. “She is. She's just got out the ladies, in fact.”

I sat on the bed beside him, clutching the robe tightly, and he pointed the phone towards my face. “Hi,” I said quietly and pleasantly like I wasn't wearing lingerie for his sweet grandson. Like I wasn't about to bang their prized baby boy hard into the mattress all night long.

“Would you look at that! Your eyes really are different colors. Your bird is quite the looker!” He said charmingly. “How are you doing, doll face?”

“Oi, old man. Don't flirt with my lady,” he teased in a funny accent with a laugh in his tone. 

“When I have your grandmother? Never.” He was looking too closely to the camera. Oh, he was a ham just like his grandson. 

“I love you,” Edward grinned at the old man. “I can't wait to see you again in February.”

“I love you too, darling boy. Is she coming?” The older man that looked a lot like Edward nodded his head towards me. He had the same square jaw, but he had dark gray hair. He was a handsome man still.

“Shh... I've not asked her yet,” he whispered loudly. “I was going to ask her at Christmas. I was going to ply her with presents before I asked her to go visit the insane asylum with us. ”

"Oops, oh, dear. Would you look at the time? I have nothing to do. Your aunts send their love. Have a good birthday!" He said before he hung up on his grandson. Edward looked from side to side, his mouth agape at the abrupt ending.  

“You bastard,” he laughed as he put his phone on the end table with a little toss. Edward glanced over. “Okay. Well, then. Would you like to go with me to Australia?”

I didn't even really think about it. 

“Yes, I would.”
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5/31/2019

Episode Twenty-Nine: Thanksgiving

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Episode: Twenty-Nine: Thanksgiving

It was late when we finally left the Zucker's house with a tremendous amount of food. I got hugs from everyone, as did Edward who they were already acting like was part of the family. The snow was coming down slowly, but there was at least an inch on the ground. It was just a short subway ride to the apartment, so we decided to go there first. We couldn't keep all that food at the hotel. 

We were alone on the subway train except for an ancient Chinese woman with a neon pink suitcase and a big pink puffy jacket to match. Our leftovers sat beside us in the quiet car with only the sounds of the train echoing around us. My thoughts began to build up in my head. 

“Was that too much?” I asked Edward quietly.

"What? It was an overall, very nice day. Very wholesome. I gained ten pounds, I think." He rubbed his aching belly. "They seem lovely. They love you very much and only want you to be happy." 

“Thank you.” I hugged him. “For today. I didn't even ask. It all just kind of happened.”

“Did you get what you needed?”

I considered his question for a moment as the woman got off at her stop through the door beside me. 

"I think so. I feel better than I did this morning. This isn't how you wanted to spend your vacation, though, I'd imagine." 

Edward shook his head in disagreement. “It's exactly how I wanted to spend it. With you.” 

We didn't say anything else the rest of the ride and walk home.

“Food,” I called when I opened the front door to the apartment. Alice's jacket and umbrella were hanging up by the door, dripping with melting snow. 

“What kind?” Alice shouted from the back. Patty meowed in chorus with her. 

“Esther cooked for Aiden's birthday.”

She came padding down the hallway in her dinosaur footie pajamas eagerly. “Is there matzo balls?”

“Yup. And she gave me a whole loaf of homemade challah. Brisket. There are a few kinds of cookies. Apple cake with honey frosting. You know how she does.”

"Fuck yes. I was about to order soup." She took the bag from me. I followed her into the kitchen to put the rest of the stuff away. "Are you going to practice tomorrow?" 

"Yeah, I need to. Would you mind bringing my gear with you so that I don't have to haul it to the hotel and back?" 

"Sure. I'm going to take a Lyft anyway. I have a half off code," she said as heated the soup up in the microwave. "Put it on your bed so I know that I'm taking the right stuff." 

“Okay. Thanks.”

I packed my practice clothes and shoes in a gym bag and put it on the bed. I picked up the case for my banjo from under the bed, placing it on the mattress as well. Edward was quiet as he watched me from his spot on the couch, right in the middle. 

“Will you play for me?” He asked as I picked the instrument up from the stand.

I put the strap around my neck and began to play the song I had been practicing for two weeks. It wasn't a hard song. The Rainbow Connection was a classic and probably one every nerd with a banjo learned along with that song from Deliverance. His eyes were glued to me as I played, and his smile grew wide when I began to sing along as well. I strummed lazily, my fingers dancing over the strings. It wasn't a loud song, slow and winding.  

Alice clapped from the kitchen when I was done. She had heard it a thousand times already. I rolled my eyes hard.

“It is filthy just how wildly talented you are. You should be the one going on Broadway,” he told me as I put the instrument away.

“You know that's why she came here, right? She wanted to be in the theater,” Alice said from the doorway with her hot bowl of soup in her hands. She blew on it, making the steam curl away from her lips. 

"That's why a lot of people move here, and like most, I wasn't good enough," I said as I closed the case. "It wasn't for me, anyway. I was just too young to know that at the time." 

“I don't know. I think you'd be great,” Edward said sweetly. “I think you could be a star.”

"I mostly like being behind the camera," I told them both. "And you two are both intensely biased. One of you wants to sleep with me, and the other is dating me." 

Edward snorted. Alice flipped me off before walking off to her room.

The practice was really early in the day, so Edward slept in and met me back at the apartment afterward. I gave him the spare set of keys we had so he could wait for me inside. When I arrived, he had set up a couple of brand new heaters. One in my bedroom and the other in the hallway outside the kitchen, blowing directly into it.  

The day before Thanksgiving was a busy cooking day for me. I felt bad that Edward was going to be cooped up with me all day working. I hadn't expected him until later in the evening and meant to be done with all of this way before then. 

“Tell me what to do,” he said, determined to help. So I sat him down at the tiny table with sweet potatoes and a peeler.

I started off by cutting up a whole chicken and throwing it into my hot cast iron skillet. I put it's backbones and wings the pressure cooker for broth later. I had a list of what to do and checked it off as I went. I chopped a half dozen onions, a full head of celery, three pounds of mushrooms, and peeled close to ten pounds of carrots. I saved the vegetable ends and bits to go into a broth. I would be making both chicken and vegetable stock that day, probably multiple batches of both. It would be going into a few dishes. Whatever I didn't use right away would be used the next day.

I divided what I prepped, some to be cooked sooner, some to be cooked later. When Edward finished the mound of orange potatoes, I gave him green beans to snap.  He didn't seem put out by the work, smiling as we chatted and I cooked. He stole as many kisses as he could.  

I was going to be making two kinds of stuffing, one with fresh sweet cornbread and the other with the challah that Esther gave me the day before. The first was vegetarian while the latter was not. The stack of baking dishes in my fridge was growing. There were going to be more side dishes than anything else. But, I had to make sure there was enough for everyone to eat.

"So, we're planning to go to your friend's house with all of this before dawn?" He asked, curiously.  

“Yup.”

“How exactly?”

"With you, it'll be super easy. It's usually a bit much for Alice and me," I grinned at him. "Most of the stuff is already over there," I told him truthfully, waving my little knife around as I spoke, chopping cherries. The juice was dark red and dripping down my fingers from the blade. "Two turkeys, a giant ham. All the cans and stuff for tomorrow. All the bread. Liquor. All the drinks." 

“How many people are coming?”

"Demetri invites everyone so who knows. It's going to be a lot of people, but his house is pretty big so he can handle it. They'll come in and out all day after lunch at three, probably." 

“Are you the only one cooking for this?”

I laughed, "oh no. People will bring stuff, too. It's just Alice and Demetri don't cook at all. So they just give me money for their part because they don't want to poison people. Demetri's husband does a little, and he's making a couple of things. Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. Snickerdoodles too, I think." 

“I should bring something as well?” He asked.

“No, you're my guest. Besides, you've already put more work into this than Alice.” I kissed him on the lips with a smile. “Maybe more than all the Thanksgivings combined, actually.”

The apartment was toasty warm, so I was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt while I cooked. By the evening, the whole place smelled of chocolate cake and fresh chocolate chip cookies.  

Edward couldn't stop stealing the cookies. Good thing there was six dozen of them. 

“I love them so much,” he said through a mouthful. I loved kissing the bittersweet chocolate off his soft lips.

It was late when I finally stopped cooking, and we were going to have to get up very early in the morning, so we decided to just stay at the apartment. It was nine in the evening when we were relaxing in my tiny bed. Edward was curled and tangled around me, holding me in his arms with his chest against my back.  

“What plans do you have for Christmas?” He asked into the darkness, only the city lights filling the room from the blinds. 

“I was probably going to be alone,” I replied quietly. “Alice and Rose are going to Texas. Demetri is going to see his in-laws as well.”

"I was going to be alone, as well. But, I want to spend Christmas with you. And New Years," he said hopefully. 

“I hope you don't want to go to the ball drop in Times Square because I'm not doing that,” I told him honestly. 

“No,” he laughed. “I was actually hoping you could come to spend it in California with me. We could go on that snowy weekend we were talking about. Colorado or Utah. Maybe you could spend three weeks all together?”

"That's so long. I want to, but I may have to work. I've been on a roll, and I don't want it to stop." 

"That's fair, but remember while you're there, we can do those videos we were talking about. You can teach me how to cook. And we can do whatever videos you want. I love your ideas, and I think you're amazing in front of the camera. You really could be a star," he spoke into my ear, his breath warming my skin.  

“I don't want to use you for money.”

“One, you're not. I am. I'm making way more money off this arrangement than you are. You must realize that. And I'm already planning on increasing what you get to match Seth and Tyler if you're going to be so involved. Even though I know you're about to freak out over it.”

“I haven't looked at my bank account in a while because I kind of had a little panic attack last time,” I told him in a quiet voice. “The amount freaks me out.”

“Why? I know not all of it is from the videos you've been doing with me. A lot of it is your store. And the magazines.”

“Which is only because you had me on your channel. And because I took your picture.”

Edward considered my words for a minute, nuzzling my hair with his nose.“That's how Hollywood works though, baby. It's called a break.”

"Everything good that has happened in the past two months is because of you!" I kind of snapped. It was a nice phrase, but I said it harshly. 

“Everything good that has happened in the past two months is because of your incredible talent, generous soul, and immense patience and fortitude,” he said calmly back.

“What if you go away?” I whispered into the darkness. It made me feel so small. 
“I'm not.”

“You can't say that because it's not true.”

“It is true,” Edward promised solemnly. 

"No," I almost cried, my voice breaking. "It's not. Everyone leaves. No one is immortal. Everyone dies. Everything is always changing. I relied on Aiden for money because I was a stupid child, and because I was an idiot, I was almost homeless again. Because we were both terrible with money. I'm not going to make that same mistakes again. I can't be relying on you." 

"You're obviously not. Do you really think you're not working when you did that stuff with me? Or that you don't deserve to be rewarded for your work? I'm not going to short change you because you lack the self-confidence to know your worth. And, your pictures are separate from me and speak for themselves. I'm not going to not shout how awesome I think you are and that everyone needs to see your work. Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks you're a skilled artist. I'm glad I can show people, but they're looking because your art is beautiful, Bella." 

“How can you be this good?” I asked him when I rolled over to face him. “You can have anyone. Anyone. You are a sexy twenty-four-year-old with literally all the money in the world at this point. Why are you bothering with me?" I begged him, genuinely wanting to know. I didn't understand it.  

“I don't know how you can be asking that. I really don't.” He was a little exasperated.  

“I don't know what I have to give you.”

“You don't have to give me anything. That... that's not how any of this works. What you give me is intangible and undefinable and wonderful. You are full of love and kindness in a way that makes me want to be a better man just for you.”

“Stop it, you're going to make me cry,” I mumbled into his chest. 

“Please don't be down on yourself anymore. I'm going to argue with you every time until you just accept that I'm right and you're great.” 

We made very quiet, slow love on my little bed. He was so gentle with me, his large hands massaging away all my worries and stress. I could still taste chocolate on his sweet lips.  

In the morning, I woke up first and arranged all the things we were taking with us into a laundry basket and a couple of big boxes. Edward took a quick shower and put on some fresh clothes. I would be getting cleaned up once the food was started at Demetri's.  

I had to wake Alice up, her alarm quietly singing away as she slept through it. Crawling into the bed, I sat on her backside as she laid on her stomach. I moved her wild dark shiny black hair away from her face to whisper in her ear, “get up.”

“No.”

“It's time to go.”

“Lay on me,” she grunted into her pillow. I adjusted so that my full weight was on top of her. “Yes,” she sighed, smashing her face deeper into the pillow. “Don't move.”

I wiggled and bounced on top of her. “I need you to carry things.”

“It's too early,” she complained.

“You can go back to sleep at Demetri's. Just like every year. You know how this works, Al.”

Alice whined but didn't move. “I'm comfortable now.”

I kneed her in the butt. She just moaned. I sat up on her thighs and slapped her ass as hard I could. 

“That's what I'm talking about,” she said sleepily with a stupid smile. I smacked her over and over again. She started to giggle, finally rolling and pushing me over. She held me down and put her head on my chest as a pillow. “There. Stop moving. So fucking bony.”

“You know,” Edward said from the other side of the cracked door. “If I need to give you two a few moments, I can.”

“Honk, honk.” She squeezed my breast. I grabbed her own and made her squeal. Then we started tickling and swatting at each other. Several connected, skin to skin. “Ow! Bitch!”

“Then get up!” I pinched her outer thigh fat. She slapped my ass when I got up. I just wiggled it at her. She threw her thin pillow at me as I went out the door. We flipped each other off before I threw it back at her. “You have drool on your face.”

Edward had a curious expression, half bemused and embarrassed with a tiny grin on his face. “You two are fun,” he finally said. “You have an interesting relationship.”

“Good thing you came along. We had a marriage pact at forty-five,” I teased. 
He jokingly thought about it for a minute. “I'm not sure either of you would be too unhappy about that.”

"Oh, no. Al is the love of my life. We'd have beautiful, weird blond hair tanned babies with one blue eye and one brown," I said, doe-eyed. "She's a natural blond, you know. Our children would be strange but cute."
 
“I don't think that's how that works,” he said in a goofy tone, pretending to think about it slowly again. He hummed for a second. “I'm fairly certain someone is missing something essential to the process. Something important.”

“Like what?” I asked stupidly as I smoothed my hand over the front of his jeans. He made a little O-face in surprise before recovering very quickly. 

“If you would like I can show you later,” he mumbled in a deep voice.

“Oh, really?” I teased, kissing along his jaw. 

“Mm, yes. I'm even willing to dedicate my entire day tomorrow to showing you if you're interested,” he said charmingly. He was starting to become harder at my stroking through his jeans. 

“Ohhhh...” I drew out stupidly again. “I think I might know what we're doing wrong now. See, I told her we needed that strap-on.”

Edward laughed loudly, putting his hands on his hips. His face was hot red. “I'm not going to be a pervert. I'm not going to be goaded into it. I'm not.”

“Damn. Why not?” I pouted. “I’m trying so hard.”

“You shouldn't encourage these thoughts and behaviors.”

I grinned wickedly. “You're already going to spend all day thinking about it now. Why shouldn't I encourage it?”

“And, what exactly do you think I'm going to be thinking about? Because I have no earthly idea what you're talking about,” Edward said with his chin in the air. “I am a good boy.”

I leaned up on my toes and whispered softly, “please. You're going to be thinking about me, and my cute little bestie all confused in bed with all the fun toys we could possibly play with." 

“Wicked, wicked, woman.” He took my face and kissed me. “That is... just. I'm- I'm at a loss for words. Why do you do this to me? How?”

"Because it's fun. And, it's because all the blood is in your cock instead of your brain," I said with pleasure as I groped him through his clothes. He obviously loved it. 

“Wouldn't it upset you if I thought that?” He said in a small voice. 

“Obviously not,” I snickered. 

“Do you... think about her... and you...” He was a bit breathless and wide innocent eyed. 

I kissed him slowly before I answered, “sometimes.” I left my tone ambiguous to mess with him further. “Is that okay?”

“Oh, oh... Yeah, um... Yes, of course. I'm just surprised. I didn't- I mean, that you think about things like that. I mean, obviously you do have those kinds of thoughts but I never... um..  Just Alice? Or, other ladies as well?” Poor Edward was having trouble talking. He said the last sentence very quietly.

"I think about you, too," I joked. He smirked at my answer. "Sometimes, even with her. So, are you asking me if I like to think about fucking other women?" I asked with fake naivete, enjoying his blushing. 

"I... I'm not sure how to answer. I want to say yes, but I also don't want to get into trouble," he said to me honestly.  

“You're so sweet and innocent,” I teased him. “Why would you get in trouble?”

“Dude, she’s so gay,” Alice shouted from the bathroom.

“Thanks, sweetie. That's helpful,” I called back. 

"Just trying to speed this along," she mumbled, dressed and ready to go. "I mean, if he's not cool with that, he's going to have a long few days ahead of him.”

“Oh... it's not-  No. Um, I actually... kind of- I thought, I've kind of already figured it out? From things that we've talked about. Things she's said before. The tattoos. All the rainbows. And, the charity thing Saturday. It's more than fine. I was going to ask, but I didn't know the right way to do so. I'm sorry, I'm so awkward,” his words stumbled out. “I figured you were bi, probably. I shouldn't assume anything, though.”

“Pan, but close enough,” Alice said. I looked at her. “What? You don't care who knows.”

“I'm never having sex with you again,” I said in a deadpan voice, walking towards the kitchen to get the food. 

“Damn, I just outed you on a holiday. There needs to be some family drama. So sensitive,” she joked. “I thought he fucking knew already and y’all were being flirty. Damn. Not my fault. Talk to your man. It’s too early in the morning for this shit.”

“Family drama makes it sound like we're literally incestuous,” I pointed out to her. “We’re not even legally sisters.”

“In college, we used to-” Alice began to tell Edward with an amused smile. 

I stopped her with a raised fist. “Don't even think about it.”

“You don't know what story I'm about to tell. It could be a good one.”

“It doesn't matter which one.” I wiggled my fist a couple of inches from her nose. We looked at each with squinted eyes. I bumped it slowly into her nose.

“Now, I want to know,” Edward said as he hefted the large laundry basket of food. 

“I've got some pictures to show you later,” my best friend said evilly. Then she cackled like a Disney villain. 

“One of these days I'm going to knock you to the moon,” I threatened in a Jersey accent. “To the fucking moon, Alice.” 

“I'll tell Mama.”

“She'd understand,” I mumbled in annoyance. “I've definitely seen her pop you one, too.”

Alice fell asleep on the ride to Brooklyn with her head on my shoulder. Edward held my hand as I leaned my head onto him. 

"Don't be afraid to ask anything you want to know about me. You've been nothing but open with me. I should have really talked about certain things sooner, and I'm sorry I'm so closed off. I just didn't even really think about it, because it's not that big of a deal for me. I was honestly starting to wonder if I was going to be attracted to anyone else at all before I met you." 

“I was afraid to upset you or come off as insensitive. I didn't want to push something you weren't ready to talk about. I can understand these things can be hard to express. I would have a hard time telling anyone...” He trailed off. 

“I could never accuse you of being insensitive about anything. I want to be with you, so you have to know all of me. I have to trust you when you say I won't scare you away.”

“There is nothing that could,” he promised. 

I smirked a little. “You're taking a huge leap of faith that I'm not a former or future serial killer.”

Edward looked pleased with his answer before he even spoke, “I've been reading that most serial killers are men, so statically, I should be fine.”

“Oh, you have been reading, have you? No wonder you haven't been sleeping.”

He smirked back. “I wanted to see what interested you about it.”

“Did you get anything out of it?”

“Humans are bloody savages. I'm glad that I didn't live in the sixties or seventies. And why didn't anyone ever lock their damn front door?” He said in horror. I laughed. “It's interesting but scary. I don't think I could read all the books you do. I'm not sure I can have that in my brain.”

"It's not for everyone," I agreed. "It's sweet that you did that, though. You didn't have to." 

“I was doing it for research as well. Seth wants to do a series on crime. It's kind of the rage right now.”

“Oh, he'd enjoy that,” I mused. 

“I think you would as well. I was going to ask if you'd like to do an episode with him. Just him, actually.”

“Just him?” I asked curiously.

“That's what we've been talking about. It would be a different kind of video. Mainly you two talking about it and then we'd add the visuals in post-production. Expand the channel a little bit. Tyler will have his own shit, too.”

“That's a lot of work for you. Are you going to have the time for all that?” I questioned, worried that even more of his time was going to be slipping away from me.

"I'm going to hire some more people next year to start after I visit Sydney in February. A graphics person, a couple more audio-visual people. If it works out, maybe we can really expand the channel. It's what I enjoy doing the most honestly. And I want to keep it going." He squeezed my hand. "Especially if you're there to help me." 

“What about movies and television?”

Edward sighed. "I think with the help I can do both. You were right about needing to hire people. I need to give up some of the reins and delegate. I can be more creative that way and focus on the final product more," he explained to me. "I really am thinking about hiring a photographer for the channel, by the way." 

“I think that's a good idea.”

He glanced toward me and smiled slightly. "Mm, you are my first choice, of course. But, I understand if you don't want to. Your position in my growing media empire is there whenever you want it, though." 

“Esther asked me if I was going to move to LA,” I said thoughtfully. “I want to help you when I'm there, but I'm not ready for that.”

“I could move to New York,” he offered.

I shook my head. "Not right now, you couldn't. Your life works better in LA." 

“Where does that leave us? Stealing time on the holidays,” he said sadly. “You're right. Not right now. But, maybe next year?”

"I can't tell you what to do, but I love your house," I answered.

"I do, too. I don't have to sell it, just get something here. But, the LA house… It can be your home, too, " he said. I was grateful that we arrived at Demetri's place so that I didn't have to respond.  

Riley opened the door for us, sleepy and in his pajamas. 

“Hi, sugar,” he said as he took the box from me. Riley, Demetri's husband, was average height but a little plump in the stomach. He was from Georgia originally. He had thick black rimmed glasses and was growing a thick bushy brown beard. “Demetri is still asleep.”

“I love it so much.” I brushed his facial hair with his fingers.

His grin was jolly. “After November it's getting trimmed. Demetri hates it. It’s for No-Shave November. Cancer research,” he answered Edward’s questioning eyes. 

“Oh, it will look good when it's all trimmed up,” I assured him. “You should keep it thicker.”

“Maybe,” he smiled. “Al, how are you?”

She just looked at him, put the box down, and walked up the stairs to the spare bedroom. I laughed to myself as I began to put things away and turn on the two ovens. 

The bottom floor of their house was an open concept with a large living room, dining area, and kitchen. The kitchen was my favorite though with two big ovens and a nice countertop convection toaster oven. I started my first pie in there, and with the help of Riley and Edward, I got both turkeys in the ovens and the big ham in a giant slow cooker. I got the things I needed started on the eight-burner stove, cooking away for the first two hours. Riley got us a breakfast of doughnuts. Edward helped in every way he could. He washed a lot of dishes mainly. 

After about three hours, all I could do on the stove was finished, and it was just a matter of waiting for the stuff in the oven to be done and to be switched out. It was just before ten in the morning.  

Riley and Edward were playing video games while I lazily decorated the room with the supplies we had gotten earlier in the month. Demetri finally made it out of bed, coming out of the only bedroom on the first floor. 

Demetri was a skinny, tall, severe-looking man. His face was sharp and his lips overly full from fillers. He had long straight platinum blond hair right then that went past his shoulders. He wasn't wearing his usual layer of makeup since he had just woken up, his eyes close to being shut as he came stumbling out. He was wearing black and red silk pajamas.

“Good morning,” I told him softly. He waved at me, his face a little scrunched up and annoyed. Demetri was not a morning person either.

He walked to the back of the black sectional couch in a shuffle. The two guys were too into their fighting game to stop, both slouched down comfortably. He began to stroke Edward's head, who was instantly shocked. His eyes got big, but he didn't move. 

“Why are you petting my boyfriend?” I laughed. 

“What?” He looked down at the hair he was playing with, still squinting. “Fuck. Sorry. Wrong head. Hello.”

“Uh, hi,” Edward laughed. 

He started to pat Riley's head instead. “Good morning, baby.”

“Go put your glasses on,” I teased him. He waved me off. “Go get laser surgery then. This is embarrassing.”

“I don't have the time to be blind.”

“That's not how that works. The laser fixes your blindness,” I reminded him.

“He's scared of it,” Riley commented. 

“But you get work done all the time.” I shook my head. 

“But it's my eyes!” He complained. “Fine. I'll go get ready and put my contacts in. Bells, then I'll do you.”

“Got it,” I saluted. “Also, that’s what she said.”

By the time Demetri came waltzing out of his bedroom, he was thoroughly done up with makeup, fake eyelashes, and was wearing a nice pink tight fitting tracksuit. I had laid out all the desserts onto the table with all the things that could be left out. I had arranged a drink station and put out all the plates and forks. I couldn't sit still at these sort of things. My anxiety wouldn't allow me to.  

“It looks great!” Demetri announced proudly. 

“I don't know. How can you tell?” I asked. He stuck his tongue out at me. 

“I left some shampoo and condition out I want you to try,” he instructed me. “I got some free samples. I think I want to do it curly today.”

"Whatever you want to do," I replied. I liked it when he did my hair and makeup, It always looked beautiful. I had just learned to trust him that he knew what was best. 

I checked everything in the kitchen to make sure I had enough time and then went to the master bedroom. Alice was finally awake and eating doughnuts on the couch while stand-up comedy played in the background. 

I had already undressed when I realized I had forgotten my bag in the living room. Wrapping in a towel, I only peeked my head out of the door. “Eddie, can you bring me my bag? It's by the front door.”

“Yeah, sure.” He hopped right up from his spot on the couch. Quickly he brought it to the room, coming into the bedroom to hand it to me. He smiled when he saw that I was in a towel. He peeked out the door then promptly shut it, pulling me into a heated kiss. 

Edward pulled the towel away from my body. “I wasn't expecting to see your tits in the middle of the day, but I'm not mad about it, at all.”

“If there weren't so many people in there I would be tempted to have a quickie,” I teased him. 

“That would be terrible of us.” He rubbed a hand over my breast and lightly squeezed it. “We can't, but let me kiss them goodbye before they go away.”

He leaned down and kissed along each nipple, making them stiff. Lavishing each with attention, he grabbed my ass. My head rolled back, holding his mouth to my chest.

I pulled away before I was too tempted. He pinched one of them for good measure. 

“Don't worry, you can play with them all day tomorrow if you want to,” I promised him. 

“I was planning on it…”

“I wish you could join me so you could come play with me.  But I guess I will just have to masturbate in the shower all alone,” I said in a silky voice.

He groaned loudly, slapping my ass hard as I left to go into the bathroom with a mean little giggle. He was adjusting himself through his pants when I last saw him.

After I showered and dressed, I checked on things in the kitchen again. There were more people there when I came out, friends and people I had known for years. Everyone hugged me and chatted while Demetri set up a clean space for him to work. 

Demetri had a massive case of makeup and hair tools, it had four wheels and rolled like a suitcase. It put the amount of makeup Edward got me to shame.  

He put creams in my hair and dried it so that it was still very curly. Taking the top part, he braided it back to one side so that it was out of my face but kept the bottom down. Demetri worked on my makeup for ages, yelling at people to do things for me whenever my timers went off. It was outlandishly elaborate.  
“I love the gold on you so much,” he muttered as he dragged the eyeliner brush across my waterline.

"I bought her some pretty gold lipstick, and it looks very nice on her," Edward agreed as he sat across from us, watching and chatting.  

“I've seen!” Demetri praised him. “I like your style of gift giving.” He winked at him.

“Carpet bombing style? One of them is hopefully going to be a hit?” My boyfriend teased.

“No, outrageous. Exactly how it should be.” He waved a tube of lipstick at him. “I'm going to do a plum lip. It says more fall,” he told me as he held my chin to look at my face. 

“Something matte,” I commented.

"That's what I was thinking," he agreed with me as he searched through his shades. "You should spoil this fine lady. She's my best girl, and she deserves top-quality everything,” he said to Edward very seriously, pointing at him with a tube of gloss. 

Edward smirked, “I couldn't agree with you more.”

“Good. Because I will fuck you up if you make her cry. I'm her big brother.” He pointed a long sharp pink nail at him, getting more earnest. “Got it?”

He put both of his hands up. “Got it. Dr. Zucker gave me the same warning already, pretty much. He may have been a bit more graphic on how, as a doctor, he could get rid of my body if I do anything untoward to his daughter.”

“Oh, no,” I laughed at that impossible image. “Sorry.”

“He met Aiden's parents?” Demetri said in surprise. “How did that go?”

"Oh, god. They all loved him. Claire fucking flipped. We went to the cemetery, and Esther was there. I couldn't tell her no, so we went back to the house and spent the day there. I don't think it was too bad," I said hopefully.  

“It was great,” Edward assured me. “I am still full.”

“I love that woman's cooking. She'll feed you until you pop,” my friend said knowingly as he finished up my mouth. “She reminds me of a less racist version of Riley's Grandma.”

Rosalie and Emmett arrived right at lunchtime with a tray of cheeses to add to the spread. I hadn't seen them in ages. The first time it felt like in a year, all my favorite people were in the same space. Dozens of people I only got to see briefly in real life and mainly through social media were there. 

Emmett wrapped his thick arms around my waist from behind and pressed several quick kisses on my cheek just to make me laugh. I wrapped my arm around his, and he lifted me up in the air by a foot. 

“Put my sister down,” Rosalie chided him. She pulled me into a tight hug as soon as my feet were on the ground. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Oh, Roe… I’ve missed you, too.”

She looked over my shoulder at Edward and smiled. We exchanged looks, both slowly smiling. Rose then high-fived me. I laughed loudly. We didn’t need to talk for me to know exactly what we were saying. Congrats on banging the super hot celebrity. 

"Hey, man. Emmett," he offered his hand to Edward. They were close to the same height, but Emmett had at least a hundred pounds of muscle on him. 

“Eddie. Nice to meet you. Bella speaks so warmly of you both.”

“Girl,” he swatted my shoulder. “Why are you lying to this man?” My sort of brother in law asked in his thick Tennessee accent. 

“Sweetheart, I can’t go around telling people you’re a dumbass,” I said in a mockingly serious tone. “It would embarrass Roe.” 

“Everyone already knows he’s a dumbass,” Rosalie teased her husband, dragging her sharp nail over his jaw. She then flicked her pretty blond hair over her shoulder, giving him a smirk. This was their flirting. She quickly turned her attention back to me. “Now, tell me what to do so I can help.”

“We’re being dismissed,” Emmett told Edward with a smile. 

“We’re playing Smash Brothers if you’d like to join us,” my boyfriend offered with a smile. 

“Hell yeah. Let me get a beer first.”

The day was filled with food and drinking, video games, board games, stand-up comedy specials, then old cartoons later in the day. It was the best Thanksgiving that I'd had in many years.  
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5/30/2019

Episode Twenty-Eight: Mourning

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Episode Twenty-Eight: Mourning

I woke up confused. We had gone to bed very early in the night, and it was just before dawn. I wriggled out of Edward's grasp to go to the bathroom. I washed my face and brushed my hair, examining my nude body in the mirror.  

I thought about the differences in my body and myself in that exact moment compared to just five years before. I was healthier, more muscular, at least. I had gotten comfortable and stopped working out by that point in my marriage. But I was always rather small. My face was the same besides a couple of lines around my lips. I had a couple of silver hairs at the base of my neck. I liked them, though. Five years before I was happy, mostly. No marriage is perfect, but I loved him desperately. We were trying to get pregnant. I lived in a charming townhouse on the upper East side with my sweet professor. Five years before I woke up early and made my husband steak and eggs for breakfast in bed and cheesecake to eat at his mother's house for his birthday party. Aiden told me he was blissfully happy. I wondered how much more stress they put on his poor broken heart. What fatty meal was the final straw, ripping the pinprick hole entirely apart? I asked myself that a lot actually. It wasn’t my fault, I tried to remind myself. 

And now I felt contented again... which made me feel absolutely dreadful. If it were just because I had become more financially stable since he had been gone, I might have felt proud. He would have been. But, moving on made me feel guilty. I adored Edward, though. He made me feel so safe and warm. Not wanting to give up on the relationship made it even worse somehow. I felt like I was drowning. I wasn't willing to give up Edward for Aiden. 

I was still so angry at all the possibilities lost forever now that Aiden was gone. I was not sure if I would ever get over it. A fire burned in my stomach. But, there were new possibilities with Edward, a million of them all more wonderful than the last. 

If I were being honest with myself, I knew this relationship was healthier than my marriage. Aiden could be cold, distant, and quietly manipulative. Edward was warm, loving, openly affectionate. I still didn't feel equal to Edward, just as I never did to Aiden, but it was different. The way he looked at me made me feel worshipped. I wanted to feel adored by him. He made me feel as if I almost deserved it.  

I sat on the edge of the bathtub and cried, covering my face with both my hands because I couldn't bear to look at myself anymore. I wasn’t sure how long I was there in that bathroom alone. I felt the cotton bathrobe wrap around me before I realized Edward was there. I hugged my face into his bare stomach, and he stroked my hair softly. 

When I had finally stopped, he pulled away just to turn on the shower. "Let's get washed up, okay? We'll pick up some flowers on the way, yeah?"  

“Yeah,” I nodded a bit numbly. 

“Then we can do whatever you need to.” He helped me to my feet. “I wish you had told me so I could have made sure to be here for you. I would have moved heaven and earth to not let you feel this way alone.”

“You shouldn't have to go through this,” I mumbled quietly. “It's not your problem to deal with.”

“Well, that's your opinion, love. It's wrong and stupidly self-sacrificing, but you are entitled to it, I suppose.” He didn't look at me as he checked the temperature of the water.

I scoffed at his biting tone. “We've been together a month, Eddie. Just a month.”

“That doesn't change the fact that I want to be here for you, whether you think you need the support or not. Which you do, by the way. That doesn't make you less strong or capable,” he reminded me. “You don't have to be the stoic one all the time.”

I chewed on my thumb a little. “Stoic? That's a nice way of saying kind of a cold bitch.”

“Don't do that.” He pulled my thumb away from my mouth and brought it up to his to kiss. “It's okay to be sad. You're not a bitch. You're calm and collected, and that's good, but not at the cost of your mental health. Don't keep things like this to yourself. I want to know everything.” He held my face sweetly, kissing my forehead. “And I know this is a serious moment, but I need you to know that when you cry you stick your bottom lip out and it's stupidly cute. It gives me feels,” Edward said against my skin. I giggled a little, pressing my face against his. “Something is wrong with me. I'm sorry.” He hugged me. 

“No, you're the best.”

He washed my hair and scrubbed my skin clean. After the shower, Edward brushed my hair and put lotion on my back and legs, taking the bottle from my hands without a word so he could do it while I did my arms and stomach. He knew how to pamper me well.  

The morning was gray and quiet. The cemetery was in Queens, a short subway ride from my apartment and his parent's house. The clouds were so thick in the sky that it blotted out the sun completely, mirroring my mood. I felt like there was a weight on my chest, pulling me down to the ground. 

With a bunch of orange flowers clutched in my tight fist, I entered the old Jewish graveyard. It was a tree covered space in the center of the busy city. It was nine in the morning, still very early in the day. The ground was hard with frost, and the grass crunched under my feet. Edward had his hand on the small of my back, silent as he let me lead the way.  

Aiden's stone was simple. Doctor Aiden Levi Zucker. Husband and Son. And it had a big blue star of David on it. He would have hated it. Hated. He wanted to be cremated and thrown somewhere interesting. He also wouldn't want to upset his mother. There was a stone bench in front of his spot, the area well cared for with fresh flowers already littering his grave. I laid my bundle on the center. His family came often, especially his mother.

“Is it okay if I have a few minutes?” I asked. 

“Of course, darling. I'll walk around a little.” He kissed my temple. “Let me know if you need anything.”

I sat down on the bench as I watched him move along the edge of the path underneath the trees.

“You're not there. I can't talk to you. You can't hear me anymore,” I said to the ground. “Goddammit. I wasn't ready. I'm never ready. Why? I thought I would be better this year. But, you're still not here.”

I picked at the edge of my boots, feeling tears well up in my eyes again. Edward had picked up a small package of tissues when we got the flowers. I pulled one from the pack in my jacket pocket and wiped my snotty nose. 

“God, this is sexy,” I mumbled at my boogers. “Am I ever not going to feel like this?” I asked to the air. “I am so fucking angry. We were just getting started, Doc. It wasn't enough. We had things we needed to work on. We had things we were going to do. Is just everyone going to be ripped away from me? What did I do to deserve that, huh?”

“Oh, honey, you didn't do anything,” a soft familiar voice said from behind me as her arm went around my shoulder. Esther, Aiden's mother, pulled me into a hug. “No one deserves that, baby. It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. It's God's will.”

I cried into her big fake fur coat, “I miss him so much.”

Esther was a tiny woman, at least an inch shorter than I was. She overcompensated with big puffy strawberry blond hair and very high heels. She always wore lots of gold jewelry and bright clothes, making herself seem bigger than she really was. It was probably a good thing she came with warning colors because she could be a handful.  

“I do, too, baby. I know,” she soothed me, her long red fake nails brushing through my hair. She held me for a few moments in silence while I cried.  

"I'm sorry I didn't call," I sobbed out finally. "It just hurts, and I'm coward." 

She took my chin sharply. “There is nothing you need to apologize for. You're not a coward.”

“I should have called-” Esther tapped a perfectly manicured nail on my nose, stopping me from continuing. 

"No," she said sharply as if I was her toy poodle, Dixie. She treated all her family like that, though. At least she was a loving and kind woman, if not a little odd. "We will not have any of that. It's his birthday. He wouldn't have liked it. It's a happy day. We celebrate today." 

“He's not here though.”

“Yes, he is.” She pressed her hand over my heart. “Don't you feel him? I do. All the time. He's watching us all the time.”

I shook my head, rubbing my cheek with my fist clenched tissue. “I don't think that's how that works. And, if he's here, then he needs to give me a sign. Maybe some directions. I've been kind of lost without him.”

It began to snow, the sky filling with big thick white flakes. The world instantly became a little quieter. I looked up sharply, a bunch of fat snowflakes falling onto my face. 

Esther held both of her hands up. “There you go.”

“It's been threatening snow for weeks,” I told her with a quiet laugh, wiping my face again.

“And he saved it for his birthday just for you.”

“Your son does not control the weather now. He couldn't even control the thermostat,” I teased her kindly. She smiled knowingly. 

"I'm sure he has some kind of pull. He was a good boy. Now, have you eaten? You can come to the house, and I'll cook for you." 

“I'm not alone,” I said honestly. I looked up and caught Edward's eye from across the cemetery. He was watching as he strolled under the trees from afar. Even from this distance, I could see his concern and curiosity.

“I see.” She looked up to see who I was looking at. Esther caught on right away. “Is that your new young man?”

“Yes, it is.”

“He's very tall,” she said in her thick New York accent. “I've seen shorter trees.”

I laughed as I tore at the Kleenex in my hand. “Yeah. He is quite tall. Someone needs to be able to reach the top shelf.”

“Come here, young man!” She shouted at him. I brought my hand up to my eyes, rubbing them deeply with a smirk on my tear-stained face.

Edward made his way back towards us. The snow was clumping on the ground already. It had been so cold for a couple of weeks by then. I could see the flakes gathering around the edges of his beanie, his nose bright pink.

“He's so handsome,” she said in a whisper to me as he came closer into view.  

“He is,” I agreed, smiling at him. He smiled back. When he was close enough, about ten feet away, I said, “Mrs. Esther Zucker, this is Edward Cullen.”

“Hello, Edward. I'm Aiden's mother,” she said, offering his hand in greeting. He took it, shaking it gently while clasping it warmly in both of his hands.
  
“Hello, Mrs. Zucker. It's nice to meet you. Bella has said very kind things about you.”

“He's foreign!” She said in loud surprise, making me snicker. “Are you British?”

"I'm from Australia," he said a bit awkwardly. "My dad is Scottish, and my mum is English, though, so I do have a funny accent." 

“Are you Jewish?” She asked him very seriously. Esther was blunt like a hammer. She had asked me the very same thing within moments of meeting her for the first time, too. She did it to any of her family’s new romantic partners, in fact. It had become a running joke among the younger Zuckers. 

He looked at me in a panic and looked back at her before he answered, “um... No, ma'am.”

“No? That's okay. Neither is she. We'll take you anyway.” She took his arm before offering me her hand to stand from the bench. “We'll get you two some lunch.”

“We've not even had breakfast yet,” he told her honestly. 

"What? No, that's not acceptable. We can fix that, though. Come on. You two are coming to the house right now." She patted his hand. Pulling me along, she gave us no room to argue with her. When I stood, I realized that Aiden's cousin was standing silently behind us.  

“Hey! What are you doing back there?” I went to hug her tightly. Ash held me close, her and I about the same height since I was in heeled boots. She was dressed very sharply in a long black coat and a slick silver scarf.

“I offered to drive Aunt Esther. How are you doing?” She asked quietly. “You look so good!” Ash said more warmly, holding me back at arm's length.

“I look terrible, but I'm actually doing really well. I love your coat,” I complimented her. “Edward, this is Ash. Aiden's cousin. They were really close.”

“He was my best friend,” she said a little sadly. “We lived on the same street growing up. He'd love this weather,” she commented, holding her hand out for him to shake. 

“He'd love it inside.” Esther pointed towards the gates. “Shall we?”

We rode in Ash's small car in the backseat to Aiden's childhood home. It was a sweet little house in Flushing just past a big beautiful Hindu Temple and the Buddhist center. It was a very quick ride, and he held my hand my entire time. 

“Dr. Zucker is at the hospital right now,” Esther explained as we came walking up the driveway. Edward was far too big for the short front door frame and had to bend over a good foot. It was an old house meant for smaller people. 

“Aiden's father,” I explained to him. “He is a pediatric oncologist. Is he ever going to retire?” I asked my former mother in law. 

“Probably not. You know how much he loves his work. He'll be home later this afternoon.” She took our coats and led us into her kitchen through the living room. There was already food covering the counters and table, all on trays and wrapped in plastic wrap.

“Esther, what did you do?” I looked over everything in awe. 

"Everyone is coming over today, and then they're coming over on Thursday for Thanksgiving as well. I'm sure someone will show up on Wednesday. They always do. You have to be prepared for guests. Let me start some coffee. Do you want coffee? Have you ever eaten Jewish food, Edward?" Esther said, going into her hostess mode.  

I imagined this is what bringing a date home to meet my mother would be like, but even more awkward somehow. 

“I'd love coffee. No, ma'am. I don't think I've ever had the chance,” he answered politely.

Esther came to my side to squeeze a handful of my fat. “You are too thin. You're not eating enough. Have you lost weight?”

“I've gained ten pounds actually. I've been lifting weights.” I raised my chin up. “Muscle is leaner than fat.”

“Auntie, leave her alone. She looks great,” Ash defended me as she went to the fridge to get an iced coffee drink. 

“She does, but she's so tiny. Doesn't lifting weights make you bulky? Give me a muscle. Show me your arm.” She shoved up my sleeve and felt my forearm. “Oh! You are very muscular. Have you two been going to the gym together? You both seem very healthy,” she directed her question towards Edward.

“We have worked out together, but I actually live in Los Angeles,” Edward told her as he took the seat that she offered him at the dinner table. “So, it's not every day.”

“Los Angeles! How exciting. How on earth did you two meet?” She asked loudly before more quietly turning to me. “Sweetie, get your gentleman some food. You know where everything is,” she told me before sitting herself down at the kitchen table. “How long have you been dating?”

“She doesn't have to get me anything.” He looked at me like a deer in headlights that just realized how much trouble he was in for the rest of the day. 

“I don't mind,” I assured him, trying to peek through the plastic wrap and Tupperware. “Let's see, it looks like we have some plain and everything bagels. So I'm sure there are cream cheese and lox.”

"And, onions and capers, too. Or, jelly if you like it sweet," Esther added, ever the perfect host. "If I had known you hadn't had breakfast, I would have made you some blueberry blintz. Those are Bella's favorite." 

"I think you have enough already cooked," I teased her. "It looks like there is also sufganiyot. It's a Jewish doughnut will jelly. Strawberry?" I asked. The jelly seemed really dark red. "Or Raspberry?"  

“I did them with some cranberry jelly. I used your recipe you gave me that Aiden loved so much,” she answered. Ash came over and snatched one of the sugar covered pastries up from the tray.  

“Yes, please,” I picked one up and put it in my mouth. It just melted away. “Oh, my God.”

“Language,” Esther corrected.

"Goodness. Oh, my goodness. It's superb, Esther," I smirked at my mother in law. She knew I wasn't religious, but I always respected her. "Bagel or doughnut?" I asked an overwhelmed Edward. 

“Just get him both dear, so he can try them,” Esther went to make the coffee. “You didn't say how you met or how long you've been dating?” She reminded him. She brought him a mug to mix his own sugar and creamer into it. Ash put the milk the table for everyone to use. 

“We've been together just a month now,” he finally answered her.

"Oh, so it just started. I see. I wondered why I haven't heard about you yet, but that makes sense." She patted his hand. "I'm glad she didn't wait too long." 

“Shouldn't it bother you that I'm bringing a new man to your home on your son's birthday?” I asked her, my arms crossed over my chest. 

“No, baby. It's fantastic. Now, how did you meet?” She persisted. Esther wasn't going to give up until she knew everything she wanted to.

"I was hired to take his picture for one of the magazines that I work for. Vaudevillian. I flew to LA and got to stay with him for a week, and we hit it off right away," I explained quickly, leaving out a few details but that was the best most basic answer. "Edward is an actor." 

“Oh! How interesting! Well, that makes sense, too. She has so many friends who are performers and artists.” She patted my back but was speaking to Edward as she brought me a mug of coffee. She already knew how I liked it, making it without me having to ask.  

I toasted a bagel and put some cream cheese on it with some lox along with some of the fluffy sufganiyot.  There was no use arguing with her over food. And, Edward would be happy to try anything I gave him. Esther might have met a belly she could never completely fill. I sat beside him, taking one half of the bagel for myself. He was going to have to pace himself, at least.

"Thank you," he told me, warmly, rubbing my shoulder. 

"What have you been in?" Ash asked Edward from her spot on the other side of the table. "I thought you looked familiar, but I thought you might just be one of her friends that I've seen before. I'm sorry if that's rude." 

"No, it's fine. I'm kind of just starting out, really. I've only been in a couple of bigger movies so far. Last year I was in Night Hunter, and this year, I was in a movie called Golden Spy. I'm more of a voice actor, though. I've done a few cartoons and video games." 

“That's so fascinating!” Esther said, clearly not seeing or even hearing about either of those movies. Golden Spy was actually number one at the box office in the early spring for a couple of weeks. But she wasn't really up on pop culture. She was not a huge movie fan. She was obsessed with game shows. 

“I saw Night Hunter in the theater with my wife,” Ash said thoughtfully, trying to remember his face. “She loves those killer thriller type movies. Who were you in it?”

He looked a little embarrassed. “I was the one who got his head shot off about halfway through.”

“Oh... yeah...” She nodded her head, chewing on her second doughnut. “Yeah, I remember you. That's cool! That scene was so gross, though.”

“He was just training for a movie the past couple of weeks,” I informed them, trying to take some of the conversation on for him. “He's going to be a henchmen with a name next month. He gets to kill Jodie Foster.”

"Yes. Henchmen with a name," he chuckled, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah. I'm pretty excited. It's the biggest part I've had where people actually see my face. I'm a little nervous." 

"Everyone might not know your face, but everyone will know your voice soon enough." I looked up at him with a small smile, rubbing his thigh gently.  

He leaned his forehead into mine for a brief second. “You have far too much faith in my abilities, darling.”

I looked over to Esther. I knew how to win her heart. “He's being modest. He has a Grammy.” I glanced back at him. “I've been reading that your work in Beyond the Hollow is in the running for an Emmy. Beyond the Hollow is a cartoon series,” I explained to my mother in law. 

“I know that one! Claire watches it!” She said more excitedly. “She made me watch it with her on her tablet.”

I took his hand and squeezed it. "It's just a matter of time before you get an Emmy for your voice work. Your Disney Pixar movie will undoubtedly be nominated for some sort of Oscar. At the very least in the animated category. We just need to get you on Broadway next, and you're halfway to your EGOT." His cheeks got more and more red as I egged him on.  

“I need you to understand how terrible you are for my ego. Just awful. I am going to be a beast if you don't stop. Just...” He used his hands to make the motion of a balloon popping around his head. 

“Nah,” I laughed happily at his sweet embarrassment. “You need the encouragement.”

We chatted for a couple more hours around the table before Esther had me help her start getting dinner ready. She was making brisket and roasted potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts. Ash had to go to pick up her wife from work and then her mother to bring back to the house. Esther kept stuffing Edward with food, and he was just happy to shove all of it into his face. She was going to feed him half the kitchen. 

I stood in the doorway, watching the two of them gossip like they were old friends over a tray of cookies. It made me smile. 

"You should do a video on Jewish food," I told Edward. "Maybe for Hanukkah," I said thoughtfully. "I don't know if we could do it before then," I thought out loud before turning to Esther. "He makes videos for the internet. Like the ones that you see on Facebook. That's how he got started, doing online stuff. He does a lot of food videos." 

“Do you cook?” She said excitedly. She loved those top-down cooking videos. It's almost all she ever posted beside family pictures online.

"No, no," he shook his head vigorously. "I just eat. I review it. Try new foods," he explained. "Bella is going to try to teach me, though. I have zero faith in my skills, but if anyone could teach me..." 

"You'll be cooking in no time. She's an outstanding chef. She can even keep up with me," my mother in law said proudly.  

The front door opened and I turned to see my father in law coming in from the snow. He had a full head of stark white hair and big bushy eyebrows with a sharp nose. He was a slight man, just like his son. He wasn't expecting to see me there but opened up his arms instantly.

“My beautiful daughter!” He came and kissed me on each cheek, pulling me into a hug. “You are a lovely woman. So pretty. And such a nice smile. Oh, I can't get over it, every time I see you. How are you, my dear?” He squeezed my hands. He spoke as fast as Esther did. Maybe faster.

"I've been terrific. Things are going very well," I answered. "It's good to see you again, Jonah." 

He took my face in his hands. “We were worried we wouldn't see you.”

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm still dealing with a lot of emotions, and sometimes I don't handle it very well. I forget how much I need the people I love around me," I replied softly.  

“And we do love you. Very much. We're always here,” he assured me. Finally, Dr. Zucker came into the kitchen. He looked at my boyfriend. “Who are you?”

“This is Edward. He's Bella's new gentleman,” Esther was far too happy to explain. She was already in love with him.

“I really like the term gentleman,” I told Edward honestly. “I am too old for a boyfriend.”

“No, you're not,” he shook his head, standing from the table so he could shake the good doctor's hand. “Hello, sir. Nice to meet you.”

Jonah looked him up and down, taking him in for a full minute. “Aren't you a tall one? You don't buy your clothes at Penny's.” 

He seemed a little taken aback. “No, not usually. I have a lot of stuff tailored to me. A lot of special ordered stuff.”

“He's twice your size,” Jonah told me, pointing between us. 

“No. He is one and a third of my size. I'm not a midget. Mrs. Esther is an inch shorter than me without the hair,” I reminded him. “Make fun of her.”

“No. I can't make fun of my wife.”

I snorted, “that's a lie.”

He ignored me. “Why don't you come to help me, young man? I need to bring some things in from the car.”

“Yes, sir,” Edward hurriedly agreed and followed the old man inside. Esther stood from the table to fidget over food.

“I hope he's not giving him the talk. It's kind of late for that,” I smirked at her as I watched them go out the front door. Edward was so eager to please. 

“I'm sure it'll be fine. He seems like a nice man. I like him,” she told me over her shoulder.

“He is. I like him, too,” I agreed with her.

“Are you going to move to Los Angeles?” She asked out of nowhere. 

“Uh, I don't know,” I answered her honestly. “It's kind of early to think about that.”

“I think it would be good for you. But, I would miss you something fierce. But, I think you need some sunshine,” she insisted firmly. “That's just what I think. You're a little pale.”

“I'm surprised you feel that way. It's only been a month, Esther. He's just met Alice and y'all. I'm not sure what's in our future. He's going to be busy soon.”

“So he'll need a good woman to help him.”

"He might be too busy for me, though. And I'd like to have my own career. It's just started going somewhere." 

"You can do both. You're a strong, capable woman. I've been meaning to ask you something. We're doing something for the temple. An auction. Would you like to donate some of your work for it?" She asked, stirring a pot of soup. She already knew the answer to that. I would never tell her no. 

"Sure. Just look at my online store and tell me what you like. There is a link to it on my Facebook page. Just show me, and I'll order it. I'll have it shipped here. Or, if you want I can offer a couple of thirty-minute photo sessions." 

“Perfect, dear. I'll look later and tell you what I decide.”

Edward and Jonah were outside for a long while. When they came in, they were chatting and smiling. Jonah went into the kitchen to get something to eat while Edward stopped in the hallway and looked at one of the wedding pictures that hung on the wall. His face became serious and a little sad. He forced a smile when he saw me, though.  
"He looks really happy," he commented quietly when I came to stand beside him. Aiden was beside me, laughing and holding my hand up into the air. Bubbles were being blown all around us. Our wedding day. 

"I look terrified. It's a good picture of him, though." I touched the picture's face. I showed him another photo on the wall. "I like this one better. We were on our honeymoon in Mexico, on the beach. You can't tell it in this photo, but I have the worst rash on my back. I was miserable the entire time. Still, I have no idea why I had a rash." 

“Oh no,” he rubbed my back sweetly. It tingled with the memory.

I walked him into the living room where there was another picture on the wall of just Aiden. "This is about a month before he died. He looks like a small straight Anderson Cooper," I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck as I thought about it. He hated being told that, but I wasn't the first. We teased him all the time. 

"Are you doing okay?" Edward asked me quietly, so only I could hear.  

“Yeah. Thank you for being here today and being so wonderful,” I told him, hugging him. He kissed the top of my head lightly. 

“Young man, do you like beer?” Dr. Zucker asked from the kitchen. 

“Yes, sir.”

“They like you,” I said in a whisper.

“Good,” he replied.

An hour later Aiden's sister Helena arrived with her husband Mike, their thirteen-year-old daughter Claire in tow. My niece screamed when she saw me, running past her mom and dad to hug me as I stood in the doorway of the kitchen again. 

“Aunt Bella!” She attacked me.

“Hey, girly!” I hugged tightly, squeezing her. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” She was already taller than me at thirteen by a couple of inches.

“Have you been using your birthday gifts I got you?” I asked, smoothing her curly brown hair behind her ear.  She was a pretty little thing, awkward but in a cute way. Her teeth still seemed too big for her face, but she was still growing into them. 

“She's been using them every day,” Helena complained to me as she gave me a hug. Mike went straight to the fridge for a beer.

“Mommy made me wipe it off before we came,” Claire whined. “She said it looked bad.”

“That because you don't know what you're doing yet,” Helena told her quickly. 

“I have my makeup bag in my purse. I can teach you how to do some subtle looks your mom will like,” I told her sweetly, brushing her bushy brown hair out of her eyes on the other side. She was going to be very lovely.

"Yas!" She hopped up once. Then she did a little dance from a game I had seen Edward play, but I couldn't remember which. 

“After dinner,” Helena told her daughter. “It looks like Grandma is almost done,” she said as she came into the kitchen. Jonah and Mike had gone into the living room to turn on the television to ESPN. “Go wash your hands,” she told Claire. 

“Yes, ma'am,” she mumbled, stomping off from the center of the living room to the bathroom. Ash, her wife, and Aiden's Aunt Minnie on his Father's side all came in from the cold. The house was filled with people. It was so familiar and comforting.

“Helena, come meet Bella's new gentleman, Edward,” Esther said from the stove, waving dramatically with her wooden spoon. She almost knocked her daughter in the face with it. Helena dodged, used to it, and moved on like it never happened. 

“Hi!” She shook Edward's hand as she came over. “I know you. Have we met before?”

“Probably haven't met,” I answered her. I hugged Minnie who came shuffling into the kitchen to help her sister in law cook. She put on an apron, too deaf to bother much with wordy greetings. She just patted everyone on the back. She didn't like her hearing aids and rarely turned them on. “I'm telling you, gentleman is the way to go,” I told Edward with a smirk.

“Really? Are you sure we haven't met?” Helena asked again, shaking her head. She looked at me. “Maybe at one of those parties you used to have? Those were so much fun.”

The house was starting to be chaos like a proper birthday party. Everything was so loud. 

"Maybe you saw him on the Facebook, dear," Esther said, not at all explaining herself. That could be so broad. I opened my mouth to clarify, but I felt a hand on my back. 

Claire had crept up behind me. "Can I look at your makeup bag?" She asked, hopefully.  

“Go get my purse. It's under the table,” I informed her. “Just to look at right now. I'll do it after dinner. Don't make a mess.”

“Okay!” Claire was halfway into the kitchen when she stopped, staring wide-eyed at Edward with her fists balled to her sides. She then let out a wild, top of her lungs, scream that only a teenager could let out. Even Minnie turned around in shock.

“What the hell?” Mike said from the living room. 

“OH, MY GOD! You're Eddie! Mommy! No way! Oh, my god, oh my god, oh my god! Why are you in my grandma's kitchen!?” She shouted at him at full force before stopping suddenly. “Wait, you are Eddie, right?”

"His name is Edward, dear," her grandmother answered. "He's Aunt Bella's friend. And don't use the Lord's name in vain, please. It's not nice." 

Claire threw herself at him, hugging his neck tightly even before Esther stopped talking. She almost knocked over a chair. It skittered across the tiles and made a screeching noise as it slid. 

"Wow," Edward laughed as he hugged her back, timidly. He patted her back lightly. 

“I watch all your videos! Every single day after school! Can I take a picture?” She said in a high pitched blur of words. “I love you so much.”

He actually blushed, but he was such a good sport. "Yeah, of course. I don't mind." 

She pulled her phone out and took a picture of him so quickly it was almost shocking. He was good at it though, immediately throwing up a big smile. When she saw the results, she hopped up and down. 

“See, I was expecting more of that,” I said to Edward, pointing at Claire. 

“I told you, Mommy, that Aunt Bella was on YouTube!" The young girl said with a satisfied expression. "She said it was probably not you. How many people are named Bella Swan, though? Um, basically no one." 

"She must have not actually watched the videos. But that's okay," I smirked. I winked at Helena, who just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You know, anyone can be on YouTube. I'm pretty sure I'm in probably a few other videos somewhere for something. Probably for CfA. I have some of me playing and singing, I bet." 

“I posted my favorite video that I've made with your aunt so far just today,” Edward told the girl with a sneaky sweet little smile. “Do you know which?” He asked me. It probably just posted and I hadn't looked at my phone at all that day.

“The cake place? Or maybe the Hawaiian pancakes and chicken? I don't know. They were all fun,” I thought out loud. “My favorite is the Halloween one, I think. Maybe. Of the ones I’ve made with you, I mean.”

“The spicy wing flight. Your aunt was so mean to me,” he said in fake hurt. I gasped in mock horror.

“He's such a baby,” I said to her in my defense. 

"Are you dating him?" Claire asked me, bluntly. "In the videos, it looks like you're dating. The fandom isn't sure." 

“You can tell the fandom we are," he said the word very sarcastically. "If that's okay with you, miss," Edward replied to her. She threw her hands in the air, did a little dance, and ran off to tell her friends of the latest adventures at her grandma's house. I had officially become the coolest aunt.  

After dinner, I sat on the living room floor with Claire, all of the makeup I had with me spread out all over the ground around us. Edward was holding a conversation with Ash and Mike about soccer, Jonah asleep in his chair and snoring lightly. I delicately showed my niece how to put on eyeshadow. 

“Your aunt has done my makeup too, you know,” Edward interjected suddenly. 

“Really?” She asked.

“I gave him fake eyelashes and everything,” I said as I put on mascara on her eyelashes. “He looked very pretty.”

She laughed, “why?”

"I lost a bet, and I had to do it for a video. And I did look fetching. Purple is my shade. You'll see that one soon enough." 

She giggled in pleasure. He winked at me before going back to talk about sports. Claire pulled the attention back to her, asking if she could do my makeup. I, of course, let her. Luckily, I had makeup remover with me as well. 

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5/30/2019

Episode Twenty- Seven: Alone at the Hotel

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Episode Twenty-Seven: Alone at the Hotel

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

I packed a little bag, just enough for a day or so, to take to the hotel. I put some makeup in it and a couple of pairs of extra panties, just in case as well. I put it on the bed next to my camera bag. Edward was sitting on the couch, waiting for me with a curious expression. He was clearly happy to be there but also very nervous and feeling shy. He had taken off his gloves, and he was playing with his hands. 

“Do you want to do anything tonight?” I asked as I stood in front of him. “I imagine you're tired.”

"I am," he admitted, but he pulled me down onto his lap. I put my arms around him and kissed his mouth happily. "I think I'd like to go to the hotel, make love to you, and then go to sleep. Would that be okay?" 

“You mean you don't want to have sex right now in this icebox?” I joked as I smoothed my hand underneath his jacket. 

“I'm not sure it's humanly possible for me to maintain an erection in this temperature. We're buying you a new heater tomorrow,” he answered, making me laugh. “How do you stand it?”

"I'm used to it, and I don't pay for the heating. I was going to replace it before you came, though," I told him. "It was on the list." 

“I am so very cold right now.” 

I slid my hands under his shirts, kissing along your ear. “I can warm you up.”

He hissed because my hands were ice. I laughed evilly, taking his ear into my mouth between my teeth. 

“Fuck, my body is confused,” he half laughed, half complained. “Damn, I want you.” I kissed and sucked on his neck until a little pink hickey was just starting to form as he tried to stutter out the words. I could feel his erection on my thighs. He pushed his own cold hands under my shirt, holding my back as we kissed. 

“Would you like to know what the first part of your birthday present is?” I asked in a sugary sweet voice, laying my accent on a bit thicker as I batted my eyelashes.

"Yes, please." He kissed me hungrily on the shoulder. "I've learned my lesson on that. I absolutely do want gifts." 

I pulled back and told him very seriously, “I started birth control pills right after I came home.”

“Oh. Okay. Oh. Oh...” he drew out as it dawned on him what I said. “So, we... can...” Edward was turning a bit redder in his pale cheeks.”You won't get- If we...”

I fluttered my eyelashes at him again. I was trying to tease him, but he was so easy. He was doe-eyed, and his cheeks were glowing. I ran my fingers tenderly over his jaw. "Do you want to cum in me tonight?" 

“Fuck yes,” Edward almost growled as he kissed me furiously. He laid me back on the couch, crawling on top of me as he did. I giggled joyfully at his aggressiveness, savoring his attention to my neck and jaw.

His jacket disappeared as he wedged himself between my legs. I pulled off all my shirts but my tank top, relishing the cold against my skin. Edward's now warm hands gripped at my thigh, pushing my legs apart so that he was rubbing me just at the right angle as we ground against each other. Every time he would hit the right spot, I would moan even louder.  

We made out like that for a long time until we were interrupted by Alice getting in from the office. My lips were swollen, and there was a big purple hickey on my collarbone above my butterfly.  

Edward sat up quickly, swallowing heavily and pushing his hair back away from his eyes. I got off the couch and could feel the wetness in between my legs as I stood to my full height. It felt like high school all over again. 

“Hi,” I smiled insanely as I poked my head out. I practically pranced to the door. No walk of shame for me. It was a strut.

“You look half fucked,” Alice teased in a whisper. 

“I am. We're going to go to his hotel so I can get fully fucked,” I told her happily in an amused whispered. “I am so horny. Oh, my god.”

Instead of being an adult, she reached forward and poked my breast, expressionless. "Honk," she said dryly. I reached up with one hand and honked one of her own hard. She slapped my hand away. "Hey! At least buy me dinner first. I bought your lunch today." 

I shut the door dramatically so I could put on my shirts, but we could still hear each other. "I make your dinner all the time. It's about time you start putting out," I complained. Edward was smiling at our dumbness as he straightened himself up. 

"If it makes you feel better, you can grab my boobs again later. It's the most action I've gotten in ages," she shouted back at me. I was sure our neighbors could hear. We shouted weirder stuff at each other, though.  

“Eh, maybe later. I've already got better plans. There is frozen pasta in there if you want it later. Lasagna still and those ravioli you like. And only eat the cookie dough I put to the side for you, please.”

“Fine. There go my plans for the evening,” she bemoaned from the kitchen.

"You'd die if you tried," I laughed as I put another shirt back on, layer by layer. I slipped on my coat, and Edward grabbed my bags for me. 

“It would be worth it,” she said.

"Please don't complete suicide by cookie dough, you monster. Your mama would never forgive me. Alright. Text me if you need anything," I said before we hugged when I came back into the hall. It was a silly, playful hug that lasted a second too long and was far too tight. When Edward and I were walking out of the apartment, I called to her, "wash some dishes, please." 

She pouted, “I don't want to.”

“Please. I have to cook all day on Wednesday. Do them tomorrow.”

“Fine. As long as I don't have to do them right now,” she complained. I rolled my eyes. It was like living with my teenage sister sometimes.

We took a taxi to his hotel room, a nice a one in the middle of Manhattan twenty stories up. When we arrived, there was champagne on ice waiting for us in a silver bucket. The room was a full suite with a living room, bedroom, two bathrooms, and a balcony that overlooked the city. There were roses all over the place in vases in a variety of shades. Pink, yellow, red, white, peach... I wasn't sure if they were his doing or the hotels. The effect was stunning either way.    

I couldn't help but take pictures of everything. It was the nicest room I had ever been in before. Edward watched me with a smile, his hands in his jacket pockets. He was still a little bashful and more than a little tired. 

“I want to take pictures of you on the balcony,” I told him with an eager kiss. 

Edward was happy to oblige me. It was windy so high up, and it made his scarf struggle against the wind in a perfect twirl. The pictures of his face as he looked towards the Manhattan skyline with the fabric flowing away from him were perfect. The blue lights behind him, the shadows on his pale white face, the red of his thin scarf. I couldn't wait to edit them. It was going to be my favorite of him, I knew it without having to look.  

"Is this good?" He asked, not realizing I had already taken pictures. When he turned towards me, I took another. Edward pursed his lips and scrunched up his nose shyly, looking down to his feet. We were both suddenly nervous. 

“Yes, but I might be biased,” I said honestly from the doorway. “Now come back inside before you freeze.” I held my hand out towards him.

He rushed back in, closing the door with a dull thud. His nose was red from the short time spent in the chill. Edward definitely was not used to the cold weather, and it showed.  We would need to get him some better winter wear. 

I put down my camera and took his cold face in my warm bare hands. He let out a little breath of relief at the heat. 

“I can't tell you how happy it makes me that you're here. It feels so surreal. I feel like I dreamed you up. You're too wonderful,” I told him softly. 

"Do you know how hard it was not to follow you onto that plane?" He asked me very seriously, shaking his head. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and I hated every day I wasn't with you. I was just gutted without you, love. You make absolutely every day better." 

I brought his face down to mine so I could kiss him. Our coats went to the floor as he held me tightly, chest to chest with me on my tiptoes still. 

We were wearing too many clothes to undress quickly. It was a slow process, peeling off the layers. When I was down to my tank top again, Edward went to his knees so he could help me remove my boots. I stepped out of my pants, my thick fluffy socks going just past my knees. He picked me up easily, my legs going around his waist as he sat me on the round dining table. His hand explored my bare hip, pushing towards my ass before sliding all the way past my knee down to my calf and ankle. I tugged his sweater and undershirt over his head.  

He had gotten noticeably more muscular since the last time I had seen him. Edward did have abs before, but there was a faint six pack starting to emerge. I unabashedly touched him like Peggy Carter did in the first Captain America movie.  

“Fuck, some of these are new.”

“I have been working out like a madman. I've never been so sore in my life. So, don't get used to it,” he said, obviously embarrassed at my admiration.

“Sure, understandable. But I want you to know that I am going to be needing some pictures of my own.” I smoothed my hands over his abs. “Because, damn.”

“What are you trying to do to my ego?”

“Nothing. It's just that... You have the V now, though. The sexy V,” I smoothed my hands over his hips. “The hey look down here, there is something great arrow." I unbuttoned his blue jeans. He was straining against them already, but me fluffing up his pride didn't hurt. I happily played with the band of his underwear that peaked out above his trousers. 

“Oh, is it great?” Edward said in a little proud voice, a tiny bit more high pitched than he probably wanted it to be. He cleared his throat.

I slowly unzipped his jeans. "Well," I started teasingly. "I think it's pretty amazing." I slid my hand over his cock through his black cotton underwear. "You're certainly the biggest man I've ever been with," I said truthfully. "In every way. Height, personality..." I squeezed him gently. He removed his jeans and then his boxer briefs for me, blushing from my compliments. I instantly took him into my hand, enjoying the warm, smooth skin against my palm as I carefully rubbed him.  

He closed his eyes and gasped, “I- uh... wow...” Edward muttered. Moaning, he relished in my affections. “You're the best lover I've ever had,” he blurted out as I lightly kissed his peck, continuing to massage him. “I can't... can't stop thinking about you like this. Everything you do is so good. The- The way you touch me makes me- uh,”  he stuttered and strained to get his words out.

“Have you been touching yourself like this while thinking about me?” I asked in a purr. 

"Yes," he breathed out. I twisted my hand up and down slowly, holding his gaze. "You know that I have," he said in a tiny voice. Though we had flirted, we hadn't had phone sex yet. I think he might have been a little too shy for that.  

“Tell me what you like to think about,” I said more like a command than a question. The smile that stretched across my face couldn't be helped. I was far too excited to hide it.

Edward was a bit of a mess, sweating a little already around the edges and licking his dry lips. “I think about tasting you and fucking you with my fingers,” he swallowed hard, trying to get it out quickly. He was having trouble focusing while I continued to toy with him steadily. “It’s my favorite,” he whispered as his eyes drifted closed. 

"Do you like how I taste?" I asked. When his eyes slowly opened, he watched as I ran my fingers over my clit underneath my panties with my other hand. His mouth hung open a little, taking in a deep, ragged breath. He was panting slowly, trying to control his breathing some. 

"Yes, I- uh..." He had to shut his eyes, and I could feel his whole body shiver at my stroking and teasing. Edward put one hand on the table to balance himself and the other he used to pull me into a hot kiss. I played with both of us for a moment before I pulled away. I offered him my wet fingers and moaned when sucked them into his mouth.  

He pushed one of his hands between my legs, stroking me over my panties. 

“When I play with myself, I think about the way your fingers feel inside of me. And how good you are with your mouth." I licked seductively across his shoulder, ending in a nip as I looked up at his hungry expression. "How good your tongue feels against my clit." 

“I've been thinking about.... how- That I... -I want you to-to... sit on my face and... and,” Edward tried to say more boldly but was still stuttering with the effort. “Fuck,” he groaned as I swirled my hand over his sensitive head. “You make it so hard to think.”

“Do you want me to cum all over your face?” I asked innocently. I was having way too much fun controlling the situation.

“Yes,” he said more aggressively as I tightened my grip around him. 

I slid off the table, still holding onto his erection. I leaned the short distance between us and gave his head a quick lick before pulling him along behind me. He gasped in surprise, happy to be led to the bed in such a fun way. He sat at the edge of the bed for me, kissing my chest and pulling my tank top off. I lost my bra as well, leaving me only in my soaked panties. 

Edward pushed his face into my breasts, kissing and nipping at the tender flesh underneath. All of the hickeys he had given me before were gone, sadly. His large hands were gripping at my ass, tugging my panties down to the floor. I shoved him back hard onto the big king-sized bed and kissed my way up his smooth, hard body. Making sure my breasts rubbed against his erection as I did, I licked along the lovely new V. I kissed every inch of his tight hips. I lavished his rock hard stomach with attention, licking and kissing his soft skin slowly.  

He pulled me up quickly into a torrid kiss by the shoulders, intense and needy. His mouth was so demanding. When I finally had to pull away for air, he picked me up by the hips to help arrange me on my knees above him. He had taken back a little more control of the situation.   

Forcing my thighs down onto him with his hands gripping hard onto my hips, his tongue massaging my clit with a soft growl in his throat instantly. I tried to slide my hand down to play with him as well, but he took me by both wrists and put them behind my back. It forced me down harder on his face than I would have done on my own.  

Hours of touching and kissing and just being near him again had already put me very close to the edge. Within minutes I dissolved, my head flung back as my spine melted away. He did not stop or slow down but instead moaned in pleasure as he tongue explored me. He pushed it inside and traced my lips with his own, his hands around my wrists still holding me in place. 

“Edward,” I used his name as a beg, leaning forward as all my muscles began to fail me. He was relentless and becoming more and more forceful as he played. I was trembling on top of him, giving him what he wanted over and over again. Each one just encouraged him further. My stomach muscles gave in as I curled in towards myself, only barely held up by his firm hands. 

I fell forward completely, my forehead on his stomach, as he started to use his fingers. I rocked against him, gasping and crying into his skin. Tears pooled at the corner of my eyes as this new sensation was added.

I lost count of how many times he made me cum. When he finally pushed me onto my back, I was a trembling pile of all jelly muscles and no bones at all. His hands slid up my body as he pushed my arms above my head, bringing my lips to mine in a kiss. Now he was the one utterly in control, and I loved it.  

Edward pushed inside me with no resistance whatsoever. I held onto his hair with both hands, fisting it while I arched off the bed. My mouth opened, but no sound came out. I clung to him, his flesh pounding into mine. Stars popped in my eyes as I writhed.  
“Fuck, it feels good,” he moaned into my chest, pressing inside of me faster and faster. I wrapped my legs around him tighter, pushing in time with his thrust. I could feel him in the pit of my stomach. It made my toes curl in completely.

“Cum in me,” I begged him desperately. “Please. Edward, please...”

He bit my shoulder so hard that I cried out, his last few thrusts were rough as he forced another orgasm from my body. Edward finished with a roar, panting, and puffing as he pushed his face into my stomach afterward. It was still sticky from pleasuring me earlier. His breath rolled across my skin in hot waves.  

“Did you miss me?” I asked in a silly voice after a few minutes. He laughed happily and kissed my belly button. 

“Obviously I didn't get my point across with last performance. Shall we take that from the top?” He teased me, kissing down my stomach. I pushed my legs together tightly. 

“Nooo... Too much,” I drew out, now ticklish. He laughed, coming to lay eye level with me on the bed. “Oh, hi there. There you are.”

“Hi,” he grinned then stroked my cheek lightly. 

“I can't believe you exist,” I told him, a little overwhelmed all of a sudden. 

“Of course I exist. I was made just for you,” he replied, going back to his smooth ways, running his finger over my nose. Lightly, Edward brushed it along my lips. 

“Is that so?” I said a bit sarcastically.

"Yup. I didn't know it until the ides of October, though. It was quite a shock, but I was delighted to find out," he said a bit dramatically, going fully to his utterly charming and in control self. He was showing out for me. 

“You are such a try hard. We met the fourteenth,” I laughed.

“Exactly.”

“It took you a day?” I was unconvinced. “Ides would be the fifteenth,” I pointed out. 

“Oh… actually, I knew before I opened the front door that you owned me completely,” he joked.

I shook my head. “You are so full of it, Eddie.”

He brought his right hand up. "Cross my heart. The first moment I saw you out the window, I knew all I ever wanted to be in this life was completely yours. I wasn't looking for you, so it was a surprise. But, I'm terrible at these sort of things. So, it's probably a good thing you came to me. I'm too daft to find you on my own otherwise. You had to be practically gift wrapped for me." 

He could be so dramatic and romantic. “You act as if it was fate.”

“Do you know how many interviews I turn down weekly now? Photoshoots? How many times I turned yours down in particular? Three times. They had been begging me for months. I only agreed because I got to look at the photographers and you were the only one I liked. And only because I found your stuff online when I was researching everyone on the list. Because I’m picky as fuck. And they tried to talk me out of you. You were the only reason I agreed, Bella. I told them if you didn't do it, then I wouldn't do it at all. Honestly, I was just going to tell them to forget it. Zafrina pushed me. I knew nothing about you besides your pictures from your online gallery. None of which are of you, by the way. So I had no idea what I was really in for." 

“So, you're saying you unsuccessfully stalked me before,” I teased him. 

"No," he laughed. "Just your gallery. You don't have any photos of yourself on your business stuff, and I didn't do that much research because gender didn't matter to me. I didn't see any about page. You should change that. People have questions about you.”

“Maybe,” I said as I smoothed his hair.  

“We live on different oceans, doing very different things in very different lives. Everything had to be right to bring you to my door. If it's not fate, I'm not going to waste the gift I've been given. I don't know if I've done anything to deserve you, but I'm going to do everything in my power to be the kind of man you want in your life.”

I couldn't say anything, the air sucked from my lungs. I pressed my face into his chest. He held me to him, sweet and gentle. For the second time in a day, Edward had made me speechless. 
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5/29/2019

Episode Twenty-Six: Tick-Tock

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Episode Twenty-Six: Tick-Tock

The following day, Monday, I woke up early to go to the gym for a couple of hours and then to go practice with Demetri. I took an expensive Uber ride just not to take two hours on the train to get to him and then back home again. We would only get another practice in together before the day of the show, but neither of us was too worried about it. We were good together, and it was just for charity anyway. We had been dance partners before and knew how to move with one another. It was like riding a bicycle practically. 

I came back home before eleven to shower. I had a Culture for All meeting with Alice and the other office workers and leaders mid-afternoon, so I had to get ready for that.  

It was too cold to go out with wet hair, the threat of snow in the forecast once again. It had threatened several times but had not yet appeared much to my disappointment. I gave myself a nice blowout and straightened my curls with a big round brush. It had been a long time since I had gone to one of these things, so I decided I wanted to look good. I put on some of my new clothes and applied some of the makeup Edward had given me. I even put on a new perfume. I was definitely feeling myself. 

Edward called just before noon.

“You're up early,” I answered as I gathered my bag and keys from the hook by the door. Patty screamed at me, wanting fresh water since she put something in her bowl. It looked like a hairband.

“Not too early,” he said happily. 

“You must have slept well,” I commented as I refreshed the princess kitty's water. I scratched her head, making her meow and purr as she made biscuits on the tree. 

"I did, indeed. So, what are you up to?" 

I glanced back at the clock. I was doing okay on time. “I'm going to go to a lunch meeting for CfA in a bit.”

"Oh, can I come?" He asked, charmingly.  

I chuckled, “sure. They'd love to meet you. But you better hurry, I'm walking out the door right now,” I told him as I locked the front door behind me. I decided to take the stairs down. I hated the elevator. “We're having Brazilian.”

“That sounds great. I'm starving. Wait for me. I'll be there in a second,” he teased me. 

“Alright, I'll wait for you by the front door. I've got to order a car anyway. It's too cold to wait for a subway,” I complained. “Fucking climate change. Here, let me call you back in a second so I can do that.”

“Okay,” he said sweetly. 

I hung up so I could order the car while walking through the lobby of my building. It was decorated for Christmas already, a few trees scattered about with a lot of lights. I liked it. I stood against the old bricked up fireplace while I waited the short few minutes for my car to arrive. I would call him back once I got in the warm vehicle, I decided. When it was getting close on the app, I stepped out front. 

“You are right. It is too cold," Edward said from beside the door at the bottom of the three-step stoop. His nose was red, and his face paler than usual. He was wearing a heavy woolen black peacoat with a sweater underneath that, dark jeans and big heavy hiking boots. He was also wearing a black beanie completely over his ears.  

I literally screamed. 

And then I jumped on top of him like a spider monkey.
 
We kissed deeply, his arms holding me up in the air as I struggled to grasp onto his neck. The driver for my Uber called from the window to ask if we were the one who ordered him. I hadn't even said anything to Edward yet. I couldn't. I slid down from our embrace. 

“Yes, we are,” Edward answered for me as he led me towards the car door with his hand on my back. I felt dizzy. 

“You said the twenty-first!” I finally said when we were moving in the vehicle. 

“I did. But... one of my meetings for Tuesday got canceled last night, so I decided to flake on what I needed to do today. It wasn't that important. That meeting was, but they rescheduled for next month. So, I decided to take a flight out last night last minute." 

“What time did you fly?”

“Around ten last night. I got here around seven this morning. I went ahead and checked into my hotel so I could get cleaned up. I didn't want to ambush you that early,” Edward laughed happily. 

“I wasn't at home anyway. I was probably already in Brooklyn. It's already been a long day for both of us. Longer for you. Oh, my God, I can't believe you're here.” I grabbed both of his hands.

“Oh, wait,” he pulled a little square box from his pocket, still holding my other hand. “I brought you a gift.”

“Now, you really didn't need to do that,” I told him as I bit my lip and took the box from his gloved hand. 

I opened it, and it was a set of stunning light green square cut earrings. "I'm told these are peridots and that they are an interesting gem because they only come in one color. Did you know there were green sapphires and diamonds?" 

"Sapphires and diamonds come in a bunch of colors. When I was a kid, we went digging for diamonds in Arkansas. They find brown diamonds there a lot," I informed him as I put in my new earrings. I hadn't put any jewelry on. "I love them. Thank you," I said sincerely. They were so lovely. They reminded me of his eyes in the early morning sun. I felt cheesy for thinking it.  

“You're welcome. You can dig for diamonds?” He asked, confused by my previous statement. 

"Yup, and it's fun because you play in mud then you can go to the water park afterward. They till up the soil every once in a while, and someone finds a karat or two. It's just a big mud field around the Ozarks," I rambled nervously. 

“Really? That does sound like fun,” he smiled, bring my knuckles to his lip to kiss lightly. “You look so beautiful. I'm so happy. Is it really okay if I come along though? I understand if not.”

“Um, yes! Absolutely. There will probably be another spouse or two there. Probably a kid, too. You just have to buy your own dinner,” I teased.

Edward bit his lip. “Hm, I think I can handle that.”

Kebi, the office manager, was already at the restaurant as well as three of the main leaders. Two were a couple, deep in their own conversation, and the other brought her newborn with her. There were ten main leaders in all, the five full-time staff members, and Alice was, of course, the last to show up. In all, there were over twenty people at the table. 

I sat beside Kebi and Nicole, the leader with a baby boy. Kebi had stolen the baby and decided to keep him as her own. I was down for this plan, cooing over the child while my co-workers fawned over my boyfriend. They asked him dozens of questions as we waited for Alice to get there. We had known each other for so long that we were all nosy about each other’s personal lives. They would do it to any fresh meat in the group. 

Alice was unraveling her winter clothes in a rush as she came clicking in heels. “I know. Sorry, sorry, I'm late. I know. I'm... me. I don't have an excuse.”

“Don't say you're sorry. Say thank you for your patience,” Kebi reminded her in a thick Jamaican accent. She always sounded annoyed to those who didn't know her. She wasn’t. She was bouncing the baby on his shoulder cheerfully.

“We lost all patience years ago,” I smirked at Kebi. 

“I know that's right.” She lightly fist bumped me because the baby was still in her arms. It was very gentle. 

“Some of us aren't anal assholes who have to be thirty minutes early to-” she stopped when she realized who was beside me.”Hey... You're new. I know you.”

Edward stood up to hug her. She giggled like an idiot as he complimented her wild black hair. "A couple of my sisters have black hair right now. They get theirs from a bottle, though. Of course, they're still lovely," he chuckled charmingly. Every woman and gay man in the group was visibly swooning disgustingly over him. Except for Nicole, who was too tired. 

Alice found a seat, and we ordered drinks finally. Almost everyone got up to go get something from the salad bar all at once. 

“I'll hold the baby while you go get your food,” I offered Kebi. Nicole was already taking her chance to go get some food without the infant. No one could blame her.

“No, I don't mind. You can go,” she told me firmly.

“I'll give him back.”

“No, you won't.”

"I will. He'll start crying at some point," I promised her. She pursed her lips at me, and we gave each other a stare down. She looked at the salad bar then back to me. 

"I want him back," Kebi said as she passed the sleeping child to my waiting arms. He was tiny, less than two months old. He had full lips and a small nose, his eyes bright blue. His brown hair was fanned straight out over his forehead. He had so much hair. 

He yawned and stretched his little fist out from his blanket bundle. It made my baby time clock ring with delight. Ding dong, bitch. Don’t you want one?

Edward watched from over my shoulder. He lightly kissed my cheek. “I'll go get us something to share.”

“Thank you,” I smiled, bumping my forehead against his. 

The meeting was about the trips we were taking in the next year and who wanted to be in control of each. They had already figured out the where and the timing of each trip. I held the baby for half the meal, Edward cutting my meat for me since I only had one hand. The baby woke up though, and Kebi snatched him away, happy to take him while he was cooing and contented. 

I agreed to be a co-leader on two of the trips. One to Ireland in the Summer for a week and a short four day one to Disneyland in the early fall. Edward was full of questions about how everything worked. 

"So... Say I wanted to donate some money. Could I...  sponsor a trip? Like, pay for the whole thing? Or does it not work like that?" He asked Alice. She was more than happy to explain. This was her baby, and she could talk about it for hours.  

"We've never had anyone do that, but I don't think it's impossible. It just takes a long time to plan everything. Normally everything goes to one account then we spread it out as needed. We have had certain businesses sponsor classes, but usually, they're giving their time and the supplies for the class." 

“What sort of classes do you do?”

“We do a lot of child care classes, CPR, first aid. Stuff like that. We do some art, dance, photography, and cooking, too. Bella has taught a few of those,” she motioned towards me. I had gotten the baby back since Kebi was getting dessert. I was leaned into Edward's side, enjoying feeding the baby from its small blue bottle. The child was holding onto his finger as he casually chatted away. “We need to figure out what you want to do next year,” she told me. 

Tick-tock.
 
Thank God I had gotten birth control.

“I'm not sure what I can commit to right now,” I told her honestly. “I think I'll just do trips this year so I can focus on my photography.”

“I kind of figured,” she nodded. We had discussed the possibility before.

“We could do some day camps this year, maybe,” I suggested. 

“That art camp was fun last year,” she agreed with me. 

“It would be great if we could do a kid's cooking camp,” I mused out loud as I rocked the baby back and forth a little. “I could get local chefs to come in and teach. I could teach them how to make pasta. We could definitely catch something on fire.”

Alice laughed, and Edward chuckled before kissing my hair.  

“Shall I donate towards fire extinguishers?” He teased me.

“Maybe,” I grinned.

“Write up a proposal for the class and see if you can get some chefs interested. Spring break or Summer?” Alice asked me, typing into her phone. 

“Let's do summer, before the Ireland trip,” I decided. I didn't want to rush to plan it. 

“I wish I could come with you to Ireland. I could go see my grandparents,” Edward smoothed my hair away from my cheek. “You could meet them in person.”

“Well, you are more than qualified to volunteer,” Alice told him. “All you have to do is fill out some paperwork and get endorsed by a qualified person-” She pointed at me. 

“Yeah, of course,” I brought the baby up to my shoulder with a napkin on it. The little boy was struggling to put his head up and look at Edward as I tried to burp him. He gently wiped the baby's chin, smiling brightly at the baby. He was trying to smile back, but only for short spurts. 

Tick. Fucking. Tock. 

“And there you go,” Alice replied. “If you're really interested I can put you on the list as one of the helpers. Bells can show you the website online to fill it out.”

“That's it?”

The baby burped loudly.

“This is an abled adults trip. Meaning it's adults who have issues that make it harder to travel, but they're still able to care for themselves. We're basically sheepdog trying to herd them and keep them from breaking things," I explained to him with a laugh. "Mainly themselves. You don't need any special training for that. You're just a helper." 

“Would we get time to see them?” He asked me. “My grandparents?”

“They could come to anything we did. Museums. Gardens or whatever. And we can stay on our own dime after the trip is over. We just don't get our flights back paid for,” I explained. 

“Sven and I are going to go to Saint Petersburg after the trip we're doing together,” Kebi chimed in, cutting into her chocolate cake. 

“Sven, her husband, is Russian and he is actually paler than you somehow,” Alice told Edward sarcastically. He smirked at her teasing.

"He's so white," Kebi shook her head. "We went to Trinidad for my mother's birthday, and I think he got paler, somehow. He went to the beach for three days, and it just bleached him. My children are going to look like Casper the ghost." Her 'the's came out as ‘dahs,' and ‘three’ sounded like ‘tree.' I loved listening to her. She had a great voice. 

She took the baby from me. Nicole was glad to have a break. She was half, or maybe entirely, asleep against Alice's shoulder. She was using Kebi's jacket as a blanket. 

"You'll have one dark kid like you and one light one, and they'll have the weirdest Jamaican Russian accent from New York, and I cannot wait," Alice laughed. "And I'll be their cool aunt." 

“Who gives them weed when they're sixteen,” I teased her. 

“I am the cool aunt.”

"It won't be cool by the time they're old enough. It'll be legal everywhere, and it'll be stuffier than wine because all the old people smoke it for medicine," Edward said. "I use it for my insomnia, and I honestly thought my first time would be a lot cooler when I was in school. But, I was extremely uncool as a teen, so nothing has changed." 

“Oh, please. You're the coolest person in this room. You have literally millions of fans that scream your name. I’ve seen them. I’ve heard them. They love you because of how cool you are.” I rolled my eyes. “False modesty is a filthy habit.”

“Be careful not to cut those pretty lips with that sharp tongue of yours,” he said with a charming smirk. His hand squeezed my thigh under the table. I brushed my nose over his cheek and gave him a light peck on his jaw. Both of us were smiling stupidly at each other. 

“You like it,” I purred in his ear. 

“Maybe a little,” Edward conceded. 

“Maybe a lot,” Alice teased him. She was giving me look over her wine glass. I returned it with a smirk of my own. “So, are you going back to the apartment after this? I have to go back to the office. Fucking paperwork.”

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it. Eddie has a hotel room so at the very least I'll have to get some clothes if I stay with him," I answered. His hand squeezed my knee gently. The crowd was down to just Alice, Kebi, Nicole, and us. The waiters had already cleaned the tables and were starting to move them back to their usual spots.  

“We can do whatever you please. I'm just happy to be here. I know you have things you have to do.” He kissed my palm then pressed it to his soft cheek. 

After we finally woke up Nicole, we caught a cab to go back to the apartment. It was just after four, and the sun was already starting to go down.  

“There is something we need to talk about,” I began once we were settled in the back of the car. “I wasn't going to bring it up but since you're here, it kind of changes things.”

“I hope it wasn't a bad thing that I came,” he said, genuinely worried. 

"No. It's great. I just... I haven't wanted to talk about it or think about it. But, tomorrow is Aiden's birthday," I explained quietly. "I wasn't going to bring it up at all, but I go to the cemetery, and I usually spend the day with his family." 

“Oh...” he drew out. “I'm sorry. It must be hard on those special days.”

“I haven't called his mom yet. I've been feeling guilty,” I admitted pathetically. 

“We can go to the cemetery tomorrow. Or, you can go alone if you need to. I would understand either way,” he said warmly.

“I would like it if you came. If you're not uncomfortable with that.”

"Of course, I'll come." Edward pulled me into a tight hug. I relaxed into his grip, pressing my face into his thick wool peacoat. "Would you like to see his family as well?" 

"I think I might just call this year. I don't know," I sighed in frustration at myself. "I should, but I don't know if it would make it harder for them. Or, for me. They're great, it's just... so much. They're always...” I didn't know how to finish my uneven thoughts.

“We can do whatever you need to do,” he promised me. 

“Is it going to be hard for you?” I asked.

“How so?” Edward pulled back to look at me.

“I love Aiden. I still love him. I will love him until the day I die. That won't ever change. No matter what I feel for you now or in the future.” These were facts I couldn't get around.

“I would never ask you to deny that either. It was very unfair what happened to you. Look into my eyes. Trust me. You're not going to scare me off.” He stroked my hair sweetly.

“That's not fair to you.” I shook my head. 

“How?” He lifted up my chin to look into my sad eyes. “No. Just... no. Don't even think about that. I'm not going to be jealous of someone who loved you so well.”

"I'm going to cry in front of you tomorrow. Like, actually cry. Not overly emotional in Target, crying," I warned him. "It's not going to pretty. Or nice. Or, sexy. Or, quick." 

"We'll stop to get tissues. And chocolate. And wine. And, whatever else you may want or need." 

"I took tomorrow off because I've been a mess in the past. I don't feel as emotional as I have been but..." I shook my head again. "I have survivor's guilt," I said bluntly. "I've always struggled with it. With my mom, then my grandmother some. I recognize it, and I understand why I feel it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's there in the background. It's one of those fun things about PTSD. You... this... right now helps, though. You're what I need. You’re what I want, Edward.”

I had never said out loud to him that I suffered from PTSD. Though I suppose he probably could have guessed from the spurts of life story that I had thrown at him. As he had once said, so much had happened to me.  

Edward held my face and kissed me softly, holding me quietly the rest of the ride home.

I led him inside the black and white checkered lobby, taking us into the tiny ninety forties elevator. He held my waist, my back against his chest. We were silent as I opened the heavy brown metal front door. 

Patricia shrieked when I came in from her position on top of the cat tree. I lifted my hand up to her, but she flopped so I couldn't pet her. I flipped her off, making Edward laughed. He easily reached her and rubbed on her belly. She mewed and purred, whipping her tail happily around her.  

“You slut,” I complained, pushing one of the folding doors to my room open. 

“She's so fat and fluffy.”

“That's because Alice feeds her chubby ass waffles. She begs worse than a dog.” She hopped down from her cat tree. “No. You don't get to go into my room. Go to your mama’s.”

I ushered him into my room and closed the door behind us. Patty batted her paw under the door, practically giving me the finger back for the disrespect of not being allowed to poke holes into my couch like she wanted to. 

I always kept my room neat, but I had been nervously cleaning and rearranging since he confirmed was coming to town. I had made new curtains and gotten new blankets and sheets for my little bed. He went to the window to look out at the skyline. I came up from behind and hugged my arms around his waist. I pressed my face into his back, breathing his scent in deeply. 

Edward turned in my arms so that he was facing me. “I like your room.”

"Thank you. It's not as impressive as say a five bedroom three bathroom McMansion with a pool and a waterfall in Burbank. But I like it." 

“You want different things from a home in New York,” he said with fake seriousness. “The real estate market is very different. But, I'd trade my pool for that view,” he nodded at the window. “And to be closer to you.”
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5/28/2019

Episode Twenty-Five: Gifts

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Episode Twenty-Five: Gifts

It had been over a month a half since I had visited the Vaudevillian office. The weather was drastically different this time around. There was already a chance of snow in the following week, but it was low. It was a little early in the season, and the late heat was all but forgotten. 

Jessica invited me to her office happily, a small heater warming up the small space. All of her paperweights were lining the front of the desk in a neat little row.

“I have to tell you how excited I am about how the pictures turned out. They're amazing! I can't wait to show you what we've done,” she smiled at me as she pulled out an enlarged printing of the magazine, all spread out into a book for them to map it out. First, she showed me the cover. It was Edward in the diner on the first morning, the very first picture I had taken of him. “The lighting in this one is stunning, Bella.”

“Thank you,” I didn't know what else to say. It was a little overwhelming to see it like that.

She flipped to the spread. There were short bits of writing, but it was mostly my pictures, big and bold. I could have cried right there. There were fourteen full pages of my photographs. Plus the cover. In total, I was going to get paid just five hundred short of ten thousand. It would be going into my bank account by the end of the week. 

“We would like to offer you the next spread. They live here in New York though, so it'll be easier for you,” she said as closed up the book with a little thud. “It would be in mid-December for a week for the March or April issue.”

“I'd love to,” I said excitedly. I couldn't believe I would be doing it again so soon.

"That's fantastic. Also, I have some product and model shoots if you're interested. We lost one of our in-house photographers, and we'd like to see some more of your work. We are really impressed, Bella," Jessica said genuinely.  

By the time I left, I had three photo shoots set up at Vaudevillian plus the information on my week with a Broadway star. Demetri was going to lose his mind with jealousy. But in that short meeting, I had arranged all the work I would need for the rest of the year. The years before I scrapped by on doing the odd event and photo shoot, just barely getting any magazine work plus my volunteering. After paying off so much of our debt when Aiden died there really wasn't anything else to really live on. It had been such a vast change and relief. I could focus on doing more charity work as well as getting more magazine gigs if I wanted to. 

Since I was in Manhattan, I decided to shop for a better laptop. I had been putting it off, but I could write it off as a business expense on my taxes. My computer was several years old and needed better storage. I just window shopped though. I considered checking my bank balance, but the numbers made me anxious. Even though I knew there was money in there, I couldn't bring myself to spend any of it. 

When I got home, I cried in happiness about my day to Alice. I had been so overwhelmed that the tears just flowed like rivers over my cheeks, ruining my makeup. When I finally stopped, I ate a bowl of soup and went to bed at just after five in the afternoon. I had about enough for the day. 

I slept until three the following day. 

It took me three more days to get my sleep schedule straight. Edward was suffering more than I was at the separation, unable to get back to normal sleep at all. Finally the following Sunday he took cold medicine and slept all day. The next day he would start the training for his movie, twelve hours a day, every day so it would wear him out. He had been exercising more in the hopes of tiring himself anyway, but it didn't work.  

But twelves hours was too much for even him though, and he crashed every night.  

I had to admit to myself I wasn't being responsible when it came to checking my money. For the first week I was back, I ignored it totally. I was still spending the cash from the magazine, and I had paid my bills early, I reasoned with myself. I just spent a week eating at home and updating new items on my digital store. Every time I consider checking it my chest twisted in anxiety. 

But then I got the notice that my Vaudevillian check had cleared and I had to check. 

Just from my online store from the past few weeks and the magazine, there was an additional fifteen thousand from the last time I had checked and another seven from Edward's videos. He had put up eleven total videos with me, and the jump doubled his previous highest views. All of them had over fifty million views though, at least. Most were closer to a hundred million. 

I hadn't watched any videos with myself. I felt kind of guilty about it, but they made me feel overwhelmed. I watched the ones I wasn't in, though. Just so I could see Edward. Alice watched them all for me though. So did Demetri, whom I was spending time with because of the charity show and Thanksgiving. He loved them. And he loved to tease me about them. He assured me they were good though. I hadn't even brought myself to watch the jump. I wondered if either kiss had made it in.  

Demetri was going to make me do a little singing and dancing for his variety show. I would be playing the banjo as well in front of people for the first time ever, which I would need to practice on it a lot. But, It was just one easy song. I would be doing two skits in total. So, Edward had his practice, and I had mine. We filled our time with work, and it made us both hate the time zone difference. 

We still spoke every day on the phone though. And usually texted throughout the day when we could.

It wasn't until one in the morning when we finally got some time to talk a few days into his training. It was really cold outside, and I was wearing multiple layers and laying under a couple of thick blankets. We didn't control the heat in our building, and I needed a new little heater for my room. It was completely dark, the moonlight coming through the window in long silver and gold ribbons on the hardwood floors.  

“I arranged my flight today,” Edward told me, obvious exhaustion from his day ringing in his voice and I wanted to kiss away his aches and pains. “I'll be there late on the twenty-first until the second. I don't suppose you want to come home with me?” He offered hopefully. 

“I'm sorry. I can't. The fifth I'm shooting and then the tenth I'm doing that spread I was telling you about.”

“That's the week of my filming as well. Then I have some Disney stuff until Christmas,” he sighed heavily. “I won't have time to fly to New York again until then.”

“Don't worry. We'll figure it out when you get here,” I promised him quietly. “Have you made a list of videos you want to try to make when you're here in New York?” I encouraged him. We had been making an imaginary one almost every evening that we could do while we were together. It always seemed to cheer him up some. Most of them were just silly or jokingly dirty.

“I don't want to make you work,” he said seriously, a little sadness in his tone.

“It's not working. And, I like doing it with you. I'll do whatever you want, though. It's your vacation,” I reminded him.

“That's dangerous. What if I want to do terrible things?” He said warmly in a joking tone. 
“Promises, promises,” I teased dryly.

He chuckled before saying wistfully. “god, I miss you. I can't stop thinking about you.”

“What do you think about?” I asked softly. 

“Mm, so many things. I can't stop thinking about your laugh. Your eyes. God, and your skin. Your skin is perfection itself. I didn't get enough time to memorize every inch of it.”

I clicked my tongue. “You think you are so smooth.”

There was a little pause before he slyly said, “am I not?”

“You are. It's just annoying,” I joked. “When you say such flowery things with such sincerity it's hard not to believe you...”

“I hope you believe that I do mean it,” he said shyly. “I adore every bit of you, truly.”

The next morning he had waffles from my favorite place sent over for Alice and myself. He also sent two dozen yellow roses. I took dozens of pictures of both, much to Edward's pleasure. In that gesture, he won Alice over before even meeting her. The girl was easy to get with food, though.

Over the next week, I kept myself busy with work, practice for the show, the gym, and preparing for Thanksgiving. My online store was doing amazingly well, and I added more to it every day. I had already done the fashion model shoot for Vaudevillian by then and sold them half a dozen pages for the January issue. I even got offered two more jobs for another magazine for in early December. I would be taking pictures for their Valentine's day issue. 

 I put most of the money to the side in my savings. I created a separate account just for saving for my bills as well. I put six months of bill money in there and then arranged for the money to come out of the account automatically every month. For the first time in many years, I felt utterly secure financially.  

After I set all of that up, I had a nice little panic attack that I didn't fully understand.  

The Sunday before Thanksgiving I decided to brave the crowds and go shopping after practice. I had already bought all the food I needed for the meal and prepared some of it the day before. I had spent Saturday canning cranberry jam, freezing several pies that were to be cooked the day of Thanksgiving, and putting away my cookie dough in the fridge to age. What I needed was a present for Edward's birthday. 

I couldn't decide on one thing, so I went on the gift basket approach. First I bought Edward every sort of Drake's Cake for him to try on the channel. He loved doing the food and candy ones the most. I also bought a couple of bottles of wine that I knew he would like. They were sweet German Rieslings, his favorite. I went to a local comic book shop that had some locally made handcrafted items. I bought a fun one of his robot character and a clock with it as well.  

“Is Plex your favorite character?” The guy said with a smile as he wrapped the gifts up carefully. He was tall and thin with very little hair on his head. He was wearing a knitted ugly Star Wars sweater.
 
“Actually, they're for my boyfriend's birthday. I've not played this one yet,” I admitted. 

“Oh, so it's his favorite then?” He guessed.

"Um, well... I don't know about that really. He's actually worked on the game though, believe it or not. He has a big collection of stuff from it, but this seems pretty unique. I think he'll like it," I told the cashier as I took the bag.  

The guy clearly freaked out. “Oh, that's so cool! I love the game! Is he a game dev or something?”

I was starting to feel uncomfortable. “A voice actor.”

“What?! That's even cooler! Who does he do in the game? I wonder if I'd recognize his voice.”

I realized I didn't want to say anything else, so I pointed to the bag. "He'll love these," I said again. "Thanks." I walked out of the store in a rush.  

I also bought several pieces of nice lingerie and a few new winter outfits to wear when he came into town. I wanted to look nice for him. Boots, hats, gloves, a couple of jackets even. I had my eyebrows waxed and my hair trimmed for the first time in four years. I also bought him a very nice old-fashioned shave kit when I got my hair done in the salon because I loved his freshly shaved skin. So, it was more a gift for me. The idea of watching him shave with it kind of turned me on, too. 

Edward had worked twelve hour days all week long and was spending his Sunday in a sleeping coma. It was ten in the evening when he finally messaged me for the first time that day. I had sent him a text earlier in the afternoon about how I missed talking to him.

The message he sent said. “I am counting down the seconds until I can see you again.”

“I want to hear your voice,” I typed back. A second later my phone rang. I stood from Alice's couch where I had been working, leaving my laptop in her room so I could speak to him alone on my own. 

“Hi,” I answered his call as I left her room, shutting the door behind me. 

“Hello, gorgeous.” His voice was so rich and velvety. Something about it made me feel tingly.

“So how many seconds?” I teased him, trying to act cool. 

“I'm not sure, I'd have to look on my phone. It's on a countdown clock,” he answered smoothly. “I got an app.” 

I wrapped myself up in a blanket on my couch. “I half expected you to spit out a random number.”

“You really think I'm joking? I assure you I’m not,” he teased me back sweetly. “So, what have you been up to today, my love?”

“Gym. Practice. Shopping on Fifth Avenue. Had lunch in Times Square. Watched a tourist get in a fight with a person in a Hello Kitty costume. You know, your average day in New York. Oh, I got your birthday gift. It was a productive day, at least.”

“Hello Kitty? Really?” He laughed quietly. “I don't want to know. Anyway, you don't have to get me anything. You're my present.”

“Oh, okay,” I said sarcastically. “Well, I'll just return this big bag of Victoria's Secret sitting beside me. Such a shame.”

“Let's not be too hasty now. I'm talking out of my ass. Give me presents!” He said quickly.

I laughed, “oh no. Too late.”

“No. Okay. It's fine. You look best in nothing at all, so that's fine.”

“Are you sure about that? I've got something that might make you question that,” I promised him. “I was going to take pictures for you while wearing it, but I guess I won't now. Since, you know, no presents.”

“Damn, you are so mean.”

“Aw, am I?” I mused.

“I should not get hard at the mere suggestion of dirty pictures of you,” he mumbled in annoyance at himself. “Not even that dirty. Just modeling underwear.”

“I've got to give you something fun to think about when I'm not there.”

"Oh, you've given me plenty to think about," he assured me. "You know what frustrates me the most? You're too cool for that. I don't think I could get the same reaction out of you. I'm a horny idiot, and you're just... unmoved.”

“Please,” I laughed at the absurdity. “I literally jumped you because I couldn't take it anymore. Or, have you forgotten that already?”

“I might need some reminding,” he said smoothly. “Perhaps jump me again next time you see me, yeah?”

“I mean... obviously, I was planning on doing that already in my Victoria, not at all, Secrets, but you said no presents,” I deadpanned.

“Give. ME. Some fucking gifts, woman,” he said in fake anger through gritted teeth.

I laughed quietly, “ask nicely.”

"Dammit. I want to be the pervert that I am and give you the proper begging you deserve, but I have to leave my car in a second and go in public. So, I'm going to say pretty please very quickly. Yes, I will beg. I know you were joking about pictures, but I will get on my knees. On my knees, Isabella. Just to see you in whatever you have in that damn pink bag,” he said in a quiet even tone, his voice warm and deep. I loved it so much. I wished I could swim in it.

“Okay. If you beg extra hard on your knees I might let you take the pictures,” I told him in a silky voice. I wasn't going to go easy on him. “Extra extra hard.”

“Okay. Fuck. Dammit. That... Please. Yes. My darling,” he kind of half whined as I heard him rub his hand over his face. My giggling didn't do anything to help his frustration. “I have to go. I'm going to Tyler's for dinner.”

I tried to keep the sadness from filling my voice. “Tell him and Lauren hello for me. And Seth whenever you see him next.”

“I will. I'll talk to you tomorrow, darling.”

 I hated that we couldn't talk longer, but I wasn't going to be that girlfriend. I just wasn't going to be jealous of his friends. "Have fun." 

I came back into the room to see Alice making a face at me. 

“What?” I asked as I picked my laptop so I could get back up to work. 

“D’Awwww...” She drew out dorkily like a freshman in high school. 

I flipped her off with both middle fingers.  
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5/28/2019

Episode Twenty-Four: Home

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Episode Twenty-Four: Home


It was one in the afternoon when we finally woke up in bed together. Edward was quiet and sullen. I understood though. I laid my head on his bare chest, listening to his heartbeat. 

“It can't be over,” he finally said. His tone was almost desperate, pleading. 

“It's not forever,” I assured him. But, I was a little scared it was. I wasn't going to tell him that though. I wondered if he had the same fears.

"It's just been so perfect. I don't want it to end." His large hand slid down my bare back, holding my body to his. "It's been like a dream, and I don't want to wake up. Or, maybe I actually died during that stupid jump, and this is my idea of heaven. I'm not sure." 

“You are such a romantic soul,” I adjusted so I could look up into his eyes, teasing him just a little bit. “It's just a couple of weeks, really. You'll barely have time to think of me anyway. I've seen your schedule for the next month.”

“I couldn't not think of you if I tried.” He brushed my hair away from my cheek and over my shoulder. 

“When you're in New York we can plan my next visit and figure out what videos you want to make when I'm here,” I encouraged him softly. “What do you want to do for your birthday? We'll do whatever you want.”

“I don't know. I'll be happy as long as I'm with you. I don't know if I want to do anything at all, honestly. Stay in bed and order food,” he said wistfully, cupping my cheek as he ran his thumb over it.

“Oh, that sounds nice. Can we do that today as well?” I asked, twisting my legs into his as I became more comfortable. 

“Yes, please.” He pulled my face to him, kissing my mouth lightly. 

I slipped into his hoodie while we ordered us some breakfast on the computer. Edward wore his basketball shorts to go make us coffee while we waited for our brunch. We relaxed by the pool with a smoke and our mugs while we waited. It was cooler that day, and it felt nice to have the wind on my legs. Edward mindlessly stroked my calves as I lounged on him in the golden California sunshine.  

After we ate, we went back to his bed where we just held each other because honestly, we were both a little too hungover. I was his little spoon, feeling so warm and safe. When we finally made love, it was slow and sweet, gentle. He was such a generous lover. Everything about Edward was so intense in those moments.  

It was getting dark when we finally got out of bed to get showered. 

I put all of my clothes into the wash after and started to pack up the rest of my things. Edward watched from the spare bedroom bed with a little frown. 

"Is it okay if I leave some of my makeup and clothes here?" I asked. It made it feel like I was really coming back. "I'm not sure I can fit it all, and I'm going to come back anyway before I can wear any of this in New York. It's going to be in the thirties tomorrow when I get in. It might snow next week from what it said on the weather channel earlier." 

“Of course. And if there is anything you want, I can send it to you,” he promised from his seat on the edge of the bed. Anxiety was written all over his perfect face. I hated it. I wanted to kiss it away. Or, maybe fuck it away but I needed to be an adult right then.

All of my new makeup, accessories, shoes, and gifts I bought fit in the original suitcase that I brought with me. I kept a few of my new items in the closet but packed the rest into my big new suitcase, the makeup I was keeping there on the little spare bedroom desk. On top of my suitcase, I laid out the outfit I would wear home. I was going to have to do so many layers because my jacket was a thin one. My ticket sat on top of my outfit. There was nothing else I could do to prepare. 

I wasn’t prepared at all.

We ordered a late dinner and watched a movie in his bed. We were asleep before one, both of us tired from all that had happened in the past few days. 

It was drizzling when we woke up. It stopped before we left the house for breakfast. We sat in the airport parking lot for an hour because we were early. He tried to talk like he wasn't upset, but I could see it in his eyes. I didn't want to leave, but I was still anxious to get home.  

"I need to go inside," I finally said, looking at my phone at the time. No storms were coming to delay my flight. 

Edward took my face into his big soft hands and kissed me passionately without a word. I kissed him back, holding his hands against my cheeks. When he pulled away, I turned to kiss his palm. 

“Take me with you.”

I laughed quietly, and so did he, but he also sniffled to hold back tears. "You won't fit in my luggage, sadly." 

“I'm going to miss you terribly.”

“I'll miss you, too. We'll text. We'll call. There is always Facetime and Skype. And in no time you will be strolling through Central Park and skating at Rockefeller center with me,” I promised him.

“Maybe we can go to a Broadway show together, too.”

"Anything you want. And after the charity show, I'll have almost a full week off with you. We can do whatever you want," I said again. 

He looked down at me with such sad, beautiful green eyes. I could see the tears building at the corners. "What if I just want to spend it in your arms?" 

“Stop making it so hard to leave,” I begged.

“Never,” he grinned as he kissed me again. 

Edward helped me with my bags, and I waited to the last moment to leave him in the lobby. I promised to text him when I arrived home.  

The ticket that he purchased me was for a very nice first class non-stop to LaGuardia. I got to wait for an hour in the fancy first class lounge, sad drinking the free champagne with a plate full of snack foods from the spread they had set out. 

Jessica from Vaudevillian called while I was waiting, already on my second little plate of cheese, crackers, and cookies. “Hello?” I answered with a mouth full of chocolate chip.

“Hi, Bella! How are you?”

I swallowed, “great, thanks.”

“How was your vacation?” She questioned.

“It was perfect. I'm flying home right now. I'm actually at LAX,” I explained to her.

“Wow! That's awesome. Well, I was calling to get you to come in when you get a chance. We've finalized the spread. Can you come in on Monday or Tuesday of next week?”

The hair on my arms began to stand up as the nerves started to sink in. I really hadn’t thought about the pictures since I sent them. “I can make it in on Monday. Is it... I mean. Can I ask? How did I do? Do you like them?”

“They're great! They're exactly what we were looking for. Can you make it in at one?” She asked brightly.

“I can. I'll see you at one on Monday.” I felt a little numb.

“Fantastic. I'll see you then.” She hung up just as my flight was called. I didn't have any more time to think about what she said or my anxiety over it.

I edited pictures on the flight home and listened to crime podcasts. They didn't help when the airport was all but eerily abandoned when I arrived. Thankfully there were always taxis no matter the time of night, and I rode in the back of a yellow cab the quick fifteen minutes home. The driver sped the whole way. It was midnight when I arrived at the dark hallway on the third floor. I could barely fit myself and my things in the ancient elevator. My entire body hurt, and I was so ready for my couch. 

Alice's cat Patricia meowed when I came in. I scratched her back and petted her fluffy tail before dragging my stuff into my bedroom. I put my luggage on the bed with the intention of putting my things away later. I sat on my couch beside it and texted Edward. 

“Finally made it.” 

“There you are,” Alice said sleepily from the doorway in her Ninja Turtle footie pajamas. “Thought you had run away from home.”

“I was considering it,” I told her as I kicked off my shoes. “I still am.”

“There's Uno's in the kitchen for you.” She leaned against the door frame. “It's pepperoni and ham.”

“Thanks. I'll have it later,” I replied numbly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just tired. I'm going to sleep until noon tomorrow.” I rubbed my face with both of my hands roughly. My phone beeped beside me, drawing my attention. 

Alice nodded understandingly. “I'm leading a day trip tomorrow. I won't be back until late. I'm off Sunday and Monday though.”

“Okay,” I sighed with a little yawn. “I've got to go to Vaudevillian on Monday to talk to Jessica. She said she was happy with the pictures.”

“Well, that's great. You could take the month off if you wanted,” she teased me. “Hibernate for the winter.”

Alice didn't know how right she was. “I might take some time off next year, actually. For real though. I don't know. It depends. I've got so much to tell you about.”

"Sunday. We'll have a day at home, and we'll talk then," she promised me with a yawn.  

“Go to bed, You have an early morning,” I told her. “Be careful tomorrow. Take lots of pictures.”

When I was alone, I got changed into a long thermal pair of pajamas and thick socks. My blankets and pillows were already on my couch from before I left. I turned the lights off and crawled into makeshift bed with my phone. 

“Was your flight okay?” The message asked.

“It was first class. Of course, it was great,” I texted back. “Thank you. I was champagne drunk though. It makes everything seem nicer. How was your day?”

“Someone else took my picture. I didn't like it. I don't think they did it right. Come back and show them how.”

“It's just because you're salty. I'm sure they were great pictures. You're too pretty for them to be bad,” I assured him. “Be nice to the other photographers. They can't help it that they're not me.”

The screen flashed again. "I suppose you're right, but it doesn't mean I have to like it." 

I smiled a little bit to myself. “I know. I'm sorry. I'm falling asleep. I'm really tired. I'll text you later.”

“Okay. Sweet dreams, my darling.”

I didn't sleep until noon. I woke up at six in the morning. Restless, I was unable to get comfortable. The jet lag was real. Finally, I gave up and looked at my phone again. 

There was already another text from Edward that said, “oh, that's right. I forgot I was an insomniac for a moment there.” It was from an hour before. I hadn't heard the beep.

“It's amazing what that much fucking can do for your sleep,” I typed back with a smirk. I put the phone on my stomach. It instantly buzzed again.

“lol, True. Why are you awake?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I answered back quickly. 

“Can I call?” He asked instead of answering. 

I called him in response. “Don't you have things to do tomorrow? Don't you have to play video games or something? It's...” I pulled my phone back to look at the time, “three something there.”

“Well, I got used to falling asleep with you in my arms. I tried going to sleep but... here I am, outside, smoking,” he complained. “What are you doing awake?”

“Just couldn't get comfortable,” I told him honestly. “I've got really bad jet lag right now. And I can hear Alice in the shower getting ready for work so I'll stay up to say goodbye to her. She's got a day trip to Amish Country. I'm going to ask her to pick me up some jam and honey, I think. Cheese, probably too. I need to go grocery shopping today. Al lives like you when I'm not around.”

“Poor girl.”

We spoke for a few more minutes as I laid on the couch under my blankets. “The sun is starting to come up. You should see it. It's beautiful,” I told him when I noticed. 

He turned his Facetime on, and I smiled into the camera. I looked pale, my nose was red, and my crazy curly hair was poking out from under my beanie that I had worn to bed because I was cold. There were dark circles under my eyes.  

“Damn, I am sexy,” I  laughed as I walked over to the window. 

“You look adorable. Don't worry,” he assured me. Edward looked tired, too. 

I opened the blinds completely to show him the great view as the light began to glow behind the Manhattan skyline. There were a bunch of kids running up the block to get to somewhere, and the grocer across from our house was sweeping up in front of the fruits and vegetable bins. It was very peaceful and pleasant.  

“What a thing to wake up to,” he mused. “It might be worth waking up early to take that ferry after all.”

"Or, we can just stay out all night. That might be the better choice," I replied. "This place isn't everything, but that view is." 

“Why don't you give me the house tour?” He asked. 
I laughed a little bit, “okay, well, it'll be pretty short. This wall is basically just the window and my window seat which is actually all my clothes.” I lifted up the seat to reveal the neatly folded fabric inside. “And, there is my bed with all my shit still on it because I was too tired to do anything about it last night. The couch that I normally sleep on, because you know, I'm an adult. My desk. And in the corner we have our musical instrument collection,” I pointed out the corner. “Which is dusty as hell at this point. I guess Alice didn't fuck around with them while I was away.”

“Do you play an instrument?” He asked in surprise. 

I hadn't even really realized it hadn't come up. I didn't like talking about myself that much though. And then I realized we had only known each other for less than a month. It felt as if he should have known everything about me already. I was instantly so comfortable around him like we had been friends forever before we started dating. I hadn’t been playing much lately and hadn’t even really thought about it.

“I play the piano and violin pretty well, the guitar and bass kinda sorta and banjo terribly because I'm a damn hipster, I guess. Alice can play the viola, bass, and piano as well. We all did music together. Rose, too. She did the flute and the piano a little, too.”

Edward was totally shocked. “Jesus, you are your own band. And you can sing, too. Wait, you said you had a degree in music, didn't you?”

“That I'm really not using. I minored in photography.” I showed him the degree from NYU on the wall. “I also studied a program at Julliard for a hot second. It was only a class for a semester.”

“Why didn't you tell me you were so accomplished?” He asked curiously. 

"Because I'm not? Lots of people study music, and some can make a living off of it. I'm not passionate enough about it to do so. Or, good enough at it," I told him truthfully. "I quickly became disillusioned of the possibility in my early early twenties.”

“Were you in a band or anything?”

“Uh...” I drew out the sound. “I guess you could say that. I was a part of a few different orchestras at different times. Mainly in school. Not like any rock bands though. I haven't been in any a few years though.”

“You'll have to play for me one day.”

“Mm, let me practice first,” I smiled as I heard Alice in the kitchen. I went through my folding doors and was greeted by a screaming cat. “This is Patricia's room,” I said as I clicked on the light to the foyer. To one side was our bookshelves and one corner was sectioned off with a dressing screen. There was a series of empty shelves, a box for kitty litter, and a six-foot-tall cat tree. Patty jumped to eye level and meowed at me. 

“Oh, wow. She's loud,” he said as I showed him the cat. She was a long haired calico. 

“She's a lying ass whore who has been fed this morning. Don't yell at me, Patty Cat. I see the crumbles in your bowl.” I rubbed her chin. She purred but meowed again. 

“She's been fed!” I heard shouted from the kitchen. 
“I know,” I shouted back. “She's loud, too,” I said into the phone with a smile. 

I came into the kitchen to find Alice making herself a travel mug of hot tea with lots of honey and eating a doughnut from a white box. She was wearing blue jeans and was looking puffy from her several layers of shirts. Her short curly black hair was pulled back in a fluffy ponytail. She looked angry to be awake.

“Did I wake you?” She asked in a mumble. 

“Nope,” I answered, showing her the phone. 

“Hello,” Edward said cheerfully to her. Alice's eyes grew wide when she realized.

"Oh! Good morning!" She rushed over to stand beside me. Alice was about a half a foot taller in her heeled boots, and she hunched down so that we were in the frame together. "Nice to meet you. I've heard nothing about you." 

He chuckled, smoke curling from his lips. “Well, I've heard a lot about you.”

“Oh, no. I'm sorry. Don't believe any of her lies,” she said dryly. 

“So, you're both like this?” He asked me seriously. 

“Ha! Yeah, we are. All three of us actually. Rosalie, too,” Alice laughed evilly. “Alright, I need to go pick up the van. I love you. Have a good day.” She kissed my cheek. “I look forward to talking about you in great detail later.”

“Hopefully good things,” he replied.

“She will tell me everything,” Al warned him. “Everything.”

“Mostly good,” I promised him. I called to Alice, “text me when you get there. I have things I want you to pick up for me!”

“Alright!”

I sat at our kitchen table with my head in my hand. “Mr. Cullen, you're going to be terrible tomorrow if you don't get a few hours of sleep. Go to bed.”

“But, you won't be there,” he sighed sadly. “Alright. You are correct, Ms. Swan. Go back to bed for a while. You look exhausted.”

“I will. I'm just going to eat the rest of this box of doughnuts first.”

I ate while listening to a podcast, having three doughnuts and a mug of tea from Alice's leftovers. As much as I wanted to go back to sleep, I was too wound up. First I decided to try to take a shower to relax, but that didn't do anything but wake me up further. I put away my clean clothes. I needed some more storage for my new makeup.  

I went to the cafe at the corner of my building for breakfast, picking up an egg sandwich and a juice. I ate as I walked to the dollar store down the block with my little rolling cart. It was surprisingly quiet. Next, I visited a couple of different small markets to pick up all the different groceries we were lacking. 

I was too anxious to relax once I got home, so I ended up doing a week's worth of meal prep for us. I froze us little lasagnas to bake whenever we wanted them, roasted some chicken for burrito bowls and chicken salad before putting the chicken bones in the pressure cooker to make broth. When it was done, I used it to make a vegetable soup. I even ended up making peanut butter cookies and a big pitcher of unsweetened tea as well.   

I had the soup for supper with a chicken salad sandwich. I played an audiobook in the background while I edited pictures. It was almost one in the morning when Alice got home. I waited for her to say goodnight before I went to bed. Before I did, I took a picture of the moon behind the Empire State Building with my phone to send to Edward to say goodnight. It was getting late, but I knew he was still up. 

He sent a picture back of Tyler, Seth, and himself sitting at the dinner table eating more Zankou's chicken with the caption, “we need you to tell us about murder.”

I smiled to myself. “I bet Seth knows the story. Get some good sleep tonight.”

I took some cold medicine to finally help me fall asleep. I slept until noon the next day. Alice came stumbling out of her room not long after. We went into her room to sit on her nicer couch, vape her weed, and order breakfast. She wanted waffles, and I didn't have the energy to make them for her. I wasn't about to turn down free food from her either. 

It was going to take an hour for our food to arrive so we had time to talk. We talked about her trip first. It was pretty uneventful in general. She waited until the second bowl of weed before she finally said, “so... tell me everything.” Al wanted to get me nice and loose before she got all the details. I knew her ways.

“I don't even know where to start,” I admitted to her.

“How? How on earth did it happen?”

I was stretched out like I was a therapist couch with my feet on her lap. “Uh... I guess we got along right away. He was just so funny and generous. And sensitive and shy-”

“He doesn't seem shy,” she seemed incredulous. 

I sighed as I considered how to explain him to her. “Edward's a good actor. And, good with people. He's got the ability to know these little details and make a person feel special when he's talking to them. But, that's genuine. He wants people to feel special. Anyway... We started flirting right away, I guess. Then on the day of the jump, I kissed him. Just a peck for luck, though.”

She wasn't entirely shocked. I had always been rather aggressive when it came to romantic relationships. “So, you kissed him out of nowhere first?”

“I actually gave this English bro a kiss on the cheek first because he asked and he was flirting with me. I think I wanted to make Edward jealous, to be honest. I mean, it wasn't on purpose at the time. Well, maybe a little. But, it worked, and he got all dramatic. So I kissed Edward on the forehead afterward." 

“Aw, how sweet,” Al said cutely.

"But, that was just in front of the cameras. When they weren't around I just... kissed him again. Quick, on the lips. I didn't even really think about it. And then we had to go to an after party that night. Well, he had to, and I went as his date because he asked me before the jump. I got pretty drunk, and we danced. God, he is such a good dancer, too. Anyway... He was pretty straightforward about his feelings that night, but I'm a doorknob, apparently. I was drunk though, to be fair. He was really sweet to me that day. He said so many kind things." 

Alice drew a long hit into her lungs, blowing it out after a second. “What did he say exactly?”

"He told me how good of a person I was and that if I kissed him, it would be an honor, but that was for a crowd. It was a little silly. I thought he was just playing it up. But, at the club, he told me he was 'fond' of me and actually offered me a job. I think he just was trying to figure out a way to make me stay a little longer." I smiled as I remembered it. I took the smoke from her, taking my own little hit before offering it back to her. She was the one doing most of the smoking. 

Alice took the vape from my hand, clicking the temperature up, so it made more smoke. "What kind of job exactly?" 

“Doing photography for his channel.”

“Wonder what that pays,” she mused.

I sighed, “I don't know, exactly. I'll tell you about that later though actually. That's a whole other thing.”

“Alright. What happened after he offered you a job?”

"Nothing. I declined, and we danced some more. We got in really late. Sundays are usually his day off if he can work it out that way, but he planned a day just for me. Eddie took me to the zoo and to the beach at sunset. Not that he would have said that he did it just for me at the time. When I was there, I was just so absorbed in him. I didn't even check the weather or read the news." I wrapped my sweater more tightly around me. "I wanted to be around him so entirely that I just zoned out. That storm snuck up on me." 

“It seemed kind of scary. There were some mudslides and flooding from what I read. I was a little bit worried for you,” Alice said thoughtfully, passing the vape back to me. 

"That wasn't really near us. He lost a bunch of ice cream from the power being out, but that's it," I explained. "A lot of wind mainly. The lightning was scary though, at points. There was a strike not too far from his house that hit a pole. Made the whole house shake." 

“So, what happened?  Obviously, you didn't just stay that long because of the weather and a couple of kisses.”

"No. He asked me to stay. That morning when I was supposed to fly out he... I... we," I laughed as I thought about it, putting my arm over my eyes while taking a longer hit. "Edward came into my room really early. He's like us and not really a morning person, so I wasn't expecting a goodbye because we had them the night before. But, then he told me that he cared for me. And Jessica called, interrupting us. Told me the flight had been canceled. Since she was the one who set it all up, it forwarded the cancellation emails to her as well and I hadn't seen them yet. The flights were canceled for a couple of days, and they were booked solid a couple of days after trying to catch up," I explained to her.  "And... I don't know. I just jumped him, Al. I thought about it before how wanted him, but I didn't want to be his one-night stand. But, Eddie isn't that kind of guy. God, I needed that so much." 

"How was it?" She leaned in a little when she asked. I gave her back the small black vape pen.  

I chewed on the edge of my thumb. “It's probably the best sex I've ever had if I'm honest. Though it might just be that he's super fucking hot and I’m horny as hell.”

“Well,” she laughed, “it doesn't hurt. And, he's how old exactly?”

“He'll be twenty-five in a couple of weeks. On the twenty-third. Eddie wants to spend his birthday with me here,” I told her with a smile. “I made an appointment online for birth control this week.”

“What an easy birthday gift,” Alice teased. “His birthday is close to Aiden's,” she said more seriously, softly. 

“I know,” I said quietly. “He's flying in the day after probably.”

“How does that make you feel?” 

“I don't know if I can handle another Scorpio,” I joked, not really wanting to talk about that subject right then. 

Alice began typing on her phone, going to look the information up. “Actually, I think he'd be a Sagittarius.”

“You know that means literally nothing,” I teased. She shrugged and handed me back the weed. Al got a wicked little smile on her face as she thought of something.

“Is he... as big... as you feared?”

I laughed which was the reaction she wanted. "No. He's not freakishly long or anything, but he's... um... thick. I'd say meaty, but that sounds wrong. Horribly wrong." She laughed with me, "And he is uncircumcised which is new for me. But the thing is that he has figured out that I'm embarrassingly easy very quickly and now he's trying to get a new high score every night. He probably has a notebook somewhere with a tally. He’s that kind of guy.”

Alice cackled, “I am so jealous. About being that easy, mainly.”

“Girl, he is determined. It feels like a nice dirty dream," I told her as the buzzer went off for the door. She rushed off to get our breakfast. We ate and watched a show on her television as we did. After we had eaten, we settled into a long afternoon of editing pictures from our trips. We continued to talk about Edward, the money situation, and my visit with him.  

“So, what happens after Thanksgiving?” 

“I don't know,” I answered truthfully. “He'll be filming in December. I have that airline credit to go see him. And I'm doing okay right now money wise. But, I can't expect someone so young and handsome... rich, too... to stay in a long distance relationship after only know each other a couple of weeks though. Let's be honest here.”

“Hm, from what you've told me he seems like someone who likes to be in a relationship.” She didn't look up from her screen. We had our best conversations this way.

“And, that might actually be worse,” I pointed out to her. “What if he finds someone there that would be good for him? And he misses his chance because of me. A bitter old woman two thousands of miles away.”

Alice finally glanced over at me. “First, let's be clear: no one is better than you. You’re awesome. That is just your fear speaking. Don’t be stupid.”

“You're biased.”

“Sure, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong,” she replied firmly. “You should think about the ‘what if' if it does work out. What could happen, you know?”

“It's a big if.”

“Everything is a big if,” Alice retorted shortly.

My phone beeped at me. It was just after two in the afternoon for us. It was a picture of Edward still in bed, one eye opened. The caption said 'sleeping is for suckers.' 

“You don't have to work today. Go back to bed,” I answered him back. 

“I tried.”

“Did you get any sleep?” I asked.

“Only a couple hours. I edited all last night. I'm probably just going to get up and edit all day anyway. Are you having a good day at least?” He asked back quickly. Edward was a much faster typer than I was.

“It's been alright. I've been describing our sex in great detail over waffles,” I told him, only half joking.

“lol, sounds fun. Should I be worried?”

“She’s just disappointed I don't have pictures,” I teased him.

“Next time,” Edward sent three winky faces to me. I bit my lip a little, a soft flush covering my cheeks.

“You are smiling at your phone,” Alice rolled her eyes but grinned at her laptop screen. 
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5/28/2019

Episode Twenty-Three: Halloween

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Episode Twenty-Three: Halloween 

We got quite a few looks as we stopped to get some drinks for the party. The entire taxi ride there Edward kept drawing pictures in my dress with his finger. It was making me ticklish, and I almost laughed until I cried. Finally, I forced him to stop so not to ruin my makeup.  

“I wanna write on your bum,” he mumbled as we walked towards Tyler's house. “Mine,”  “Or, maybe Eddie. I might be able to fit Edward's on there if I try.”

“Later,” I teased him with a wink. 

The front yard was covered in decorations. It had probably taken Tyler years to unearth that many. He lived a few doors down from a youth center and a park that was having a party as well. There were kids everywhere. It was the first time in a long time that I had seen any trick or treaters. 

Tyler was already outside by a big cast iron grill in the front yard, standing beside Seth and two other men probably in their mid-thirties as well. Tyler was dressed as Indiana Jones, and Seth was dressed like Magnum P.I. with a big fake mustache and a red Hawaiian shirt. 

“Oh, my god! Chip and Dale! I loved you as a kid!” I said too brightly as I came clicking up the driving way in my heels. 

“Shit, you're right!” Edward laughed.

“We didn't know!” Seth complained sourly, almost shouting. 

“No, it's good. Really. I think it's great,” I assured him before showing the men there all the bags that I had. “Where do you want the food?”

"Oh, this way." He handed the tongs over to a tall, thin man that looked a lot like him. "This is my brother, Andy, by the way. And my friend Raj," he pointed at the other guy who was dressed as a vampire with fake blood on his neck and chin. "This is my quote-unquote boss, Eddie, and his girl, Bella." 

“Quote, unquote. I mean, I do tell you what to do. Kind of. Sort of,” Edward teased back. “Nice to meet you Raj. Nice to see you again, Andy.” He shook hands with both of them. 

“Hi,” I smiled, trying not to be awkward.

“Did you bring your camera?” Tyler asked as he took one of the food bags from me. 

“I did, if that's okay,” I replied. Edward was carrying the bag for me. 

“No, it's awesome. I was hoping you would. Would you send me the pictures?” He asked as we walked through his house. It was small and just as decorated as the outside of the house. It was a really cozy little cottage probably from the fifties. I loved it.

“Absolutely,” I promised.

“I would have never guessed you were this into Halloween,” Edward said as he trailed behind. 

“It's me and my girlfriend's favorite.” He grinned so wide his eyes all but disappeared under his fedora. “Lauren, where do you want this?” He asked a tiny woman only a couple of inches taller than me in the kitchen. She was dressed as Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter. Gray face and all. It was really good. 

“What is it?” She asked. She smiled cheerfully when she saw us. “Hi, Eddie. Nice to see you again.”

“Hi, Lauren. Nice to see you, too. I have some beer, too!” He showed her the case at his side.

“Wow, great! There is an extra fridge in the garage. Tyler, go show him. Put it in there so it can get cold,” she told him, glancing over her shoulder from her work setting up the counters with all the food they had.

“I have some garlic hummus and pita bread to dip, veggies too. And rice crispy squares.” I brought my bag to the open workspace. 

"Oh, sweet! This looks great. Thanks. Sorry, we haven't met, but you're Bella, right?" She washed her hands, rushing to take the stuff from me.  

“Yeah. Everything is vegan, by the way.”

“Wow, you brought so much. Thank you!” Lauren looked at what was stuffed inside. 

“Oh, no problem. I just wanted to try all the stuff I got for Edward's kitchen the other day. Thanks for inviting us over. This place looks amazing. I love your home, it's adorable.”

“Thanks. I love your costume! I'm really into sequins right now.”

“I love yours, too! But, I would have paid anything to walk in here and have you dressed as Gadget,” I blurted out before I realized she might not know what I was talking about. I really did like Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers as a kid.

"I know!" She practically shouted. "I wish I had known! I could have definitely been Gadget, and our pug could have been the little fly. Zipper?" 

I went to wash my hands to help her out if she needed it. “You just need a Monterrey Jack.”

“See! She thinks we need to have a baby, too!” She shouted at Tyler as he came back from the garage.

“She did not. We can hear you in there, you know. Having a child for the sake of a costume is not a good reason anyway. Don't drag her into your insanity,“ he said calmly as if they had this conversation more than once. 

“You know what? I like her. For the sake of causing drama... Yeah, you should totally have a baby,” I giggled evilly, rubbing my hands together. Then I made my eyes big. “Wait, what if you have Shia Labeouf? Your last movie was terrible, Indy.”

“Oh, Jesus.” Tyler just walked out of the kitchen to go back to the grill, running away from the conversation. We both laughed, clearly making all the men in the room a little nervous.

“Wait, are you two married?” I asked in amusement as Edward passed me a bottle of hard cider that he brought me from the fridge. He knew they were some of my favorites. He wrapped his arm around me, my hip to his, as we leaned against the counter. 

“Practically. But no, but we've been together for seven years. I don't care about getting married. I just want to have kids. We've been talking about it for a month or so now. My sister just had a baby and...”

“I get it. Babies are babies. That clock is mean and loud." I nodded. I knew that feeling all too well. "Especially when they're all cute and small and someone else's." 

“Exactly,” she agreed with a solemn head nod.

"Do you want children?" Edward asked me curiously. I was kind of surprised he was asking me in the middle of a party we had just arrived to, but clearly, he didn't see this as a big question to ask your new girlfriend. I thought for a moment to give him the best answer. 

“I don't not want children?” I phrased it as a question. I shrugged. “I'm probably not going to have kids at this point though if we're being honest. Not of my own, at least.”

“Why?” Lauren asked as she arranged the food we brought onto tables already filled with so much other food. 

"I just turned thirty-three. I haven't been in a relationship in years... well, until Eddie just very recently, I mean. If I were to have children, I'd like to be married to the father or have a partner to make it easier. It takes years to get a relationship to that point. I don't know." I shook my head with a little sigh. "I work at a non-profit where we help disadvantaged youth, so I've considered adopting older kids. You know, teens rarely find families. I kind of figured my roommate and I would probably hit our forties as old spinsters together at this rate. We've talked about fostering teens together but she works all the time, and my money isn't stable enough yet," I monologued before feeling awkward and taking a big drink from my cider.  

“Do you want kids, Eddie?” Lauren asked him thoughtfully as she picked up one of the desserts I brought to eat. She had a little smirk on her gray face as she caused her own drama. I did like her. He did open this door though. He didn't seem bothered. 

“Well, I adore children, but I've not quite gotten that far in life." He smiled politely at her. "I love all my nieces, though. Babies are fun. Toddlers are too if you can give them back after you wind them up. That's the best." 

“You're the fun uncle,” Lauren concluded. 

“Damn straight.” Edward smiled proudly.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I offered, wanting to change the subject. 

“No, I think I got this. If you want, you can go keep the boys company. More people should be getting here within the hour,” she explained. 

We left her to her work. There were a few people talking in the living room and a couple more new folks outside as well. 

“Stop encouraging her,” Tyler said to me as we came outside. He snapped the tongs at me.

“You've been together for seven years. She doesn't need encouragement,” Edward told him, pointing his beer at him.

"He's going to give her babies," I said to my boyfriend. I drew a heart on my stomach in the sequins. "Aw, Daddy." 

“That's the scariest thing I've heard all day,” he mumbled. “Oh, look, trick or treaters.” Tyler shoved the bowl of candy at me. “Go give out candy.”

For the next thirty minutes, Edward and I sat on an outdoor loveseat, passing out candy to kids as they left the park party. A couple of them instantly realized who Eddie was and he took pictures with them. He gave them lots of candy. There were a lot of wide-eyed older siblings who were too cool to say anything also. 

“Happy Halloween,” I told a four-year-old pirate as he came up the driveway with his mother in tow. “Want some Skittles or M&Ms?”

He starred off towards the grill where there was quite the crowd now. There were maybe twenty or thirty people at the party. "Can I have a hot dog?" The little boy asked.  

“Chase, no, honey. You can't,” the mom said quickly. 

“Mom, I don't blame him. They smell so good!” I told her with a smile. “You hungry, baby?”

“Yeah!” He said sweetly. 

"Okay, first, pick out some candy for later." I held out the bucket to him, and he snatched a whole handful for his bag. "Now, I can't make any promises, but let me go talk to the person in charge real quick." 

“Oh, um, thank you,” the mom said with an embarrassed laugh. 

I came up to Tyler, leaning in so I could speak only to him. “The young pirate requests a hot dog. May I fix him a plate?”

He leaned over to see Edward and the little boy talking excitedly. He was showing off his fake sword while Edward showed him his water gun. “Oh, yeah, Go for it. We have too much food anyway. Happy Halloween!” He shouted to the mom with a wave and a smile. 

I came back over to the little boy and Edward, the boy playing with his water gun now. "Okay. So, you want a hot dog?"  

He was super excited now. “Yeah!”

“Do you want it on a bun?”

“Yes, please!”

“Do you want anything on it?” I asked as much to his mother as to him. He was having too much fun with the toy though to answer.

“He likes ketchup,” the mom said with a smile on her face. 

“Do you like chips?” I asked him before turning to his mother again. “Does he have any allergies?” 

“No, he doesn't.”

“I love chips!” The boy said loudly, almost shouting it in Edward's face. Eddie shook his head with amusement, his ears probably ringing a little bit.  

I had fun making the little boy a plate of food. I also grabbed him a can of soda as well. When I came back out, he was helping Edward pass out candy to a whole group of kids like he was a pro. It was sweet to watch. 

“Look at that!” The mom said as she saw the plate. “Look, Chase! What do you say?”

“Thank you!” He beamed as I put the plate in his lap as he sat on the loveseat beside my sweet boyfriend. 

“You're welcome. Let's see, a hot dog with ketchup, chips, and pretzels. Some carrots and hummus. Then we have a fruit kabob, a rice crispy treat, and a couple of cookies,” I pointed out all the treats.

“I don't have to feed you dinner tonight!” The mom laughed. “Thanks, that's so nice.”

I handed her the soda to hold. “Well, it's easy when it's not your food,” I joked. 
Chase and his mother stayed until he finished the entire plate. We gave him more candy before they went on their way. Edward gave him his water gun, too. 

It was starting to get dark and a little chillier outside, so we decided to give up candy duty to someone more warmly dressed to move to the living room. We couldn't hog all the fun.  

I took pictures for a while before we made our own dinner plate, simply sharing one because I had to sit on his lap since there was such limited seating. We ended up chatting with Lauren and a couple of her friends for a long time in the living room.

As it got later in the evening, the crowd changed a little as the party came mainly inside. There were no more trick or treaters, and the harder liquor had come out. We started playing Cards against Humanity with apparently the entire line of cards. The game lasted for hours, and no one kept track of anything. It was a lot of fun, and we laughed a lot.  

As it got to be about one in the evening, it thinned out to about ten people. Edward and I, Lauren, Tyler, Seth, Andy, Raj, and a couple of Lauren's friends that I couldn't remember the names of. I continued to sit on Edward's lap, just because I wanted to. It might have been because I wasn't sober, too. 

They had brought out karaoke, and Tyler and Lauren were singing horribly together, but they were having a great time. I was a little buzzy and lazily looking at the about five hundred pictures I had taken at the party, rocking my foot along to the beat.  

“I'll take a picture of you two if you want,” Seth offered from beside us. 

I passed him my camera. He knew how it worked because he had one very similar that he brought with him on shoots. It was just a slightly different model. Mine was nicer, though. Taking several pictures, we made silly faces at each one until finally, we were serious.  

“Thanks,” I giggled when I looked at the results. 

"Are you going to sing?" Lauren asked me, showing me all the list of songs I could pick from on her laptop screen. It was a big list. "Eddie?" 

“I can't carry a tune in a bucket,” Edward told her. “It'll be painful.”

“It's just for fun!” She pouted. 

“I'll do a song,” I answered, glancing quickly over the list. I liked karaoke. 

Lauren, who was really drunk, high fived me. “Yes, you will. See! You do it, too!” She pointed aggressively at Edward.

"Okay, okay," he snorted at her pushiness. "Let me figure out a song first." 
“Yay!” She clapped her hands together and grinned as she got her way. Then she burped. Loudly.

“These are the classy parties you can expect running in this circle,” Tyler told me jokingly. Lauren flipped him off. He blew her kisses. “Love you, muffin.”

She sang an Amy Winehouse song with one of her friends then her friend did a Meghan Trainor song. Then it was Edward's turn. He stood in front of the crowd with his tie loosened and hanging around his neck. He sang 'Sunglasses at Night'... not terribly. He wasn't in tune at all, but he had a good voice in general so with some auto-tune he wouldn't hurt anyone's ears. I had heard worse. So much worse.

Seth ran up and put his sunglasses on him. And then he became his backup singer, both yelling into the microphone. Both air guitaring it up. We all clapped and hooted for them, laughing as they bowed dramatically at the end. Then it was my turn. 

I picked Just a Girl from No doubt. I didn't need to look at the words. I was drunk enough to sing with my all my heart. In the middle of the song, I caught Edward's eyes which were wide with surprise. He was wearing my devil horns and looked very funny. I could see little bits of red glitter dotting his face and suit. 

Lauren got up with me in the middle of the song to be my unasked for backup. I didn't mind though. We started to dance around, bouncing like it was the nineties to the music. “Ohhhhhhh,” We sang into the microphone together. “I've had it up to here!”

At the end of the song, we bowed deeply to answer their clapping and whooping. I got a couple of standing ovations from Tyler and his brother who happened to be just like him. 

“I'd like to thank my useless music degree for giving me the ability to do karaoke okay at parties,” I said into the microphone. It earned another round of applause. I curtsied. 

We all did another round of drinks and songs. I did a song called Bulletproof and a Silversun Pickups song. Edward did Under Pressure with Tyler and then murdered Uptown Funk. He had to stop in the middle because he made himself laugh too much to finish. 

It was four in the morning when we finally made it back to his house. His coat was draped over me, and I was carrying my shoes in one hand. I put them by the door with my camera bag to put away later.  

Edward brought me into a kiss there in a foyer. I felt dizzy in his grip, his mouth insistent. His jacket fell to the floor in the darkness. I was very drunk at that point. So was he.

“Take me to bed,” I begged him. Without a word he easily scooped me up into his arms. He was still wearing the horns.

We were asleep within the hour.
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5/27/2019

Episode Twenty-Two: Costume Makeup

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Episode Twenty-Two: Costume Makeup

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

We woke up on Halloween morning around ten with no alarms. I woke up in Edward’s arms, his nude body pressed against mine completely. It was just cool enough that we weren't too sweaty to do so. His morning erection ground into my bare ass as we spooned and I wiggled up against it happily. He reacted instantly in his sleep, pulling my hips towards him more firmly. Just being this close to him made me crazy horny. What was he doing to me? I didn’t mind at all.

I let my hand gently explore the top of his that rested on my stomach, my fingertips tracing his knuckles, slowly swirling my hips so that my plush ass brushed against him. I knew he was asleep, but his erection certainly wasn't. It reacted happily with each touch. His hand pressed against my stomach, his fingers gently curling in against my skin. His breath was so warm against my shoulder. After a few moments, his hand slowly slipped down past my belly button until it reached the hair between my legs. Edward gently scratched his nails through it, earning a little gasp as I pressed back against him harder.  

He hummed quietly, and I rolled my ass against him a little harder, earning a deep intake of breath through his nose. Edward pressed his lips against my shoulder, his hand sliding further down until he reached the apex of my thighs. With a single finger on my clit, he leisurely began to pleasure me. It was my turn to hum, closing my eyes as I enjoyed his attention. Slowly and steadily, he touched me tenderly until I was squirming against him.  

His erection slipped between my thighs as I rocked against him. His free hand went to my breast, playing with it lightly. I’m not sure Edward had even opened his eyes yet.

I wiggled against him until he pressed right at my entrance, teasing me pleasantly as he continued to finger me. I wanted to push him deeper inside, but I didn't want him to stop to get a condom. So I tortured us both as I let him just barely press inside of me. I called out his name quietly, wanting him to grab my hips and just thrust into me wildly when I came for the first time. Instead, he pulled away, earning a groan.

“Condom,” he breathed, fumbling behind him.

“I need to get some birth control,” I complained, looking back at him as I pushed my hair away from my face. He quickly returned to where he was, his sticky condom wrapped hard-on brushing against my back.

“Give me the ass back,” Edward mumbled sleepily as he grabbed my hips so he could readjust me against him as we laid on our sides. I giggled, wiggling my bottom until I was to where I wanted him. He slipped inside easily, already very wet from his fingers earlier. I wrapped his arm around my waist tightly, bouncing back against him slowly as we rocked quietly in time with each other.

Edward dragged his hand down again between my legs, returning to his slow torture as his other hand rested back on my breast. Our movements were slow and sweet, every moment better than the last. I bit into my lip deeply, leaning my head back until it was pressed against him.

“That’s it,” he cooed softly in his velvety voice as I tightened. He gasped as he came, ducking his face against my shoulder. Neither of one of us had earth-shattering orgasms. Instead, these were gentle with enticing whispers of more demanding ones. I needed more of them. I needed more of him.

“Make me cum again,” I asked him as he buried his face in my neck from behind, kissing it lightly.

“How?” Edward asked, sleep still in his voice.

“I don’t care. I just need to feel you.”

We lazily fucked until noon, a quiet and ceaseless build-up that lasted for hours. We then napped for an hour before finally getting up to shower.

Under the water, he traced my tattoos on my shoulder with his fingers. “There are ten on your back. Seven on your chest and torso. Eight on your left leg and ten on the right.”

“Wow, how many is that altogether?” I mused out loud. I had long lost count.

"Thirty-five, I think. I'm surprised you can hide that many so well. I wouldn't have known if you hadn't shown me."

“Well, the ones on my feet, ankles, and legs are easy. Just wear pants and shoes. Socks. It's just because I dress so conservatively most the time for work. A lot of them are small, too. Especially my charm bracelets around my ankles,” I lifted my foot to make a point.

“I wondered if they had a theme.”

There were ten 'charms' altogether that represented different things that happened to me as a younger woman on both of my ankles. There was a shamrock for my mother who was born on Saint Patrick's day, a simple cross for my very religious grandmother, a cat paw for the mascot of the school I went to all my life, a half a heart for Alice who had the other tattooed on hers, and a star that Rosalie picked out just above my left ankle along with a few others. They were all the same size and wrapped my ankles perfectly. I explained all of this to him.  

“Which is your favorite tattoo?” He asked. I thought about it for a moment.

“I really like my rainbow stars,” I pointed to the tops of my feet. “I got them on my twenty-first birthday and Demetri, Al, and Rose all went together to get them for me. Took like six hours and it hurt for days. I couldn't wear shoes like an idiot in New York in October,” I laughed as I remembered it. I pointed to the thick black outline of ultra-realistic roses on my hip, “And I really like this one. Aiden got for my twenty-fifth. And I didn't learn my lesson because I couldn't wear pants for ages, of course. I really like my butterfly, too. The details are gorgeous. I want another to match.” I pointed to the blank spot on my collarbone, “right here.”

“Next time you come we'll have to do another tattoo video,” he told me sweetly. “Maybe you can pick a tattoo for me out.”

"No," I laughed, "I ain't picking anyone's tattoo out. But I'll go with you to get another one. I loved it. And, I can hold your hand this time."

“We're going to have to make a list of videos we want to make when you come back,” he thought out loud. “I'm sorry, I'm assuming you'll want to be in them again.”

“I absolutely want to be in them with you,” I soothed his worry. “I think making a list would be a great idea.”

Edward smirked a little bit as he considered his next words, rinsing the soap from his hands.  “Have you figured what torturous video you're going to put me through for our bet?”

“I was just messing with you.” I rolled my eye and smirked a little myself.

"I figured, but I still dropped at the end. You must have had something in mind."  

I had actually thought of something funny afterward. I just didn’t think it was going to actually happen.

“I wanted to give a makeup tutorial...” I drew out slowly.

“Oh! Really? That doesn't seem so bad,” he seemed confused.

“On you, sweetie. The makeup would be on you.”

“Oh... Oh!” Edward figured it out slowly. He looked salty and pouted a little bit. “Dammit, that's a good idea for a video.”

I laughed at his annoyance.

“All I'd need to do is to get you some foundation and some concealer because we're totally different skin tones.” I smiled evilly at the thought of all the highlighter I was definitely going to use on his sharp ass cheekbones. He was going to look fabulous.

"The party isn't until six," he mumbled, looking up towards the ceiling. "So, if you want to run out and go get that we can get some food and pick that up. If we have time, we can do the video before we go."

“Sure.” I pulled him down for a kiss. “It'll get you so many views, I promise.”

“Goddammit, probably,” he muttered.

There was an Ulta near his neighborhood in a set of shopping centers. In front were several restaurants, one of which was a ramen place. We grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the beauty store. It had been ages since I had gone into one.

I decided not to get him the most expensive stuff since it was just going to be for the video. I also bought a bright red eyeshadow and red glitter for my costume. We got it all for free because he had an insane amount of points from his crazy purchase previously.

It was three in the afternoon when we arrived back at his house. He went to set up his video equipment while I went to get all my supplies. He was utterly shocked at all the things I grabbed. Edward had pulled down a green screen behind us so that the background wasn't so busy. He would fill it in later in post-production.  

We sat at the table together to do the intro.

“You start it.”

“Okay,” I smirked at his silly attitude. “You're just annoyed you didn't think of it first.”

“I am!” He complained. “And now I have so many other stupid ideas with makeup,” Edward pouted, scrubbing his hands over his face. “As always, you are an inspiration.”
    
I laughed a little, "add it to the list."

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I will,” he pouted before continuing, “three, two, one...”

"Hi, my name is Bella Swan, and this is Edward Cullen, and I'm going to give Eddie a whole new look today. And do you want to tell them why, babe?" I looked over at him with a big grin.  

“Insert me making a bet I couldn't possibly win here,” he said dryly. I loved his fake boredom and annoyance. There was a smile just twitching at the corner of his lips.

"Aw, you could have won. You missed it by that much," I pinched my fingers close together. "But you didn't. So, I'm going to make you purdy, boy."

He was pouting just a little bit for the camera.

I started by cleansing his face and scrubbing it smooth. I rubbed moisturizer on his thirsty flesh. “You need to use more lotion on your skin and probably drink more water,” I told him as I rubbed it in. He was a typical man that did little for his skin, despite everyone seeing it all the time for work.

“That feels so good,” Edward answered me instead as I rubbed his cheeks with his head leaned back and eyes closed. He wasn't paying attention to anything but my touch. I rolled my eyes a little but smiled.

Next, I covered his face in primer before shaping up his eyebrows with a tiny comb and scissors. His eyebrows had obviously been groomed within the past few months because they were fairly neat still. We could actually use the same eyebrow colors. He had dark brown eyebrows.

Edward looked in the mirror when he saw that I finished filling them in. “Holy crap. That looks so much better. I don’t like my eyebrows normally.”

"I can show you how to do it later so you can do it yourself. For videos and pictures," I assured him as I got the cream foundation out, squirting a lot on the top of my hand. I dabbed away, blending into his skin gently with an egg-shaped sponge. I stood over him, his eyes shut and his lips in a smile as I worked. When he saw what I had done, Edward mumbled, "I'm so white."

“Don't worry, I'm working on it,” I informed him. There were still a few steps to go.

“No, I meant just in general,” he joked.

“Oh,” I giggled. “So, I think I'm going with purple tones for your eyes.”

“Going to make me look like I've got a black eye, eh?” Edward teased me.

“I could do that,” I replied with a small smirk. “I've done stage makeup a few times.”

“No, make me pretty, darling,” he said in a silly voice, his pretty eyes looking up into mine.

"Yes, sir," I whispered. Eddie bit his lip to hide his naughty smile. As I worked, he rubbed my hip sweetly, resting his hand there as if he couldn't bear to not be touching me for even a moment. I liked it.

I used about five different shades to get his final look, blending and layering colors. It was more effort than I normally put into my own. I did his eyeliner first with a black pencil before giving him a cat eye with liquid eyeliner. “That feels so weird,” he muttered as I put on fake eyelashes. I blended in the corners of his eyes with a white pencil to make them look even bigger somehow. His eyes were like a damn anime character’s.
    
“Don't look again until I'm all done.” I turned away the mirror so he couldn’t peak.

"Okay," he agreed with a smirk. I think he thought I was making him look crazy. I was actually trying really hard to make him look nice. I was no Demetri, though.   

Next was concealer, contouring, and the egg sponge again. Then powder and blush on his cheeks and nose so he wasn't Casper the friendly ghost white anymore. I chose a light lavender highlighter that I blended onto his nose and under his eyes on top of his sharp cheekbones.

“I was not prepared for how intimate this is,” he told me warmly as I picked out a dark burgundy matte bullet lipstick from the pile that I brought. “I’ve had makeup done before, but not like this.”

“Are you enjoying it?” I asked him curiously.

“Very much so,” Edward replied honestly. “I love how gentle you are with me.”

“Good. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Because you look sexy as fuck. I mean, I'd do you. Don't put that in the video,” I pointed to future him in the camera.

“Maybe,” he teased. “Maybe not.”

“No.”

I took his chin sharply and pushed his lips apart with my thumb. It was rougher than he expected, but he obviously enjoyed it. Edward was practically squirming in his seat, aroused already. I kissed him once, looking directly into his eyes as I bent over to take them. Afterward, I carefully filled his lips with dark wine color after.  

"I'm going to be honest with you, I'm kind of mad at how much prettier in makeup you look compared to me," I told him seriously.  

“Oh, do shut up.” He pursed his lovely lips together. “You are so full of piss. I probably look like a Disney villain. Genderswap Ursula.”

“Hardly.” I pushed the mirror over to him. “Here you go.”

His eyes got wider as he took in his image in the glass. “Whoa, I thought I was going to be more drag queen at a clown convention. I look legit. What the fuck?” He picked up the mirror and brought it up to see my work. “I am fierce,” Eddie said in a deep voice.

I lost it finally, giggling hysterically. He raised one of his perfect eyebrows at me.

“I love it so much.”

“I look like the butch sister got her makeover,” Edward joked. “Give the outro.” He kept looking at himself in the mirror.

“Okay, Narcissus,” I teased him. He stuck his tongue out at me playfully. Still giggling, I turned to face the camera. “If you enjoyed this video and want to see Eddie continue to get more in touch with his not so inner diva, please do all the buttons, bells, and whistles! Bye!”

He blew a seductive kiss into the camera before turning it off.

He grabbed me by the waist, tickling me as he laughed. Pulling me down to his lap, Edward brought out his phone to take several selfies with me. Most of them were silly.

“Thank you,” he finally said. “That will be a fun video to edit.”

“I’m sure it will be,” I told him happily. I was having so much fun.

I had to start getting ready for the party, though. He continued to take silly selfies and send them to his friends and family while I straightened my hair.  

“Jasper says I’m sexy as fuck,” he informed me with a giggle in his voice.

"Well, he's not wrong," I smirked. "Let me know when you wanna take it off, and I'll help you," I said as I started on my makeup.  

His cell rang before he could answer me. “Hello, Nana!” He said joyfully into the phone then laughed at the response. “No, not for Halloween. It was for a video. I lost a bet,” Edward explained. “Yes, she did very well. I think I look like a manly Tanya, too. Oh, her name is Bella. She was on the video with me at the jump. No, she's doesn't work for me. She's my girlfriend actually. Yes, and a photographer, too. Amazingly, she can do both at the same time. Yes, I do realize handling me is a full-time job. Okay… Hold on a sec.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear. “My Nana would like to Facetime.”

“Go for it,” I encouraged him. I was working on my eyes, filling my eyelids with red.

Edward pulled up the feature on his phone. “There you are!” He said brightly to the screen.

“Oh, look at you!” The older English woman laughed. “Let me see your eyes. Close them. My, look at that!”

“I've never felt so sexy,” he said in a rich voice, smiling too big and awkwardly. I giggled. He was being a ham for her.

“What time is it there, dear? Are you doing anything for the holiday?” She questioned.

“It's almost five. We're going to a party at my mate's house. They're doing a potluck and passing out candy to the kiddies,” he explained cheerfully in full out actor mode.

“Is your girlfriend there?” She asked. I had just finished with my eyes, putting outrageously long eyelashes on. He brought the phone down to me so I could be introduced to her.

"Hello," I tried to say at cheerfully as possible. I wanted her to like me, after all. "Nice to meet you. I'm putting on costume makeup right now," I apologized. "I normally look more... normal,” I drew out stupidly.

“Are you going to be a devil?” She asked.

“Yes, ma'am,” I nodded. “In a blue dress.”

"It's lovely, dear! So bold and excitingly colored. What's your name again?" Her face was just a little too close to the screen, and all I could really see of her was her eyes. They were green, like Edward's.  

“Bella Swan, ma'am.” I had forgotten how awkward it felt to meet your romantic interests family for the first time. I hadn't done it in years. I would have figured it would have been easier as an adult.

“Too close, Nana,” Edward told her. She pulled the phone away, her thick white hair pulled up neatly in a bun and fancy pearl necklace and matching earrings.

“I'm Elizabeth Everson, Edward's maternal grandmother,” her accent was very posh. She was obviously very well put together. “How long have you two been together?”

Edward leaned into the picture, “just mid-October, Nana. Let's let her finish,” he moved the phone away with an apologetic smile to me. “How's Grandpa George?” He asked as he went into the bedroom.

I dusted the bright red around the edges of my face and my cheeks, brushing it with glitter as well. I used a glossy bright red on my lips. When I was done with my face, I put on my dress. I panicked when I saw that one of the sequins was flipped over and twisted. The flip side was red. I rushed to smooth it and realized they all flipped.  

Giggling in pleasure with my whole look complete, down to my shiny red heels, I came out of the bathroom to show Edward.  

“Look,” I slid my fingers over my stomach. It left a trail of red. “I didn't realize it did it,” I said happily.

“How perfect!” He laughed with me, showing his grandmother. I smoothed them back to the blue side, “Ten out of ten. Perfect costume, love.”

“Very good, dear,” she praised me as well.

“Okay Nana, she has to take my face off so I can put my costume on. I'll talk to you later. I love you. Tell Grandpa George hello.”

“I love you, too, my angel. Have a good time. Be careful,” she told them before they hung up.

He gave a little sigh of contentment when he was done. It made me happy.

Carefully I removed his makeup, tugging free the eyelashes from his eyes. He liked the removal and the few moments of pampering just as much as he liked having it put on, but it went much quicker. He kissed my hand so as not to mess up my lips and rushed off to put on his Halloween look.  

Edward decided to go as James Bond. In a full tux with bow tie and red pocket square. His shoes were extra shiny and black leather, too. He had worked his hair into place with wax. In his jacket pocket, he had a little PPK water gun. He looked so fine. I had a hard time not climbing him like a tree.

He did have me fill in his eyebrows again, though. Edward wanted 'Sean Connery' eyebrows. I just filled them in subtly. He kept making little faces at me as I did, occasionally stopping me because he kept kissing my stomach as I stood over him. He seemed so very... satisfied.
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5/27/2019

Episode Twenty One: Bubbles

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Episode Twenty One: Bubbles

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

"Oi! That's not fair!" Edward pouted as he came over to where I was sitting in front of the computer. I exited out of the match and returned to the lobby, where it rewarded me with several things like experience and new outfits for my own character. I had gone up three levels in a single match.  

“I did say both of us had to be alive at the end,” I pointed out dryly.

He looked over the things I had won, checking out my stats and ignoring my sarcasm for a minute. Edward muttered, “but, you were talking about yourself.”

I couldn't help but smirk to myself. “Yes. You were more interested in finding out about your possible kinky reward than thinking about the fine print.”

“I...” he drew out and huffed, “Maybe, but I carried you for most of the game. I protected you.”

"Hm. Yeah. True. But, I was never knocked out, and you had to be revived at the beginning," I said in a bemused tone. This was fun. I was mean. "And, I killed that person on my own with a crappy pistol."

Edward could see he was not going to win this with me and that he had truly lost. “But, I deleted so many people!”

"You sure did, baby. But, the most kills don't win the game, right? It's the last man standing, like you said," I reminded him. He had literally put years into the game, and I had put one hour. It wasn't fair, but I was having too much fun messing with him. He was clearly flustered. Of course, he was the only reason I lasted three seconds.  

“God, I really do wish I could give you a smack on the bum.” Edward tugged on the back of my hair playfully, speaking through his teeth. I held his gaze with a smirk on my own confident face.

"Do you think I was joking when I made the offer?" I asked him as I spun in the chair fully to face him. My face was perilously close to the button of his blue jeans. I ran my nose over the zipper, smoothing my finger up the back of his thighs as I did. I still held his stare. His cheeks were pink, and his eyes so warm and green.

"Would you like it if I were rough with you?" He said in a low, honeyed tone. Edward ran his fingers over my jaw. He pressed his thumb against my lips, and I brought it into my mouth to gently suck on. His breathing hitched as my tongue ran over the pad. Tracing his thumb against my lips, he dragged it down my chin and over my throat until he held my neck in his hand. He squeezed gently. "I don't want to hurt you."

“I don't think you're capable of that,” I told him quietly.

“I don't think that's true,” he slid his thumb up the center of my throat. He squeezed a little. He could have done it so much harder. Edward brought it over my chin, just below my lips.

I bit his thumb to prove how indelicate I was. He hissed, grabbing my chin sharply while I grinned up at him. “I want to feel your hands on my skin long after I'm gone. I want to see your marks all over my body,” I told him in a sensual voice.

Before I could realize what was happening, I was over his shoulder and dangling mere inches from his ass. I squealed and giggled with the pure joy of it. Edward slapped my ass, the skirt of my sundress bunched around my hips. I was wearing the lacy boy shorts he had picked out again after being freshly washed.

He leaned in and took a big bite into my pink lacy cheek. I half laughed, half gasped. I smacked his own ass, hard. Edward slapped harder this time, making his palm hit the fleshy part of my cheek. I moaned in pleasure against his back, my fingers bunched into his shirt as I held onto him.

“Is that what you would like, my darling?” He cooed.

“Harder,” I begged. He hit the other cheek with more force. I gasped, “harder.” Edward hit me again, making me cry out in pleasure. “Yes...Please.”

He arranged me over his knees after he sat down on the couch that took up one wall in his office. Edward yanked my skirt over my back, exposing my ass completely. He massaged and squeezed each cheek more and more roughly before striking. He never hit the same place twice in a row, getting bolder with each spanking as I cried out and squirmed on top of him. I could feel his erection rub against me, straining against his jeans. His other hand smoothed over my back into my hair, pulling it back every so often with a tug.

"Your skin is turning red..." he drew out as he slid his fingers between my legs over my panties. I had soaked through them completely, and I squirmed against his touch. "Shall I stop?" Edward asked as he pulled his hand back, dragging the lace up to expose more of my cheek.  

“No,” I smiled as he leaned down to kiss my tender flesh. He pulled away and hit where he had kissed a moment before. I gasped, “mmm...yes!”

His hands were big and so strong. Adrenaline rushed through my body. I couldn't believe how good it felt. Slowly he brought my panties down, rolled to my thighs to expose my whole ass to him. He stroked it slowly, striking over and over again before finally moving his fingers between my thighs.

“You are so delicious,” he purred as he slid a finger inside of me. “Fuck, I love how that feels.”

He worked his finger as deeply as he could inside, curling and twisting as he pulled and pushed it back in. Edward added another, and I tightened around him as I cried out into the couch. I pressed my face against the cold leather, enjoying how it felt against my hot skin.  
    
"I want you to play with yourself," he told me with a sharp tug of my hair. I quickly obliged, bring my hand underneath so I could play with my own clit. My skin was slippery and sensitive, and his curling fingers left me breathlessly begging into the cushion for more. My orgasm was so quick and intense that I jerked away on impulse.  

I unbuttoned his jeans and freed his erection easily from his boxers when I got to my knees beside him on the couch. Without hesitation, I took him completely into my mouth. He gasped in surprise and rolled his head back against sofa cushions as one of his hands continued to rest on the small of my back.

“Oh, God,” Edward hissed as I ran my teeth gently over his head.

Slowly he began to run his fingers over my bottom, squeezing and kneading it before sliding back between my legs. He found my clit and began to smooth tight little circles around it. Soon I was bucking against him, moaning around his cock as I continued to work him with my mouth.

I was shaking when I came again, enjoying it so much that it dripped down my thighs and all over his hand. Suddenly I found myself upright and being kissed by him forcefully. I was dizzy and hung onto his neck with both hands as I kissed him in return. He adjusted me so that I was straddling his waist. Our kiss was never broken.

I reached between us and took him into my hand so I could continue to pleasure him as he bit into my shoulder. Edward was getting louder with his moans and growls, his fingers getting tighter in my hair and on my ass.

First, I rubbed him against my wet lips, letting his head become slick with me. It covered him and my hands as I pleasured us both with the tip. I rubbed it against my clit over and over again before dipping it back down to tease us both further. Quivering, my nails dug into his shoulder as I tried to keep myself upright with the coming of my next orgasm. And then he took over, taking himself into his hand and furiously masturbating against my clit. The force was surprising and perfect, making me have to use my other hand to keep myself upright. I buried my face in his neck, kissing and biting through my cries of pleasure.

I threw my head back and called out his name loudly. It was perfect. Everything he was doing to me was amazing. My body belonged to him completely. He controlled me, and I gave into him happily. His cum was hot and sticky on my dripping thighs and lower stomach. It turned me on more than I could have ever imagined and I collapsed against him with my own fierce kiss.   

“Goddamn,” he moaned between kisses. His sticky hand was running over my thigh and going back to squeeze my ass once again. “You turn me on more than any woman I've ever met. I want to make you cum again. I love it so much. I want to bury my face between your legs and see how many more times I can get you off with my mouth,” he said against my neck with his fingers knotted into my long black curly hair. I was too aroused to do anything other than moan.  

Edward swiftly laid me back down on the couch with his full body on top of me, kissing my lips furiously. It was a comforting weight, and when his fingers twisted with mine above my head, my hips pushed up towards him. He had so much energy. His mouth was relentlessly sweet and demanding. He pulled away and a second later was between my legs.  

I wanted to thank whatever woman came before me that taught him to love this divine art. Edward sucked and tugged, licked, bit, and kissed. I felt worshiped as he moaned into my skin. There was no resistance to the two fingers he shoved into me. I would have been happy to let him do it forever.

He did not stop at one or two orgasms but worked me until I was a writhing mess with tears running down my eyes. My toes curled, and my nails dug into the couch. Finally, my fifth or sixth was too powerful, and my body tore itself away from his mouth. I almost fell off the couch.  

“No,” he growled as he rose up on his knees between my legs. He pulled me back towards him with his erection in his hand. He began to rub himself against my clit again, one of his hands scooping up the back of my neck to bring me up off the couch in the kiss. “One more,” he demanded against my mouth.

My body gave him exactly what he wanted after a few more moments of teasing. He came once more all over my thighs, legs, stomach, and dress. Edward collapsed on top me, burying his face in my neck as he panted.

Ah, the benefits of dating a much younger man...

I was dizzy to the point of being blurry eyed. Every part of me tingled, and my legs could not move. My hands were balled up so hard that they hurt when I released them from their hold. My ass was stinging from the mild spanking, and my own cum mixed with his was dripping onto the dress that was bunched underneath me.  

He had fucked me senseless without fucking me at all. It was, without a doubt, the best orgasms I had given to me by a man. Ever. When he kissed me again, I could taste us both on his lips.  

Finally, the daze began to wear away, his face buried in my neck happily.

“I might have ruined your couch,” I told him quietly.

“I doubt it but worth it.” He smiled against my skin. “Remind me to just hide condoms all over the house so I can fuck you in every room.”

“Yes, sir.” I lazily high fived him. He chuckled, hugging me to his warm body. “Quick question, did you take a class or were you a lesbian in a past life? Because damn. I don’t think a man has ever done those things to me.”

“Oh. Um,” Edward laughed a little shyly. “I uh… really? It's okay? I'm doing well?”

I looked at him, confused. “How many times did I cum?”

“I don't know, to be honest,” he said in a small voice.

“Neither do I. I lost count,” I told him softly. “That's the point.” He smiled up at me sweetly. I kissed him again gently. We were both so gross from our fuckery.

We laid in silence for a few moments, warm in our embrace. Our legs were tangled together, and the position we had curled ourselves in was perfect.  

But finally, I became cold.

“I'm really sticky,” I whispered to Edward.

“Oh.” He popped up as if he had suddenly realized what we were lying in. “Right. Why don't we take a bath?” He offered.

The bathtub in his bathroom was huge, holding both of us easily. The water came up to his shoulders when he leaned back completely. He was relaxed against the back, his arms over the rim of the tub. I sat on his lap at a slight angle. Laying my back against his chest, my foot rubbed against his ankle as we lounged in the soapy water. I felt so contented.

"So, I'm not working any Wednesday already, but I've decided to take Thursday off as well. I have to work on Friday, but I already arranged it, so I don't have to go in until after your flight," Edward said as he stroked my back lightly, letting the bubbles drip over my skin.

“I don't mind that you work,” I looked over my shoulder at him. “I understand.”

"But, I'm always working, and I want to spend the last two days with you before you leave. I'm already dreading it," he admitted. "So, I want to spend every possible second with you. I'll never get my fill, but I'm going to have to try."

"I am too," I confessed as well. "But, it might be a good thing. We're moving so fast, and we need to go back to our normal lives to see if we can make it work outside of this weird little bubble that we've created. We've been together two weeks solid now, we need time to process our feelings on our own."

“I don't think you have to leave for that,” he complained.

I wasn't sure about that. “It's not for forever. You'll hopefully be able to stay for a few days at Thanksgiving.”

“What about after that?” Edward asked, his voice worried.

“I think we need to get closer to Thanksgiving to figure that out. We don't exactly know your work schedule.”

He sighed heavily, unhappy with my answer. “I suppose you're right. I'll be filming for a week in December, mid-month. I know that at least. I've got a small part I'm shooting for.”

“What will you be filming?” I asked. This was the first I was hearing about it.

“It's a tech drama. I'm not sure it has a title yet. I'm not the lead, obviously. I'm the bad guy's number one henchmen,” he said a bit sarcastically. “Most of that shooting will be several fight scenes. I've got some training for it next month in November. I've never done anything like it before.”

"That sounds like fun, though," I tried to be encouraging, "Who is the lead?"

"Matt Damon. I get to film with him four of the days. Oscar Isaac is the bad guy boss that I work for. Jodie Foster is in it, too. I have a scene with her too where I kill her. But it's quick. I just basically shoot her in the head after a witty one-liner." I could tell by the way he was talking that he was feeling nervous. He was trying to act like it was no big deal.

“That seems so exciting,” I told him softly, tilting my head back for a second so I could press my lips to his cheek. “So many good actors.”

“I never expected to be a real actor. I just wanted to do voices,” he said a little quietly. I looked behind me, concerned.

“You don't have to do things you don't like, Eddie.”

He leaned his head back against the rim. “I don't dislike it. I don't know. It's complicated. I feel like a fraud. And, I hate feeling like meat. And, I hate being with the press. With a few exceptions.” He smoothed his hand over my shoulder, bubbles slipping down my chest.

I shook my head. "You're not a fraud. You worked very hard, and you are a very talented entertainer."
    
Edward lifted his head up so he could look at me. He kissed my cheek, pressing his face into it for a moment before resting his chin on my shoulder. “You make me feel so confident. I think you could encourage me to do anything. I need you to be around all the time to just be my personal cheerleader.”

“It's just because you're all euphoric from the new romance chemicals in your brain,” I teased him.

"Are you not?" He asked, almost nervously.  

"I didn't say that I wasn't, I just know what it is," I pointed out to him. "I understand, though. What it's like to have someone be unconditionally supportive and encouraging. Alice is my cheerleader to use your word. I hope I can continue to be yours."

“I think I'm going to like her,” he told me sweetly as he kissed my ear lightly before whispering, “And, I adore you.”

I brought his hand up to lightly kiss his knuckles before wrapping his arm around my stomach.

That Tuesday Edward had to go record voice-overs for ads. He couldn't even tell me who for because of his contract, other than it was a snack food and it was a series of commercials.

Since I was going to be alone all day, I decided to go to a museum. That morning Edward had to be up very early, for him anyway, around eight in the morning. I made him a quick breakfast of toast, fruit, bacon, and coffee which he ate in a foggy daze, yawning as he looked forward towards the pool blankly. He stood with me while I waited for my Uber before driving off to work.
    
The Getty was a massive white impressive set of buildings. I took a slow stroll through the art museum portion, taking hundreds of pictures in just a couple of hours. I sat across from the Van Gogh, a beautiful painting of purple irises, for twenty minutes to just memorize it. I had tried to do the same whenever I went to see the Starry Night at the MoMA, but it was always surrounded by tourists. It was a tranquil Tuesday morning in October. It was very peaceful.

I took myself to a nice quiet lunch where I had a garbage salad. Garbage as far as for me healthwise, not as far as taste. I made it myself at a salad bar with chunks of turkey, ham, and real bacon plus cheddar, feta, and Parmesan cheese. It had a nice mix of carrots, tomatoes, and salad as well, but since I covered it in french dressing and croutons, it was less than worthless. I loved it. I had a nice unsweetened tea with lemon and a bunch of butter crackers with it. I also treated myself to a cream tart with cherries in syrup on top.   

Edward would be getting in around six in the evening, hopefully, so I decided to run to the store to pick us out dinner and something to bring to the party the following day. I had trouble deciding what to make, and I got too much stuff. I wanted to try all the new gadgets in his kitchen, though.  

I decided to make steak fajitas for dinner, so I put some skirt steak in marinade. Then I put dried beans in the electric pressure cooker to make hummus for the party. Next, I started the pita dough then set it to the side to proof. I prepped my vegetables for dinner; onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms as well of all the raw vegetables for the hummus. I made a quick salsa, guacamole, and seasoned sour cream for our fajitas, too. When the beans were done, I finally made the hummus then put it away for the next day. His fridge was filled with dips.  

I was making rice crispy treats for the party when Edward finally came home a couple of hours later than he wanted to. It was almost eight in the evening. The last batch of pita was in the oven, making the whole house smell like fresh yeasty bread.

“Oh, god,” Edward moaned as he came through the door that connected the garage to the kitchen. “It smells so fucking good.”

It made me feel proud of myself. I smiled happily. “Thank you. It's for Tyler's thing.”

“What is it?” He asked as he removed his hoodie before plopping down on a stool at the bar. He looked just exhausted.

“Fresh pita bread. I made some garlic hummus to dip it in. I also got carrots, celery, radishes, cucumbers, and bell pepper, too. And, this is for the dessert table,” I pointed at the pan. “Rice crispy treats. I made sure everything was vegan for his girlfriend.”

“It sounds nice. Healthy, too. Besides the rice crispy treat.” He picked a bit off the side of the bowl and put it in his mouth. “Oh, it's warm. I've not had it fresh like this before. It's good.”

"It's a good lazy dessert. And it's better fresh. If you give me a second, I'll start dinner." I leaned in and gave him a soft, slow, kiss. He made my stomach stir with desire the way his hands drifted over my hips. I could taste marshmallow on his lips.  

I really did just want to suck face with him all day. It was like being a teenager again.

“Do I need to do anything?” He asked with fluttering eyelashes as he pulled away. Edward was so pretty.

"Want to make us some cold drinks? I offered, feeling hot. I wasn't going to make him work too hard after such a long day. He wanted to help, though.  

Edward made me a glass of wine, and he got himself a bottle of beer before settling back at the bar to watch me work.  

“How was your day?” He asked sweetly, watching me as I started cooking the steak in a skillet. He had his chin resting on his palm.

I went to the refrigerator to start pulling all the stuff we needed out. “I saw a Van Gogh and Monet I've never seen in person before. It was nice.”

Edward gave me a little smile. “I'd ask which ones but I'm not sure I know more than a couple of painting, period. Starry night, of course. The sunflowers one. Monet did the water lilies and ponds with bridges, right?”  

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I've seen some of his water lilies but he did a lot of them, I think. Starry night is back home. In Manhattan. Van Gogh did a couple with sunflowers. I think those are in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam though. I want to go there and see my favorite by him there one day,” I explained to him.

“Which is that?” He asked curiously. “Which is your favorite?”

I knew he wasn't going to know which one it was. “It's a skeleton smoking a cigarette.”

Edward laughed in an unbelieving way as he pulled out his phone to look up the painting. “Oh, sure enough,” he continued to laugh. “It's almost cartoonish. I love it so much. I can see why you’d like it.”

I smiled at his reaction. “We have a big framed print of it in the hallway. We're nerds.”

“High art,” he praised.

“As in he was probably high when he painted, sure,” I teased.

Edward was so easy to talk to. We held a constant conversation as I finished our meal, and we ate at his dinner table afterward. He was always so interested in what I was talking about.  

“Bella, I'm already so spoiled to your cooking,” he complained again after dinner while we sat by his pool. It was starting to get a little cooler since it was so close to November. He wrapped his arms around me, his face in my hair. He liked it so much. “How am I supposed to go back to take out now?”

“Good! Good!  It's all part of the plan,” I replied devilishly.

He chuckled, “mm, make him too fat to get away?”

“Yessss,” I drew out, rubbing his nice hard stomach. “Exactly.”

“Yay, fat!” He said, playfully clapping once. “I look forward to my epic dad bod, darling,” Edward said sarcastically.

“Hm, how long do you think it'll take? Nine months? Talk about food babies,” I poked his stomach.

“Six. I'm an overachiever.” He rubbed his gut happily.

I giggled quietly, “I don't think it will be that quick. Maybe after six months of living together straight.”

Edward pressed his face into my hair again. “I like the sound of that.”

“Too soon.” I patted his knee.

“I know, I just like how it sounds,” he answered in a low honeyed tone before pulling me into a heated kiss.
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5/25/2019

Episode Twenty: Supplies

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Episode Twenty: Supplies

Edward had to work on editing that night once Tyler and Seth were gone. We worked separately and silently in his office until early in the morning. Once we got to bed, he seemed restless, unable to relax or get comfortable. I stroked his scalp to try to soothe him, running my fingers through his thick hair.  

“It makes me very upset that so much has happened to you,” he suddenly blurted out into the darkness of his bedroom.

“So much happens to everyone,” I told him to calm his worry. Not that it would really help. “I'm fine. I'm worried I have too much baggage for you, to be honest though. I didn’t mean to throw that out there tonight. I didn’t mean to overshare.”

He was so quick to reply, “it's not your fault. None of that is your fault.”

“I didn't say it was,” I pointed out. “Doesn’t mean I want to throw it out there.”

“Is it normal to be this angry at someone you don't even know?” Edward asked into my hair, his warm breath heating my skin. “Someone I didn't even know existed until hours before?”

I brought my hand down from his scalp, tracing my fingers along his jaw until I lightly touched his neck.

"Hm, it's not that unusual. You don't need to be angry for my sake, though. I can do that very well all on my own."

"I want to protect you," he said fiercely.

"That's sweet. And I'm sure you are very capable of protecting me from certain things. But you can't protect anyone constantly against everything, though."

Edward sighed, "I know." Gingerly his fingers ran along my arm. "You seem delicate, but you're not at all, Bella. I was mugged once, and I just cried instantly and handed over my wallet. To be fair, I was sloshed and like nineteen."

“Oh no,” I laughed despite myself.

“He didn't even threaten me. 'Oi, mate, I'll be needing your wallet.' Said 'cheers' and ran off. He gave my phone back because it was shit, too. It was downright depressing.”

I laughed again, my hand on my chest as I did. “No way.”

“I had a hand me down cell from my sister at the time. It was one of those flippy types. Real thin and fucking hot pink. I was terrible with phones, so I got what I got. The screen was cracked. This is when I was still living off my parents pretty much. I called my mum sobbing and still drunk. Mum, he didn’t want my phone!”

“I bet that was a fun night,” I mused softly.

“Talk about a hangover. Damn,” he chuckled.

I laid my head on his bare chest, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "I don't know how much protection I can be, but I would shank someone for you. If I had to."

“Aw, how romantic,” Edward said with a sleepy chuckle.

We woke up around eleven. It wasn't enough sleep.

The video he was filming that day had to do with handmade watches. I declined to be in it. Instead, I settled myself in one of the chairs they had scattered around the watchmaker's and started writing a list of things Edward would need for an ideal kitchen. I wasn't interested in twenty thousand dollar watches, but it was certainly possible for me to spend that much on a kitchen.  

One of the sales girls brought me coffee when she saw me struggling to stay awake. It was a vanilla cappuccino, which was good. Very sweet with lots of foam. It came with a small rock candy sugar stick to stir it with to make it sweeter if I so wished. I ended up just eating it.  

I found a restaurant supply store that was close to a Target and a Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I figured we could get everything we needed from those three stores the easiest. I didn't feel like going all over creation for the video. It would probably also be the cheapest at those places anyway.

We had to be sneaky to film this time. All three guys were using their phones in the shops. They didn't have permission to be shooting in the big corporate stores. They were going to get themselves in trouble. They were having too much fun.

“How decked out do you want this kitchen?” I asked the phone camera in Edward's hand before going into the store.

“I want it fully loaded, baby,” Eddie replied in his acting voice.

“It could be in the thousands,” I warned him.

“That's fine. I need it. It's an investment in future videos. Get it all and get the best,” he insisted. “I trust you.”

“Alright,” I drew out, still unsure. “Keep the receipts.”

I needed two carts to get all the things I picked up from the restaurant supply store. I bought every sort of pot, pan, cookware he could possibly need. Cast iron, enamel coated, baking dishes, cake pans, and baking sheets as well as a pizza stone to put in his oven. I got measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, and the most expensive set of knives I had ever personally seen. Edward picked those out himself when he saw me mooning over them. Finally, we got the dishes, cups, and silverware he really needed.

Seth filmed really close to my face with his phone as I squirmed when they rung us up. The high numbers made me seriously uncomfortable, even if I wasn’t buying it. They all enjoyed my obvious pain. By the end, I had my face shoved into Edward's side, who was clearly trying to not act amused as well by my growing discomfort. His arms wrapped around me comfortingly, patting me reassuringly.

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus,” I murmured when they announced the outrageous sum. It made my stomach twist. “That is so much. Are you sure?”

“Yup,” he grinned as he paid.

It took thirty minutes for the boys to arrange everything in the car, and since we had only gotten part of what he needed, we went back to his house to drop it all off. We ate leftover chicken and pitas from the night before for lunch before heading back out to Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up all the appliances he was going to need. This time we went in two cars, just in case.  

I had gone to the Target so much at that point I recognized one of the cashiers as we came in. She smiled at me as we walked past.

Once again, I filled up two carts. I also got myself a nice blue sequin dress and a simple devil's horn set for Halloween while there as well. Edward apparently already had costume choices at home. He had cosplayed before many times. I wasn't surprised. He had done all those stupid costume videos before that I had really enjoyed.

We filled both cars’ trunks and put the big bulky boxes in the backseat of one of them. It took forever to bring everything in. It covered the table, the counters, and most of the floor in the kitchen.

Of course, we took hours and hours to fill the kitchen, so we ordered a pizza that night for dinner. We were all exhausted by the end.

The following day was a Monday and Edward had to record at home. Mostly what he was doing was capturing video game play and a couple of unboxing videos. Nothing I could really help him with. So, I decided to remove all the new kitchen toys from their wrappings and wash them. I put them all away neatly. He had a cleaning lady that came twice a week, but I still cleaned the kitchen thoroughly. I put all the boxes inside of each other, compacting them for later use.  

I hauled all the other stuffing and bubble wrap into its proper bins, trash or otherwise, and when I came back, Edward was standing in the kitchen. He was surprised at the transformation it had made. The countertops were lined perfectly with a new toaster, a big stand mixer, a blender, a food processor and a whole host of other gadgets. The pots and pans were nicely arranged on the exposed shelves above his stove. He even had a nice new shiny bread box. The kitchen looked like something out of a magazine.

“Wow. Would you look at that? You did that in what... Three hours?” He looked at his watch. “I don't even know what most of it does!” He said with too much enthusiasm.

“I can show you,” I promised him with an amused smile.

“I'm looking forward to it.” He kissed me deeply, suddenly, holding my face in his hands. Gingerly, he rubbed his nose against mine when he pulled away. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome. I enjoyed doing it for you.”

“Surely not the cleaning part. Or, the part where I paid,” he teased.

“I meant the shopping, but the cleaning wasn't bad. I listened to a podcast,” I assured him with a big smile.

“Oh, what about?”

“True crime comedy,” I was sure he didn't really want to know all the details.

Edward made a confused face. “How is that possible?”

“It's a thing. It's weird. It's hard to explain,” I told him, grasping on the best way to explain my weirdness. “I listen to a few of them. It's basically comedians talking about true crime. It's so niche it hurts.”

“Maybe I'll have a listen someday.” He brushed my hair over my ear.

“It's good for things like road trips when you don't want to fall asleep,” I teased. “I'm listening to a five-part series on Jack the Ripper right now.”

“Oh well, lots of people like Jack the Ripper stories,” he replied. “Wasn't he the Queen's doctor or something?” He asked as he went to the fridge to get himself a drink.

“No,” I laughed. “That's a dumb rumor. One of many. It probably wasn't a single person but a couple of people, most likely local because people kill where they live for some stupid reason. Or the neighborhood over. The area was filled with butchers with the ability to do what he did. A Queen's doctor wouldn't go to the worst neighborhood to kill. He could kill the finest quality sex workers if he so pleased. He was rich as fuck after all.”

Edward snorted, "I guess you're right. I don't know a lot about crime. My mum is a retired criminal judge, so I think she tried to keep that away from us kids growing up."

I nodded. It was probably for the best. My grandmother stuffed me with shows about murder. “Also Australia has less of it. Only a few big things, really. I remember seeing all of this terrible stuff all the time on the World News because my grandma watched it every single day.”

"No, wonder you like true crime."

“No,” I laughed again, “I like true crime because she recorded every single Forty-Eight Hours, Law and Order, 20/20, and Unsolved Mysteries and watched them over and over again on VHS. I remember laying on the floor watching the big wooden television set behind my grandma's recliner, in a corner. My little fort. Watch for hours on rainy Saturday afternoons. Or, after mass on Sunday. Then we'd play dominoes and make dinner together.”

"That sounds nice, actually. The dinner and dominoes part. But a wooden television?" Edward questioned me.  

I felt ancient. “You've never seen a TV from the eighties in the big wooden box with the black chunky knobs that clunked every time you tried to turn to one of maybe ten channels?”

“Oh, I guess. I just didn't think about it like that. I was thinking-” he shook his head. “Nevermind, I'm an idiot. Anyway, I came in here to see if you want to come to play with me.”

“I'm not that easy. I do need a little more foreplay than that,” I said very dryly. Edward smirked at me and without missing a beat slapped my ass. I nodded my head, hiding my own amusement. “That seems fair.”

He laughed, “do you want to come to play video games with me for a capture?”

"What are you doing, exactly?"

“I'm going into the playground mode of the game I'm trying to make a sponsored video for and doing dumb shit for said video. It's for the battleground mode release for Mega-Annum. I’m making a few videos for it.”

I understood the words, but they didn't mean that much to me.  

“I've never played before,” I told him honestly. I had only heard about the game in passing. I knew it was one of the games that helped him get his start on YouTube. He was really good at it. Really good.

“That's okay. We're going to be in playground mode like I said and you can learn to do the controls while I piss about,” he promised me.

“I don't think my laptop could handle the game,” I informed him. “It's a few years old.”

“I set my other computer up for you already,” Edward answered quickly, having already thought of that.

I shrugged at him. "Sure, I guess. I'm not very good at video games, even if I like them. Especially shooters. And I don't know if I've ever played one like this on a computer. Just consoles."

"Don't worry about it." He smiled brightly as he took my hand and walked me towards his office. There was a nice black computer on his large desk where there hadn't been before. "I upgraded right after I moved here, but I still have my other as a backup," he explained happily.  

I sat down in the chair that he pulled out for me and put on a set of big headphones to wear he gave me to wear.

“So, what is the goal of this game exactly?”

"The main part of the game is a battle royale, ninety-nine against one. Last man standing wins. You gather clothes, materials, medicines, weapons, or whatever to help you survive as long as possible. There is a barrier that pushes in to bring the players closer together until it closes completely. People behind the barrier die. You don't need to worry about that, though because it's just going to be you and me, and you can't permanently kill me because there are respawns in this mode."

“How do I move?” I felt stupid for asking. And once again, old. So old.  

He showed me the buttons to use on the keyboard and then showed me on the gaming mouse how to hit things and how to build things, his hand over mine as he leaned over me. “But they have the key above each item if you forget and if you want to change anything, I can in the menu.”

“I'll try it like this first,” I said as Edward started up the game. I bit my thumb as I tried to memorize everything he had said.

You could farm materials for building from anything, and everything was completely destroy-able. First, I figured out how to jump around and run before learning to take things down with my ax. While I looked around and hit everything like a maniac to get used to the control, Edward was building a big game board like Monopoly with the tiles but with different traps or prizes on each one. The game had just recently put in a “roll the dice” emote that actually rolled a pair of six-sided dice.

“Okay, so, the game I want to do is the first to get three matching guns in the same color wins. Everyone starts with full health. Some tiles have meds while others offer death,” he explained dramatically. I rolled my eyes. Eddie was stupidly cute.  

Somehow I won the first round. He was far too amused when he realized that I was going to win despite being killed several times already by my own stupidity. I had shot him several times for sass-talking me during the game. We played another two times, me winning the third as well. It was a silly game, and it made me laugh. There was no reason for me to be winning other than dumb, blind luck. Though I was improving with my aim by the end. I had shot him in the head with a sniper rifle several times from across the board. It wasn't part of the game he was trying to play, I just found it funny to see his face when I did it, a mix of half amused and half annoyed.

When he was done getting the video capture Edward needed I came to sit on his lap. His character had every possible unlockable outfit, emote, toy, pet, or whatever dumb thing they had for it. I played with the character, looking at all the goofy choices.

He kissed along my neck. “Do you want to play a game together? A real one? You weren't a terrible shot.”

I glanced back at him. “When you were standing still. You let me kill you.”

He shrugged, a little smirk on his handsome face. "We could play in pairs, and I could carry you to a victory."

“You're rather confident,” I mused.

“Well, I'm not terrible at the game. I bet I could get you an easy win, at least."

“Think you could do it on the first try?” I looked up at him daringly, grinning at him wickedly.

Edward smiled in return, taking the bait. “Are you challenging me, Isabella?”

I reached up and brought his mouth to mine, pulling his head down to me so I could kiss him deeply. It surprised him, the intensity of it. I pulled back, tugging on his bottom lip as I did. I could feel his erection against my thighs.

"If you win the game for us, I will do whatever you want, and if I win, or rather lose, you have to do a video of my own design.”

“Okay,” he said, a little dopey. It was almost mean how much I swayed things in my favor with that. I kissed him again. “Wait.” He pulled away. “What if it's dirty? The things I want to do?”

"I was kind of counting on it to be? I'm only doing this because I think it's going to be easy for me." I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him dramatically. "But, both of us have to be alive at the very end. I mean, obviously you. But it won't count if I die in the middle like that guy at the charity show and you win. Full escort mission style, baby."  

"Sure, sure. But, what if I want to do something really kinky?" Edward was genuinely giddy and wide-eyed. He was stuck on that part.

“Do you want to spank me again?” I purred in his ear, kissing along his jaw. He was so easy to mess with. I batted my eyelashes, fucking with him further. “I hope so.”

“Shall I take you over my knee?” He said warmly with his fingers in my hair suddenly. My spine tingled a little with his sudden intensity, twisting his hand into my locks.

“Yes, sir,” I breathed against his cheek before kissing it. His erection twitched against my thigh.

I am going to have to think of a good video idea.  

I got up, bending over him so he could get a good view of my breasts before I kissed him again on the mouth.  

“I hope you win,” I told him before going to my computer.

“I... I-” he began but stopped, pouting out his bottom lip. Edward adjusted his hard-on with a serious little face, wiggling in his seat.

He almost died at the very beginning, and he cursed loudly, shouting at his screen wildly. I killed the guy just as they knocked out Eddie, but I was able to bring him back to life. I was only able to do it because he lowered the other guy's health so much before. After that, it was an easier match. He mowed through around ten players while I took out a couple more myself because they were distracted by him. I used a trap for one and a bunch of sticky bombs on the other. I ended up being a mule for most of Edward's supplies pretty much though.  

The final pair we were playing against was a very good set of players though, and Edward had me hide for most of the last of the battle in a big box filled with traps. To say he was determined would be an understatement. He knocked out one of them but did not kill them, and the other player was relentlessly shooting him. He screamed at the monitor as Edward was knocked out as well. Luckily I was able to shotgun the final player in the head from above just as he dropped him, peeking out of my trap box from above before blindly shooting a half dozen times. It killed both players instantly, winning us the game.

“We won!” He said happily, hopping up from his desk and jumping up and down once.

“Yes, but you were knocked out, my dear,” I said calmly. I pointed to the screen that said my player name had won the game. My avatar was dancing while he was still crawling at my feet around the pile of loot that popped up because of the other player's death.
    
Edward stopped, “oh,” he drew out slowly. “Well...Damn.”

“Don't worry, I'll still let you spank me tonight,” I assured with him with a wicked little smile.
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5/23/2019

Episode Nineteen: The Con

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Chapter Nineteen: The Con

Trigger warning for mentions of sexual assault.

The following day Edward was scheduled to be a surprise guest at a panel at a local video game convention. He, Tyler, and Seth were all going to dress normally and wear these hideous ultra-realistic big headed masks. I refused one. They could be idiots all on their own.

Besides, no one would know me to spoil the surprise anyway.

I wore a vintage Star Wars A New Hope poster tee shirt, blue jean skirt, knee socks, and my cute starry converse. I braided my hair into two long fishtails. I had fun with my makeup, wearing a teal green lipstick and neon pink eyeshadow and gold eyeliner. I also wore enough pale purple highlighter on my cheekbones to be a disco ball. The silver hoops in my ears finished my outfit, the biggest nearly touching my shoulder. I looked like a better endowed sixteen-year-old version of me.

The place was massive and filled with vendors. We arrived three hours early just so Edward could walk around beforehand in disguise.

He and I walked hand in hand while Seth and Tyler filmed the convention floor for the channel content. A few people stopped Eddie to take a picture with him because of his cool mask. He was more than happy to pose. He was also more than happy to shop like a madman. I felt bad for the poor security guards following him around during. They seemed nice enough. They worked for his management company and worked with loads of different celebrities. It wasn't the first time they helped carry the bags, sadly. They stayed fairly far back so as not to draw attention to us.

He bought a couple of dozen mystery grab bags from various tables in a variety of sizes. Those were to be opened for videos. Though, I think he just liked them. He bought shirts, underwear, toys, mugs, comic books, books, art, and games. Edward was obviously enjoying himself.

I browsed through a table of steampunk jewelry and clothes while he continued to browse a table of cool backpacks beside me. He was looking for a messenger bag for himself.

"Hey! I know you!" The woman behind the table said to me. She was a petite, young, pretty Latina girl who was covered in tattoos and piercings. She wore a cute steampunk dress and a tight corset, shoving her chest up high. I was guessing she was maybe Edward's age. She was actually very attractive. "You're a friend of Eddie's! You were on a video today."

Edward's head spun comically fast towards me, making the mask continue to spin almost backward. I burst into laughter, covering the mask's eyes so they couldn't look at me.

“I am,” I admitted, still giggling. He fixed his mask, me still far too amused.

She was so excited. “I really liked the one from today! I watched it at breakfast.”

I hadn't even opened my laptop that day. "Oh, which one? I've not seen yet. We filmed a bunch, actually."

“The one at the tattoo shop!” She was quick to reply.

“Oh! Yeah, that was so much fun.” I smiled, touching the spot where my tattoo was irritating me sub-consciously just because she mentioned it.

“I loved your tattoo! It's making me think about my next ink.” She showed me her tattoo-covered arms, rubbing a hand over them lovingly. They were almost full.

“Wow! Thank you! Yours are great, too! I really love my new one so much. It's a little itchy right now because it's real scabby though,” I confessed. “So, I did okay? He said I did well, but I think he was just trying to be nice to me.”

She was more than happy to give me her opinion. “Girl, I loved it. I'm glad you made a bunch with him. He needs to get some more women and especially people who aren’t so... white. He's gotten Seth and you this year but most of his friends are white as fuck. He used to at least have girls in them, but it's been a while. Everyone seems so nice, but it would be nice to see a little diversity."

I glanced over at him, but she didn't notice. "I think that would be a great idea. He always likes filming with new people. It's something we've actually somewhat talked about. He moved this year so that probably has something to do with it. He's still trying to find people here. He's shyer than you'd expect."

Edward was standing right beside me as I held this conversation with this woman who clearly didn't not, somehow, figure out who Eddie was and that he was right before her. I have no idea how.  

“I actually ordered one of your pictures. From your website. It's a poster of like some green abstract looking piping.” I was actually taken aback. I had never met someone in the wild who bought something I made. Besides Edward.

“With the subway sign beside it? I know which one you're talking about. With the weird pipes and the mosaic old wall. That's awesome! It's one of my favorite. That green so good in that picture. That one and this fallout sign are my favorites,” I overshared, practically gushing with pride.

“Oh, my god! The one that is at night with the sign above the open door with the yellow light? That one is next when I get paid again! I'm getting them framed, too. My roommate loves them as much as I do,” she was just as happy to gush with me. “They are so awesome!”

"Aw! You're going to make me cry! Thank you so much!" I laughed a little self, consciously, "I see that sign almost every day. That's actually the back way into my apartment."

“So, is Eddie like he is in the videos?” She asked in a sort of whisper. “I mean, he seems really nice.”

I smiled to myself. “He's lovely. Always fun to be around. Very kind and always a gentleman.”

“So, are you done taking pictures of him? On his Twitter, he talked about you coming over to take pictures last week.”

She knew more than I did. I didn't realize he even had a twitter.

“Yeah, I'm done taking them for the magazine. I'm here on vacation now with my boyfriend,” I pointed to the big head.

“Hi,” the girl smiled brightly to Edward and waved. “A con is such a great thing to do on a vacation. Will you be working with Eddie again to make more videos?”

“Yup, I think so. He offered me a job taking pictures for him, actually. It's pretty good pay. Great benefits. I'm considering taking it.” Edward squeezed my hand beside me. I smiled a little to myself as we spoke about him like he wasn't there again. I was having way too much fun with him being silent.

She clapped her hands together. “Oh, yes! Please do it! Don't you live in New York, though?”

“Yeah, but I don't mind flying back and forth for a while,” I explained. “Flights out of New York are always cheap.”

“Right. Same with L.A. By the way, I love your makeup so much. Do you do tutorials?” She asked. She was giving me such an ego boost. “Like on YouTube? Do you have your own channel?”

“Um, no, I don’t. I've not watched a bunch of tutorials either, to be honest,” I told her truthfully. “Only a few in passing.”

"Then, how did you learn to do it so well?"

"Oh…. One of my best friend's is a makeup artist," I explained. "He worked on Broadway for ages, and now he's running his own little theater. He used to practice on me and my two other best friends. He'd give a Ted talk during makeup practice about makeup before Ted talks were Ted talks if you know what I mean?” I over-explained my life, happy and talking too much to the lovely girl in the booth. “He should do tutorials. He taught me everything.”

I bought a couple of pieces of jewelry and a dress because I felt guilty for talking to her for so long. I couldn't not buy anything, especially since she had purchased stuff from me. Artists needed to support artists, I explained to Edward as we made our way to the backstage of the panel.   

The crowd cheered wildly when Eddie came on stage. There were a literal thousand people in the cramped, sweaty room. It was interesting to see him like that in front of people. He was a good performer. He owned the place easily, controlling the mood and flow. It was like he switched on like a light.  

I watched as he spoke and interacted with his fans for an hour, patiently answering questions. After that, he had to sit for an hour and sign autographs. I sat behind him at the booth, listening to him chat pleasantly with everyone as they came by. I took pictures with my extremely long range lens from my seat, having a blast taking photos of all the costumes and people while no one noticed or cared about me.

It was nearly seven when we finally got out of the convention. The boys decided they wanted to have Zankou's chicken for dinner back at Edward's house. They ordered two whole chickens, a ton of pita bread, and one of every side they had, and a large extra helping of the garlic sauce they were most known for locally.

I helped set the food up around the table while Edward got everyone a beer.

“You know, it's taking everything I have not to tell you about the Zankou's chicken murders,” I joked a little too honestly to the boys as I took my seat.

“Isn't that such an interesting story!” Seth said excitedly. “Everything about it is so wild. Cancer. The bad sons. The white suit.”

“This is why you're single,” Tyler said sarcastically to Seth. “No one knows what you’re saying.”

“Hey! No! I do! And, true crime has been a thing for centuries,” I defended him. “It's usually just that women are more into it. But, I think it’s cool that he likes it.”

“I wonder why it’s more of a lady’s hobby,” Edward mused as he made his plate.

He didn’t realize his mistake in giving me such an opening. My mouth started running right away.

“That's easy. Women are more likely to suffer a violent attack in their lifetime. One in two women is sexually assaulted. One in four will be abused by their partner. The number one cause of death for a pregnant woman is homicide, usually by the baby's father. And nine out of ten murders are committed by someone the victim knows. A spouse, a parent, a family member usually. Women start dealing with violence at a very young age. You have to learn about it, just to protect yourself if anything else. Then it just becomes a morbid hobby after a while.”

Edward was thoughtful and a little concerned. “Do you really think one in two women is sexually assaulted? I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty no man at this table has ever done that. It just seems so high.”

Alice and I had discussed this topic on many occasions. It was something I could have ranted about for hours. "Not only do I think that number is low, but I would also say the number is closer to seventy percent. Probably higher, honestly. Sexual assault is such a broad term, and every woman has been groped and has not reported it to anyone. But we've been taught that we've done everything wrong. My skirt is too short, my shirt too tight, I had a drink. I walked alone. You can't rape your wife. Every woman might not have been raped, but every woman has been forced into a corner, groped, or had gross threatening things said or done to them. They have been made embarrassed or catcalled for simply being a woman, at the very least. I mean... I was dragged behind a dumpster when I was like seventeen and was assaulted. He didn't rape me, but he was planning to. He was on probation for raping two young girls about six years before. He had been out for three months. Can you imagine?  It's people like him who probably raped dozens, if not hundreds, of women before they get caught that make the world unsafe for women."

Sometimes my baggage just came rolling out without my permission, popping open for everyone to see. I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. I poked at my chicken with my fork sharply. It was one of those things I tried really hard not to think about, but sometimes it was just there. Bloody and terrible. I felt my cheeks heat.

“I'm so sorry,” Edward rubbed my back softly. “I'm sorry you went through that.”

“It's alright. It was worse for him,” I told him quietly as I remembered it. It was just another thing in a long list of stuff I went to therapy for in the past.

"How is that even possible?" Tyler asked, concern ringing in his voice. I had Tyler and Seth's full attention as well, I realized.  

“Uh,” I chewed on the edge of my thumb for a second. “Well... I used to carry around my granddaddy's knife, on my belt, you know. From a really young age, too. Because, of course, Texas. Pretty little thing with mother of pearl in the handle. Maybe three inches long. It was handy for opening things and such. Anyway... He, the guy, um... lost an eye and a testicle. I scarred his face up pretty good, too, though I don't remember too much of what exactly happened. I slashed a lot, I guess? I kind of blacked out. I tend to do that if I get too stressed out. It’s a problem.”

"Holy fuck!" Seth gasped. Tyler's face drained of color, and his eyes grew wide. "You don't remember what happened at all?"

"I know the basics of what happened," I explained to them quickly. "Obviously. He pinned me to the wall with my arms behind my back, and he tried to pull up my skirt." I looked down at the blue jean skirt I was wearing. I could feel panic tickling at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it back. "The knife practically fell into my hands. I do remember that. How it felt slippery and sharp. I cut my palm. I have a little scar. He had exposed himself, and I frantically swiped low to get that away from me. He kind of lunged for me and I must have panicked because I stabbed him in the eye or face. My flight or fight instinct is heavily weighted towards fight. Anyway, he ran one way, and I went the other. I was covered in so much of his blood." I could practically still see it as it dried brown under my nails. "And my own. He went to the hospital, unsurprisingly, and they arrested him in the emergency room not long after," I explained some more as I had told the story a dozen times before. I wasn't ashamed to share it, it was just dark. "Luckily there wasn't a trial or anything I had to suffer through. They just revoked his probation and tacked on another twenty years with no possibility of early release this time."

“Crispy Christ on a fucking cracker, Bella! Fight or flight? How about shank a bitch?” Seth said loudly, making me laugh. It gave me instant relief. I was so grateful. He smiled at me. “Don't piss you off, huh?”

“I may be short, but you know who else was short? Bruce Lee. I'll fuck someone up. I'm scrappy,” I said very sarcastically. “I don't carry that knife around anymore though. Now I have a leatherman tool, like a Swiss army knife. It was Aiden's. It has a couple of knives in it, but that's more for handy reasons. New Yorkers frown upon open weapon carrying. In Texas, it's fashionable.”

Both Tyler and Edward were very quiet while Seth and I chatted. “Sorry, I didn't mean to make dinner conversation dark,” I apologized to Edward while I rubbed his thigh under the table. “Well, this dark.”

“It's alright,” he murmured, a bit salty. “I just kind of want to kill that pile of shit that hurt you and other poor women.”

"Oh, no. Don't do that," I told him very seriously. "He's got another twenty years probably in prison and killing him would bring him respite from the hellscape that is the U.S. prison system. In Texas no less. I want him to be in perfect health so he can sit alone every night in a cell with no air conditioning with his one eye and his one ball and remember that he is sitting there because of a tiny little girl who wasn't scared of him and his sad excuse of a micropenis."

Tyler laughed a little uncomfortably, “now that's nightmare fuel. A one-eyed, one testiculed, pedophile sitting in the dark, in prison, thinking about the one that got away.”

“I'm sure that's a horror movie already. Like every sequel,” I said to him before shrugging, “Not the ball part. That’s all me.”

“Can you imagine a knife being out while your pants are even down? Let alone anywhere close to it?” Seth said in a pained face. “Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Fucker deserved a Bobbit,” he muttered.

“Do you like horror movies?” Tyler asked a bit loudly, changing the subject for everyone's sake. “You enjoy true crime. Seems in the same genre.”

“They're fine, I guess. It depends on the movie. I've only really watched a handful in the past few years. I'm not a big movie person in general,” I explained.

“Yet, you're dating an actor,” Seth sassed.

"I just don't enjoy the movie-going experience. I'd rather watch at home and Blockbuster is gone, so I miss a lot of stuff. My roommate has all the streaming services, so I catch more now than I did. But, I'm super behind pop culture, sadly."

“What don't you like about it?” Edward asked. “Going to the movies?”

"It's expensive. They're dirty. You can't talk during them, or knit, or play on your phone. Or pet your cat. Out of every ten films made one is good, two are decent. And the rest are boring at best and hot offensive garbage at worse. I can't pause to pee. You can't drink cheap wine straight out of the bottle," I said sarcastically. "I think I could go on, but you get the point."

“Fair enough,” Tyler smiled. “I'm with you. I'd rather watch at home, too. Miss Blockbuster so much.”

“I've only been to the movies once since I've moved,” Edward admitted. “I don't want to go alone.”

“When we went to see Infinity War,” Seth said thoughtfully.

"Stupid movie," Edward mumbled under the breath. Seth opened his mouth to begin to argue, but he put his hand up. "No, we're not arguing about this again. You won't change my mind. Terrible, long, boring, and stupid. A waste of great characters. I could have written a better script in my sleep. Don't at me with your shit.”

“And, too much CGI,” I agreed with him. “I saw it at a volunteering event. Black Panther was pretty good, though. I just want a movie with the sister and general though and their pet rhino. Sciencing shit up.”

“I'd watch the fuck outta that,” he said as he finished his beer. I could tell he was a little warm from it, making his cheeks a soft pink.

“They'll have to figure out that black people AND women love good strong female characters, no matter the color, as long as she is well developed and well written. Both groups are so starved for entertainment they'd go see it no matter what. Same with Asian and gay audiences,” I sighed, “but that won't happen anytime soon. Because fuck us, I guess. Why would we want an interesting movie? Good luck if you’re a gay mixed raced kid. No representation for you.”

“It's a shame,” Seth agreed. “Maybe one day.”

“You'd get along really well with my girlfriend,” Tyler said pleasantly. “I think you have some things in common. You'd agree with her on a lot of things, especially in the entertainment industry. Are you going to be in town on Halloween?” He asked.

“I fly out on the Friday after.”

“You and Eddie should come over to my place for Halloween. We're going to grill out and watch movies, drink, pass out candy. Karaoke.  Seth is coming. Some more of my friends and my girlfriend's friends, too. If you don't have any plans?” Tyler asked me.

I looked over at Edward. “We haven't talked about Halloween yet. You wanted to go out.”

"I hadn't thought about it yet," he admitted. "I'm always down for eating, but it's up to you, love."

“I meant to invite you sooner,” Tyler said to Edward, “But, I figured you probably had better plans. Some swanky ass Hollywood party.”

"Ah, no, mate. I'm barely leaving the house these days," he replied.  

I smiled, and Edward grinned in return. I looked back to Tyler. "It sounds good to me. Is it like a costume thing?"

“It's not required but encouraged. My girlfriend is dressing up. So am I.”

“I am, too,” Seth chimed in. “It’s a surprise. It’s going to be awesome.”

I nodded. “Should we bring something? Food or whatever?”

“You could bring like a side and a dessert. Or, a bunch of beer. I mean, it's up to you,” he explained. “Anything would be great.”

“I can make something really good.” I smiled brightly at him.

“What should I bring?” Seth asked, suddenly a little panicked. “I didn't realize I needed to bring shit.”

Tyler pursed his lips out as he thought about it. “Grab like a couple of bags of chips or cookies. Or, beer. You know, the staples. We're making hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, and chicken. A bunch of veggies. Salad. Baked potatoes. Rice. My girl's a vegan for health reason,” he explained to me. “She's got a very sensitive tummy. So, we'll have a big spread for everyone.”

“You could get her some Oreos, then. They're vegan,” I mused.

“Are there any Oreo murders?” Edward asked a bit sarcastically.

“No, I don't think so. But, I'm still dying to tell you about the Zankou's one,” I laughed awkwardly.
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5/23/2019

Episode Eighteen: Toxic Masculinity

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Episode Eighteen: Toxic Masculinity

​I was awoken that morning by my cell phone ringing at seven something. I couldn't see the numbers exactly. Edward would be filming the next few days, but that wasn't until later in the afternoon. I groped at the phone, bringing it to my ear blindly.  

“Yeah?”

“Did I wake you?” Demetri asked loudly into the phone. I pulled it back away from my ear.

“Yes,” I mumbled.

“Bitch, on a weekday? It's almost lunchtime.”

“Well, in LA it's fucking early, bitch,” I snapped back. Edward made a curious face, all scrunched up and sleepy. Worried, but still barely able to open his eyes.

“Oh, you're in LA? I thought that was last week.”

“I'm on a vacation,” I explained to my friend. I could hear the subway intercom in the background.

“Why didn't you tell me! I'm so jealous! I was going to ask you to lunch since I'm in Queens today for a doctor's appointment.”

“You should take Al to arepas since I won't be there two Fridays in a row,” I told him. “It's her favorite right now.” We went out for dinner together almost every Friday night since we were in high school. It was a tradition.


“Oh, that sounds good. That place by the office has the best pulled pork ones. With plantains and some black beans. Yas. I'll ask her. So, is it sunny? What have you been doing? Drinking? Laying in the sand?” He asked me excitedly.

“It's late October. It's a bit cold for that. There was a big storm Monday and Tuesday and rained a little Thursday but other than that it's been great weather. I've actually just been laying in bed with a sexy man,” I said, almost as if I was bored.

I felt Edward smile against my shoulder before kissing it lightly.

“Oh, and what does he look like?” Demetri thought I was full of shit. Usually, because I was.

I smiled to myself. “Six five, two hundred pounds maybe, muscular. Broad shoulders and chest. Nice ass. The sharpest jaw you've ever seen. High cheekbones. Reddish hair, especially in the light. Gorgeous green eyes. Pale like he's not seen the sun... ever.”

He buried his face in my back, snickering as he did. I could feel the heat from his cheeks. It was hard not to giggle and squirm.

“What book you reading?” He asked. “I'm going to have to borrow that. Sounds hot.”

I pulled back the phone and put it on speaker. I whispered to Edward, “say hello.”

“Hello,” he said brightly, his chin on my shoulder. Demetri shrieked. “Oh, god,” Edward laughed.

“Girl, I thought you were talking about one of those vampire books Rosalie likes. What is your name, sugar?” Demetri asked excitedly.

“My name is Eddie. Nice to meet you,” he replied politely.

Demetri gasped. “Wait. What? Wait! No! No, no, and no. Are you banging that homeboy you were supposed to take pictures of? The one you made me watch videos of the other day?” Dramatic bitch.

“I didn't make you watch them, asshole. I showed you. You clicked next for two hours, not me. And, I waited to 'bang' him until after I took the pictures,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. “Like the next day and everything.”

“Bells. honey, I need you to give yourself a high five for me,” Demetri said very seriously. “Just imagine I am high fiving you so hard. Right now. Do it. Do it for me.”

“That's what she said,” I taunted him.

“Do it!” He shouted.

“Oh, I'll help.” Edward gave me an awkward high five. I giggled and almost dropped the phone. “Fuck, that wasn't very good.” He tried again after adjusting the angle. This time it was loud enough to make a clap.

“Oh, my god. He's so cute. Are you going to keep him?”

“He's not a lost puppy,” I laughed. “He's coming to Thanksgiving.”

"Yay! I love it. I can't wait. I am so ready for your food. I was going to wear my fat pants, but now I'm going to have to be looking sexy if you're coming, handsome."

“You're a married man. Wear your damn fat pants,” I sassed.

“Think they have sexy fat pants?” He questioned.

“You still got some Juicy in your closet?” I asked.

Demetri laughed, “heavens, no.”

"Well, I guess yoga pants are the new comfy fat pants, and I've definitely seen some fine looking women in yoga pants," I pointed out to him. "But I mean, I might just like women's asses in general," I joked.  

“It's because that shit is a wonder bra for your ass. I want to be buried in yoga pants so I can be comfortable forever.”

I rolled my eyes a little. “With a pair of Uggs, a pumpkin spice latte, some crystals, and a bottle chardonnay.”

“I feel personally attacked,” he joked dryly.

I yawned and stretched, “it's because you are a basic bitch. Bitches feel attacked about basically everything. They are sensitive as fuck.”

“Boo, you whore,” he said mockingly.

“What you going to do? Ask to speak to my manager?” I taunted him further.

“Yes! I'm going to call Alice. Tell her you're a heartless skank hoe.”

I shook my head slightly. “Alright, well. She already knows. Tell her that I love her and miss her.”

“Okay, baby! I will. Have a good time and take lots of pretty pictures. Love you!” He said sweetly.

“Love you, too.” I told him before quickly adding, ”try the new mini cheese and chicken empanadas. They're so good. With that creamy green sauce. Whatever the fuck it is. The stuff on the table.”

“Sounds perfect! Call me when you get back into town! We'll talk about the show then. Bye!” Demetri said before he hung up.

“That was interesting,” Edward laughed as he brushed my hair away from my cheek.

“That's Demetri. He's the former makeup artist I was telling you about. He runs a sweet little vintage theater in Brooklyn now. That's where the show is. He's a doll. I've been friends with him for over a decade now. He used to be my dance partner before he got hurt. He broke his back. His husband is the most angelical person ever, being able to put up with his dramatic ass all the time. You'd love them.”

 “I can't wait to meet all of your friends,” he told me as he lightly kissed my cheek.  

Since we were awake, we decided to work out together again. I very much enjoyed watching him shirtless and sweating. It was the best way to spend thirty minutes on an elliptical. We made out after in the shower, hot and slow under the pounding water. I wasn't the only one that enjoyed working out together.  

That day was a review of a breakfast restaurant and another one of those challenge videos. This time it wasn't spicy. It was a crazy five-pound hot dog topped with chili, cheese, and french fries. I declined to be a part of the challenge. I would order myself something spicy, but I didn't want that kind of hurt. I was happy to be in the breakfast video, though. They were supposed to film there on Tuesday, spreading their food out some, but it didn't work out that way.  

Since I wasn't going to have to make us breakfast, I took the time to do my hair and makeup again. Edward finished getting ready before me, my hair still up in a towel to soak up some of the extra water before I tried to style it. He kissed my ear where there was no makeup.

“I don't think it smells like a brownie. I think it smells a bit like a biscuit though. Shortbread.” He took a long sniff, making me giggle.

"That's because it's a sugar cookie one. It's one of the Christmas ones you got me. The other is gingerbread." I opened the eyeshadow palette, and he sniffed it quickly.  

“I kind of want to lick it.”

“It tastes sweet, apparently,” I informed him, putting it away before he could get any ideas.

“And it looks like a chocolate bar. I bet so many kids have eaten it,” he chuckled to himself. “I hope it's non-toxic.”

"I would think so, but I don't think you want to be snacking on it," I smirked slightly.  

“Speaking of snacking, I'm going to make some coffee. Would you like some?” He offered.

“Yes, please.”

I did my hair so that it was straight again and wore a comfortable blue jean skirt and my busy rainbow shirt, just in case I dropped breakfast on myself. I also stuffed an extra into my camera bag. Edward brought me a travel mug of coffee made up just the way I liked it.  

“Hey, your face! I like it!” Seth made a circular motion at his own face as a way of greeting instead of hello. “You did new fancy things.”

“It's called makeup,” Tyler said to him calmly. “You do look very nice. My girlfriend loves that thing with the eyeliner. But she gets mad every time she does it. What is it? Cat eyes?”

“Yeah,” I nodded my head, “it's super hard. It took a couple tries to get it right.”

“I've seen her cry over it. She's thrown things. It's a mess.”

I laughed despite myself. I understood. “I've cried too, but usually just because I've stabbed myself in the eye.”

"I've seen her do that, too," Tyler nodded thoughtfully. Edward just looked confused by the whole exchange. He shook his head and went to the car.  

The breakfast place wasn't just a breakfast restaurant I learned. They were a Hawaiian soul food restaurant with a breakfast menu that had all-you-can-eat pancakes and drinks, and all-you-can-eat chicken but only on Sundays. It was busy since it was a Friday right at lunchtime. The whole place smelled amazing. It was the weirdest combination of sweet, savory, and a little smokey.

I took pictures while Edward spoke to the owner, and Seth and Tyler set up. We would be taking turns trying foods in the corner of the restaurant reserved just for us. Eddie was getting a lot of curious looks from the crowd, unsurprisingly.  

"Bella, this is Kai. He's the owner, and he'll be hooking us up today," he introduced us. The big man shook my hand.

“Hi. This is so exciting. I've not had Hawaiian before. Unless you count spam and rice,” I joked.

"I don't know. That's pretty Hawaiian," he teased back with a big happy smile. His eyes were almost black, but they were very warm. "Especially if you add a little egg. I eat that a lot for breakfast."

“Spam is... isn't it that slimy meat in a can?” Edward asked in confusion. “Is that a thing in Hawaii?”

"Hawaii doesn't have a lot of room for animals for meat, so fresh meat is expensive. Canned meat provides a cheaper alternative. It's got a following in Japan for the same reason," I explained to Edward like a nerd. I realized that Seth was filming me. "It's also good if you poor white trash in Texas. Fry it up in some butter," I thickened my accent as I spoke directly into the camera. "Melt some cheese on top. Fry up an egg and put it on some fluffy ass white bread. Eat that with some Pringles. I'll tell you what... It's better than going to bed hungry."


“I'll tell you what,” Seth copied in a fake southern accent and laughed.

"Wah Uh T," I sounded the accent out. "You got to say that W sounds really long. Uh. Hard T., What?" I repeated it in the accent.  

Tyler started doing a Foghorn Leghorn impersonation, making both Kai and Edward crack up.

“I feel personally attacked right now,” I said in a Georgia peach accent, using Demetri's joke from earlier. And then I started doing my own Foghorn impression. “Well, I do say, I do say that you sir if you don't quit a talkin' so much your tongue is libel to get sunburnt.”

Tyler clutched his shirt dramatically, making me laugh at his fake offense.

We spent the afternoon day drinking and laughing as we sampled pancakes with guava, and their special fried chicken, bloody Mary's, and Mimosas. We tried about a dozen dishes. I had new meals I was going to try to make at home. I was extremely excited.

Thankfully we didn't have to go to the hot dog place directly after. We had a couple of hours in between so we went to the beach so Seth and Tyler could get some more transition shots. It was always a fun place to film. Edward and I sat on a bench and people-watched.  

“I should take you out and not just for work,” Edward said suddenly, almost worried.

I rubbed his thigh gently. “You didn't know I was going to be here this week. You couldn't bend your work or the weather to your will. It's okay, though. I've really enjoyed having you to myself at home.”

“Wouldn't you like to go dancing or something?” He asked softly.

I shrugged. “Sure, when we get the chance again. We went just last week.”

“That was for work...” He trailed off. “I wanted you so badly on that rooftop. I wanted to just grab and kiss you. I was actually trying not to cry,” he admitted with a sigh. I don’t think he was entirely comfortable telling me.

“Oh sweetheart,” I said softly, touching his hand that was resting on his lap.

“Not very manly, I know,” he said with a little scoff.

I scoffed myself at the very idea. “Depends on what you consider manly. I don't see how a man who doesn't know his own emotions is much of a man at all.”

“You said you weren't much of a crier,” he pointed out.

I felt a little frustrated. “Just because I don't cry easily doesn't mean I don't feel and understand the emotions. I just have a harder time releasing those emotions outwardly. That's a fault, not a positive. It's not a sign of strength. Boys don't cry. Big girls don't cry. It's all outdated and part of the reason people used to not live to forty. You can't hold it in. So, get that toxic masculinity idea out of your head because it's just another lie your anxiety can hold on to.”

We were quiet after that for a little while.

“I hope I didn't upset you,” I finally said.

He bit his bottom lip before glancing over at me. "No. Not at all. I'm just... overwhelmed? I guess. I don't know. You're so much more mature than me, and sometimes I really feel it. It's not a bad thing, on your side. Maybe on mine."

“You are far more put together than most adults your age,” I told him truthfully. “It's not fair to compare us in that sense. And, I sleep on a couch most the time in footie Pikachu pajamas. You've known me a week, baby. I am a tall child masquerading as a short adult.”

“Almost two weeks,” he interrupted. “Aw, footie pajamas? Really?”

"I have a whole collection of them sent by Mrs. Brandon," I admitted with a little laugh in my voice. So did Alice. Usually three sizes too big because that's how we liked them. "New York is cold, and I have no one to keep me warm. I'm kind of in love with them."

“I'll keep you warm,” he offered up seductively.

“You going to come to Queens and snuggle up in my twin size bed, under three blankets, because it's zero outside?” I asked him. “The couch isn’t big enough for the two of us.”

“Or,” he began, holding a finger up, “or, I could keep you warm by flying you to sunny Los Angeles during the long cold New York winters.”

“But, I love the winters. I wouldn't get to see snow,” I pouted a little.

He didn't fully expect that answer. “Well... I could keep you warm by getting a nice room with a good heater and a king-sized bed. And we can snuggle up under as many blankets as you like.”

“The bed size is the bigger problem?” I questioned curiously.

“I'm too big for a twin bed,” Edward stated simply.

“I can see that.” I smirked at him. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. I laid my head on his shoulder.

He rested his head lightly against mine. "Maybe we should try to get a weekend away somewhere cold and snowy this winter. Since you love snow so much. Spend a couple of days in a cabin with a roaring fire, in the mountains, maybe."

“That sounds so romantic,” I said wistfully. “Where do you think? Maine or somewhere in Poconos? Colorado would be so lovely.”

"I've not gone to Colorado yet. I've been wanting to go to Denver," he said pensively. "It's something to think about. By the way, I have the ticket for your flight at home. It's next Friday at two. It's a nonstop one, and you should arrive back in New York at around eleven. Is that alright? Or is that too late?"

"No, it's fine. I've gotten in later. I'll still be on LA time, and there are always taxis no matter the time," I assured him. "Thank you."

He kissed my cheek softly. “It's selfish. I want you to save yours so you can use it to see me whenever you want to.”

 “Just drop by anytime, unannounced?” I joked.

Edward smiled widely. “Yes, please. I love a good surprise.”

I was a little stunned. He seemed to have everything in his life planned out by the hour. “I wouldn't want to do that to you. You have such a busy schedule.”

“Okay, please,” he scoffed,  “I'm not that busy. Besides, I like having you here with me. I’m honestly surprised how…” he trailed off. “It's so easy to interact with you on camera, too. You don't mind these, do you?”

"Not at all. Really," I promised him with a slight smile. "It's a lot of fun. I get to talk to people with common interests. Eat food I've never had before. I think you're just being kind to me when you praise me about being on camera, though."

“Well, the only way to prove for sure is the view count. I've got plenty of videos with you coming out soon enough. You'll see for yourself. They already love you,” he said confidently.

“You lie.”

“Read the comments,” he chuckled. “Actually, maybe don't. Perverts. Anyway, you add a little diversity to this sausage party.”

I pulled back to look at him. “Wait. Am I the token chick for your boy gang? Am I the Webby to your Huey, Louie, and Dewey?”

Edward laughed, “only since coming to America. I had loads of female friends back home. I'd do videos with my mates Lucy, Kelly, and Melly all the time.”

“It sounds like you made up those name,” I teased him.

“Melly and Kelly are twin sisters,” he explained. It still didn't help. “Her name is Melania, really. But she goes by Melly.”

“Honestly, it still sounds made up. It sounds like the names you'd make up for fake twins in a Penthouse letter. Dear Penthouse, the greatest thing happened to me today. I met twins with big boobies named Kelly and Melly. They let me play with them!”

“No,” he laughed again and blushed a little. “Okay, well, only Kelly. A little bit. Over the shirt. And that was a drunken pash in college. It was weird. I instantly apologized afterward.”

“Aw,” I laughed at his awkwardness.

“She's engaged to a mate of mine now. It's nice,” he said in a soft, sweet tone. “They're a good match. I'm happy for them.”

We people-watched a little longer until it was finally time to leave.

Seth and Tyler filmed Edward interviewing the owner of the hot dog restaurant named Shorties. He and Tyler would be doing the five-pound challenge while I would be tasting some of their signature shorties, two-bite hot dogs that you could order in a bunch of styles so you could sample more than one. One of the chili's claimed to be the 'world's hottest,' so I ordered it. Edward did ask me nicely to consider it, but it obviously made him pleased when I made the selection of the four I would try.  

They had an in-house made root beer in specialty flavors like butter pecan and pumpkin spice. I didn't like the pumpkin spice but I really enjoyed the butter pecan, and I rarely drank sodas ever. But, I would drink it again if I had the chance.  

I got my small hot dogs first, all in a neat little row. There was mild chili cheese, a Chicago dog, A San Francisco dog all wrapped in bacon, and the world's spicy little chili dog, which came in its own small red cardboard boat. Edward filmed me while Seth and Tyler filmed the kitchen.

He had me try everything and describe how it tasted and what I liked. I would describe the textures of each bite. I saved the spiciest one for last. I used a fork and knife to cut it in half since it was so messy. I put the whole bite in my mouth and instantly tasted nothing but burning. I swallowed quickly, washing it down with the root beer.

“Think I could handle the other bite?” Edward asked from behind the camera.

I shook my head quickly, “no.” I covered my mouth as my lips and nose seared and sweat formed at my brow. There were so many of the whole seeds in the bite. I didn't taste good. It was just hot for the sake of being hot. “Zero hot dogs out of five. The heat is a gimmick, just have the regular chili dog and enjoy the flavor of something.”

I shoved a bunch of fries dipped in mayo and ketchup to get the taste out of my mouth.

“Hey, Seth, man. You wanna try the spicy hot dog? Bella said it was nothing,” Eddie lied to his friend as he came out of the kitchen.
    
“Fuck no, I'm not stupid. Her mouth is asbestos,” he told his boss flat out and then flipped him off aggressively when he evilly laughed.

“Oh, okay. I guess you're not man enough to even try,” he grinned meanly.

Seth put his hands on his hips, making a little angry face. “Spice level is not the measure of a man.”

“Okay,” Edward said sarcastically, riling him.

Seth marched over the table where I was sitting. He reached for the hot dog, but I snatched the boat away quickly.  

“No. Don't. He's a lying liar who lies. You'll die.”

“Oh, you see that!” Seth pointed at a smirking and amused Eddie. “She's nicer than you! You're a punk ass bitch.”

“I should have let you eat it,” I told my boyfriend brassily.

Tyler came over and took the boat without a word. He popped the whole bite in his mouth. He stood chewing for a long time before swallowing.

“No,” he finally said as he shook his head before taking a big drink of his soda. “Yeah. That was a mistake,” he said calmly.

“Y'all are going to hurt yourselves one day,” I warned them all. “You're going to ruin your stomachs trying to impress each other. Burn a hole like battery acid.”

“Nah,” Edward laughed as he handed off the camera to Seth. “Now, let's eat us a five-pound hot dog.”

He managed it but regretted it. Tyler ate half, then switched places with Seth. They had planned it all along, goading Edward into eating quickly. Eddie might have had it coming.
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5/22/2019

Episode Seventeen: Makeup on the Sheets

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Episode Seventeen: Makeup on the Sheets

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

We finished the bottle of champagne, and Edward decided to have a joint before dinner. I took the time to open as many boxes as I could. The back of one hand was ten shades of pink while the other was purple. I had blues up one arm and greens on the other. I had begun to test out highlighters on Edward's forearm.  

“I love the gold,” I moaned as I rubbed the powder across his skin. Beside it was a vivid pink and orange. The textures were so nice. They really stood out on his pale skin.

“There was a gold lipstick,” he pointed out as he rifled through some of the boxes until he found it.

“Ohhhh...” I took it out of the box. Pulling out the wand, I inspected the shiny lip gloss. “I've got a bunch of gold eyeshadow, too. I could go as an Oscar for Halloween.” I pulled out my phone and used the camera as a mirror to smear some onto my lips. “Oh,” I giggled, way too pleased with the result. “I'm shiny as fuck.”

He took the wand from me and delicately pushed it around the general region of his lips. “Yes, but how do I look?”

I laughed, leaning forward to kiss him and make even more of a mess with his amazing metallic lips. By the time we were done, we both had it all over our cheeks and chins. He took my phone from me and took a selfie with us doing a duck face, covered in gold. It was incredibly stupid, and I loved it so much.
​ 
After cleaning up, Edward and I finished making our meal. He mostly sat at the island though, still smoking, as he told me about his movie.

“I should tell my family after dinner. They should all be awake by then.” He looked at his phone after passing me the joint.

“Your nieces are going to think you're the coolest uncle ever. Especially the new one. She'll be about four or five when it comes out. She'll be the exact right age to be obsessed with the songs. How fun,” I thought out loud with a smile. I passed the smoke back to him.

“If they do a premiere in Sydney I could get them all to come. All my girls.” He rested his head in his hand. “I'm going to be able to do whatever I want to do after this. Disney is basically a license to print money. I'll be able to set up funds for my sisters and their daughters and make sure they'll always be taken care of. I'll be able to buy my parents a house and a new car if they want it. Get them the best nurses when they get older and need more help. My grandparents, too. And I'll be able to do whatever project I want to do. I can just do what I'm passionate about. It won't have to be about a paycheck ever again.”

He tapped the ashes in the tray with a little sigh.

I knew he needed me more to listen than to say anything. Edward had all these things building up inside of him, and he had to get them out. His happiness was almost tinged with a panicked anxiousness that often comes with success. He felt like an imposter. He had worked very hard for it though, and was good at the business end of things. Zafrina, his manager, was really helping as well. I was sure she was over the moon at his success. It probably made her so much money.

We ate a quiet dinner, and I went to get washed up from my day while he talked to his family. He was still on the phone when I got out of the shower, so I decided to blow dry and straighten my hair. Then I decided to use as many of the products that he had gotten me as possible since he was still talking after that. Edward was sitting outside by the pool, and I could see him from my vantage point by the lighted vanity. The glass wall from his bedroom had a good view of his whole backyard. He made such big hand gestures when he was excited. It made me smile.  

I dressed in the bra and panties he picked out from Target for me and slipped on a silky red nightgown that I had gotten earlier that day. I even switched out my silver studs in my ears for something more interesting, even if they were just cheap little colored gemstones. It was fully dark outside when he came back inside.

He found me at the vanity, dabbing on some fierce matte red lipstick. Edward stood at the doorway, almost shyly.

“I'm sorry that took so long.”

“You're fine, honey,” I assured him. “I hope everyone is doing well.”

“Yeah, they are. That was a lot of calls,” he answered quietly.  “You look stunning. Your hair is so much longer when it's straight. It's almost to your arse.”

I shook my hair loose, showing off how nice it currently looked since I was using expensive shampoo and a leave-in conditioner. I got up from the vanity and did a little spin to show him everything he was getting that night, my hands out beside me.

“How did I do?” I closed my eyes and showed off my makeup to him.

“It's very pretty. You are very pretty. Though it's like you're photoshopped your face in real life,” he teased. “I'm afraid to mess it up.”

“I only put it on so you could mess it up.” I grinned wickedly up at him as I tugged at the bottom of his button-down shirt.

“Well, in that case.” He pulled my mouth closer to his so he could kiss me deeply, passionately. His arms went around my waist, holding me tightly to him with his fingers spread wide over my back and ass. His hand went fully down to firmly grip my bottom, his fingers pushing my dress up some as he did. Soon it was lifted over the cheek he was squeezing, smoothing his palm over the pink lacy boy shorts.

When Edward pulled away, he looked a bit vampish with the red staining his lips, chin, cheeks, neck, and nose. I could only imagine I looked the same. His smile gave away his own amusement at our look.

We kissed in the doorway of his bathroom for twenty minutes before Edward easily lifted me from the ground onto the open counter space on the vanity. His hands were all over my body. Somehow I was able to work off his shirt while he threw my nightgown to the side.

I was going to have bruises all over my chest from him, little round hickeys already dotting my breasts. All I could do was hang onto him as he lavished me with attention. Edward went down to his knees in front of me, pressing my legs apart with warm wet kisses across my thighs. I was so wet already that I had made my lacy pink panties slick. He licked and kissed me through them, one of my hands in his hair while the other kept me upright.

"Damn, damn... damnnnn...." I drew out stupidly when my orgasm hit me, arching my back so hard that I actually bounced my head against the mirror with a sharp crack. He didn't seem to notice the loud thud or didn't care because he didn't stop. When he finally moved my panties out of the way to push his fingers inside, I made an inhuman noise. My legs wrapped around his shoulders, my foot uncontrollably twitching. He was at just the right angle, his fingers reaching deep inside of me. My thighs were trembling as I leaned back against the mirror again. Edward had a very talented tongue. I was surprised I didn't yank his hair out with the force of my orgasms that he gave me, one right after the other.  

When he finally pulled away, he kissed me eagerly as he worked off my bra from my shoulders. I pulled it away before helping with his trousers. I wrapped my legs around his waist, holding myself to him as I gave him my own hickey on his shoulder.  

When the foreplay became too much, I hopped down from the countertop and took his hand to lead him back into the bedroom. I stopped to adjust the blankets, purposely bending over to rub my ass against his erection. He groaned, pulling my hips back against him.  

"I want to fuck you like this. I want to fuck you from behind," he said roughly into my ear as he kept us pressed together. Instead of saying anything, I just lowered my wet panties to the ground.  

I cried out into the mattress, my face shoved deeply into it when he slid inside. He held onto my hips as he pressed himself in deeply over and over again. Clinging to the sheets, my body bucked without my permission. I could feel him deep in the pit of my stomach. Edward moaned and hissed as he tried to focus on not finishing too quickly. When his hand slid up my back to pull my hair, I came so hard that I could feel myself dripping around him. I felt his entire body shudder behind me before he called out with his own climax.  

I crawled up onto the bed, my body completely spent and sending electrical charges up my thighs and stomach. Edward threw the condom away and went to the bathroom to quickly clean up. I couldn't move yet, though. When he came back, he leaned over and placed a kiss on my lips. There was still lipstick on his face.  

“Well, your makeup looks wild now,” he said to me, way too pleased with his handiwork.

“That's because half of it's on your bed.” I showed him the sheets. You could see my foundation, concealer, powder, lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara smashed like a weird mask shape on the white sheets. It was horrifying.

“Well... shit,” Edward laughed cheerfully. “Whoops.”

“I'll wash the sheets tomorrow,” I said as he crawled into bed with me. I laid my head on top of his chest.

"I have to go to the studio tomorrow," he told me after a few minutes of cuddling. "I have to do some voiceover work for a commercial. Will you be okay by yourself again? I feel bad, but I can't get out of it."

"No, it's perfect," I tried to reassure him. "I need to finish up your pictures, so I can send them. I'm almost done but, there is always more I can do. What time do you have to go? I'll make you breakfast before."

"Noon. But you don't have to do that. I love your cooking, but I feel bad making you cook for me all the time." He rubbed his finger over my shoulder as he tried to pull me impossibly closer.

"Don't. I love cooking for my friends. And a way to a man's heart and all that," I laughed a little as I traced his tattoo with my finger. "Besides, you're still in the super grateful stage, and it's my favorite part," I dragged my nail lightly along the vine work and roses. "I was thinking breakfast tacos."

“Yes, I would be very grateful for breakfast tacos,” he nodded dramatically. “The way to a man's heart is definitely tacos.”

“You know, there is this myth that the most proposed over a meal is roasted chicken and somehow not tacos,” I joked.

Edward tilted his head in confusion. "How would they know that? If it's true, why chicken? Is it just roasted chicken or does fried chicken count? Or is that too greasy?"

“A roast chicken takes a lot of work and often comes out bland and dry if you don't know what you're doing. I guess it shows a certain level of skill in the kitchen. Wife material. But, is it the same if you go to a restaurant?” I mused with him playfully. “Then someone else is doing the work but does it provide the same desired effect? A placebo, if you will.”

“These are the hard questions that need to be asked,” he teased, making me snort. “I don't think I'd want to propose over food. What if they had garlic or onions? What if they had chicken in their teeth? It's not very romantic or original.”

“Most proposals aren't very romantic, I don't think. Or, original. But I'd rather get engaged over a meal than over a pregnancy test any day of the week,” I answered knowingly.

“Wait... You don't have kids, do you?” He said with a soft surprised tone and wide innocent eyes.

I swatted his stomach hard. He just laughed. "Sorry! I'm joking. I'm joking.”

“No. I just thought I was pregnant and I had a panic attack,” I began to explain to him. “Aiden brought me a couple of tests and handed them to me and said, 'it doesn't really matter. We were going to get married anyway.' And it was negative, of course. It was actually food poisoning, not morning sickness, but somehow we were engaged. We got married a few months later. I was only nineteen,” I told him, lost in my own thoughts. “That is the most simplified version of the story, to say the least. I guess it was romantic that he already knew what he wanted. I don't know.”

“You deserved something more special than that.” Edward traced his finger over my left shoulder carefully.

“I was so young. I was just happy someone wanted me at all, let alone wanted to keep me. He did get me a ring after that. Gave it to me on the first night of Hanukkah.” I reached down and covered myself with a blanket. “I'll take a shitty proposal and a good marriage over a good proposal and a shitty marriage.”

“It's possible to have both,” he pointed out.

“It's also possible we make ourselves unhappy by having too many expectations for ourselves and others. You might not know that yet since you’re young and you’ve reached for the moon and literally made it to Jupiter right off the bat. It's not that you haven't worked for it either. You're just lucky enough not to have that life experience yet. I'm insanely jealous,” I told Edward honestly. He was quiet and pensive, stroking my back as he considered what I said before sighing heavily.

"You're right about expectations. It's an obvious thing. I know we can't have it all, but it doesn't stop me from wanting it."

I lifted my head so I could look at him better. "Well, in your case, you could have it all. So, why listen to me?"

Edward shook his head. “Don't discount yourself or your thoughts and feelings. They're valid.”

"In another life, you would make for a good therapist," I replied to him as I looked into his beautiful green eyes, my chin resting on his peck. He had such lovely eyes, and they were so intently focused on me. “Did it ever get that serious with anyone for you?”

"Um... Not really. Yes and no. I was going to propose to the girl I had been dating before I moved here. I thought that she'd move with me to LA and I'd ask her to marry me on our fourth anniversary in June. Victoria didn't want to move, though. She didn't want to leave Sydney or her friends. Or, her job. She is an interior designer. I understand, I guess. I just wish she told me right away, instead of at the last minute. Letting me plan everything as I did. But, to be honest, I think Vicky was ready to be rid of me."

“Why do you think that?” I asked.

“I don't know. A feeling. She thought I was an immature ass most of the time. She started dating someone pretty soon after, too. I don't think she was cheating, per se, but I think she was thinking about it really hard. I wish her all the best,” he said quietly, a little frown on his face.  “I hope the next asshole likes her weird tastes in furniture and burnt toast.”

“Well, her loss,” I mumbled into his chest tattoo as I pressed a kiss against it.

We woke up together that morning to the alarm on Edward's phone. We worked out in his little gym and took a leisurely shower together afterward. Edward helped me with our delicious breakfast of egg and bacon tacos with caramelized onions, mushrooms, fresh tomato, avocado, and cheese. And fruit salad again since he had liked it so much the day before. He mostly handed me things and made the coffee. He was getting good at the coffee, though.

We ate outside under the umbrella. It was a perfect day.

And, that's where he left me to go to work. Outside in the sunshine with his silver box of joints for me if I wanted them later. He kissed me deeply before he left, his gentle fingers brushing the hair from my eyes.

I sat under the umbrella with my laptop until my battery nearly died three hours later before moving to the dining room table. An hour later, I got myself a glass of wine to take the edge off of sending in my pictures to Jessica at Vaudevillian. I looked over them three times then checked them once more to be sure. When I finally sent the email, my heart was in the pit of my stomach.  

I couldn't look at another picture for a day or so, so I put my computer away. My eyes hurt a little bit. I started Edward's sheets and blankets in the washer so that they would be clean when he got home. Then I decided to make use of his good weed and smoke outside while listening to a book. It was a perfect seventy degrees outside. I stayed out until the book finished a couple of hours later. I had listened to all the audiobooks I had downloaded for the trip.

After taking a relaxing bath in his amazing tub, I decided it was finally time to start dinner. I had decided to make homemade pasta for us. Something with a nice egg dough and a creamy sauce. I didn't have a machine, so I made it all by hand.  

I made his bed while the dough was resting. The blankets were so soft and warm. I had admittedly been in yoga pants and a tank top all day, just ready to crawl back into bed again. I was getting spoiled to how good his beds were. They sure as hell beat my couch.

Edward sent me a text just as I was finishing rolling out the noodles with a wine bottle. Of course, he didn’t have a rolling pin. "Would you like me to pick up anything for dinner, or would you like to order dinner?" He asked.

“I'm making homemade pasta if that's alright?” I sent back. I guess I could have asked him before. I was just so used to not having to with Alice. She would eat any of my food at any time.

“Oh, yes, please. Do we have garlic bread?”

"No. If you want to stop and get some french bread, I'll be more than happy to make you some. It sounds good," I texted in return.

“Should I get dessert?” The phone flashed almost instantly. He was such a fast typer.

I thought about it for a minute. “Up to you. We have leftover mousse and whipped cream still. And strawberries.”

“That sounds good,” he sent the message with a heart emoji and a chocolate bar symbol. “I'll be home as soon as I can.”

Cooking in his kitchen and waiting for him to get home from work was somehow giving me a sense a deja vu. I had already gotten used to the space and working in it. It felt comfortable and friendly to me. Though I would have liked better equipment.  

He arrived with the bread and a pretty bouquet of yellow roses for me.

“How beautiful. Do you have a vase to put them in?” I asked Edward. The expression on his face made me giggle. It was one of mild panic. Why on earth would he have a vase? “No. That's okay. I'll figure it out.”

A freakishly large clear glass beer stein was used, and I put them in the center of the dining room table. 
​
Edward was so tired from his day. Apparently, it had not gone as smoothly as it had the week before. It didn't bother him that much, it was just stressful. That was anyone's work day, though.  

I made him a large plate of pappardelle pasta in a creamy parmesan sauce and a nice salad. He had never eaten anything like it before, praising me repeatedly. “And, you used a wine bottle to make the pasta itself?”

“Yeah. I used to make pasta for the restaurant I worked for on the daily. I could probably do it in my sleep at this point. But, I have to tell you… You seriously need some things for your kitchen,” I replied to him as I twisted the long flat noodles around my fork.

“Do you want to make a video about it?” Edward asked curiously.

“What do you mean? Just listing off stuff you need in the kitchen or just me buying shit for your kitchen?” I questioned jokingly.

"Both, I guess. Kind of. I don't know. You know what a person needs for a good kitchen. You used to cook professionally for a while. And, if we make it into a video, I can write it off as a business expense," he pointed out.  

I laughed, “that seems a little shady.”

He grinned a little. “Not if we keep using them in videos. Both of us...”

“Do you even want to make cooking videos?”

Edward picked apart his bread, putting a little piece into his mouth. “I'm already making food videos. You said yourself it makes sense that I learn. You could teach me. You've already doubled my cooking knowledge this week.”

I laughed quietly and wondered how far from the truth that actually was. Probably not much. "I'm not against it but don't we need to be in the same state for that? You've already got your week planned, and I fly home on the second. And, you already have to work on Sunday because of all the rain."

“It's just one place for a watch. It’ll be very short. We could do it after,” he said hopefully.

“The kitchen supply store or Bed, Bath, and Beyond, or whatever, ain't gonna let Seth and Tyler run around with cameras and a boom mic inside,” I pointed out. “Not with such short notice.”

"Oh, well. Perhaps. We don't have to film the shopping, just the end results. All the things and why and what they do. Or we'll just use our phones. But, either way, it'll be Eddie's first fully decked out adult kitchen. And when you come to visit again, we can do some cooking videos together. If you want to. It's up to you."

“Are you sure you want me in so many of your videos?” I asked. I was worried if we didn't work out. He was going to have months of videos with me in them if he wasn't careful.

Edward pretended to think about it for a minute. "You are beautiful and well spoken. Funny as hell. I absolutely do. You know, I posted a video with you this morning, and it already has five million views. The second part of the Japanese stuff. The sodas. It might be the fastest ever for a food one. And the comments are almost all nice. There was a percentage of thirsty ones, too,” he made a little face at the last sentence. “But, it’s the internet.”

“The first already had ten million though,” I replied.  “I don't think it's me.”

“It's up to twenty-two million views, actually. Last time I checked this morning. And the one from the jump has doubled its views from just yesterday. By the way, I moved your pay from one hundred to one thousand. I can change it again if it's a problem,” Edward said in passing. He was so nonchalant about money.

“How much are you actually giving me?” I questioned him.

"I'm not giving it to you," he began to say. "You earned it. You did work. Mostly tolerating my buffoonery..." I gave him a look, and he sighed, realizing I actually wanted to know. "Four percent of all the ad revenue and sponsorship, if it implies. Like the jump gets way more because it's sponsored. Way way more. It’s the most I’ve made from a single video already by a whole lot.”

“None of that was work,” I argued with Edward. “I can't imagine what you're getting for each video. Do you do the same with Seth and Tyler? Give them a percentage?”

“They get double that for each one they do. They seem really happy about it,” he told me with a little smirk.

“That's because they're getting paid thousands for twenty hours of work a week. Tops,” I laughed.

“They work on their own stuff, too.”

I chewed on my thumb as I considered my next words very carefully. "Would you promise to let me know if you ever feel like I'm using you? Because, I don't ever intend to but, I just... I don't want to take advantage, and you've already given me so much. I don't ever want to exploit your generosity. It would be okay if you gave me less. I haven't done much of anything."

“You can use me a little bit.” He winked at me. I smirked and rolled my eyes. He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed my knuckles gently before getting more serious. “You're not. But, I promise to tell you if I ever feel that way.”
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5/21/2019

Episode Sixteen: Disney

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Episode Sixteen: Disney

I woke up early the next morning. It was raining again, but only lightly and you could see the blue sky trying to peek through the light gray clouds. It was seven, and I couldn't fall back asleep. Edward was dead to the world with an arm over his eyes. We were holding hands when I woke up. Staying in that position as long as I could handle, I finally slipped away when I had to use the bathroom.  

I decided to work out, but this time in his little home gym. It had a treadmill, elliptical, a stationary bike, a weight set, for the bar and hand weights as well. There was also a weight machine just for the back muscles. I used it a lot when I went to the big ten dollars a month gym back home. I liked the idea of watching Edward use it. 

Starting with ten minutes on the treadmill, I jogged a slow mile to get my heart rate up before moving onto the weights. I did several reps focusing on my arms and back. Once I was done, I decided to finish up with thirty minutes on the elliptical. It was the best workout I had achieved in a while.  

I was almost done when Edward stuck his head inside, sleepy and confused in just his underwear. 

“Hello.”

“Hi,” I replied, keeping the pace I had pushed up to. I wasn't going crazy since it had been so long since I had a real workout. I hadn't been to the gym in almost two weeks.  “I didn't wake you, did I?”

“No, I have to get up earlier today because I have a meeting to go to this afternoon.”

“Exciting,” I tried to say evenly even though I was heavily breathing. 

He leaned against the door frame with a slight smile. “It is. It's with Disney. It's supposed to run all day though. I forgot to talk to you about it last night. I meant to. I got distracted.”

“What time is the meeting?” I panted.

“Eleven to Five or Six.”

I finished my thirty minutes and stepped down from the machine. My legs were a little tingly in a pleasant way. Making my way over to him, he came closer inside to meet my sweaty body with a hug and a deep kiss. "Let me shower, and I can make you some breakfast," I offered him. 

“Are you sure?” Edward questioned. 

“Absolutely,” I replied with a kiss. 

“I wish I could take you with me to my meeting today,” he told me genuinely. There was so much worry in his pretty green eyes. They were always so expressive. 

"That's okay. You'll do amazing. And I'll go out and have some alone time." 

“What will you do?” He asked sweetly, still worried.

“I'll go do a little shopping. Go to the grocery store and pick up some more milk. Do you need to do anything tonight?” I asked, tracing my finger under his tattoo lightly. 

"Nope." He kissed at my temple and nuzzled his nose into my hair. I wasn’t sure how he could with me being so sweaty. He didn't seem bothered, though. 

I sighed happily, “I'll make us dinner tonight then.”

"That sounds so lovely. Thank you." He kissed my mouth, and I could taste my own sweat on his lips. I wove my fingers into his hair, holding onto the kiss as long as possible. He made my heart rate shoot right back up. 

“I need to work out, too,” he mumbled in a pout when he finally pulled away. “I need to head out in a couple of hours.”

I left him to get changed and work out, quickly showering in the guest bedroom where all my clothes still were. Putting on a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, I padded my way with sock covered feet to the kitchen. 

First, I started making a fruit salad while I considered what to make us for breakfast. I sliced up the grapes, strawberries, oranges, apple, and a banana and tossed them in a couple of teaspoons of sugar so it could make a little syrup. I decided to make a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and toast with butter and jam. The coffee was just finishing when he came out of his shower.  

“I'm going to be terribly spoiled to this cooking thing you're doing,” he told me when he saw his plate. Everything was still steaming. 

“You're so easily impressed,” I said as I began to move everything to the kitchen table. Edward helped with the coffee and creamer as I took the plates. The fruit salad was already on the table in little bowls. 

"I don't think I've ever had anyone make breakfast for me that wasn't related to me or paid to," he replied honestly. "Well, maybe, Jasper. My mate. But, not a woman, I mean." 

“That's sad. What kind of relationships have you been in?” I asked as I shuffled through the stack of papers I had brought to the table. It was sales papers, fliers, catalogs, and coupons. Things of those nature. I found one I wanted to look at and brought it to the top of the pile to browse while I ate. 

"I've only had two girlfriends actually. One was in Secondary. Like a high school for you Americans. So you can imagine we weren't really waking up together all that often. Or, at all," he chuckled, "and the girl I was with the longest, didn't cook a damn thing ever. And, that was for the best," he explained as he dove into his eggs after shoving a piece of bread into his mouth. "She'd seriously fuck up, toast." 

“Cooking is not that hard.” I shook my head as I watched him. “How is it?”

“So good,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food. He swallowed hard. “Thank you.”

I smiled a little as I drank my coffee. It was nice to have someone new react so passionately about the things you made. Slowly I ate my fruit first, looking at the makeup catalog for a place I was definitely just window shopping for. Everything was so expensive.

“You look like a child wistfully looking at the Christmas toys catalog,” he teased. 

"Only a little bit," I admitted. "I love all this junk. It's stupid. I'm so sucked into the packaging and the colors. I used to collect makeup, back in the day. Both new stuff and old vintage compacts and lipsticks, stuff like that. After Aiden, I didn't feel like doing it anymore. I got very minimalist and gave a lot of my things away to friends and family. Now, looking at it, I wonder how I spent that much money on it. I still want it all," I laughed longingly, "but I won't get it. It's nice to imagine, though." 

He tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. “Why not get a few things?”

"I don't normally go out that much. I only wear makeup for professional reasons, and the basics cover that. What I have now is just fine. But, there is this little part inside of me that goes 'oh, it's pink and purple with glitter and look, it has a cute little raspberry case.' And this kind likes to make their stuff smell like food so it might actually smell like raspberries," I explained to him as I showed him the picture I was talking about. They had a whole fruit theme that I loved. 

“So, what is that exactly? How does it smell like food?” He looked at the picture with his head cocked to the other side.

“Eyeshadow. They have this whole line that smells like chocolate because it's made with real cocoa powder. And now for Christmas, they have a gingerbread cookie and a sugar cookie scents eyeshadows. And lipsticks, too. One of my good friends used to be a makeup artist and used the chocolate one on me a few times. He had people sniff my eyelids all day,” I laughed a little as I thought about it. “Girl, don't she smell like a brownie,” I imitated my friend's voice and funny Brooklyn by way of Jersey accent. It made him smile. 

“You have a bit of money now if you wanted to treat yourself.” He pointed at my phone that was sitting beside me. 

“I'm going to treat myself to paying off some bills,” I said firmly. “I should pay some bills today as a matter of fact. I have a few other adult things to do. Like I need to buy my ticket home.”

Edward frowned. “I wish you didn't have to.”

I smiled a little, sadly. "Me too, but I have things I have to do. Promises, I have to keep." 

“Can I talk you into staying until a day or two after Halloween? It's my favorite holiday. Or, one of. Anyway, we could do something together. Maybe go out,” he pouted out his bottom lip a little bit subconsciously. 

I looked at the calendar on my phone to give myself time to think about the answer I wanted to give him. Halloween was a Wednesday. I didn't have any work arranged until the following Monday. Everything else I had planned was volunteer stuff that I could back out of. Alice would understand. She was always prepared for that possibility with any volunteers.

I needed to talk to her, as well. Boy, do I have some things to tell her...

“Friday the second?” I bit my lip as I thought about it. Yes flashed in my mind over and over again, but I didn’t want to be too eager.

"Please? If you do, I'll buy your ticket, and you can save your gift card to come to see me whenever you want. Like… on my birthday." He finished his coffee, so I poured him another. 

“When is your birthday?” I asked curiously. We hadn’t spoken about our birthdays any.

“The twenty-third of November.”

“Oh…” I drew out.  His birthday was so close to Aiden's. “That's the day after Thanksgiving. I've already made plans with my friends and that Saturday I'm doing a charity show at my friend's theater that he runs. The former makeup guy I was just mentioning, actually. It's for LGBTQ youth. I do it every year,” I explained to him. “I wish you could come to Thanksgiving and stay with me. You could meet all my friends.”

“Is that an invitation?” Edward asked curiously. “You've already said your Thanksgivings were out of this world. And, well… I believe you.”

I thought about it for a second. “You know what? Yes, it is. I’d love it if you came to Thanksgiving.”

He smiled widely. “Fantastic. I don't know what I'm working that week, but I'm taking the following week off. I'd like to spend it with you. If that’s alright with you, of course.”

“That sounds really nice,” I admitted, wondering how this big man would fit in my tiny world. 

“So, the second, then?” He reminded me. I wanted to stay. I nodded slowly, no longer able to hide my growing smile. “Oh, brilliant. Thank you. I'll work out the ticket for you today. What time do you want to fly? Afternoon? Not too early?” He spoke excitedly. 

“Sounds good.” I chewed on the side of my thumb. 

“Alright. Yes. Perfect. Okay.” Edward stood from his chair. “I need to go. I don't want to be late. Do you need anything before I leave?”

“No, I'm good,” I promised him. “I'm going to wash up and go out, too.”
​
“Okay.” He leaned down to kiss me with his hand in my hair. “Mm, you have sugar on your lips.” He kissed me again, then again quickly, making me giggle. “Have a good day.”

“Good luck at your meeting,” I told him with a small smile.

"Oh, I won't need luck. It's just a brainstorming session, and I am prepared," Edward assured me confidently. I'm not sure it was entirely real. "Text me if you need anything. I'll have my phone on me all day." 

When he left, I washed our breakfast dishes. I needed more shampoo and conditioner at the very least, and I wanted to look at clothes again. Perhaps another suitcase as well for all the junk I was buying. I decided to look at my bank account again. I should have sat down. 

Gasping loudly, I actually dropped my phone. It clattered to the floor noisily. Thankfully it didn't crack the screen, just scuffing the corner.

There was no way that number could have been right. It was just over ten thousand. I picked up my phone off the floor, looking at the transactions. My check from the magazine had come through, and it was over three thousand itself. I knew about that, I reminded myself. That meant that around four thousand came just from Edward's video in the past two and a half days.  

I went to my computer and looked up videos he had put up recently. I hadn't looked at them at all. So far, he had posted three videos with me in them. First was the chips, then the video of the jump, then the candy video. The jump had been up two days and had already gotten one hundred million views. The other two had over ten million views apiece. Two of the three were on the front page of YouTube as trending. I couldn't bring myself to actually watch them though.   

I could have cried. I could take the rest of the year off if I wanted to. I wasn't, but it was a nice thought. Alice and I often made jokes about our desire to be lazy and take off work for wild stretches at a time. Days. Weeks. Months. 

Right there, I paid off most of my credit cards before I could change my mind. That was four thousand gone in a second, but it made me extremely happy. I was now completely debt free after years of being under after Aiden. I moved another four thousand into savings, giving me five thousand in saving and two thousand in my checking to spend. By the time I had finished, it had bumped up another hundred, just like before. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. 

I decided to do some Christmas shopping since my holidays had been so threadbare for the last few years. I could spoil my friends a little, and LA was a great place to shop.  

I called for an Uber and waited for it in the front yard. Alice would have been busy at work, so I sent her a text message asking her to call me when she got a chance so I could talk to her. I was in the car when she called. 

“Hey, what's up?” She said worriedly.

“Shouldn't you be working?” I commented.

“Nah, it's fine. I'm just doing paperwork. I can multitask.”

“Then Kebi can fix all the mistakes?” I asked, referring to our mutual friend who worked as her main office manager. She was better at her job than any of us deserved. 

“That's what I'm paying her very well to do,” she replied. “When you coming home?”

“Um...” I drew out quietly. “The second. Probably late in the evening. I don't know what time yet.”

"Why so long?" She demanded to know quickly. "Can you not get an earlier flight?" 

“I'm sure I could, but I wanted to have a little vacation,” I told her. “I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about it sooner.”

"Is that all?" Alice asked, concerned for me. "Are you okay?" 

There wasn't any reason to delay it any longer. I was going to end up telling her every single detail anyway. I wasn't sure how she would react, though. "I've started seeing Edward." 

“What do you mean seeing him?”

“How do you think I mean?” I whispered at her. The driver was pretty much ignoring me. There was music playing in the background.

“Holy shit! No way!” She actually shouted into the phone. 

I pulled the speaker away from my ear, grimacing. “Yeah.”

“But, he's so young.”

“There is less of a difference between him and me and me and Aiden,” I told her defensively. “He was eleven years older.”

“I guess that's true,” she conceded.  “But, that's different. Men are already so immature.”

"Hashtag, not all men?" I answered. "He's not immature. He's not completely mature either, but he has his shit together for the most part. Perhaps a little naive, but...” I trailed off. “I invited him to Thanksgiving.”

She was surprised. “Already?”

"It's his birthday the day after, and he wanted me to come back for it," I explained guiltily.  

“But the show.”

“Right. So, I invited him to New York. More the merrier, you know? It's kind of our motto. You know how we like to take in the strays.”

“Some stray. But can you afford to stay there that long?” She asked, concerned for me. 

"Yeah, I'll tell you about that later, though. I got paid for the shoot today. I'm actually in a taxi about to go shopping," I answered her. "I want to do a little Christmas shopping since I'm here and I was going to go to the grocery store. I'm going to cook dinner tonight." 

“What are you making? I miss your food.”

“I haven't decided. I think maybe a pot roast.”

“With glazed carrots and peas? Mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes?” You could hear her tasting it in her mouth as she spoke about it. At least I knew she liked my food. 

“Mashed potatoes,” I picked at my pants as we chatted. “I've already made him roasted and fried potatoes. I'd make some yeast rolls if he had a good mixer, but I think I'll just get a package of bread. I need to think of some kind of dessert, too.”

“You really like him,” Alice commented in a bemused voice.

“I cook for everyone.”

“Well, yes. Everyone you like,” she pointed out.

“Well, yeah. Duh. I do like him. I’m seeing him. He's my boyfriend now. Fuck... that word feels gross. It makes me feel old,” I sighed as I laid my head back against the seat. 

“You're not old. You just feel that way.”

“Isn't that what matters?” I questioned. 

“No. Your perceived old age has more to do with your level of depression in the last few years than actually how old you are.”

“Thanks, Dr. Brandon,” I snarked back to her. 

“Well, it is,” she said defensively.

"Okay, but you don't have to remind me," I complained. "And, I've had a good reason to be. But I'm moving on. I have a boyfriend. Gah, it is so weird." 

“If you don't like the word boyfriend call him your partner or something then. That fixes the problem.” She was always thinking like a therapist.

“I guess,” I thought about it. “I don't know how it all happened so fast.”

“Isn't that how those things happen?”

“Who knows?” I laughed, “I'm always surprised. He is so young and excited about everything. What am I going to do when he figures out my soul is like... charcoal black?”

"Your soul isn't black. It's like the coffee you make. A mocha color," she teased lightly. "Look, be yourself. Be open. Be honest. And if it doesn't work out, you at least hopefully got to see him naked." 

I laughed quietly, “you're right. I'll have some great memories.”

"Well, the second, then? So, what you're telling me is I have to find someone else to take your spot while you're banging some random Australian dude? Shame on you, Bells. Shame," Alice continued her mocking. 

“Uh, yeah, bitch,” I said dryly. “You heard me.”

"Oh, you spicy. I see you. Finally getting some making you act all bold. Must be some good dick," she said saucily as she typed on the computer. "And you said he'd rip you apart... Alright, I've got your spot reopened. We're figuring out next years travel schedule next week if you want to have an opinion, by the way." 

"Japan. Greece, Germany. Australia and New Zealand are my top votes." We hadn't gone to any of those places in a couple of years. Japan especially. I wanted to see those fun bowing deer or the bunny island. Or go to a cat cafe. 

“Alright, I'll see what I can do. I miss you, Bells,” she said quietly, getting more serious.

“I miss you too, Al. I needed this, though,” I said with a sigh.

“Agreed.”

I saw the sign for the shopping center a moment before we turned in. "I'm in the mall parking lot, so I'm going to let you go. You need to focus on your paperwork, anyway." 

“Alright, sweetie. Love you. Be safe. Text me later and send me nude pics if you can.”

I guffawed, “of me? Or, him? Or...both?” I teased her. ”Love you, too, you perv. Have a good day. Eat some fruit.”

“Yes, Mom. Bye, Mom,” she replied sarcastically. “And, either slash or. I’m easy. Surprise me,” Alice said in reference to the nudes. I giggled as I hung up on her.  

I spent the afternoon shopping for myself and my friends. I ended buying myself a large new hard shell luggage case that was rainbow striped. Luckily I purchased that last, so I didn't have to haul it all around the mall with me. I did, of course, have to bring it with me inside the grocery store, but I could just put it inside the cart. I got a few looks with it and a couple of compliments. 

I wasn't sure what I was looking for in the store. Milk, of course. More eggs, butter, bread, and some other basics as well. We needed more coffee already, too. I decided on the roast for sure, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas, glazed carrots, and Hawaiian rolls. I also got some bacon for breakfast, avocado, tomatoes, and tortillas as well. I wasn't sure how much we were going out in the next week for work, so I didn't get a ton of things. For dessert, I decided to make a simple chocolate mousse with whipped cream.  

I was halfway back to his place when I realized I didn't know his house entry code. It was just after two in the afternoon. I hoped I wasn't bothering when I texted him. 

“I forgot to get your keycode,” I texted him quickly. I just hoped I wouldn't be sitting outside for too long with groceries.

“I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you,” Edward responded right away. "It's 10051985." 

I looked at the number and knew it instantly. My heart dropped. “That's my birthday?”

“Your birthday is May 10th, 1985?” He replied back.

“No, October 5th, 1985.”

“Oh, that's right. It's backward here. It's one of my sister's birthdays. One of the middle ones. Sasha. I figured my birthday was too obvious, so I always use one of my sister's birthdays instead,” he explained to me.

“It's going to be easy for me to remember,” I answered back. I was a little relieved that he wasn't some sort of weird stalker that had somehow already figured out my birthday and was using it for his passcode. That would have been too weird, even for me. 

The female driver helped me bring all the groceries in from the car after I put in the keycode at the door. I gave her an extra tip in cash for it and thanked her.

I put the stuff away and started to prepare dinner since it was going to slow cook in the oven for a few hours. I figured everything would be done around seven, giving him plenty of time to get home and get comfortable before he ate. First I started with the beef, searing the outside in butter then resting it on a bed of onions in a pan that went straight into a low oven. Next, I made the mousse and whipped cream, using a hand mixer I bought from the store because I wasn't sure if he had one. All I could find was a bent whisk. It looked as if it had been smashed in the drawer.

There wasn't much else for me to do while those cooked. The mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas wouldn't be made for hours. The house was extremely quiet without Edward, different somehow than in the mornings. Less welcoming. 

I decided to work on pictures. It was three in the afternoon, and I had a few hours to be by myself. Or, so I thought. It was only thirty minutes later when I felt a warm hand slide over my shoulder. I hadn't heard him come in because of the podcast going on in my ears. Edward leaned in and kissed my temple. I jumped a little, then relaxed into his kiss. 

“You're home early. Is that good or bad?” I asked, rubbing my hand over his arm that hugged me. 

“Very good.” He smiled at me exuberantly, combing my hair away from my cheek with his long thin fingers before pressing a kiss into it.

"Let me just finish sending these picture to Al, and you can tell me all about it." I kissed his fingertips lightly. The pictures were definitely not nude, but there were a couple of him topless at the tattoo shop and of his very nice ass in the flight suit.  

“Don't rush,” Edward said as he went into the kitchen. “It smells so good in here.”

“I hope you like it. It's roast beef,” I told him as I typed out a quick email. No nudes for you. “It won't be done for a while though. I wasn't expecting you yet.”

“That's okay.” He got something from the fridge and got some glasses from the cabinet. “I haven't had a roast in ages. Sounds perfect.”

I heard a cork pop behind me. I turned to see him pouring us each a glass of champagne. 

“It was a really good meeting,” I commented, finally sending the email before I closed my laptop to give him my full attention. 

He handed me the stemless glass. “I just sold a script to Disney. They're going to make my animated full-length movie and not only will I have part of the creative control, but I will also be doing the lead character. I'll get a huge cut of everything. The movie. The toys. Future movies and shows. The clothes. Everything.”

“What?!” I nearly screamed as I hopped up off the couch. Throwing my arms around his neck, I  almost spilled all the champagne down his back. “Why didn't you tell me that's what you were going to do?! This is so big! Oh, my god! How exciting, Edward!”

"I didn't know!" He laughed. "I gave it to them on a fluke a couple of months ago when they first did my contract. I was just supposed to work on a brainstorming session for a television show for the Disney Channel today, but they wanted to talk to me about this instead. They kind of blindsided me. They loved it, though! They're talking about a 2022 release day. It's so soon! We've already got some tentative paperwork in place. I just need to let Zafrina and my lawyer look over the contract." 

I kissed him deeply. 

“I'm so happy for you!”

Edward's face was alight with happiness. He took the glasses and put them on the side table before kissing me back wildly. I laughed as we fell back on the couch with the force of his mouth. His fingers were woven into my hair, his hips wedged between my legs. I wrapped my legs around his waist, wiggling against him. 

“I am literally euphoric,” he laughed lightly with tears in his eyes. Edward sniffled as he pressed his head into my neck. I held him to me, stroking his back. “I'm so glad you're here so I can share it with you.”

“You're such a darling.” I soothed my lips against his forehead. “What do you want to do to celebrate?”

“This. Exactly this.” He laid beside me, pulling me to his side. I placed my head on his chest, weaving my fingers with his so that they came to rest on his stomach. Edward sniffled again, tears going down his cheeks. “I'm so overwhelmed right now.”

"I can only imagine. But you are going to be so amazing! You are so talented and funny. It's going to be great," I told him as I laid my head on top of his shoulder so I could look at him better. He held his forehead against mine, nodding a little and trying to breathe slowly. 

“We shouldn't forget about our champagne,” I said after a few minutes of silence, smiling a little bit. 

"Oh, right!" He laughed as he sat up a little. We propped into the corner with our drinks, our bodies molded into one another. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder as I leaned my head against him.  

“How was your day?” Edward asked after a glass. He was so overwhelmed he had become lost in his own thoughts. 

“It was not nearly as exciting as yours,” I informed him. “I just went to the mall. Got some food for tonight and tomorrow and started dinner. I made a mousse for dessert,” I told him softly. “I talked to Al and told her about you and Thanksgiving.”

“I hope she likes me.”

“Oh? Al? She is friends with every single person she meets. She is the most agreeable person on the planet. She's actually a therapist by training. And she's pretty great at it,” I explained to him. “She was the only one brave enough to be friends with me in first grade despite my grandma being the scary lunch lady and my big scary scar. Came up at recess on the second day of school I was there, told me that everyone else was scared of Mamaw, but she didn't care. She liked my big hair, weird eyes, cool scar and let me copy her homework.” I smiled as I thought about it. It was one of my favorite memories. It always gave me so much comfort.

“How does one become an Al? Alexandra? Alana?” He questioned curiously.

“Mary Alice Brandon.”

“That sounds very southern.”

“She's Cajun, actually. Her twin sister is named Rosalie. I thought it was so awesome when my best friend came with a bonus best friend with the exact same face.”

He chuckled, “I can see why that would make someone happy. Bonus besties. Are you all still close?”

“Yeah. Rose and her husband live in New York, too. In Coney Island. They'll be at Thanksgiving,” I explained. “They're both lawyers. Rosalie is in family law and Emmett, her husband, is an immigration lawyer. They're really great. They're both so kind and generous. They both give a lot of pro bono work for CFA, the non-profit. Emmett was one of the first volunteers we had that wasn't a family member. It's how they met,” I said softly. I was missing my family. I hadn’t talked to Rose much in the past few months. She was so busy.

“What a wonderful way to meet someone,” Edward commented. “They sound like lovely people.”

"They are. It's like having two sisters and a brother now. I'm so glad Ms. Lettie, their mom, took me in. She's always been so accepting. They've all been so good to me. I can't imagine having a better family," I told him pensively, almost a little sad. "Normally she'd be in town too for Thanksgiving, but she's going to spend it with her stepfamily in Texas. She feels really bad about it, but both Alice and Rosalie are relieved. She's a handful." I smiled as I thought about the grand old woman. "They're all going down there for Christmas for a couple of weeks, though." 

“Are you going to go with them?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Two weeks is too long for me to be in Texas. I made the excuse of work. I'm just going to send a gift. There was much guilt to be had.”

“Oh, speaking of gifts,” he said as he reached behind the couch and pulled out a large orange bag that I recognized right away as being from Ulta. He placed it on my lap. 

“What did you do?” I asked, surprised at both the size of the bag of the sheer weight of it on my legs. 

He looked pleased with himself. "I had a good day, so I wanted to spread the love. Happy belated birthday." 

I timidly reached in the bag and began to pull all the stuff out. There was so much of it. “Oh, my god,” I muttered, shocked, as I laid it out next to me. “What did you do?” I asked again. 

"I didn't know exactly what to get, but I remembered you said you liked this brand. So, I told them to get me basically one of everything. I showed them a couple of pictures, and they picked out the colors for foundation and everything. So, if it's not right, we can return it. I also got to talking to them, and they told me about the 'fan favorites,' and I told them to just give me whatever a girl might need to put on their face. Which is apparently a shit load of things," he explained proudly. Edward was delighted with himself. 

“Holy hell! How much did you spend?”

"Um, I don't know. I signed up for their little club though, and they said I had already hit 'platinum' or ‘diamond' or… something and that you could get some good stuff from it. Free shipping, too. So, if you ever see anything else you need. I don't know if I missed anything," he tried to say nonchalantly.  

“I'll never need anything ever again!” There were things from almost every popular brand Ulta sold, though most of it was from Too Faced. There were at least a dozen eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, blush, and eyeliners in every shade. There had to be twenty-five different lip products. There were sponges, brushes, cleaners, creams, masks, eyelashes, tools, and probably every little sample thing you could get for spending so much. “This is crazy!” I told him sincerely. “Why?”

“Do you not like it?” He asked worriedly.

“No. I love it,” I felt so guilty. “It's just too much.”

“We'll get you a box or something to keep it in.” He wasn't getting my point on purpose. “We will get you some more luggage.”

“That's not what I mean,” I laughed as I rubbed my hands over my eyes. “I actually bought a suitcase today. I just... Eddie, are you sure? This is a lot.”

“Why wouldn't I be sure about seeing you happy? Seeing you smile is worth every cent,” he said charmingly.

I shook my head. "You have the biggest day of your career, and you buy me a gift, though? I should be buying you dinner or drinks." 

“And, you have bought me dinner,” he motioned towards the kitchen. “And, it seems like a perfect celebratory meal. Besides, like I said. It's for your birthday. I missed it by that much.” He pinched his fingers together, a sweet smile on his face. He was prepared for me. He knew he had won me over when I scrunched up my nose at him. “I only missed it by a couple of weeks.”

“Thank you,” I finally told him, totally overwhelmed now myself as I looked over my bounty of makeup supplies. There were perhaps thousands of dollars worth of stuff laid out just for me. Demetri would be so jealous. I was going to have to send him pictures. 

“You are very welcome, my darling.” He kissed my forehead, letting his lips linger on my skin. 

“When I used to get new makeup I would try it all out by doing swatches of all the colors on my arms. I have the strongest urge to basically paint my entire body funny colors,” I informed him truthfully, my eyes still wide and my voice quiet. 

He laughed, his head resting back against the pillows. “I don't think you have enough real estate to do all the shades. You might have to do it a few times. Wash off and start fresh.”

“The bottom of your shower would be looking like someone murdered a clown,” I warned him with a ridiculous grin. 
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5/21/2019

Episode Fifteen: Wings

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Episode Fifteen: Wings

Trigger warnings for mentions of death and murder

The next day Edward had some filming planned out and about with Tyler and Seth. They were going to do a couple of food videos at restaurants and then later in the day he had a video shoot at the old LA zoo. It was abandoned, and it was supposed to be haunted. He was doing it for Halloween. I was extremely excited about it. It was at Griffin Park, not far from the new zoo where we had spent our lovely Sunday together just a few days before.  

“You should see if you can do a video on the Museum of Death,” I commented as I made coffee for us while we were waiting for Seth and Tyler to arrive. “Get a little tour.”

“That is a good idea,” he agreed, pulling out his phone to type something into it. “I wish we could do it before Halloween.”

“That kind of stuff is popular all the time. You can always do it for next Halloween, too.”

“That’s true.”

The boys knocked once before letting themselves inside. 

"Well, look who's still here!" Tyler said brightly as he plopped his stuff down onto the big brown couch. He smiled so wide his eyes all but disappeared. It was hard not to return it. 

“Yeah, they canceled my flight because of the weather. But, it works out. I'm going to take a little vacation,” I explained to him. 

"Nice." Seth high fived me as he came into the kitchen. I gave him some coffee, which he eagerly took. "So, is Eddie letting you crash here since you're practically one of us now?" 

“One of us. One of us,” Tyler chanted dryly. Edward rolled his eyes at them. 

“Yes, of course, she's staying here. She is welcome to stay as long as she pleases,” Edward told them, tossing Tyler his keys so he could drive to the first shoot.

“So, is he putting you to work?” Seth asked. “Are you joining our little crew?”

“How is this work? It's so much fun,” I told him then pointed over to my camera stuff on the table. “I'm going to take pictures. But for me.”

“And, of course, you can be in the videos, if you want,” Edward said sleepily as he stretched. “I hope you'll be. If you want to be... It'll be more fun if you are. The ones I've posted with you in it have done very well so far, too.”

Seth and Tyler exchanged looks that Edward missed behind his back, but I did not. I smiled at them both but said nothing. I just sipped my coffee.  

Our first spot was a pastry place that had recently gotten rather internet famous for their unique cakes. We talked to the owner and the head chefs. I got to ask a lot of questions about baking cakes I hadn't made or even tasted before. We helped make a fruit and nut cake and then iced chocolate cupcakes. 

Edward essentially made a mess with a piping bag filled with chocolate frosting while I made delicate, simple little roses with mine. The pastry chef, a little old Japanese woman, complimented my basic decorating skills while trying adorably to be encouraging to him, but correct firmly at the same time. I would bet she was a fun grandma. She kept saying ‘no, no, no,” quietly to him. She even smacked Edward’s hand once. It was perfect for his video. His bemused shock was hilarious.

We got to try five different cakes. Chocolate ganache, black forest, citrus upside down cake, carrot cake, and a fruit and nut like we had made before. They were all good, but the citrus was my favorite. Pineapple upside down cake was my favorite kind of cake I didn't have often enough. Alice didn't like it, so I usually ended up eating it all myself. Her favorite was chocolate, so that's usually what I made us.  

The next video was at a chicken wing place known for their seriously spicy wings. They had ‘spice flights’ with a range not for the faint of heart. Or, so the sign said. You could smell the spice as soon as you came into the restaurant. It was sinus clearing. It almost reminded me of the smell of a crawfish restaurant down south.

The chef looked happy and ready to burn out the taste buds of anyone willing to risk it. I wasn't too worried though, even if we had to sign some sort of waver. Alice and I shared a shelf of hot sauce at home. I hadn’t really noticed if Edward liked spicy things though.

I sat to the right of Eddie with Seth on the other side of him for the challenge. It was ten wings, each getting spicier as they went. We each had a glass of milk, and there was a pitcher of milk on the table, just in case we needed it.  

“I think I already regret this,” Edward mumbled when we sat at the table. “Why am I this kind of stupid?” 

I snorted to myself.

“So, I'm lactose intolerant,” Seth said as he looked at the full glass. 

“You ate all that cake earlier,” I looked over at him, horrified. “With buttercream and cream cheese. Why?”

“I'm also stupid and like to suffer,” he laughed as they laid the flights down in front of us. 

“So, before we get started... Do you like spicy foods?” The chef asked to get our attention. He was a large round white man with a slicked back ponytail at the bottom of his balding head.

“I do,” Seth said quickly. 

Edward looked less enthusiastic about his answer.  "I like spicy food, but I do have a limit, and I do suffer very easily.”

"I like heat," I admitted. "It has to be more about the flavor. It can't just burn, though. I think I have a pretty high tolerance, though." 

“So, here is the challenge. You have twenty minutes to eat all ten wings without any ranch or blue cheese. If you do, you get your picture on the wall and a tee shirt. Also, you can't throw up before we take your picture.”

Oh, that wasn’t a good sign of things to come.

“Antacids for everyone,” Edward looked pained already as he smelled the heat wafting up. The aroma was red hot spicy.

When they started the clock, I decided it was going to be easier to eat the spiciest of them first. It was a surprisingly thick and dark sauce that was very sticky. I tried it first on my fingers, and it had a subtle sweetness to it, and it tickled the back of my throat. The heat came in slowly, hitting the roof of my mouth pleasantly. 

I ate it without a problem and licked the sauce off my fingers before it could start to burn them. My eyes watered a bit, but otherwise, I was fine. The top of my head buzzed some and my lips tingle, but I had eaten hotter before.

“Oh, goddammit!” Edward said when he realized what I was doing. “That’s not fair.”

“What?” Seth looked over and actually gasped. “But, why?” 

"I liked it. It made my lips feel weird," I told them as I picked up the second spiciest. This sauce was thinner, green, with large bits of garlic. Since the last wasn't a problem, I decided to take a big bite. I didn't like the flavor as much, but I liked thicker sauces. After I finished, I took a little sip of milk to get the heavy garlic taste out of my mouth. This one made the roof of my mouth prickly with sensation. 

Apparently, me going straight for it made the boys try to rush through their own wings. They were on their fourth or fifth and had already gone through half their drinks. Edward was panting already, his chest heaving. Seth had gotten milk all over his chin and shirt. 

I just shook my head. They were heathens.

Wings eight, seven, and six were probably my favorite. They were hot Nashville chicken themed.  Five and four were bright red like a traditional Buffalo wing, but the flavors were surprisingly different. Honestly, the first couple wasn’t at all that spicy to me. I could at least see why others found the others too hot. You usually have to build up a pretty good tolerance to eat stuff that spicy and not be bothered by it. 

I finished in less than fifteen minutes, just eating as I normally would. Seth gave up at wing seven, claiming it was too hot for him. Almost angrily, too. He actually threw the wing down onto his plate with a splat. I reached over and took his leftovers while Edward was literally crying over six. Crying. Tears were just overflowing from his eyes and running in rivers down his cheeks. 

“That's not okay!” Edward told me as I munched on the rest of Seth's food, drinking his milk in big gulps. I ignored him and smiled directly at the camera.

“Gringo.” I shook my head. “Do you use any of these sauces to make sandwiches?” I asked the chef as he watched on, still ignoring Edward's suffering. He was so dramatic. 

Though his face was red and he was visibly sweating. I'm not sure how much he could encourage that.

“Any sauce you like can be used on our chicken sandwiches,” the chef told me. 

I pointed to eight, “this one would be dope with some good sweet pickles. Maybe a side of mac and cheese. Hawaiian roll or a nice kaiser. Maybe some slaw.”

“We can do that for you,” the cook replied. “We marinate our meat in homemade bread and butter pickle juice actually that we make in-house.”

“I'd like to try some of those.”

“Let me get you some.”

“Thanks,” I grinned. 

When I looked over at Edward, I realized he was very quiet. He had finally moved onto nine, but his eyes were wide, and it was obvious that he was starting to hear colors. His milk was close to empty, so I refilled his glass for him. Seth was now cramming chips in his mouth from a basket on the table in the hopes of cooling the fire. Not that he would say that was what he was doing because he kept announcing that he was fine. Just fine. Just fucking fine, thank you very much. 

Tyler was clearly enjoying watching them make fools of themselves while I carried on a normal conversation with the chef. 

“And you make all the sauces in-house as well? You sell them by the bottle, right?” I asked when he came back with the pickles. I liked them, they were very crisp and refreshing after the spicy chicken. I could feel the little spicy high tingling pleasantly at the back of my brain. 
​
"Yup, you can buy them in the store, or you can order a bottle online and have it ship to you anywhere in the world." 

“I’m guessing the link is down in the description below,” I said for the camera. Tyler nodded behind the film equipment. But then I realized he was watching Edward. I glanced over at him. 

Edward took one small bite of the tenth wing. He put it down and said, “no. No... no. No. Nono.” And then drank an entire glass of milk while standing up then sitting back down with a heavy thump that sounded as if it almost broke the chair. He put his face in his hands. He was still crying. 

Such a drama queen.

“So, the spiciest is it like... ghost pepper? Or, is a reaper?” I tasted the sauce with my finger from my plate. “It feels like both so I don't know.”

The chef was pleased I knew from the taste. It was a mix.

Edward got up and had a little walk around the restaurant. He wasn't coming back for more to eat.

“Ten out of ten would eat again with some ranch maybe next time,” I told the chef as I reached over and picked up the rest of Edward's wing. I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I took the part he had taken a bite and rubbed it into the sauce. Edward literally began to hug his legs while standing, bending over as he muttered something to himself. Tears streamed down onto his shirt. I shook my head. “It's really delicious,” I assured the chef.

"How?" Edward demanded angrily. I handed him a napkin and pointed to his nose, which was running. Poor thing. 

“Some people just... can?" I shrugged. I had always eaten spicy things. I used to eat straight jalapenos from my grandma's garden as a kid, much to everyone's horror. I finished the wing, but honestly, my head was getting a little light, too. I was getting a buzz, and my nose was clearer than it had been in months. I wasn't going to tell him that though, especially after the scene he was making. I took another little sip of my milk. 

“Dammit, it hurts,” he moaned, putting his hand on his chest.

I turned in my seat to watch him. “Baby, it's too early in the day to be dying over some chicken wings.”

“Why do I do these things to myself?” He asked me angrily. “What is wrong with me?”

"Because it's funny as fuck to watch us suffer?" Seth offered. He was still sweaty, but he wasn't visibly wiggling in his spot anymore. He also gave up sooner, though. He had already eaten several of his lactose pills. His farts were going to kill someone later. Hopefully, much later. 

Edward tried to straighten up, but he had his hands on his hips to help hold himself up. He blinked several times, his eyes watering still. “And if you want to see Seth, Tyler, and I suffer some more like this remember to like, subscribe, and fucking whatever else you have to do. Goddamn… Dude, she destroyed us. What the fuck...”

“I think I might have lost my man card today,” Seth mumbled in joking annoyance. I smiled at him too brightly. 

“Yeah, I think I might have lost mine as well. Goddammit,” Edward agreed. I rolled my eyes. Masculinity was so damn fragile.  

“Don't worry, honey. I got it in my purse. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a picture to take for a wall.” I did an ironic sassy hair flip, giving a big kiss on the cheek to a gaping Edward. I stunned him into silence with my sarcasm. His mouth snapped shut in a pout. Seth and Tyler appreciated my burn heartily at his expense. 

I took my picture with the chef, me standing on a box so that we were closer in height. It was usually used for the kids. But since I had been the only one to achieve the flight, no one teased me for it. Seth and Tyler were too busy ragging on Edward still. 
Tyler drove. Edward ate half a roll of Tums in the backseat. Seth had the other half. I ate a cookie I had gotten at the pastry place earlier. It was white chocolate macadamia nut. I shared it with Tyler. Seth gave us all dirty looks. Probably because his stomach was already audibly rolling and popping. 

We took a private haunted tour of the old LA zoo with a local historian who spoke about the hauntings around Los Angeles. I asked about the Cecil Hotel hauntings in the middle of the tour to which the little old historian lady got very excited. 
Honestly, she and the chef both told me their name, but for some reason, I instantly forgot them because my mind was Swiss cheese. Edward was brilliant at it though, luckily. But he was still very new to LA.

“I don't know what that is,” Edward admitted.

“It's called something else now. Stay on Main or something. It's a hotel by skid row that's had a bunch of famous suicides and accidents. And a lot of killers have stayed there. The Night Stalker for one. Then there was that poor girl in the tank recently.” I shuddered as I remembered the story from the news. That one always grossed me out. 

“Girl in a tank?” He asked, confused. “What kind of tank? I’m confused.”

"A young woman was found dead in the hotel's water tank, completely undressed. They only found her after the water began to turn black, and the guest began to complain of the bad taste," the woman told him almost gleefully. She enjoyed her job. I liked her. She was dark.  

“Holy hell!” Edward exclaimed with large eyes. You could practically see the color drain from his face. 

"There is a video where she looks like she's having a conversation with demons you can't see in the elevator before. Poor girl," I said to him. It was probably one of the weirder parts of the story. LA had a ton of bizarre crimes. 

“From the security camera,” Seth chimed in from behind his camera. “I think someone was chasing her.”

"I don't think we'll ever know," I said thoughtfully. "Like the Black Dahlia. But, I think there are quite a few credible suspects in that one at least. There was definitely a slashy type killer in LA at the time though, and I'm kind of surprised we don't talk about it more like the Zodiac killer." 

"You know your true crime history!" The woman said happily. "You are very right. California has its share of unknown killers. The massive expanse and highways make it a perfect spot for killing. It's believed that there are around two thousand active serial killers in the United States at any given time, and the West coast has a good portion of them." 

“Two thousand! Surely not. God, that makes me want to move back to Australia. Or, at least to Canada,” Edward said in repulsion at the idea of it. 

“Canada has the Trail of Tears. Dozens of Native women dead on the side of the roads. And millionaire pig farmers who feed their victims to hogs. And, Please. Australia has some pretty wild killers, too. Like, extra disturbed human skin curtains kind of bonkers,” I shared some of my unholy knowledge with him.

"How do you know so much about this?" Edward asked me, a little concerned if I was going, to be honest.  

“I've read three true crime books just this week. I've probably read all of them at the New York Public Library. I borrow them on audiobook and listen to them while I edit,” I explained to them both. “And I’ve been listening to murder podcasts for ages, too.”

“Which books?” The woman asked, happy to have someone truly interested in something she obviously loved. 

“A Stranger Beside Me again, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and a book about Carl Panzram. I've also brought one about Ed Gein. I've listened to them all before, honestly,” I told her. ”These are just some of my favorites.”

“A Stranger Beside Me is so good,” she said almost wistfully. “She was so lucky.”

“What's it about? You mentioned it the other day. You said it was your favorite,” Edward questioned. This part was definitely not going in a video. I can't imagine how much shit he had to cut out of every video of us just talking and being stupid. 

“A former cop turned crime writer who worked beside Ted Bundy on a suicide hotline. It's a true story. She never thought he was the killer even after talking to the police, telling them that he had the same car as the killer... He seemed too nice. He was a monster, of course. He killed forty-something women,” I told him only the most basic details. He didn't want to know these things. 

“You seem very well-educated about true crime history,” the lady complimented me about my morbid knowledge. I couldn't imagine I was the only one who knew these things. The book was a bestseller after all.

“Thanks... I think. I've always been a little obsessed with death," I said a little bit shyly. I wanted to explain this to him, so he knew what he was getting into. "I grew up within sight of the cemetery my mom and grandparents are buried, and I went all the time. I'd sit at my mom's grave. Pick all the wildflowers in the fields around it and cover it completely. Spend hours and hours talking to the graves. I was a dark kid, too." 

Edward smoothed a comforting hand up my back and brushed some hair away from my shoulder. I leaned my head against him for just a moment. It was such a comforting action.

The little old woman leaned in. "Was your mother murdered?" She said it almost as a whisper. Edward's eyes got comically larger, and he looked over at Tyler and Seth who was filming in an equal stupor.  

I laughed out of sheer shock, “no, ma'am. I'm not that dark. I've just always been followed by death.”

“Nope. Not dark at all.” He squeezed me by the waist and led me along to the next part of the tour. 

Poor horrified man. Whoops...

When we walked back to the car in the dark, Seth asked if we were a thing. He waved between us with a pointed finger, walking backward as he did.

“Probably not now that I've revealed my creepy pastime,” I told Seth with a laugh. He cursed and muttered something under his breath. He then pulled out his wallet and gave Tyler a twenty dollar bill. “What?” I asked.

“I bet you two would get together before you left,” Tyler explained. “And you haven't left yet. See, I told you they liked each other.”

“I never disagreed about that. Just about whether it would happen or not,” Seth replied.

“You're betting on my love life? Some friends you are.” Edward opened the car door for me up front and took the keys so he could drive home. “That doesn't seem very nice.”

“I just figured she was too good for you,” Seth teased him. 

Edward stopped for a second to consider his friend's words. “Oh. Well. Yes. You're not wrong.”

I shook my head wildly. “He is,” I commented. “You are wrong. I'm not too good for anyone.”

“No, I'm okay with being unworthy.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. I had to fight my urge not to roll my eyes or giggle like a schoolgirl. I pulled my hand away to rest it on my lap, looking out of the window to hide my smirk. 
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5/21/2019

Episode Fourteen: Hot and Cold Showers

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Episode Fourteen: Hot and Cold Showers

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+)

The lights didn't come back on that night. We cleaned up in the darkness and then started to bring candles into his bedroom. We blew out the ones we didn't need in the living room and kitchen, making the space slightly smokey. I took a lantern to the spare bedroom and got changed for bed. 

For the first time in a very long time, I thought about how I would look to a man in the nude. How would he like my panties? My nightgown? I wasn’t sure what Edward thought about those things. Did he care at all? He was always so well dressed when he was out. Not so much at home. He had an opinion on what he thought was sexy at Target, but I wasn't ready to give that pair the full justice they deserved. I also didn't know what he was expecting from me. Or what I was expecting from him that night. 

I changed into a new pair of panties from the store. They were a comfortable pair of boy shorts. They were cotton, and Halloween themed, not unlike the ones I had been wearing earlier in the day. These were orange and had a jack-o-lantern on the rear because I was an adult and the little things like that gave me joy. The nightgown I had gotten was dark blue satin and went just to my fingertips. It was cut very low in a v with the edges embroidered in tiny white flowers.  

I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Then I rubbed on lotion to my arms and legs and put on perfume behind my ears and knees. Places that had not seen attention in years. I fluffed up my hair and put on my bubblegum flavored chapstick. It felt oddly familiar, the act but not the place. 

Edward was waiting for me in his bedroom by his bed as he rearranged it. He had changed into sleep pants and had removed his shirt. I could tell he was a little anxious. When he saw me, he relaxed a little, a small smile on his sweet face.  

“I never imagined today would end like this. Not in a million years. Not if I thought I had a million tries. And yet, here you are.”

“I didn't know it was a possibility,” I told him honestly.

“I'm so nervous.” He looked embarrassed to admit it. “Earlier was incredible and I don't want to... assume. I don't want to scare you. Or rush you. We can do whatever you want. If you just want to cuddle. Or talk. Or sleep. Or, whatever.”

“It was incredible. Don't worry about scaring me. I promise to let you know. I’m pretty vocal,” I assured him as I touched his cheek. “And, is it rushing? Wasn't that just the longest blind date ever?” I asked him jokingly. He smirked and pretended to think really hard about it. 

“Was that our first date? That whole week? No, I'd say it was more like seven separate dates. I mean, we slept in between. We weren't together the whole time,” he pointed out. He was enjoying this particular conversation.

“Eight, if you count Sunday night. If you're going by that logic.”

“Oh, you're right. Eight. Or, is it nine now? If you count today? I wonder what the average amount of dates before a couple has sex is,” Edward said to himself. He was actually thinking about the answer to that one. 

I came to stand on my tip toes and smoothed my fingers over his very strong arms. “We can look it up in the morning.” I kissed the spot where his tattoo was on his pec. It had begun to heal very nicely. I could barely reach it. He rubbed his hands over my shoulders until he brought them down to my fingers. We stood, holding hands, in the candlelit darkness of his bedroom while the storm raged outside. 

He brought his mouth down to mine and kissed me deeply, holding my face in his big warm hands. They were so soft, and he was so tender with his every single touch. His palms were cradling my cheeks, and I held onto his wrists as I melted into him. I could have kissed him there forever. 

Gently he lifted me onto the bed by the hips, and he quickly crawled on top of me so that he hovered a foot above me. I took this chance to touch his cheeks, temples, and forehead without having to stretch. I let my fingers move through his thick dark auburn hair. He clearly enjoyed it. His eyes were so hopeful and eager. And, happy. Edward was genuinely elated. It made me feel adored. 

"I like the way you look at me," I admitted to him, drawing his face closer to mine to kiss his mouth softly. I kissed the top and then the bottom, bringing them into my mouth to lightly suck on his soft, perfect lips. I tugged on the bottom one gently with my teeth when I pulled away. He shuddered and gasped as I happily played.    

"Well, that's the look of a man utterly enchanted," he tried to say with a bit of charm, but it came out breathy and labored. 

“Try hard,” I whispered into his ear with a smile while gently tugging down his sleep pants. He was wearing boxer briefs this time. I was a little disappointed that he wasn't commando. 

“Get used to it.” He kissed my mouth aggressively, moving down to my neck to nip at my skin. One of his hands explored my outer thigh while I wrapped my legs around him. “I'm going to worship you.” He kissed my new tattoo lightly, pushing the strap of the gown away. He kissed around the butterfly before moving to kiss right where my heart was beating hard in my chest. 

Edward pulled off my nightgown and tossed it to the end of the bed. I pulled him down to me so that our bare bodies were touching, kissing him once again. We were both only in just our underwear by that point. He was completely hard and kept brushing it between my very sensitive thighs. We kissed for so long I was breathless, and my face was tender from his stubble aggressively rubbing against it as we made out like teenagers. He drew out every kiss and touch, trying to give me as much pleasure as possible. 

He held my throat in his hand as he kissed my forehead, nose, lips, eyelids, my ears. It was tender, his thumb rubbing loving little circles into my neck in pace with his kissing. When he finally kissed downwards, my chest automatically rose up to meet his lips.   

“I left a mark.” He kissed the side of my breast, glancing up at me as he did.

“Leave some more.” I dragged my nails over his scalp and gingerly tugged at his hair.

“Where?” Edward asked hungrily. 

I guided him to a spot on the opposite breast with my hand still in his hair. He bit hard enough to make me squeak in surprise and throw my head back. His hand was still on my throat, squeezing very lightly. I brought it to my mouth and began to suck and kiss his fingers while he created a matching bruise on my tender skin. 

He kissed down my stomach, pulling down my panties and throwing them somewhere on the floor. Without hesitation, he began to kiss between my legs, spreading them wide to give him better access. First, he kissed, licked, and nipped at each thigh several times, dragging his now rather rough cheek against my flesh as he did. His hand slid down my calf then back up my knee, making me shiver in the best way possible.  

Edward knew all the places to touch and all the places to kiss. 

I cried out when he licked me, his tongue dragging across my clit slowly. My back arched as my legs twisted around his shoulders. He held my thighs apart with one hand, the other hand resting on my stomach. I cursed loudly when he pushed two of his fingers inside of me. 

My first orgasm was slow and long. It dipped up and down and slowly back up again into another and then another, each becoming more desperate and louder than the last. I clawed at his back, calling out his name over and over again like a chant. I was tearing at the bed, bucking and twisting. He never even slowed down a little. He didn’t need the encouragement to not stop.

I had to yank Edward by the hair to finally stop him after having at least four, maybe five, orgasms. I lost count somewhere along the way. He kissed me eagerly, his face covered in my own cum. As he did, he crashed into me, his boxer brief covered erection pressed into my wetness. I gasped and bucked, squeezing my legs closed around him.   

“I'll not last very long,” he warned when I tugged down his boxers frantically. “I feel like if you touched me right, I'd explode.”

“Isn't that the point?” I asked with a wicked smile as I kissed his ear, rubbing his erection gently as I did. I massaged him against my wet clit, gasping at the sensation against his skin. He hadn’t expected it, closing his eyes and shaking a little with each slow pass. “You should get a condom,” I finally whispered. He was so close already.

Edward came to rest on his calves while still sitting between my legs, pulling one of the condoms from the open box in the drawer. With a smirk, he placed it on my stomach all while rubbing his own cock. I spread my legs, dipping my fingers inside to tease us both. Edward pushed my hand out of the way so he could massage his head against my clit perfectly, making me twist and moan in pleasure. He drew out each stroke, letting it dip lower so that he only just went inside before pushing back up against my sensitive nerves. Finally, it was too much teasing for me, so I took the condom myself and opened it carefully.  

"Fuck me," I said in a soft, sweet voice that didn't match the words that were coming out of my mouth. "Please." I rolled the condom over his head, and Edward pushed it the rest of the way down eagerly. He hovered over me, his large green eyes looking into mine briefly before kissing me deeply. 

He slipped inside me with no resistance, but I had never felt so full. I spread my legs as wide as possible to allow him to go as deep as he could, lifting my hips up as I did. I wrapped one of my arms around his neck while the other hand grabbed at the sheets.  

I gushed around him a little, dripping down to the blanket underneath. My entire body flushed with sweat as he pounded his pelvis into mine. “Oh...” I drew out as my back arched a half a foot off the bed. Edward didn't slow his perfect rhythm. I could feel the pulsating thrumming of my extended orgasm deep in my stomach to my curling toes, dripping more and more with each push. 

“Fuck,” he said in a deep, low, guttural voice very close to my ear. His entire body was shaking when he finally gave in to his own climax.

He panted and rested his forehead on my chest as I held him to me. His face was squarely between my breast with his cheek pressed to my skin. We were both actually shaking from the effort. It took us a long time to recover. He dragged his nose over my collarbone after a few moments, lightly and delicately kissing my shoulder when he could move. 

“God. Damn,” he finally muttered. 

I laughed a bit hysterically, bringing my hand up to my eyes to wipe away the sweat. “Yeah.”

"I really like making you cum like that," he said, shyly into my chest. "Can I do that... like... all the time?” 

“My legs are vibrating,” I told him with a breathy laugh. “So, yes. Please. Literally fucking vibrating. What the fuck?”

He laughed happily as well, almost timidly, pressing his face into my skin to hide his smile. His cheeks were still red hot.  

When I woke up in the morning, the electricity was still off, and the storm was still going on pretty hard outside. I watched it through the vast open window out onto the beautiful mountainous view. After slipping out of Edward's arms, I went back down to the spare bedroom and rushed through a quick cold shower by lantern light. It was just after nine. 

I put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear from my Target bags. When I came into the kitchen, Edward was waiting for me, having done much the same in terms of a cold shower. He had not shaved, though, and his rusty colored hair began to show around his chin, cheeks, and lips.  

“Good morning.” I kissed him lightly on the lips. I traced the rigid scruff with my fingers. It was so thick and stiff along the bottom of his jaw. It was practically sharp.

"Good morning," he hummed at the sensation. "I checked on the electricity, and it's going to be out until at least later this afternoon at the earliest. When it comes back, I'd really like to take a hot shower with you because that was bloody terrible." 

“Sounds like a plan.” I smiled at him brightly. “What do you need to do today?”

"Besides you?" He smirked playfully. "Well, I can't edit or anything. I could do a bit of writing that I was going to have to work on later this week, but I'm going to have to do it the old-fashioned way. This is turning my schedule all around, the rain. It rains so little LA can barely handle it. Anyway, what about you? What do you need to get done?" 

"My computer holds a charge for just a little while so I could probably get three or four hours of editing done before it dies. I'm glad I got a bit of a break yesterday. Sometimes the colors begin to blend together, and everything looks the same. So, while you write, I can edit? Then we can take a break for lunch," I offered, tracing his bottom lip with my finger. He smiled and nodded sweetly. 

After a quick breakfast of fruit and Poptarts, we sat in comfortable silence in his office while each of us worked. He sat at his desk, furiously writing away on a notepad and I sat on his couch that was in there with my laptop on my thighs.  

Somewhere around two in the afternoon, my computer gave its last gasps of power, and I shut it down before it could die tragically in the middle of an edit. The storm had slowed, and it was just raining, slackened but still steadily falling. At least the winds had seemed to have passed.   

We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips for our little picnic lunch. I actually liked it a lot, eating a banana and watching it rain on his pool from the dinner table. The only thing I missed was a glass of milk. We would have to replace a couple of things in his fridge. 

Finally, at six in the evening, the lights returned. 

“Praise the Gods,” Edward muttered from his comfortable spot on the couch where we had been laying in our corner. Each of us had been reading something, him a script and me a book, but it had been much harder as it got later in the evening. “Shall we freshen up and go get a late dinner?” He offered.

“Sure, let me go get my things.”

After putting my computer onto charge along with my phone, I went to the spare bathroom and picked up my shower gel, face wash, shampoo, and conditioner and put them in their little travel bag. I wasn't sure what else to bring with me. So, I just ended up grabbing all my toiletries and my makeup. There was a built-in vanity with seating to one side of his bathroom that he clearly never used, so I set my stuff up on the marble countertops. The vanity lights were very bright. Someone had probably loved doing their makeup there in the past. 

Now, the bathroom in the spare bedroom was an impressive affair that I had fallen in love with deeply... But his shower was next level. It could fit five adults comfortably with five shower heads. Two on each wall and one somehow from above on the ceiling. There was also a removable sprayer you could turn on. And, built-in seating along the back wall. It was ridiculous. 

Steam filled the room when he turned on the water. We helped the other undress cheerfully, playfully. We kissed under the water for a long while. I washed Edward's hair for him, scrubbing my nails over his scalp as he sat down so I could easily reach the top of his head. He held my waist, happy to be pampered. We washed each other, me rubbing him all over with my vanilla body wash soaked loofa. 

“I smell like a biscuit,” he commented in amusement.

“A sexy biscuit,” I replied.  

He just rolled his eyes, but Edward was smiling.

When we got out of the shower, I put my hair up in a towel and put on my lotion and deodorant. I sat at the vanity as he did his grooming, applying makeup quickly. I was almost done when he came by in his underwear. His hair was all slicked back nicely, and he smelled so warm and fresh.  

“You make that look so easy,” he said as I painted on my eyeliner with a tiny little brush. 

“It's not,” I said in a whisper of concentration, holding my eyes perfectly still.

"Using a stick with three hairs to draw a thin, perfectly straight line less than a millimeter from your eyeball seems dangerous." 

"Well... it's not for beginners," I replied thoughtfully when I finished. "Pencils are easier, but I like how the liquid looks." 

Edward watched in fascination and mild horror as I put on my fake eyelashes. Apparently, he didn't like anything to do with eyes or touching eyes. He scurried away when I rolled my eyes back to apply a pencil to the bottom eyelid at the waterline.

I put on a new red dress, throwing all my dirty clothes in his brand new washing machine for later. He was wearing a nice pair of black denim jeans and a blue button-down shirt. I put on my red stilettos, wearing heels for the first time in years. They were three inches, making my toes nearly point to the floor. 

I practiced a few laps alone in the bedroom to make sure I still had the ability to walk in heels. I did, thankfully. They were uncomfortable, but I could do some things to improve that later. We would have to visit a store again soon enough. I would probably need more shampoo if anything else. I had too much hair for the little bottle I packed. I hadn't packed very well. 

We went to some little hipster spot, and it was surprisingly busy. Everyone needed to get out of the house after the heavy storms. It was just after eight, and the rain had finally stopped completely. We ate a whole host of interesting flavored tacos. They were pretty good, beef and pork with lots of sliced pineapple. Afterward, we shared a basket of sopapillas and honey and some Mexican hot chocolate. We sat on the same bench at the table, his body pressed to my side as we ate and talked. 

We actually sat and talked until it was almost time for them to close, the last two left in the small restaurant. We drove around a little while in his car with the windows rolled down, just to be out of the house for a little while and enjoy the cool air. When we got back to his place, we made love again, this time soft and slow. He was so desperately gentle with me, making me feel euphoric as I finally drifted off to sleep.  It was a perfect end to an extremely relaxing day. 
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5/21/2019

Episode Thirteen: Tears in Target

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Episode Thirteen: Tears in Target

As Edward checked the weather on his phone, the lights came back on. It wouldn't stop raining, but it wouldn't be as bad for a couple of hours. The worst was still yet to come, several hours later in the night. We decided it would be for the best if we just went to the Target, which was the closest store to his house. It would have everything we would need. It was only a few minutes away. 

He held my hand, and at every red light, he would bring it up to kiss my knuckles.  

Edward bought us some coffee and muffins from the cafe as we shopped. First, we grabbed bottles of water and an absurd amount of candles and flashlights. Next, we went through the food aisles, mainly picking out junk food that didn't need to be cooked or refrigerated. We also bought some fruit, so not to be totally unhealthy.

The beer and wine that Edward bought were counterproductive to that. 

“I need to probably get some more clothes and use your washing machine,” I told him thoughtfully. “Do you have soap?” He looked a little baffled by the question.  “Nevermind,” I rolled my eyes and went to the laundry aisle and bought everything I would need for that. He obviously didn't wash his own clothes.

We walked towards the women's clothing. In my head, I tried to do some math. I had spent hardly any of the money for the past week but now that I was spending another week there, what could I spend on clothes? Or, on makeup? I could use a few things. I was going to get paid, but not yet. I hadn't scheduled anything the week after anyway because I thought I would be working on editing and recovering so I had prepared for that money-wise.

I wasn't good at doing math, in my head or otherwise. I genuinely hated numbers. Alice did all of my math homework in school, and I did all of her English. Which is funny considering she now wrote for fun. Usually porn.  

I pulled out my phone and decided to check my bank account. I could probably manage to spend a hundred, I figured. If I did it right that could get me a few things. I was a pretty good shopper.

“You look concerned. Everything okay?” Edward asked curiously.

“Yeah, just trying to think of what I can spend on clothes,” I told him honestly.

“Love, get whatever you want,” he said without hesitation.

“Um, no,” I shook my head at him as I typed in the password. “That's not how that works.”

"I'll buy-" He started, but I put my hand up to stop him. 

“No. You won't.”

I was finally connected and almost hit the floor. I had not checked the balance in perhaps a week, but I hadn't used anything but cash either. I gasped and literally clutched at my chest as my heart tried to beat out of my chest. I felt as if I was going to hyperventilate.  

“What?” Edward seemed even more panicked now.

“This can't be right. I had like five hundred in here.” I shook my head over and over again. I was dizzy.

“How much do you have now?” Edward looked over at the screen. 

"Nearly three thousand!" I almost shouted, waiting impatiently for the transaction screen to load, tapping it over and over again with my thumb. It was taking forever because of the storm. When it finally did, I saw 100.00 about a dozen times in a row from the production company name Edward worked under, Midnight Sun Productions. Then I had around a thousand dollars from my weekly payment from my website. It was the most I had ever made at once from the site. I never counted on it for anything. It was just a pleasant bonus if I sold something. After that, it was just 100.00 again. I covered my mouth. Edward looked over my shoulder at the screen.

“Oh, the first video with you uploaded Saturday. One of the food tasting ones,” he explained calmly once he saw the name on the screen. “That's why.”

“That's too much.”

He laughed softly at my wide-eyed reaction, “I told you I gave you the standard rate I give all the people in my videos. I don't even look at the money part, honestly. Some program gets it and divides it up. It's only like four percent.” My jaw dropped. “And this is for only one video. There is going to be another one today in... a couple of hours?” He looked at his watch. “So, you might want to up it from a hundred to five hundred. Or, maybe a thousand. That seems annoying.” He pointed to my phone and all the ones and zeroes. He acted as he dealt with it every day. Because he did. Obviously.

I actually started crying. Just out and out sobbing in the middle of the empty Target.

“Oh Lord Jesus, first day and I've already made you bawl.” He hugged me tightly to him. I pushed my face in his chest.

“It's so much,” I pressed my face into his chest.

“No, it's not,” he tried to soothe me.

“I'm poor. This changes my life. I can pay next month's bills right now and pay something off six months early. And, I can put money in savings and still buy me my first pair of new shoes in a year. A damn year! And I have like five hundred in my pocket that I can just spend and not worry. Do you know how hard it is to just constantly scrape by?” I was nearly yelling towards the end.

I had stunned him into silence. 

"No, I don't. I am very privileged, I know. I grew up comfortable, and I've never had to struggle," he replied simply. 

I looked up at him. I was actually shaking. I looked back at my phone and on the spot transferred a thousand into savings and my part of the next month's bills to my best friend. By the time I was done, my account had increased by another ‘100.00’.

“You seriously give your friends this much?” I questioned as we began to walk again. 

Edward shrugged, a little confused by my question. "Yeah. I mean, it's no skin off my back. And it makes everyone happy. I've never actually discussed it really in numbers with anyone. Though I give my family more. Just so you know." 

“No,” I laughed halfheartedly. “Let's not jump that far yet.”

He chuckled, “fair enough.”

When we got to the clothes, I went straight to clearance.  

“All that and you still shop in the clearance section?” He teased me. “Honestly, I'm buying it.”

“Just because it's clearance doesn't mean it's not cute. Besides, I'm tiny tiny. All the little stuff stays in clearance forever usually.” I pulled out a small cute tee shirt with rainbows on it for four dollars and put it in the cart. “And, you're not buying shit.”

"Fine…" He drew out before he decided to change the subject. "Can you shop in the girl's section?" He asked, sincerely but quietly. Like it was naughty to ask. 

“The shirts. Especially plus sized girls. Not in pants though. My ass is too big. I could probably wear plus sized girl leggings,” I thought out loud. I pulled out a cute pair of shorts with lace at the bottom. I would need to try this stuff on. “Juniors is my sweet spot.”

“What's your actual height? I've wanted to ask but not be rude. I'm six foot five, by the way.”

"I know," I laughed a little hysterically. My emotions were everywhere. "It's hard to miss. I'm five foot even. I used to wear heels always and lie. Say I was five foot four. Which is... just sad. Aiden used to say I made him feel tall. He was only five six," I said with a slight smile on my face as I looked through the dresses. A flash of guilt and sadness washed over me. "I'm sorry. This is weird. But, he would have liked you, though." 

"I think he might have had a problem with how I feel about his wife," he said with a small, sad smirk.  

“Oh, you'd be surprised,” Edward raised an eyebrow in my direction at my words. “He wasn't jealous. He was very generous.”

“Take my wife, please,” he said it in a Groucho Marx voice.

"If he knew I wanted it as well, absolutely. And he would have told me to have a good time and tell him all about it later. We were friends, and he just wanted me to be happy. He would have wanted to be your friend, though. He'd like your taste in food and video games. Liked your house and your book collection. He would have watched your videos. He liked Youtube very early on," I explained to him as I thought about my Aiden. "He'd be annoyed I've waited so long to move on. He used to tell me all the time I was wasting my youth on being an old woman. It'll be his birthday soon. He'd be forty-four." 

"Why did he say that?" He asked, curiously. "You don't seem like an old woman to me." 

"I grew up really quick, and it made me hard. Perfect for New York," I joked, "I was really bitter when I met him. I'm still pretty hard now, I think, but... he made me a more gentle person. He made me softer. Aiden made me better." I wiped a random tear away from my cheek. I didn't want him to see it. 

“He sounds like someone I would have liked,” he said very warmly.

I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “I'm so sorry. This must be so awkward. I don't know how to deal with this. I've never done it before. I'm going to scare you away with this.”

"It doesn't bother me. It's not awkward. You loved someone. That's good. I'm glad you were happy, even if it didn't last as long as you deserved. I'm grateful to him, and I wish I could take away your pain. I don't want to replace him, I couldn't imagine trying. But, I do hope that one day you feel even a small amount of what you did for him for me," he said softly to me, standing in the middle of the clearance section of Target. My eyes began to tear up heavily again. "Dammit," he half laughed and rubbed my cheek with his thumb. "You're going to make me emotional." 

“I'm not usually a crier,” I admitted. I hated crying in front of anyone. It made me feel weak.

“I am,” he warned, making me giggle. I pressed my face to his chest again. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down.

"I do already, by the way," I admitted to him. "Feel at least a percentage of what I felt. It's the first day, let us not rush things. But I do like you a lot." 

"Right. No rushing," he agreed before kissing me. Lightning crashed outside, shaking the building. "We should probably keep an eye on the time and weather, though."  

I picked out several outfits to quickly try on. What I liked and fit I threw into the cart and hurried into the bras and panties. I needed those most of all. 

I got a couple of cute sets in lace and one in satin. I also got a few cute pairs of panties with different cartoons or designs on them. As I walked towards the pajamas, Edward was being very quiet. When I looked at his face, his cheeks were fiery red.  

“Want to make any suggestions?” I asked him with an innocent smile. “Comments? Anything?”

“Oh.. oh.. um,” he stammered. “I mean, you should wear what you want and like. It's not for me.”

"Of course, but if you see something you like, I don't mind. No one will see them, but you." 

"That one please," he quickly pointed the rack beside us with a very lacy neon pink demi-cup bra with a matching pair of boy shorts. The second one on the stand was my size. I put it in the cart and turned back to the night clothes. "Yay," he said quietly behind me with a silly little clap, purposely to make me laugh. "Best day ever.” 

I smiled to myself as I picked out a couple of cute nightgowns. Next, we went to the shoes. I quickly found a cute pair of three-inch black heels just in my size. I kicked off my shoes and tried them on. It had been years since I had worn any. They fit just right. They also had them in red, and they were only eight dollars a pair, at seventy-five percent off. I put them both in the cart. I also got a new pair of converse that I think probably were for kids, but I didn't care. I was a sucker for funky designs, and they had stars all over them. They kind of matched my foot tattoos. 

"I need to get some cosmetic stuff, and we should get some supplies from the pharmacy,” I said the last part very quietly.

“Right. Good idea. Those condoms are probably about to expire anyway. I got them right before I broke up with my ex last year. They're Australian condoms. ”

I looked him dead in the eye. “Do you put them on counter-clockwise?”

“Har har,” he laughed and poked at my side. “You're a riot, you are. Right full of piss.”

We went through the pharmacy first and got a big mix pack of condoms. It was a rather ambitious box for a week-long visit. We also got three different kinds of lube because we couldn't decide and he just tossed them all into the cart. He snorted at my idea for an ‘Eddie tries lube’ video. 

“Well, this one is... slippery...” I mimicked his accent as I picked through the baskets of clearance makeup that took up one end cap. It was actually a pretty decent selection. 

“This one is... smells like a cherry lollie for some reason,” he joked. 

“Oh, my god! This one burns! Why does it burn?!” I said dramatically, still with the accent.

He laughed very loudly. An older woman walked by from another aisle and gave us a dirty look. I smiled at her widely as I literally tossed a mascara over my shoulder into the cart. Edward turned away to hide his giggles. I could be a ham when I wanted to be as well.

I ended up getting mascara, eyeliner, a blush palette, a highlighter stick, and a few pairs of eyelashes for next to nothing. I was very pleased. I grabbed a couple of cheap matte lipsticks and an eyeshadow pallet that had a couple of dozen shades in it as well. I wasn't sure how good any of it was, but it would be fun to experiment again.  

When we got to the checkout, I went ahead and put all the clothing, makeup, and shoes I had picked out for myself and put them on the belt. I put the divider at the end and gave him a look daring him to argue with me.  

“You're silly.” He kissed my cheek and put his liquor on the belt behind the partition. 

“No, I'm not. It's important to me.” I pulled my debit card from my wallet. “Free food is one thing. You have to eat, too.”

"I understand that. But I want to." He pulled a couple of candy bars from the shelf behind us and tossed them onto the belt. "You're staying for me." 

"And, that's sweet. It really is. You've already bought me a ton of stuff this week though, and you're buying all of that. I want to buy these things for me. I haven't in years. Buy the food. I got this." 

“Alright. But, let me know if you need anything.” He kissed my temple and rubbed my shoulder.

When I was all rung up, it was just under three hundred for all my things. I was pleased with my haul. 

A restaurant in the same shopping center was still open, and we ordered a ton of Japanese food to-go. We sat by the window drinking hot green tea from a silver pot, watching the rain while we waited. It was so relaxing.  

The weather got worse just as we pulled into his garage. I hurried the cold food in the fridge and put our hot food in the turned-off oven so it would stay warmer longer then helped him bring in our enormous amount of bags. I threw mine on the bed in the spare room, and when I did, I grabbed my camera for later. I sat it on the coffee table.   

We put away the groceries together and laid out all the candles, lanterns, flashlights, batteries, and lighters. I put the big batteries in the lanterns first. "You should put one in your room and one in the bathroom now," I told him as I put one on the coffee table. I put a large candle the dining table with a lighter, another on the stove. I lined smaller candles along the ledge below his television, and one on each end table. I scattered lighters about. There were still three dozen candles, two bags of tea lights, and several lighters on his breakfast bar. If the lights were going to go out again, we were ready for it. 

"So, I canceled shooting for tomorrow and arranged it for later this weekend. All I have to do tomorrow is a little editing now," he explained as he looked down at his phone at a text. It vibrated in his hand, and he typed quickly before storing it back in his pocket. "The power is out over at Seth's. Tyler's just came back on." 

The power went out again as the wind slapped rain against the window. I jumped and clutched the bar.

“If there is electricity you'll do a little editing,” I said. I could see just well enough from the light from the windows to light the candles on his mantle without burning myself. It was just then dusk, gray and lonesome. He turned on one of the lanterns and helped me light the rest of the room. Soon it was lit with a romantic glow. 

“What shall we do?” He asked, placing his hands on my hips from behind as he observed our handiwork. 

“Have a glass of wine and a joint then eat our sushi by candlelight while listening to music on my phone and watching the rain?” I offered smoothly. It's not like it was the most relaxing thing I could have possibly imagined or dreamed of. I seemed like the kind of day to fulfill fantasies.

"Oh, sounds perfect," he agreed, turning to go get his stash of rolled joints from his room and an ashtray. After turning on the playlist that I downloaded to my phone, I got us two lighters and picked a bottle of wine for us to share from the ones he had just bought. It was still cold. He popped the cork and got the glasses.   

I picked up my camera and took several pictures. Of the table, the candles, the rain on the glass doors. Edward poured me a glass of wine. I took his picture as he brought my drink. He was wrapped in the most beautiful halo of light.

“You look like the cover of a Harlequin novel,” I teased him. He looked at the picture and made a little face.

“My shirt would be off for that.”

“Later,” I said in a silly voice while I stroked his abs. He giggled like a ticklish two-year-old and jumped back a little in surprise at the unexpected touch. He almost sloshed the wine out of the glasses. It was stupidly cute.   

We laid out on his big brown comfortable couch. It could be a bed for two easily. We propped in one corner with pillows and a corner table for our ashtray and drinks. We took turns smoking while I looked at the pictures on my camera. Edward had his arm around me and looked on silently. It was something we had never done before but felt totally natural. I fit perfectly against his side.

"You're so talented," he said after probably the five hundredth picture. These were just back at the beach the night before. I had so many on my SD card. These were the originals, but I had uploaded digital backups in a couple of places, just in case. I was too paranoid about losing the pictures or camera not to. I realized that I hadn't had a nightmare at all that week.  

“Thank you,” I kissed him lightly on the cheek. 

He looked incredibly sexy when he smoked. The smoke billowed and curled from his lips as he blew out. The smoke lingered in the air, illuminated by candlelight. If I thought I could catch it in a picture, I would have tried. 

We were quiet for a long time, lost in our own thoughts. It had been quite the day.

"What would we have done if I had to fly out today? I'd be back home by now." I looked at my phone to check the time after I put down my camera on the side table. I sipped my wine slowly as I tried to imagine a different universe where I had gone home. It was probably the real one. I probably went into a coma somehow in the middle of the night, and this is the scene my brain was playing out for me. 

I probably didn't want to drink too fast because I hadn't eaten much that day. 

Edward sipped his own drink, the joint between his fingers with the same hand that held the glass. “I was going to beg you to stay or fly to New York to follow you if you left before I could. Call and beg on your way to the airport to come back. I don't know. Something like that.”

“No,” I laughed at the dramatics of it all. 

He smirked a little bit. "Mm, yes. Maybe I'd just show up at your door with flowers and beg you to give me a chance. I expected more begging altogether, frankly. I thought after Saturday it would be harder, to be honest." 

“What about Saturday?” I asked. “Why?”

"I thought you weren't interested in me, to be honest." 

I swallowed and shook my head. “I thought you were flirting with me like you had with that girl at the party.”

“I shouldn't have done that. It's... It's an act I have to put on when I'm in public. I admit I probably let it go too far that night,” he said, almost embarrassed. “But, I don't feel the need to act for you.”

I touched his cheek lightly. He was being so sweet to me. “So, did tonight work out better than you hoped?”

He leaned his face into my hand. "I didn't even want to think about tonight, honestly. If you weren't interested- I just... I just knew I had to tell you how I felt and deal with it, but there was no way I couldn't." 

I clicked my tongue. “Couldn't you tell how much I am into you? I feel so obvious. I even kissed you!” I laughed. 

“But, I asked for it!” He pointed out. “I wasn't sure. I thought... maybe... but I wasn't sure if I was just projecting my feelings onto you. But I knew the second I watched you get out the car and saw your face for the first time, though…” He trailed off, shaking his head.  “You are the most amazing woman.”

I took the joint from him, kissing his mouth lightly for a moment. I took a long drag as I snuggled into his side. He wrapped his arm, so they rested on my stomach. 

“That's so sweet. I wish I could say something equally so about the first time I saw you,” I told him truthfully. It was completely dark outside. It was getting windier. It was almost the perfect way to spend a rainy October night.

“That's okay,” he chuckled as he took a long drag.

“The first time I saw your face and knew exactly who you were, to be perfectly honest, my roommate and I had watched eight solid hours of your videos and well... I definitely masturbated thinking about you. Does that count?” I asked in a monotone voice.

He coughed hard and shot smoke out of his nose. He sputtered as I laughed to myself. “Dammit! And you say it so dryly, too! Christ. You did that on purpose.”

“Yeah, but it's still true,” I told him, still amused with myself.

"Well, I did too, but I wasn't going to tell you that," he snickered as he tried to recover. He took a couple of big drinks of his white wine, embarrassed.  

“Well, I already assumed you did,” I teased him. “I would assume that even if you weren't interested in me romantically actually. You were definitely staring at my breasts at the tattoo shop.”

"That was so hot," Edward muttered, he said as he flicked ashes into the glass tray. "I felt like a whiny cunt, and then you lay there like a goddamn gangster. When you took your shirt off. Bless. Seth almost dropped his camera. It's my favorite part. I had so much fun. Thank God Tyler caught his reaction.”

I laughed, “well, that was hot for both of us. You weren't too bad. It does hurt.” I kissed where his tattoo was still healing up on his chest through his shirt. “It was your first. You get used to it.”

Edward was quiet for a beat while he considered something. "Did you really... um, play with yourself?" He asked, shyly. "I mean, thinking about me? After watching my videos?" 

“You're so cute,” I touched his red cheeks. “I did... And I did after the tattoo shop in bed that night. And... in the morning in the shower afterward. And a few times in between. I literally took pictures of your ass just for me.”

Edward was biting deeply into his lip while I spoke before quickly finishing his wine. “You're so forward,” he said after he swallowed. 

“Is that bad?”

"No." He licked his bottom lip to get a drop of wine he missed. "You're normally blunt, so I shouldn't be surprised. I've never met a woman like you. Your body is too small for your personality, you know that?" 

“Sounds like something you'd say about a Yorkie.” It wasn't the first time I had heard someone say something like that.

He giggled. I realized we were both very high. It kind of hit all of a sudden. 

The lights flickered back on. Went back out. Then, came on once again. We waited for a pause, still as if not to frighten the electricity away. 

“Let's get dinner while they're still on,” he said. I agreed and followed him to the kitchen. They stayed on long enough to get the food moved to the table and get our miso soup warmed up. Edward helped move more candles onto the table.

I took too many pictures of our candlelit meal before we sat down to eat. He took a couple as well, and some of me taking pictures with his phone. 

Edward brought his phone up with a flashlight as light. He began to record a video. "So, it is... well, it's raining cats and dogs outside, and we, the gorgeous Isabella and I are without any lights," he said in his announcer video voice. "But, fear not. We are prepared. We have candles coming out of our arses. We have torches. And we have a metric fuckton of Japanese food we bought on our way home from picking up storm supplies. Look at all that," he said as he panned the phone of the candlelit food. "So, darling, do you want to tell us what we have today?" 

"Well, first, we have sushi. We have salmon and white tuna nigiri, and we have salmon and tuna maki. And a shrimp tempura roll, which I'm super excited about. We also have chicken, shrimp, and steak mixed plate of teriyaki with extra vegetables because they're my favorite. Steamed and fried rice. Miso soup. Seaweed salads. And steamed dumplings because we're apparently pigs?" I pointed to everything and spoke as clearly and cheerfully as I could. Edward laughed from behind the phone.  

“We could have gotten more,” he told me.

“Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Besides, didn't you buy a bunch of desserts?” I asked him curiously.

"Yeah," he said happily. He poured us each a fresh glass of wine. Edward picked up his glass, and I took mine. "A toast to stormy weather. Prost." 

“Salud.” I clinked my glass against his. Edward had the best smile. He put the camera down. 

“You're a natural.”

“Well, I did take like two years of drama in high school or whatever.” I did a silly hair flip. He chuckled. 

"And it shows! It's probably just going to be for me, though. My diary. I want to remember every detail of this night." 

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5/21/2019

Episode Twelve: When The Lights Go Out

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Episode Twelve: When The Lights go Out

Warning: this episode contains graphic sexual descriptions. Reader discretion is advised. Intended for a mature audience only. (18+) 

For the first time in the week, the morning was not sunny. It was a lonesome gray with angry clouds filling the normally blue sky. The rain was coming down slowly like a dripping faucet, in fat heavy drops. I hadn't looked at the weather in a few days, and it took me a little by surprise. LA wasn't known for its rain, and there hadn't even been a chance last time I looked. But that was a week before. Last Monday or Tuesday, maybe? Edward had talked about the rain with others I realized as I thought about it. I couldn't remember any of the details though. I had been too lost in my own daydreams.  

I hadn't slept much the night before. Or, really at all. I thought about Edward and what I was going to do with these... feelings. The likelihood of me never seeing him after the morning was nearly one hundred percent, as sad as it made me. I hated that I had a crush like a child. He was a celebrity, and he had access to a lot prettier girls than me. Younger women. Or, men. I was sure I wasn't the first person to be so struck by him. And Edward was charming with me, but he was probably that way with everyone. He flirted easily enough with the girl from the party. At least, that's what I told myself. 

My bags were packed for my flight back home, and I had showered again already before the sun had even come up. I was trying to relax to get to sleep, but it didn't work. I had edited probably three hundred images of Edward, his home, and our amazing days together instead of resting like I should have been. My phone and spare batteries were fully charged, as was my laptop. All I had to do was put them in my backpack and go. There was nothing else for me to do but wait the two hours until I had to go to the airport. Edward wasn't a morning person, so I didn't expect to see him. Especially after such a long busy weekend.  

That is until I heard the gentle tapping on the door. I almost mistook it for the rain. I had to wait for the second knock to be sure. It was just before eight in the morning.

“Yeah?” I quickly stood from the bed, smoothing my clothes and closing my laptop. 

Edward slowly opened the door to peak in. “I... saw the light. I'm not waking you?”

“Of course not,” I told him with a forced smile. “What are you doing awake? I didn't expect to see you this morning.”

“I've not been asleep, to be honest,” he said it with very little hint of his normal cheerfulness. “I worked on editing all night.”

"Me too." I took a few steps forward, and he came into the room a little more to meet me in the middle. The rain began to fall harder, hitting the glass of the windows with little clicks and clanks.  

"So, I know that it's really important to you to remain professional while you're working," he began, but he seemed to struggle to find the right words. 

“It is,” I agreed, though I certainly hadn't remained very professional in the past few days. “But, I'm off the clock right now,” I used his line from before.

He took a deep breath like he had to steel himself. “Bella, I meant it when I said that I am very fond-” Lightning crashed not far from us, loudly cracking to the ground and shaking the whole house. We both jumped a half foot closer to one another. There was the loud explosion outside that shocked us both so that he took me by the arms as if he was about to protect me from something. The lights flickered off after a second. A transformer must have blown from the lightning strike. Car alarms could be heard beeping outside out of sync. 

I was grabbing onto his shirt, holding onto it as I looked back over my shoulder at the storm brewing outside through the large window. When I looked back, he was gazing directly into my eyes. He wasn't smiling, his face was earnest and worried. 

“Isabella, I like you,” he said loudly in the electricity-free silence. A little too loudly. “I am more than just fond of you,” he said more softly after he cleared his throat. 

"I like you too, Edward. So much," the words came out before I had time to think about them. 

“I have such strong feeling for you. I'm kind of overwhelmed by them because honestly I've not felt like this about a person before and I thought I had-” he was interrupted again by the loud ringing of my cell phone. I knew the tone instantly. I let go of his shirt as if I had just been caught doing something naughty in church by my grandmother. 

“That's my boss. I have to take this,” I said with a red hot flush covering my entire face. I was actually so hot that I was dizzy. I mumbled, “I'm so sorry.” It was a warm wet slap of reality.

“No, go ahead. I understand.” He let go of me so I could go get my phone from the nightstand.

"Hello," I answered, but with my free hand I reached out to him. His smile returned for the first time. Edward closed the gap between us, and he took my hand into his, quickly bringing it to his mouth so he could kiss my knuckles. I had to hold back a childish giggle of delight.  

"Hey, Bella- it's Jessica. I've got some bad news. I was just checking my email, and I got one from the airline. It was forwarded to me too since I made your arrangements. Your flight has just been canceled due to the weather. I wanted to make sure you knew as soon as possible. I hope I didn't wake you." 

“Um. no. You didn’t. Wow, I didn't realize it was that bad.” Edward held my hand as I spoke, our eyes locked onto the one another. He could hear the call as well. His smile grew even wider.

“Yeah. There is a good chance that tomorrow's flights will be canceled or at the very least delayed. So, I negotiated with the airline and got you fifteen hundred in credit to get a flight out whenever you want, weather permitting. But, I can't give you any extra cash for a hotel or food,” she explained, obviously concerned. She had gone above and beyond already though. “I’m sorry.” 

I was giddy, talking way too fast, “no, that's not a problem. I can afford to be a tourist for a couple of days. That's amazing about the credit. It's so much! When do I need to use the credit by?”

“It doesn't expire. And, you don't have to use it all at once. It's like a gift card. I sent everything to your email,” she said, obviously worried for me.

“That's great, actually. Thanks. Maybe I can have a little vacation since I'm here. Stay an extra day or two. Give them a few days to catch up from the madness this is sure to cause,” I told Edward as much as I told her. He nodded. 

“You are welcome to stay for as long as you want,” Edward assured me as he squeezed my hand gently. 

I brought my hand up to his face to brush my fingers over his cheek. "Thank you," I said quietly. His skin was so soft. He had just shaved, and I could smell his body wash on his freshly showered skin.  

“Is he there?” Jessica said excitedly, whispering loudly like he couldn't still hear her over the tremendously loud phone.  

“Yes. He's very sweet.”

He brought my palm to his lips, and he kissed it lightly, his eyelashes fluttering gently against his cheek as he did. I was having a little trouble breathing. An aching began to grow in the pit of my stomach. 

Damn, he is pretty. And, he is kissing me like that. 

“Oh, really? You'll have to tell me all about it... later. Send me your edits by the end of next week though,” Jessica pulled my attention back to her. 

“Not a problem,” I assured her. I had probably already edited the ones I liked the most anyway. I had at least two thousand pictures to send in total. I wasn’t sure if it's what they wanted, but it was what they were getting. I could probably send them enough to double that though, but it would have been a bit too repetitive. 

“Enjoy your vacation and stay safe from the storm. It's supposed to be really bad. Like a few inches of rain and really strong wind. Flooding, too. Be careful.”

“I will,” I promised before hanging up the phone. I tossed it onto the bed and looked back at the handsome man standing across from me. “Oh, darn," I said dryly. "My flight was canceled, and I won't be able to reschedule for at least a day. Maybe even two." 

“Oh, no,” he mimicked my tone. “That. Is. Terrible.”

Well, when fate gives you a chance...

I decided to literally jump him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hopped so that I could wind my legs around his waist. He caught me easily in his thick, strong arms, holding me up as I pressed my mouth against his. 

“I want you,” I told him simply between hot wet kisses. 

His lips were soft but insistent, his grip so tight on my thighs it hurt in a good way. I held his face in my hands, trying to desperately keep up with his mouth. Edward was an amazing kisser. I wasn't surprised. His mouth was perfection.

We continued to kiss as he carried me out into the hall. “My room?” He asked against my mouth, pulling only a few millimeters away. I couldn’t have cared less where he carried me off to, as long as he was holding me.

I nodded my answer before kissing him again harder. 

The feather down blanket was thick and soft against my back as he laid me down in the center of his king-sized bed. He knelt over me, my legs dangling over the edge of the mattress. His mouth explored my neck and the exposed skin of my chest. 

“Is this okay?” He asked between quick kisses of my lips that spread all over my cheeks. “I don't want to rush you. I wasn't-”

“I jumped you. Literally,” I laughed as rubbed my fingers underneath his tee shirt. It felt so good, his skin delightfully soft. I slid my hands up until I pulled his shirt over his head. We kissed for several minutes as my hands mapped out his very tight muscles. 

His hips seemed to fit perfectly between my legs, one of his hands holding my thigh as it wrapped around his waist. We ground against each other like teenagers. He moaned and hissed when I tugged my fingers through his hair, pulling him back so I could begin to kiss his neck and catch my breath. 

He likes hair pulling, noted.

With a surprising amount of deft, he unbuttoned my shirt and pushed his large hands underneath my tank top. I lifted myself up and pulled off my purple flannel before he peeled off the white undershirt that clung tightly to me. 

“Oh, they're perfect,” he moaned loudly as he shoved his face into my favorite purple lace bra covered breasts. I couldn't help but laugh and hug his head to my chest for a moment. I then reached behind me and undid the hooks for him. Edward pulled the straps from my arms and threw the item to the floor dramatically over his shoulder. He smiled as if he had just won the lottery. 

He covered my chest in hot kisses, not missing a single inch of my breasts. He saved the nipples for last, and when he finally touched them with his tongue, I could have cried with happiness. My nails scratched along his back before I dipped my hands into the back of his basketball short to grab his very fine ass.  

Edward was not wearing any underwear. God Bless. 

He gasped when I squeezed as tight as I could with both hands. 

“You cheeky little thing.” He nipped at the soft underside of my breast, making me squeal and laugh. 

“I like your ass so much,” I confessed as he came up for another kiss on my mouth. I slid one of my hands up his back while the other gripped him again. I could feel his erection press against my jeans.

“I've honestly never been told that before,” he said into my ear, his skin so hot against my cheek. The sweat was already beginning to form on his forehead in the air-conditionless room. 

“It looked so good in your flight suit,” I whispered against his temple. 

I kissed away the sweat and pressed my lips along his ear before tugging at it with my teeth. He undid the button of my jeans, and together we forced them off my legs. I laid in front of him in only my faded Halloween panties from probably five years ago.  

I suddenly realized I needed to visit a Victoria's secret or something. At least a Target. 

Edward's smile brightened when he saw them. They had happy little purple vampire bats on them. "Love them," he mumbled as he moved his hand first down my stomach then between my legs over the fabric of my underwear. He was slow and gentle as he rubbed my clit through the thin material, increasing the pressure until my back was arched and I clutched to him as he kissed my chest again.  

The first time he slid his fingers further down I could feel the fabric of my panties become soaked with my own arousal. 

“Oh, fuck...” I whined as my head rolled back into the side of the blanket. 

He slid two of his fingers underneath my panties and ran them over my already throbbing clit. Working me as he had before but with more pressure, he began to speed up and as he did his hand became slick with me. All the while giving me the most delicious hickey on the side of my breast, just beside my nipple.

He came up for a kiss on my lips then looked me in the eyes. He was so sweet and almost nervous. “Tell me what to do.”

I brought my hand down to where he was inside of me and showed him how hard I wanted him to press without words, arching my hips up to meet his fingers. When he had it just right I slid my own up to my clit, rubbing it gently with two of my fingers. 

Edward actually gasped when he felt me tighten around him for the first time. 

“Oh, my god,” he muttered before attacking my mouth. I tightened even more around him as I began to cum. I had already been so close before. “Yes, please. Oh, my god,” he said between kisses.

“Don't stop,” I begged over and over again as one turned into another. I bucked off the bed and kicked at the edge as my feet tried to find purchase from the power of it. I hadn't gotten off like it in ages. My toes actually curled into the blanket. It felt like a week of slow foreplay had led to this moment.

When it became too much, my body jerked away instinctively before then curling into him. He kissed along my hairline, a slightly crooked smile on his plush lips. 

“Is that normal for you? Getting off more than once?”

“I'm really easy,” I admitted softly, embarrassed as I panted a little. “I've always been. I'm pretty good at getting myself off.”

“I can see that. And, I am very impressed. It's a skill I've mastered as well,” he teased in his playfully deep voice. 

“I bet you have. I'd like to see your skills in action.” I moved my hand down his side and tugged at the band of his basketball shorts. I nibbled on his ear. “Do you have condoms?”

"Yes!" He answered as he quickly hopped off the bed and went to his bedside table. He had a brand new, unopened box. I tugged off my totally soaked panties and crawled up the bed so that I could help him. His hands were actually shaking a little as he ripped the condom from the row. I sat on my knees and took it from him, putting it to the side for a moment so I could tug down his shorts.  

Edward was big. Bigger than I had expected though smaller than I had joked to Alice about. Thick might have been a better word, but he wasn't short by any means. It was perfectly pink, standing completely erect and uncut. 

Damn.

I went down on my hands and knees so I could suck on him. I don't think he was expecting it though, a visible shiver of pleasure running through him as his breath went ragged.

I had always loved oral. Giving always made me feel so powerful. The noises he made were not voluntary, and I could feel his thighs tremble. When I looked up at him his head was resting to one side, his eyes shut tightly with his teeth biting deeply into his bottom lip. I knew I could finish him with my mouth, but I wanted more than that. When I pulled away, I gave a final lick in one slow motion while still stroking him with my hand.  

“Thank you,” he breathed as I kissed his stomach, his fingers weaving gently into my hair. 

“You're so polite,” I teased him, kissing his mouth. His face was flaming red. I loved it. I continued to slowly play with him. 

“It's not nice to be... rude to the woman... who is doing good… amazing... uh... things to you,” he struggled to say, panting as he did. He had to concentrate to get the words out. 

“I can see your logic.” I kissed along his jaw, tugging his hair back with my free hand. He jerked in my other hand. “I don't think that's what you like though. Being polite.”

“I think I'll like whatever you want to do to me.”

“That's dangerous,” I teased him again, finally reaching for the condom. “What if I'm really, really, really kinky?”

He smiled at me. “Promises, promises.” 

I grinned from ear to ear. 

I opened the wrapper, looking him directly in the eyes as I did so. “Just so you know, I'm going to ruin you for other women.”

He looked me over hungrily. “Already done.”

I wanted to laugh with absolute joy. 

I slipped the condom onto him and shoved him down to the bed. Straddling Edward's waist, I leaned down to deeply kiss him on lips. As I did, he ran his hands over my thighs, gripping my ass.  

Even as wet as I was, I had to slowly push myself down onto him. I could feel him deep in my stomach, my head leaned back as I pushed my hair out of my face with one hand. Gently I began to rock on top of him, his hands squeezing my hips as he helped me to find the perfect rhythm for us. When we found it, I began to play with my clit again.  

“Ohhhh...” he drew out as he threw his head back against the pillows. His hips tightened underneath me, his sweat on my thighs. It wasn't hard to cum again as I called out his name. It was too much for him as he felt me tightened around him. His hands squeezed my waist, forcing me down hard on top of him over and over again with increasing speed. Edward went silent for his own orgasm, his face twisting into the pillows as he thrust up wildly into me.  

I leaned down to kiss his shoulder when he finished, pulling myself off of him but still resting on his chest. We laid in silence as we tried to catch our breath. We were like that for several minutes.

Lightning brought me back to reality, shaking the house around us. We still didn't have power. I moved off of him silently and went to the bathroom, washing my hands and cleaning up. When I came back, he had removed the condom and was throwing it away. Edward went to the bathroom to clean up as well, and I took that opportunity to get underneath his super soft blanket that definitely needed to be cleaned.  

I reached for him when he got out, and he smiled an almost shy grin as he rushed over to join me under the covers. His arms wrapped around me and my body felt like it fit perfectly against his. I was so tiny against him. I felt so safe and warm. 

We fell asleep holding each other within a few minutes. 

It was still daytime when I woke, and it was still raining. The power was still off, too. Edward's big arm was draped over my hip, his hand on my stomach while his chest pressed against my back. He was asleep. The gentle rise and fall of his chest as he slowly breathed was very soothing. 

I got up quietly and put on his t-shirt which fell to my knees. I couldn't find my shirts. I went to my bedroom to look at my phone. It was two in the afternoon, and I had missed several messages from Alice asking about my flight.  

I texted her back quickly. She was working. “Sorry I missed your call and texts. Forgot to message you this morning. My flight got canceled. I won't be able to fly out for a few days. I'll let you know when I know more.”

“What were you doing?” She texted back right away. “Where will you stay?”

"I fell back asleep. I couldn't sleep last night. Eddie invited me to stay with him, so no worries. Sorry to worry you earlier. I got distracted. The power is out because of the weather, so I'm going to conserve my phone battery. I'll talk to you later." 

“Be careful and tell me everything when you get a chance.”

I put my phone on power saver mode and put it back on the nightstand. There wasn't anyone else I wanted to talk to that day besides Edward. 

I couldn't make coffee, so I made myself a glass of milk and went to look out over the pool. The storm had knocked over one of the chairs, but that seemed to be it. There were few lights to be seen out towards the city.  
I glanced over my shoulder and realized Edward was watching me from the darkness of the hallway. He was wearing only his basketball shorts. 

“Hi,” he said quietly. 

“Hi there.” I felt shy.

Edward took a few steps out of the darkness. “So, that was something else.”

“It was.” I suddenly felt very timid. Where had my confidence from earlier gone? “I guess we have things to talk about now.”

“I want to date you,” he said bluntly, quickly. Like he had to get it out. “I want you to be my girlfriend. I mean, I want to be with you. If you’ll have me.”

It made me smile and made me feel sad all at the same time. “I live on the opposite coast, Eddie.”

"I already travel a lot for my work. I've gone to New York a few times. I can come to see you, and I can fly you out to see me whenever you want," Edward said softly. "There are more ways than ever to keep a long distance relationship working. And I could always move to New York. I could do my work anywhere. Or, maybe one day I can convince you to move here. There isn't a better city for photographers than LA. Look, this week with you has been one of the best of my life, and I already know that I don't want to miss this chance with you, Bella. If you feel the same way." 

“Isn't it obvious how I feel about you?” I asked him, embarrassed by my own feelings. “But I can't afford to fly whenever I want, Edward.”

“I'll pay for your tickets.”

I shook my head. “That's not fair. I don't want you to feel like I'm using you ever.”

“Darling, no. I wouldn't. I'm offering. Honestly though, If I could have my way you'd just never leave and that would fix that problem,” he said half-jokingly. 

I glance back out the window again into the rain. “I have to go back to New York eventually. Probably on Thursday or Friday. You have to work, too. We can't let this keep us from our responsibilities.”

“Would you consider staying a week at least? I'll take care of everything. Give me a chance to convince you to stay with me forever.” He closed the distance between us and took my hand from my side. “Please?”

“A week?”

“Or, two?” His smile grew childishly wide as he saw he was winning. I sighed as my resolved slipped.

“A week. It's cheaper to fly out on a Tuesday or a Wednesday anyway. But I don't want to get in the way of your work.”

Edward was grinning happily. “Last night I got a week's worth of editing done. I'm way ahead. Besides, you make me feel so inspired. There are about thirty things I want to write down once I get a chance. After I get us some food, of course.”

"We might be stuck with Little Debbies and Pringles. You should check the weather, and if there is a break, we should go to the stores to get supplies for the lights being out. You are very much lacking in that department." 

“You're right but first...” He pulled me fully into his arms and kissed me lightly. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

“Oh, my god. Are we in high school?” I teased him, wrapping my arms around his neck. I clicked my tongue and rolled my eyes playfully. “Gonna, like,  take me to prom and stuff?”

“Baby, I'll take you wherever you want to go if you'll be mine.”

“Man, you're like a cheesy song lyric. Stop. I'll be your girlfriend if stop being such a try hard.” I tugged at his hair gently.

“But, trying hard is kinda my thing though,” he pouted playfully.

“You don't have to try that hard for me. I'm easy, I promise.”

“Just because you're easy doesn't mean you're not worth the extra effort,” he told me so seriously.

“Aw, that's the nicest way anyone has ever called me a slut before.” I placed my hand over my heart and smiled wildly while fluttering my eyelashes. I loved watching the momentary panic in his eyes before it fully sank in what I said. 

Edward laughed loudly. "Oh, GOD! That is not what I meant, and you know it. Besides, I don't think you're that easy at all. I think you are cheeky. And naughty. And stubborn. And challenging. And amazing.”
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5/21/2019

Episode Eleven: The Final Day

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Episode Eleven: The Final Day