"What's Thule like? Do you miss it?"

"It's gorgeous," she sighs. "I miss the architecture, I miss the landscapes. And just - feeling like I'm home, you know? But Ghys would rather live somewhere firmly below the Arctic Circle, so here we are."

"Why Forks in particular?"

"Ghys likes the rain. And there was that old house for sale."

"Is the place nice? I think I know what house you're talking about but I haven't gone and had a look at it."

"It took a little fixing up, but we're past that phase now and it's very pretty. In an - American way."

"Thule would require a glacier in the backyard?"

Snort.

"Do you mind if I ask why you live with your aunt?"

"I mean, I don't mind if you ask, but the answer's a bit depressing. My parents died in a fire when I was a kid."

"Yikes. I'm sorry."

She half-smiles. "Thanks."

"I live with my dad because my mom remarried. The guy's fine, it's just he's a baseball player and would be traveling around all the time and she'd rather go along than stay put to look after me. Insofar as I require looking after. So, I have this serviceable dad, why not live there for the last year and a half of my tenure as a high schooler."

"Thoroughly reasonable."

"I like to think so."

And when they and the paraphernalia are in the station wagon Bella drives them to her house. It is small and lived-in and the kitchen is a foundation of bachelor with a veneer of teenager.

"Wow. I don't even have most of this at Renée's house."

"I like making truffles! And sweet things in general." (Her lunch handouts since Bella's arrival have been truffles, truffles, and peanut brittle.) "And it causes everyone to love me. Although honestly, sometimes I could maybe do with everyone loving me a little less."

"Should I not have invited you over for truffles? Is your social calendar overbooked?"

"Hey, I offered," she points out. "No, it's not that. It's - this is kind of awkward, actually, but I am not in fact a lesbian. I'm bi, if anything. It's just that I don't want to date any of the boys in Forks, whereas ninety percent of the boys in Forks apparently want to date me, and a few months after I moved here there was this one guy who just would not give up so I finally told Jessica I'm very very gay and after this went out with the morning news most of them found other girls to pester, Mike included. But I'm beginning to regret it because now the only guys who bother me are the kind of guys who bother lesbians, and that gets uncomfortable fast."

"Eugh. I formally offer you the protection of my sexual orientation for all the good it may do you. None of these guys have homed in on me yet, but I'm betting it's only a matter of time, who do I look out for?"