A/N: Thank you again for reading my story and waiting a whole week for the new chapter. I know this chapter is really long, but I couldn't help myself. I will try from now on to not make them as long as this one but not too short either. I would LOVE to hear what everyone thinks of the story so far, and I promise that something very unexpected is going to happen soon!

Really, please leave comments so I know whether I'm doing a decent job or not. And thanks to all of those who have become a fan of the story!


Ch. 7 Game Night

Alice was nothing if not a fountain of energy. She swam, ran up and down the entire beach, tried (although miserably) to lay down as I did, read some chapters out of my Wuthering Heights book, collected some seashells for my picture frame project and all of this while filling me in with all the details of her life as well some of her family's. The only time she quieted down was when we went inside for a quick bite to eat. I tried to be mad with her for interrupting my relaxation time, but she had such an intoxicating personality that I was actually glad to have her around.

"Bella, you have to come tonight!" Alice said "I promise you will have so much fun with us!"

"I don't know Alice; I still feel a little bit tired and would rather have a quiet evening by myself." I replied.

This conversation had been going on for almost 15 minutes. Alice, and her ever- persuasive attitude, had been trying to convince me, of all people, to join her family for what they called "Game night". Alice had already gone into details of what this night consisted of. One of the family members, for they all took turns, chose a theme for the evening and planned a series of games –board games, outside games, made-up games- to go with the theme. They went so far as to have food and decorations to match the theme! For me it was too much, I suspected the Cullen's to be a very merry bunch by what I had seen yesterday, but this was beyond anything I could have imagined.

"Ohh, come on Bella, please come! I promise you will enjoy yourself. It's Casino night!" Alice said while trying to hold her excitement to a minimum.

"I don't know. Besides, I 'm no good with cards." I replied. I had been trying non-successfully to get out of the invitation but it was becoming harder by the minute.

"Don't worry about it Bella, everything you need to know we'll show you. Just say you'll come. And if for some reason you need to leave early, one of us will bring you back without questions." She said with pleading eyes.

The look she was giving me made it impossible to refuse the invitation. "Ok" I said. "But if I start feeling very tired I get to come back to the house without questions."

"YES! YES! Of course!" Alice said. She got up from her towel and started grabbing her things. "Come on, we gotta go!"

"Go where?" I replied. "It's only 4:00 and you said that game night was at 7. So we can stay here a little longer."

"No, we can't. We need to go get ready!" was all that Alice said while pulling me up from the sand.

"What are you talking about? It will only take me 20 minutes tops to hop in the shower and change to some jeans and I'll be ready."

"Oh" Alice said as she suddenly stopped on her tracks. "I might have forgotten the little detail that since it's Casino Night we tend to play our parts very well. We actually dress up for the evening."

"Oh, Alice, then I'm going to have to decline. I have nothing to wear that would be suitable for it and that seems like too much trouble for me."

"Nonsense! I'm pretty sure we can find something in my closet for you to wear, so let's just go. Please!?!" her little puppy face was just adorable and made it quite impossible to not comply with her request.

So we made it back up to the house and I was given 5 minutes to get my essentials and toiletry bag. As we got in her car and started backing out the garage I noticed that Edward's car was still there.

"I see Edward is still out on the beach" I said without realizing it.

"Yeah" Alice replied "he'll leave whenever he's good and ready. Don't worry about him; he always makes it to Game Night on time. Especially since he's tonight's planner."

I decided that the best way to deal with the information just given was to keep quiet and process the repercussions in my head. I had agreed to join the Cullen's for another evening. It might have missed my mind at the moment of the agreement that Edward was an active member of the Cullen family and thus I would be spending the evening with him as well. If anything, at least the rest of the Cullen's would be there this evening and be as pleasant as they had been yesterday. I could feel a slight tingle in my hands and my breathing intensifying slightly. So I took the granted minutes of silence Alice had provided while engaged in a phone conversation with Jasper to get myself calmed down.

"So you got yourself into this situation. No one else forced you to say yes to Alice". I said to myself. "So now, all that is left to do is to stick to the plan of no more panic attacks or nervous breakdowns while in front of an audience and survive this evening. It will work out, just stay close to Alice and don't look or talk to Edward. Yes, that's a great plan! You can do this!"

"I can do this" I whispered softly.

"Ha? Did you say something Bella" Alice asked.

"Oh, nothing."

"We're already here." She replied.

This second time around the house didn't seem as imposing as it did before, it looked so welcoming and inviting that I couldn't help the slight smile that formed at the edge of my lips.

Alice got out of the car almost running and signaled for me to follow her. So I did. We made it into the living room again, where that beautiful piano stood, we walked over to a set of stairs on the right.

"Second floor has all the rooms" Alice said. "I'll show you around before we start getting you and me ready."

We moved through a wide hallway filled with pictures and family memorabilia. There were doors on either side.

"This is dad's library" Alice said as she opened the first door to the right. "He keeps all his books in here and we sometimes use it when we need do some research." The room looked like an old-English library with dark-stained bookshelves from floor to ceiling and a very beautiful desk in the center. There were books everywhere; I could see myself spending hours and hours in this room without ever getting bored.

"Wow, it's amazing!" I said and I truly meant it.

"Maybe tomorrow you can come and take a look at dad's book collection, I'm sure he would love it."

"Thanks, that would be great." was my reply.

"Ok, let me show you Mom and Dad's room next."

We headed back to the hallway and to the next door on the right. The room that had been hidden behind seemed to come out of the pages of a French neoclassical novel. Everything seemed so rich and luxurious, without being pompous. I could see how this was all representative of Esme, in some way suited her personality since at times she seemed to have a regal aura to her.

"Simply amazing" was all I could say.

"Ok, now let me show you Emmett's and then we'll head over to my room and get ready. I would show you Edward's, but he's so particular about it and would get annoyed at me if we moved something out of place, so I would rather have him show it to you himself."

"I really don't have to see it, by what I've seen from the house I can imagine it." I quickly replied. The prospect of going in his room, especially escorted by him was one I was not looking forward too.

"No, he'll have to show it to you, it's nothing like the rest of the house, we'll just let him do it later." Alice replied. "Here's Emmett's" she said while opening a door on the opposite side of the hallway.

For some reason I had expected an explosion of sorts in Emmett's room, but it was actually quite nice. Yes, you could perceive how he was a sports fan by just looking at the room, but everything was subdued and neatly organized. So after glancing at all his trophies for a couple of seconds we made it out of his room and into Alice's. She was so anxious that she was almost jumping up and down from all the excitement.

"Here's mine!" she exclaimed.

Her room could only be described as simply hers. Although very soft in its color palate choices of whites, soft pinks and purples, it still held an edge of modernism to it. The top of her very large and beautiful vanity was covered with bottles of perfumes, creams and make up essentials. It seemed like a professional make-up artist had set up for an important and very large photo-shoot. I could only laugh at the prospect of seeing Alice navigate with extreme precision through all the bottles and equipment in her vanity area to get precisely what she needed.

She held my hand and walked inside her room escorting me to the edge of her bed.

"So first things first" Alice said. "Let find you something to wear."

Alice turned to a set of double doors to the right of her room. When she opened them I could see a closet that was almost twice as big as her room! She signaled me to join her but I only made it to the edge of the doors. The sight in front of me was unbelievable. It looked like she had her closet fashioned as her own boutique: everything was sorted by color and length, dresses followed by shirts, skirts and pants. The opposite wall held all of her shoes (which were stored in clear boxes with little pictures in front of them), intimate items and accessories. Alice moved over to where the dress section of her wardrobe was and without even looking she stretched her hand and picked out 3 dresses, so fast, that if I had blinked at that moment would have missed it.

"Here you go Bella, I think any of these would look great on you!" she said as she handed me the dresses. "Now go try them on."

"Alice, these still have the price tags on!" I replied. These dresses were the type of dress I would have to save 3 months worth of my salary to purchase. "I can't wear any of these! Don't you have something simpler?"

"Nonsense!" Alice replied. "You are trying them on and choosing one and that's the end of it! I will not argue about this and you will accept it as the final word on the subject" she said as she turned around to look for shoes. "Now go try them on, I'm getting you shoes, you seem to be the same shoe size as me."

I knew she was not going to budge on the subject so I resigned myself and asked where the bathroom was. Hidden between shoe boxes she told me where it was and I made my way over to change.

"And I want to see what they look like on you" I heard Alice say as I closed the door behind me.

I was so overwhelmed by all of this that I moved over to the sink and splashed some water on my face to cool down a bit. The bathroom followed the same trend of extravagance as Alice's entire suite, but I was so nervous that I pushed all thoughts of how beautiful this room was to focus my entire strength in getting these dresses on. The first one in the pile was a strapless pink knee-length dress that had a satin bow on the back.

Reluctantly I put it on and peeked through the doors to see Alice anxiously waiting on her bed to see me come out.

"Let's see!" Alice said.

I walked to the edge of the door letting her see the dress from one side. I personally thought that it was more of her style than mine, and I knew that the face that accompanied me said how uncomfortable I was in the dress.

"No, that one's not it" Alice said. Having her agree with my initial assessment made me sigh in relief and run back to the bathroom.

"Try the blue one on!" I heard Alice say from the other room.

I got out of that pink mess in less time that it had taken me to get back to the bathroom. I took a look at the next 2 dresses. One was a blood red halter top gown. Too much red for my personal taste. The other dress was a midnight-blue gown with a simple A-line design to it, short sleeves and a small v-neck. Its length was just below the knee and had no special adornments to it, but a simple strap on the waist that tied into a little bow. It looked simple and classic, the type of dress that would not call out for attention. I tried it on and was taken aback by how well I looked in this color. I knew that this was the dress I was going to wear no matter if Alice didn't agree.

I stepped out of the bathroom with the other dresses in my hands and motioning to Alice to take them.

"Wow, Bella, that dress looks great on you. Don't even need to try the red one." She said.

"Thanks" I replied.

"Ok, so you can go back into the bathroom and take a shower and stuff. I'll use mom and dad's bathroom and I'll meet you back here to do your hair and makeup." Alice said.

"I really don't want to get that made up" I told Alice. "I'm not really comfortable with all the glitz and glamour stuff."

"Now, you agreed to participate in this Game Night Bella" she reminded me. "And that includes submitting to me doing at least some makeup."

"Ok, just a little and nothing more."

"Deal" Alice said as she stepped over to my to hand me my bag with the stuff I brought over. "Now go get ready and I'll see you in a while."

The next 2 hours were spent being submitted to hair clips, makeup and shoe straps. I was able to take a couple of breaks during this time while Alice worked on herself, but just when I thought I was done for the time, she would come back and "tweak" something new. When she finally said that we were done and ready for the party, I was completely exhausted.

"Oh, come on Bella" Alice said as she pushed me out of her room. "We can't be late! Then I'll be forced to be part of the cleaning crew and I hate that part!"

As we made it downstairs to the living room I could hear voices and background music. I was looking down to avoid any accidental tripping so when I finally made it to the solid floor and looked up I saw everyone I had seen yesterday evening. They were all laughing and talking. Carlisle and Esme were on the left of the piano holding each other and looking as regal as ever. Esme had a beautiful red gown and had her hair pulled in a bun with a beautiful pair of drop earrings framing her face. Carlisle looked the part with a black tuxedo and a bowtie. I saw Emmett and Rosalie on the far side of the room as well. Rosalie had a white gown that hugged her curves and accentuated her beautiful form as golden ringlets fell down her bare back and Emmett looked very handsome, although a bit uncomfortable in a suit and tie. Jasper had joined Alice by this time. He was wearing a tux as well.

Everyone turned at once to look at the new arrivals so that limited my time of admiration for everyone's looks.

"Alice you look as beautiful as always" Jasper whispered to her ear.

"Bella, thank you for joining us again this evening" Esme said. "And might I add how beautiful you look tonight."

Now, I'm not that keen into receiving compliments, and it has been years since I had heard those words uttered towards me by another human being so I reluctantly nodded as I felt my cheeks blushing.

"Thank you for inviting me" was all I could say in response.

"Ok, enough pleasantries and let's get this party started!" said Emmett from the back.

Everyone laughed as we were escorted by Carlisle back to the family room area. I had expected to see it as I had the previous night, but somehow the whole room had been changed to look like a real casino. There was a roulette table at the far left of the room. Another table was placed with chairs surrounding it, which I guessed was for playing the card games and there were even 2 slot machines in the room as well. Towards the dining area a table had been placed with a small buffet and a bar was to its side.

I couldn't imagine how all of this had been placed here in so short time. The night before the room had looked completely different. I followed everyone over to the roulette table as they all took their positions and got ready to play.

"Bella, I'm pretty sure that Jasper won't mind giving you pointers on how to play the games we have tonight, since I'm not that good either" Alice whispered to my ear.

I smiled at her as I nodded. Alice turned to Jasper and said something which I couldn't catch, but by his expression I knew it had to do with what she had just said. He gently let go of her hand and moved over towards me.

"Ok, Bella, for this game it's pretty easy. The ball will spin around the roulette and you are trying to guess which number it will land on. There are also colors associated to each number: red and black. And you can also bet on whether it is an odd or even number." Jasper said low enough that it didn't draw any attention over to us.

I nodded and decided it was not as hard as it had looked.

"Ok, where's the dealer? I need some chips to play!" Emmett said.

"If you wait a minute, I will give you your chips" I heard a voice behind me say. I instinctively turned around to see Edward holding a small case with different colored plastic chips. He looked amazing with an all black ensemble that made his complexion pop and his eyes stand out. I could feel the hairs in my back raising as my face got warmer so I decided to immediately turn around and look at something else. I had to manage getting through this night without any incidents and simply staring at him was not going to help in any way.

"Here you go Bella" I heard him say very close to my ear as he placed some chips right on the table beside me.

He made his way over to everyone and handed them their chips. As soon as this was done, the games started. Alice and Jasper decided to stay and play at the roulette table with Rosalie offering to be the dealer for a couple of rounds as Emmett, Carlisle and Esme moved to the card table with Edward. I decided to stay close to Alice and Jasper.

After a while, I found myself having a very pleasant time at the roulette table with Alice, Jasper and Rosalie. The room was filled with laughs and jokes from everyone, but I tried to stay as focused on my immediate task as I could. Everything was going well until I heard my stomach grumble. I realized just then that I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch, and as my body was still on East-Coast time that meant dinner had been hours ago. I moved over to the buffet display and grabbed a small plate with some appetizers. As soon as I ate some I felt much better. I snuck to the kitchen to clean my plate before anyone could start complaining about how I was a guest and blah, blah, blah. It only took a minute to do this.

As I made my way back, I noticed I was a bit thirsty so I headed over to the bar to get myself something to drink, a glass of soda or something. As I was grabbing a glass and filling it with some ice I heard a voice ask: "Is there anything in particular you would like to drink?"

I knew the instant I heard him that it was Edward and that I was pretty much trapped by the bar. I had to respond and fast. So I turned around and said: "Not really, just getting some soda."

"Well, let me" Edward said as he grabbed the glass out of my hands and took charge of fixing my refreshment. At the moment his hand met mine a bolt of electricity ran up my arm and shocked me. I was startled for a second; I really didn't know how to react.

"Here you go, enjoy" Edward said as he handed me the glass.

"Thank you" I said as fast as I could. I turned around and headed back to where Alice and Jasper stood.

The rest of the evening was pretty entertaining. I avoided Edward as much as I could and even won a round of poker against Emmett with the help of Rosalie, of all people. They were all so nice and pleasant, that I didn't even notice it was past midnight, until the inevitable yawning started.

"You must be exhausted" Esme said. "Want us to take you home?"

"Oh, please don't mind me, you are all having so much fun" I replied "I'm pretty sure I can just rest on the sofa for a little bit and then be fine."

"Nonsense!" said Carlisle. "It's pretty late and we should all be calling it a night already. Alice, why don't you take Bella home? Maybe Jasper can go with you that way you are not alone on the way back."

"Ok, no problem" replied Alice.

I said again my goodbyes and headed upstairs to Alice's room to grab my things. As I was heading back downstairs I heard Alice and Jasper murmuring to each other.

"Is everything ok?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, no problem." Jasper replied, but by the way he moved when he said it I knew that he was lying. "We were just talking about something."

"Oh, Ok" I said. "I can go back to Alice's room for a little bit if you need your privacy."

"Bella, it's nothing like that!" Alice replied. "It's just that Jasper leaves tomorrow for a business trip and I won't see him for the next week and we were hoping to have sometime to ourselves tonight. So I was wondering if it's ok with you if someone else takes you home."

I completely understood where Alice and Jasper where coming from. So I didn't even hesitate with my reply.

"Oh, please" I said "I insist! You two go on and enjoy your evening. I'm pretty sure I won't be left stranded here." I chuckled at them.

They both smiled back at me with immense gratitude in their eyes. "Thanks Bella, I will pick you up tomorrow so you can come hang out here for the day." Alice said.

"It's a deal." I replied.

"I'll go get one of the guys to take you home." Said Jasper. "Alice, can you wait for me outside?"

"For eternity if need be" replied Alice. They looked so in love that it was painful for me to keep looking up. I felt my eyes getting a little wet so I looked down and forced a yawn to hide my feelings and pretend it was just tiredness.

"Let's wait outside" said Alice.

We walked over to the driveway and waited for just a couple of minutes.

"Ok, Alice, let's go" I heard Jasper say. "Bella, I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to hang out once I get back from my trip."

"I had a wonderful time and thanks for all your help" I replied. "Have a safe trip."

"No problem" said Jasper.

"See you tomorrow Bella" Alice said as she turned around towards her car with her arms wrapped around Jasper's waist.

"Have a good night!" I said.

"Ready to go home?" I heard a very familiar voice behind me say. It didn't even surprise me that fate had once more dealt me such a cruel hand by having none other that Edward be my driver. So I just resigned myself and answered back.

"Yes, thank you."

He escorted me to his car and as he had done earlier in the day opened and closed the car door for me as a true gentleman would have done. I positioned myself as close to the door as possible as to avoid any physical contact with him.

He turned his car on and we headed towards Sam's house. There was some music playing in the background, and I figured that as long as I kept my concentration on it I would be able to avoid any conversation. The tune was strangely familiar, and I immediately recognized it as one of my favorites.

"Clair De Lune?" I asked.

"You're a fan of Debussy?" Edward replied somehow a bit surprised.

"I actually am" I said. "This is one of my favorite pieces of his."

"Interesting, it's one of my favorites as well." He said as a little smirk formed in the corner of his mouth.

Now, I'm sure that he's just as human as I am, but somehow, this smile of his seemed to be able to melt me in place. I was pretty much left utterly powerless. So it took quite some strength to yield my eyes away from him and towards the outside of the car.

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet. I was so glad when the familiar scenery of Sam's neighborhood appeared. As Edward parked the car in the garage I took a deep breath to prepare me for the unavoidable conversation I would have with him.

"Thank you for bringing me back to Sam's" I said as I opened the door and started moving out of the car.

Next thing I know there's a hand outside of the car helping me get out. I should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy getting rid of Edward, fate wouldn't be so kind.

"Let me walk you to the door." Edward said.

I simply nodded. We made our way to the door and I started looking for the keys in the bag I had brought to the Cullen's house.

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way" Edward said. "But you look stunning tonight."

"Ahhhhhh" was all that came out of my mouth as the keys that I had finally found fell from my grip and to the ground.

"Let me get those for you" said Edward. He moved over to the door as he had done yesterday and opened it for me. Next thing I know the door is opened and I'm being handed the keys.

"Well Bella, I hope you had a wonderful evening as we all did. It was a pleasure having you join us; I hope you enjoyed yourself as well."

My mind finally started working again and I was able to reply "Yes, thank you, I did enjoy myself." I didn't know what else to say so I decided to go the safe route and just say good night.

"Good night Edward."

"Good night Bella. Sweet dreams." He said as he grabbed my hand and gently kissed it. He grabbed the door and closed it behind him, leaving me completely speechless inside.