A:N well here is the next chapter, i know it's a quick upload.i just want to thank everyone who has added this story to their favourites and alerts, i would like to give a massive thanks to those who have reviewed.

Picture Paints a Thousand words

Chapter 5: She's a lesbian?

Bella POV

I awoke in the morning with Goosebumps over my skin, the cause of which was that the thin quilt that I had pulled off of the back of Jaspers couch had slipped off of my feet, exposing them to the chill that was present in Jasper's apartment. I stretched my back, hearing as my bones and muscles screamed under the unwelcomed exercise.

I scanned the room, the coffee table full of the empty alcohol bottles from when the three of us were talking. There were half empty take out boxes, prawn crackers were crushed into the carpet from where Jasper decided a prawn cracker war was in order. Propped up against the side of the couch was Jaspers snoring body, his limbs stretched out in all directions, his head was rested over the edge of the couch, open mouthed.

I pulled myself from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, deciding to make myself some coffee. I had finished my drink, the whole time Jaspers sleeping form had not moved one inch, I decided that as half of the mess was due to my own childish behaviour I decided to clean up the apartment a bit, knowing that Jasper would complain about it when he awoke.

I decided to leave a note for Jasper, as he was still not awake by the time I finished cleaning, I picked up my bag and left the apartment. I decided to walk the now colder streets of New York, taking in the changing colours of the leaves as they fell from the trees, I couldn't resist removing my camera, which constantly resided in my handbag, and snapping a few pictures as I walked home. Before I knew it I was standing outside the entrance to my apartment building. I walked in and saw the Adonis like man standing at his mail box, his hair in disarray, I found myself wanting to walk up to him and run my hands through it.

My feet moved on their own accord and took me towards him. It wasn't until my key clicked in the lock that he noticed I was standing next to him, when he noticed me I noticed that his stance suddenly became more rigid than it was previously.

"Bella, I didn't notice you there." He said as he ran his hand through his hair, the same motion I had fantasised about doing mere moments ago.

"Well you seemed pretty absorbed in whatever you were reading." I replied as I pulled my mail from its box.

"Sorry, it's a letter from my mum and dad." he waved the paper between us.

"They must miss you both."

"I suppose so," I saw as his eyes raked over my attire. "I don't mean to be rude but weren't they the clothes you were wearing last night?" He asked shyly.

"I didn't know you paid attention to what I wore." I replied in a somewhat flirty way.

OH MY GOD Bella, were you just flirting. Remember you have a boyfriend, besides this guy is way out of your league.

I saw Edward's glance move to the floor.

Great, now look what you've done, you've embarrassed with your stupid behaviour.

"Erm, yeah. Well I slept on Jaspers couch for the night." His eyes were still on the floor as I rambled on. "Speaking of Jasper, did you know that he's dating your little sister Alice?" His attention came straight back to me.

"Alice?" he asked with shock evident in his voice. I nodded my head in confirmation.

"Yes, he introduced me to her last night, you have a lovely sister." I commented.

"Lovely is one word to describe her I suppose," he chuckled lightly, once again I wished to hear more of it. "What a small world."

"That's exactly what Jasper said. Jasper also said how she'd mention both you and William, he said he just didn't realise you were the same Edward and William I had told him about."

"You've told people about me?" he said as he gave me a crooked smile, it was now my turn to become embarrassed.

"Speaking of William, where is he?" I asked, hoping I had directed the conversation away from the direction I had led it in.

"Well I have work on the weekends until 3 o'clock, so he is at my brother Emmett's, they look after him for me whilst I'm at work."

"Oh right, well I won't keep you here talking if you need to get to work, have a good day." I said as I waved him a goodbye and made my way to the elevator.

Edward POV

The entire way to work and through work I found my thoughts drifting towards the beauty that was Bella, even when she wore the same clothes in which she had slept she was still the most astonishing women I had ever laid eyes on. On a few occasions I had to shake her from my head as they were distracting me from my work, something that hadn't really happened since William was ill with the chicken pox and I was worried about how he was.

I was glad when 3 o'clock came, my feet ached from all the walking I had done whilst on my rounds. I walked into the apartment and placed my suitcase on the sideboard in the hall, I checked the answering machine for messages. I noticed the little red light flashing, telling me that I had a missed message.

Edward it's mum, I just called to see if you received my letter this morning. Call me.

I chuckled as I listened to the message, I knew she must of missed us all madly. After all, all of her children had now moved to New York and it was only her and my father in Washington, I could only imagine what I would be like if I couldn't speak or see William every day. I decided that I would call her back later when William was home so that she could speak to him as well.

I had barely managed to remove my coat and suit jacket before there was a knock at the door. To my surprise it wasn't Rose at the door, instead it was my bulky older brother.

"Eddy, good to see you bro." His voice boomed, William sitting on his shoulders.

"How many times have I asked you not to call me that." I said as I lifted my son from his shoulders.

"You know I've never been good with counting large numbers Eddy." He laughed. I was just about to make a remake but was beaten to it by rose who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Or small numbers, I swear you can only count to 20 if you are bare foot." She smiled as she walked past the both of us into the apartment.

"Hey." he said pushing past me to make his way to his wife, I shook my head in amusement, William mirrored my actions.

"What?" she asked.

"You know you love the fact I'm not a number literate as you," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "AND I know how you love my sexy bare feet."

"Hey, keep it clean remember my son is in the room." I reprimanded, holding one of my hands over Williams innocent little ears, whilst I pulled the other to my chest.

"Edwards right Emmett" she said pushing him away, I gave a little smile in thanks. That was until she tip toed and whispered something in his ear, causing a low growl to leave his throat.

"Hey" I practically shouted.

"Relax Edward." Rose said as she came up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She removed William from my arms and placed him down.

We all went and sat in the living room, William by my side the entire time. We sat and talked about what they had all done during the day, they asked me about my day, I failed to mention the fact that I constantly found myself day dreaming about the brown haired woman who lived next door to me.

"Right," Rose said as she pulled herself from the couch next to Emmett. "How about I make us all some dinner?" she offered.

I had half a mind to refuse, that way I would hopefully be able to eat another delicious meal created by Bella, which of course would mean spending more time with her. I debated with myself, eventually deciding that I should accept Rose's offer as this would eliminate the chances of unwanted questions.

Rose rummaged through my kitchen cupboard, eliciting a few moans here and there when she saw the contents of them. I was puzzled as to why, I knew they were full of food as my mother and Rose herself had taken it upon themselves to order me a mammoth amount of food to fill the cupboards.

"Rose, why are you moaning, I know I have food." I asked as I played with William and his toy fire truck.

"Because you have all of this food and hardly any of it has been touched. What exactly have you been doing for food the past few days, if I find out that you've been eating that nasty frozen stuff or have been ordering take out I will not be happy," she said in a tone that reminded me greatly of my mother. "Plus I will call Esme right away and inform her."

I was saved by the bell, or more precisely the knock of the door, I was up answering it within seconds. What stood at my door was both a blessing and a curse. Blessing as Bella, the women of my dreams, was standing at the door. Curse as this would mean that Rose would find out that that Bella had cooked me and William dinner for the past two nights, which would bring with it questions that I knew would embarrass both me and Bella.

"Bella"

"Hello Edward" she smiled. "I came to......." she was cut off by Rose at the end of the hall.

"Edward who's Plates are these," she had yet to notice Bella at the door as her attention was on the plates in her hand. "These aren't the ones me and Alice picked out for you," she looked at me when she noticed Bella. "Bella, how nice to see you again." She said in a way that surprised me, Rose was never one to be outwardly nice to people she barely knew.

"Hello Rose, I believe those plates are mine."

"Well, invite her in Edward" Rose demanded. I opened the door the widest it went and bowed holding my hand out in the direction of the hall. Bella laughed at me behaviour, causing a wide smile to form on my own face. She accepted my form of invitation and walked into the apartment.

I watched as she made her way down the hall, mesmerized by the graceful sway of her hips. They were slender yet had a womanly curve to them, I found myself wanted to run my hands along the sides of them. I shook those thoughts from my head when realising how inappropriate they were, instead I just watched the gracefully sway of them. Gracefulness that abruptly ended when her foot connected with the edge of the rug that lay in the hall.

I reached forward when I saw her stumble, my hands reaching out to her hips, the curve of which fit perfectly into my palms. I tightened my grip and pulled her backwards to me.

"Are you alright" I asked genuinely concerned.

"Erm, yes I'm fine thank you, you should also know that I'm an incredible klutz as well as stubborn." She laughed slightly, I gesture I imagined was done to try and hide her embarrassment. Her laugh caused her body to shake slightly, making me realise that I still had hold of her hips. I quickly let go, feeling the loss as soon as I did.

She continued to walk towards the living room, I on the hand stood rooted in my spot, looking down at my hands, flexing them to try and remove the tingling feeling in them.

"Edward are you coming." Rose asked, with no sign that she noticed my odd behaviour, I nodded and followed into the living room.

I introduced Emmett to Bella, I could tell that she was somewhat stunned by his foreboding form, something that happened frequently when people first met Emmett. When people got to know him they would find out that his bark is far worse than his bite, well that was until he really wanted to bite. When Emmett shook Bella's hand I could see the slight pain that etched across her face, when he let go I saw her rub her delicate hand. I gave Emmett a threatening glare, I was shocked by this new overwhelming need to protect Bella.

We sat in the living talking for what seemed like hours, when in reality it was only one or two. The conversation flowed easily between us all, as though we had all been friends for years, I could tell that both Rose and Emmett liked Bella as much as I did. I did doubt however that they liked her in the same way. Once again William seemed completely comfortable around Bella, he even asked her if he could sit on her lap, to which she smiled. Rose must have noticed how natural Bella was around children, commenting on how William is never usually like this. We were all shocked to find out that Bella was an only child and was never in the situation where she found herself surrounded by kids.

The conversation moved on to the topic of Alice and Jasper. Emmett seemed to be the only one out of the loop.

"So Bella, tell us more about your best friend."

"Why do we want to know about her best friend?" a confused Emmett asked.

"Because that's who Alice is dating" Rose said whilst rolling her eyes at him, further confusion greeted Emmett's face.

"Wait, WHAT. Since when has my little sister been a lesbian?" he asked, anger in his voice. Me, Bella and Rose each looked at each other and began to laugh. "CAN someone tell me when my sister became a lesbian." Our laughter seemed to anger him more.

"Emmett, Alice is not a lesbian." Rose said as she was the first to calm down from laughing.

"But you just said she is dating Bella's best friend." He face looked like he was trying to work out the square root of 72784 in his head.

"She is Emmett, my best friend is male and HIS name is Jasper." Bella said through small laughs. I however was still howling on the couch.

"Oh right, well."

"Don't worry Emmett, he's a great guy," Bella insisted. "You'll like him when you meet him."

"I doubt that, especially if he is dating my little sister." He sulked, crossing his arms over his chest, the same way William did when I would give him candy.

Emmett was known as being the overbearing protective big brother, not only to our little sister but to me also. Bella didn't seem deterred by his immediate hate of Jasper, she seemed to understand that it was purely his big brother instincts. I found myself becoming more consumed by everything Bella. She was breathtakingly beautiful, she made me laugh, and she was natural around my family, as though she understood us all. I couldn't help but think that she belonged with us, with me.

Once we had filled Emmett in on the situation of Bella being friends with a man, to which she insisted to Emmett that there absolutely nothing remotely sexual between them, causing but me and Emmett to relax slightly.

Rose decided that she had better get a move on with our dinner, she invited Bella to stay. Bella looked at her watch and realised that she had completely forgotten about work and that she needed to be going. We all said our goodbyes, William giving a kiss to Bella, I found myself jealous at the fact my own son was able to do something I longed to be able to.

Not long after Bella left I turned to Rose, unhappy that I would not be having dinner with Bella tonight. Suddenly a plan entered my head.

"Rose," I called, she looked from her place in the kitchen. "Do you mind if I refuse dinner, it's just that as it's a weekend I was thinking that maybe I would take William out to a New York restaurant. You know as our own little moving in celebration."

"Ok." She said, I could tell she didn't understand my weird logic for cancelling dinner. Emmett groaned from the couch, complaining about how he would now have to wait even longer before he got fed.

As soon as they had both left I knelt down to William and asked him if he wanted to out for dinner, to which he squealed and ran into his bedroom to collect his jacket. Over an hour had passed by the time I had got William all wrapped up for our walk to Bella's place of work.

Bella POV

I got to work just in time, whilst talking with Edward and his family I had completely forgotten about work and time. I was glad that I wouldn't have to work until midnight, like I usually did on weekends, today I would only be working for 2 hours so would be finished by 9 o'clock.

I went and said my hello's to everybody, talking for a while with Angela the head waitress, who was very pleasant and whom I considered a friend.

When I had been given the list of tables I was to wait tonight I got started on work. Whenever I was at work it baffled me as to why people would want to eat pizza from a place that charged the earth for it. Served it with side salad. It just seemed unnatural to be in New York and go to a fancy pizzeria when there were so many backstreet ones, ones that probably served much better pizza.

I was just finishing up my last table when Angela came up to me and asked if I would mind staying and serving one more table. I was just about to complain as insist that I wanted to go home as I still had a few photographs that I needed to get developed when she silenced me by putting a finger to my lips. She motioned to a table across the room.

My jaw practically dropped when I saw Edward placing a napkin into William's top.

"He asked if there was anyway a certain Bella who worked he would be able to serve him." Angela said, I no longer needed her finger at my lips to silence me as my throat had completely closed up. All I could do was nod.

I walked up to the table, trying to regain myself. William saw me before Edward.

"Bella." He squealed, clapping his hands together. Edward's attention quickly went from his phone to me.

"Good evening sir, I'm Bella your server for the night. How can I help." I said in my most businesslike manner, causing a chuckle from Edward and William.

"Well, miss, I was wondering if you could tell what pizza is good here?" he said continuing the game we were both now playing whilst he looked down at the menu.

"As you two gentlemen seem like nice people I will let you into a little secret," I leaned over slightly, motioning them to come closer. "If you guys really want a great pizza I know a perfect little place just around the corner."

Edward looked at me in confusion.

"And it just so happens that your table is my last for the evening so if you would like I could personally escort you there." I smiled, the confusion had left Edwards face and was now replaced with a smile.

"That would be perfect thank you Bella."

I left Edward and William to go and explain to Angela what was happening, she looked at me suspiciously. I knew what she must have thought, I denied that I liked Edward and that I was purely just showing my neighbour who was new to New York the sights. She just smiled and bid me farewell.

I went and collected my jacket, brushing down my clothes to make sure that I would look presentable besides the model like man I would be walking with. I walked out of the restaurant, Edward was standing at the side of the restaurant, he hand firmly hold on to Williams. I found myself nervous, like a thousand butterflies had decided to begin to fly within my stomach, the type of nerves I felt when going on a date.

I had to remind myself several times whilst walking towards them that this was not a date, just like I had said to Angela. Yet no matter how much I denied that this was not a date and that Edward did not see me in that way and that I to didn't see him that way, I couldn't help but wish that it was true.

"are you ready?" Edward asked. His cool and calm exterior confirmed what I believed, that he saw this as nothing more than neighbourly politeness. I nodded.

I felt Williams little gloved hand reach for mine before his small fingers curled around my larger ones. I looked down to him to see him smiling up at me, my face mirrored him, as it did all the way to the pizzeria.

A:N well what did you guys think. i hope you liked it, tell me in a review. did you like the update speed, if so tell me in a review. if you haven't guessed i want you all to review, even if it's only one word, all reviews motivate me to write so if you want quick updates i need lots and lots of reviews ;)

for all of you who have said about mike, don't worry he won't be around a great deal longer, possibly 4 or 5 more chapters (i don't know as i haven't written them yet), besides if i didn't have mike where would the drama come in.

review review review.