Bella frowned at her staff that—strangely—stayed way over their working hours, easily chatting over cleaning tables and mopping the floors. Even Tina—usually the first to disappear after her work hours are over—stayed.
Something was obviously up.
She tapped her fingers over the counter she was supposed to wipe and as a suspicion wavered in her head, whipped her head towards Brian who had—oddly—avoided looking into her eyes for the length of the day.
“You okay, honey?”
Bella sidled her gaze towards Lulu, the matronly figure with the unmatronly appearance—her hair blindingly pink, cut short with spikes at the top, multiple piercing on her left ear—her bright blue eyes twinkled merrily back at her. “I’m fine.”
Lulu pursed her lips—smeared with glossy kick ass red. “You sure? You look a little…tense.”
Bella could sense the rising interest among the little crowd behind her, she loved them, she did, she considered herself lucky for finding such congenial and friendly staff but they were so…nosy.
“I’m not tense.” Bella inwardly winced at the defensive tone in her voice.
“Are you waiting for someone?” Tina piped up, her pale green eyes brightening, a sneaky smile curved her lips between the veil of her blond hair. Slim and slender, Tina looked like what ballet dancers should look like.
Bella huffed and glowered at Brian who was staring all too closely at the package of coffee beans before aiming her brown eyes toward the females “Alright, what did he tell you?”
They laughed—the cheerful sound suited the warm, female tone of the store’s interior. “Just that someone got a late night visit from an old friend.”
It was amazing how Misha—a girl who was two years younger than Bella and looked even younger than her true age—made that totally innocent sentence into something more.
“Jacob is an old friend.”
Lulu pounced before Bella even realized she made a mistake. “Aha! His name is Jacob.”
“Jacob.” Tina twittered, rolling the letters on her tongue. “I like it.”
“So, is he going to visit again?” Misha asked, leaning closer from across the counter. Bella ignored her and wiped the counter, vigorously. Their interest in her social life is far from flattering, it just goes to show how lacking it was.
“So, Brian. What does Jacob look like?” Lulu slid to the booth Brian was sitting on, refilling sugar.
“Big.” Brian grinned when Misha and Tina joined them at the booth, all the while giving out appreciative female noises. “Bad.” He grinned at Bella when she gave him a betrayed expression. “Built.”
Bella felt a headache brewing when the girls—Lulu included—squealed with excitement. Now she remembered why she didn’t have a lot of girl friends.
“Brian.” Elongating his name into a whine. The teenage boy shrugged, a small smile on his face. “Lulu bribed me with cookies.”
Since Bella hired Lulu for her cookies, she couldn’t quite blame the boy, besides, it’s not like what he said was wrong.
Jacob did look big, bad and built: the leather jacket, the ripped jeans, the broad shoulders that filled the doorway.
She tried not to think about it, tried not to wonder about whether he was really going to come again, tried not to wait, unsuccessfully she had to admit since there was already a pie in the oven, you know, just in case he’s hungry and was willing to stay a while. Bella snorted, of course he’s hungry. He’s always hungry
She frowned, not that she’s trying to bribe him or anything, it was the least she could do since he was getting out of his way to fix her espresso machine.
She’d missed him, she could admit that much but she promised not to use that as an excuse or a weapon. Not that I could, she thought as she remembered Jacob’s chilly gaze, it was up to him now, whether he wanted to be friends with her again…she really hoped he would. She tried to convince herself that yesterday was a good sign, that he’d miss her just as much as she missed him but after observing the cool and dutiful way he acted as if he was just fulfilling an obligation--ludicrous of course, for what kind of obligation does he owe her anyway?--when he should’ve yelled at her as he would several years ago, she felt her hopes heavy on her shoulders.
Years, she couldn’t quite believed it but then again she could, where she survived on her own without Jacob, without—she felt her heart twist—Edward. She couldn’t quite figure out how she survived.
One day at a time, her mind provided.
One day at a time where she actually let the world in, discovering the little things that caught her up in strong colorful currents where she was helpless to do nothing but plunged in.
Time went fast those days…until she remembered cold kisses and sweltering, bone breaking hugs, then time would slow if not stop, the fast undercurrents of her life hitched and dragged before reality came-a-calling and forced her to pick up her pace or drown.
There were times when she chose to drown.
Days where she closed her eyes and sank into the deepest dark of her mind where she was met by…but it came few and far in between.
She was stronger now, certainly older if not wiser.
But she couldn’t help but miss what she had.
Now one of them had reappeared without warning, without apology, not that he had anything to apologize for, she remembered the numbing sensation that glossed over her mind at the sight of him; big, bad, built, she had to admit that those words fit Jacob to a T, at least his physical attributes and the sudden hard bump her heart had made when she finally realized who it was that walked straight into her café, pissed by the look on his face and almost got whacked in the face by a mop, though, Bella’s hand movements stopped as she mused, the mop would probably break as easy as my hand did.
The memory amused her now more than it irritated her.
Her ponderings broke over Misha’s silent frustrated screech. “But what does he look like? Details, Brian. Details.” She continued when Brian, his face mutinous, opened his mouth to again repeat what he’d been saying over and over again; big, bad, built.
Brian sighed but perked up when Lulu waved a chocolate cookie in front of his eyes. “He’s got long hair, black. To his shoulders.”
The information earned him a biteful of cookie. He squinted his eyes, trying to see the big, intimidating man again in his mind as he chewed. “He’s probably like six foot something.”
“Six Seven.” Bella supplied against her better judgment that made the girls face widen with grin that could only be said as lascivious.
“Native American, that was obvious.” Brian continued, he focused on the cookie Lulu had in her fingers that he didn’t see the sulk in his boss’s eyes. His eyes flickered to the door before they flickered back to his audience, a curious smile appearing on his cute face that got Bella’s back up. “Girls, it’s your lucky day.”
Before Misha, Lulu, Tina and Bella asked what he meant by that, the door opened with a cheerful tinkle of bells, they hadn’t taken them off yet, and in enter Jacob.
Big. Bad. Built.
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