Chapter 21. That's What She Said

Patrick F. O'Keefe said to "Say it with flowers." ... And so did this really
cool doctor dude I recently met.
 

 The Confused Actress's POV

Edward's mood swings are giving me whiplash.
I took my earrings off and set them on the hallway table as I made my way
down the hallway to my bedroom after the highly acclaimed but hardly
overlooked food fight at the five star restaurant Carlisle had taken us all to that
night.
I still had some sort of cream sauce in my ear and tried to get it out.
I mean, one minute, he's this sweet intern with genius level ideas for the
show…he's swooning me, making me laugh, making me…orgasm…
I sighed and tried not to laugh as I climbed on top of the pristine Lavender
sheets, instead of taking a much needed shower...the shower could wait, the
sheets were calling out to me.
The next thing I know, he's promoted and suddenly, I don't exist?
It was like James all over again in some ways...I was seething, exhausted and
desperately needed to pass out so I could just, forget the whole week.
sleep felt good.
The next day, when I woke up, however, I was still seething.
Then he leaves me…roses…which, I guess was a nice gesture and all…but
god I hate those things.
With. No. Note…
NO. NOTE.
Hmph.
I showered the caked on food from the previous night, cursed myself for not
showering before bed, dressed and made my typical way to the station
without issue.
AKA, paparazzi.
Thank god.
Then he stops me in the hall to try and apologize…which, I suppose I was a
little harsh with him, but he was really starting to remind me of James with
his...cocky, stupid, vindictive attitude.
When I got there, meetings were already happening and I silently celebrated
for the lack of confrontations as I crossed the set to the dressing room
hallway.
Then I don't even see him for the remainder of the day.
Until…dinner.
I wondered, even as I eyed her office…if Tanya really thought that I hadn't
seen her playing footsie with him under the table or if maybe she was doing it
SO I would see.
So gross.
And HIM…enjoying it!
I gagged in disgust.
And as if that wasn't enough, I had to witness their canoodling in the hallway
outside of the woman's bathroom? Did he NOT see me get up and excuse
myself because I was going to be sick?
It was like he wanted me to see it all and, what, make me jealous?
Was there a POINT to any of it, or was he really just that clueless?
No.
I absolutely refused to believe that.
Overwhelmed, maybe.
Possibly in over his head.
Perhaps even a little stupid when it comes to women…
But I'd read his thoughts before, on the notes he DID leave me…I had to
believe that he was still in there…somewhere.
And then…he throws food at James, which…was fabulous on one level,
hypocritical on another.
I was starting to think that maybe I'd moved things along a little too fast…that
maybe my gut feelings over him were…wrong.
I didn't want to believe that...since I hadn't really had feelings like this in...a
very long time, if ever...which is why I just had to throw some food of my own
at his stupid face. I thought maybe that would get his attention…snap him out
of whatever ridiculous head bloated trip he was on and back into the sweet,
funny, charming guy I knew when he first started at the station.
And I'd really felt like it worked.
Especially when I fell off of the table and he caught me, once again.
I saw him.
I saw the guy I was…
Falling in love with?
That thought caught me off guard.
I wasn't really sure if it even was love, or, what love was...really...or maybe I
was just…infatuated with someone who was such a stark contrast to James
that…
But he wasn't exactly a stark contrast anymore, was he?
That was what scared me the night before…That's why I had to get up and
leave him, immediately…along with the hold he apparently had on me.
The one where his kisses made me feel like I was in another place, one that's
full of happiness and bliss, and Edward's lips on mine.
Goosebumps. Goosebumps. Goosebumps.
They were so soft and sweet…and whenever he touched me the way he'd
touched me that night…I just…
I mean I of all people…I knew how fame could affect you when thrown at you
the way it was thrown onto him, but…
Okay, I just needed to be realistic about this.
I'd just have to try and see him through all of the bullshit that was hovering
over, under and apparently through us and figure out how, if at all, we could
move forward with what I'd previously thought was happening with the two of
us.
But what about Tanya?
I figured I'd have to confront him about that, I mean, none of this past week
was really adding up for me and I couldn't just assume…as easy as that would
be considering what I'd already been through with James…
"Good morning, Isabella," Tanya coo'ed, pulling me out of my thought process
as we passed each other and I rolled my eyes once she was gone.
"Bitch."
"I'm sorry?"
Woops.
"I said, I…have an itch."
No reason for her to know she'd royally pissed me off or anything.
I smiled over my shoulder and quickly made my way to my dressing room to
attempt to spend a day studying my lines and trying to figure out how I was
going to proceed with the object of my affection who also just so happened to
be the thorn in my side.
…..
The Gentleman in Training's POV
Friday went by.
Painfully.
And I don't just mean like, my head hurt because I had way too much cheap
wine…or, hell, it was probably expensive, but still…
I mean like that PLUS Tanya was all…smiley, which was…weird.
James was being a majorly enormous yet, very tiny dick and really gunning for
me.
Carlisle was MIA.
And Bella was…non-existent.
Much like the first day I'd met her.
Her dressing room door remained closed most of the day and it didn't seem to
conflict with any schedules for anything since Friday now seemed to be a free
for all day in every sense of the word.
Alice luckily did not hate me because she was busy hating Mike Newton for
that whole, cream in her hair thing…so there were no needle poking incidents
and she actually helped me out a lot in the morning by finding a nice place for
me to rent out on very short notice. She texted me pictures and bought the
papers over for me to sign in between writers meetings.
I liked the writer's meetings. They were my favorite part of this whole bullshit
promotion I'd gotten and part of me wished I hadn't been.
Promoted that is.
I even got to do a little writing myself that day…which was…fun. It was a nice
break from the monotony and reminded me in the midst of the absolute chaos
that my life was of late, why I'd moved across the county in the first place.
As I sat in the largest conference room we had, I chuckled as I'd scratched the
lines out I'd been trying out a good ten times before I finally found the one I
wanted Mike to use.
I laughed so hard I could barely write from the shoulder bobbing it caused.
My-bee speebeech impebbiment doebn't maybeek meebeee anbee lebbess in
lub wibbith youbuu, Breebeee.
I heard it exactly as I imagined it in my head and I felt it, like with any other
golden line I'd written recently. It was so goddamn fucking perfect that I
wanted to kiss myself.
I could also imagine the look on Mike's face when he went over the lines and I
knew that when he read it, he'd know I wrote that shit, and he'd probably blow
a gasket or two on his way to see Carlilse to complain again.
But I was prepared.
The speech impediment was key to the plot of this week's story line.
It would get the laughs too, and Mike would look like a comedic fucking
GENIUS, which should actually make him happy, since his particular ratings
weren't exactly great after all.
It wasn't like it was gonna be a permanent speech impediment anyway…he'd
get over it.
One thing that it would ensure, as well, that I was pretty happy with, was that
with his wounded mouth and grossly bandaged face, he wouldn't be putting
his fucking lips on Bella for at least a week.
I was pretty sure I could come up with some other way to keep them from lip
locking between now and then. And then another, and then another, and
then...well, you get me.
In the middle of cracking myself up, Emmett texted me.
We hadn't seen each other the night before after the monumentous food fight
at the five star restaurant…he'd taken Rose to a hotel when he'd left,
portraying Jack Black in "Year One" but there were pictures in that morning's
paper that showed us together as though we'd carefully constructed the whole
thing and made mention of how Carlisle was losing control of his studio.
Not good, and I had to assume that part of the reason he was mysteriously
missing that day, was because he was out smoothing things over on the
outside.
Probably covering your ass, too.
"Told ya to take it easy last night, dude," the text read and I typed back, "What
fun would that have been?"
Then I thought about something…including but not limited to just exactly how
many square feet my new place was gonna have, and how much nicer it was
than Emmett's place and texted him again.
"Hey how fast could you get out of your lease?"
"Uh…why?"
"Feel like movin' in with me?"
"You're moving?"
"Didn't Alice tell you?"
"Why would Alice tell me you're moving?" he asked from right behind me,
making me jump.
"Shit man, can you like…I don't know…jingle or something when you sneak
up on me next time?"
He cocked an Emmett eyebrow at me with the word jingle and then asked,
"Well then it would really be sneaking up on you, now, would it?" jokingly.
I explained my situation with Bella and how I'd told her I was throwing a party
at my new place and how I realized I didn't HAVE a new place and then how
Alice had agreed to not only find me a new place, but to put the party together
and he stood there, gawking at me for a minute.
"And you're doing all of this because…"
"I'm calling it, operation, get Bella back."
Nothin'.
"You gonna make me sleep on the couch?" he asked, ignoring my double oh
seven type facial expression.
"Two master bedrooms, one of them's got your name on it," I smiled and tried
to do that waggly eyebrow thing that he did all the time, but...it just wasn't the
same.
There was a Rose filled gleam in his eyes though, and he laughed.
"Ya know what? I'm pretty sure the guy that runs that building has a wait
list…he probably won't care if I say adios to the termites."
"Sweet, pack your shit, Em…you're movin' on up."
He was all over that until she stopped and turned back to ask me, "Wait, how
much is the rent?"
I smiled. "Same as what you charged me."
"But I didn't charge you…" he started, but didn't finished, realizing what I was
getting at.
It wasn't like I needed his money anyway with the freaking gigantasouras pay I
was making.
I clapped Emmett on HIS shoulder this time and then I headed out to pick up
some sun flowers on my lunch break.
Because operation get Bella back was also simultaneously named, avoid
Tanya at all costs.
…
"No…" I put my fingers to my mouth, looking around. "What about that one?" I
asked the florist after he'd so politely informed me that they didn't CARRY sun
flowers…
Of Course.
I'd gotten some advice from this doctor dude who noticed the stress in my
voice at the new and what he said kept spinning in my head as I looked
through the options.
Flowers that are meant to symbolize who she is...what she means to you…
Something of significance.
She IS afterall, just that.
Significant.
"Okay, significant…what do I think of when I look at Bella?"
Ah!
"I'll take a dozen of those…no wait…give me one of those, and tell me where
I can find some Sun Flowers."
Over doing this shit would just piss her off even more.
Simplicity is often best.
And I had plans for the Sun Flowers…and that key Bella had given me.
Later, though.
I purchased the flower and a card and sat outside the studio thinking of what
to write for about an hour, it felt like.
"Bella, your skin is…"
No…
"Your eyes are like…"
Definitely not…
"Your lips…"
Jesus this sucks.
That was about when Carlisle's limo pulled up and he got out.
"Doing a little bit of damage control, Edward?" he asked as he walked up to
where I was sitting and took a seat next to me on the curb.
"Something like that," I smiled and he laughed as we just sat there while he
looked out to the cars passing by and advised me, "I know the feeling."
Silence.
And more feeling like a schmuck on my part.
"Sorry about last night, Carlisle," I told him but he shook his head at me. "In
the end, I thought it was an excellent way to work out office differences," he
laughed and then added, putting a hand on my shoulder, "It'll all work out,
son," he told me. "You might want to make things very clear with Tanya
though, she seemed to have the wrong impression last night."
I scowled at him. "You saw that?"
He laughed a little. "Ah, Edward, my boy, the question is, who didn't see it?"
That's about when my stomach sank.
Oh no.
That meant…Bella probably saw too. "Shit."
"Shit is right, son…and you appear to have stepped into a big flaming pile of
it."
And with that, he got up and walked into the station.
Suddenly, I knew exactly what to write.
I snuck into Bella's dressing room when she was not in there...I mean, she
had to go to the bathroom at some piont during the day, right? And left the
flower along with the note before going to find Tanya and make things right
with her as well.
I certainly had a lot of essplaining to do, Lucy. Given the opportunity, that is.
Oh, you…wanna know what I wrote?
Sure thing…
It said: "Bella, this flower is called the Spring Snowflake. It caught my eye
today because its shape reminded me of the sound of your name as the florist
described it to me…bell. It seems sad, much like you did last night, but holds
a ridiculous amount of beauty regardless of that sadness. Its scent is subtle,
but it's there if you pay attention to it and it holds your attention like nothing
else. I hope I haven't completely screwed up, please come to the party this
weekend. ~ Edward."
It didn't all fit on the stupid card that the florist gave me so I ended up writing it
out onto two or three sticky notes from the break room.
And I know...it wasn't Plato, but it was from the heart and it was the best I
could do. I could only hope she showed up and if she did, you could be sure I
was promptly kicking every other mo-fo out of that new apartment so I could
properly make up with my…
Bella.
…
"So…" I said, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible as I walked into
Tanya's office that afternoon.
She didn't look up from her paperwork, but pointed to the chair across from
her with the pencil in her hand and said, "Have a seat."
I sat.
And then crossed and un-crossed my legs.
Then I ran my hand through my hair a few times.
I bit my thumb nail a little bit.
When I started to talk, Tanya cut me off.
"I really don't want to talk about last night Edward, but if you're going to say
something along the lines of what I think you're going to say, let me just say it
first."
I held my breath as she went back to writing something up.
"I was under the distinct impression that maybe you were horn dogging on
me," she hesitated, peeking up at me, then going back to her work. "You're
not a bad looking guy, and I was drinking a lot, so…"
She just let it hang there for a minute, waving a hand in the air and then
added, "Tipsy plus horny equals a very bad Tanya….I'm sorry Edward, it's not
like Isabella is one of my favorite people in the world but hell, I'm not out to get
her or anything."
"What? No, I know…it's just…why would you think I was...horn dogging on
you, Tan?" I stifled a smile over the horn dog ness because quite frankly, I
didn't want a black eye.
She stopped writing for a minute and I saw, for a very brief moment, a
vunerable woman.
"I'm not going to lie here, I feel stupid even saying it, but I…sort of overheard
some people talking about it yesterday before the dinner."
Uh huh.
"And would…one of those people happen to have been…"
"James."
Mother of!
MAN! He was so much more fucked up then I'd originally thought he was.
"Settle down, Edward," Tanya said, once more returning to the hard ass I
knew and loved. "He's just trying to fuck with you, and the more you let him,
the more mistakes you're going to make, the more mistakes you make…"
"The more Bella's gonna wanna be as far away from me as she can get."
I said it more to myself than Tanya, but she answered anyway.
"Bingo."
"So, if you knew he was just fucking with me, why would you listen when he's
supposedly secretly telling someone I'm crushing on you but really knew you
were listening the whole time?"
Read it slow…it'll still be there.
She gave me a shrug and said, "Like I said, you're a good looking guy...and I
was drunk."
She winked at me and then pointed to the door.
"Now get out and go run a show…Show Runner."
I laughed but damn, she was right…all this time I thought I was playing James
and he was so far above my level of fuckery that I couldn't even see him at the
time being.
I was screwed. I just needed to live with that fact.
...
Later on when I got to the Vudu Lounge, Japser looked at me funny.
"What ya doin' here, Edward? Didn't I pay ya last week?"
"Um…it's…Friday night?"
He took his cowboy hat off and scratched his head. "Didn't Alice tell me you
got yourself a new high payin' job over at the station?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, then why would ya come here to degrade yourself when ya don't need
to?"
I laughed that time and cocked an eyebrow. I just didn't work that way.
"Jasper, do you have someone else lined up to dress like an Ogre?
Or….whatever it is you're scheming up this week?"
"Nope."
"Well then why would I quit and leave you high and dry like that?"
Jasper put his hat back on and said, "I like you, Edward," then he walked to
the back of the bar and I followed him to the rooms back there where he
handed me my next character…uh…uniform.
"Seriously?"
"Still time to take off ya know?" he smiled and I sighed, taking the costume
from him.
"I don't have to dance, do I?" I asked as I eyed the Billy Elliot outfit.
"Not unless the mood strikes ya, Edward," he said, and with that, left me to
change.
God, was I hoping James didn't show up that night.
I was lucky on the one hand, in that James indeed, didn't show up,
however…Emmett did…and Rose and Alice, too.
Part of me was really bummed they hadn't brought Bella with them and I
hadn't heard from her since leaving the flower and card in her dressing room
but I thought maybe she was just working late, so I entered into Billy's ora and
left my own for the remainder of the evening.
"What'll et bay loydees?" I asked the girls, ignoring Emmett's stupid grin and
shoulder bob as he eyeballed my knee socks.
They giggled too hard to answer and Jasper had already sat their drinks in
front of them anyway, so I was saved from coming up with another round of
British wit and went back to my other, older, drunken women customers.
When we were closing things up and I checked my texts for the umpteenth
time that night…
Just in case…
The gang stuck around to help and something in Emmett clicked when he
said, "Oh shit, I almost forgot, I had a little chat with the limo driver, dude."
"What limo driver?" Rose asked him, but I knew what he was talking about.
I smiled, for the first time that day, a genuine, good to go getting ready to
rumble smile because I could tell by the look in his eyes, that Emmett had
gotten some dirt.
"This is…priceless."
"True that, dude," Emmett said as we clinked beer bottles.
"You boys aren't gonna fuck with that James dude any more than ya already
are, are ya?" Jasper asked us. "Seems like the more you fuck with him, the
deeper into this hole you keep getting' yourself, Edward."
I thought about it.
"Just sayin'," he added.
But there was no way this would back fire at this point. I had him, I just had to
figure out a way to…
"Hey Rose, Alice?"
They looked at me cockeyed and both said, "Yes?" at the same time.
"Think you could find a way to invite this…" I looked at the piece of paper
Emmett showed me with her name written on it. "Victoria Shields to the party
this weekend?"
"Edward…" Rose warned and I smiled, fist bumping Emmett as he said,
"YES."
"Not a good idea," Alice added, but it was too late, the seed was planted.
The bulb was bursting.
And, finally it was payback time.