Author's Note: Sorry I took so long to update this story...this was a hard chapter to write and I wanted to get it just right before I posted it. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Thanks so much for all your reviews and love. It's great knowing you guys like my story.

I'd also like to take this chance to pimp out my other story, Stranger Things Have Happened. It's only two chapters in, but it's going to very different than this story...much lighter, faster-paced and probably fluffier. It's just for kicks.

So...here its is! The dinner... (cue dramatic music)

I don't own Twilight...but I sure wish I did. I do own the story, though.

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Once, during my first year at the hospital, I'd held a beating heart in my hands.

I had been helping an attending with a supposedly simple procedure, and in the middle of the operation, the man had gone into cardiac arrest. When the paddles hadn't worked, the doctor had acted quickly, and had extended the incision in the man's upper stomach, all the way to his heart. He had then cracked the man's chest open and had started internal compressions. Realizing that the cut inside his abdomen was hemorrhaging, the doctor had shouted for me to continue the compressions while he took care of controlling the blood loss. Scared out of my wits, I had squeezed the man's lifeless heart with everything I had. I had squeezed his heart for five minutes without pause, until my muscles were burning and my face was streaming sweat. When nothing happened, I had thought that we had lost him. I had thought I had failed him.

And then, just as I had been getting ready to step back and run to the locker room and cry, the man's heart had jumped in my hands. It had beaten a slightly erratic rhythm before steadying to a weak, slow pulse that resounded in my hands and through my body. There were no words to describe the relief that I had felt when that heart pounded in my hands again.

That's what it felt like when I heard Edward's voice.

My heart stopped, literally, and then jumped back to life at an erratic pace. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears, in my fingers, and in my toes. My breath started coming in gasps, and I felt my stomach doing flips. A warm sensation filled my body as I realized that he was in the same room as me, and I could sense the relief spreading throughout me, pushing away the disappointment from the pits of my stomach. My legs weakened and my hand shot out to the mantle to steady myself.

All this, just from hearing his voice.

I turned slowly, wondering if he could hear my heartbeat. Surely he could, as loud as it was right now.

And there he was, as beautiful as I remembered him. He was standing a few feet away from me, glorious in his light blue dress shirt. He had the sleeves rolled up slightly, and his hands were stuffed deep into his pants pockets. His hair was as disheveled as ever, as if he had just rolled out of bed and come down stairs. There was a strand that was sticking out above his left eyebrow, and I wanted desperately to push it away from his face.

I noticed all this within a second of looking at him, though my eyes never strayed from his face. How could they? His eyes were enough to captivate my attention. Edward's green eyes were boring into mine, a frustrated look coming from deep within.

I was mesmerized. I could feel my lips parting slowly, unwillingly, and I fought the flush that was surely taking over every exposed part of my body.

Before I could do anything that would potentially embarrass me, such as throw myself at him or faint, Edward closed his eyes and then reopened them, carefully averting his gaze to my left. The frustrated look was gone from his face, and was replaced by a mask. He looked indifferent. Cold.

It was enough to shock me back into reality, and I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Hello." I whispered, my voice coming out slightly croaky. I winced at the sound.

"Dr. Swan," Edward nodded and cast a quick glance in my direction before his eyes shifted back towards the mantle. "I wasn't aware that you would be here tonight."

Ah. Of course. That explains it. God forbid he had to be in the same room with me.

I frowned slightly, a little dejected by his cold tone, but I hid it by passing my hand across my forehead and into my hair.

"Emmett has become a very good friend of mine." I stared back at him, wanting him to say what was on his mind. Willing him to tell me why he was acting this way with me now.

"That's nice," Edward said in a polite, disinterested tone. I tilted my head slightly and studied him while he determinedly avoided my gaze. Apparently the mantle was much more interesting than me.

A small sigh escaped my lips, and his eyes flickered back up to mine.

"Is everything -- ?" I started to ask, but was interrupted by loud laughter as the glass doors opened and the guests began to filter into the living room. Edward nodded at me again before joining the guests as they entered the dining room.

I blinked several times as he retreated from me.

What the hell? Why this attitude all of a sudden? A few weeks ago, he had been ready to buy me drinks and seduce me in his hospital room. Now, he was acting like I was an uninteresting acquaintance that he had run into on the elevator, someone that he was being forced to make small talk with for a few minutes before he could run away.

Maybe I had imagined his interest. He obviously hadn't thought of me once since the day at the hospital. Perhaps I had just been a distraction, a flavor of the day, and he hadn't counted on me making repeat appearances in his life.

Whatever it was, clearly I was no longer interesting to him.

My confusion gave way to full-fledged irritation. I could feel the blood pounding in my head.

Way to go, Bella. The first guy that made you feel hot under the collar since Jake just had to be exactly like Jake. Another man who's easily distracted by shiny objects and with no attention span.

My jaw tightened and my fists clenched.

Fine.

I could play this game as well. If he wanted to pretend that we hadn't shared a few interesting moments together, then I could do the same. Hell, I could do it even better.

Damn if I was going to let Edward Cullen know that I'd been thinking about him nonstop for the past few days.

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After ducking into the downstairs bathroom to calm myself down, I stepped outside and was nearly tackled by Rosalie.

"Where have you been?" Rose gripped me by the arms and glared at me. "I can't do this without you, Bella! It's torture!"

I extricated myself from Rosalie's vice grip and gingerly touched my arms. "What's the matter, Rose? Are you okay?"

Rose gave me a very shaky smile. "What am I doing here? I own an auto parts store. I'm a glorified mechanic, Bella, and this place is full of geniuses. I mean, I'm surrounded by doctors and surgeons and crap. I asked someone to pass the sweet potatoes and I got a lecture on the differences between yams and sweet potatoes!" Rose rubbed her temples with her fingers. She glanced at me desperately. "Bella, the guy sitting next to me is literally a brain surgeon. He's a brain surgeon! I'm just waiting for the rocket scientist to pop out," she huffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. With a long sigh, she shook her head slowly. "I'm so scared. I really want Emmett's parents to like me, but it's so hard when I'm surrounded by all these eggheads."

I was stunned at my friend's confession. I'd never seen Rosalie acting this way before. She was usually so confident, so sure of herself. It was glaringly obvious that she cared a lot for Emmett and wanted to make a great impression on his family.

Smiling gently, I took her hands. "Calm down, Rose. Just be yourself and his family will love you. Don't be intimidated by any of those stiffs," I pointed at her. "You are Rosalie freakin' Hale. You are classy. You are beautiful, smart, funny and witty. You are amazing and they will know it by the time this night is over."

Rosalie's face broke out into a genuine smile. "You really think so?"

"I'm absolutely positive, Rose. Now get in there, and charm the hell out of those people." I pushed her gently towards the dining room.

She grabbed my hand. "You're coming with me," At my groan, she smirked. Back to regular Rosalie. "Does this have anything to do with a certain brother of Emmett's?"

I glared at my friend. "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't play coy, Bella. I saw you two talking through the doors. What's going on with you two?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow at me as we walked slowly towards the dining room. I could hear the noise of clinking glasses and silverware above the din of the guests.

I snorted. "Absolutely nothing."

"Right," Rosalie rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Because you two weren't having eye sex in the living room?"

We paused outside the dining room and I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms. "Rose, you're delusional. I think Edward is a disgusting, arrogant man who has the attention span of a tsetse fly. He's cold, conceited and probably bipolar. Believe me, I'm not interested." I rambled as Rosalie looked on amused.

It wasn't like I was lying. I wasn't interested. At all.

…Of course it could be because he wasn't into me. But that was a moot point.

A loud cough startled Rose and me from our position by the wall. I swiveled my head to see Emmett and Edward standing by the door, the former with a grin on his face, and the latter with a slightly twitching eye.

Ah, crap.

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The hour that I spent at Dr. Cullen's ridiculously long dinner table was perhaps the most torturous time in my life. Never before had I felt such a strong urge to jam a salad fork into my jugular. I spent half the time avoiding Edward's icy glares from across the table, and the other half avoiding looking at Dr. Roberts. Basically, the entire hour was spent with me staring at my food and reaching out blindly for my wine glass.

It wasn't really the fabulous dinner with the chief-of-staff that I had envisioned.

Rosalie seemed to loosen up once we sat down, and she laughed and charmed those surrounding her with her usual charisma. I caught Emmett looking at her lovingly as she laughed at his father's jokes and complimented his mother on the fabulous dinner. Despite my sour mood, I was ridiculously proud of my friend and so happy that she'd found someone like Emmett.

The dinner plates were cleared and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was that much closer to escaping my own personal hell.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

It wasn't until dessert that the real drama started.

As Esme passed out slices of cake, the chief glanced in my direction and smiled. "Bella, you've been so quiet this evening. Have we been working you too hard at the hospital?"

I swallowed my sip of wine and winced as it slid heavily down my throat.

From the other end of the table came a voice so low that I barely heard it. "Perhaps she's been hardly working?" I turned and saw Dr. Roberts raising his eyebrows at me condescendingly. My cheeks flushed as half the table turned to look at me. Dr. Cullen was oblivious to the comment as Esme passed him a slice of cake. I was exceedingly aware of a pair of green eyes staring hard at me from across the table. Great, I was being embarrassed by my boss in front of his boss, in front of the man who had haunted my every thought.

I looked down at my cake. "No, I work hard." I said quietly, my hand clenching my fork. Dr. Roberts shook his head and took a large bite of his cake. I sat still for a few minutes as the conversation around me resumed. With a small sigh, I looked up and found myself looking straight into Edward's frustrated eyes. I frowned and looked away quickly.

"So, Edward, how are the kids doing?" The man next to me asked.

My head snapped up.

You've got to be kidding me? He had kids?

Edward looked at the man, ignoring me completely. "My students are doing well, as always. We're actually having a recital next week."

"Your students?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. Edward's eyes slid over to mine. I flushed slightly.

"Edward teaches music at the elementary school near the hospital." Dr. Cullen explained.

Edward, a teacher? Mr. I'm-too-sexy-to-talk-to-you taught little kids? What kind of world was I living in?

"Seriously?" I uttered to my chagrin.

Really, it was time to do something about the verbal diarrhea.

Edward looked at me coolly. "Is that surprising?"

"No, I just didn't picture you for the type who works with little kids." I said, taking a bite of my cake.

"I didn't picture you for a doctor." Edward shot back with gleam in his eyes and a crooked grin on his face.

I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You just don't look the type who works in a hospital."

"And where exactly do I look like I would work?" I quirked an eyebrow at him. I realized this was pointless arguing for the sake of arguing, but I just couldn't stop the urge the wipe the cocky grin off Edward's face. I could feel Rosalie shifting in her seat next to me. Edward chuckled and leaned forward, his eyes taunting me.

Dr. Cullen interrupted before Edward could speak. "Actually, speaking of the hospital, I've been meaning to ask you something, Edward," Edward grudgingly tore his eyes away from mine and looked at his father. "I was thinking that perhaps you'd like to join us a few days a week and play some music for the children in the pediatric wing. It doesn't have to be for long. Maybe an hour or two every time you come by? I think it would help lift their spirits up."

Edward looked back at me. "No, I don't think so, dad. I don't really like being in that hospital." His eyes bore into mine. He was trying to make a point.

Point duly noted. You'd rather not be in the same building and chance running into me, that's fine.

However, it's not like I was always in pedes. In fact, I was rarely there. Edward didn't know that, though, and the desire to get back at him increased.

"Are you sure?" Dr. Cullen asked. "It'd be great for the kids."

"It's alright, Edward. Not everyone can handle being in a hospital. Don't feel bad about it." I said with a saccharine smile. Emmett laughed from his seat next to Edward.

Edward frowned at me and then looked away quickly. "That's not what I meant."

"It's great that you're man enough to admit a weakness," I went on. "Especially in front of so many people." I raised my voice a little and waved my hand toward the people at the other end of the table. Their voices lowered and they turned towards us. I could see Edward's jaw clenching and unclenching.

"You're afraid of hospitals?" Emmett asked, his eyes sparkling.

"I'm not afraid of hospitals." Edward said from behind gritted teeth. Rosalie muffled her laugh into her napkin.

"You're not? Then why don't you want to come by? Don't you want to help the sick children?" I pouted slightly. I was the picture of concern, except for the teasing look in my eyes. Edward glared at my performance.

"Dude, go play for the kids. It's my birthday. Make me happy." Emmett winked at me and pounded Edward on the back.

Edward looked up and down the table at all the expecting faces. He growled. "Fine."

I smirked. "It'll be great."

"Great." Edward muttered, running his hand through his hair.

"It's a date!" Emmett chuckled, spearing another piece of chocolate cake. I mentally patted myself on the back as everyone went back to their own private conversations.

Edward's eyes turned back to me at that. "I don't know if your boyfriend would like for us to call it a date, Bella."

I blinked, equally surprised by his statement and that he was actually willingly directing something at me. "I don't have a boyfriend."

Edward raised his eyebrows at me. "Right…" he said disbelievingly, his velvety voice lowering into a purr. "So that wasn't you I saw the other night?"

I laughed in spite of myself. "You mean Mike? I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Edward looked at me coldly. The intensity of his gaze surprised and unnerved me. "That's a rather blasé attitude you have towards men."

"What?" It was my turn to raise my eyebrows.

"Chew them up and spit them out, is that what you do?" The ferocity behind his voice was astounding.

"What the hell are you talking about?" My mouth fell open. Maybe he really was bipolar.

Edward laughed dryly. "I'm just talking about your type."

"My type?"

"You know. Cold. You think you're better than every man because you're a doctor, yet you're not above playing some games with them. You lead them on. You use them." Edward listed in a dead voice.

My ears tingled with fury. He couldn't have been further from the truth. "Who are you to even try to judge me?"

"I'm just an observer." Edward said stiffly.

"Maybe you should keep your observations to yourself, especially when you're dead wrong." I said heatedly. "You don't know the first thing about me."

"You don't know anything about me either, and yet you've already been judging me!" Edward snapped back.

"It's not my fault you make it so easy! I just call them like I see them!" I retorted.

We glared at each other. I noticed that I was leaning forward, my elbow in my cake and that he was also sitting on the edge of his chair, his body practically on the table.

Emmett cleared his throat. Our eyes snapped to him. He was grinning slightly. "What's the problem now?"

"He thinks Mike is my boyfriend." I explained lamely.

Clearly, that was what our entire argument was about. Let us ignore the fact that we were both panting and growling at each other in the middle of a birthday dinner with my boss and friends present.

Emmett and Rosalie burst out laughing. Edward frowned at them. I took the opportunity to discretely wipe my elbow of frosting.

"You mean Mike, the missing member of the Ambiguously Gay Duo?" Emmett chortled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Cullen's lips twitch. Edward stared at Emmett. I could see the gears turning in his head.

"He's just our friend," Rosalie explained, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "He's our not-so-gay gay friend."

Edward looked back at me, a frustrated look on his face, and I shot him another glare.

Call me blasé again, you bastard.

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After the dessert debacle, I excused myself from the table and hid outside on the patio. I shivered slightly from the cold. I had no idea what had just happened in the last ten minutes of dinner. One minute, Edward was glaring at me and doing everything possible to avoid future contact with me, and the next, he was attacking and berating me.

He seriously needed a psych consult.

I huffed in anger and walked towards a bench away from the light streaming through the glass door.

Stupid Edward. Stupid Men.

Shrouded in darkness, I curled up on the bench and bit my lip to keep from crying.

I didn't think I'd ever met someone who disliked me as much as he did. I hadn't done anything to him, yet he just hated everything about me. I wasn't sure why I cared, and that added to my worries. He should have been on my list of people to throw into a volcano, yet instead of cheerfully chucking him in, I was obsessed with finding out why he held such a grudge against me.

Why the hell did I care so much? Why did it hurt?

I was lost in my thoughts when the glass door opened and Edward stepped out. He didn't see me, and he walked towards the fire pit. I saw as he stood there, slumped slightly, raking his fingers repeatedly through his hair.

I turned away bitterly.

Screw this. Screw him and his perfect hair and perfect body and his horrible words.

I stood up silently and walked towards the door. Edward stiffened at the sound of my heels clicking against the tiles. I paused as he turned around slowly, his eyes wild and disoriented. When he saw it was me, his lips opened slightly and his eyes got that frustrated look to them once more.

What the hell was that look about?

We stared at each other for a minute before he frowned and looked at the ground again.

"Bella…" He murmured.

"Stop. I don't even want to hear you." I held my hand out as if I could physically stop his words.

He glanced at my hand and walked slowly towards me. I narrowed my eyes at his approaching form.

Okay, time to turn around and walk away, Bella.

… Okay, now.

…Alright, how about now?

….Any minute now…

His piercing green eyes glued my feet to the spot as he continued to slowly approach me. When he was within arms reach, he stopped and sighed.

"I'm sorry. My behavior was uncalled for. I jumped to conclusions and said things about you that were completely unwarranted." Edward apologized stiffly. I held my breath, waiting for the catch. When none came, I slowly nodded.

"I'm sorry, too. I probably said some things that I shouldn't have as well," I grudgingly admitted. "At least not in front of your parents and my boss." I added, not being able to help myself.

Edward's lips slightly turned up at my reluctant apology. He nodded as well, and then turned back towards the fire pit. I cocked my head stupidly as his retreating body.

Uh…? That was it?

That wasn't enough.

Quickly, I clicked my way back to him. "Look, Edward. I know that you and I don't get along and I'm not going to pretend that we're going to be all buddy-buddy now. But your brother is dating my best friend and chances are, we're going to see each other from now on," Edward frowned slightly at my words. Huh. Don't look so happy about it, pal. I continued, ignoring his expression though it hurt me a bit. "So, can we just try to act friendly? Can we just try to be friends?"

Edward looked up at the sky as he considered my words. After a few minutes of silence, I shifted uncomfortably. Could this be any more humiliating? I hadn't asked someone to be my friend since second grade, and I'd definitely had never had this response before.

Finally, he looked back down at me. His eyes looked a little sad. "No, I'm afraid we shouldn't be friends, Bella. I really am sorry."

With those words, he turned and went back into the house, leaving me standing on the patio frozen to the spot. My heart twisted painfully in my chest.

Apparently he just couldn't get over hating me.

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A/N #2 - I wanted to slap my Edward. Did you guys want to as well? Please, review and let me know what you thought!