Edge and Belle

Chapter 6 (Edge): Assistant Coach

Belle looked up at Karen and me, startled, and then irritation quickly spread over her features. As soon as I'd seen Belle, I realized why Karen had grabbed my hand right before we reached the table, so I shook my hand once to dislodge her grasping claws.

"Well, nice to see you," Karen said to Belle, "and we'd love to stay and chat, but Edge and I are here for a lunch date and --"

"We're not here for any kind of date," I snapped at her, her eyes widening at my tone. "We were meeting for coffee so I could explain to you why we could no longer be friends since I plan on pursuing Belle and you're an impediment to that with the way you treated her."

Karen's mouth dropped open but she was too surprised to say anything.

"You dragged me over here because...what? You saw Belle walk in here? You saw another chance to be a bitch to her?"

She snapped her mouth shut, then opened it again to say something.

"Not interested in anything you have to say. Get gone."

Karen's face turned red, with embarrassment or anger I wasn't sure and I didn't care.

"You're still here," I said ten seconds later, pissed I'd let myself put up with shit for too long. She wasn't to blame for me losing Belle -- that was completely on me -- but the bullshit that she'd pulled with Belle that I'd been fucking oblivious to hadn't helped, nor was the fact that we'd once been friends with benefits. Karen couldn't be in my life in any way if I were to have any hope of getting Belle to forgive me. It wasn't even a contest between the two women.

Glancing from me to Belle and back to me, Karen lifted her chin and brushed past me, knocking my arm with her shoulder as she left.

Now to deal with the bigger problem. The fact that Belle was having lunch with West's baseball coach was burning in my gut. Apparently, she hadn't wasted any time moving on from me, which was going to really fuck with my plan of getting her back.

I stuck my hand out to West's coach. "Edge Camden."

He looked at Belle and then back at me before shaking my hand. While remaining seated, no less. "Rob York."

Lame handshake, I thought.

I turned my attention back to Belle. "Could I have a quick word with you, please?"

Belle started to open her mouth, but Rob beat her to the punch. "I need to run to the bathroom, so feel free. I'll be right back."

He walked off, and I could see that him leaving -- more specifically, him leaving her here with me -- didn't sit well with Belle. I quickly slid into the seat Rob had just vacated.

Belle leaned toward me across the table. "You have a lot of freaking nerve, you asshole!"

I held my hands up. "I just wanted to talk with you for a minute. I had no idea I'd see you today, but --"

"Yeah, I'm sure you didn't, what with your date with Karen and all."

"It wasn't a date. I swear to you that I was only meeting with her to tell her that we couldn't be friends any longer because I was going to get you back."

With a laugh, Belle sat back in the booth. "You may as well keep her as a friend, then, because you and I are not happening. I've already seen how that movie ends and let me tell you, it left a lot to be desired."

"Belle, listen to me. I need to explain things to you. I want you to give me a chance, to just talk it out with me. We were good, Belle --"

"I thought we were good, Edge, but found out just how wrong I was. Fortunately, before we got any deeper, I found out what you thought not only of me, but of my children as well."

"I don't feel that way --"

"Suddenly, miraculously, you've had a change of heart about my baggage? Why don't I believe that?"

"Belle, c'mon, I made a mistake in saying that. I shouldn't have said it."

"You shouldn't have said it is right, but you meant it, Edge. You didn't want to be an insta-daddy to my children, did you? Maybe if they were a little younger? Maybe if there was just one?"

"Belle, I didn't even know if I wanted children. I was feeling the pressure and I said the wrong thing."

That stopped whatever she'd been about to say.

"You didn't even know if you wanted children?" she demanded. "And yet you asked to meet my children? You, Edge. You asked to meet them and you asked to start doing things with them. Not me. You. So why the big push, then? Why meet them and attend games and have dinners and let us into your life?"

"Because I liked them," I said. "My head may not have been sure about children but that doesn't mean I didn't like them."

"No, Edge, you didn't like them if you could talk about them the way you did. You said yourself you saw them as baggage, and that there was no future for the booty-call and her baggage with you."

"Can we please forget that?" I asked. "Just chalk it up to my overwhelming stupidity and realize I don't really think that way?"

"Actually, I'm really grateful you said that. I'd never thought of myself as a booty-call kind of girl before, but when I set up my dating profile, I advertised myself as a girl with some baggage looking to be a no-future booty call. Well, Edge, I can't even tell you what a fab-u-lous response I got to that! I put up my profile late one night after the baggage were in bed, and when I woke up the next day, I had twenty-six guys who wanted to hook up, no strings attached! And all because of you changing the way I looked at myself! Now, my calendar is full...and so is the old booty, if you know what I mean. And hoo-boy, some of these guys are freaks in the sheets and I'm learning all sorts of fun things. Really expanding my booty-call repertoire, if you will, but since it's just a bunch of one-night stand, no-future hookups, who the hell cares?"

By the end of her rant, her eyes were blazing, and I thought if she realized just how close her fork was to her hand, she'd probably stab me with it. Multiple times.

But Rob returned before I could say anything, looking between us in confusion, wondering about the clearly pissed off look on Belle's face.

"You OK, Belle?" he asked uncertainly. "We can set up the parent roster later and go over what you need to do as the parent coordinator. It doesn't have to be now."

"No, my mother has the children, so I'd like to get this taken care of today," she said, trying not to sound like she wanted to kill people. Me. "Edge was just leaving, anyway."

Taking my cue, I got out of the booth, held my hand out to Rob and we shook hands again. The thought occurred to me that since this wasn't a date, that meant they had driven here separately.

Perfect.

From my vantage point across the street in a bakery, I watched Belle and Rob leave the Sandwich Shop forty-five minutes later, Belle carrying a clipboard I hadn't noticed before. She took off to the left and Rob went to the right. I hustled across the street, following Rob, catching him just when he reached his car.

He looked up at me as if I was about to beat the shit out of him.

"Hey, no, it's all good," I said, holding up my hands to show I was harmless. "But I've been doing some thinking..."

And that is how I became the assistant coach of West's baseball team.

First practice was in two days, and I started making my plans.

Step one in winning back my girl and her children.