(A/N): Yes! It's an early update! Hooraaaay! :D

Thanks so much for my amazing beta RandomatGedz for making this chapter more readable!

A Second Chance

Chapter Fourteen

"I'd love to."

That was my reply to Edward's request that I go to his company's fundraiser as his date.

As soon as I said I would go, Edward sighed in relief, as though he'd been worried I'd say no. The thought didn't even cross my mind. And that fact scared the hell out of me.

"Great! The driver is waiting for you downstairs and he's ready to take you to the best hairdresser in town, if you want. And then he'll take you home to get ready. I'll pick you up around 5:30, since the gala starts at six." He explains.

"What about you? How will you get ready?" I inquire.

"I keep my tux right here in the office, since I'm used to heading to these events right after work."

His words make me think of how lonely his life must have been.

"Oh, I forgot something."

"What is it?" I ask.

Edward grins and points to the other box I still hadn't opened.

"The shoes." He says.

He quickly grabs the box and lays it on my lap on top of the one with the dress. I open it slowly and find myself mesmerized.

They were beautiful. Silver open-toed high-heels, but not too high.

"I know you can handle high heels," He says, pointing to my pumps. "But I just wanted you to be comfortable. I hope you like them."

"I love them, Edward. Thank you, they're perfect." I gush. He smiles back.

Since we were already done eating, Edward walks me down to the car and Taylor, the driver, takes me to a nearby hair salon where I, apparently, already had an appointment. That man thinks of everything! That's probably part of the reason why he's a billionaire tycoon. It comes with the territory.

With my hair and makeup done, I head back to the house and call Alice right away.

After her usual bout of squealing, she starts gushing about how sweet Edward is, and demands that I send her a photo of myself in the dress Edward bought.

Speaking of the dress, it fit me like a glove, even accommodating my slightly round baby bump. I wondered how Edward guesses my size so well, especially since I'd gained a few pounds lately, due to the heavy eating I'd been doing.

I finish getting ready around four o'clock, and now I have one hour and a half before Edward gets here. I try to pass the time by taking a photo of myself and sending it to Alice. I would not escape her wrath if I forget to follow her instructions.

She immediately replies saying that the outfit is amazing and that I look gorgeous. This time, I believe her. There's just something about beautiful evening gowns that make girls feel like a princesses.

Edward calls around five to check on me and tell me that he'd be here soon. He gets here fifteen minutes later apologizing for making me wait, even though he is early. How was that man raised by Elizabeth? I block the thought as soon as it takes root. I do not want to be thing about that woman right now. God knows what she must be plotting against me, at the moment.

"Wow," Edward, who looks dashing in his black tux, says as he takes me in. "You look…I mean, I knew the dress was pretty, but you…wow."

I giggle at his incoherency. "Thank you."

He smiles and extends his arm, so I can link mine with his. "Shall we?"

We head out to the car, where Taylor is waiting to drive us to the event. The ride takes about twenty minutes, and even though we've arrived a bit early, there seems to be a lot of people here already.

I take a deep breath as we approach the doors.

"Don't be nervous." Edward leans down and whispers in my ear. "Everything will be fine, I promise. We'll just have dinner, meet with a few people, and then we can leave." He tries to reassure me.

"I know, it's just…these are all your friends and co-workers in there. How will they feel about you showing up with a wife out of the blue?"

"Actually, they won't be very surprised since I already told them." He smirks.

"What? When did you do that?" I ask, shocked at how fast he's done it.

"There was an announcement in the paper yesterday, and company gossip took care of the rest." He says nonchalantly.

"Yo-you put an announcement in the paper, about our marriage and you didn't think to tell me?" My voice is raised a little and a few people who were standing close glance at me disdainfully. Probably for daring to act so vulgar in such an elegant place.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I honestly didn't think you'd mind." He frowns down at me, not in anger, but in utter confusion.

I don't really know why I'm making a big deal out of this. Maybe it's the hormones, or maybe I just don't like not being consulted about things like that, because that's exactly how Riley used to act. He'd assume that I'd be fine with doing this or that, and he'd do it without even talking it over with me.

But Edward is not Riley, and I should not take my frustrations about my late husband out on him. He deserves so much better than that.

"I'm sorry," I finally speak. "I don't know why I got so worked up, I don't mind the announcement at all. It must be the pregnancy hormones. They've been messing with me lately." I chuckle, half-heartedly trying to break the ice.

"I promise not to do something like that before discussing it first." He gives me his word.

"Okay." I smile up at him and he does the same. And the mood shifts back to what it was before this tiny spat started.

We finally walk inside the benefit hall and take in our surroundings. The hall is beautifully decorated of course, with several shining chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and large tables covered with gold and white table cloths, and so are the chairs. We find our seats easily and Edward greets several people sitting there, and introduces me to them. They must have all read the announcement since none of them are surprised at my presence.

Edward holds my hand in his the entire time and it actually helps calm me down a lot. Everyone we've met so far is relatively nice; from the brief conversations I've had with them.

We're sitting with Eleazar, and his wife Carmen, Adam and his fiancée Vanessa, and James and his girlfriend Victoria. Edward talks business with the men, while the women discuss fashion and the latest gossip. It's all so…nineteen fifties.

Just as we're all in the middle of conversation, laughing together at a joke that Carmen said, a beautiful strawberry blonde woman walks right up to our table. I wonder if she's a friend of one of the women we're sitting with, but a second later it becomes obvious that she only has eyes for one person at our table. Edward.

"Hello, there." She greets him. "It's been a long time, Edward."

"Tanya. Hello." He doesn't even look at her as he speaks. I'm stuck looking between the two of them and wondering what the hell is going on. As soon as that woman walked up to our table, everyone sitting with us froze and the tension became so thick, it could have been cut with a knife.

Who the hell is she?

"What? Is this the way you greet me after a year apart?" She leans down to face him, and her low cut dress makes it look like her cleavage is about to spill out. My fists clench before I realize that Edward is still holding one of my hands. I try to let go, but he grabs on tighter.

"Tanya, this is my wife, Bella. Bella this is Tanya Denali, a former acquaintance of mine." He introduces us calmly. Almost too calm, like he's afraid he'd give too much away.

"Former acquaintance, huh? Oh, yeah, I heard about your little announcement." She goes on barely sparing me a glance. "Didn't think 'New York's Most Eligible Bachelor' would ever settle down." She says mockingly.

"Well, I did. And my wife and I were about to dance." He turns to me and smiles for the first time since she showed up. "Bella?" He extends his hand and I quickly take it.

We brush past a stunned Tanya and he takes me into his arms as we reach the dance floor and we start moving to the slow song that's playing. All the blood rushing to my head, however, prevents me from figuring out what song it is.

"I'm so sorry about that, Bella. I seem to be apologizing to you a lot today." He sighs unhappily.

"Who is she?" I ask quietly, already dreading the answer.

"An ex-girlfriend, regrettably." He answers right away.

"She looks like a supermodel."

"Well, she sort of is." He confesses.

Great, just perfect!

"You two seem to have a long history together." I speculate.

"Barely." He huffs. "We only dated for a couple of months and then when I realized she was only in it for the money, I ended it. Tanya is not one to take the hint, though."

"So, she still has feelings for you? A whole year later?"

"I really don't think so. Tanya toys with people for her own amusement, it's like a sick hobby of hers."

"You sure know a lot about someone you only used to date for two months a year ago."

He pulls me closer to his chest and I can actually feel his heartbeat. It feels so…intimate.

"Bella, are you jealous?" He asks, amused.

"Of course not. Why would I be jealous?" I deny vehemently. I've got no reason to be jealous, right?

"No reason. No reason at all." He grins as he starts spinning me around the dance floor, and I squeal in surprise.

"Edward! Everyone's looking at us!" I say in between giggles.

"Let them look. They're all just jealous that I'm dancing with the most beautiful woman in the room." He dips me backwards and leans so close that our lips almost touch, but instead of kissing me like I'd actually longed for him to do, he brings us back up again with a wink in my direction. That tease!

The song ends and we're both breathless, not so much from the dancing but from our proximity to each other.

"I, uh, need to visit the ladies room. All that giggling, you know…" I trail off, coming up with an embarrassing excuse of why I have to visit the bathroom.

"Sure, don't take too long, though. I'm going to miss you." He smiles widely.

What on earth has gotten into him?

I smile shyly and head for the bathroom. I fix my makeup and tie up a strand of my hair that had surprisingly come loose from all the bobby pins that were embedded in my scalp.

The ladies room door opens and Tanya walks in. She doesn't even pretend not to have followed me in here, as she walks over to me and leans against the wall doing nothing but staring.

"Can I help you?" I ask, sarcastically. I'm not going to let her intimidate me.

"I'm just trying to figure out what he saw in a little small town mouse like you. Not to mention that you're his little brother's leftovers." She bites off, with a smirk that seems to be forever engraved on her face.

"What did you just say?" I hiss, blood boiling in my veins.

"You heard me." She huffs. "Everyone knows you're Edward's little brother's widow, and that he took you in as some sort of charity project, since you're carrying his brother's baby and all."

I did the only thing I would do at the moment that would prevent me from busting a vein.

I punched Tanya Denali in the face.

I punched her so hard that she fell to the floor clutching her face.

"Ow! My face! You bitch! I have a photoshoot tomorrow." She yells angrily.

"Think of it as a reminder for the next time you choose to spout nonsense about my husband…bitch." With that, I step over her body and walks out the door.

I bump straight into a solid chest, and two arms encircle my wait before I fall on my ass.

"Hey," Edward says, "You've been gone too long, I came to check on you." He looks worriedly down at me.

"I'm fine; it was nothing I couldn't handle." I shrug. A moment later Tanya walks out of the bathroom, still clutching her nose, and as soon as she sees us, walks in the opposite direction.

"I'm afraid to ask." Edward's eyes narrow as he smiles in amusement.

"She thought she could speak some bullshit about you and I and thought that I'd take it like a good little girl. She was wrong."

"That's my girl." He chuckles as he kisses my cheek.

"Do you want to get out of here?" I ask him.

"I thought you'd never ask."

We walk outside together and instead of heading for the car, Edward stops me with a hand on my arm.

"Actually, I'm not quite ready to go home yet. Do you feel like taking a walk?" He proposes.

"Sure, that would be great. I still haven't seen much of New York since I got here."

"That's my fault, sorry. I should have taken you on a tour as soon as you got here."

"It's alright," Is shrug. "We've still got time to do all that."

He stares at me tenderly, "Yeah, we do."

We walk side by side in silence for a while. Edward had taken off his jacket and is holding it over his back with one hand.

"Did you enjoy yourself tonight?" He finally asks. "I mean, I know it wasn't the greatest party you've ever been to, but…"

"I love it Edward. Your friends were great, and I especially enjoyed the dancing." I grin, remembering how fun to was to dance in his arms. "Where did you learn to dance like that?"

"Mother…she made me take lessons when I was a kid." The mood turns somber just like it does every time his mother's name comes up.

"Uhm, if you're tired, I can ask Taylor to come get us. I told him to wait for my call." He offers.

"No, I'm good. You made sure I would be comfortable, remember?" I tell him, pointing to the shoes he had picked out.

"At least I did something right."

"You always do." I reply fondly. His eyes seem to be taking me in, and he reaches over and grabs my hand pulling me much closer to him as we walk.

Bit by bit, our arms move so that we're holding each other's waists, and as the walk becomes too lengthy, I lean my head on his shoulder. Before long we arrive at the house, and we reluctantly disentangle ourselves from each other as Edward opens the door.

"Thank you, Edward. I really had a great time tonight." I say awkwardly as we stand in the foyer, not sure of what the next step should be. Thankfully, Edward solves that problem for me.

"It's not over yet." He declares. "Technically, this is our first date, and every first date should end with a kiss." He pulls me towards him before I can react and all thought escapes me as his lips touch mine.

If anything, this kiss is even better than the one we had this morning. This time, neither one of us want to stop. Our bodies are so closely pressed together as though we both wanted to crawl inside each other. Edward presses my back to the wall as his hands start to explore my body, moving from my shoulder to my waist and further down again, until he reaches my hip and hitches my right leg up so that it's hooked around his waist.

"Edward," I pant, losing breath from both the kiss and the effect he has on me. "What exactly are we doing? Because I'm not sure what this is anymore."

He stops for a moment and looks me in the eye. "I'm not sure either. I know what I want, though."

"What is that?"

"I'd like for us to try to move forward together...as a married couple. A real married couple. I mean," he continues, "obviously we'd take it slow, maybe go on a few dates and then see where we can go from there...if you'd like."

Speech becomes impossible for the longest minute of my life, but then I find myself saying the sentence that, as simple as it is, will change my life forever.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

(A/N): Hey! It's me again :D Fast update this time and hopefully it will remain that way from now on :)

Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews! I was completely overwhelmed with the response I got for the last chapter. I'm incredibly happy that you guys chose to stick with this story despite my terrible updating schedule :)

Love you all!

Until Next Time,

Ciao!