Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Twilight. ;)

Chapter 3

I went to the work the next day, just as I had been doing the last few weeks, with a smile on my face. I really was enjoying my job and Mr McCarthy always made sure I knew exactly how valued I was as an employee. I got the impression that if I wasn't there he would never get any work done. Several times I had walked into his office, without knocking because Mr McCarthy had insisted upon a no knocking policy unless he had a guest, to find him shooting hoops. You see, he had a relatively generic office, with a neutral colour scheme, potted plant and view over the city, but attached to the far wall, opposite his desk was a basketball hoop, which it seemed to me provided him with endless entertainment. A great proportion of my job appeared to be making sure that Mr McCarthy actually did some work each day. I was finding it very difficult to comprehend precisely how he had managed to become a multi-millionaire at the age of twenty-eight with such a bad work ethic. Still, I didn't mind, he was paying me a very generous salary and was quickly becoming more of a friend than a boss.

I had made such an impression on the company that I was one of twenty employees who got an invite to Esme Cullen, Emmett's adoptive mother's, annual charity ball. I tried to turn down the offer, given my hatred for dressing up, by using the excuse of my obvious lack of date. However he insisted sighting that I could bring my roommate, which is how I ended up trawling round Oxford Street that evening with a very excited best friend looking for "the perfect ball gown." Apparently she had brushed off her failure to match - make me with the Sex God by convincing herself that we were both going to find our soul mates at this ball. Yeah right, we're going to find our soul mates in the upper elite, sure. I was not impressed, besides, we were just going to embarrass ourselves anyway, after all it was a charity event and in the eyes of those who would be going we had very little to give.

None the less, here I was in a dressing room in Selfridges trying on dresses that were way too expensive. I tried on each dress, before concluding each of them was as horrible as the next. I only had one dress left; the one Rose had forced me into the dressing room with, claiming it was "the" dress. It was strapless, floor length and midnight blue in colour, and my trusty friend swore the colour would compliment my skin tone perfectly. It was also Alexander McQueen. It cost three thousand pounds. Too much. Yet still I had promised Rose I would try it on, and true to my word I did and was shocked by what I found. She was right it was the perfect dress. It still cost three thousand pounds. So the one dress I had found wasn't affordable. Great, somehow this felt like a metaphor for my life.

"You really didn't have to do that you know, we would've found another dress that was perfectly adequate for under a thousand pounds."

"No, that was "the" dress Bella, you could see it, just as I could. Besides, you deserve some happiness," So you keep saying, "think of it as a present."

"There is no way that I'm accepting a three thousand pound dress as a present, I know you have more money than I do, but still. I will pay you back even if it takes the rest of my life."

"OK, I see I'm not going to win this argument, but there is no hurry and I won't be chasing you for the money." She slowed her speech toward the end, as if she were speaking to a moron, a bit like the ignorant British tourists do when they go abroad.

The next few days continued in a similar mundane way to Monday, with the exception of Wednesday lunchtime, when the Sex God turned up. Mr McCarthy had noticed after my first week of work that I was uncomfortable eating in the cafeteria, saying he understood how I felt and that most of the people I would meet down there were leaches. As a result we'd started having lunch together in his office, followed by a game of miniature basketball, which he would generally kick my arse at, when he was on site at lunch. It was mid game, well my mid lay up to be precise, that Edward had burst in on rather dramatically and had made me instinctively defensive, which caused me to throw the ball at him. He caught it expertly of course, preventing any potential injury to his head, of which the ball was on a collision course with, looking mildly surprised.

"What have I told you? Well, maybe you'll actually knock next time now you know there's a danger of ball." Mr McCarthy broke a moment of tense silence. His comment was met with more silence until the Sex God, I mean Edward, started laughing and within about ten seconds we were all in hysterics. Once he'd managed to gather himself together Mr McCarthy was all business. "Is there anything you wanted or are we just going to stand around laughing all afternoon?"

"Well, yes there is actually..." Edward replied trailing off, giving me a pointed look. Why is he looking at me? What? Huh? Oh, OH!

"I'll just..." I trailed off, pointing towards the door, before scurrying out. How awkward. I must admit I did feel a twinge of disappointment that he didn't seem to be there to see me. He really was an arse. But he did look rather good in that leather jacket... and I daydreamed for I'm not sure how long I was drawn out of it by the office door opening, in a much less violent way than the last time the Sex God had opened it. Our eyes met and he sent me that smirk that made my lady parts feel like flying over to him and giving him a big sloppy kiss. Sometimes I surprise myself at how my mind works. I was expecting him to acknowledge me in some way, but he just walked to the elevator and waited for it to arrive, studiously ignoring me. When the ding indicating the arrival of the lift was heard he turned to me, gave me a blazing stare and whispered in a husky tone "See you tomorrow," before stepping in the elevator and punching the button for the ground floor. He had once again left me gaping. Gaping like a fish. The things that man did to me really frightened me sometimes. Maybe I was going out on Thursday after all.

When I got in on Thursday I changed out of my work clothes, into a pair of tight black skinny jeans and a long, maroon sweater dress partnered with a pair of metallic ballet flats, leaving my hair down. Rose immediately knew I had gotten dressed up on the off chance that Edward did come to take me out to dinner and obviously didn't think he was coming by the sympathetic look she shot me. I glanced at the clock to see I had fifteen minutes before half seven when he was going to stand me up and make me look like an idiot. Those minutes passed in complete silence, with me sat on one of our couches with Rose literally tip toeing around me.

At half past seven exactly the buzzer rang, indicating there was someone at the door, making us both jump. Rose answered the door as I applied some lip-gloss and smoothed out my clothes in a nervous gesture.

When Edward made it up to our flat I decided that he definitely deserved his title as Sex God. He was wearing a pair of faded denim jeans with a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. His hair was a beautiful messy array, which looked like he had been running his hands through it several times. He looked positively edible. If that wasn't dreamy enough, he had in his hand a large bouquet of flowers, which I'm pretty sure put an ear splitting grin on my face. Hardly the seductive temptress I should probably have been trying to be. We both stood staring at each other, me with that silly grin and him with a lopsided smirk, without saying a word whilst Rose sort of fluttered around us. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few seconds she took the flowers from Edward promising to put them in water before practically pushing us out the door. I followed him outside where he unlocked a car and opened the passenger door for me to get in. Only when I realised what car I was getting into did I break the silence and start to giggle.

"What?" He asked and oh, even just a syllable of hat voice gave me that tight feeling in my stomach.

"You... drive... a... Volvo" I managed to get out between laughs. He scowled at me, clearly unimpressed with my reaction to his choice of car.

"What's so funny about that?"

"It's what that vampire guy drives in those books." He clearly didn't understand what I found so fun and only gave me a look that said, "Whatever you say" in reply. What I had missed out in my explanation was that on those books the principle male was supposed to by the perfect guy personified and I had been fantasising all that week about how I could have a date with the perfect guy. How ironic.

The remainder of the journey made to our destination was completed in relative silence, with just small talk made, really it was a bit awkward and I was beginning to wonder if I'd seriously offended him by laughing at his car. What can I say? Boys and their toys. After a few minutes of silence, when it had become apparent that our journey may take some time as he negotiated the London traffic, Edward turned on the car stereo and I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face as the lilting riff of Pearl Jam's "Alive" filled the silence. Edward noticed my obvious pleasure at his choice in music and smirked at me cockily, some things never change. I was pleasantly surprised when he started to sing in that glorious voice I had heard the previous week, smiling I joined in also and by the time the song had finished we both laughed, the awkward atmosphere effectively erased.

We drove to a multi-story car park near the centre of the city and quickly parked on the ground floor. I went to get out, but before I had the chance Sex God had opened my door for me, how gentlemanly. The walk to the restaurant only took a couple of minutes. He'd chosen a quaint little Italian, which was buzzing with activity, yet was still small and quiet enough to feel intimate. We were sat by our waiter towards the back of the restaurant in a booth specially designed for two. I spotted Edward slip him a tip, clearly our seating arrangements had been requested, so much for the average guy act he was putting on for my friends, still I knew his secret so why hide I suppose. We were handed our menus and sat quietly contemplating what feast we were going to have for dinner.

"Do you see anything you... fancy?" I nearly snorted at his blatantly obvious attempt at flirting, however that wouldn't have been very lady like, so I settled on a girly giggle. Yes, I did just say girly giggle, I liked the guy, I didn't want him to think I was a wench.

"I actually really like the look of the Penne Zafferanno," I said, deliberately ignoring his bait and derailing his frankly pathetic attempt at seduction.

"So do I Miss Swan, its clear us great minds think alike, would a Sauvignon Blanc suffice to drink?" Good boy, I thought, we're not here to mindlessly flirt; I would like to get the dirt on you.

The waiter came and took our order and we sat, staring at one another until the wine arrived, distracting us from our tense silence.

"You know Miss Swan, I didn't bring you out so we can sit here in silence. Now, we had an agreement on the phone. Why are you in need of getting laid? I'm sure someone as beautiful as you wouldn't having any trouble finding someone," and his sickly sweet charm had made a reappearance.

"Well Mr McCarthy, at no point did I say that I was in need of getting laid, just that Rose thought I was."

"Then why does Rose think you're in need of getting laid?" He said, not put off by my half answer.

"She thinks I need to get laid because I haven't gotten any in a while. And I haven't gotten any in a while because I prefer gaining my sexual satisfaction through the use of implements, with out the baggage and emotional drainage that accompanies having a partner. It's a lifestyle choice." My response was met by silence, with Edward sat staring at me open mouthed. I wasn't sure if it was because I had just openly admitted to masturbating frequently or if it was because I had stated I wasn't interested in having a boyfriend.

"So if your lifestyle choice is to not have any contact with men why are you out tonight?" Ah, he had asked me the question I had been dreading. Why was I on a date with him? Because he's a Sex God who does amazing things to your V-Jay. Yeah, that's definitely why.

"I don't know," was my only response, "I have now upheld my side of the bargain it's time you upheld yours. Why do you go by the alias of Mason?"

"It's a lifestyle choice," was his reply, well fuck you then, oh yes please, was my thought process. "McCarthy is not, nor has it ever been my name you just assumed and I decided not to correct you. Mason it not my real name either, I use that name because I want to be able to make money from my music, but I don't what people's judgements to be clouded by my heritage, the Cullen heritage, so I use a stage name. It's not a crime." He tried to put amusement into his voice, but it was forced. Clearly there was more to his name than he was letting on. Mind you, there was more to my lack of sex life than I was letting on. I guess we were even.

The rest of the evening passed amiably, though it was painfully obvious that we were making small talk to avoid the fact that there were already things we weren't being honest with one another about. Once we were back at my flat and he had escorted me to my door (such a gentleman) we had that awkward moment where neither of us quite knew what to do.

"So," Edward said, breaking the silence first, "So maybe this wasn't the best first date, but I really like you Bella and maybe if I saw you again we might both feel comfortable with one another to one day be truly honest." His offer was tempting, although all of my defences were telling me to let him go and push him away. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to do it, but I reached up on my tiptoes and gave him a peck on the lips.

"I'd love to give this a go," I reply, smiling broadly, "Ring me to arrange our next date and you can tell me how you knew where I lived." With that I opened my flat door, shut it in his gaping face and squealed like one of those girls in those hideous romantic comedy films. What was Edward Cullen doing to me?

A.N: Thanks to my wonderful BETA Vicky. Next weeks update will be up on Monday 21st of Feb as I'm going to Berlin the middle of next week until Sunday. Monday will be the earliest I will be able to post. Apologies. :)