What do you get a guy who can buy anything he wants? Bella thought for the fifteen hundreth time, chewing on the eraser of her pencil. She stared at the paper she'd been brainstorming upon. It was, as of yet, blank. And Christmas was only three days away! She chewed all the more violently on the end of her pencil.
The eraser fell off.
Bella growled at it in frustration, spitting pink bits of rubber out of her mouth.
"Hey Bells, whatcha doin'?" Charlie marched into the kitchen, following his nose to the source of the food cooking on the stove.
"Nothing," Bella replied sadly. "Just trying to think--" And then it hit her. She knew the perfect gift! Without another word, she leaped up from her seat and raced out the front door, leaving a very confused Charlie behind.
"You open yours first, Edward," Bella insisted, shoving the large, bulky package toward him across the table. For a moment he was lost from sight, then he shifted it to the side and reappeared.
"You sure you don't want to see yours?" Edward asked, peering around the side of the heavy object.
"No, because I know it will be way better than mine." Even though this really was the perfect gift, his would be far more than perfect.
"All right." His black eyes smiled at her as he tore the paper off his gift. There was a silence. Then finally: "Wow, Bella. Thanks."
He opened the front of the dog carrier, and out hopped the cutest puppy Bella could find in the Forks pet shop. She grinned, and he smiled back.
"Your turn, then," Edward said, eyeing the puppy somewhat warily. "Let me, um, go get it. Out of my car." He didn't quite meet her eyes as he scooped up the puppy (fully equipped with a ribbon tied in a bow around his neck) and left the house. Bella waited, tapping her fingers on the tabletop, for his return.
"Okay Bella, it's your turn," Edward announced as he reentered the room. Puppyless, Bella noted. He set a small package down on the table in front of Bella and waited for her to open it.
"Edward, where's the puppy?" she asked. Edward's topaz eyes twinkled innocently at her. Too innocently.
"What puppy?"
"...The...the puppy I just gave you!" Now Bella was getting a bit annoyed.
"Oh, that...that puppy? That puppy, um, that puppy got away. Yeah. A shame. I was at the door, and it just, it just ran. Yep. It bolted, there wasn't anything I could do." He shrugged, like it was no big deal.
Bella's eyes opened wide with horror. "Edward, you didn't."
"Didn't what?"
"Edward, you DIDN'T!"
"Didn't what, Bella?"
"Edward, that dog was not for...It wasn't for feeding you stupid vampire!" Bella hid her face in her hands. A perfect gift, now bloodless and dead. Never, she thought, NEVER give anything good to a vampire.