Hello to those that are still reading this story! I thank you for still enjoying it/wanting to read it! My life has been very crazy for a long time, and it will continue to be so, but I am going to try and finish up the story as soon as possible. I apologize for any errors in this, but I am not really going over it too closely before posting as I want to be able to finish this story/actually post things in a timely manner! The postings WILL be erratic, but I will attempt to get an average of one a week or more until the story has been finished! Thank you and I hope you enjoy the chapter. :)
Bella was already eager to get back to Edward, tired of the day, and though she was happy for Rose, she had a man waiting for her that she was becoming quite certain that she wanted to be with for the rest of her life. And she counted herself lucky for being able to have snagged this breathtaking man for herself, because he had wanted her for some odd reason and now she was blessed to have him. Smiling lightly as she opened the door to her apartment, she saw Edward sitting on the couch, his fingers flying across his keyboard.
"Edward," she called as she made her way over to where he was sitting on the couch. "I have been thinking about what you said earlier," she said to him, sitting down next to him on the couch, seeing him stop typing, saving quickly as his eyes moved over to her, looking at her intently and expectantly.
"Yes?" he prompted, obviously eager to hear what she was going to say to him.
"Well, I have been thinking that if you ask really, really sweetly I will tell you I would be very happy to stay married to you and quite possibly move into a larger place after awhile. Not going to lie, moving out of this place will be hard, this is the first place I have ever had for myself," Bella informed him, seeing that lopsided and delicious grin move across his lips as he set his computer down on the coffee table before his lips were suddenly on hers, his kiss leaving her breathless.
"Then you can be sure I will be asking you really, really sweetly if you would like to stay married to me," he said to her softly before kissing her again, unable to help himself.
Smiling lightly as they separated, Bella ran her fingers through his hair lightly. "Good. I can't wait," she said to him with a smile, "Though I have a feeling you were figuring I would say that you could ask me really, really sweetly and I would say yes," Bella teased, knowing that Edward occasionally liked to flaunt the fact that he knew her very well and knew exactly how to drive her absolutely insane over him.
"Maybe, maybe not," Edward said to her with a little smile, "But for now, why don't I get started on some sort of lunch while you do whatever it is that you would like to be doing," Edward suggested.
Nodding, Bella smiled just a little bit. "I will be getting some painting done, then. I have this nice series I am working on that I think is going to end up going over really well," she said with a little bit of a smile as she kissed his lips lightly, not really wanting to move away from him at the moment.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Edward said as he kissed her once again, unable to keep himself from enjoying this sweet woman's lips. There was just too much about her that he absolutely adored for him not to want to press his lips to hers as often as he could possibly manage. Especially since he was fortunate enough to have a woman in his life that wanted to be with him, one that seemed to have finally been won over so that she would stay with him. Edward hadn't thought it would be possible in the amount of time he had already been with her, or at least possible to get her to not only tell him she was going to agree to stay married to him but to move out of this place. It was more than he could have ever dreampt of. The one woman he had ever truly wanted wanted him right back. His life couldn't have been any better at this point.
"Alright," Bella said, moving away from him even though she would have been quite content to just stay in place. "Get to cooking, Mister, I Have work of my own to get done," she informed him as she stood, grinning as she sashayed her way into the art studio she enjoyed being in so much. The only place she could arguably enjoy more than this studio was her place in Edward's arms. It was one of the few place she liked to be more than anything else.
Grinning to himself, Edward watched as Bella walked away from him, the bounce in her step making him warm. Rising, Edward made his way into the kitchen, already formulating the plans to ask Bella to stay married to him. It would be the true proposal for them, him doing that. He certainly wanted to sweep this woman off her feet, take her breath away, and certainly stun her with his actions.
As Bella moved around in the studio, she couldn't help but hum to herself with a little bit of a smile. Emmett had finally found someone, it seemed like Alice was making a connection with that Jasper guy, and she was finally finding that she could love Edward. Not that she wasn't already aware of her feelings, but just the fact that she was feeling ready to commit to him, to tell him that she was going to marry him. That was something she was thrilled about being able to do.
Turning to her canvas, she took a deep breath and began to do her work, knowing that Edward would come and get her when he was finished cooking for the two of them, until then she would let herself get lost in her paintings, enjoy herself as she did so. She always loved painting and she knew that with Edward she would always be able to pain and she wouldn't ever have to worry about having to stop and get a "real job."
Not to mention, she might even been recruited to do artwork for his books, which she was certain would be the most amazing thing in the world. Besides the fact she was loved by such an amazing man as Edward. How had she ever though telling him to leave her alone and get out of his life could be a good idea? She must have been insane. And so she continued to paint, her very good feelings flowing through the brush and onto the canvas.
Sooner than she realized, she was realizing that Edward was knocking on the door to her studio and there were delicious scents wafting from the direction of the kitchen. She had certainly gotten lucky with having a man that would cook for her like this and so so quite happily. Stretching lightly, she set her paints down and made her way out of the studio, heading to wash her hands before she sat down to eat the wonderful meal she was sure Edward had prepared for them.
"Mmm, this smells delicious," Bella informed him, smiling as she did so, glad that he was seemingly so happy now. She found that she liked it quite a bit when he was happy because of something she did or said. The way he smiled seemed to warm her heart no matter what sort of mood she had been in just moments before. Smiling lightly as she dried her hands she turned to Edward so she could plant a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you for cooking, as always," she said to him with a smile.
"I am happy to," Edward assured her lightly as he grinned at that brilliant smile of hers. He certainly did love it when she smiled so brightly at him. "Come on, now, why don't we eat before it get's too cold, yes?" he suggested as he smiled at her lightly.
"You know, Bella," Edward said as they sat down at the table together, Bella certainly blown away by Edward's cooking once again and just how fortunate she was to have someone so willing to cook for her.
"Yes, Edward?" she questioned, looking over at him as he seemed to be stuck in his thoughts for the time being. She was sure he was just trying to figure out how he wanted to word something.
"I was thinking that if I am going to ask you very, very sweetly to stay married to me you ought to become acquainted with your inlaws. They are quite nice people, but I suppose it might make sense for you to meet them some time before you make your decision," Edward said, knowing that this could be a mistake. His parents could be a little bit overwhelming sometimes. They were lovely kind people, but that didn't mean they couldn't be incredibly overwhelming and hard to adjust to. Edward was just slightly worried that their personalities would scare Bella off, though he was sure his worries were unwarranted.
"Well, I do suppose meeting your parents makes sense," Bella said with a little bit of a smile, "I think that that is certainly a good idea. You just let me know when and I will be ready to meet them. As long as there is no art show that day I will be completely open, and I am certain even if I did have an art show they would just come and see my work, yes?" she said as she smiled over at Edward.
"You are quite right, love," Edward said with a little bit of a smile as he leaned over so he could kiss the corner of Bella's mouth, "I will call them after we are done eating, then, figure out when they can visit, or when we can go and visit them. Provided that you don't have to be doing anything," Edward amended.
"Of course. But I don't have anything planned for quite some time, so you shouldn't have to be too worried about figuring out when I will be able to meet them," she said to him simply as she smiled. "Especially if it is going to be sooner rather than later," Bella added as she smiled at Edward, just glad that Edward seemed always so concerned about making sure that she was happy and was alright with the things he was choosing to do.
"Good, good. That will make it much easier to figure out when we can all get together," Edward said to her with a little bit of a further smile. He couldn't help but keep the smile on his face. Everything was just heading in such a positive direction he couldn't even manage to get over the excitement of the future that was to come, he was certain that things would only get better with this woman. That they would end up being truly together.
"Excellent. I expect you to have it figured out before we go to bed tonight. Also, despite how much I love your cooking, I have decided that we ought to order Chinese food tonight, I seem to have a nice little craving for it as of late, if that is alright with you," she tacked on as she looked over at Edward as she continued to eat the wonderful meal he had prepared for the both of them.
Nodding a little bit, Edward smiled a little at her. "Of course," he said to her, "Of course we can order Chinese food, I could certainly go for some tonight," he told her as he finished eating, rising and pressing a soft kiss to Bella's forehead as he went to clean up the dishes in the sink. That was one of the things Bella loved about this man, he would always do his own dishes, or would even take hers. She couldn't be happier with who she had ended up with. Everything Edward did seemed to be absolutely wonderful and she constantly wondered how she had managed to become so lucky as to have him.
Once she had finished, she made her way over to the sink next to Edward, trying to squeeze in so she could wash her own dishes this time, which ended up breeding a little mini fight between the two of them for who would get to wash her dishes, of course Edward won through the strategy of distract her with such a delicious kiss as he was able to give her. She was certain that that was the way Edward planned on winning as many of their arguments as he could manage to win. Not that she really was upset about that fact, in fact she was glad that that would be his method.
Bella just knew she would have to figure out a means to keep herself from falling victim to him too easily and too quickly. Otherwise she would never stand a chance of getting her way with certain things. And so as Edward went back to his writing she went back to her painting, knowing that sometime between now and when they ordered Chinese a date would be set for her to meet Edward's parents and they would finally be in a place where she could comfortably say 'yes' to being his for the rest of her life, and she found that she was liking that thought more and more lately.
Losing track of time, Bella was only pulled out of her process of thinking by the knocking on her studio door from Edward, declaring that she was supposed to open the door and come out since he was getting hungry and wanted to order Chinese food for the two of them. Laughing lightly at his eagerness and the repeated knocking, she cleaned her things up, taking her sweet time and not responding to Edward, certain she was driving him a little bit crazy.
Once she had finished cleaning, she stepped out of her studio to press a soft kiss on Edward's lips. "Alright, now we can order Chinese food," she said to him with a grin, "I want sesame chicken and cream cheese wantons at the very least, anything else we get can be up to you, I will eat pretty much any kind of Chinese food you could possibly imagine getting for us to enjoy.
Chuckling, Edward nodded a little bit at her. "Alright, my love, I will go and take care of that for us now," he said, pressing his lips against hers lightly before going to grab the phone and order from the closest Chinese place that she had kept the menu for, just in case she got a craving for it now and again. Settling down on the couch, she waited for Edward to finish so she could ask him when his parents were going to be visiting them. That would do a lot to determine when she would be able to confirm her decision to stay with this man and truly being a life with something, a thought that she had never thought she would be one to entertain.
"So, now that we have ordered our Chinese food, will you tell me when I am meeting my inlaws?" she asked Edward with a little bit of a smile, waiting for him to come and join her on the couch, which didn't take long at all. Smiling lightly, she was happy to have him stay with her. Honestly, she couldn't get enough of this man. Whatever was she thinking when she had tried to kick him out of this place? He was hardly anything like anyone else she had enjoyed the company of in her life time. Or had even thought about being able to have in her life.
"Well, they said they could come and visit next week. I told them you are a very hard working artist and so leaving and going places is very challenging as it is hard for you to bring your paintings with, especially as you are working on some very important project at this moment in time, and they certainly wouldn't want to be a reason as to why you were not able to work on your paintings when you needed to," Edward informed her as he pulled her into his arms so she was resting against his chest in this position.
"Alright, that sounds good to me," she said with a little bit of a nod. "So, is there anything I ought to know about your parents before I meet them? Anything that I ought to be prepared for seeing that might not be absolutely normal? I know my dad is quite the interesting fellow, as I am sure you have figured out," she said to him with a little bit of a smile, hearing his light chuckle.
"Well, they tend to be a bit overbearing. My mother was always bothering me about settling down with some nice girl. So she will certainly be grilling you about what you think of me, how we met, and all other manner of things. You can tell her how we actually met if you would like, and if you would not like to share that with her, you can make something up," Edward informed her, knowing that Bella might be a little bit thrown by the way his mother reacted to getting to meet her for the first time.
Smiling a little bit, Bella nodded. "Well, I think I can say that you and I met in Vegas and we just hit it off, and the next thing I knew you were making all these grand romantic gestures for me and I just couldn't resist letting you into my house and everything," she said to him with a bright smile. Of course, she wasn't going to tell the full story of how she woke up and got to see him for the very first time. She figured that wouldn't necessarily be the best story to tell the mother of the man you were planning on staying married to.
"Well, I am glad you will be telling the real story, to some degree," Edward said with a little smile, "I would hate to try and explain why all of our friends seem to have a different story as to how you and I managed to meet one another," he teased with a light chuckle.
"That could certainly be quite the problematic happening," she said with a little bit of a smile and a laugh. "Of course, by just modifying the truth to something less embarrassing for me I figure that we will manage to keep everything from spinning wildly out of control," she informed him simply, sighing happily at the feeling of his fingertips running lightly over the skin of her arm in a soothing way.
"Good, I am glad that you want to share the story," he said once again, just getting relaxed by Bella's presence next to him, the weight of her body comforting to him and he never wanted her to move from her position on top of him, it was a place he quite enjoyed having her. In fact, Edward was certain that the second she agreed to truly be his.
"Mmm, I love you, Edward," Bella said as she let her eyes close as she rested against him happily. If she wasn't hungry, she was certain she would be finding her way to sleep at this particular moment. "I am pretty sure I loved you from the beginning - even though I didn't know it. You know, not knowing might have something to do with the fact that I fell in love with you while we were completely drunk," she said with a bit of a smile.
Edward chuckled lightly and nodded a little bit. "I am sure as well. I don't think you would have agreed to marry me if you hadn't loved me to some degree. Talk about love at first drunken sight," Edward teased lightly as he smiled at the woman. "I think you and I are going to end up being very happy for a very long time," he said to her as he knew he was very much looking forward to that day.
"I think so, too. I can't see myself not being happy with you," Bella said to him with a little bit of a smile as she ran her fingertips along the soft skin of his arm, unable to stop smiling at this particular moment.
Edward just nodded a little bit. "I mean, I am sure we will have fights now and again, but I don't think that will be something that stops us from being perfectly happy with each other," he informed Bella simply. It would be unrealistic to think that the two of them would be able to coast through something as complicated as marriage without ever having disagreements, but he was sure that if they did have disagreements that they would be able to get through them in a way much better than many others could manage.
The next thing they knew the doorbell was ringing as an indicator that the Chinese food had arrived, and so Edward moved out from his position holding Bella comfortably to his chest and ended up making his way to get their dinner. Bella was certain she hadn't had such a wonderful night as this one in a very long time. It was good to get to be with Edward like this.
It wasn't often that you managed to find someone that you knew you would be happy with for the rest of your life, and she was sure she was the luckiest woman on the planet, especially because whatever had ended up working out in order to give them a happy relationship after getting married in Vegas ... it was something that was next to unheard of. Not to mention, soon she was going to be meeting Edward's parents, and that was certainly going to be an interesting experience, and she wasn't sure how that was going to go. Bella wasn't the best at going through big moments, and she certainly got very nervous about things such as that. Whatever it was that was going to happen, she was sure that Edward would make it easier on her.
Regardless, if Edward thought that his parents were going to love her, she supposed that she ought to listen to him. Still, it made things all the more real, meeting his parents for the first time in only a weeks time. That was going to be an interesting encounter.
When Edward came back with the food, she couldn't help but smile as her stomach was growling. "Took you long enough to go get our food," she teased as she smiled at the man lightly. "I mean, my stomach has been growling for way too long and you just took your sweet time getting back here, didn't you?" Bella teased him.
Edward just stuck his tongue out at Bella and she couldn't help but laugh lightly at his response. "Of course I did, I wanted you to be extra thankful for me going to end up getting our dinner," he teased her right back as he moved to sit next to her, setting the food down in front of her before going to get some utensils and plates for them to eat their food on.
"Mmm ...," Bella hummed lightly at the enjoyable scent of the food that was resting on the coffee table in front of her, just waiting to be enjoyed by the both of them.
"See? I think my strategy was working!" he teased her as he moved to sit down next to her, giving her a plate and some utensils before he opened up the little boxes of food, leaning over to kiss her.
"Love you, Bella," he said with a little bit of a smile.
"I love you, too," she responded with a smile of her own before they began to enjoy their dinners. Next week, she would be meeting his parents, and that was going to be quite the big deal.
Thank you for reading! I hope this was alright and I swear I will post again within a week. :) If you leave a little review ... My motivational level will spike! :D And then I will certainly get another chapter out sooner than in a week.