After Rosalie leaves, having signed a three month trial lease, Al mumbles something about meeting a colleague for coffee before work and takes off.

'I think he's going on a date,' Bella says, her gaze still on the front door. 'He's been so shifty lately.'

'Really?' I hadn't noticed anything different about him, but to be honest, I haven't been paying much attention.

She nods. 'Yeah. He's being overly vague. Like leaving out specifics to the point it's super suss.'

'Huh.'

Bella sighs and leans back on the sofa, lifting her feet onto the coffee table. 'I'm not allowed to do this at home,' she says. 'Makes me feel like I'm being such a rebel.'

I smile and copy her. 'My dad would lose his shit if he saw us right now.'

We're quiet for a few moments before Bella says, 'Rosalie.'

I frown before I realise that she's reminding herself. 'She has a tattoo of a rose on her wrist,' I offer. 'It's blue. Like those old school plates and cups.' I noticed it when she shook my hand before she left.

Bella makes a 'huh' noise. 'A rose a-lies on Rosalie's wrist. That could work.' She scrunches her nose. 'As long as I don't fuck it up and call her Rosa-lie instead of Rosa-lee.'

'You told her about your injury,' I say gently. 'I'm sure that with that in mind, she'd be understanding if it takes you a little while to remember.'

Bella is quiet for so long I start to wonder if I've fucked up somehow.

'Sometimes I wish people didn't have to understand,' she says. Tears glimmer in the corners of her eyes. 'I wish my brain just worked like it used to. When I didn't have to come up with all these stupid, elaborate ways of trying to make something stick in it.'

'Hey. C'mere.' I tug on Bella's hand and she comes into my lap willingly, immediately pressing her forehead against my shoulder. 'I'm sorry, Bel. I know I don't fully get it, but I can see how hard this is for you, and I'm sorry.'

She sighs, her warm breath spreading across my collarbones. 'I'm just feeling sorry for myself today. Ignore me.'

'You're allowed to feel sorry for yourself,' I tell her. 'You're so strong like, all the time. It's okay to have moments when you're not.'

Bella pulls back, frowning at me. 'Do you ever not know what the perfect thing to say is?'

'Sorry?'

'Like, how is it you always say exactly what I need to hear? Don't you ever just want to tell me to get over myself?'

I'm completely taken aback by Bella's burst of frustration, but she's still in my lap so I decide to take that as a good sign.

'Bella, I—'

'Doesn't it ever just piss you off? When I forget shit or I'm late because I've forgotten shit or when I'm moping and complaining about stuff being hard? It kind of freaks me out that you're so even-tempered all the time.'

I rub her shoulder gently, trying to figure what on earth I'm meant to say. 'I… I'm not perfect, Bella. I'm sure, I mean, there probably will be times that I'll get impatient or frustrated. I don't know.' I blow out a breath and pick my next words carefully. 'I don't know what's going on, but it feels like you're looking for a reason to fight me. And I've gotta say, I really don't understand why.'

'Because I'm not supposed to tell you I love you until we've had a fight and made up.' Bella's eyes go wide and maybe this time she didn't mean to be quite so honest.

I blink at her. My mouth opens and closes again. 'I'm sorry, what?'

'That's what Jess said. We haven't fought and had to patch things up, so she said I can't really know if I love you yet.'

I don't know whether to laugh or kiss her senseless. 'So… you thought you'd pick a fight to move things along?'

She nods, her cheeks turning pink. 'But you're really hard to fight with,' she says. 'If I hadn't seen you flip out on Jasper that time, I'd legit believe you don't actually have a temper to lose.'

I roll my eyes at her. 'I'm human, Bel. I have a temper, believe me. And yeah, sometimes I lose it.' I sigh and push my thumb into the tight muscles in my neck. 'I do try to keep a lid on it, though, because I've got a very smart, very feminist sister who's drilled into me the fact that outbursts of anger—particularly from grown-ass men—can be frightening. And the idea of scaring anyone, especially someone I love, makes me sick to the stomach.'

Bella stares at me. 'You're worried about scaring me?'

I run my hand through my hair. 'I mean, it's not something that's often at the forefront of my mind. But those times I do feel my temper rising, I try to work through it, rather than letting my anger get the better of me.'

'I love you,' Bella says. 'I know it. I don't even care that we haven't had a fight and made up. I love you.'

Emotion bubbles through me, and unexpectedly, tears prick the corners of my eyes. I blink and my nostrils sting as I try to rein myself in. I swallow around the lump in my throat and press my mouth to Bella's, kissing her hard. She parts her lips to deepen the kiss and I pull back, my hands on her cheeks as I look her directly in the eye. 'I love you,' I say.

Bella grins huge. 'You do?'

I nod. 'I really do. I've been wanting to tell you for a while but I was worried about coming on too strong too quickly.'

'Oh, thank God.'

Bella grabs a fistful of my shirt and yanks my face to hers. We kiss and kiss, clumsy and a little messy with the emotion coursing through us, until we both have to pull away, gasping for breath. Her fingers creep under the hem of my shirt and her lips find my neck. She kisses her way up my throat to beneath my ear before she bites my earlobe gently, making me groan.

'We told Al we wouldn't fuck on the couch,' she says softly, her breath hot on my cheek. 'Take me to your room.'