Bring Him Home - Chapter 25

My first thought wasn't about the idiot in front of me and that I was really going to kill him or maybe at least physically harm him this time, no it was that Edward would now think I was on the verge of getting married and that really pissed me off. It annoyed me so much I pushed Jacob out of the way, not caring if I had hurt or injured him and walked over to the booth that Edward and Emmett were sat in having breakfast.

"Hi you two how are you?" I tried to keep it light and hoped that Jacob would just disappear into the ether somewhere.

"Bye bye my Bella, see you soon baby" I heard Jacob shout across to me, followed by two more shouts of "bye Bella"

As I looked behind me to see what was happening I was relieved to see the three idiot's high fiving each other as they left the diner.

"Bella sweetheart what are you doing in here? This isn't your normal hang out" Emmett said as he got up and kissed me on the cheek, " come on join us"  he moved so I could slide into the booth across from Edward. I was still hoping they had missed the exchange with Jacob but I wasn't holding out much hope as most of the diner customers seemed to be staring at me at the moment.

"I had a craving for a breakfast burrito, a little too much wine last night and Rosalie recommended a big breakfast to settle my stomach" I explained but then wished I hadn't, now Edward might think I'd been out partying or even worse still, out on a date with the jerk who had just left.

"My Rosie should know the best cure for that, I've never met anyone who can party like she can" he said as he attacked the huge breakfast plate he had in front of him.

I looked across to Edward and all he had was a couple of untouched slices of toast in front of him and a glass of juice and a coffee.

"That is a simple breakfast Edward it won't set you up for the day" I said desperately trying to start a conversation with him.

"I'm still not too good at eating in a morning Bella this is about as much as I can get down but I'm getting better" he said as he took another swallow of his coffee.

 I was mesmerised and couldn't help but stare as his still slightly chapped lips wrap around the rim of the mug, I held my breath as I followed the mouthful of coffee as he swallowed it and his Adam's apple moved up and down, my breath caught again as his tongue popped out and licked the rim of the mug.  At that point I knew I was in trouble, I'd never wanted to be involved with anyone before but this man was just calling to me on every level possible. I finally breathed out and tried to hide the sound I made, a groan caused by well I'm not even sure what, but I tried covering it with a cough.

I wanted to know everything about him, where he had been for the past however many years and what he wanted to do in the future, I needed to know if he wanted to settle down, get married and if he wanted children, liked popcorn or milk duds and what his religion and politics were. I hoped they were different to mine so we could have discussions long in to the night and then fall in to bed and decide it didn't really matter anyway. As my mind wandered off into the future I was brought back to reality by the waitress putting my order in front of me

"I thought you'd gone, are you eating here?" she asked

"Yep she's stopping, can we have some coffee refills here and an extra one for Bella and my brother here will have some more juice and a portion of bacon please" Emmett said without even looking at me.

I looked at my Burrito and my stomach rolled and I started to push it away from me.

"No Bella eat, Rosalie is right you need some food in your stomach, did you eat last night while you were drinking?"

I though back and realised I hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime yesterday and that was only a sandwich. I shook my head and Emmett pushed the plate back towards me "Eat" was all he said.

I picked up my fork and tried to cut through it, just as I lifted the first piece to my mouth Edward spoke

"So you're getting married then, congratulations, when is the happy day?"

It was my turn to look stunned, my loaded fork hovered in front of my open mouth and I quickly weighed up the possibilities. I could, either put the fork full in and chew slowly, giving me time to best decide how to answer the question or I could just put my fork down and tell him the truth. I went with the second option.

"I made the mistake of agreeing to meet Jacob for dinner a couple of weeks back after he had been pestering me for a date, it was an unmitigated disaster and I have been trying to get rid of him ever since. Unfortunately he seems to be unable to take no for answer, he thinks every time I say no to him I'm just playing hard to get." It was the truth and hopefully enough of an explanation to bring him up to date.

"So you're not getting married then?"

"No I am not engaged, not getting married and definitely not even seeing anyone" I shoved a huge portion of burrito in my mouth before I could say anything else.  I know it wasn't a very polite or ladylike thing to do but I needed a minute to get my thoughts in order, hopefully he would be happy with my announcement.

Both Emmett and Edward smiled at me as I chewed and tried to swallow the food in my mouth. This was a mistake and I could feel the contents of my stomach starting to churn. I quickly pushed Emmett out of the way and made my way to the bathroom, just in time to get rid of the coffee, juice, water and the one bite of burrito I'd managed.  As soon as I was sure my stomach was empty I swilled out my mouth and made sure my hair was ok and I reapplied my lip gloss. I made my way back to the booth ready to apologise to Emmett for pushing him out of the way. As I sat down Edward pushed a glass of water and a single piece of toast towards me

"Try that it will be kinder on your stomach"

I took a sip of the water and I nibbled at the corner of the toast, trying to act as though I hadn't just thrown my guts up in the bathroom.

"So you won't be wanting this then?" Emmett said as he picked up my burrito and took a huge bite.

"This is good " he finally said as he swallowed the huge bite he'd taken.

"I think I'll take your word for it" was all I could murmur.

"I need to get going I'm afraid guys, I have a busy day today, will you be at the gym later Edward?" it was our day for a refresher on the self-defence classes so we would be all in the gym at lunch time, providing I felt better than I did right now.

"No I'm just having breakfast with Emmett then I'm going into spend some time with Dad at the office"

Well that explained the pale blue dress shirt and navy tie.  I was dying to ask if he was going to work there but I didn't want to pry. I was also really curious as to how he'd got on with the Dean.

"Oh well maybe I will see you soon so we can have a catch up" I kept it as light as possible and hoped he would invite for me coffee or something but he just nodded and looked down at his toast.

When it became really obvious he wasn't going to say anything else I said my goodbyes and made me way to the office.

Rosalie was waiting for me as I walked through the door, "How are you feeling boss, do you feel better for eating something?"

"Rosalie I managed one bite of burrito before I was sick, so I don't think food was the answer"

"Oh well you don't need that then" she said as she removed the coffee from my desk. "You'll be better off with water "

She went to the small fridge in my office and grabbed me a bottle.

"So where were you last night? I don't think you have ever come into work with a hangover, in fact I don't really recall you ever going out just for the fun of it" Rosalie looked at me with a questioning look.

"I was at home, alone if you must know. I had a particularly heavy conversation with Jasper and I drank a lot more than I realised"

"Oh Bella you really shouldn't drink home alone, it's the start of a slippery slope"

I looked at her wondering if I was in some sort of parallel universe, the lifestyle she led would make most people's hair fall out never mind curl, and here she was lecturing me.

I sipped my water and took a few minutes to sort myself out, once I was ready I buzzed Judy and Rosalie and asked them to come through to the office, it was time to tell them about the PI.