A Bike, a Coffee Shop, and a Little Persuasion

Edward/Bella
AH, AU

I put on my light jacket I had been carrying as the wind picked up slightly. It was starting to get a little cold out, and I was trying to forget about how everyone was so excited about the dance next weekend. I couldn't dance and I hadn't asked anyone either.

"Bella!" I looked behind me to see none other than Edward Masen riding his bike and smiling at me. When he saw I was looking he sped up until he was side by side with me. "Hey, Bella." he flashed me his wonderful crooked grin.

"Hi, Edward. What are you doing on this side of town? Don't you live over on the other side of SoHo? What are you doing clear over here anyway?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to talk to you after school, and I got out late so you were already headed home."

"Oh. Well...what did you want to talk about?"

He licked his lips and glanced around. The sidewalk was a little more crowded up ahead. We wouldn't be able to walk or in his case ride side by side anymore once we got there.

"Bella, why don't you hop on my handle bars and we'll go to this nice little coffee shop up ahead. They have some awesome non-coffee drinks there and good music with a nice seating area. We could talk about it there. Yeah?"

I laughed. "I am not riding on your handle bars, Edward. And you know how cheesy you just made that sound?"

Well, why not? Its perfectly safe to sit on them. And my balance is much better than yours, for instance."

"Because, I don't trust you enough to be able to handle the extra weight in such an odd area. Plus, I'd probably fall on my ass just trying to get on there!"

"First off, Miss Klutzilla, I have given my little sister a ride on here before, who is only a little smaller than you, and second I'll help you on so you won't fall on your backside. Besides...I'd never let you fall in my presence. Your much too pretty to have bruises and scrapes all over you."

Oh he was really turning on the charm, this one.

"Alright...fine. But only because of the crowd up ahead. And the coffee shop idea sounds wonderful right about now."

He smiled and came to a stop so he could help me up. Once I was settled it wasn't so bad. Edward leaned into my ear and asked, "Ready? It'll be a bit odd to you when we start moving."

I bit my lip and nodded. "I think so."

"Great." I could hear the smile in his voice.

A moment later we were moving at a leisurely speed towards the crowd of people up ahead. They frowned at us, but I didn't care and by Edward's snickering he didn't either. We turned a sharp corner where I thought I'd fall, but Edward wrapped one arm around my waist to keep me put. A few moments later we were in front of a cute little coffee shop that looked like it was aimed at high school and college students.

Edward stopped the bike and I hoped off when he offered me a hand. He leaned the bike up against a post next to the building and locked it into place with the bike lock wrapped around one of the support bars below the seat. He held the door open for me and we walked in and over to the counter to order something to drink.

He ordered the pick of the day and I had a strawberry-banana smoothie. We got our drinks and picked a small table in a corner with only two chairs.

I raised an eyebrow at his drink. "I thought you said something about some 'awesome non-coffee' drinks?"

"I did." He sounded confused.

"They why did you get-"

"I'm okay with coffee. Its you, Bella, who doesn't like it."

"How did you know that? What? Are you like stalking me now or something?"

"You and Alice were arguing over your distaste for it in the hallway yesterday. I was walking right in front of you."

"Oh." I felt embarrassed about trying to call him out. I could already feel the bright red blush spreading across my face. I took a long drink of my smoothie to try and help it calm down. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

He whispered under his breath, but I still heard him. "And she changes the subject to help ward off the embarrassment." He cleared his throat and spoke the next part to me. "Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me."

I blanched. This was the last thing that I thought he would want to talk about. "Isn't it supposed to be the girls who ask out the guys for this one?" I raised an eyebrow at him and he smirked, but I could see a slight blush tinting his cheeks.

"Well, yeah, but its next weekend and you haven't asked anybody. I mean...half the guys in our grade held out until this week thinking you would ask them."

"What makes you think I'd want to go with you anyway, Edward?" I was trying to pretend I didn't hear the part about the other guys from school.

"Well, Miss Bella Swan...you are shy. Very shy in fact. And I'm not your best friend or anything like Mary Alice, but I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't even think twice about asking out a guy. Its too far out of your comfort zone. And I really wanted to go to the dance with you, so I thought maybe if I brought it up first, then you'd either just say yes to me, or you'd be the snarky, feisty little firecracker I know you can be and turn it around and ask me to go with you."

"You know, for my lab partner whom I only see for forty-five minutes, five times a week, you know a lot about me. Especially since most of that time when we see each other we're either silent as the dead, or working as partners on some sort of science related subject."

He shrugged. "I like to observe people."

"Do you observe everybody, or just your biology partners?"

"No, I observe very beautiful, witty, and extremely smart brunettes." He was leaning forward and his eyes were much darker than I remembered them being.

I breathed in a ragged breath/gasp and looked at him, not knowing what to say.

"Bella, will you ask me to the dance next week?"

"Yes." And just like that he leaned forward and kissed me, moving our drinks to the side just to be safe. I couldn't wait till the Sadie Hawkins dance now.