Colder Than You

I walked into Bella’s house, looking around absently and wondering why she hadn’t been waiting for me at the door like usual. “Bella?” I yelled, hoping she could hear me from any point in the house.

I was rewarded quickly. “Up here!” my angel called from upstairs in the…bathroom?

“Bella, love, what are you doing?” I heard no sounds of a shower or a toilet being flushed, only the sound of teeth chattering. I ran up the stairs at top vampire speed, thinking Victoria had gotten to her and was torturing her even as I ran. Terror crept into my bones as I rounded the corner to the bathroom. “Bella…?”

The sight before me was not what I pictured – it was much more ridiculous. “Hi,” she mumbled, lips turning blue. Bella sat in her bathtub, which was entirely filled with ice cubes and freezing water, in a swimsuit Alice had gotten her on their latest mall trip.

“What are you doing?” Amusement quickly masked my receding terror.

The look on her face was so sweet, so innocent, that I wanted to take the comment back immediately. “So I can be colder than you.”

I picked her up and drained the now melted ice cubes. I sat her down momentarily to turn on the hot water and the shower head. “In you go,” I whispered against her hair as I put her into the bathtub again. “No more coldness?”

“N…no.” She stuttered out.

“Oh, Bella!” I kissed her once, than left so she could thaw out.