I was so fed up with my stupid shiny new car jerking underneath me as I drove out of Forks towards the Cullens' house that I stamped my foot down on the break one final time. This was ridiculous! I would rather walk for the next couple of hours to the hidden mansion than stay one more minute in that car suffering from constant seatbelt battering from my pathetic start-stop attempt at driving.
I got out of the car and with my arms crossed I moved to stand directly in front of the bonnet to give it my best death glare, a particularly terrifying trait that I had inherited from my late grandmothers. I continued to glare so hard that I failed to notice I had company.
"Please stop, I can feel you terrifying the paint job right off it. Not an easy feat with this particular model."
"Oh!" I cried out as I jumped at the sound of his voice, "Jasper I didn't see you there."
"Alice saw you and told me to come and give you a hand before you decided to walk the rest of the way. She said you wouldn't look any good on your wedding day with the bruises that falling down 'Lawsons Avenue' would give you." He smiled gently at me and I realised he was making me feel relaxed because surely I should not be this calm when it is the first time we have been alone together since my last birthday. Not that I think Jasper would ever want to hurt me and I knew I would be safe as long as I kept my blood on the inside of my body while he was near; it was just that I thought it should be awkward. We don't exactly have much in common.
"Will you let me drive you? Edward, Emmett and our parents are still out hunting and Alice is having Rosalie give her a final fitting. As if she has changed at all, it's not like we put on weight. But if you would prefer, I could call them to drive you, if you would prefer not be be alone with me.
He seemed so nervous himself that I had to smile at his trying so hard. "Jasper, I don't mind at all. Besides we're already alone." He smiled back at me and dipped his body into a deep bow, gesturing towards my new car, "After you then ma'am." My smile grew as his playful Southern gentleman emerged. I wondered how different he really was when he was alone with Alice.
Once we were in the car and on our way I noticed that although we were travelling faster than my previous vehicle could have managed on its best day, we were still going quite slowly by vampire standards. I thought he was trying to make me feel more at ease with him, knowing my aversion to his siblings' style of driving, but it turned out that he had another motive for wanting the drive to last for a little longer.
Although he kept his eyes firmly on the road as he spoke to me, I could tell they were sincere when he said, "Bella, I just wanted to say 'thank you'. I know you think this wedding is going to be over the top, and it is, but what you are doing for Alice means so much to the both of us.I know that my relationship with Alice is a lot more 'quiet' than most couples and I realise that you don't even know just how much your wedding means to her." He seemed to settle himself in to tell me a story.
"You know that out of all of our family, I have the most trouble with being a vegetarian. When Alice found me, although I was more than ready to leave behind the depression that feeding off humans brought me, but it could never be that easy. We were together for almost twenty-five years before we eventually caught up to rest of our family and in the start of this relationship I slipped up often. I knew that Alice wanted so badly for me to try and act more human, she thought it would help us fit in, to protect us, and she thought it would make our way of life easier. Human behaviour did not come naturally to me. I found it hard after so many years of skulking in the dark and planning my next move, never thinking beyond the next twenty-four hours because who knew if they would ever come?
"Through all of my difficulties she stuck by me, even when I could feel her hope slipping away. She was different back then, she needs her family to support her just as much as she feels a need to support them. We lived mostly in small towns so that I would not have to face large crowds of humans and Alice had yet to discover the luxuries that money could bring so we lived simply. I was constantly overwhelmed by her love for me. I had trouble accepting it for what it is. Most emotions I can manipulate and they will fade away, but no matter what else I could make Alice feel, her love was always there hiding underneath it all.
"When I was ready to accept that we were going to be together, that I could not go on if we were ever to be apart, I found that it was slightly easier to be near people. I wanted to prove to Alice that I could be strong, that I would make myself strong just so that I could always be with her. I told her to choose a destination, no matter how many people would be there I was willing to take her to where ever her heart desired.
"We had a wireless in our house and Alice always did like to listen to the soap operas that they had back then. One such broadcast featured a young couple eloping in Las Vegas, much the way that you and Edward planned to do. Alice decided that Las Vegas would be the most amazing plave in the world and that we should go. She never said anything about marriage.
"No, the marriage was all my idea. It was the ultimate gesture to show her my commitment to everything that she stood for: love, family and a better way of life. I believe that that was the first time Alice showed her uncanny ability to go 'all out' on a particular experience. We went to every casino, saw every show and – when I asked her – we got married in a little wedding chaped with silk flowers and cheap off-the-rack outfits. She has never looked as beautiful to me as she did that night and she insists that we never need to marry again because the first time meant for so much – stood for so much – that she never needed me to prove myself again.
"I've tried to tempt her, every time Rosalie and Emmett get married I ask her to let me give her the wedding of her dreams, I know she must imagine how it could have been if we had not been caught up the 'Vegas experience' and we had waited and planned like I know she must have done so many times over the decades, as she discovered fashions, locations and traditions. But she sticks to her guns. It's her way of showing unwavering faith in me, even when I do not deserve it." Jasper's eyes were down cast, I knew that her was thinking of my birthday but I was so touched by his story that I didn't have the words to comfort him.
He looked directly at me, feeling my emotions and seeing the tears the had started to spill over. "So I just wanted to thank you, you are giving her so much."