Bring Him Home - Chapter 11

The rest of my morning went quite smoothly, everyone had calmed down and super-efficient Judy had sorted out most of the issues in the office. The only things she had missed were the dirt smudges in my office and private bathroom. I was a little freaked out that he had obviously been in my office while I was asleep, but I was fully dressed under my blanket so I knew there was nothing to see.

Lunch time saw us all downstairs with Emmett in the gym for our next self -defence practice session, this one was a stricter session and we all got to participate instead of it being the Rosalie and Emmett show. As the girls worked off their stresses and strains it was good to hear everyone laughing and groaning as they practised attacking and defending themselves. As I stood back and watched I was so happy that I could provide this for them. Esme was growing in confidence every day and it was wonderful to see a beautiful confident woman emerging from the shadow of her former self. She rarely talked about her former life and the only details I had came from the talk we'd had, and from her uncle in the very beginning. I was confident she would open up fully eventually, we just had to wait for her to be ready.

Judy and the others were learning moves that could save them if they got into a tricky situation but it was Rosalie I worried about most, her lifestyle at the moment led her into situations that frightened me. I slept better knowing she was able to look after herself. My Daddy may not have been alive anymore but I always carried my pepper spray just like he had made me when I was a teenager. I'd even made sure all my staff had some, especially the ones that went out to meet clients.

We all showered and went back up to the office to have lunch, I'd arranged to have the local deli deliver in sandwich platters with chips and a veggie platter and dips. It was Irina's turn to stay and answer the phones so we knew everything would be set up waiting for us in the conference room. As we reached reception there was no sign of her so we walked through to the conference room to see if she was in there, what we found caused a collective gasp followed by an Ahhhhhh.

On the conference table in among the sandwich platters was the biggest flower arrangement I'd ever seen. There were dozens of different blooms in an array of colours, the scent coming off them filled the room.

"Who are they for?" Rosalie asked as she reached for the card.

Irina smacked her hand away "They are for Bella so leave well alone" she said as she reached for the card and passed it to me. I was shocked, who would send me flowers? I opened the envelope and read it out loud

Bella I'm so sorry if we offended you at breakfast,

 please accept my apologies.

Let me take you out to dinner to make up for it.

Jake

He had left his number on the bottom so I could call him.

"Who the hell is Jake and when did you have breakfast with anyone other than Rosalie?" Alice asked as she started on the veggie platter. Rosalie explained about the meeting in the elevator and the subsequent trip to the diner but luckily she kept my storming out to herself so I didn't have to explain about them mentioning the you tube clip. As we sat chatting and eating lunch the girls debated on whether I should call him or not. The consensus seemed to be that I should  go out with him so I could let him have a chance to apologise, they were all well aware that I had no experience with men and dating so they changed dinner to lunch and suggested I stay close to the office. While I understood they were just looking after me sometimes I wondered just who was the boss!

I took the card back into my office as we all went back to work and put it by my desk phone. As I looked at it I one again bought up the you tube clip, it had risen to over a million hits and we were no nearer to finding out who had posted it but Alice assured me that Jasper was getting closer to tracking who it was. I couldn't concentrate for the rest of the day; my mind was filled with questions

Why was the homeless man homeless?

Why had he suddenly appeared at our building?

Who was trying to target my business?

Why did Jake want to take me to dinner?

There was another PR business in the building, did he work for them?

Was he trying to make fun of me?

I decided to pack up for the day and go and do something I always did when I needed to either clear my mind or remind myself how fortunate I was, I volunteered to help out at several shelters in the area.  I mostly worked in the soup kitchens because I loved to cook and when you live alone it is pointless cooking a big meal. So I picked up the two boxes of protein bars I'd asked Judy to purchase and after saying goodbye to everyone I made my way across town to the shelter.

Bree Tanner, the hostel manager let me in the back door, "I'm so glad you're here, I was going to call you anyway, two of my regular volunteers have let me down at short notice so it's just us I'm afraid".

"We can't do all this on our own, let me see if I can drum up some help" I told her as I called the office. I asked anyone how didn't have any commitments to come down and help and thirty minutes later Rosalie, Judy, Esme, Alice and Jasper all arrived. By this point I had already looked at what was available to cook with and today the spoils were quite meagre.

"I know there isn't much today Bella, I was hoping we would have had some more donations  but  two new soup kitchens have opened up in the last two months, whilst that's great for getting more people fed it means that we are struggling to get donations of food." Bree explained

I looked again at what we had to work with and just couldn't come up with anything remarkable to cook.  I'd never had a problem before and I was aware that we were running out of time so I made a decision.

"Jasper do you have your car outside?" I asked him, he nodded and I handed him my credit card. Can you please go to the closest supermarket and get the following please?" I wrote out a list of what I needed for tonight and I added enough basics to keep them going for the next week at least. By then I was hoping they would have had some more donations. I'd already decided we were going to try and do something to raise the profile of the shelter and help them. What was the point of having all the contacts if I couldn't exploit them now and again?

Jasper took one look at the list and looked up at me. "Are you sure Bella, this is a lot of food?"

"Yes I'm sure some of the people who come here won't have had a hot meal all day, maybe this week so they need it" I told him.

"Here take this" Rosalie said as she handed him a $50 bill.

"I'll put some to it as well" Jasper said as he turned to leave.

"Right let's get started" I said.

Jasper took about an hour before he was back and we all helped to unload the shopping.  I'd already taken all the old tired vegetables and turned them into a lovely vegetable soup and I had some bread rolls proving near the ovens. The girls had taken it upon themselves to set the tables and assemble the serving table so we all we had to do now was finish off the cooking. With time tight we managed to make a savoury mince dish with mashed potato and veg, a quick pasta dish with a tomato and vegetable sauce, lots of fresh garlic bread and an English breakfast sausage casserole with some savoury rice. Everything was hearty, warming and would fill their bellies so they could tell they had eaten something. As my Dad used to say, food that stuck to you ribs.

As Bree opened the doors, I went back into the kitchen to start cleaning up and to finish the last pan of pasta off.  I was just grating cheese on the top when Rosalie shouted through to say we needed the tray. I went out to the serving table and there he was, the homeless guy, standing in front of me holding out his plate.