A/N: Having a lurvely time in the Great Apple. Sorry for those who reviewed chapter 3. I wasn't able to send out a snippet of this chapter prior to publishing. I didn't have internet for a while which was epic failage for me (me without internet = bad news).

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and the characters within. But this twisted plot owns me.

Music: Handel - "Water Music" (appropriate dinner music, eh?)
Red Hot Chili Peppers – "Snow (Hey Oh)"
Björk – "Like Someone in Love" (inspired this chapter)

Chapter 4: Like Someone in Love

"This isn't awkward at all…" I chuckle, feeling my cheeks flame up.

"Nope. Not at all," he replies, shoving his hands into his pants pocket. "Did you know…?"

"Know what?" I ask in confusion.

"Know… That I'd be here?" He clarifies for me, pulling one hand out to run through his hair.

Oh my God. Is that sex hair? I've heard that it exists, but never seen in it person. My last ex, Jacob, had close-cropped hair so there wasn't much variation between pre-sex and post-sex hair.

Before I could answer, I could hear footsteps coming down from the stairs next to us.

"Edward!"

We both turn to look up the stairs to see a tiny black haired woman being escorted down the stairs with a tall blond man. I immediately recognise the black hair woman as Mary Alice Brandon, a rising fashion designer for a major fashion brand—a woman who designed the very pants that I am currently wearing. I assume by the loving glance the blond man gives down to her that he is her husband, but I cannot recall his name because I look further up the stairs and see another woman.

This woman looks and exudes the air of model that stepped off some hoity-toity fashion magazine. Her long strawberry blonde curls are pulled back, but the ends softly brush her milky-white shoulders. She is wearing a grey cowl dress that shows off her figure too well. She gives a small smile that shows off her brilliant white teeth. My stomach bottoms out when I notice the smile is for Edward.

"Alice, Jasper… Tanya," Edward says smoothly, stepping closer to the stairwell. "I was wondering if you'd ever come back down."

Alice giggled, waving a small hand at Edward. "Oh whatever. You know I had to show Tanya some of the sample pieces I brought. But please, introduce us—especially since I adore how she matched my pants to that blouse."

Edward glances at me, clearing his throat.

"Ladies, Jasper. This is Bella Swan. Bella, this is my twin sister Alice, her husband Jasper Hale and Tanya McKinley," Edward says.

By the time Edward introduces me to Tanya, she has made her way down the stairs and to Edward. Now that she is on the same level as me, I am astonished at how tall Tanya is. She must be at least the same height as Edward without her 6" heels, but she pulls off her height very well by standing regally next to Edward—not even phased by the fact she may very well tower over him.

"Escort me to dinner, Edward?" she asks. I am surprised, thinking that her voice would be that high-pitched sound that I assumed that all models had. Instead, her voice is low and husky.

Shit. I have to compete with that?

The tips of Edward's ears turn bright red. For what reason, I am not sure. But nonetheless, he extends his arm to Tanya. Her manicured hand snaked through and rested on Edward's forearm.

"May I escort you, m'lady?" a deep Southern-accented voice asks.

I look up and see that Jasper has extended his free arm to me. I know what he's doing—he's just being polite. But I cannot help feel like a third-wheel. Embarrassment almost overwhelms me to the point where I almost turn on my heel and bolt out the door. But I do not want to offend my host and hostess without at least letting them know of my leave.

"Why thank you, good sir," I say in a false Southern Belle accent and let Jasper and Alice escort me to dinner.

/ / / / M V \ \ \ \

God hates me. Or some higher being definitely hates me. Because instead of being seated far, far away from Edward, I found my seating card right between Edward and Dr. Cullen—Officer Hottie and my boss.

Damn etiquette. And what the hell is wrong with me? I just met the guy! Why are my ovaries doing their traitorous mating call out to Edward's… Junk?

It wouldn't be so bad if Tanya wasn't seated directly across from him. If I felt like a third wheel with Jasper and Alice, I feel even worse with Edward and Tanya. Although Tanya was totally playing up their couple-hood, Edward seemed really relaxed and at times somewhat terse with her. I assumed that this was just how he was, so the empty feeling inside my stomach didn't subside. I picked at my dinner, something that Esme noticed repeatedly.

"Dear, is the food to your liking?" Esme asked. She had previously asked a different variation of the same question a few minutes ago. I can only guess that my half-hearted attempt to respond with a cheerful reply was obviously caught on.

"No Esme," I say honestly. What bites of food I actually ate was very tasty and cooked to perfection. "It's wonderful. I just can't help but think about work. I'm sorry."

"I hear you're a doctor at Carlisle's hospital?" Alice asks. "How's that working out for you?"

I give a very unladylike snort. "That's a loaded question, Alice." I hope that my teasing tone is recognised by all—especially Carlisle.

The table gives a polite laugh. Whew. Joking is apparently acceptable and welcomed at this table.

"Without giving too much information out," Carlisle starts, winking at me. "Bella is a great employee and an exceptionally talented surgeon. I couldn't ask for a better person to be in my hospital."

"Hey! You used that same line with me," Rosalie says sarcastically. Everyone laughs.

"Well, you both are irreplaceable members of my staff," Carlisle says with a chuckle.

"Oh good. I was worried that I should start sending out my resume out to other hospitals," Rosalie smirks.

"No way, babe!" Emmett cries out. "Dad wouldn't toss you out—at least, not without warning."

The rest of dinner follows this jovial tone into dessert. Except under my joking, I feel battered. Even though I didn't talk to Edward directly at all during dinner, I battered and worn out. The tension of sitting next to Edward and not talk to him directly was putting strain on my mental health—something that even Rosalie's fuckawesome pie won't help.

After dinner, Alice had me come up to her "studio" and try on some of the outfits she brought. So we both left the rest of the party and went up to Alice's old bedroom and try on some of the new designs she's been working on. Several she encouraged me to take home—accessories and all.

"But I can't, Alice!" I exclaim, handing back one dress she conned me into trying on. "Aren't these works in progress?"

"Yeah, but I have multiples of these at my studio. I only brought these in hopes that I could get some free publicity with Tanya," Alice says, pushing the dress back to me. "Besides… And don't tell anyone I said this, but you look totes better in this than she did."

My bruised ego mends a tiny bit.

"Really?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yeah really. She may be tall and all that shit, but she doesn't have anycurves whatsoever. And I refuse to design for stick people."

"Thanks, Alice. But small problem," I say, chewing on my bottom lip. Where the hell am I going to store all this stuff? And more importantly, where can I wear it? Is there some sort of Ball in Chicago that I can attend so I can wear one of Alice's ball gowns?

"What's that?"

"I can't wear some of this stuff. I mean, I can do the skirts and blouses, but not the longer dresses."

Alice gives me a devious smile. "Tell you what. You keep those and we can find opportunities for you to wear some of it. In fact, I have loads of clothes I can courier to your place if you give me your address."

"Uhh… Okay?" I agree, even though I know that there will be no way I'll ever be able to repay her for her kindness aside from being a great friend. The pants I wore earlier were half a week's worth of pay.

"YAY! I can even pick out your work outfit for this week," Alice yelps happily, giving me a great big hug. "I knew we were going to be great friends!"

"Thank you so much for dinner, Esme," I say, shaking Esme's hand before I leave. "I really appreciate letting me join your family for Thanksgiving."

Esme pulls me to a gentle hug. "You're welcome, my dear. You come by anytime. I fully expect you to be here for Christmas you don't already have plans."

I laugh, giving her another hug. "And please thank Alice for the clothes. I seem to have missed her leaving."

Esme gives me a half-smile that leads me to believe that I didn't miss Alice since she hadn't already left. "I will, Bella. Don't forget your leftovers!"

Before I was allowed to leave, Esme told me that I had to take leftovers home like the rest of her children. "It's tradition," she had said. "All the kids take home leftovers."

Secretly, I'm thankful that she was so generous on the portions as I am due at the hospital in less than 12 hours and I have not even though about my empty fridge and the inability to purchase groceries this late on the holiday. Cafeteria food was so blah after a while. This way, not only will have tasty home cooked meals for a while, but looking forward to my meals will make my upcoming 48-hour shift so much easier to finish. The food she cooked was amazing. I wonder if she'll let me have her recipe for her sage and apple dressing.

I run outside to Rosalie's car which is now covered in at least 3 inches of snow. Thankfully her BMW has remote start, so I am able to warm the car up without opening the door and avoid getting snow on her car seat. Cold, wet snow on my bum for the next 3 hours would be uncomfortable.

I take one gloved mitten and start wiping off snow on the car's windshield when I hear someone run up behind me. I turn to see Edward coming up behind me, looking quite fetching in his black wool peacoat and green knitted cap. I try to ignore the fact that his cap almost matches the colour of his eyes, but fail miserable.

"Let me help you," Edward states. He holds out an extendable window scraper in one hand.

"Ah… It's okay. I really don't mind," I stammer. I really want him to go inside so I don't have to say goodbye to him.

"But you'll get wet and cold if you keep at it," Edward insists. He starts to use his fancy scraper on the back window. "You should go in the car while I do this."

"No. Seriously, I can do this."

"If you keep using your hands, you're going to get cold and wet. And you will need your reflexes at its best to drive through this shit," Edward reasons.

Well shit, yeah. But who cares? I wanted a clean break, which is why I avoided saying my farewells to him inside. Besides, I'm sure he was making out with Tanya in some dark corner while the rest of the gang watched football—which explains why he wasn't around when I made my announcement of leaving.

"It would be ungentlemanly for me to do otherwise, Bella," Edward says in a teasing voice.

This is my breaking point. I could feel the emptiness of my stomach come back, with a deep ache in my chest.

"And it would be ungentlemanly for you to leave your girlfriend inside," I snap back.

"What…Girlfriend? Who?" Edward replies with wide eyes.

"Tanya," I snarl back, grabbing the scraper from his hands. He stands still, staring at me first with disbelief and then with a pained expression.

"You thought Tanya and I were dating," Edward says slowly.

"Well yeah. Tanya made that clear during dinner," I said, avoiding looking at him. I continue to clean the car off—which is now mostly done.

"Tanya and I aren't dating," Edward says, stilling my hands. "Is this why you didn't talk to me at all tonight?"

This causes me to look up at him. Gone is the pained expression and one of…relief? I give him a tiny nod.

"Tanya is a member of one of my mother's committees and daughter of her best friend. We've practically grown up with each other. I'm sure my mother would have been ecstatic if we were dating. But she hadn't met you yet…"

Edward takes my hand and pulls me closer to him. Standing this close to him, I can smell Edward's unique scent and a bit of cinnamon from Rosalie's pies. I can tell that his lower lip is fuller than the top and probably tastes delicious. My mind swirls with lust. I can tell that he's about to kiss me when he slowly lowers his head to me.

Yes yes yes! My inner slut screams.

But my inner conscious says Run.

So I frantically step back from Edward. Before he realises what I'm about to do, I shout "I'm sorry!" as I'm climbing into Rosalie's BMW and quickly turn in the Cullen driveway.

Even though I know it'll hurt, I still glance up to the rearview mirror to see him growing smaller and smaller as I drive away. His hands are shoved into his pockets but he's still looking at the car as I drive away. Except his expression haunts me long after I arrive to the hospital.

A/N: Do you think Edward and Bella would have made out in the snow? And I wonder why Jasper and Alice disappeared during football. More importantly—where the hell was Edward and Tanya?

Anyone want a chapter in EPOV? If I get enough "ayes", I might add one either as part of this story or as an extra. It's all up to you guys!

Also: I am in the process of writing another story. Except, no beta still! Anyone want to beta this and possible future stories? I'll appreciate you forever and ever, with a cherry on top!