A/N: Nope, still don't own anything, except the plot of this particular story. All characters etc belong to Stephenie Meyer, wondrous woman that she is. Thanks as always to my beta-reader VBC, who helps my story to not suck and actually make some semblance of sense.

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Despite having been told by Charlie only a few minutes before that Jacob had called me, I wasn't expecting the phone to be answered so quickly.

"Jacob!" I exclaimed, a bit louder than I'd intended.

"Ow. Hi, Bella," he said, and I could practically hear the smile in his voice. "I called you earlier, but Charlie said you were still asleep."

"Yeah, bad insomnia last night," I said quickly, continuing with the excuse I'd given Charlie. "I've been trying to get in touch with you for a week, Jacob Black. Where on earth have you been?" I asked him, furiously.

"Has it really been a week since we last talked?" Jacob asked, and I could hear real wonder and confusion in his short question. How could he not have realized how much time had passed? I wondered.

"Um, yeah, Jake, it has been. I've missed you-where have you been?" I asked, embarrassed by how much hurt was revealed in my voice.

"I've just been hanging around," he replied, "not doing much of anything at all, actually., just hanging out with friends. I met a friend of yours, actually. She was down at the beach with her family."

I couldn't help but notice the almost dreamlike tone to his voice when he mentioned my friend. "Which friend was it?" I asked, suspiciously.

"Angela," Jacob told me, and the dreamlike tone to his voice remaining. "Angela Weber."

"Oh," I said. "was Ben there too? Or was she just there with her family?" I asked him.

"Just her family…who's Ben?" he asked.

"You've seen him on other beach trips, I'm sure. It's Angela's boyfriend," I said, placing a very slight emphasis on the word boyfriend. If I was interpreting Jacob's tone of voice correctly, he'd developed a crush on Angela, my friend from school, and he'd already caused me enough heartache by making me fall in love with him while I was already in love with Edward-I certainly didn't need him causing Angela that kind of trouble.

"So, Jake," I said, changing the subject. "Edward told me that he sent you an invitation to the wedding. I'm really sorry. I'm sure it must have hurt you, and I really hope that's not why you've been out of touch," I said. "I hadn't planned on sending you an invitation. I-I just didn't want to rub it in your face."

"No, Bella, it's fine. Don't worry about that. I'm cool. I know that he was trying to do something nice. Must've been hard for the bl-sorry, for Edward to do something like that for me-you know, our kinds being mortal enemies and all," he said.

I blinked. This conversation was not going the way I'd expected it to at all-or at least, the way I would have expected it to go if I'd had any expectations. Actually, given that my only expectation had been that Jake would ignore my call yet again, I supposed I hadn't really had any expectations of how the call would go once I finally did get in touch with him again.

"Bella?" he asked. My silence must have been longer than I'd thought.

"Yeah, I'm here Jake. But, actually, I've got to go. I haven't eaten anything yet, and I'm starved suddenly." I wasn't, but he didn't need to know that.

"Sure, Bella. Call me soon, okay? We'll get together. I really want to see you."

"Sure, Jake. Yeah. I'll call you soon," I said, hanging up the phone slowly and feeling myself drop. Thankful that there was a chair right underneath me, I put my elbows on the table and rested my forehead in my palms. What in the world is going on with Jacob? I wondered. I knew that Jacob was keeping something from me-but the problem was, I don't think even he knew that. It wasn't intentional, I was almost 100 sure of that. As I debated the situation mentally-was Jacob keeping something from me? Was he doing it intentionally? Had the time really just slipped by for him? What was going on?-Edward re-entered the kitchen and slipped cold arms around me from behind and leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"So, did you get in touch with him?" he asked me.

"Yes," I said, sadly, "but I don't know why he was avoiding me before. He says he wasn't, and like Charlie said earlier, he was talking like there'd been no time at all since our last conversation. In fact, when I mentioned it had been a week, he said he hadn't even noticed. How could it possibly seem like no time at all to him, Edward?" I asked, feeling a pang of guilt that I was mourning the loss of my time with Jake to Edward, who knew how I felt about Jacob regardless of the fact that I had, in the end, chosen to spend the rest of my life-mortal or otherwise-with Edward and not Jake. I knew my feelings for Jake hurt Edward, even though they didn't change the way that I felt about him, or the fact that I couldn't live without him. He never told or showed me that it hurt him, but I was certain that it did. I stood up and turned to face him, entwining my fingers with his much colder ones.

"Well, time does pass differently when you have a nearly infinite amount of it and need little to no sleep, Bella," Edward said. He would know, I guess, being immortal and requiring no sleep himself. Jake did need to sleep, but he needed it far less than any normal human being, and he, like Edward, was not currently aging. However, my expression obviously betrayed the doubt I still felt about Jacob's mysterious lack of sense of time, because Edward added,

"Let it be for now, Bella. Jacob has told you all that he is going to for now. Whether or not there is more to what is going on here remains to be seen, but we'll find out soon enough. You told him you would call him soon-call him tonight and make plans with him, if that is what you wish. But for now, we have more time to make up. I was gone for two days-that's far too long for me. Even if I am immortal and don't need any sleep. Really, I'm amazed you made it through the two days without getting yourself in trouble," he said, smiling down at me with that crooked smile of his that never failed to make me melt.

I glared at him, trying too hard to focus on keeping my knees from becoming more of a gelatin substance than actual cartilage and bone to form any actual words.

"Why, what have I done now?" Edward asked, the crooked smile disappearing to show a mask of confusion. And a mask it was-he knew exactly what he'd done that was causing the look I was sending his direction.

"You're dazzling me, and you know it. Trying to make me forget about my worries by looking at me that way, and smiling, and-" I lost my power of speech when he turned his gaze to me again.

"Oh, you mean like that?" he asked me innocently. I did my best to glare at him again, as I knew any verbal protests would be shot down by yet another look before I could get my meaning across. He laughed and let go of one of my hands.

"It's a nice day. Let's go to our meadow," he said, leading me towards the door.