Day 1

Bella POV

Alice, Angela, and I had just reached our final destination of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Two weeks ago we graduated from college in Seattle, Washington, and this was our parents' graduation gift to us before we would all head off to respective jobs. I was looking forward to having a few weeks of relaxation and enjoying the sunshine. The weather here would definitely make for a nice change in comparison with the typical cloudy and rainy days back home.

Angela had received a job working as an elementary school teacher in Forks, Washington where we had all grown up together. She was excited about getting to teach little children and loved the fact that she could remain in a small town because big cities were never her cup of tea. Once we arrived back home, she was planning to get her new classroom all set up for the school year.

Alice, on the other hand, had higher ambitions. Her plan was to start her own fashion design company. Currently, she didn't have enough money saved up to really start her own business, so she recently acquired a position working for an interior design company. I couldn't remember the name of the company off the top of my head, but from what I remember Alice telling me about it, the company was founded in Seattle, but had a few branches around the country. Alice was given the option of which location she wanted to work in and would have to give her decision at the end of the month. She was happy with this job because it was something she thought she would enjoy and even though it's not her plan for life, it would give her a good enough salary that she would be able to start up her own business after a few years.

We had just gotten off the plane and were making our way toward the baggage claim. I needed to go to the restroom, so I called out to Alice and Angela, "Hey guys, I'll meet you at the baggage claim in a few minutes."

"Sure," Angela said. "We'll grab your bags if we see them before you get over there."

"Thanks," I replied making my way through the crowd to the restroom.

After finishing up and washing my hands in the restroom, I popped my ear buds in and started listening to my newest play list that I put on my iPod before we left for the beach. I began walking toward the baggage claim thinking of my future. I didn't really have what most people would call a job. Before I graduated from college with my degree in English Literature, I began writing a story. With my friends' encouragement, I took a rough draft of it to a local publishing company. The publishing company loved what I had so far and they wanted me to continue writing it with a few changes here and there, namely some romance in the book. Once I complete the story, they plan to publish it for me. I was still shocked that I might be able to write books for a living. It would definitely qualify as my dream job. I just need to find some inspiration to make the necessary changes and I hoped that a new environment and some relaxation would help bring that about.

I was in my own little world thinking about how I could put some form of romance in my book without having much experience in that department when I ran into something hard. I ended up bouncing off, falling down on my butt, and dropping my iPod along with all the contents in my bag. How embarrassing I thought to myself looking up to see who or what I managed to hit. My breath caught when I saw him.

Looking down at me was none other than a Greek god. He was tall and well built with messy bronze hair. Not to mention his eyes; they were like beautiful emerald pools that I could easily fall into and never come back. I noticed that he was saying something to me and shook my head a little to snap myself out of my unabashed gawking. I just keep embarrassing myself more and more.

"Are you okay?" the god asked.

I was having trouble forming words now. I finally managed to nod my head in an affirmative gesture and wished I could crawl under a rock for a hundred years.

He offered me a hand up and I reached out to take it. Once I was back on my two feet, I told him, "I'm so sorry for running into you. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going and…"

"It's no problem at all," he spoke. "I'm Edward Cullen and it's nice to meet you…"

"Bella… Bella Swan," I told him shyly.

Edward helped me gather all my belongings that I had dropped on the floor when I barged right into him.

"Bella!" a voice called out.

I looked around to see Alice and Angela heading my way. "We've been looking all over for you," Angela said when they reached us.

"Well, I guess I see why you never made it to the baggage claim," Alice spoke eyeing Edward.

I felt my face turn red as I blushed with that comment. "Alice, Angela, this is Edward. Edward this is Alice and Angela," I introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Edward softly spoke shaking each of their hands. "Well, I really should be off to find my brother. Maybe I'll see you again sometime," he said looking toward me at the last part.

"Bye," we all said.

"Bella, he certainly is good looking," Angela told me.

"Be right back," Alice said before darting off into the crowds.

"What's gotten into her?" I asked.

"Who knows," Angela replied.

Alice came back a couple minutes later looking mighty proud of herself.

"What did you do?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'll tell you later," Alice responded with a mischievous glint in her eye.

A little while later, we finished up the paperwork at the rental car counter and were driving toward the hotel where we would be staying for a few weeks.

"How much further to our hotel?" asked Angela.

"The GPS says it's another couple of miles," replied Alice. "I still don't know why you guys wouldn't let me drive a Porsche."

"As much as I like your dream car Alice, there is no way it would fit all of our luggage," I answered.

Alice didn't like the fact she couldn't rent her flashy dream car, so insisted that she at least get to pick out the rental car we would take. We ended up with a black Lexus SUV Hybrid that recently came out.

I watched out of the passenger window as we pulled into the beach resort where we would be staying. The outside of the place already had that tropical feel to it. The three of us parked and walked in to the reception area to check in and get our room key. Since it wasn't too busy at the time, we were able to walk up immediately.

"Reservation for Swan," I said watching the girl type it into the computer.

"I have a room available courtside with the two beds as you requested," told the receptionist.

"But I reserved a room beachside," I said wondering how my luck once again failed me.

"No one has checked out of any of those rooms today, so I'm afraid they are all booked up," answered the girl. "The next best rooms we have available will be the ones that are courtside."

"Okay, I guess we have to accept that," I answered while watching Alice and Angela's faces fall a bit.

We were given our room keys and headed out the door back to our car in order to park closer to our room. Once we drove around to the side, we found a spot to park in and then started the task of unloading the luggage from the car, most of it belonging to Alice. Angela grabbed a cart to place it all in so we could just make a single trip from the vehicle.

All the bags were placed on the cart and we made our way through the edge of the courtyard area toward the elevators following the directions given to us by the concierge. The layout of the resort had buildings placed in a square formation without being connected to one another. There were many paths that could be taken amongst the different buildings and it all opened up into an amazing area that was full of greenery and various pools. I loved the beauty of the place and couldn't wait to explore it more fully later on.

After reaching the elevators, we rode up to the third floor on the South side of the resort. Our room ended up about midway along the floor. After walking in I glanced around the place along with Alice and Angela. It was certainly something that I could imagine staying in for a lengthy period of time. I walked into a living area with a sofa and loveseat angled toward a large flat screen television. There were three doors that I could see from the living room. Alice went over to open the first one up to reveal a large bathroom. The other two doors led to the bedrooms. We had decided earlier that Angela could have a bed to herself, while Alice and I would share the other bedroom.

"Hey, I'm going to hop in the shower real quick," Angela told us.

"Sure," said Alice. "Why don't we all get cleaned up and go down to the beach for a few hours before it gets too dark?"

"Sounds good to me," I said.

After getting showers, we all got ready to go down to the beach. Alice was wearing a sundress. She attempted to get me in a dress, but I managed to hold my ground this time. I came out wearing some Capri pants with a green blouse. Angela has somehow avoided the focus of Alice's fashion advice on all things and got to be comfortable in some shorts and shirt.

As we made our way to the beach, I could tell Alice was deep in thought. Before I could ask her about it she spoke, "I think we need to try to find a nice guy to date for the time that we're staying here."

"What!?" Angela exclaimed.

"Well, none of us have had a decent relationship throughout school," explained Alice. "Particularly you, Bella."

"Alice, I'm just not interested in dating," I said thinking of all the crappy dates I've been on in the past few years.

"That's only because you haven't tried to find a decent guy to date," told Alice. "If you would just open yourself up to possibility of finding someone that is worth your time, you might actually be happy for a change."

"I'm happy," I grumbled. Then something clicked. "Alice, you said you would tell us what you did back at the airport."

"Well, I did it for you Bella," Alice began hesitantly.

"What exactly did you do for me?" I asked trying to keep my temper under control.

"I might have given Edward your phone number," Alice responded softly.

"You did what!?" I blurted out.

"I could tell that you liked him, so I decided to help you out and give him your number," Alice spoke.

"I can't believe you," I grumbled. "I'm perfectly happy."

"Sure, you say that you're happy enough," replied Alice, "but not as happy as you would be if you found someone to fall in love with."

"You can't possibly believe that I'm going to fall in love with someone over the next few weeks," I scoffed. "Angela, you do see my reasoning don't you?"

I looked over at Angela, who seemed to be lost in thought. When she finally spoke up, I thought my ears deceived me. "I like Alice's idea," she said quietly. After seeing my questioning look, she further alliterated. "It's just that sometimes I feel lonely, like I'm missing a part of me. This is our last vacation together before we head off to work, and I would like to make the best of it. So maybe we should try to at least be aware enough of our environment to check to see if there's anybody around that could be date-worthy."

"I knew you would understand!" squealed Alice.

At that point I knew that I might as well give in before Alice forced me upon some unsuspecting guy. I sighed, "Okay, I won't oppose going out with someone during our stay, but don't you dare force a guy on me Alice Brandon."

"Yay!" squealed Alice. "Let's get started."

I groaned and let her drag me and Angela the rest of the way to the beach. It was already getting close to sunset, so the beach wasn't very crowded. Angela left the two of us deciding that she wanted to walk along the water's edge for a while toward a pier that we could see further down. Alice decided that she wanted to check out the lifeguards on duty around this area of the beach. I made a face at her, but followed along anyway.

Walking in the opposite direction that Angela had taken, we saw a couple of lifeguards. Luckily they weren't anything special, so Alice didn't try to embarrass me around them. I was running through scenarios in my head of Alice tripping me intentionally to get a lifeguard's attention. I imagine the only thing worse that my klutziness coming out in that way would be for me to almost drown in the ocean. If I did see someone hot on duty, I think it would be better if I just stay on land. God only knows what could happen to me in the ocean.

Alice brought me back to real life by pointing out that we should go back in the other direction to find Angela. It was getting dark as we walked in the direction Angela had taken toward the pier. I was getting hungry, so Alice and I planned on heading out to a restaurant once we met back up with Angela. We saw the pier and began walking toward the end where we saw Angela standing next to someone. Walking closer I saw that Angela was deep in conversation with a guy.

"Wait! Wait!" said Alice. "We don't want to interrupt them."