I sat at the end of the bar that had become my regular spot as of two weeks ago. The news of my mothers impending death was a hard shock to my system. The cancer she had was spreading rapidly and there was nothing that could be done. I fought for more opinions at first but the best doctor I knew was in fact my father and I finally gave into the true results knowing that if he couldn't save her then there wasn't much hope seeing as being one in a million doesn't happen often.

I moved half way across the country after college wanting to be away from the suffocating country life only to find that I missed it after I left. I soon relocated myself again to the small town of Summerville, South Carolina. I loved the warm weather and the beautiful scenery.

My mother had begged me for years to move back home. She said that I could find what I had here somewhere closer to her. Now thinking back I wish I would have never refused her constant begging. Her begging though had eventually subsided and she bugged me on other things. Like my work life and love life. She said I worked to much and that I needed to enjoy life. Which was why after sick of hearing I need a stable woman in my life. I had made one up.

Now as she only had a few months to live I was beginning to regret telling her I had a beautiful girlfriend that I adored with everything in me. I had named her Isabella, but never informed my mother of her last name. I only came up with the lie so she would stop telling me that I work my life away and that I needed to enjoy the little things.

I was thoroughly screwed now that my mother had asked me to come home to see her. I hadn't been there in almost two years. On top of that she had requested that I bring Isabella. She said a mother deserved to meet the love of her sons life even if she couldn't witness the wedding. Hint Hint.

Yup I was screwed.

"Need another?" The brunette bar tender asked standing in front of me. Even though she wasn't looking at me I knew she was speaking to me. I had come here enough in the last couple weeks to know the routine. This place was never that busy and she had friends come in to keep her company as her shift went on. They had on occasion tried to persuade me into their conversations but I politely refused and went back to drinking my worries and sorrows away.

"Yea, thanks." I said sliding the five dollar bill onto the bar. What surprised me on this night was her saying goodbye to her normal crowd. I watched as they left laughing together. She set my fresh drink in front of me leaving the change beside the glass.

I almost dropped the drink as I picked it up when I watched her jump easily onto the counter sliding off the other side and striding over to the jukebox. I must have been staring because when she turned around to look at me she gave me a funny look.

"Can I get you something else Mr. Cullen?"

"Um, no. But you can call me Edward." I hated being called Mr. Cullen. It made me feel older then I was.

"Ok." She turned back around searching through the song list. Eventually she made up her mind and the soothing voices of the Beatles filled the air. I was rather shocked that such a young girl would be playing them. It was then that I realized in the two weeks that I had hung out here I still didn't know her name. Or maybe it was that I didn't remember it. I was sure she told me but I couldn't think of it.

"Beatles huh?" I asked still trying to remember her name.

"Yea. My mom is a big fan. My dad on the other hand is more into the rock scene. So I have a very large musical taste." She smiled lightly at me going back to cleaning the few dirty cups she had. "What about you? Are you a fan?"

"Who doesn't like the Beatles?" I laughed knowing only minutes ago I thought it was weird that she knew them. "But I too like a lot of different kinds of music. Pretty much if I can understand it I will listen to it."

"What if it doesn't have words?"

"Classical? I love it actually. I love playing the piano." Her eyes slide to the back of the bar where an old upright beaten wooden piano set. My guess was that it hadn't been played in years and probably needed a horrible tuning but I stood anyway making my way to the back. I heard the click of her shoes and her clap as she knew she got what she wanted. "And what is it that you want me to play?"

"I don't care." She said loudly as she was still by the jukebox turning the volume down for the moment.

Not wanting to make a fool of myself I decided not to play something I had tried writing. No one had ever heard those so I didn't know if they were good or not. Instead I stuck to the classics of Bach.

She sat silently next to me on the piano bench staring at my hands. When I finally ended the song she smiled with her eyes closed.

"I always wanted to learn to play. But I didn't have the patience. I gave up after a year of lessons when I was 11."

"I can't tell you how long I've been playing. My parents always had a piano in the house. My mom taught me." I stopped talking at the memory of the times of me and my mother sitting together at our old piano. I dropped my head once again and wondered how I was going to tell my mother I had been lying to her. "Isabella!" I said snapping my head up. I remembered the bar tenders name looking at her. She had a confused smile on her face. I had meet her the night I told my mother about my fake girlfriend. It was how I came up with the name.

I was in this bar before and she was being yelled at by some bleach blonde haired, overly tan guy. My guess that night was that it was her boyfriend because she had been trying to quietly calm him down.

"Yes?" She said pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Your name. I couldn't remember it I'm sorry."

"Yes but I don't go by that. I like to be called Bella."

"Oh. Sorry."

"That's fine. I didn't bother correcting you a couple weeks ago because you didn't seem like you wanted to be bothered by such little things." So I had remembered it when I first came in. I guess the stress of everything made me forget momentarily.

"Yea, sorry about that. I don't usually drink this much. Nor do I tend to just be a loner at the bar but its been a rough couple of weeks."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know."

"It might help to get it off your chest. Plus I'm kind of use to hearing a lot of stuff being said so if it needs to stay a secret I can do that."

"No it's not a secret. It's just my mom. She has cancer and isn't going to make it."

"Oh I'm so sorry! There's nothing anyone can do?"

"No, there's like a five percent chance she could make it, but it doesn't look good." She placed her hand on my back in comfort. "What's worse is that I haven't been home in almost two years and she thinks I have a girlfriend who I am madly in love with and wants to meet because she says she needs to meet the girl who has me head over heels in love."

"She thinks you have one? So you don't and now you need to come up with a girl?"

"Yea kind of."

"Well then just ask a friend. If that is what I had to do for my dying mother I would. You know. It sounds bad but in the end she won't know the difference. And if you can make her happy just one more time. Why not try right?"

"You really are good at this whole bar tender therapist thing aren't you." I smiled a little.

"Yea I know. I am kind of amazing." She bumped her shoulder into mine playfully and stood up to go back to the bar. I followed her as she turned the volume back up for the music and I sat on my regular stool once again. "So when are you suppose to go back?"

"Well she was given a six months. But I guess I need to make it sooner rather then later."

"Yea that would be smart. So got any girls in mind?" She said probably trying to lighten the subject even if it was to cover yet another problem of mine.

"No not really. I have mainly guy friends down here and well to be honest I sort of named her after you. I didn't mean to. The first time I was ever in this bar your were here with some guy. He called you Isabella. Later I had been talking to my mom and she had started in on the whole love life lecture. So I told her I meet someone. When she asked her name I just sort of blurted out your name. I guess I didn't realize it until today."

"Well thank you." She curtsied and pretending to be flattered at my choosing of names. She laughed when I gave her a fake dirty look. "What. Life is too short to not laugh at what you can. I know its not an ideal situation but still. If you can't find humor in the littlest things then life is just to damn serious." I watched as she laughed again and went back to cleaning. The last twenty minutes with this girl had completely amazed me. She was so carefree and I was jealous of that.

"What about you?" I asked suddenly and without thinking it through. I knew she would be the perfect choice mainly because I had based my fake girlfriend off from her without really meaning to.

"What about me?"

"You. You come with me and be my girlfriend. I mean my fake girlfriend." I said embarrassed a little at my misstatement.

"We don't even know each other." She said with a small smile probably thinking I was insane. "Plus I think my mother would kill me if I up and left the bar for however long."

"She doesn't give you vacations?" She gave me a side glance. "Please come on. I don't have a ton of friends here mainly my life has been work since I got here and you would be doing me a huge favor! I would owe you! I will pay you!"

"Eww, that makes me sound like a prostitute or something."

"That would imply sleeping with me." She blushed deeply and then threw the towel she was holding at me. "Hey I was just stating the facts. So what do you say. Take some time off and help me out?"

"Oh this sounds so bad like one of those messed up horror movies you see and the sweet guy convinces the girl to do something really stupid."

"I promise I am not crazy. Or a killer." I said holding my right hand up. She gave me yet again another dirty playful look.

"Where are you from?" She said setting down her new towel and making her way towards me.

"Forks, Washington."

"Well I have never been out west." I looked hopeful at her. I mean finding a fake girlfriend was her idea. "Ok let me check with my mother make sure she can find a replacement for me on my time off. Do you have any idea how long you are going for?"

"No. I just planned on taking a leave of absence from work." She nodded her head slightly in consideration while grabbing her cell phone out of her work apron.

After a few minutes of silence her phone rang. Her eyes widen at reading the caller I.D..

"Hey mom... No I'm not joking... No I was just invited to go on a trip out west and I really want to go... Just with some friends that's all... Um, when do I leave?" She said glancing at me and I shrugged my shoulders not knowing when was best to say considering all I really needed to do was leave when she could. "Um, next few days I guess... I know.. Yea... really?... wow thanks.. ok... See you soon... Love you too.." She hung up the phone with a sigh of relief.

"Twenty questions I take it." I laughed.

"Yup, but on the bright side she said I could leave when ever and she would take care of things here until she gets a part time replacement."

"So your her only employee?"

"No, but we can't seem to keep waitresses so I usually work a lot of hours."

"So your parents own the bar?"

"Yea my mom does. My dad is a cop. Quite the pair them two." She laughed and shook her head. "But now that I can go whenever, when do we leave? And I don't actually know anything about you so speaking of twenty question we might need to take a shot at playing that."

"Might need to make it more like forty questions. I'm suppose to be completely in love with you remember."

I sat there finishing my drink as she took care of some paper work waiting for her mother to show up. Seeing as she said she was going on a trip with friends I didn't think it was a good idea to stay there to meet her mother just yet.


To say I was nervous about my pending trip with Bella was an understatement. I can't believe I convinced myself this was a good idea. And to say the least I can't believe she agreed. We didn't even know each other. I was silently freaking out wondering if Bella was even going to show when I seen her walk into the airport suitcase being pulled behind her.

Her hair was still wet from the shower she must have taken that morning and it was thrown into a messy bun on top of her head. The overly sized sweat pants she hand on were rolled at the waist band and hugged her tanned skin at her hip bones. The white wife beater she wore was knotted in the back hugging her body perfectly.

"I seriously can't believe I agree to this. Let alone at 6 am." She gave me a tired dirty look but I couldn't move. "Um, Edward. You ok?" She waved her hand in front of my face.

"Um, yea, sorry. I guess I zoned out for a minute." She glanced down her body to where my eyes had been focused earlier. Looking back at me I sighed knowing she knew I had been staring.

"Come on perv." She said playfully pushing my arm and winking.

I'm a dead man.

I followed her to check our bags in and then to the security before getting on our plane.

"So Forks, Washington is where you grew up and your 25 years old. You major in graphic design and minored in business management. Your favorite food is pizza with everything on it. And you two siblings Alice and Emmett. Emmett is two years older Alice is your twin."

"Yes and you grew up here in Summerville and went to college for marketing. Your 24 years old. Parents married, favorite food is anything Italian, and your an only child."

"Well looks like we remember the basics." She said as we made our way to our seats. "You can have the window. I don't really like flying that much."

"I'll add that to the list of things about you." I laughed a little sitting down.

As the plane took off Bella's hand found mind.

"Sorry." She said beginning to let go. But I wrapped my fingers within hers.

"Its fine. The least I can do is hold your hand when your scared seeing as your flying for me." She smiled slightly but kept her eyes shut tightly as the plane rose even more. "Tell me about your childhood or something. Take your mind of the plane."

"Um, My full name is Isabella Marie Swan. I was a cheerleader from middle school until I graduated. My mom wanted me in dance and gymnastics and a million other things but I wasn't actually the normal girly girl. I only stayed in cheer leading because it was the one thing I actually enjoyed plus it was like dance and gymnastics put together so it made my mother happy. You?"

"Edward Masen Cullen. Played football and basketball. I always like drawing so my favorite classes in school was art. My dad would have rather seen me become a doctor but spending another 7 or more years in school wasn't something I was really wanting to do. And you can open your eyes we are fully in the air now. And I closed the shade so you can't see outside."

"Thanks." She smiled at me finally opening her eyes.

I soon found out her favorite color was red. She loved the beach and playing volleyball with her friends. Her mother inherited the bar from her parents and that her parents met and married very young. She hated her brown eyes, I refrained from telling her I thought they were beautiful, and she hated being called Isabella.

"Five things you have always wanted to do?" She asked seeing as most of the time we talked about her.

"Oh wow, I never really thought about it." I leaned back again the head rest. "Like things I want to do before I die?" She nodded yes. "Lets see I want to travel outside of the country. I want to write and publish a song. I want to learn to fly a plane. I want to ride a bull, well a mechanical one at least." I added when her eyes widened, "And I want a family someday." I added sheepishly. I hadn't ever really thought about any of this stuff before hand. "How about you?"

"There is defiantly more then five but um, I guess, I want to go to Rome. I want to ride in a hot air balloon."

"But you hate flying."

"I know. But usually the things you are most scared of are the things that are the most fun or worthwhile." She had a point. Hopefully because I was scarred shitless about going home that it was suppose to be a good thing in some way. "I want to see snow in person. I also want to bungee jump someday. And I want to go to time square for New Years Eve."

"So you have thought these things through I take it."

"Yea just a little. Growing up in a small town makes you a dreamer I guess."

"Yea I defiantly know how that feels."

The captain voice came over the intercom and announced our arrival would be soon. The planes height began to drop and Bella' hand once again found mine.