Vanity and Patience: A Rosalie Hale & Emmett Cullen Story

Chapter 17: Lessons

I returned home that night with a devilish smirk on my face as I approached the estate. We had changed our arrangements so that Mr. Kent would come to the house earlier in the week. He would be arriving in three days time, just enough time for me to keep a level head as I knew I'd have to work to keep my thoughts from Edward. I had a great plan in place for getting my revenge and winning this game; nothing was going to stop me now. However, upon reaching the garage, something was off. I knew that Carlisle and Edward were out running errands, leaving just Emmett and Esme at the house.

How strange, I thought to myself.

The light coming from the house was a peculiar yellowish color and flickered inconsistently in the living room. As I stepped onto the porch I caught the scent of burning wicks and wax. They were using candles tonight? It didn't seem we were experiencing a power outage.

I stepped inside slowly, the flicker of the candlelight increasing with the breeze of the door.

Esme stood, in front of the living room, her beautiful face graced with an exuberant grin. "Come on in," she said inviting me, guiding me further past the foyer and into the living room. "He's been waiting for you," she whispered to me, as if he couldn't hear.

He? Waiting for me?

My eyes popped open wider as they scanned every table in the room. The room was flooded with countless vases of red roses, yellow tulips, and white cymbidium orchids. As I stepped once more, I was grateful that vampires could not shed any tears as I took a few more steps, because a stinging sensation filled my eyes with the familiar human instinct to cry. It would ruin my pride to show my feelings to everyone, so for once I was grateful of my immortal body that was capable of hiding my emotions, if I chose to. I scanned the room once again, looking at the species and colors in the sea of the floral arrangements. Red roses were passionate love, yellow tulips stood for hopeless love, and the orchids meant delicate beauty.

No, it can't be. Could he really know what they meant?

I turned to Esme and she motioned her hands to encourage me to continue forward. I gave her a quizzical look to silently ask if she had anything to do with this. I pointed to the flowers and then back to her just to make sure they weren't a gift from Carlisle, and she shook her head, pointing at me silently.

She gave me an impish, yet apologetic grin of guilt. Had she helped him? She then bit her lip to keep from almost giggling excitedly at what Esme knew was planned.

I stepped further into the room in that sea of blooms, and past the wall separating the living room from the foyer. My heart would have raced if it were still beating as a familiar scent intermingled robustly in the air with that of the roses and other flowers. I turned the corner, and there he was.

Behind the blanket of colorful flower arrangements, Emmett stood with a gorgeous bouquet of the roses, orchids, and tulips in his trembling hand. His posture was awkward and timid; his face bashful yet pleading. The amber tint of the candlelight flickered as it cast dramatic shadows across the chiseled definition of his facial features. He stood in a pair of chocolate tweed trousers with a matching vest, and a cream button up round collar shirt.

His free hand lifted his derby hat above his head quickly as he tipped it to greet me. "Hi," was all he managed to say with a quivering breath, and my heart shattered into a million pieces. He made his best effort to smile, but his trembling lips couldn't hold it in the mess of all of his nerves.

Oh, God why did you have to pick this night to be so amazing to me?

I said nothing as I suddenly went rigid. I could not let him win. I had to be strong. My nose flared as I tried my best to keep my stone face as emotionless as possible.