A/N: Thanks to everyone for their comments and reviews on the last chapter.

Melferd – your review had me laughing my ass off. If only it could be so easy! How about I promise steamy aggressive make up sex no matter when the reveal happens? Which should be in a few chappies… I just can't have them upset in France. I can't do it to myself LOL. I want to live vicariously through their romantic adventures in Paris.

Please remember I'm all about the happy ever after. Just cause there's trouble a brewing, doesn't mean there won't be some serious loving going down. Here's my concept of Bella, she's scared out of her mind. She's found love, first love at that, and she doesn't want to lose him, which is why she hasn't said anything. She is automatically assuming that no matter when or what she says to Edward to tell him about Columbia, he will break her heart. She's just trying to hold on to what she has, for however long she can.

BPOV

"So, where to next?" asked Edward as we sat down at the computers and immediately pulled up our emails after we got back to the hostel from the beach on Thursday night. I was surprised to see I had five of them awaiting me, and even more surprised that two of them were from our old family friend Jacob Black. I ignored those and immediately checked out the one from Angela.

Hey Bella,

Where are you now? Did you parents tell you about Harry Clearwater? He's doing pretty good according to my mom. She was on shift at the hospital when they brought him in. Anyways, I trust you and Edward are doing fine. I thought if there was any major drama, you would have probably called.

Oh, on a side note, I ran into Jacob Black a few days ago. He wanted to know how to get in touch with you, and when I told him you were in Europe, he was pretty surprised. I thought your families were friends? Anyways, I gave him your email address, I hope you don't mind.

Miss You

Ang

Well that certainly explains the emails. I hadn't talked to Jacob in years and wasn't really eager to talk to him now, even if it was through email. I read his emails quickly but didn't respond. They were both short emails saying 'hi' and wanting to know if we could talk when I got home from Europe. Not bloody likely, I thought to myself as I glanced over at Edward who was checking out hostels in Italy.

"So, we're going to Italy?" I asked curiously as I ran my fingers through his hair and leaned over his shoulder to get a better view of his computer screen.

"Why not? We can probably take a boat from Athens right over to Venice or something. We can't take a train, well we could but we would be going way out of our way. I should just hire Erik and Elana to take us there," he said, sounding serious. I looked over at him incredulously.

"Are you kidding me that would cost way too much. We'll just hop on a ferry or something. I'll look up some specifics and you can email your sister. It's probably been too long since you emailed her," I suggested sweetly as I pulled up the first website I could about ferries. All of them had crazy long travel times and we couldn't even leave from Athens. So I immediately changed to Travelocity and tried to find us a cheap flight. I wasn't going to spend 30 hours traveling to Italy. I could swim there faster. "We're flying there."

"What?" asked Edward curiously as he turned from his email to stare at me.

"We can fly there in 2 hours, or we can take a ferry that will take us 30 hours. It's only a hundred and fifty bucks from Athens to Rome, and we can catch a flight out at six thirty tomorrow night. Is that good with you?" I asked him politely even though I knew he wouldn't say no to me. He nodded his head and I quickly made the reservations, and then began looking up hostels. I ended up booking up a 3 night stay at a hostel called the 'Funny Palace' which made me laugh. We ended up with a private room with a queen sized bed, so I knew we would both be happy with our room. "Are you almost done?"

It had been almost an hour since Edward started his email to his sister. I watched him nervously as he hit send and grabbed my hand, leading us back to our room in silence. "So, is everything set for Rome?" he asked a few minutes after we got into our room. I nodded and began to explain to him the flight details and the hostel that I had booked. He seemed pleased with all the arrangements and stepped into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

When we were finally cozy in bed, I decided to ask him about his email. "Is everything okay with Alice?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, there's just some stuff going down at home that she told me about and it took me a while to figure out my response to her," he said casually as he pulled me closer to him, his free hand running through my hair.

"You can talk to me about anything you know. If you want to talk about it, I'm here," I offered sweetly, hoping he might provide a little more insight into what was going on at home. I didn't know why I was pushing him about this. After all, I had several major issues yet to discuss with him, particularly Columbia and Jacob Black.

"How is Angela?" Edward was very good at deflecting the topic away from himself and I told him about Harry Clearwater and then decided to mention Jacob.

"He's an old family friend that emailed me out of the blue, it was very weird," I stated casually as I looked over at Edward who appeared to me fuming.

"What did he want?" he asked, trying to sound relaxed but it came out forced. Apparently jealous Edward was making a brief resurgence.

"He wants to talk to me when I get home. I hope he's planning to apologize for not talking to me for three years, but who knows," I said as I shrugged my shoulders.

"So, you're gonna get together with him back in Forks?"

"I don't know. I don't want to, but I was very close friends with him for years. I should at least given him a chance to try to explain himself right?" I asked, trying to gauge Edward's reaction. He was definitely jealous.

"Maybe I should go home to Forks with you before I head to New York?" he suggested as I sat up in bed and looked down at him in surprise. "You know, to meet your family and friends. I'll have plenty of time to pack for NYU."

"Are you crazy? Right now, my parents don't particularly like you or the fact that we are traveling together. I don't think a visit to Forks is a good idea." He looked disappointed, but I was a little shocked he had even asked in the first place. He just nodded his head and pulled me back down to the bed to cuddle with him. I was upset with myself.

How could I tell him about Jacob, but not tell him I would be in New York City in a month. Why did I have to focus my thoughts on only the bad things? Edward loves me, if I tell him about New York, he will obviously welcome me with open arms and we will simply continue the relationship, won't we? I shook the thought from my head and laid my head on his chest, forcing myself to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later with my usual nightmare, where Edward breaks up with me because I couldn't be honest with him. In every single dream, he yells at me constantly and his face turns dark and distant, he doesn't even look like the same Edward I fell in love with. I always wake up panting for air and desperate for everything to go away. I had resigned myself to tell Edward about Columbia as soon as I could muster up the strength, for my own sanity.

The next morning I headed down to the common area to start some laundry while Edward ran out to get us some breakfast. We sat in the laundry room together enjoying our egg mcmuffins and hotcakes from McDonalds, talking casually about what we wanted to do in Rome. Edward had picked up a map of Rome while he was out and we were reviewing it. He was open to all suggestions, but there was one place he really wanted to go to.

"We have to go to the Colosseum Bella. Jasper and Emmett would probably kill me if we didn't. We've been obsessed with the movie Gladiator since it came out, even though we were technically too young to watch it. We used to act it out in our backyard and sometimes we still quote the damned thing, so we have to go there. I need photographic proof for those idiots I call my best friends," he said with a gentle laugh. I imagined him his backyard when he was eleven playing Gladitor with his friends, it was probably very cute.

"Okay, the Colosseum it is. I also want to go to St. Peter's and the Vatican, the Pantheon and then I'll have to research art galleries online. I'm not sure which ones I want to visit," I said casually as Edward reached over and started to run his fingers along the back of my hand slowly. I shivered from his touch and lost all focus on what we were talking about.

The next morning we woke in Rome and I looked over at Edward while he slept. He looked so happy and peaceful, so I slowly removed myself from the bed and headed down to the common area to email Angela. I sent her a long email confessing that I still hadn't told Edward about Columbia and that I was petrified to tell him. I knew it wasn't going to be good and I didn't want any of this to end, unfortunately, I also didn't think I could convince him to backpack across Europe for the rest of our lives, so the confrontation was inevitable. I begged for her advice and decided to wait until I heard back from her before I talked to Edward about college.

EPOV

When I rolled over, Bella was nowhere to be found. I got out of bed and peeked into the bathroom, but nothing. She probably just went out to get coffee, I told myself as I lay back in bed and waited for her. She came back half an hour later, looking very stressed and without any coffees.

"Where have you been?" I asked politely, only to have her turn around and snap at me.

"I didn't know I needed to provide a detailed account of my every movement," she said angrily as she walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and getting into the shower. Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I tossed on some sweatpants and a t-shirt and headed to grab us a quick breakfast while she got ready for the day. When I came back, she was still in the shower, so I sipped on my coffee on the couch of our room and waited. All I could think about was reasons for her to be upset. Had she checked her email and gotten another unwanted one from Jacob? Had her mom contacted her again and made comments about our relationship and how she didn't agree with it? Had something more serious happened at home? Was she mad at me? I sat there for half an hour over analyzing every possible scenario before she came out, completely dressed and ready to hit the town.

"It's all yours," she said casually as she shoved a few items into her backpack and reached for the coffee I brought her.

"I don't want to go anywhere until you tell me what's wrong," I said in frustration as she sat down on a nearby chair and glared at me. "Did I do something? Did something happen at home? Does this have to do with your nightmares?"

"No, no and no, okay Oprah? How about you just go shower and we can go see the Colosseum today?" she replied irately. She took small sips of her coffee and watched me as I didn't even move an inch from the couch.

"No, you keep lying to me and it's pissing me off. First you lie that everything was fine on the boat, when you clearly had a nightmare. Then this morning, you snap at me when I ask where you were, and you still didn't tell me where you went. Now you're acting like nothing is wrong but there is clearly something wrong. I'm just trying to be a considerate boyfriend and offer help Bella," I said sweetly as I moved to crouch between her legs, putting my hands on her thighs.

"I'm fine really. I think maybe it's just PMS or something like that. I'm sorry I snapped at you this morning, I was out checking my email down in the lounge. Thank you for the coffee by the way," she said sweetly as I looked up in her eyes and saw she was being sincere. "My nightmares are nothing I can't get over, so please don't worry."

"Of course I worry about you Bella. That's what happens when you're in love with someone, you worry about them." She nodded her head in agreement and I decided to take it easy on her for now, but I was certain this wasn't the end of our conversations on this topic. After I showered and got dressed, she seemed to be in better spirits, so we headed down to the Colosseum. We opted to pay a little bit extra for a guided tour in English, and it was almost as good as having a headset in an art gallery. Bella listened carefully to the tour guide, while I spent most of the time snapping pictures to show my boys back home. It was just before dinner time when we left, so we decided to just go for a walk through the ancient part of Rome and find somewhere to eat. We ended up eating a delicious wood fired pizza that was ten times better than any pizza we could get back in the U.S.

After dinner, we took a cab back to our hostel and quickly got ready for bed, Bella however, didn't seem eager for sleep. "I think we should find out more about each other," she said nervously as I looked down at her and began running my fingers along her bare midriff.

"Ask me anything you want," I said succinctly. She looked at me with a small smile and started in with the questioning, apparently she had been thinking about this for a while.

"Why did you honestly want to come to Forks with me?"

"I don't want you to see Jacob," I said swiftly. I hadn't even had time to process it before it fell from my mouth. "I'm sure he's just some old family friend or whatever, but I don't know the guy, and I am jealous. I don't want anyone to know you the way I know you."

"Do you think I would even consider being with someone else?" she asked genuinely. Her eyes clearly illustrated that she was in love with me, but I still felt insecure in our relationship.

"No, I don't. I know you love me, but I don't trust other guys. I also doubt my abilities in our relationship; you are my first REAL girlfriend Bella. I don't know if I am doing this right. I never had to worry about second dates or flowers or dinners, I worried about whether I got off and that was it. That was my relationship with women in the past." I looked over at her and she looked disappointed. I guess I shouldn't have told her I usually left the room before the condom came off.

"You have been nothing but the perfect boyfriend Edward. Every single thing you have done as been wonderful, so you shouldn't doubt that."

"What are your nightmares about?" I asked boldly. I looked over at Bella, my fingers now lightly tracing around her belly button and she let out a sigh.

"They're about us not being together." I pulled her close to me, wrapping my arms around her tightly.

"That isn't going to happen Bella. You're stuck with me forever." I said with a smile as I felt her nuzzle closer to me.

"You know, when I suggested asking questions, I was originally looking for info like who your favorite concert was," she said with a laugh.

"Oh, well that would be the Foo Fighters. I saw them with Jasper like two years ago. They were awesome. What is yours?"

"Hmm… Angela and I saw Ryan Adams in Seattle just before I flew out, he was good. We saw the Foo Fighters at a festival in Port Angeles, and they were pretty good… you're right." I looked down at Bella and she smiled, more like she used to before we got to Rome, so I kept going with the odd questions.

"Who is your favorite president?" I asked, selecting the most random question I could think of.

"Well, I got to vote for Obama, so I'll say him. It was very liberating to be able to vote for the first time." I nodded my head and waited for her next question. She had wrapped her leg around mine, and her body heat felt electric against me.

"What's your favorite video game?"

"Oh, I love to play Simpsons Hit and Run with Jasper on his old Xbox. It's hilarious, I love all the little comments they make. Plus, I usually kick his ass. He's been teaching Alice this summer, so I'm sure when I get back they will gang up on me and kick my ass together." I got quiet for a moment and was a little sad thinking about what I was missing back home this summer. Though I was having an awesome time with Bella, I wished they could be here to enjoy it with us. "Do you have a favorite board game?"

"I'm excellent at Operation. Jacob used to joke with me that I should be a surgeon because I was so good at getting the little bread basket and the funny bone." I cringed at the mention of Jacob, but let it go, because Bella was having such a good time. "What was your first concert ever?"

"Alice dragged me to n'Sync with her. My parents wouldn't let her go unless I went with her. It was funny because they had a chauffeur take us to and from the arena. Alice had a good time, so that was all that mattered. Please don't tell anyone, she was twelve when we went. Alice and I have an agreement that it will never be mentioned again."

"I wouldn't tell anyone my boyfriend saw n'Sync. How embarrassing is that?" I punched her lightly on the shoulder and she kept laughing at me.

A/N: I hope everyone doesn't hate me but I have to show how tormented Bella is by all of this. I know you are all just as tormented, but hang in there. I think it's worth it.