la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

28

Thursday nights at the lodge made for a lot of fun since Charlie's daughter came to town. The record shows that it's remarkably easy to get on Charlie's nerves, most of his friends made a game of it— drink when Charlie makes that face. The one where his lips purse and his nose twitches a little as he rolls his eyes. The invention of that game made sure the Lodge was never, ever worrying about their bills.

Since Bella arrived, the game had gotten a lot easier. Charlie never wanted to subject her to sitting around the round table with the boys so they got a table by the window where Charlie got teased from afar.

Minerva hadn't been out in a while but driving home from the flower shop required driving by the Lodge which she could only resist for so long. Walking in she was greeted with a chorus of her name that lifted her spirits considerably. She gave a general wave before her eyes landed on Charlie and a young brown haired girl in the corner, who's she could only assume was Bella. Minerva had made good on her promise to drop off some flowers when Bella got into town but the girl hadn't been home. Charlie grinned and waved her over.

Minerva beamed right back as she crossed to the corner by the window. "Bells, this is Minerva. She owns the flower shop." Charlie said as she walked up.

"Nice to meet you- oh." Minerva extended her hand without thinking, resisting the urge to wince when she remembered kids didn't really do that anymore. Bella slotted her hand into hers, offering an incredibly weak and unenthusiastic handshake.

"I'm sure you're sick of being a local celebrity but it's really nice to finally meet you. Someone hasn't stopped jabbering about you." Her eyes flickered over to Charlie who's face burned as he glanced away like he'd seen the most fascinating thing out the window. "How're you finding Forks?"

"Same as it's always been." Bella replied tucking her hair behind her ears. Minerva's smile widened slightly.

"It's a liminal little town, that's for sure." She replied, "I'm gonna grab a drink but you ever need a job gimme a call. I don't believe in minimum wage." As she started to walk away, she hesitated, "I mean like overpay.. not underpay."

"We got it, Min." Charlie said with an exasperated chuckle to which she just gave a couple thumbs up before she sunk into her usual stool at the bar.

"Rum n coke?" Lloyd asked from down the bar.

"Please." She responded with a smile, "and a chicken burger."

"Comin' right up."

Minerva took a sip of her drink as soon as it was placed in front of her, flipping open the sketchbook with a soft sigh. As she flipped to a new page, she grimaced. Lately there was only one thing she could draw; one person, actually. It was humiliating, like a school girl scribbling her crush's name in the margins. She made a mental note to tear them out when she got home. The last thing she needed was for Carlisle to flip through her sketchbook and find a hundred sketches of himself. There wouldn't be any talking her way out of that one.

The whole distance thing was harder than she expected to be. Not that's he didn't expect it to be difficult but because Carlisle, himself, made it a challenge. Little Leaf was a good enough excuse most of the time but if she got a text saying 'would you like to grab coffee?' Whatever excuse she could come up with usually resulted in him just bringing the coffee to her. She was always elated when he did turn up, over the moon in fact. It'd gotten to the point she would be on the lookout for him through the shop windows throughout the morning.

There was no way to set a boundary with him without telling him the truth. 'Hey, fella, I haven't felt love in a hundred years but I think you're pretty groovy, so you've gotta stay away from me' was not the way she ever wanted to start a conversation with him. Besides, she didn't want him to stay away. As long as she was imposing moderation to the best of her abilities, that would be enough.