A/N - HEY! Look! An update! Short chapter, but enjoy! Let me know what you think! [Translation: Please review!] The next chapter is . . . how you say . . . full of sexual tension? At least that's my plan :)

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.

Mind Your Own Business

Chapter 12: Princess

Those eight days could not have gone by slower. Waiting was agony. The clock on my kitchen wall mocked me as it ticked by at a moronic pace. The date on my phone glared back at me as I willed it to change. The Mickey Mouse ears Edward set on my desk invited me into happy, but distracting, thoughts of California.

But sure enough, the time to board our plane arrived. We both boarded, sitting next to each other in silence until a few minutes after we had taken off. He grabbed the convention itinerary to read, and I placed my ipod in my ears, needing to sleep. The couple of nights prior to our "work" trip, I hardly slept. Sam had told me everything was handled. Mike would receive the papers, sign the papers, I'd sign them, and everything would be done. Except, Mike wasn't signing the papers. He told me he would, damn it, I cursed throughout the night. Sam texted me just before we boarded, telling me he had received a message from Mike's new lawyer. Turned out things weren't going to be as easy as I had hoped. I wished this trip would get my mind off of the divorce. I needed a distraction, and if that distraction happened to be Edward, I wasn't going to argue.

At all.

A gentle poke to my shoulder woke me up from my song-induced sleep. Opening my eyes, I noticed I had fallen asleep on Edward's shoulder. I quickly sat up, realizing he had poked me to see if I wanted a drink. I politely asked the flight attendant for a water before turning back to face Edward. "I'm sorry," I said. "I don't mean to . . . ya."

He quietly chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Bella. No need to blush . . ."

"So," I moved on. "What's the plan?"

"Well, we'll land at LAX around seven, so rental car, food, then hotel sound good?"

"Perfect. When do actual sessions begin?"

"Tomorrow morning, bright and early. Those go all day. We apparently have a dinner set up with a publication from Nashville tomorrow night. Then Tuesday, more sessions. All day. Again. Tuesday night we have nothing. Wednesday morning is some closing thing, which I really think we could skip and go to Disney. Thursday we have nothing because I tricked my father into giving us an extra day. We leave Friday."

"I like this whole traveling for work thing right now."

"Ditto."

I attempted to gracefully stuff my mouth with pizza at a little place we found down the street from our hotel. We quickly decided that the table of men in the back of the restaurant consisted of owners . . . possibly mafia members. We started making up little stories about each of them.

"That one on the end," Edward started, "has a 12 year old son and a 16 year old daughter. He's staring off into space thinking of how he is supposed to explain to the family that she's pregnant with her boyfriend's baby."

"But the catch is . . . he already killed the boyfriend," I added. "Today. His daughter doesn't know yet."

"The boyfriend was apart of a rival family," he explained. "So once the rival family discovers their dead son . . . more blood will be shed."

I bit my lip, thinking of the next part of our story. "Once the girlfriend, though, finds out he was two-timing her, I don't think she'll care much." I took a bite of my pizza before continuing. "Her father is going to set her up with a nice, approved man to be the father of her baby in order to cover up the scandal."

"If she's not killed first."

I smiled. "Damn. What is wrong with us?" I laughed, taking a drink.

"We should be writers," he said, putting up his glass. "Cheers!"

"Cheers! And um, I am a writer, Edward."

"Oh, right."

Sessions were . . . boring, to say the least. By the third one, I was beginning to think this convention pointless. That was until we saw Jane and Alec Volturi. They entered a session we were in, quickly scanned the room before choosing the two open seats next to Edward and me.

"Oh, hi, Bella? Is it Bella?" Jane extended her hand for me to shake it. Alec nodded at Edward before Jane gave Edward her hand as if he was going to kiss it. Edward looked at it and then sat back in his chair, ignoring the creepy duo.

"Yes, Bella. Nice to see you Jane. Alec." I smiled at Alec, who only looked me up and down, grimacing.

"Isn't this great?" Jane asked, a sly smile slowly stretching across her pale face.

"Yeah," I smiled a fake smile before turning to glare at Edward. He shrugged. For the rest of the session, I was not able to keep focus. Edward stared ahead as he blindly typed notes on his iPad. Alec also took notes but in a little black leather notebook. Jane seemed preoccupied with the Facebook app on her phone. I kept glancing to my left, looking at Jane, trying to watch her every untrustworthy move. Sure, I barely knew her and was a tad biased after hearing the story of their uncle, but I couldn't help but hate her. I hated her. There was just something about Jane that irritated me.

Edward nudged my arm with his elbow and pointed to the iPad. He had typed me a note. Stop staring at Princess Ice Bitch and pay attention, it read. I shook my head no. He typed, She can do no harm. It's Aro we need to watch out for. I shrugged. Calm down, he typed. The worst she can do is scratch you with one of her fake nails.

The session on tracking site visitors ended, and Jane turned to me. "It was so great to see you guys," she sneered. "We should definitely all go out to eat once we're back in the city."

"Yeah, definitely!" I channeled the fakeness I had learned in high school.

After they left, I turned to Edward. "Princess Ice Bitch?"

"Yes. Princess Ice Bitch."

"Okay then," I grabbed my bag that had been sitting on the floor before we headed out. "Back to the hotel and then to this dinner thing?"

Our hotel rooms were across the hall from one another, which, I have to say, is a good thing. I'm glad we were not in the same room. Goodness knows what would have happened if we were in the same room. Thank you, Carlisle.

Before changing into something nicer for dinner, I emptied my bag of all the flyers, pamphlets, and free pens I had received at the day's session. Noticing the blue binder from Carlisle was missing, I grabbed my phone and called Edward immediately, thinking he had it.

"Do you have the blue binder your dad gave us?" I asked.

"No, I thought you had it."

"I did. I had it with me all day."

"When was the last time you saw it?" he asked me.

"Um, we were looking through it at lunch before that analytics session."

"Princess Ice Bitch," he sneered.

"Excuse me?"

"Princess Ice Bitch."

"She didn't take it. She couldn't have. She wouldn't have. There's nothing in it of value to her, is there?"

"Well, it had our staff contact list, our freelancers list, all of our legal contacts, and I threw our brainstorming from the first session in there, too."

"Princess Ice Bitch," I spat. "We'll get it back. What time's the dinner?"

"We're meeting them in the lobby in twenty."

"Enough time to make myself look presentable," I laughed.

"You don't need any time at all for that, Bella."

And the line went dead.

A/N - Happy New Year!