LL Chapter 38

The Date pt 2

I was just finishing filling out my first application of the night when Tanya decided that she was no longer content sitting in her swing. She was insistent on getting our complete and undivided attention. Bella decided it was getting rather late for her and that it was time get her ready for bed. That was a more time consuming project then I would have thought it would be.

First thing that we had to do was to give her a bath, which Tanya was not happy about at all. Apparently, some days she loved getting baths and others she hated them. Today was definitely a day that she hated them given the way that she was screaming. Bella was unbelievably calm and patient with her.

Tanya stopped fussing immediately and completely just as soon as she was out of the water and wrapped in a towel. Just like Bella said would happen. She tricked me into getting Tanya dressed while she ran downstairs to make Tanya's bedtime bottle by saying that I did not know where they kept everything. How could a baby that was still immobile squirm so much making it so hard to get her pajamas on her? Did she have to kick her legs and flail her arms so much? I swear that I heard an evil little laugh coming out of that little stinker.

I was still fighting with my attempts at getting her leg into her sleeper pant when I heard a stifled giggle come from behind me, "You think this is funny? You come over here and dress the child then."

"It is funny because I have the same battle with her several times a day. I am content to pass the fight onto someone else for a change." It took another five minutes to get the pants on and then Bella took pity on me and helped me get her shirt on her.

When I went to hand Tanya to Bella, she started fussing so Bella let me rock her and feed her the bottle while she lay out on her bed. I felt bad that her daughter cried like that until Bella explain that at three months babies was starting to recognize the people around them and she's letting you know that she knows you."

"That's so cool." Tanya fell asleep before she even finished her bottle and I gently carried her over to her crib and put her down to sleep kissing on the forehead before standing up again. Bella walked over, stood next to me, and leaned down into the crib giving the baby a kiss on the cheek and running her fingers through the thick brown hair that has always reminded me so much of her own hair. They have the same beautiful, brown eyes too.

Bella turned on the baby monitor, and then she took my hand and led us out into the hall to return to the kitchen and our applications. Once we got out into the hall, I spun her around, backed her up against the wall and kissed her, "I've been looking forward to getting to do that all day."

"So have I. I happen to like kissing you," she smirked and me and took off down the stairs and I chased after her. I caught her as she reached the bottom of the stairs and kissed her again. Just because I was determined that we were going to wait to have sex did not mean that I did not think of her as sexy and desirable. I thought she was extremely sexy. Hell, I even thought that she was sexy when she wore her baggy sweats to school the other day because she was too tired from being up all night with Tanya to change into jeans. She wanted to stay home but her father had literally pushed her out of the door saying that she needed a break and could not afford to miss school.

We made our way back to the kitchen and continued to work on our applications. I pulled out my laptop and we began looking and the schools' websites and researching residence halls. The one thing that we noticed most was the cost of the housing. It was really expensive to stay on campus.

We were stuck on the website for NYU and in total shock, "Edward, this is so much more expensive than I thought it would be. This says it will be $12,000 a year just for one single person like you. I see married housing but not family which means that I will have to find a cheap apartment off campus. How am I possibly going to pay for this?" She had tears starting to glisten in her eyes.

"We'll figure something out, honey. Between scholarships and student loans we'll come up with a solution." I almost mentioned my college fund but I knew that there was no way in hell that that suggestion would go over well. Besides, my education was going to be expensive as well.

"I don't see how. This is just housing costs. There are also the costs of tuition, books, food, clothes, and daycare."

I grabbed a notebook and a pen and we started to attempt to come up with some estimates at what this was going to cost us. We were still working on it when Charlie came home from work. He found us still sitting at the kitchen table in a bit of shock. Living on campus and attending UCLA would cost me $54,000 a year. It was slightly cheaper for Bella who would have live off-campus because their family housing was for graduate students only. Nevertheless, the difference was only by about $3000. My college fund would not be able to stretch that far for the both of us.

Charlie grabbed a beer out of the fridge and came to sit with us. He managed to calm us a little when he told us that as soon as we had lived in a state for six months we were officially considered residents so the resident tuition would apply to Bella for her second year. He wasn't thrilled at all about the idea of Bella and Tanya living in an off-campus apartment alone but there wasn't much that he could do about it. It had to be hard for him. He just got his daughter back, after almost losing her permanently, and now she was planning to leave again. Now he was going to lose not only his daughter but his granddaughter too. There was no other option if she wanted to go to college. There were no schools around here until you got to Seattle, which was another option that we could explore.

I excused myself a half-hour later in a serious need of an aspirin, a hot shower, and some sleep. But, I was able to get Bella to promise to go out with me again tomorrow tonight before leaving the house. I suggested that we could stay in again and look through more college information but Charlie broke into our conversation by offering to babysit so that we could go out, have fun, and be kids.

A/N:

I know you guys are probably tired of hearing this, but I am sorry for the delay. Chapters are going to be slow coming while I am on this medicine. It makes me loopy and droopy and sleepy but without it I am in terrible pain. But I will keep working, I promise. The figures for UCLA comes from the link below. Also remember that I am writing an outtake for the wildfire thingy (link on profile). It is right after the attack on Bella. I have yet to choose whether it will be from Bella or Charlies POV. Please blame any incoherency on the drugs. They still have more to discuss about college and that will come in the next chapter.

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