Author's Note: Thank you for all your curiosity and interest in this short story! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.


Chapter 2

Bella's Point of View

As I waited in line, I pressed my cold hands to my warm face. It had been a while since I'd blushed because of a man. And so effortlessly he made me blush too! It was mortifying.

I stepped up to order when the man in front of me moved. "Hi, Ang."

Angela had a smug look on her face. "I saw the whole thing. You were blushing like crazy and you didn't let go when you shaked hands. What happened?"

I glanced behind me. Crud. No customer, which means I could pretty much stay here for a while. "Nothing. I mean, I just thanked him for the umbrella and introduced myself. That's it."

"Uh-uh." Angela shook her head. "There was something. He couldn't look away from you."

"Angela," I groaned. "It's your imagination going wild again."

"Just date the man!"

"I'm too busy to be dating. I'm not going to start dating as soon as I get the promotion at work." I smirked when her eyes widened at the news.

"What promotion?" she nearly shrieked.

"Lillian is making me junior editor in her own office cabinet," I said. "It was announced yesterday after lunch."

"Oh, my gosh, Bella, that's huge! Congratulations! Wow!"

"I'm a little worried, though," I said, my brows creasing. "I mean, it's only been five years since I started working at Hale Publishing. People are bound to say that I got the promotion because I'm good friends with the boss's daughter."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" Angela waved aside my comment. "Anyone who's worked with you will know how honest and hardworking you are. Don't even think about that. You deserve that promotion, Bella. You know you worked your ass off."

I grinned sheepishly. "I did, didn't I?"

"Of course you did. Maybe you should've told Edward about your promotion. Knowing him, he would've bought you dinner as a congratulations."

"Angela!" My eyes grew wide. "Of all the jokes to make!"

"What?" She was suppressing her laughter. "That's the kind of guy he is."

"That's just ridiculous," I sniffed.

"I'm not joking, he's so into you. And listen, missy, Edward is not a player. He never dates and he's practically a monk, so it's a rare miracle that he's actually interested in you. I mean, of course he would be – you're beautiful. But still, he has taste."

I blushed at her words. Jeez, it's been a while since I blushed over issues like these. It was so strange. "Stop it, Ang."

"Oh, come on!" she groaned. "You're a nun too! You haven't dated since sophomore year of college! And you're still a virgin!" To her credit, she lowered her voice when she said that last sentence. That didn't mean I wasn't horrified.

"Ang! Please!"

"Okay, I doubt he's a virgin," she said. "He's much too handsome to remain so innocent. Girls must have thrown themselves at him. He's quite the looker, don't you think?"

I sighed. "Yes, he's quite the looker, and maybe I'm a little attracted to him, but that's it. Maybe I'll see him around because he seems to be a regular at this place like I am, but that's it, Ang. Like you said, he's much too handsome to remain single, so he'll probably have a girlfriend within the month. End of discussion."

"Why do you do this to yourself?" She looked furious.

"I'm not doing anything to myself. Now give me my coffee, wench."

Looking bad-tempered, which was rare for Angela, she took my money and gave me my change before turning to the bar to get me my coffee. She turned back and snapped the lid on. "You know what? You're right."

"I'm usually always right," I said, though slightly nervous. Her expression seemed much brighter. "But what about this time?"

"He'll have a girlfriend within the month."

I'd said it myself, but the words were disappointing. "Like I said."

She grinned slyly. "And I'm betting that girlfriend will be you."

I gawked at her. "Angela!"

"I'm serious. If he has the balls to do it – and he definitely does – he'll ask you out soon. You know I never gamble, right? Well, I'm gambling. I'm going to bet a hundred dollars that he asks you out before the month is out."

I narrowed my eyes. "Can I hold you to that?"

"Oh, do please."

We shook hands.

"I don't know why you're so cranky," Angela said. "If I'm right, you get the hottest guy in the world to be your boyfriend, even if you are losing a hundred bucks."

Touché.

Edward's Point of View

I couldn't stop thinking about her. After our encounter, however brief, it was like my brain couldn't function properly. Like I was under her spell.

Bella Swan. What a beautiful, fitting name for a beautiful woman.

I wanted to see her again. From the way Angela talked about her friend, I assumed Bella must be single. I really wanted to change that so she'd be mine.

"Edward!" I was nearly shoved to the ground.

"What the hell?" I cursed. I glanced back to see my brother-in-law Jasper standing there, frowning. "Unnecessary, Jasper."

"Completely necessary," he disagreed. He placed his hands inside the pockets of his lab coat. "You were daydreaming pretty hard. I called your name five times." He nodded toward the nurses behind the nurse's station. "Witnesses."

The head nurse, Abby, a sweet old lady, nodded. "He did, Dr. Cullen."

"So what's got your genius head in a knot, brother?" Jasper asked.

"Nothing," I grumbled. I signed out, since my shift for today ended early – only twelve-thirty – before turning back toward my office.

"That's not nothing on your face," Jasper observed, trailing me. He grinned. "Is this about a girl?"

I looked at him sharply. How the hell did he know that?

"Wait, really?" He grabbed my arm, and we stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Seriously, Edward? You're actually interested in someone? Dude, I thought you were gay!"

My eyes widened as I looked around. "Shh! This is why rumors spread around this hospital! Because my brothers go yapping around like a bunch of gossiping old ladies! Butt out!"

Jasper was laughing as he followed me into my office. He closed the door behind him and watched as I took off my lab coat. "Are you going to go see her now? Is it serious?"

"You don't know anything," I muttered darkly under my breath.

"I know that you have sparkling eyes. And whenever those killer green orbs sparkle like that, there's a woman involved. A good woman. You know how I know? Because I've never seen your eyes sparkle like that, and I've never seen you with a good woman. I could put two and two together."

"Jasper," I groaned. "Shut up."

"Just tell me. Are you going to go see her now? Is it serious?" He peered at my face and correctly interpreted my expression. "Or has nothing happened yet?"

I exhaled sharply and hung up my lab coat. "Yes, I'm going to see her now. And it's the latter."

He nodded. "I thought so. What, are you too chicken to make a move? I wouldn't blame you – it's been almost a decade since you asked someone out, right?"

I scowled. I wouldn't be so annoyed if he was teasing me, but he wasn't. My elder brother Emmett might have been saying that to irk me, but Jasper was being matter-of-fact. And he was being completely serious. That drove me mad.

"I'm not chicken," I said, pulling on my jacket. "I just don't know her well."

"Who knows the girl well when a guy asks her out?" Jasper countered. "No one. You get to know her well when you start dating. So ask her out already. What, is she already taken?"

"No. And I only met her a few days ago, alright?"

"Well, now, this is interesting. Because nothing exciting ever happens in your life except sleep, food, hospital, and Starbucks, you must have met her while doing one of those four things."

I closed my eyes and reopened them, staring at him resignedly. He saw right through me. Was I really that predictable?

Jasper chuckled. "Don't worry," he said, as if he'd read my mind. "It's not that you're so predictable; it's that I pay too much attention to you."

"Go on," I said, gesturing toward him. "Tell me all about the encounter. You probably even know her name."

He laughed. "I would guess Starbucks." He inclined his head. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"That's not very impressive," I grumbled, crossing my arms. "There's a million people who go to Starbucks every day. It's a place where you can meet new people."

"I'll give you that. And now I'm at a loss. How did you meet? In line? Bumped into her accidentally and spilled coffee on her? Vice versa? Did you open the door for her?"

Wow. So many possibilities. And I thought lending her my umbrella was a cliché thing to do.

"None of those things."

"Surprising." Jasper grinned. "I'm listening. You can trust me. I'm not Emmett."

I knew I could trust Jasper. He was my brother-in-law now, but he'd been my best friend since kindergarten.

I sighed. "Later. I promise."

"Dying to see her?" he teased. "Alright. I'm holding you to that."

"Don't you dare tell anyone," I warned as I passed him.

"Scout's honor."

I believed him, not because he was my oldest friend, but because he used to be a Boy Scout.


But Jasper was right, wasn't he?

I couldn't help thinking how much of a rut my life was in. Same old events happening every day. It had taken his verbal observation for me to notice that. I was bored. I needed change.

The lady in front of me left with her coffee, and I stepped up. "Good afternoon, Angela."

Angela smiled. "Hey, Edward. The usual?"

I paid, and she got my coffee for me. "Thank you."

She suddenly leaned in and whispered, "The corner."

I looked up at her face, startled. She gave me a faint, knowing smile before turning to the next customer. "Hi, what can I get for you today?"

I smiled internally. I took my coffee and walked a few feet toward the corner. Sure enough, Bella was there, typing away on her laptop. She looked preoccupied today, perhaps because of work. I wondered what she did. Would she forgive me if I interrupted her?

Bella's Point of View

Stupid email...why won't you just send?

Something was terribly wrong with my company's email. I'd typed out an entire email complete with five long paragraphs plus my signature, and yet, when I'd clicked send, the site had done nothing but to wipe away the entire thing and not send at all.

In my concentration, my lips were pushed out, and yet, I didn't notice. I needed to get this email out to the authors within thirty minutes. I finished and typed in my name. Before I clicked send, though, I copied the entire email, just in case.

Sure enough, when I clicked send, the stupid thing did the same thing again. Relieved I was smart enough to have copied the whole email, I whipped out my phone and called the best IT guy at our company.

The phone rang and rang, but he never picked up. Annoyed, I tossed my phone onto the table. "Shit!" I closed my eyes, rubbing my temples. Today was a bad, bad day.

"Having a bad day?"

Oh, God, I know that voice. My eyes flew open and I looked up to see his glorious form standing over me. Edward Cullen.

Oh, crap, I just cussed. How long has he been there? Crap, crap, crap...

Edward didn't seem to mind. He was wearing a rather sincere smile on his face. "Do you mind if I join you? All the other seats are taken."

Instinctively, I glanced back at the other seats. What the heck? The place was practically empty, so why didn't he just...oh. He was just being smooth. Never mind.

"Sure," I said sheepishly. I could see from his amused expression that he knew exactly what I had been thinking about. Was I that obvious?

He sat down gracefully, placing his coffee on the table. He leaned back comfortably, watching me. I felt incredibly awkward. I hadn't really sat down with a man at Starbucks in ages.

"Something wrong at work?" he asked softly.

My eyes flickered to my laptop. "Yes, in one way or another..." I laugh once, then sigh. "Nothing's working out for me today."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Edward said, frowning. "But you usually don't work here."

I nodded. "I'm working from home this whole week, actually. It's something our company has the option to do...for brief periods of time, at least. If, you know, you have other obligations at home."

"And why did you choose that option this week?" he asked. He looked genuinely curious about what I had to say. "I mean, you're not really at home."

I considered his question. It wasn't really what I expected him to ask. "I just felt like I needed a vacation from the stuffy office." I shrugged. "No special reason."

"Hm," Edward murmured. "Interesting. I wish I had that option. What company do you work for?"

"Hale Publishing."

His eyes lit up with understanding. "You work at a publishing house?"

I nodded. "I'm a junior editor."

"That's quite impressive, for someone so young."

I smiled. "It really doesn't count as impressive, since I sort of got the position through nepotism. My best friend's parents own the company."

"But you strike me as someone who is hardworking and intelligent," he countered. "And honest, too. You wouldn't have accepted the position if you thought you didn't deserve it."

I eyed him, surprised. Am I really that easy to read? "You're right."

"I know I am." He looked pleased, though, to get something right about me. "So do you enjoy your work? You like books?"

"I love books."

"Did you major in English Literature at some prestigious university?" he guessed swiftly.

My eyes widened. "How...you couldn't possibly have known that without me telling you. Did Angela tell you that?"

He smiled. "Angela doesn't tell me anything about you, regrettably. No, just the type of job you have, the fact that you have Wuthering Heights sticking out on top of your bag, and the way you have a Dartmouth sweatshirt on."

I glanced down at my bag, which indeed had my favorite book sticking out, then down at my outfit, which I'd forgotten about. I'd literally just thrown on track pants and my Dartmouth sweatshirt on this morning before walking out the front door. I winced internally at the fact that I was sitting in front of Adonis wearing this. Double crap.

I bit my lip. "Observant, Mr. Holmes."

He chuckled. "Oh, very easy."

"On the other hand, I can't seem to tell anything about you," I said, looking him over. He was wearing a white dress shirt today, untucked, with dark blue jeans and red Converse. I would guess him to be in his thirties, though he looked at least twenty-five.

"No, maybe your aptitude lies in literature," he teased lightly.

Was he...flirting with me?

"Maybe," I agreed. "So now you know what I do. Why don't you tell me what you do?"

Edward hesitated for some reason. Was he not going to tell me the truth? Why? "I'm a doctor."

My eyes widened. Unexpected. Was he lying? "I would've guessed teacher."

He laughed out loud. "Unfortunately, no. I'm a general surgeon at the local hospital."

"Huh. Impressive. I've never met a doctor."

"Really?" He looked interested.

"Well..." I blushed. "Not outside of the hospital, at least. I've had plenty of trips to the emergency room, definitely."

"Why?"

"I'm very uncoordinated." I shrugged. "I trip a lot."

Edward chuckled. "I see. Well, what do you think?"

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I can't tell what you're thinking right now. Are you really impressed, or are you just humoring me?" His green eyes burned with curiosity.

I couldn't understand the fascination that he had for me. I was plain as anyone could be, and very boring. Why did he choose to talk to me, when I could clearly see a pretty young woman sitting all the way across the place, glaring at me for snagging the attention of such a hot guy?

"Do I not seem impressed?" I asked, nonplussed. "Because I am."

"Right now, you just seem very confused." He inclined his head. "Why?"

I hesitated. "Before you told me you were a doctor, you hesitated. Why?"

He looked amused now, as though he understood my reaction. He looked relieved too. "You think I'm lying about my job? Why would I lie?"

"That's your job to answer."

He chuckled. "I'm not lying. I hesitated because...well, it was a habitual reaction. I try not to tell women what I do, because then they..." He trailed off, looking for suitable words.

"Throw themselves at you?" I guessed.

He smiled, embarrassed. "Precisely. They'd prefer to know my money rather than me."

"But you told me."

"I did," he agreed softly. "Maybe I feel differently about you."

My eyes grew wide. How very...honest. And flattering. To cover up my shock, I said, "I'm really not surprised, though. You're a catch."

His eyes didn't leave me. "You think so?"

I blushed lightly and looked away. His stare was getting intense. "Yes."

Silence fell between us. Then, he said, "So you believe me now? That I'm a doctor?" He sounded amused again.

"Almost."

Edward laughed, more loudly this time. "Alright, fine. I just came off duty, so I have this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some card with a clip attached at the back. He handed it to me. "Solid proof."

It was a name tag. There was his picture, his name with the Dr. in front. And the name of the local hospital. I handed it back to him. "Good enough."

"Thank you." He put it back in his pocket. "I never thought it'd be this hard to convince someone that I really am a doctor."

I shrugged. "There are a lot of con men in this world."

He gaped at me, amused and shocked at the same time. "Con men?"

I fought back a smile.

He chuckled again. "You're a very amusing young lady. Shall I guess...twenty-five?"

"What, my age?"

He nodded.

"Never ask a woman's age," I warned playfully. "It's dangerous."

He suppressed a smile and waited.

"Twenty-eight. So I'll take your guess as a compliment."

He nodded. "I was close, though."

"You were. Thirty-two?"

He raised his eyebrow. "Lucky guess," he said.

I shook my head, though pleased I'd gotten it right. "Intuition."

He laughed. "Do I really look thirty-two?"

"No," I said simply. "You look at least twenty-five."

"But?"

"But I know better. Con men."

"Ah...so you have an obsession with con men."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, whatever. Shall I guess another thing about you?"

"Please do so."

"Harvard graduate?"

He blinked in surprise. "How did you know that?"

I smiled mischievously. "Intuition."

He shook his head. "No, no. That can't be just intuition. There has to be thousands of medical schools in the world. Tell me how you knew."

"You're very persistent. I was simply being observant and noticed everything written on your name tag."

"Oh..." He chuckled. "I see. Very good."

Just then, my phone vibrated, and I saw the IT guy's name flash on screen. I glanced back at Edward, who said good-naturedly, "Go ahead and take it."

"Thanks. Sorry. Danny, I need your help," I added to the phone.

"What's up, Bella? I was eating lunch."

"I need to send an important email, but the company's email site is refusing to let me. I had to write my email twice, and both times, they were just wiped away. I'm on a deadline here, so if you could fix that in about ten minutes-"

"No need," Danny interrupted. "I'll fix it now. It'll only take a second."

"Really? That would be great."

"Hold on, hold on. Ah, yes, here it is. Someone's toyed with the options. Okay, you're good to go. It should work now."

"Thank you, Danny. You're a life saver. I'll talk to you later, okay?" I hung up and went right to my laptop. "Sorry, this'll just take a minute."

"No worries," Edward said easily, sipping his coffee. He kept staring at me.

I pasted the email back, doublechecked it, then hit send. I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the clock on the screen. I made the deadline with seven minutes to spare. Thank God for talented people like Danny.

"Okay, I'm done," I said, closing my laptop. "Sorry about that."

"Done for the day?" Edward checked.

I looked at him. "Pretty much."

He smiled a crooked smile that simply took my breath away. "Excellent. Then would you go have lunch with me?"

I blinked, surprised. "What?"

"Unless you've already eaten lunch, in which case we can always change it to dinner," Edward said smoothly. "I'm flexible."

"I'm sorry," I said, confused. "Did you just ask me out?"

He gazed at me, amused. "Do you have any objections with me, Miss Swan? You're free to reject me if you wish, but of course, I'd rather you spent the day with me." His eyes softened. "I'd like to get to know you better."

Oh, my... This hot guy was asking me out. Me. He was really straightforward and direct too, so that ignorant little me could understand. And he just looked so hopeful, and I'm more than attracted to him... How could I possibly reject him?

My response wasn't smooth and cool. I mumbled something unintelligent under my breath, "Okay." I'm sure I was tomato red, and that was mortifying.

Somehow he caught the word, or he was just going to force me to have lunch with him either way if I'd said no.

"Let's go, Miss Swan," Edward said lightly. "I'm rather hungry today. I had an early surgery this morning."

I paused in the act of zipping up my laptop in my bag. "If you're tired, you don't have to-"

"I'm not tired, I'm hungry." He took my bag and waited for me to go first. "Ladies first."

I took my coffee and led the way. I caught Angela's smirk though she didn't even say goodbye. I'm pretty sure Edward has forgotten to say goodbye at the moment.

"Where's your car?" Edward asked.

"I didn't bring it today," I said. "I live only about two blocks away, so I walked."

"This works out perfectly, then," he commented. "Come." He led me to his silver Volvo and opened the trunk to put my bag inside. Then, he opened the passenger door for me. "Do you have any preference?"

"To what?" I was rather dazed at the moment from his smoldering green eyes.

"To food." He seemed to notice I was out of it. He shot me a crooked smile. Damn it, my eyes are burning.

"Not really." I slipped inside.

He joined me on the other side and started the car. "Then you don't mind if I pick a place?"

"No."

He glanced at me. "You seem nervous."

"Um..." I glanced out the window at the buildings rushing past. "My mother warned me about getting into cars with strangers."

Edward chuckled. "Well, this stranger has no ill intentions against you. Hopefully, I won't be a stranger by the end of today."

I had to smile at that.


AN: How was it? Cute? I'm going for cute and fluffy. Reviews?