The room was absolutely silent as Lauren and Edward stared each other down. Jessica had flattened herself against the far wall of the living room and was shooting desperate looks at Lauren. I was backed up against the front door, holding my breath. No one made a sound.

Finally, Edward took a deep breath and glanced over his shoulder at me. I don't know what he saw in my face, but it seemed to bolster his confidence. He pressed his lips in a thin line and turned back to Lauren.

"What the fuck is going on, Lauren?" His voice was soft and hard at the same time. I think if he had directed that voice at me I would have burst into tears. Lauren, on the other hand, merely put the hand that wasn't holding up her sheet on her hip and raised her eyebrows.

"Please, Edward. What does it look like?"

"I'm trying to come up with a scenario that does not involve you fucking your best friend in our bed, but I'm coming up empty. Why don't you enlighten me?" Ice was creeping into his tone, and I could see both hands clenched in tight fists at his side.

"Well if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck…" Lauren replied with a small scowl.

Edward's composure cracked a little at that. He cleared his throat and blinked rapidly.

"Tell me this is a onetime thing, Lauren. Tell me you're drunk, or that you wanted to experiment. Just explain this to me," he was pleading with her, and even though his voice retained the cold, hard quality I could see that he couldn't keep it up for long.

"Oh, come on Edward, don't play dumb. I couldn't have made it more obvious if I tried. I just assumed that because you didn't say anything we had an understanding. I even told your little fuck buddy over there that you could keep your girl on the side arrangement. Didn't she give you the heads up? Although really Edward, you could do so much better."

I cringed and Edward's eyes bulged a little bit. He looked at me again, this time with a horrified look on his face. He whipped back to Lauren. "You… you what? Lauren, Bella and I aren't … we've never… what kind of understanding?"

He was losing his cool completely now. I think the enormity of the situation was setting in. Lauren rolled her eyes again and shifted her sheet up higher on her chest. I couldn't believe she was comfortable having this conversation wearing nothing but a see-through cotton sheet, but apparently the girl's confidence knew no bounds.

"Edward, Jessica and I have been together for three years. This isn't a new thing. You've met my parents; you can't honestly think they'd be happy to introduce their lesbian daughter and her girlfriend at the country club. I keep a steady stream of serious, upstanding young men around to throw off my parents and my boss, and the guys look the other way until they get bored and move on. That's how it's always worked. You're the only one who's stuck around this long, and I have to admit it's been nice. But don't kid yourself into thinking that this was heading anywhere."

"Don't kid myself? What the hell, Lauren? Your parents would get over it eventually, you know how proud they are of you. And why would I ever be alright with the kind of 'arrangement' you've just described? Why would anyone? I didn't accuse you of carrying on a secret lesbian relationship, so that must mean I'm okay with it? What kind of skewed logic is that? I loved you, for Christ's sake!"

The past tense in his declaration wasn't lost on me, and Lauren keyed in on it too. I could see her demeanor shift. If she was holding anything back before, she certainly wouldn't now. Jessica was still scrunched up against the wall. She looked completely miserable and embarrassed. In a weird, twisted sort of way I felt bad for her. This couldn't have been her idea of a good time, and if this kind of thing had been going on for three years… I couldn't understand why she stuck around.

"Don't pretend like you weren't enjoying the perks of our relationship," Lauren snapped. "Your private piano studio has tripled in the last year, mostly because of contacts you made through me. This was mutually beneficial."

"Why would I date you to get students? I can do that on my own!" he yelled. "Why would you do this to me, Lauren? If you were just waiting for me to get bored and walk away, why did you work so hard to keep me? You lied to me every day, slept in my bed, fucked me on a regular basis—and it meant nothing to you?"

I had never heard Edward drop the f-bomb before, and in five short minutes he had used it three times. He was livid now, the confusion and hurt gone for the time being.

"God, Edward, that could hardly be described as fucking," she sneered. "I don't know how to break this to you, but for such a hot guy you are barely average in the sack."

He flinched, and Jessica's eyes got even bigger. She crept up from her spot by the wall and put a tentative hand on Lauren's shoulder.

"Okay, let's all just calm down," she stammered. "Edward, I'm really sorry it had to come out this way. Maybe it would be best if everybody just took a break for a second."

"You're sorry?" he said scathingly. "Oh that's great. I'm glad you're sorry. I feel so much better about this now."

She winced and pulled back to her spot on the wall.

"I want you out," Edward said, turning back to Lauren. "I'm leaving now, and I want you out of this apartment when I get back. Any of the big stuff you can arrange to have moved over Thanksgiving, which I will be spending with my family in Forks. Once you're gone, you will leave your key and never contact me again. I'm not interested in your explanations. Do we understand each other?"

Her jaw dropped, and for a second I saw through the anger to something else. Disbelief?

"You're bailing on me right before the holidays? I get that this is over, but can't you just suck it up for a couple more days? Don't be so selfish!"

"I'm selfish?" he roared. "Are you listening to how ridiculous you sound right now? You've been stringing me along for a year, pretending like we have a future together. You've been forcing Jessica, who I assume you actually purport to love, to go along with this ridiculous cover story for three years, and I'm the selfish one? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

He turned around and strode toward me, yanking the door open. I followed him back into the hallway. Before he closed the door, he looked into the apartment one last time.

"Jessica? I think you could do better."

He slammed the door and collapsed against the wall, tugging on his hair with both his hands and staring at the ground.

Neither of us said anything for a second, and the sounds of Edward's heavy breathing filled the hall. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he looked up at me.

"Do you mind if we skip the show? I need to get drunk. Right now."

I nodded and led the way back to the car. He followed, not saying a word. When we got in the car, he didn't start it. A couple more seconds of silence, then he turned to me. He looked more exhausted than angry.

"What exactly did she say to you?"

I met his gaze head on. Time to come clean and hope he didn't hate me. "She told me that she knew that the two of us were …fooling around. And that it was okay, as long as I didn't expect you to leave her for me. I tried to explain that nothing was going on, but she wouldn't listen."

"When did this happen?" he asked quietly.

"When I came over for dinner… you were in the kitchen getting dessert and coffee."

He nodded and closed his eyes for a second. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think you would believe me, and I didn't want it to ruin our friendship," I responded, just as quietly. He seemed to be taking this very well, but after his angry outbursts in the apartment, his quiet calm worried me.

He nodded again and started the car, pulling into traffic and taking off down the block without a word. We were driving toward my apartment. I hoped he wasn't planning on drinking himself into oblivion alone, because there was no way I was going to let that happen. I exhaled in relief when he passed my turn without a second glance.

"Where are we going?" I asked tentatively. He hadn't made a sound since we started driving.

"Somewhere where the beer is cheap and no one will recognize me," he answered. I nodded and shut my mouth again. He would talk when he was ready.

I followed him into a dark and dingy bar on the outskirts of downtown. It wasn't so shady that I was afraid, but it was definitely the kind of place with lots of hidey holes, where beer was served in mason jars. We ordered a round and settled into a dark booth.

After downing half his jar in one long gulp, Edward spoke again.

"I don't blame you for not telling me." I started at the sound of his voice. My face must have looked skeptical, because he continued. "No, really, Bella. I could get angry and defensive and insist that I would have believed everything. But honestly, you're probably right. I would have called you a liar and looked the other way. So it's probably for the best."

He gulped down the rest of his beer and waved over a waitress who was wandering through the tables. He handed over the jar and ordered another one. "Besides," he said, turning back to me. "I only have so much room in my head, and the sheer mind-fuckery involved in finding out my girlfriend… well, ex-girlfriend… is a closeted lesbian who never loved or cared about me is taking up a lot of space right now."

The absurdity of his statement hit me pretty hard, and I let out a hysterical laugh. My eyes got wide and I slapped a hand over my mouth. After a beat, Edward's lips twitched into a small smile. Soon he was laughing helplessly, a high-pitched weepy giggle that was completely at odds with his usual bass chuckle. When his beer arrived, he caught his breath before chugging most of it in one go. The girl hadn't moved more than a couple of feet from our table when he gestured her back.

"Keep these coming," he ordered. She gawked at his almost empty jar for a second and then nodded, taking off for what would be his third pint of beer in less than 10 minutes.

"Edward, maybe you should slow down," I said quietly. I understood his urge to drown his sorrows, but I was worried he would make himself sick. I really wasn't prepared to take care of a trashed Edward. "Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"I'm calling in sick," he said firmly. "It's only a half-day anyway, and I think a day off to deal with this is more than appropriate. Besides, I'll need to get on a plane at some point. I hope I can get a ticket this late."

His rubbed his hands over his face and looked up at me, his eyes simmering with anger and sadness. "I can't believe how stupid I am. All the signs were there: the late meetings, the constant parade of girl's nights, dashing off to spend time with Jessica at the drop of a hat. I don't know why I never even … Did you know that Emmett told me that she was cheating on me six months ago? That Alice warned me about her from the start? That my parents can barely make polite conversation with her? And if Esme Cullen can't make small talk with someone, you know something's wrong. But I closed my ears and my eyes and told them they didn't know Lauren like I did, and that we were in love."

He threw back the rest of his beer and leaned back into the booth with a slightly nauseous look on his face. For a second I was afraid he was about to puke. "Oh God, I can't tell them about this. Can you even imagine what they'll say? Its bad enough she cheated on me, but she's a lesbian? I won't ever live this down."

"They're not going to make fun of you, Edward," I said soothingly. He blinked and looked into my eyes.

"You're right. They're not. Because they're not going to know."

"What?" I gaped back at him. "You're going to—what? Pretend like you're still dating her? Hide this whole thing from the people who love you most? I can't lie to your whole family, Edward."

"I'm not asking you to lie," he explained. "I'll tell them we broke up. Hell, I'll tell them that she cheated on me. But I can't tell them about Jessica. They'll never know the difference, it's not like she's coming out of the closet any time soon. Please, Bella. Don't tell them."

I hesitated. It wasn't really lying if we just omitted one, tiny part of the story. He stared at me, his eyes pleading, his full lips practically pouting at me. God damn beautiful face.

"Fine," I agreed. "I won't tell." He smiled briefly and picked up the beer our waitress had just delivered.

*****

An hour and three more pints of beer later, Edward was flying high. I was glad that he ate a full dinner earlier or I had a feeling I would already be mopping him off the bathroom floor. He was currently calling all of his nearest and dearest and gleefully informing them of his breakup. If I didn't know how embarrassed he was going to be about most of those phone calls tomorrow, I would have thought it was hilarious. He was currently talking to his parents. Carlisle must have handed the phone over to Esme, because Edward's crooked grin appeared and he started talking a mile a minute.

"Mom! Guess what! I'm coming home for Thanksgiving," he slurred. "No, no, just a little tipsy. No worries. Bella's here! Sure!" I bit back a giggle. He was getting louder and louder, and several of our fellow patrons were staring at him. He handed the phone across the table to me.

"Bella, my mom wants to say hello. Take this," he ordered. Once I had the phone securely in my hand he stumbled out of the booth and towards the back of the bar where the restrooms were.

"Hello?"

"Bella, what on earth is going on? Carlisle won't tell me, he just keeps laughing and shaking his head."

"Um, well Edward and Lauren broke up tonight," I explained, twisting a strand of hair nervously. Please don't ask for details.

She gasped. "What happened?"

Damn.

"She was cheating on him," I said simply. There, that wasn't a lie. "He's pretty upset, but as you can probably tell he's feeling okay at the moment."

"Can you handle things okay all by yourself? Maybe you should call Emmett and have him come out. Edward can be a bit of a handful when he drinks like that," she said. "It took his father and the other two groomsmen to wrestle him away from the bar at Emmett's wedding."

"That's a brilliant idea, Esme. Emmett will want to celebrate the occasion anyway," I said, chuckling a little bit. Esme cleared her throat, but I could have sworn I heard a small giggle on the other end. Edward was stumbling back to our booth, so I quickly said goodbye. He collapsed into the booth and looked at me expectantly.

Esme was right; I was definitely going to need reinforcements if Edward kept drinking at this rate. Emmett was huge, and Jasper participated in mock wars, so I was hoping the two of them together could handle one incredibly inebriated high school band teacher.

"What were we talking about?" he asked.

"You were just going to call Emmett and Jasper and ask them to come out and celebrate!" I exclaimed, pushing the phone back across our table to him. His face lit up and he quickly dialed. I could hear Emmett's cheers from across the table, and Jasper wasn't much quieter. After he had confirmed that they were both coming out, and that Jasper was bringing Alice, he settled into a contented silence. He was drinking slower now, so maybe he wouldn't have the worst hangover of his life in the morning. Despite the fact that I knew he was only cheerful because of the mass amounts of alcohol in his system, it was good to see him smile.

Suddenly, he slammed his beer down on the table and turned back to me, eyes blazing. Maybe I spoke too soon about that smiling thing.

"You know what kills me," he said loudly. "She has the nerve to take credit for my success as a fucking piano teacher. I'm a fucking classically trained pianist! Where does she get off?" He took a swig from his beer and accidentally spilled some down his shirt, but he didn't notice—he was too wrapped up in his righteous indignation.

At the next table over, a blonde girl was staring at him, her mouth hanging open. Her eyes were a little glazed, and she was practically drooling over him. I couldn't really blame her; even slobbering drunk and covered in beer he was the most attractive man in the place.

"I mean, have you seen these hands? She had nothing to do with these magic fingers," he practically shouted, wiggling his fingers at me. "I have more talent in my left hand than that girl has in her whole body."

Wiggling his "magic fingers" proved too tempting for our blonde neighbor to handle. She pushed herself out of her chair and sauntered over to our booth.

"Hi there," she purred. "I'm Amanda." She rubbed her upper body against his shoulder as she spoke. She was wearing something that I hesitate to classify as a shirt. It was more like a tea towel… with very tiny straps. Needless to say, her maneuvering nearly caused her to flash the entire bar, or at the very least, the right side of Edward's face. "I couldn't help but overhear you talking about your pianist skills." She giggled artificially and ran her hand through his hair, while Edward just stared at her, completely bewildered.

"You look just like my ex-girlfriend," he blurted abruptly. "She's a soul-sucking bitch."

I bit my tongue, but I couldn't hold the snort back. At my choked laughter, Amanda turned to me and scowled. When she made that face, the resemblance to Lauren really was uncanny.

"I'm sorry, he's not interested," I said smugly. "You should probably go."

She rolled her eyes and leaned down to brush her lips against his ear. "Come find me later if you want to spend some time with a real woman, handsome." With a swish of her hips, she swept off toward the bar.

"See? Even random women at bars think I'm sexy!" he exclaimed, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis. "Barely average my ass! I'm damn good in bed."

Oh God, he was not seriously having this conversation with me. This was not happening.

"You know who's bad in bed? Lauren is bad in bed," he continued, clearly not noticing how uncomfortable I was. "The woman is the very definition of cold fish. And stiff as a board, you don't even know. I mean, give me something to work with, lady. A man can only do so much from the missionary position!"

"Are we interrupting something?" I looked up to find Emmett and Jasper standing next to our table, wide smiles on their faces. Alice was bouncing behind them.

"Oh thank God," I sighed. I stood up and shoved the boys into the booth. Hooking my arm around Alice, I drug her a few feet away. "Alice, you have to get me out of here."

"What?" she squawked. "No way, I've been waiting for this for over a year! We just got here, why would you want to leave now?"

"I mean, yeah, she has a rocking body," Edward's drunken voice carried over to us. "But I've had better. Oh man, Emmett, do you remember Ashley Price? That chick had a hot body and she was crazy! The things that woman did with her mouth… I remember this one time—"

"Point taken," Alice said quickly, covering her ears and pushing me through the crowd with her elbows.

When we got to her car, she turned to me and fixed a stern stare on me.

"Okay, since my dear brother is clearly in no state to do much but talk about past sexual conquests," she said with a slight smile on her face. "What the hell happened tonight? All Jasper could get out of him was that they broke up and he was celebrating."

"We walked in on Lauren cheating on him," I said, knowing that the simple explanation that I gave Esme would not fly with Alice. I would have to use as many details as possible and hope it was enough. Her jaw dropped a little.

"And?! You can't just stop there. Come on, what happened? Who was it?"

"Edward forgot the tickets for the show we were going to see tonight, so we stopped back at his apartment. Lauren and her… uh, conquest were in a pretty compromising position," I said. "They had a huge fight. You would have been so proud of him, Alice. I mean, I was horribly uncomfortable and I was still proud. He read her the riot act, told her how selfish he thought she was, and said he wanted her to move out tonight while he was gone."

"Who was the guy? Was he totally sleazy?"

I chewed on my lip a little. "A mutual friend of theirs I guess. It's been going on for a while."

She exhaled loudly and ran her fingers through her cropped hair in a gesture that reminded me of Edward.

"Wow. So wait—is he coming home for Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, didn't he tell you? He was on the phone with your parents right before he called Jasper and Emmett."

"He didn't, but that's great news! I had a gut feeling he would be coming home after all, although I have to say I was expecting another blowout fight, not a breakup. I'm happy to be wrong," she said. "I bought an extra ticket when I booked seats for Jasper and myself, so we're all set. Emmett and Rosalie have an early flight so they can spend the whole day with her family."

"Are the guys going to be able to handle him? He was pretty trashed…"

"No worries, I think the plan was to get one drink and have him go home with Jasper. What time is your flight tomorrow?"

"Uhhh I think I take off at 3:00?"

Her eyes lit up. "That's great, ours is at 3:30. We should carpool; I'll pick you up!"

She stopped in front of my apartment. Without warning, she wrapped me in a chokehold, hugging me within an inch of my life.

"I know tonight was probably really awkward and difficult, but thank you for hanging in there for him," she whispered. "It'll all work out, Bella. I just know it."

Releasing me, she gave a funny little wave. "Okay, now get some sleep and make sure you are packed and waiting outside this building at 12:30 on the dot!"

As I got ready for bed, I couldn't help but be grateful that I had the foresight to take Wednesday and Friday off. I was already packed and ready for the trip home, and all I wanted to do was sleep until I woke up, no alarms and no responsibilities to get in the way.

Unfortunately, my body had other plans. I couldn't get comfortable. My pillows seemed lumpy, and I couldn't get my sheets to wrap around me right. I stared at my ceiling for ages, trying not to notice as the minutes slipped by on the face of my alarm clock.

Eventually I gave up and started cleaning my apartment. I made my bed and put away the clothes I had thrown around before my not-a-date with Edward. It was odd to think that it was less than 12 hours ago I was stressing out over my decision to keep Lauren's accusation to myself.

Wandering back to my kitchen, I made a cup of green tea, trying not to notice that I only had eight hours before Alice picked me up. It was times like this when I thought getting a cat would be a worthwhile investment. Cats were nocturnal, right? At least I would have company when I was completely unable to sleep. Although with my luck I would probably end up with the kind of cat that slept 23 hours a day and ignored me for the other one. Alice was right; I wasn't really a cat person.

I awoke to a sharp tapping on my door. Sometime in the middle of the night I had fallen asleep on my couch, and my back and neck screamed at me from where I lay. Groaning, I looked over at the clock on my DVD player. It was 12:25.

"BELLA SWAN!" Alice's voice echoed in the hall and I cringed. "GET YOUR SKINNY BUTT OUT HERE!"

I stumbled to the door, stopping for a second to adjust my pajamas and sweep my hair into a pony tail. I cracked the door and there was Alice, grinning perkily.

"There you are!" She sang. "I was afraid I was going to have to yank you out of bed."

I grumbled incoherently under my breath and pushed the door open. "Come in Alice. You're early."

She looked pointedly at my Power Puff Girls pajama pants and worn out tie dyed t-shirt. I sighed loudly. "Be right back, I'll go change."

I didn't even look at what I was throwing on, just grabbed some clothes off my floor and a clean pair of underwear. Thankfully, I had compulsively organized my carry-on, purse, and ticket information the night before, so it took me less than five minutes to throw everything together and follow-the-bouncing-Alice down my stairwell and out onto the street.

Jasper waited in the front passenger seat. He flashed a quick grin at Alice as we approached and jumped out to help me load my suitcase into the trunk. Edward, in direct contrast to his chipper sister and her presentable boyfriend, was slumped in the back, looking sickly pale and scruffy. A Mariners cap was pulled over his eyes, which were hidden behind his thick black frames.

When I shut my door, he flinched. "Unghhhhh," he groaned. "Quiet time. No sudden movements. Must be quiet."

I laughed under my breath when Alice slammed her door and he flinched again, more noticeably this time. She just rolled her eyes and gunned it down the street. "Edward, you are such a pussy when you're hung-over. If you puke in my car, I swear to God you're paying to have it cleaned."

" 'm not gonna puke, Ali," he whined. "Just feeling a little off."

She peered through the rearview mirror at me and winked.

"I saw that," Edward muttered.

"You'll have to excuse Edward this afternoon," Jasper said casually. "He's a bit out of sorts after last night, what with the drunk-dialing, the loud retelling of sundry sexual exploits, and the getting hit on by nearly every woman in the tri-county area. Understandably, he's exhausted."

Even when he talked trash he was a nerd. I laughed and reached over to pat Edward's hand. He groaned in response.

"You're exaggerating," he grumbled. "You're exaggerating because I can't remember. Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's not polite to mess with the black-out drunk?"

"He's not exactly exaggerating," I grinned. "One woman assaulted you with her breasts right before you called her a soul-sucking bitch."

His jaw dropped. Alice snorted and Jasper turned around to stare at us, a playful grin on his face.

"Seriously? Oh man, I can't believe we missed that."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how it happened. I'm not gonna lie to you, Edward. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. How much do you remember?"

"I remember getting to the bar, being really angry, and drinking about six pints."

"Pretty sure your count by the end of the night was nine," Jasper said. "Emmett asked your waitress."

"Jesus, no wonder my head hurts," Edward moaned. "Alice, you're a girl. Got any ibuprofen in that duffel bag you call a purse?"

"Here, I have some," I responded, tossing him the small bottle. He grimaced at me and popped what was probably twice the recommended dose, then tried to settle back into his seat and relax. Too bad his sister drives like a hellion.

By the time we made it to the airport parking lot I was a little concerned that Edward actually was going to puke. His washed out face had turned a delicate shade of green. And all this time I thought that was just an expression. "Alice, you seriously need to go back to driver's ed. I can't believe the state of Washington ever issued you a driver's license," he panted weakly.

It turned out our terminals were fairly close together, so we picked a grouping of chairs in between them and sat around waiting for my flight to board. Edward managed to contort himself into a reclining position on several of the seats, but he kept shifting around. I prefer to spread myself out on the floor in airports, and was seated cross-legged on the ground with a book. Every time I tried to concentrate on my book, however, Edward would shift in his seats. He poked me with an elbow, then his shoulder. Finally, I sighed and looked up at him.

"Why don't you just get down here with me on the floor, Edward. You're never going to get comfortable up there. I'll even offer my lap as a pillow if it'll stop your wiggling."

He sighed and shifted again, making a face at me. "I'm fine." The words had just left his mouth when he lost his balance and fell sideways. Alice and Jasper burst into laughter. Edward was hanging, half on, half off the three seats he had been reclining in. His head and shoulders were on the floor and his back was arched over an armrest. His feet were anchored in another set of armrests.

I dropped my book and tried to hoist him up by his armpits, but since he's about twice my size it wasn't an easy feat. After a couple minutes' struggle, we managed to maneuver him up and out of his predicament.

"My offer stands," I said, laughing now that he wasn't completely stuck. He eyed my lap cautiously, like I had a venomous snake hiding there or something. "I don't bite Edward."

Finally, he nodded and lay on his side next to me, resting his head on my thigh. Despite his obvious reluctance, he got comfortable quickly and never moved. After about five minutes he passed out cold, and I allowed myself to examine his face. He looked like crap: purple bags hung under his eyes, reddish gold scruff covered half his face, and a tiny frown puckered his eyebrows. His hair looked like he hadn't washed it in a couple of days. It was odd to see him like this; he was usually so meticulously groomed.

"Bella and Edward sittin' in a tree," Alice sang quietly. I looked up and saw her and Jasper watching me, wearing matching smiles. Okay, I had to play this cool or Alice would tell the whole family we were in love or some crock of crap story. It was bad enough that Rosalie probably suspected my crush, but I needed to nip Alice in the bud before she made Edward uncomfortable.

I put on my very best sarcastic face. "Alice, the man just went through a horrendous break-up with the woman he was living with after walking in on her cheating on him. I hardly think that he's in any condition to be climbing trees, let alone my tree. So let's just check the nursery rhymes at the door. We're friends, and that's that."

Alice shrugged and rolled her eyes, pulling Jasper off his chair to get something to eat at the coffee shop across the terminal. I exhaled, feeling like I had just dodged a bullet. If things ever went anywhere with Edward, I wanted them to progress naturally and because he wanted them to, not because I was the girl his family liked, who supported him through his traumatic breakup with a lipstick lesbian.

I glanced down at his sleeping face. He was smiling now, the frown from earlier completely gone. His mouth hung slightly open and gentle snores rumbled in his chest, which for some reason made me giggle. He twitched at the sound of my laugh and I thought he was going to wake up, but all he did was nuzzle my thigh a little bit and sigh happily. I closed my eyes for a moment and leaned into the chair behind me. Blocking out the sounds of my fellow travelers, I enjoyed the feel of Edward's gentle breathing and allowed myself to savor the quiet moment. I knew that once we were back in Forks the chaos that accompanied the holiday would swallow us up. It felt a little bit like I was riding in the eye of the storm, waiting for all hell to break loose.

How right I was.

A/N: Okay, so I've never been so nervous about posting something. Your reviews made me feel like it had to be perfect, I hope this satisfied! Just so you know, you were beating out Twilighted for a while on the review front, but they schooled you in the last chapter, they just barely fell short of 100. Think you can reclaim your title?

In other news, my update schedule is going to go to shit in July. I'm sorry in advance (and posting this chapter early so you'll forgive me). I have summer classes finishing up next week, finals, a family reunion, and my best friend's wedding (MOH duties mean a long weekend for me!). So here's the deal. I'm going to post whenever I have something to post, hopefully still keeping up kind of with the once a week goal, but I'm not going to worry about setting a date. I will be mostly responsibility free after July 22, at which point I may just redeem myself and update MORE than once a week. Best way to encourage me to do that? Click that little review box. :)