Our Infinite Sadness

Kissing Practice

So they sat at the table again, and he watched her eyes warily as he worked on his breakfast.

"Are you ready to hear my idea for the day, yet?"

He muttered, "I told you, whatever is, I'll like it." Especially if he heard her correctly that she'd be coming to his bedroom tonight. Nothing leading up to bedtime mattered to him, nothing whatsoever; nothing could ruin this perfect day.

"I thought that we could make our way toward a really special place that we know about. My family, that is. You haven't had any opportunities in fair Olympia for rock climbing. That could be rectified."

"Seriously?"

She nodded. "A private place, little known, off every trail. You're probably rusty; it's been months, so we could set protection for you. Chocks, fixed line, top rope. Just to ensure your safety."

His eyes gleamed. "I'm liking it already. You said we. Who's we? You and Alice?"

She squirmed and pursed her lips. "And maybe some others."

He stared, wary again. "Who, exactly?"

"On the way to the cliffs, I thought we could swing by my house— it's on the way— and see who else wants to come."

Ben's mind raced ahead as he stared at the table and munched on his toast.

"Too much?" she asked.

He shrugged noncommittally. "Thinking," he mumbled. He really liked Alice. He also liked Jasper, even though the tall slender boy somehow terrified him for reasons he could not have described. Somehow Jasper seemed the most like a vampire, brooding and leonine, as though he were silently lying in wait, twitching his tail, stalking strays.

Dr. Cullen he had already met, and although he hadn't met Edythe's adoptive mother, everyone said she was accessible and likeable, even Charlie.

He still had misgivings about what her parents would think of him now, after his activities with Edythe over the past twenty-four hours, but she insisted that her parents wouldn't have any problems whatsoever with their new intimacy.

Ultimately it all came down to his conviction that Rex hated him to the core.

"Don't worry about him," Edythe said. "Emilia's working on him, but he probably won't even come with us. He's being a bitter pill about this, but he doesn't hate you. He envies you, as I've said. Don't give it another thought. He'll come around."

"And your parents? They know we are lovers now, correct?"

Edythe breathed, "Oh, yes."

"And they're really okay with that?"

"Carlisle is positive and supportive, but worried. As for Esme... well, you'll find out. I'll only say that she's the very least of our concerns, and I'll let you be the judge when you meet her."

"What about all their secrets, and how as a mortal I'm forbidden to know any of it?"

Edythe shook her head dismissively. "Not a factor," she assured him. "Alice has set them straight on that."

"Oh, has she?"

Edythe nodded. "Our secrets are safe with you."

He harshly said, "I know that, and you know that, but how does Alice know that?"

"Alice knows that you would never betray me. She knows that you and I are one. We live and die together."

He breathed hard, gazing out of the window at nothing but the dreary morning.