Startled by the noise, I woke the next morning to the abrupt sound of Christmas tunes. Slapping a hand out to quiet the blaring alarm, I sighed in relief when at the comforting silence. Not ready to wake up quite yet, I snuggled deeper into my warm covers and closed my eyes, mind drifting to thoughts of the quiet guy from the night before.

Edward.

Still feeling bad about the way I'd accosted him when he was just trying to help, I ran through scenarios in my head and tried to come up with a way to apologize for my behavior. I'd never seen him around, though... So that might be hard to do. This led me to wondering why I had never noticed him before. Alice always insisted on dragging me to the 'getting to know you' mixers that were hosted at the beginning of the year. I didn't spend much time in the common rooms, either, but I was down there every once in a while.

He had seemed really shy though, making me guess that he spent a lot of time alone. That was actually really sad and made my heart hurt a little for him. I didn't have a large group of friends, but I did have enough to get me out every once in a while. I hoped he did, too.

A glance over at my bedside table told me that my wandering thoughts had caused me to run late, and with a grumble I threw the covers back and dashed around my room grabbing my work clothes before darting into our en-suite bathroom.

After a too-quick shower, I threw on the obligatory black polo and flat front khakis that were my work uniform and rushed back into our room. Changing into a pair of black converse that I kept underneath my bed and grabbing the heavy winter jacket off of the hook, I locked the door behind me and flew down to my truck.

It was a true "Christmas Miracle' that I didn't land face down in the snow. Not bothering to let the engine warm up, I threw it into reverse and made my way to work. I passed the time by flipping through the stations in search of a song that wasn't about Frosty, Rudolph, or their friend the Drummer Boy, I settled on an oldies station, humming along to the songs that reminded me of childhood.

Since it was still fairly early, and traffic wasn't bad I made it to work easily, although my truck whined the whole way. Finally parking the protesting behemoth, I noted that there were no extra cars in the lot of the small electronics store where I worked.

This was a relief.

The mass of aggravated mothers and fathers, in search of the 'game of the season' had taken its toll on my good mood lately, leaving me anxious and ready for the holidays to be over. Just yesterday, I'd gotten caught in the middle of a screaming match between two testy soccer moms, each waving their purses dangerously at each other while arguing over who had laid hands on the last Wii first.

My manager, Marcus, had been the one to break it up when my insistent pleas for them to stop had gone unheeded, shooting an apologetic smile in my direction and offering up my break early to get me out of the fracas.

Marcus and his brothers, Cauis and Aro, ran the Volturi Electronics store, a hold out in the age of mass market chain stores that offered lower prices and little else in the way of customer service. The store had morphed from a hazy, smoke filled record store in the seventies to what it was now... a video game/music store that specialized in trade-ins, and clung fastidiously to its owner's hippie beliefs. Long haired, sandal wearing, patchouli scented and strange, the Volturi brothers were all about 'standing up to the man', whoever he may be.

Surprisingly, I liked the job. The brothers made me laugh; even Caius, the prickly, militant one. They were funny, in an old pot-head way. I liked to get into political talks with Aro, goading him into long winded views that I sometimes agreed with, but more often than not made me shake my head. Marcus was more subtle, always expounding the 'righteousness' of the free-love movement, and how great the relationships were back then. Cauis was the rule-keeper of the three, seemingly at odds with his cohorts at all times.

Climbing out of my truck, I slung my bag over my shoulder and navigated inside. Smiling at Eric as I passed him, and trying my best to stay out of Mike's sight and avoid another awkward conversation when he asked me out, again, I headed to the break room.

"Bella," Marcus said, startling me. I spun to face him, a hand clutched to my heart. "I'm sorry, I thought you saw me here," he said, smiling slightly. "I know I said you could do the music side today, but would you mind doing the games again? I need Eric to help with inventory."

"Sure that's fine," I sighed, resigned to my fate.

Somehow, I had figured that after yesterday, I could pretty much handle any holiday ruckus from angry shoppers. Though Marcus had promised otherwise, I assumed I would be back in the games section more often. Mike always wanted to work the music side, and Eric only cared about playing the games when we were slow. If we were busy, he was content to pretend to be doing something else, anything that didn't involve speaking to customers other than directing them.

Nodding at me once, Marcus went back out to the floor, leaving me to myself in the break room. I said a quick prayer to whoever was listening that today wouldn't be as bad as yesterday before heading to the game counter with a sigh.

The morning passed quickly with only one snag—an upset customer who had to be turned away when we didn't have the game in stock for which she was searching. After writing her rain check that I doubted she'd use, I walked around my area, straightening the picked through shelves.

A flash of green near my feet caught my eye, and I crouched down to peer closer at the box shoved under one of the shelves. Figuring that someone had ripped off a game and hid the empty box, I grabbed for it, wrestling the plastic object from under the heavy wooden frame. A loud giggle left me when I saw the unopened box, tags still in place, and the title.

The very same game that I had just written a rain check for was in my hands, evidently stashed for someone else by a stealthy customer. Laughing quietly to myself, I went back to the game counter and stashed it underneath, intent on making the next person to ask me about it very lucky.

I was cleaning the smudges off of the glass counter when a quiet voice caused my head to pop up. "Excuse me, Miss... Oh."

"Edward, hi," I greeted, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi Bella," he mumbled, looking at me quickly then away. His ears did that cute blushing-around-the-edges thing again. "I'm Christmas shopping."

"Oh, really? Anybody special this year?" I asked, subtly wondering if he had a girlfriend.

"My cousin." He shrugged, his gaze still trained on the shelf to my left. I poked my head into his line of view, amused.

"And what are you getting your cousin?"

"Well," he said, finally casting his gaze back to me, "I'm looking for a game, but I doubt you have it. No one else does..." he muttered. His hands drummed nervously against his leg, instantly drawing the urge to comfort him out of me.

"Try me, I may just surprise you," I joked.

My teasing words caused his ears to redden again and his hand rose to ruffle through the back of his messy hair. "It's the latest Call of Duty game. Everywhere else I tried has been out, and I saw this place and thought that maybe you would have it. If you don't, that's fine—"

"I have it," I interrupted his rambling, which I found shockingly adorable. Reaching under the counter to grab the box I had stashed there, I smiled widely. "Last copy..."

The shocked expression on his face, eyes wide and mouth in a goofy "O" caused me to giggle. His gaze flashed to mine, a tiny, crooked smile slowly forming on his face. "You really have it? I've been all over this city looking for this. I was one step away from E-bay."

"Here, follow me. I'll get you sorted," I winked, stepping from behind my counter and leading him over to the registers. "You may want to keep that hidden; everyone has been looking for it. I found that copy by accident. Oh, hey Eric. Can you ring this guy up?"

Eric, obviously done with inventory, was now working the registers. He looked up from his magazine at my voice. His face twisted as the game was handed to him, an angry look taking over his normally passive face. "Where did you find this?" he choked out, glaring at me.

Taking a step back, I bumped into Edward. "Oops, sorry," I mumbled before turning back to Eric. "Under the shelf, why?"

"This is the last copy, we can't sell this."

Understanding dawned, and I took a step toward him, lowering my voice. "Yes, we can."

"No, we can't. I was going to buy that, and I won't sell it." He crossed his arms over his chest, taking a definitive stand.

"Excuse me," Edward's voice cut in, closer than I expected. Casting a glance over my shoulder, I realized that he had heard our conversation from the aggravated look on his face. He was now standing straighter with an attractive, established stance, a contrast to his previous shy disposition. "I'd like to buy this game. Do I need to call your manager up here?"

Staring Eric down, his voice quiet but firm, he seemed fairly confident, if not for the nervous shuffling of the game in his hands. I looked back over to Eric, smug. There was no way he would want any of the brothers called up here. With an idle thought, I wished for Caius. He'd blow a gasket that Eric had not only hidden stock, but was refusing to sell it, too. The resulting tongue lashing would be entertaining, at the very least.

"Fine," Eric seethed, snatching the game and scanning it. I waited until the bag was in Edward's hands, not trusting the sneaky little twerp.

When he had the bag and his card back, I walked him to the door. "Sorry about that, Eric's kind of a tool," I shrugged, pauisng at the door.

"You apologize for the oddest things," Edward joked, a real smile brightening his face. He ran his hand back through his tousled hair, pushing it off his face and stopping my next thought. My earlier strategy of apologizing to him for my rude behavior last night was forgotten, too.

When his gaze wasn't pointed at the ground and he smiled, really smiled, you could fully see his face. He was gorgeous. Straight nose, kissable lips, a jaw that appeared chiseled from stone and the softest, prettiest green eyes made for a very attractive package. "Uh, sorry..."

Shaking his head at me, he looked down at his bag before looking back up to me. "Thank you, again. I'll see you around?"

Still a little dumbstruck, I nodded my head in response. With one last small smile, he was gone, and I stood there until a clap on my back caused me to jump.

"Bella, you have a line at your counter," Aro told me, nodding his head in that direction.

Hurrying back to my section, my thoughts were filled with Edward.

Screw presents, I want him under my tree.

Thank you for reading!