"You… you… wow," Jacob stammered as I slid the door open gracefully. "You look beautiful, Ness."

"You do too Jake," was all I could say as I took in the sight of him.

Maybe beautiful wasn't the proper way to describe him. I blushed. He didn't notice that I had called him beautiful, thankfully.

In seven years of my life, I had never seen Jacob dressed in a suit. It was plain black, with a splash of colour in his burgundy tie. His hair was perfect. Messy, to just the right degree. He looked striking.

I liked rugged Jacob, unkempt in his track pants and t-shirt. But I also liked this Jacob.

"Clean up well, dog." Rosalie snickered from behind me. I turned and raised my right eyebrow at her. Always had to get a jab in. To my surprise, Jacob didn't have a retort for her. Tonight, apparently, he was taking the classy road.

Leaning in, he kissed me on the cheek and took hold of my hand.

"Ready?"

Smiling at my family peeking through the living room window, I allowed Jacob to lead me down the steps to his car, where he opened the passenger side door for me. I slipped inside, and took a deep breath as I waited for him to walk around to the driver's side and join me.

I inhaled the smell of the car. It was fantastic. A cologne I had never smelled before. Different from Jacob's normal woodsy scent, but I liked it too. My heart was hammering in my chest as he smirked at me while buckling his seat belt. It seemed that a few hours of separation had suddenly made me shy.

Slowly, we backed out of the driveway, and the house remained silent. They were waiting for us to leave before striking up their conversation about what our evening might entail.

When I had showed up at the house earlier today, I was greeted by Aunt Rosalie, who immediately began to dig for information. Although Rosalie and Jacob had eventually begun to get along - for the most part anyway, she was still worried about our relationship.

Aunt Rosalie had been a second mother to me. She adored me like her own, which had sometimes caused a bit of frustration on my mother's part. Though she had always been grateful for the help and support, sometimes she felt that Rose was too possessive, and tried to influence me too much.

I, however, was an adult now, and wasn't going to be swayed by either one of them.

"So, I'm assuming you guys have kissed already then?" she asked as she wound the curling iron in my hair.

I was about to reply with a simple yes when Alice glided into the room.

"Don't ask, Rose. Let the girl have some privacy."

Rose shot her a glare.

"Just making conversation, Alice. I want to know what's going on. And Ness knows I'm always here to talk things through."

"You knew this was going to happen one day, Rosalie. Leave her be. If she wants to talk to you, or ask you questions, I'm sure she will come to you when she's ready. Right Ness?"

I bit my bottom lip and looked between the two of them.

"Of course I will come to you Aunt Rose. And yes. I did kiss him."

And a few other things….

I smiled as my thoughts shifted, and was beyond grateful that my dad wasn't in the house, or the city for that matter. My thoughts had been practically screaming today.

We arrived at the restaurant, which was nearly deserted considering it was a Tuesday. It was nice.

He let go of my hand to run a few steps ahead of me to pull the door open.

"After you."

"Oh Jacob, always the gentleman," I laughed.

Though he had always looked after me and I loved him dearly, a door-opening gentleman, Jacob was not. This was all new to me, but something told me that this new Jacob was here to stay. I was thinking it came with the territory, and was a side effect of the change in our relationship.

We were seated in the back corner of the dimly lit restaurant before he reached over the table and took my hand once again.

"This is so nice, a quiet dinner for two. I love you, Ness."

His thumb stroked the back of my hand and made me quiver.

"What do you say we use that new ID of yours and order a bottle of wine?"

I only nodded in agreement, unable to structure words into a sentence.

Uncle Jasper had just picked up my brand new ID, which said I was 21 years old. Although I was actually born in September of 2006, my new plastic stated otherwise. My new birthday to remember was September 10, 1990. Which would mean I was 23, turning 24 in a few months. The best part about it was that I was now, on paper anyway, the same age as Jacob.

Eventually the date on my ID would have to change. After another move in a few years' time, my date of birth would have to move ahead to keep up with pretenses. My smooth skin and young features made me barely passable for 23, let alone 33.

The best part was that Jacob's date of birth would move ahead with me. No matter how young we stayed, we would now always be the same age.

Five years ago, the Cullen family, along with Jacob, Seth and Leah had moved to Prince George British Columbia, much to my Grandpa Charlie's dismay.

The flight to Seattle was under four hours for him to visit us, and about the same for us to travel to Forks on foot. So really, it wasn't that bad. Grandpa was always visiting, usually at least once a month, and we would make the trek to Forks for holidays.

The only down side to visiting was that when we were in Forks, we had to stay inside to prevent the people of the small town from recognizing my parents who obviously had not aged since they moved away.

Photoshop had worked wonders for our family. Although it creeped Grandpa Charlie out, on his desk at the police station was a digitally aged photo of Bella and Edward holding me, a kindergartner.

Should someone run into my parents in the street, there would be a lot of talk in the town.

Luckily, Grandpa Charlie was only about 10 years from retirement age. He and my mom had decided that once he was finished work, he would follow us where we went, always living in the same city. I looked forward to it. I always missed Grandpa.

The sound of the bottle of wine being set on the table brought me out of my trance. I watched the waiter pour two glasses for us, bow his head, and walk away.

Jacob winked as I raised the glass to my lips.

"All grown up," he murmured.

Dinner passed in an instant. We finished our medium steaks and wine before heading over to the movie theatre that was just a few buildings away.

I didn't pay attention to what movie Jacob was paying for tickets for, nor was I able to take in any of what we watched. All I could concentrate on was the sound of his breath sitting next to me, and his large warm hand that encased mine.

As the minutes passed, the butterflies in my stomach became more and more prominent. Our time was coming. Was this movie ever going to end?

It was just after 11 as we left the movie theatre and we were on our way back to the house.

The car was dead silent. Both of us nervous.

Jacob turned up the radio to a low volume and began humming along and drumming on the steering wheel. My throat felt dry as I took deep breaths and concentrated on slowing my heart rate.

In what seemed like merely seconds, we had arrived.

My hands shook as I turned the key in the lock, and opened the door.

How was this going to happen? Should I just turn and kiss him?

Take control Jacob, take control please. I can't do this.

Then he did.

"Wait here," was all he said as he walked into my darkened room and shut the door behind him.

Author's Note: Don't freak out! There's another one coming VERY shortly. Under an hour. Stay tuned :)