The Other Way : Four

Definite Yes

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“No fucking way!” I yelled from the dressing room, attempting to adjust what Rose claimed was a bikini, but I was pretty sure was probably a spare scrap of fabric she ripped off the bottom of her skirt. It didn’t cover anything except maybe my clit and my nipples, the swells of my breast spilling out on either side and more of my ass on display than I could stand, especially if I was going to be waltzing around in front of Jasper’s boss.

Esme would slap me if she saw me in this.

That, or try to steal it from me.

Rose’s head poked through the heavy brocade curtains and she eyed my nearly naked ass appreciatively. “Why not? It’s fucking sexy.”

“I’m not trying to impress anyone,” I grumbled, fingers under the measly hems as I attempted to adjust, only revealing more skin in one direction when I pulled in the other.

“You should. With a body like yours . . . I’m too curvy to wear crap like that.” Rose eyed me with something like jealousy, which I did not understand at all. She poured herself into vintage swimsuits that hugged every exaggerated curve on her body and probably would have made Marilyn Monroe cry tears of frustration.

“I’m married.” I glared at her through the mirror but she only arched one delicate eyebrow and rolled her eyes before her phone appeared in front of her face, the fake shutter snap alerting me to what she had just done.

“Don’t send that to him!” I whirled and lunged at her, falling through the curtain in a desperate attempt to get to her phone before her thumb got to that send button. Rose stumbled backward, holding the phone high above my head and I hated her inherent talent for heels even more, her six inch killers lofting the phone far out of my reach.

“You’re married, remember?” She used my own words against me and I thought briefly about stomping my bare heel onto the tight toe of her stiletto. “Someone should get to enjoy this.”

“He enjoys me enough already,” I grunted as I jumped, fingers swiping through thin air.

“Not in that way.” Rose reached around and swatted my ass, allowing me just enough change in elevation that I managed to swipe the phone from her hand. I fumbled with the buttons, searching for a trash can.

“It’s ok.” Rose shrugged defiantly, watching me struggle with her phone, eyes gleaming. “I can just send it to him with my mind.” She made a show of putting a finger to her temple, closing her eyes and humming dramatically.

“Fuck you both and your creepy twin-thing,” I snapped at her and erased the image from her phone, not at all surprised to find that she’d managed to snap pictures of the five suits that came before it without letting me realize it. She was a sneaky bitch when she wanted to be. I didn’t bother to delete them because I was sure they had already made their way to Jasper’s phone.

“Ahhh, he got it.” Rose sighed and dropped her finger, looking serious enough that I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. “This one is a definite yes, Bella.”

“I agree. Definite yes.” A deep voice echoed through the room, startling both of us and I jumped, clutching Rose’s arms to keep myself upright. I knew that voice.

Oh, Jesus.

Edward Cullen was draped across the red velvet love-seat in the very center of the dressing room, the mirrors on either wall casting a million copies of his sharpened profile into space. A leather jacket was discarded in a rumpled heap on the floor and his hair was deliciously disheveled, falling across his face. Black boots crusted around the soles with mud were propped up on the mirrored table in front of him, scattering dust and dirt across the polished surface, and there was the barest hint of a stubbled shadow ambushing his jawline. I blinked at him, completely unsure if this was a horrible dream or an awesome hallucination, the room suddenly too bright and too loud, my eyes stuck on all the ink he had on display.

A riot of color engulfed each arm and crept from the neckline of his t-shirt.

“Who the hell are you? Get out.” Rose tried to shove me behind her and snarled at Edward, a single, pointed finger indicating the direction in which she would like him to fuck off. She was sort of scary when she was angry and basically fucking terrifying when she was territorial. She was probably both right now, because I was far more than half naked. Her fault, really.

“This is a public dressing room,” he stated blandly, not bothering to answer her question with his eyes locked on me as I peeked out from behind Rose. I was sure he’d already seen the lot of it while Rose and I argued, cringing a little at the thought of me hopping around far more than half naked while I was trying to get at Rose’s phone. I was also sure that I was now mostly covered up behind her but I could still feel something burning underneath my skin and every single inch of me went up in flames.

“For women,” Rose snapped.

“I’m here with a woman.” He jutted his chin defiantly, crossing his arms nonchalantly behind his head and my stomach bottomed out, even though it shouldn’t have.

The curtain to our left whipped open and out pranced a tiny girl positively slathered from head to toe in tattoos and sporting the exact same swimsuit I was. She made it look better than I could ever hope to and danced up to one of the giant mirrors as though she was the only one in the room, twirling on tiptoe to inspect her reflection. Her dark hair was cropped short and there were sparkling hints of metal all around her face, diamonds embedded into the skin at the corners of her eyes and heavily gauged ears sporting hollow earrings the size of silver dollars.

There was a sparrow trapped in each one, the metal silhouette of a bird spanning the empty space, frozen in mid-flight.  

“I kind of like this one,” the tattooed girl mused, her voice oozing out like maple syrup; thick and sugary in a natural, untainted sort of way. Edward swallowed hard and nodded in agreement long before he wrenched his eyes off me, glancing at her distractedly. I watched him pull the two metal hoops piercing his lip into his mouth as he studied her, eyes raking up and down her backside. His gaze found mine again before he spoke, reluctantly releasing the metal from between his teeth.

“That one is a definite yes.”

The girl turned once more to inspect her backside and finally caught a glimpse of Rose and I out of the corner of her eye. Her head swiveled clear around like that girl from the movie with the projectile vomit and a squeal built in her chest.

“Oh! You have the same one!” She danced over and plucked me away from Rose, my stumbling feet following her back to the mirror in a fog of overwhelmed bewilderment. Rose just let me go, maybe a little shocked herself. Neither of us were all that great with other girls and this one in particular seemed a little more than overbearing.

“It looks so much better on you.” Her head angled as she studied us side by side and for all her statement amazed the shit out of me - because it was a damned lie - I was totally distracted by her tattoos. Amid the chaos I picked out a giant peacock on her hip, draping an ornate tail of feathers down her leg nearly to her ankle. There was a blackened silhouette of a gnarled tree on her other calf and a large section of text on her side that looked as though it had been ripped from the pages of an ancient book, the words delicate and feathery. Her whole left arm looked like a Disney movie, mushrooms and butterflies and furry creatures with big watery eyes. A single word was tucked into the elbow of her right arm that I couldn’t quite make out, partially because it was backward in the mirror but also because it looked as though it had been written by a four year old. The last letter dropped off and trailed a good six inches down the length of her forearm, ending in a manic scribbled splotch right above her wrist.

“I totally agree. Definite yes,” she mimed the two opinions voice before her, nodding at me. “This one looks like it was made for you.” Her gaze shifted over our shoulders, falling on Edward as though she felt compelled to include him in her decision. “I’m going to buy the purple one.”

He was too busy staring to immediately respond, the metal hoops back between his teeth and his eyes hollowed out. I’m sure it was the twin curves of her ass cheeks he was so entranced with, fuller and rounder than my own would ever be and barely covered with a hint of silvery fabric.

Though, from the way Rose huffed and snapped her fingers to break his enamored gaze, hers might not have been the only ass he was admiring.

“Yeah, ok.” He licked his lips and met my eyes through the mirror. “The purple one.”

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