BPOV

I was going to have to kill Angela. It was either that or suffer a massive aneurysm. Alice was, as Rose predicted, driving everybody insane with her plans for Angela and Ben's wedding. Rose had practically moved into Emmett's apartment, and I was trying to sweet-talk Edward into letting me bring over some stuff to his place, to no avail.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he'd said one night while I was perched on his lap, begging him to let me sleep over so I wouldn't have to suffer the torture that was Alice's bossiness. "I can't let you do that."

I huffed and stood up, resting my hands on my hips. "And why not?"

"I've already told you a thousand times, love," he said confusedly. Then he sighed and took my hands. "I could never behave myself with you here, even if I was on the couch and you in the bed." He stood up and pulled me against him, breathing into my hair and causing my heart to flutter. "You just don't realize how much you affect me."

I snorted; I was the one who had trouble breathing when we kissed, and not him. "Sure I do."

He chuckled. "You really do," he said in a quiet voice, dragging his fingers lightly up my arms and sending shivers of pleasure through my entire body. "You don't know how much I would love to just… let go." His fingers stopped their movement and I looked up at him in awed confusion.

"I think you should," I said breathlessly.

"I know you do," he chuckled. "But I want it to be just right. For you, Bella, not for me."

The rest of the night consisted of me grumbling and him just smirking at me. Damn that gorgeous man for doing this to me. I mean, I'm sort of alright with waiting a little while with having sex, but to subject me to Alice's insanity just because he apparently can't keep his hands off me… It's pure evil.

So I suffered through each day with Alice chattering on about different flowers and color schemes and cakes and drapes (come on, drapes?! Who the hell cares about drapes anyway?) and which minister would be least likely to mess up her very well-planned ceremonial speech. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen Rose, and even Angela was starting to make excuses not to come over on some "emergency meeting", which usually meant that Alice wanted to know whether Angela preferred 'baby blue' or 'light blue'.

I closed the door behind me and leaned against it with a sigh. Our apartment was eerily quiet and I frowned. Where was Alice? Just as I was about to get away from the door and call out for her, the door disappeared from my back. I fell backwards onto a tiny person holding about a million bags.

"Alice," I gasped, disentangling myself from the multiple designer bags that suddenly surrounded me. "Where have you been?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Where does it look like I've been?"

"I mean, why?" I felt really stupid. Of course she'd been shopping, it was a weekday.

"Because I had to find the ultimate outfits for us, silly!" she giggled and pushed through the doorway with remarkable force. I stumbled into the kitchen to see if we would get any dinner tonight, and she followed after gracefully leaping over several bags full of clothing and accessories.

"Why?" I asked, opening the refrigerator and sniffing the only milk we had. Ugh. Why couldn't Alice be into grocery shopping instead of ridiculously over-priced designer shopping?



"For the gala, of course!"

"Of course," I said automatically, as I had just found some Chinese leftovers from the night before. I felt so jubilant that her words hadn't even registered. "What?"

She stared at me. "You know. The gala that's being held this Saturday." I just looked at her blankly. "Edward didn't tell you?"

My stomach fluttered even though my heart twisted a little. "Edward didn't tell me what?"

Alice looked suddenly uncertain. "Our school is having its annual autumn gala. Some select students get to perform a piece each in front of the family and friends of the rest of the school. I got selected and Edward did too, he told me last week." She paused. "And we're allowed to bring guests."

"It's Thursday," I said after a moment's silence.

"He hasn't asked you?" Alice asked, looking like she had already understood what I would answer.

"No," I answered her shortly, staring pointedly at the spinning plate in the microwave.

"Oh."

There was a tense silence as I tried to melt what Alice had revealed to me. When the awkwardness had gone on for about five minutes, we could both hear the door open and Rose's voice sounding through the apartment.

"I come in peace! I swear to God, Alice, if you come at me with another garment sample I'm going to take it, crumple it up and stuff it –"

"Hey Rose!" Alice shrieked, relieved.

I barely heard them, thinking of Edward and why he wouldn't ask me to go with him to this gala thing.

--

I didn't have class the next day, so I grabbed a last minute shift at the Literati. Earning my own money never got old. Emmett called sometime in the morning, asking if he could stop by and have lunch with me. I eagerly accepted, knowing that lunch with Emmett was bound to be a hoot and maybe I could ask him some subtle questions about Edward's ignorance concerning the gala.

At 12 p.m., I heard the door to the coffee shop bang open and a booming laugh as some customers gasped in fright. I rolled my eyes. That entrance could belong to none other than Emmett.

"Angela!" I called into the back room. "I'm going to lunch, okay?"

"Sure, go ahead," Angela answered after a second, and came out to stand behind the counter in my wake.

I grabbed my bag and the book I was currently reading, when suddenly a hand took it from me.

"Pride and Prejudice?" Emmett said incredulously, tenderly gripping the worn book as though it could explode at any moment. "Bella, are you insane?"

I almost laughed at his serious expression. "And why would I be insane?"



"Well," he said, very slowly putting the book on the counter and glaring at it. "I don't know any sane person who takes a book with her to dinner when she knows she's going to have company there. A good men's magazine, sure, but a 17h century novel?"

I put a hand against my mouth to keep from exploding. "18th century, actually."

He glared at me instead of the book. "So not the point, Bella."

I took his arm and squeezed it with both my hands. He didn't flinch for a second. "Let's go," I said, still grinning.

"We're here!" Emmett said triumphantly after a brisk five-minute walk.

"No," I moaned. "Not Chill, Emmett."

"Now, now," he said, patting my head and almost breaking my neck. "None of that. After you, milady."

He held open the door from me and I sighed and walked past him. He would find out soon enough why this restaurant was a bad idea. When we had gotten inside and found a table, a sudden bang could be heard, and someone started scrambling towards us table, pushing away the waitress that had just been about to introduce herself to us.

"I'll take this one!" Mike shrieked. The waitress looked at me and seemed to understand Mike's ridiculous intentions. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the next table instead. I looked after her in panic, my last hope for safety gone.

"What can I do for you?" he continued eagerly, flinging up a small notebook and almost hitting himself in the face with it.

Emmett was gaping at the guy, looking like he didn't know whether to laugh or not. I caught his eye and shrugged.

When we'd finally gotten our orders straight and I'd deflected two propositions from our lovely waiter, we finally began to relax and talk.

"Oh man," Emmett said, flinching suddenly. "I think Rose broke my back last night."

I gaped at him. "Emmett!" What the hell? I didn't want to hear this.

"No, no," he said, laughing his wonderful laugh. "She insisted on giving me this weird massage, and now I can barely stand up straight."

I laughed loudly. "I've been subjected to that torture myself, actually."

He chuckled, and then I could see his eyes sort of glaze over.

"You're picturing it, aren't you?"

"Please tell me you two were in nothing but your underwear," he answered me dreamily.

"No," I smirked. "We weren't in our underwear."

He looked bummed at first, but then he seemed to realize the double-meaning in my words. He peered at me suspiciously.

I tried to look serious. "So what is Edward doing today?"



"Practicing," Emmett answered, apparently dropping the other thoughts and munching on a breadstick.

That caught my attention. "Practicing piano?" Emmett nodded. "For what?"

"I don't know, his school is having this high-class thing tomorrow night, where you have to wear a suit and everything. Sounds like a bore, but Edward asked me to go, so…"

"You're going?" I gasped, feeling hurt.

Emmett started and looked up at me. "Yeah, so?"

"Edward invited you?" I asked, frowning.

"Yeah, I'm taking Rose."

"Oh." I frowned even deeper and sat back, folding my arms over my stomach. A waitress came, left our food and left us to eat. Emmett grinned and dug into his food with fervor.

"What's wrong?" Emmett said after a silence stretched out between us.

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Okay," Emmett replied, happily munching on his food.

"I just don't get it!" I suddenly burst out.

Emmett looked at me, then at his fork. Then he sighed and dropped his fork onto the table. "What exactly is it that you don't understand, Bella dearest?"

I stared at the ceiling in frustration. "He's playing a personal piece on his piano in front of hundreds of people, none of them me. Why is that?"

Emmett shrugged, not looking at me. I stared at him. He glanced up at me, saw me staring and sighed deeply. "I'm not allowed to tell, Bella, so don't pressure me into anything."

I put on my best show, puppydog eyes and all. Finally, he caved. "Fine, but when he tries to find a scapegoat, I'll point him straight in your direction."

I nodded eagerly, leaning forward to hear why my boyfriend didn't want me to support him on a very important day of his life.

"He's nervous," Emmett said simply.

"What do you mean? Why is he nervous?" I frowned. "Oh, is it because he's playing in front of so many people?"

"Nope," Emmett said, smiling. "He's nervous because you've never heard him play before."

My heart jumped and fluttered and sang. "How do you know that?"

"Because," he sighed, "he's been trying to ask you to go with him the whole week now, and apparently he hasn't been successful yet."

Edward. Wonderful, amazing, beautiful Edward. The sheer ridiculousness of his nervousness was staggering and so endearing that my chest ached with some acute feeling for him that I couldn't identify. When I came back to earth, Emmett was smiling at me mischievously.



"Why were you just off to La-la Land?" he teased.

"Because my boyfriend is far too good for me," I sighed happily and laughed when Emmett made a face.

When I had said goodbye to Emmett half an hour later, I walked back to the Literati. When I got there, Angela was standing by the door, holding a single red rose. She was looking very excited.

"Hey Ang," I said confusedly. "What's up?"

"Someone came by to see you," she sang.

My heart jumped. "Edward."

Angela nodded and handed me the rose. I took it disbelievingly. "He said that he couldn't stay, but he just wanted to give you this."

I grinned and sighed dreamily. When I got to the backroom and put my bag away, I noticed a small card hanging from the beautiful rose. I curiously unfolded it.

Bella,

I think I sort of maybe could possibly begin to like you.

Edward

I laughed for a full minute. It was so cute, so funny, so impossibly Edward. And I suddenly knew what I could do to make him forget his insecurities.

--

Author's note: WOW. It's been a while, guys. I'm so incredibly sorry, school has been insane these past few weeks. But whatever, the grades are final this Thursday, and after that I'm a free woman! Whoo!

Thank you all SO much for the reviews on the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's sort of a filler. But I figured that since it has Emmett in it that should be forgivable. Haha, review and make me happy happy happy!