Chapter 13

BPOV

I was exhausted and we'd hardly started shopping yet.

I had managed to eat most of the food that was served, but they were huge portions and my stomach was feeling a little queasy.

I'd heard the saying 'If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it,' but had never actually been in a position to experience it firsthand.

I felt bad that it was all so expensive and that I couldn't eat it all, but it was either that or try and eat it all just to throw it back up.

Alice was happy to do what everyone else wanted to do, but I hung back. I wanted to watch what everyone else did before I started on my own thing.

This wasn't like how we shopped back home.

Back there, we had to walk around, draping clothes on hangers from our arms, root around the sale items and then lug it all to the front to check out.

Here it was completely different and I was way out of my depth.

Personal shoppers were on hand and they had even given Alice and I a rail each, that we could hang our choices up on so our arms didn't get tired.

In one shop, they even tried to serve us champagne and strawberries as we gave them our sizes and they chose some outfits for us. All we had to do was sit there.

I felt like the hooker in Pretty Woman.

"Bella, why are you looking so puzzled?" Edward broke through my thoughts as I sat nervously, waiting for Alice to come out of the dressing rooms, and I realized I was chewing on my nails with my leg bouncing.

Great, I must have looked like a right idiot.

"I feel out of place," I mumbled, noticing that I couldn't lie to him.

Was it strange that, although I didn't know him, I felt compelled to get to know who he was, and what he liked and disliked? I wanted him to get to know me, what food I liked, what films made me laugh or cry. Was it so silly to think that maybe, possibly, he could like me, at some point down the road?

I scoffed at the idea.

"Okay, come with me," he said gently as he took my hand and led me through the dressing rooms to the end where no one was.

"Why do you feel out of place?" he asked softly as he stood extremely close to me.

I swear by body started vibrating ever so slightly.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm comfortable with myself and how I look, but look at everyone else around me. They're all size zeros with beautiful hair and make-up. I just feel like I don't fit in, I feel like an awkward spotty teenager," I tried to joke, but found it hard to get the words out.

He shook his head smoothly as he took my hand. "Oh, Bella, you fit right in, I promise," he smiled softly at me again as his eyes scanned around us.

"I know we've just met, but can you put a little trust in me, just a little bit? I promise to be the perfect gentleman," he said and I found my head nodding before I had even processed his words.

He tugged on my hand and I followed him into one of the dressing rooms. It was a small space, but perfectly big enough for the two of us.

"I want you to take off your top and jeans, and there's nothing sexual about it. Again, I promise to be a gentleman," he said the last bit firmly and my eyes went wide.

Did he really just ask me to strip for him?

I took a moment to think and before I knew it, I was undoing the laces on my shoes and I started to strip off.

I was thankful that Alice had made me wear my matching bra and thong set that she had gotten me for my birthday, because standing in front of him was making me even more nervous!

"Turn around and look in the mirror," he said, his voice continued to be soft as he stood behind me. I wanted to wrap my arms around my waist to try and hide myself, but I just couldn't make my body listen to me.

"Everybody in the world is different... color, size and shape. What most people don't know is that one side of our body is bigger than the other. A woman's left breast could be slightly smaller or larger than the right. A man's hands are different sizes. If you look closely, our eyes are different sizes too. But that's what makes us perfect, Bella, our imperfections make us unique. If you look out into the store, those women, the ones with the beautiful hair? No doubt they are hair extensions, or have bleached it so much that they have to use a long list of chemicals to get it looking so soft, but in reality, it isn't." He smiled sweetly as he tugged my hair out of the band and fluffed it out so it fell round my shoulders before he continued.

"They might be size zeros, Bella, but that isn't healthy. They crash diet, they make themselves throw up, they exercise way too much and they're damaging their bodies, just to try and be perfect, but they don't realize what they're doing. And now, look at you," he smiled again as his fingers traced the edge of my waist, making me squirm slightly under his gaze, "You have curves where they're loved most, you're more like Marilyn Monroe than Naomi Campbell. You have a good mixture of muscle tone and fat, and it's healthy. Your breasts are in perfect proportion to the rest of your body and you certainly don't look like an 'out of place spotty teenager', your skin is flawless. You have the perfect body without even trying and that makes you even more special. Oh, and your hair is stunningly soft," he finished up talking as his fingers tickled up the side of my neck and into my hair.

I was… I had no words.

"You're perfect," he whispered as he kissed the top of my head and all I wanted in that moment was for him to kiss me elsewhere, but he was a stranger to me, no matter how kind his words were.

"Thank-you," I whispered in reply as I blushed and looked down at the pile of clothes at my feet.

"Let's go and get you some beautiful clothes for your beautiful body," he smiled as I nodded my head, feeling a lot better about myself.

Shopping after that was easy and quite a few times I asked Edward for his opinion on what I should get. The only time I felt extremely nervous again was when the other girls wanted to go shopping for underwear.

I was out of my comfort zone in that department, but Edward took my hand again and we walked with purpose to the next store.

I just hoped that I didn't make an idiot out of myself with him and read more into the kiss that he gave me on my head.