Self Control [Carlisle Cullen]

13

"Anna is nice," Bella said that evening and sat down on the couch, next to Edward. He placed his arm around his wife as Jasper lit the fireplace.

"I know," Alice said. "She is very fierce, but so sweet."

"You never talked to her before," Bella pointed out with a raised eyebrow, on which Alice only grinned widely.

"I will. And I like the conversations we will have." Alice leaned down to wrap her arms around Jasper, who immediately started smiling as soon as he felt his girl around him. Standing up, he turned around to completely embrace her.

"Carlisle over here," Edward started, "did a horrible job talking to Anna Hendriks." He started laughing again and Carlisle didn't react to it. He just leaned back on the couch.

"Yes! That's right! How did it go?" Bella sat up right within a second and watched eagerly how Carlisle examined all of them.

Rosalie, standing by the window, didn't seem very interested. That wasn't a surprise. When Edward met Bella, she had been acting the exact same.

"I wouldn't say terrible," Carlisle started, "but it didn't go very well either."

"What?" Emmett jumped on the couch beside him.

Edward started laughing again and Alice joined him. Of course she knew it as well. Probably seen it.

If Carlisle would've been able to blush, he would've done it. "I just rattled. We went to Clearwater's, it's were she works. Apparently, she thought I was planning a murder because of all the things I bought."

Carlisle looked over his shoulder to the paper bag that was still in the hallway. He didn't know what to do with it and didn't dare to throw it away, for some reason.

His family bursted into laughter and pat him on the shoulder harshly. "Well, she's not wrong!" Emmett almost wheezed and Carlisle tried to laugh with them.

He didn't think this was funny at all. It was dangerous for both of them. "Bella," Carlisle interrupted their laughter, "how was your conversation with Anna?"

Bella leaned against Edward again. "Nice. She was a little wary, but loosened up quick. We talked about where we came from. She's not from Germany, but from the Netherlands."

"That explains the accent," Carlisle muttered. He had been in the Netherlands a couple of times through the ages, but the last hundred year he hadn't been there.

"But I think she's onto something," Bella continued fast, now with a worried look on her face. "I know that Anna is your kind of Bella, Carlisle. She smelled really good, I can't deny it. And I understand that you want to get to know her so you can overcome your thirst, but..."

"But she knows something is going on with us," Alice finished her sentence. "Now that we are connecting with her, she has been curious about us, just like Bella once was. Good thing we don't leave any tracks on the internet."

"She googled us?" Rosalie snapped, already angry because of it. With a little imagination, you could see a thundercloud above her head made from fury.

"Rose," Emmett sighed, trying to calm her down. "Let them talk." Rosalie pushed her lips together.

"Well, yesterday I sent her a following request on Instagram," Bella shared with them. "She accepted it and wanted to follow me as well. I sent her a message that today I wanted to lunch with her."

"And what is the deal about that?" asked Esme, who joined them a couple of minutes ago. Carlisle smiled at his sister.

"Carlisle, you don't know anything about this new generation, do you?" Alice asked and Carlisle shook his head. He barely had any contact with this 'Gen Z' people were talking about, and wanted to keep it that way for now.

"They could join the FBI without question," Emmett said and chuckled. "I heard some girls talking the other day. They only had the first name of this dude and within thirty minutes they found all of his social media accounts and even his mom's." Emmett shook his head. "Carlisle, they're insane."

"So, you're saying Anna Hendriks did the same to us?" he asked wary.

"Of course she did!" Alice exclaimed. "She probably searched through Bella's followers and mine, since my account is open. I quickly saw in a vision that she found out about Forks."

"What else does she know?" Esme asked a little concerned.

Alice shook her head. "I don't know. I can't see Anna clear in the future, it changes so fast. Maybe Edward should take a look inside of her head."

"I have to get close to her," Carlisle muttered to himself and his family turned their heads to look at him. "But she can't get close to us."