A huge thank you to Beans827 for diving into beta duties!

And a small note that I keep forgetting to mention. It's not a major detail, but in case anyone was wondering all the main characters are in their late 20's and early 30's. When I first started planning I had figured on the 27-32 range. It's one of those details that I didn't really want to write in (a "how old are you?" conversation just wouldn't be a good read) but I did want to share it. These are people who are well enough out of college and just beginning to really be established in their careers. They're all just past that entry level peon stage.

BPOV

I sat in my office, staring at the computer screen. The intern that stepped in to pick up the stack of copying that needed to be completed by the afternoon probably thought I was immersed in my work due to the way I seemed oblivious to her presence. In reality, I couldn't say what I was looking at on the screen and I had been staring at it for twenty minutes. My mind was back in that studio an hour ago.

I realized as I was showering this morning that in order to salvage any dignity, I needed to go about my life as normal, serving two purposes. One, it would give me time to silently deal with the way I was feeling and get over it. By not allowing anything else to change, I could focus on getting my emotions under control and back to normal. And two, it would hopefully keep my friends off my back. If I started changing my routine to avoid potentially uncomfortable situations caused by spending over-thinking things every time I was near him, they would notice something was up and jump on it, forcing a dating intervention.

It didn't take long for my first test. I knew Edward wasn't going to be on air until next week, but I also knew there was a chance he would still be around the studio this morning. As is always my luck, because the fates enjoy screwing with me, he was planted comfortably just inches from my spot.

Every morning, excluding those mornings I had to be at one of the venues, I headed straight for the studio before going to my office. This routine began not long after I started working at the station. It started with me dropping by to say good morning or being waved in every now and then and it quickly turned into a daily routine. I would come in around nine and head straight for the studio where Jasper would have a cup of hot water waiting for me to fix my tea. I would then climb up onto the credenza and BS with the guys until their shift was over. I couldn't exactly change things up now, after years of doing the same thing every day, without raising suspicion so I forced myself to not react, head over to my spot and claim my seat just like every other morning. My seat that was now inches away from the one person I hadn't been able to get out of my mind since I first laid eyes on him yesterday morning. Now I had to sit nearly pressed against him, inhaling his earthy masculine scent with each breath, and not give any indication that my heart was beating out of my chest to the two insanely observant and vocal men just across the room. If I slipped up even once, neither of them would hesitate to comment. The odds were most definitely not in my favor this morning.

I refocused on the computer screen for a moment and my eyes glazed over again almost immediately. I was really starting to irritate myself with this inability to focus on anything besides him. If I wasn't thinking of him, I was thinking about the times I thought of him. It was all annoyingly cyclical.

However, if I was honest with myself, these feelings were exciting and I was enjoying the rush that his proximity was giving me. I had forgotten what a huge difference there was between finding someone attractive and actually being attracted. It had been so long since anyone was able to make me feel that draw and that constant fluttering of my heart at just the thought of him. It was exciting and energizing.

But that was the problem. There wasn't space in my world for exciting and energizing. I had my life in order. Things were finally working smoothly and made sense with no more bumps in the road to throw me off. I didn't have the liberty to throw caution to the wind and act on a little crush. I didn't want to.

At least, I didn't think I wanted to.

Oh hell, of course I wanted to. I just shouldn't want to.

That was what made those same feelings absolutely terrifying. It had been so long that this might as well have been new territory for me. It was disconcerting to realize that the same feelings that give you an adrenaline rush can also make you more uncomfortable than you have felt in a very long time. Something about his proximity made me feel completely at ease and comfortable and yet, at the same time, that sense of comfort made me feel restless and uneasy. It was as if my subconscious knew that this had the potential to be very good or very bad and all the ways it could be bad pushed to the forefront of all thought processes.

My thoughts were in a complete jumble and had been for a full twenty four hours now. Was that really all it had been? How in the hell was I going to survive this with even a small amount of sanity intact?

I lightly pounded my forehead on my desk then pulled it back up. The last thing I needed was a red mark in the dead center of my forehead to try and explain away when Alice got here.

Oh God, Alice. She was going to be relentless.

I loved her to death, but she could make things so much more difficult than they needed to be. I knew I had to get myself under control before she got here. If she caught even the slightest hint of my inner turmoil, she would be all over it, forcing me to talk about it endlessly while she droned on and on about happily ever after.

As it was, I knew that the moment she realized there was a new single guy around that she would start plotting.

Wait, was he even single?

Damn, I was out of practice. I didn't even think to look for a ring. Wasn't that supposed to be the automatic first step in figuring it out?

Still, Alice would take one look at him and start scheming. And God help me if she picked up even the smallest sign that I found him more than moderately attractive. A force of nature wouldn't be able to stop her. I wouldn't be surprised if she had already started planning something. Surely Jasper would have at least casually mentioned a new person starting since he would be working so closely with him five days a week. That would be all the opening Alice would need before she was off and running. I was going to have to be proactive and shut her down at the first sideways glance she sent my way and I would just have to play it extra cool around her so as not to make this more awkward than it already was. I was barely hanging on dealing with my own internal dialogue; I didn't need her constant chatter sending me in a thousand other directions.

I looked up at the clock and noticed it was nearly time to head out for lunch. I grabbed a file full of receipts that needed to be turned into accounting and headed out the door. Walking down the hallway, I was called out of my daze when Emmett yelled out the production room door that he had propped open.

"Hey Jelly Belly, ready to go?"

"Almost. I just need to run this down to accounting." I waved the manila folder in the air as I continued walking and yelled out, "And stop calling me that!"

I turned the corner and dropped the folder off on the accounting manager's desk, knowing he would take care of it as soon as he got back from lunch, and made my way back to the production room. Emmett and Edward didn't hear my approach, too engrossed in the clips Emmett was playing. I leaned against the doorjamb for a minute, listening and watching. Okay, so maybe I was just taking in his laugh and enjoying the tingles it made me feel over my entire body while I could do so guilt-free and without an audience. I may have also been mentally cataloguing his entire appearance.

"You should play the failed takes from Jasper's remote a few months ago."

They both jumped, startled from not expecting anyone else to be there and a mischievous look crossed Emmett's face as he rubbed his hands together diabolically. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to suppress the giggle that always accompanied even the memory of that clip. Poor Jasper's life had been a living hell since that clip was created. It will haunt him for years.

Edward looked over at me while Emmett searched the system for the clip. My eyes locked onto his warm green ones and I tried my best to not look too hard for meaning behind them. All I knew was that during moments like these, when our gazes connected, I had to make a conscious effort to breathe. I thought that crap was supposed to be involuntary?

"So, what's this clip we're looking for?"

The crooked smile on his face said he understood it had to be something good to elicit the reactions Emmett and I were unsuccessfully trying to hide.

I managed to restrain myself from laughing, but the smile couldn't be stopped. "Rosalie sold a remote to promote a touring production that did a couple nights here in Seattle last year and to this day I don't understand how he didn't get out of it, have them make Kate or someone else go instead. . ." I trailed off, prolonging the story while Emmett looked for the clip. "Not that he didn't try, but he did finally relent and go but refused to do the breaks live because he knew he'd flub them."

The crooked grin could easily be my undoing. "So where did he have to go?"

"A, um, popular Vegas male revue was in town." My laugh finally broke through, as did Edward's, just as Emmett found and cued up the clip.

Before playing it, he turned to expand on my explanation. "Yeah, so he recorded his breaks and we kinda didn't delete the failed ones as we went along . . . and there were a lot of failed ones. The promoters had given him a bunch of info they wanted him to use, and they involved some awkward phrasing for a straight man to pull off."

He hit play and Jasper's voice filled the production room, talking about "hot men" and "eye candy for the ladies" and a number of other safe for radio phrases to try and lure women out to see strippers. Each phrase was followed by cursing, grumbling and a request to start over. We made it through half a dozen failed attempts, the three of us in tears from laughing, when a voice interrupted.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me. Am I ever going to live this down?"

We all turned to see Jasper's exasperated look which only caused us to laugh harder. He always tried so hard to pretend to be offended but we all knew better. Get enough drinks in him and he was the one laughing the hardest. Sober, his male ego forced him to stifle the laughs in favor of half-hearted offense.

"Can I ask why you don't just delete it from the system?" Edward asked between laughs.

"You don't think I've tried? They all have it burned to disc and this one," he used his thumb to point to me, "even has a copy kept in the safe in her office."

At this point we were all doubled over, the sounds of our laughs, Jasper's current rant and his outtakes still running through the speakers filled the room and must have trailed down the hall. It was a good thing the rest of the office is used to our crew bursting into random hysterical laughter. They didn't even bother to check anymore when they heard us.

"I've deleted it. Many times. It keeps coming back to haunt me." A small laugh finally broke through, letting us know we were forgiven for enjoying his misery a little too much.

We slowly pulled ourselves together, the clip came to an end and I picked up the phone while wiping the tears from my eyes and dialed Rosalie's extension to let her know we were ready to go. She responded that she would be on her way upstairs with Alice.

I hung up the phone to see Jasper searching the system and the evil look in his eye when he turned his head in my direction said I was in for it. Just as he cued up the spot, I launched across the board, slamming my hand down on the button to turn the studio speakers off.

"Don't even think about it, Whitlock!"

"Turnabout's fair play, m'dear."

Our stare down lasted just seconds before Emmett broke in. "As much as I'd love to humiliate Jelly Belly, we gotta go." I shot him a grateful look and his lips curled into a mischievous smile. "Besides, there's plenty of time later to pick up where we left off."

They all three started to walk out of the studio while I stood unmoving, dumbstruck and wondering how I could deflect them later, before I realized I had been left behind and rushed to catch up, thumping Emmett and Jasper on the backs of their heads as I passed them and continued down the hall.

We turned the last corner to head into the lobby area and before I could brace myself, I was tackled. My sense of balance had always been my ruin and when coupled with the small heels I had changed into earlier to avoid Alice's wrath, there was simply no hope for me. Alice and I both went flying backwards. I tensed the second my body recognized that I had just slammed into another person. I didn't have to turn around to see who was holding us up. My body was already far too aware of the fact that Edward had been walking behind me before this crash landing. The feel of one hand on my shoulder while the other held me up by my waist sent my heart racing, not to mention the electric buzz currently pulsing through my body, beginning at each point we were connected and radiating out to every limb.

At this point, I was stuck and Alice didn't seem to be in any hurry to move. Granted, this entire thing happened in a matter of seconds but my brain was processing it in slow motion. I was hyper aware of every passing second I spent in this position. She bounced around, squealing some form of incoherent greeting to me while wrapping her arms around my neck in a hug. My balance still hadn't recovered since I was wedged precariously between two bodies unable to get gravity on my side again so the force of her hug just sent me further back into Edward. One arm reached around Alice and gripped her as tightly as possible, using her as an anchor. She must've thought I was hugging her back when in reality I was just trying to hold onto anything because she only gripped me tighter rather than move aside to allow me to free myself. My other hand shot out to my side, searching for a wall or any stable surface to grab onto but coming up with nothing. My arm waved frantically in the air. I was sure I looked like a total idiot and prayed we weren't directly in line of any of the security cameras. The last thing I needed was for this to be documented.

I felt a small shift behind me as Edward moved his head closer and whispered, "Don't worry, I've got you."

I was frozen solid, unable to move as he gripped my waist tighter. His breath against my ear as he spoke sent chills through my body, goose bumps appearing immediately. His left hand slid from my shoulder and across my collarbone until he could grip the opposite shoulder so I wouldn't continue to slide under the weight of Alice. His right hand had moved across to the other side of my waist, his forearm resting against my abdomen, stabilizing my body against his chest. Oh yeah, I was in trouble.

"What the fuck, Alice. It's not like you don't talk to her every day." Leave it to Rosalie to break the tension. Oh, what would I do without you, Rose?

"Irrelevant," Alice stated as she finally moved off of me, and stuck her nose in the air. "I haven't seen her in over a week."

Edward helped me stand back up, asking me if I was alright. I assured him I was with a small smile and nod as I smoothed my clothes back into place.

"Just another day with Hurricane Alice," I joked, smiling back as he grinned at me.

Just as luck would have it, Alice chose that moment to turn her attention back around and gave me a devious smirk before bounding over to Edward.

"Hi!" she squeaked, always cheerful. "I'm Alice. You must be Edward!"

He laughed at her energetic nature and shook her hand. "Yes I am. It's nice to meet you, Alice."

Never one to do what is expected of her, she caught him off guard by moving to her tiptoes and grabbing hold of a small patch of hair that hung down over his forehead, moving it around to examine it in the light.

"I would make a fortune if I could replicate this color."

Alice was in her zone, oblivious to everything around her, no doubt trying to figure out what combination of color, highlights and lowlights it would take to match his unique shade as Jasper moved in to pull her off of an extremely patient Edward, leaning in to him to explain, "Alice owns a salon and spa."

She hopped up to give Jasper a quick peck before turning back to me and linking her arm with mine and dragging me off ahead of everyone. I chanced a quick look behind me to make sure they were following to see the guys laughing while Rosalie sighed, shaking her head in exasperation, and trailed behind us.

"We have SO much to talk about," she whispered rather loudly. I grumbled internally, dreading where she was taking this and refusing to respond.

Try not to engage her, I told myself. Stay silent, maybe she'll forget you're there.

I sighed to myself in resignation; if only that would work on her. I just wasn't that fortunate. I ventured a quick peek in her direction and internally groaned at the sly look that had taken over her entire face. I gave her a glare of warning that was returned with a look of faux innocence as she shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "what?"

The six of us piled into the elevator when it reached our floor, moving to the back to allow more to enter as we stopped at other floors on the way down. Following standard elevator etiquette, I stood quietly in the back, staring up at the numbers as the elevator made its way down to the lobby. Being lunch time, it seemed like we had to stop at nearly every floor, making it the world's longest elevator ride. Seriously, were the folks from Guinness waiting at the bottom with stopwatches? The fact that I was standing right next to Edward, my senses attuned to him, only made it worse. At each floor, as more people stepped on, we were pushed closer toward each other. I couldn't tear my eyes away from those damn numbers. I didn't trust myself to do anything but count down in my head as we descended.

Of course Alice didn't get that "quiet in the elevator" memo and I was yanked out of my dead stare, literally.

I looked down to see Alice pulling at a belt loop in my jeans, giving me a look I had come to dread.

"What the hell is this?" she asked me.

"What's what Ali? They're my jeans. The jeans you picked out. You can't tell me you have an issue with them." The frustration was evident in my voice. The jeans were the only part of my original outfit that I was sure I could salvage.

"They're too big. You've lost weight." She kept pulling, my whole body jerking with each tug as she inspected the slack around my waist, and a quick glance around the crowded elevator confirmed my worst nightmare. All eyes were on me, including his. "Seriously B, look at this. We need to go buy you new clothes if you've lost weight."

I feel my face flushing from embarrassment. Did I really need to have this conversation in such cramped quarters with what appears to be a rather captivated audience?

"Can't I just eat cookies and ice cream for the next week?" I mumbled to her and heard a flow of chuckles from all around me.

Jasper put his hand on Alice's shoulder, not even trying to keep a straight face. "Aww hon, look what you've gone and done now. I think it's time to step back and take a look at good hard look at yourself. If she's so scared of shopping with you that she has turned into the only girl in history who would prefer to gain weight rather than buy new clothes, you might have a serious problem that needs to be checked out."

The laughter around me picked up and I couldn't help but giggle at the offended look Alice was shooting at Jasper.

"Seriously Alice, it's not worth it. I've been so busy the past month, constantly on the run getting things ready for the summer concert season and getting the theater remodel underway that I haven't been eating like I should. It's just not worth it to spend the kind of money that I know you're mentally spending right now over a few pounds that I'm sure will work their way back now that I have a somewhat normal schedule again."

She crossed her arms and huffed as we neared the bottom floor. The doors opened and we waited for the rest of the elevator to empty. I had just taken my first step when I felt Edward move behind me. Again, he leaned down into my ear, my own breath catching at the feel of his warm breath against my skin. "Okay, I see what you mean now."

A laugh burst out a little louder than I would have liked at his reference to our conversation this morning about everything making sense once he met Alice. As we stepped off of the elevator fully, Alice was standing there watching with her arms crossed and brow furrowed which only made me laugh harder. I could hear him laughing as he came up beside me and I watched her scowl travel between the two of us.

"What?" she asked, trying to stay annoyed.

I shook my head, put my arm around her shoulder and led her behind our friends. "Nothing. I love you, Alice," I responded in a sing-song voice.

Luckily, lunch with the group wasn't nearly as stressful as I had imagined it would be. With six people trying to carry on one conversation I was able to avoid feeling like I was constantly under a microscope. I still managed to catch the occasional knowing looks and there were moments that I wanted to slap someone upside the head for a not so subtle comment, but for the most part it was like every other time we all managed to coordinate schedules to meet in the middle of the day.

Having someone new with the group changed the tone a little, but definitely for the better. We ended up spending a lot of time reminiscing over stories intended to embarrass each other which led to other embarrassing stories we had long ago forgotten. I should have known I couldn't put off the near miss from earlier much longer.

"So," Jasper started with an evil glint in his eye, directed at me. "You were pretty quick to shut me down earlier. I don't think it's fair that we had to relive my most embarrassing on air moment and not yours."

"Don't even," I growled. "Your moment was just that, a moment. Mine gets revisited a dozen times a day. What's fair about that?"

"You're always so sensitive when the subject comes up," Emmett teased, patting me on the back as my head fell into my hands in defeat.

"You tricked me! I had no idea you were recording!" I whispered loud enough for the whole table to hear, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the laughing.

"You didn't ask," he shrugged as he tossed a fry into his mouth.

I looked around the table to see everyone enjoying the moment except Edward whose face showed a combination of confusion and curiosity.

"Fine, tell it. I can't hide from it forever," I surrendered.

Jasper clapped his hands once victoriously before turning to Edward and telling him the whole mortifying tale. My so-called friends jumped in to add color commentary to the story of the local gentleman's club that wasn't happy with the spot originally produced for them. I internally scoffed. Could there be a more inaccurate name than gentleman's club?

Emmett had been pulling different women from the office to try out the copy and nothing sounded right. Jessica, of all people, gave it a shot and Emmett thought he would be able to use it. I had walked in while he was working on the spot and laughed at how cheesy it was. I didn't think anything of picking up and reading the copy in a sarcastic phone sex voice. I might have been directly mocking Jessica's takes, but nobody needed to know that outside of our group. Emmett and I laughed hysterically at how ridiculously over the top I was, and yet frighteningly accurate at the same time, as I went through it a couple times, getting more and more dramatic at each pass.

I wasn't expecting the surprise that awaited me an hour later when he called me back into the production room. He had somehow pieced together a full spot from all of my mocking attempts that I hadn't been aware were being recorded. Even more humiliating was that the client loved it and insisted on using that one.

The only silver lining in the whole thing was that Jessica had been so excited at being the voice that it really ticked her off when the client denied her version. The fact that it was my take that was selected, of all people, just added to the insult. I probably enjoyed that a little more than I should have.

After my story was told, it branched into other tales of our individual and combined disgrace. We also learned a lot about Edward in between our attempts to humiliate each other, as everyone asked him questions about his life prior to the past couple days. My plate became the most interesting thing in the room as I tried to avoid the scheming look Alice directed at me when she asked Edward if he was seeing anyone. When he answered that he wasn't, I returned her look of victory with my own look of warning. Fortunately, she backed off and started asking about his family, allowing me to breathe a little easier as we listened to him talk about his parents. I still couldn't bring myself to look around the table to see if anyone else was paying attention to Alice's and my exchange. I was all about denial. If I didn't see it, I could convince myself it didn't exist so, in my mind, my friends were completely oblivious.

It seemed that we all failed to remember that we were in a public place and we laughed even harder once we paid the bills and realized that every single table directly surrounding ours was completely empty while the rest of the restaurant was packed. Apparently we were having too good of a time and no one was willing to sit near us.

We left a generous tip, all of us feeling guilty for forcing half a dozen tables to stay empty, and headed back to the office. Walking down the sidewalk, Alice came up beside me and put her arms around me. I returned her sideways hug, resting my head against hers as it lay on my shoulder: a silent apology and an equally silent forgiveness. We walked like this for a few feet before squeezing each other tighter once more and letting go, just walking side by side, arms linked.

I would never try to deny that Alice knew how to push my buttons and there were times when her lack of filter made me cringe, but I didn't know what I would do without her. I supposed I could enjoy knowing that I could annoy her just as easily. When it came down to it, however, those annoyances were all only superficial things. When it really mattered, there was no one I trusted more than Alice. We had been practically inseparable since the first day we met back in high school; even the distance of an entire continent while I was living on the east coast didn't translate into distance in our friendship. She always had this unique way of putting me in my place while remaining absolutely supportive. I didn't want to think about where I would be without her. Her strength had been invaluable, especially in these last few years. It made it easy to forgive when she pushed just a little too hard.

Everyone went their separate ways once we got back to the office. The rest of the afternoon flew by. I spaced out again, much like earlier, and worked on auto pilot. I knew that my to-do list was down to almost nothing by the time I left for the day, but I couldn't begin to recall with any amount of clarity what I had actually done in those final four hours.

The rest of the week followed in much the same manner. I was getting better at following my old routine without having to make such an effort to do so. We had a lot going on with summer quickly approaching which helped keep me distracted and focused on something else. Each morning I stopped first in the studio and as each day passed I found it easier and easier to spend time with Edward. I was quickly becoming as comfortable in his presence as I was with any of the other guys. That wasn't to say that the butterflies stopped entirely, I just got better at being functional regardless and so far I hadn't really had to deal with being near him one on one more than a couple minutes at a time. All week I've had the security of at least one other person in the room to act as a buffer. I knew that wouldn't last forever and I couldn't help but be afraid of what would happen when I lost that shield.