Chapter Fourteen

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Another huge thanks to bexie25, for being an excellent beta :D

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His kisses were fiery, needy, and now that he knew I loved him and was aware of the truth, I had nothing to hold me back; I felt ready to act upon his desires and my own. Wanting to let him know my change of mind without room for a misunderstanding, I brazenly slipped the black shirt he wore up his back, pulling it off as I left a trail of kisses down his bare chest. My desire grew hotter as he slipped his hands deftly under my shirt and whispered that I was his.

He was just about to kiss the fuck out of me and possibly relieve me of my shirt, when a loud buzzing from the other side of the room made us freeze.

I'd never hated the sound of my cell phone more in my life than at this moment.

I grudgingly pulled myself out of Edward's arms and stalked over to where the phone was innocently lying. I snatched it up in my right hand and growled into the receiver. "What?"

"What did I do?" Alice replied snarkily.

I watched with disappointment as Edward quickly put his shirt back on, and walked politely out of the room. He obviously assumed I needed privacy, but it didn't really matter to me—there was no secrets between us now. He'd already left before I could tell him this.

"Well?" she hissed impatiently.

I sighed. "You just… never mind."

"Spill, please! I'm dying for new information here."

"This is… private."

"Oooh, I see things have moved along nicely, haven't they?"

Even though I couldn't see her, I knew she bore a massive grin.

"Oh, shut up! But yes, everything's good between us. Perfect now, actually." I couldn't help the joy that snuck into my tone.

"I have no idea how you're going to keep this whole 'he's a fictional character' thing from him though. I'd never be able to keep a secret like that from Jasper."

"You can't keep any secret, even if they're not about the love of your life," I teased.

"Seriously Bella, how are you going to keep this up? He's going to find out sometime."

"Oh, he knows."

She gasped. "Since when and why didn't you tell me? I thought we were friends!" Her tone was half-teasing, half-serious. I could imagine the pout she was probably giving me right now.

I shrugged out of habit. "I was going to tell you eventually…"

To tell the truth, I hadn't thought of Alice since she'd come over that day I'd first met Edward.

I cringed guiltily.

I was such a bad friend.

"You're such a horrible liar, but it's okay; I get it. I'd want time alone with Mr. Sexy, too," she snickered.

I rolled my eyes and smirked. "If you ever call him that again, I'm going to play that song from Les Misérables really loud the next time I see you, and I'll put it on repeat."

Alice absolutely detested musicals with a passion and Les Misérables was her favourite one to criticize. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was really depressing, which was another thing she hated.

"No! Don't you dare! But fine. I don't get why you don't like the name I gave him. It's not like I called him something degrading."

"No, Alice! Just no," I said firmly.

"Okay," she surrendered. "So how did he take the truth?"

"Pretty well, actually," I admitted.

It still astounded me how little of a reaction he'd had. If it were me, I would've fought tooth and nail against the unspeakable truth. In fact, I doubted I'd ever accept it, much less the way he had. It truly proved how incredible he was. "He's still adjusting but that was to be expected."

"I thought he'd freak out," she said, surprise evident in her voice.

"Me, too," I admitted. "He kind of did, actually, but not in the way I thought he would. It didn't last for very long."

"Wow, that's great; you must be happy."

I smiled. "Oh, I am."

She squealed like a twelve year old. "I really want to talk to him now. Can I? I want to tell him something, now that he knows who he is."

My eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Only if you tell me what you're going to say."

"Nope, it doesn't work that way."

"Alice," I whined, drawing out her name in my annoyance.

"Just pass the phone to him."

"Fine. Give me a second."

I lowered the phone from my ear and walked out of the room, looking for him.

He was in the living room, sitting patiently on the couch and reading the front page of a newspaper I'd left on the coffee table yesterday.

He looked up immediately as I walked in and smiled at me cheerfully. "Who was that?"

"Alice. She wants to talk to you."

"Oh." Shock crossed his green eyes for a second before it was replaced with a kind of nervousness.

"Don't worry. She won't bite," I assured him, laughing. "Here." I passed him the phone and watched as he placed it to his ear. A mixture of both fear and anticipation over what she'd say to him consumed me as he spoke first.

"Hello?" he said hesitantly, never taking his eyes off me.

After about twenty seconds, he began to visibly relax. He murmured, "Yes."

As he spoke, all of his responses were similar. He'd either utter "yes," or "yes, I am," or "that's right," or "okay."

At about two minutes into the conversation I was surprised to see his eyes grow soft, like they usually did when he was emotionally touched by something and I was dying to know what she had said to him. My confusion was made even more so by the cryptic remark he made in response to what had made him seem so content. "Don't worry; that's the one thing I know I can do right... I'll keep that in mind. Bye."

Then he handed the phone back to me, looking more at peace than he'd been in a while.

"Uh… hello?" I murmured into the phone.

"Okay, Bella. I've said what I needed to say," Alice told me kindly. "He really is perfect for you, I can tell."

"From a two minute conversation?" I asked skeptically. Not that I didn't agree, of course, I just thought it was just a little to fast for her to make an admission like that.

"I've met him, before, remember?" she murmured. "Anyway, I've got to run. Have fun on your date."

"What date?" I said confusedly, narrowing my eyes.

"You'll see," she sang before hanging up without warning.

I placed the phone on the table and shot Edward a dirty look. "What date?"

He grinned sheepishly. "The one I was planning to take you on."

"How did Alice know about it?"

He shrugged. "She guessed I was and I affirmed that assumption."

"And where would this date be?"

He winked. "It's another surprise, of course. I thought we already agreed to this earlier; that we'd start our relationship from the beginning."

"I didn't realize it would be this soon, but okay." I nodded in acceptance.

"I'm pretty sure you'll like where we're going," he said, a smile playing on his lips.

"Is it the same place as last time?"

"Nope."

"Damn. So I'm doing this totally blind then?"

"That you are." He patted my arm.

"When are we going?" I wondered, looking around me as if that would give me the answer I craved.

He checked his phone for the time. "Now, if you'd like. There's no time constraint."

"I'm going to need time to get ready," I hinted, eyeing the bedroom blatantly.

The tips of his ears grew red. "Oh, okay. Good idea. I'll just… wait here then."

"How should I dress?"

His brows pushed together perplexedly. "Uh… I don't know…"

I laughed at how uncomfortable he looked. "I just need to know: formal or casual?"

"Oh!" His face brightened considerably. "Casual since it's our first date."

He winked again.

"Got ya," I said, giving him two thumbs up. "I'm gonna go get changed now."

I kissed his cheek and then returned to our room, shutting the door behind me. I kicked off my flats with ease and then rushed to the closet, eager to find something to wear.

Although I hadn't admitted it out loud, I was excited for this date, for what Edward had planned; giddy almost. Even though we'd technically already gone on a date this morning, this one felt more real; not just because he knew the truth but also because we were on the same page now.

So of course I was hyped up.

I wanted tonight to be special, to mean something, so the clothes I was wearing wouldn't do.

I scanned my closet and swept my hands across the various articles of clothing there; I was hoping one would just jump out at me and demand to be worn.

I thought to myself for a second, using my mind rather than sight to make my decision. Instantly, I knew what to wear. I took the shirt in question out of the wardrobe and then shut its drawers.

It was a shirt I'd bought a while ago, but never worn. It was a pretty shade of blue and I knew it was perfect for Edward's motif of starting over. With that choice, I knew immediately what to pair it with. I grabbed my black skirt from my wooden set of drawers, and then slipped it on, along with the shoes I'd been wearing previously. I walked into the en-suite and looked in the mirror to make sure I didn't look stupid. To my pleasure, the outfit looked as nice on me as I'd thought it would. I contemplated putting on some make-up but then decided against it, knowing that I had no idea where the meager amount I owned actually was, and not sure if Edward would like it anyway.

I grabbed my brush from where it lay on the sink counter and began to run it through my tresses. It only needed a run through because I'd brushed it earlier and my hair wasn't a big priority.

There, done!

I looked at my reflection with profound satisfaction and then walked out of the bathroom, finally ready to find out what Edward had in store for me.

"Nice," he said appreciatively as I joined him in the living room, and he took my hand.

"Not so bad, yourself," I commented, noting his ridiculous good looks.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

I smiled. "Lead the way."

…

This car ride to wherever he planned to go was a stark contrast to the one we'd taken on the way back from Charlie's. For one, I couldn't see anything—Edward had insisted I be blindfolded the entire way there. Although it was a little irritating at first, I thought the gesture was very sweet; it reminded me of the romantic comedies I liked to watch occasionally. The second, and most important difference, was that the atmosphere was anything but tense; now that everything was out in the open, I could finally be myself, and that in itself was invigorating. I found myself laughing often during the car ride, more than I had in a long time. Edward wasn't just charming and sweet; he also had a great sense of humor—another surprise I hadn't expected.

It didn't feel like very long when Edward parked the car somewhere. It seemed we were going somewhere local, or at least a twenty minute distance due to the lack of time it had taken to drive wherever we were.

"I'll be back in a second," Edward murmured. "Don't take the blindfold off. You'll ruin the surprise."

"Okay," I agreed despite the anticipation I felt.

I knew how important this was to him.

I whistled the tune of an annoying advertisement while I was waiting, at a lack for anything else to do. He was back sooner than I thought, opening my car door, and helping me out with his hand. I smiled up at where I thought he was and squeezed his hand. Curious as to where we were, I listened to the sounds around us. I could hear the sound of cars and the babble of people talking somewhere nearby, however the further we walked, the more the sound dimmed away until it was merely a hum in the background.

"Can I take this thing off now?" I questioned eagerly.

"Almost," he said. He sounded as excited as I did, however I could sense he was nervous too due to the slight shaking of his hand in mine.

He led me a few more steps and then let go of my hand. "I'm about to take it off now."

"Okay!"

I felt his hand caress my cheek and then travel to the back of my head, where he untied the knot and let the flimsy scrap of fabric float the to the ground.

I was stunned into silence.

Under the night sky littered with stars, was a massive screen, bigger than the one at IMAX and an elaborate leather sofa positioned a few metres away from it, surrounded by cushions, with beautiful alight paper lanterns hanging from a tree over the chair. Next to the seat was a huge bowl of popcorn, a bowl filled with melted chocolate, a plate of strawberries and a bottle of expensive looking champagne.

There was also nobody in sight.

I looked back to Edward and gaped at him, at a total loss for words.

He talked quickly, nervously. "Uh… well… people on their first date usually go the movies but I wanted to make ours really special. So I ordered out a private screening just for us at the moonlight cinema here in Seattle. If you think it's stupid then…"

I quite literally jumped into his arms and then hugged him really tightly, kissing him everywhere my lips could reach.

He laughed. "I'm guessing this was a good choice?"

I nodded vigorously. "Very. But how did you afford it? I doubt they let everyone do this."

He looked away guiltily. "I kind of… sort of… used the word document you showed me earlier to get some money. I just thought, like you said, we should use it to our advantage. I don't mean we should use it all the time. But I really wanted tonight to be special so…"

"Don't worry, I get it. What you've done is incredibly sweet," I reassured him, meaning every word.

My heart swelled at thought of him doing something he'd feared, just to make my night special.

He grinned radiantly, looking so happy it made me smile.

"How did you organize this so quickly?" I wondered.

"While you were changing," he admitted.

Ah. That made sense.

"Right."

"Shall we?" He gestured to the chairs that I'd all but forgotten about in my gratitude towards the man I loved. I smiled eagerly at him again and waited until he'd sat down on the couch before I joined him. He put his arm around me and I cuddled against his side with my head against his shoulder. I felt more content than I ever had.

"So what are we watching?" I asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

"According to Alice, this is your favourite movie." He gestured to the screen, which had suddenly come to life as if my words had commanded it to.

"Remember Me?" I asked, my voice a little choked, moisture suddenly prickling in my eyes at the thought of how the effort he'd gone to just to make tonight perfect.

"The one and only." He kissed my forehead adoringly. "I looked it up before we came and it looks good."

I sighed with contentment. "You really are perfect."

"I wouldn't say that," he disagreed.

I scowled at him.

His words reminded me of something I'd meant to ask.

"What did Alice say to you earlier? You seemed… I don't know… pleased."

He smiled softly. "She told me to keep doing what I was doing because she'd never heard you sound so happy. She also told me that if I hurt you, she'd hunt me down and feed me to the wolves. I told her I'd keep that in mind."

I felt myself warm at his admission, feeling elation surge within me limitlessly.

I'd never get used to hearing how much he cared about me. It was such a stark contrast to the other guys I'd dated and, unlike them, I'd never let him go.

He was the one.

I snuggled into his side, and we began watching the movie.

After the day I'd had, it shouldn't have been surprising that I actually succumbed to sleep after about half an hour, the warmth of Edward's side providing as much comfort as my bed at home would've had I been using it.

Yes, he was definitely the one.

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