Hey guys. I don't know what exactly I'm doing with this idea. I'm winging it again, but please don't expect it to be a 60 plus chapter monstrosity like ILMN or a daily-updater. Maybe twice a week? I really shouldn't even be considering starting something up because I need to finish ILMN and then work on my other work, but meh. My mistakes are my own, as always. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but I do own like six different deodorants.

"Bella?" The nasally voice in the cubicle behind mine rang out.

I tensed up and even stopped moving my mouse across the pad to make sure I heard my name being called. What the hell was the twatsicle doing calling my name? When I didn't say anything within three seconds, the chair that belonged to the voice, whom I considered to be Satan's disciple, squeaked across the plastic mat it laid on. I snorted to myself, thinking of just how lazy she had to be to roll her chair instead of just getting up and taking two steps over.

"Bella?" The voice repeated in an exasperated tone.

This was strange. Beyond strange, so I kept my mouth closed and waited to see what would happen. I'd worked at Masen Super Markets Incorporated, or MSM as most employees called it, for almost a year and could count on one hand the number of times that the female just a few feet away from me, had spoken to me. I preferred to assume she was a hermaphrodite or better yet, exactly what I believed her to be- a demon in human skin. We were the only employees on the floor who had cubicles and they were right next to each other. For lack of a better explanation as to why we never spoke directly, Lauren Mallory was a world class bitch. There are very few people that I would ever consider calling a bitch, but she was at the top of my list, as well as my other list, which consisted of people I'd like to run over if I wouldn't go to jail for it. I'd probably pull a Clara Harris and reverse over her fractured form for the hell of it, if I could.

I'm a nice person, I know this, but she brings out the worst in me. I have to fight the urge to spit in her face every time her mouth is open. The problem is, this was pretty much every hour of every day because she never closes it.

On my first day of my contractual employment, she announced to the floor of employees we worked on, that I was there as a temp. I was a contract employee. Therefore, in her mind, I was below her and everyone else who worked in our department of Corporate Purchasing. Really, it wasn't a big deal that everyone knew I was a temp. I didn't care, it was the truth. Lauren and I did the exact same job. We were glorified assistants, but the difference was that even though she was technically an MSM employee, I was good at my job and everyone I worked with, knew it.

Lauren knew it, and hated me for it. She pretended like I didn't exist every chance she got, like I carried leprosy or something of that nature. On the handful of times we'd spoken, once of us would end up calling the other something along the lines of a cunt-tard or a bitch. The cunt-tard caller was myself, of course.

"Bella? Jesus F. Christ, are you deaf?" She finally snapped at my silence.

"No and I'd ask you if you were stupid, but we both already know the answer to that," I finally responded pulling my hand away from my mouse and spun my chair to face the edge of my cubicle.

A few moments later, her ash blonde head peaked out from the side of our cubicles, brown eyes shooting daggers at me while her jaw clenched. "You are such a b-i-t-c-h!" She whisper-hissed, looking neurotic. "I'm going to write your temp agency a letter and tell them you're sleeping on the job, you lint-licking b-i-t-c-h."

I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. I pointed at the office doors that were just a couple feet away from our cubicles and widened my eyes. "Lauren, you do know that everyone here can spell right?"

Her pale face steamed red before she gritted her teeth, eyeing the doors I'd just indicated. "Jasper wants to see you in his office, stat," she spat, looking at the doors again.

I stared at her, well more at the colony of zits that were lining the underside of her eyebrows from her botched wax job. Didn't she know that she could pluck or thread if she had allergies to wax? I must have looked at her for too long because she rolled her eyes and mumbled something like, "Fucking idiot," under her breath before rolling her chair back over to her cubicle.

Locking my computer, I didn't think anything of getting called into Jasper's office. Jasper Whitlock was our boss, he was the manager of the floor and probably the nicest guy in the company. Not that I'd made an effort to meet many people here at the company because I usually stayed on this floor and only ate with people in our group, but either way, I think he would still be one of the nicest people in the entire continent. I couldn't think of a time, no matter how stressed he was, that he'd ever lost his temper or said anything negative about anyone. Besides Lauren. Fortunately, I helped him out with anything and everything he needed because he was well aware of the fact that Lauren was an idiot who confused PowerPoint with Excel on a daily basis.

On my first day here, he was the second person to make an effort to be nice to me. As soon as human resources had led me to the fourth floor and dropped me off right outside of his office, he'd ushered me in, handed me a package of Kit Kat bars, and in a thick Texas accent drawled out, "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Swan." When everyone else was cold and polite when I first started, Jasper was warm and inviting, he took me to lunch and made sure I never ate by myself at the beginning.

I knocked on his half-way open door and waited until he bellowed, "Come in, Bella."

His office was the size of my studio apartment, with large and expensive furniture pressed against the large floor to ceiling windows that took up an entire wall. "Hey Jasper," I said, taking just a couple of steps in.

Dark blue eyes peeked at me from over the top of his computer monitor, pleased that I'd called him by his first name like he'd asked me to months ago. "Sit down," he instructed, sliding his chair over so that his handsome face wasn't hidden by the massive screen.

"Lauren said that you wanted to see me," I told him, plopping down on one of the chairs across from him. It had taken me all of about two days after I started to get over the fact that my boss was better looking that most men on television. Lauren, unlike me, still got all googly-eyed every time she saw him. The only other times I'd ever seen the same expression on her face was when an attractive man from another floor would come by ours, or hours after she'd take her ex-lax pills and pay the toilet a visit.

Jasper grinned at me, retying his shaggy, longish blond hair behind back in a sloppy ponytail, which was his usual hair do while working in his office. "I sure did, Bella," he winked at me before opening up his drawer and pulling out a file folder, setting it on top of his desk. "You like working here, right?" I nodded in response and narrowed my eyes in his direction, all of a sudden a little nervous as to where this conversation could be heading. "You know that I respect and appreciate all of the hard work you've done here with me?"

"Yes..." my stomach started hurting as my mind raced. Was he letting me go? I tried to think of anything I could have done to make him fire me. Maybe it was Lauren. Maybe she'd told him about the time I called her a cunt nugget?

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.

I liked my job. I liked the routine and most of my coworkers, I'd been a lot happier here than at any other company I'd ever worked before. It'd be a lie if I said that I could care less if I got fired. How the hell was I going to pay my bills between jobs? I eyed his trash can in anticipation of the puke that would escape from the deepest bowels of my body if he told me I was a goner.

He slid the file folder over the top of his desk, towards me, his smile turning gentle. "Two weeks ago, Mrs. Cope, who is Mr. Cullen's executive assistant put in her thirty day notice," he explained.

Mr. Cullen?

Mr. Cullen.

There was Edward Cullen, who was the Chief Financial Officer of the company and then there was Carlisle Cullen, our Chairman and also Edward's father.

Before I could dwell on which Mr. Cullen he was talking about any longer, I tried to pay attention and follow where Jasper was going with this. "They've been trying to find a replacement for her, but for one reason or another they didn't choose any of the obvious choices," he continued softly. Those dark eyes glittered in what I hoped was amusement. "I recommended you for the job, Bella. You're smart, young, and work harder than any other person on this floor and human resources as well as the older Mr. Cullen, agreed with me."

He flipped the page of the folder open revealing a crisp white sheet that had my name and a salary that included a number only seen when purchasing a luxury vehicle. "If you're interested in accepting the position, human resources has already put together an offer for you to review." I leaned forward in the chair, reading as quickly as I could the numbers and benefits typed out. There was something about a 401K and health insurance, and oh gosh, my salary. "You'd be working a lot of hours, Bella. Maybe twice as many as you do now and traveling with Mr. Cullen, but I think it's a really good position for you while you finish school."

My mind was racing, trying to understand what I was being offered. A steady job. Good money. Benefits. Sure, from what Jasper was telling me it'd be a lot of hours, but it's not like I had anything else to do. I'd have to take less credit hours, but at least I'd make enough not to take out any more school loans, I thought.

"I'm sure this is a lot for you to take into consideration, Bella, but we can give you until the end of the week to decide whether or not you want to accept the-"

"I'll do it," I told him before he even finished talking.