A/N: Alright, I couldn't wait a whole week and leave you hanging with Bella in bed with Demetri. After this, I'll stick with once a week! Probably... :)

Disclaimer: SM owns all things Twilight. It's her world; I'm just visiting.

Massive thanks to Nuttyginger, Jess, and rosellebec for their pre-reading and beta work on this!

Chapter 2

I'm drifting in and out of sleep, trying to ignore the orange light streaming through my eyelids.

Just five more minutes.

Movement to my left makes me bolt upright, completely disoriented.

Ow, FUCK. My head.

As I grip my pounding skull, the sheet pools around my waist, causing my bare nipples to stand at attention.

Bare nipples? Oh, God. Am I naked?

What the fuck did I do?

I'm going to KILL Alice.

Flashes of memories from the night before start to make it through the haze: drinking, dancing, bumping, grinding, fucking giggling, kissing…sexing.

Shit.

I guess the dry spell is finally over. And judging by the soreness I feel as I shift around a bit and the light bruising on my hips, I took quite a pounding. I'm going to assume it was a satisfying pounding at that.

I peek over the side of the bed as I pull the sheet back up over my chest and spot a condom packet on the floor.

Oh, thank you, sweet baby Jesus.

At least I wasn't stupid drunk enough to not use protection.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by a very male groan, which makes me grip the sheet tighter around my torso. I roll my eyes at myself, because clearly this person has already been acquainted with my lady parts.

In fact, his left hand has started wandering a bit and seems to want to get to know them even better.

I look over to the pillow next to mine and see a mess of dirty blond hair. I can't see his face, but I do remember really liking his blue eyes. Curiosity gets the better of me, and I gingerly lift the sheet. Underneath is a nice, defined back and fairly delectable ass sitting atop long, toned legs.

Hmmm, not bad. Not bad at all.

At least I didn't go home with a total troll. I also have vague memories of him being kind of sweet…despite the bruising.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get out of here without waking him up or making a complete fool of myself. I'm not exactly well versed in the "walk of shame."

As I try to ninja my way out of the bed, the door cracks open just a bit, and spiky black hair appears, followed by wide grey eyes.

Yeah, hi…

I give Alice a little wave with one hand, while clutching the sheet with the other. As she watches me try to maneuver around this dude and his roving hand, she has to stifle a giggle. My wave quickly transforms into my favorite one-fingered hand gesture.

Her eyes widen a bit before she backs away and quietly closes the door. After which, I hear a distinctly familiar cackle from the hallway.

Laugh it up.

I make it out of the bed without waking…um…whatever his name is. We'll call him 'dirty blond' for now.

Jesus, this is sad.

Okay, panties…

Uh, where the fuck are they?

Evidently, I was not the one who removed them, because I finally locate them draped over a lampshade across the room.

Could this possibly get any more embarrassing?

Okay, jeans: check. Bra…

Oh yeah, didn't wear one.

Well, at least my hungover brain doesn't have to battle it out with hook & eye closures. Score one for Alice and her fashion powers of persuasion.

Skimpy shirt: check. Shoes: check.

I smooth my sex hair down as best I can and sneak out the bedroom door into the short hallway. The smell of food cooking immediately assaults my nostrils, and my stomach rolls.

Is Alice seriously making breakfast for this guy? I just want to get the hell out of here.

Walking into the eat-in kitchen, I spot a ginormous guy sitting at a tiny square table devouring a plate of pancakes.

I might puke.

Alice is sitting across from him, sipping on some coffee. Upon seeing me, she jumps up and starts filling a large glass with water.

She always knows just what I need.

"Thank you. Aspirin?"

Two pills appear in my waiting palm.

"Thanks again," I rasp.

I swallow the pills and guzzle most of the water. When I open my eyes, I see the big guy grinning knowingly at me. My cheeks instantly heat up, and I just know I'm turning a lovely shade of magenta right about now.

"Morning, sunshine!"

"Um, morning. Could you please not, uh…bellow?" I have no other word to describe it. I'm not actually sure if he spoke any louder than normal, but it sure feels like it in my head.

"Sorry," he laughs.

"It's okay, uh…"

"Felix."

"Right. Um, Alice, we should probably get going." I'm giving her the wide eyes, letting her know I mean right the fuck now. I'd like to be gone before 'dirty blond' wakes up.

Needless to say, I'm a bit mortified by my behavior last night. Alice clearly does not share this mortification, since she's pleasantly enjoying her morning coffee with the jolly giant over there.

"You sure you don't want to stay for pancakes?" said giant bellows once again.

"Oh. No thanks." I give him a small smile. "Please tell…uh…"

Gah, seriously! WHAT is his name?

"Demetri."

"Right, Demetri."

The answer is clearly yes. This can get more embarrassing.

"Please tell Demetri I had a nice time and um, thanks," I say with a tight smile.

"I'm sure he'll be up soon. Please, make yourself at home. Ali here has."

Obviously.

"Oh. No, that's okay. I'm sure he needs his sleep, but thank you for having us."

My hand immediately clamps over my mouth, and my eyes go wide.

Felix is trying not to laugh at my inadvertent dirty joke. I think he's finally realized how uncomfortable I am.

Alice, on the other hand, is giggling like the evil little sprite she is.

Bitch.

"Er, I mean thanks for your hospitality, but we really should get home." I manage to pull my foot out of my mouth and remain relatively composed, considering I'm dying inside.

Alice finally has mercy on me and gets up to put her coffee mug in the sink.

"Alright, big guy. I guess we're outta here." Felix pats his leg, and Alice perches her little ass on it, wrapping her arms around his rather impressive neck. "Thanks, babe. I had a lot of fun," she coos at him, brushing her little nose over his.

Again, I might puke.

"Any time, doll-face." He gives her an admittedly sweet peck on the lips, but when she stands, he not-so-sweetly smacks her on the ass. This, of course, makes her giggle yet again.

When she's finally ready to go, relief floods through me, and I can't get out of there fast enough.

~XXXXXX~

Later that evening, after an epic nap and much needed shower, I'm feeling a bit more human.

Alice finds me sitting on our couch watching some re-runs of Roseanne and plops down next to me.

"Okay, spill."

I give her the side-eye. "Spill? I think you know what happened, Alice."

"What's the big deal, Bella? It's just sex. People have it all the time," she says flippantly, stealing one of my chips.

"I know that, but not me," I respond with a groan. "As much as I enjoyed it, I'm just not looking for meaningless hook-ups."

"So you did enjoy it?" she asks with a barely repressed grin.

"If you must know, yes. From what I remember, it was pretty freaking hot," I admit somewhat reluctantly. "Way better than 'Douchebag.'"

Alice needs no explanation. She knows who I mean.

She scoots closer to me on the couch. "So then, why didn't you talk to him at all this morning? Give the guy a chance?"

I cover my face with my hands and talk through them. "I was just too embarrassed. The Bella he met last night is not me. I'm sure he'd be pretty disappointed with the real me."

Smack

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Don't talk about my cousin that way," Alice grumbles.

I'm still rubbing the spot on my arm where she smacked the shit out of me.

She's freakishly strong, that one.

"You know what I mean, Alice. I'm not carefree, 'take-me-home-and-fuck-me' Bella. I'm computer game-playing, boring, bank teller Bella. I'm not exciting and fun like I was last night."

At this, Alice is beaming.

"Yes, I admit I had fun," I say with a laugh.

"Bella, you are fun. I know you want to meet 'the one,' but you're never going to get anywhere if you can't put yourself out there, sweetie." The sympathetic look on her face annoys me a tiny bit.

"I know," I respond with a heavy sigh. "It's hard being out of school and working full time. I just don't meet anyone, and I really don't see myself starting a relationship off with a one-night stand."

"Hey, it happens," she says with a wry grin.

"So, you and Felix?"

"Maybe." She shrugs. "I don't know. We definitely had fun, but I'm not so sure he's boyfriend material. The man can make a mean pancake though."

"Wow, I thought you cooked him breakfast. I was wondering where that came from."

"Shut up, I can cook," she says with a laugh, because she knows I'm just teasing.

"Well anyway, I'm definitely ready to find the right guy. I just don't want to have to go through a lot of wrong ones to get there," I attempt to explain.

Alice nods. "I get that."

"I also have the feeling that if or when the right one does come along, things will move fast."

Her eyebrows shoot up. "Faster than a one night stand?"

Well, shit.

"You know what I mean, Al. I'm talking about the real thing here. Love."

"Well, you're probably right about that. You've always been pretty quick to fall," Alice responds sagely.

"Yeah, it would be nice if my heart worked a little slower though. So far, it's only come back to bite me in the ass. I mean, look at what happened with Mike, and of course there was Jake before that." I sigh. "I'm probably destined to be alone."

I completely fell in love with Jake during college, but we had the worst timing.

He was actually crushing on me early on, while I was after his friend, Paul. By the time I realized what a jerk Paul was and started noticing how sweet and attentive Jake was, he had gotten over me. Luckily through it all, we've remained great, albeit long-distance, friends, but it's never going to be more than that.

Sadly, I was so hung up on him during those couple of years that I didn't try to meet anyone else. Then there was Mike, and yeah, we all know how that went down.

~XXXXX~

The next day is Sunday, thank goodness. I definitely need another day to recuperate before the work-week starts.

I grab some cereal and sit down at my computer. After perusing my games for a minute, I decide to pull up the new one I downloaded a few nights ago. It's called Magic: The Gathering Online. A guy I play Ultima Online with suggested it to me.

It's quite different from anything I've played before, so I still don't know what the hell I'm doing. It's a card game, but not regular cards, like Ace through King. It has creature cards, sorcery cards, etc., that players use to battle against one another.

There are also five different card colors – red, white, green, black, and blue. Red is mostly direct damage, while white includes a lot of healing, and so forth. You get to make up your own decks consisting of whichever colors you prefer.

I log in and start building a deck with mostly green and white cards. After spending about a half hour putting it together, I think it's pretty good, so I start trying to find a game to join to test it out.

Hours later, I've met a few nice people and am completely addicted. No surprise there, really. I love the strategy of it, and it's just plain fun.

I go to bed that night having mostly forgotten the embarrassment of my drunken sexcapade with 'dirty blond'…err Demetri.

I have a feeling I'll still be walking a little funny tomorrow though.

~XXXXX~

Mondays at the bank are always a bit crazy.

These are the days when I really wish I had finished college. That's kind of difficult though, when you have no idea what the hell you want to do with your life.

I'm the commercial teller, so it's my responsibility to handle deposits and make change for business owners. The commercial window is always busiest in the mornings, so I have to make sure to have enough small bills and coin. As you can guess, Mondays are the worst.

I really hate these giant ass boxes of coin, but luckily, we have a rolling cart to get them from the vault to my station. Unfortunately though, I still have to move them around quite a lot throughout the day.

Just after I return to my station from lunch, I spot a dirty blond head of hair out in the lobby.

My heart goes into overdrive, and I immediately duck down and hide like the coward I am.

Alice is in so much trouble.

"Bella?"

Shit.

"Oh, hi-" I peek up from my hiding place.

Okay, not the blond I thought it was.

"James," he says, looking at me like I have a brain injury as I stand up.

"I know, sorry. I was just distracted, trying to move these coin boxes around a bit."

Not total bullshit.

"How are you, James?"

"Good, how are you? Did you have a nice weekend? I'm so sorry I missed you on your birthday, but they told me you took the weekend off."

Wow, take a breath, dude.

How to explain James…

Well, James has been coming here to cash his paychecks every Friday afternoon for several months now. He's been flirting with me ever since the first time I helped him. He seems relatively harmless, but he has said some creepy things here and there. For instance, he talks about what it will be like once we're married - yeah, weird. I also sometimes conveniently see him around town, and he'll be staring right at me, even if I'm in my car.

So far, I haven't been too worried, but he's still a concern. I have to try really hard not to lead him on in any way.

"Oh yeah, my boyfriend wanted to take me away for the weekend. It was very nice. Thank you for asking."

I also may have led him to believe that I have a boyfriend.

Okay, so I try to talk about my imaginary boyfriend every chance I get. However, so far, this has not deterred him.

"Ah, I see. That was nice of him, I guess," he says, looking a little defeated.

Maybe he keeps the hope alive that we'll break up. Of course, that won't happen since it's all in my head.

In my head, I have the perfect boyfriend.

Don't judge me.

"Yes, he's very sweet. "

"Well, I brought you these." A huge bouquet of pink roses is shoved into my face.

"Wow, James, these are really nice, but I think my boyfriend might question me about them if I take them home."

Don't lead him on. Don't lead him on.

"You can just keep them here and put them in a vase in your teller window," he responds in a hopeful voice. "I mean, all the other girls will probably be jealous of you. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Uh…sure, James. Thanks."

Yeah, that's not happening.

I reluctantly take the roses from him and set them aside. As I look back at James's expectant face, I see someone step up behind him. It's one of my commercial customers, Mr. Berty.

Mr. Berty runs the 7-Eleven down the street. His transactions always take forever because he doesn't sort his money beforehand. This usually annoys the ever-loving shit out of me, but at this moment I've never been happier to see him.

"I'm sorry, James, but I need to help Mr. Berty. Thank you again for the flowers. They're very pretty."

"Oh, you're welcome, Bella, but they're nowhere near as pretty as you."

Gag

"I hope they don't get you into trouble with your boyfriend or anything."

Yeah, that's a believable statement, since you're grinning from ear to ear.

Jackass.

"Oh no, I'm sure it will be fine. He's really not the jealous type. He knows how much I love him." I smile sweetly.

"Right. Well, have a good day Bella. I'll see you soon."

"Okay, James. You have a nice day too."

God, he puts me on edge.

My manager, Shelley, comes to check on me after I'm finished with Mr. Berty, because she knows James makes me a little nervous. I let her know everything is fine.

I decide to just take the damn flowers home, since I don't want to display my stalker roses at work. It's not like I have a boyfriend to "get into trouble" with anyway.

Sigh

~XXXXX~

That evening, I have dinner with Alice. At first, she gets excited about the roses, until I tell her who they're from.

"Oh, damn. I thought maybe Demetri would-"

"What?"

"Um…never mind. So James, the creeper, came in just to see you today? He didn't even have a check to cash?"

"Nice try, Alice. Why did you think they came from Demetri? Did you tell him where I work?"

"Well, I might have mentioned it to Felix."

I scowl at her, and she rushes to continue.

"He said he didn't think Demetri would really act on it though, since you made it abundantly clear that you didn't want to see him anymore. You know, because you walked out without so much as a word and didn't leave your phone number or anything." She cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Good, I'm glad the message was received." I cock my eyebrow right back at her.

"Jeez Bella, you'd think he was the Hunchback of Notre Dame or some shit."

I snort.

"The guy is nice and decent looking, and you did say you had a good time," she finishes by waggling her eyebrows.

"Can you please just drop it, Alice? It's not happening."

She puts her hands up in surrender. "Alright, fine. I'm just trying to get you to spread your wings a bit."

Another snort. "You mean my legs?"

This time I get a scowl from her. "It just seems like all you ever do is play those stupid computer games," she says with mild disgust coloring her tone.

"Alice, just because you don't enjoy them, that does not make them stupid," I repeat for the millionth time since we've lived together.

"Fine, I won't meddle - this time," she says pointedly.

Riiight.

Who thinks Alice will keep her promise? We'll see...

Okay, now that we've kind of established who Bella is, we might get to meet a certain green-eyed gentleman next chapter, and things will get moving. ;) Thanks for sticking with me! And if you're wondering about the game described in this chapter, keep the title in mind. :) You can find more information about the game here if you're interested: wizards dot com slash magic

Thank you so much for reading! A review would be much appreciated if you have the time. :)

Story Rec: Unplanned Perfection by littlecat358 - Bella and Alice were best friends, which made Bella the only girl off limits to Alice's brother Edward. When a party the summer after graduation gets out of control, Bella's world is turned upside down. "He doesn't know. I don't want him to." LANG/LEMONS - Complete - Another of my all time faves. Most of you have probably already read this, but if you haven't...what are you waiting for? :D