Edward sits hunched over the desk in his room, sifting through his music library for the proper selection of love songs to convey his latest vein of amorous moods.
Last Sunday and the two Sundays before that, he treated his listeners to a collection of serenades, declarations of love, and melodic "I love you"s.
He needs songs that not only say I love you, but that also express eternal devotion and affection, he decides. Something that captures everything that is his and Bella's newly begun relationship with all of the beautiful feelings that it brings his heart.
His phone screen lights up with a text message. He smiles when he sees his background picture. Bella and he are sprawled out in the grass, lying in the flowers at the arboretum. What used to be his favorite place in the city was now their favorite place in the city.
The message is from Carlisle. Going out with Esme tonight. Won't be back until late.
No problem, that just means they'll have to order something for dinner.
He goes back to curating his playlist for Sunday, dragging "Swept Away" by The xx into the lineup.
Another text pops up on the screen, and he sees it's from Bella. Just got off work! On my way!
Great, see you soon, he types.
His other two housemates still aren't home. He wonders when they'll be back.
As if on cue, he gets a Snapchat from Alice. Opening it, he sees a picture of fabric piles, a laptop playing something off Hulu, and Alice's pointy, dark-blue talons forming a peace sign. It's captioned, Staying late! Eat without me!
She hasn't been home for dinner all week. It's a bit unusual for her. He wonders if she's going to get home okay with everything that's been happening regarding the strange stalker situation.
He sends a text reply back, Are you going to need a ride?
Three little wiggling dots appear, showing that she's typing. Nope, I have one! Thanks!
He goes to send a message to Emmett asking when he will be back but sees his Snap Story first. He's at a bar in Belltown. He won't be home for dinner either.
If Emmett is out with friends, Alice is still on campus, and Carlisle and Esme are on a date that means he and Bella will be alone in the house together.
Somehow the idea of that makes him feel anxious.
He gets up from his desk and goes into the ensuite bathroom to evaluate his appearance. He tousles his hair a little and fixes his shirt.
What would Alice do?
He wants to kick himself for even letting the tiny fashion demon invade his personal sense of style and grooming. She tends to be overly particular, expensive, and avante-garde in her opinions on appearance.
Edward reluctantly retucks his shirt and brushes up his eyebrows with his finger, somewhat taming the little orangey hairs.
It was better than wondering what Emmett would do, he supposes. Emmett would tell him he should go out and get a box of Trojans and a six-pack.
No. No. He doesn't need those. Not yet, anyway. Not anytime soon.
Grabbing his toothbrush, he scrubs his teeth until they're minty-fresh and sparkling.
This, he thinks, is good enough for now.
...
For the third night in a row, Bella pulls up to the big, white house on the hill and parks in the driveway behind Emmett's Jeep.
She's started a new routine of finishing work, driving to Bellevue, and eating dinner with Edward and whoever else happens to be in the house at the time. On Tuesday, Carlisle and Esme were both home. On Wednesday, it was Esme and Emmett. She wonders who all will be around tonight.
Bella knocks on the front door and Edward quickly answers. His hair is smoothed back in its usual coif. He smiles as soon as he sees her.
"Come on in," he says, moving aside and taking her jacket. He hangs it up in the coat closet while she kicks off her muddy sneakers.
"It's pouring out there," she comments, looking back out at the rain-coated windows.
"Yeah, it is," he agrees. "We're the only ones home, and I'm not the best cook, so you're going to have to forgive me for not having anything prepared. I thought we might be able to order something to eat."
"That's fine. Did you have anything in mind?"
"I'm fine with anything."
"Pizza?"
"Sure. What toppings do you like?"
"Just cheese," she says, sitting down on the large sectional sofa in the living room.
Edward calls up the pizza parlor and orders a half pepperoni, half cheese pizza while she thinks over all the time they've been alone together. So far, it's been mostly in public places or when others are around.
"You said we're the only ones home? Where is everyone?" she asks.
"Carlisle and Esme are at the movies, and Emmett's out with friends, I think. Alice is on campus still working on her design stuff," he answers, sitting down beside her. "How was work?"
"Good, I learned how to make a heart design with latte foam."
"You'll have to show me that sometime," he says, kissing her cheek.
She kisses him back on the lips, and it feels just as electric as ever. "That means you'll have to come visit me at work."
"Tomorrow, I will," he says under his breath, his lips millimeters away from hers. "Do you have plans for the break coming up?"
"My mom's coming to visit. I haven't seen her in a few months. Are...you doing anything special..?"
"Emmett and I have been talking about renting a cabin up in Whistler to go skiing..." he trails off, distracted by another one of her kisses.
"Mhmm."
Bella likes how easily she can get his attention in this way. She doesn't want to stop, so she kisses him again and again.
He pulls her into his lap. It doesn't take long before she finds herself straddling his hips with his mouth on her neck.
She slides her hands under his t-shirt, feeling her way up his toned abs.
She wants to see him without the shirt. She pushes it up over his head, tossing it onto the other side of the couch.
He's breathing heavy—heavier than she is—and she can feel him hard against her thigh.
Bella's read enough racy romance literature to figure out what that means.
She slides her hands down his stomach and begins to unfasten his belt. While she wasn't sure about scoring a home run, she could probably manage a handjob.
She has one hand down the front of his pants before he freezes up and stops kissing her.
"Hey, um. I need a second," he exhales, pulling away from her to catch his breath. "Can we slow down? I, um...I need to..."
"What? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, uh, I just need a moment, sorry."
He disappears down the hall in the blink of an eye and Bella feels her face go scarlet. She messed up. He's just being polite and not pointing out her glaring misstep right away. She wishes for the first time that even a little experience with this particular subject.
The doorbell rings. Bella almost forgot about the pizza they had ordered.
"I'll get that," Edward says, coming back in and smoothing his messed-up hair down. He grabs his shirt off the couch and pulls it back on.
Answering the door, Edward takes the box from the delivery guy and hands him a few bills. He sets the box of food down on the coffee table as he takes a seat.
Bella doesn't feel like eating now. She's too embarrassed.
"What just happened?" she asks anxiously. "If I did something you, um, didn't like, I'm sorry. I'm don't know...um—I'm not good with..."
He exhales and gives her a terse smile, "It's not that."
"Then why did you run off?" She chews at her lip.
"Sorry, it was maybe too good. It was getting difficult for me to stop."
"Oh, yeah. I was just...going to use my hand. I mean, I don't have any condoms with me, and I wasn't really..."
He seems confused. "Oh, no. That's fine, Bella. I want us to wait until after marriage."
He doesn't want to have sex of any kind until after marriage. She finds herself very confused.
Bella has never been the type to enjoy sleeping around just for the fun of it, but she never imagined herself in a relationship so old-fashioned and traditional that she would be waiting until her wedding night to get physical.
Her mother has always been adamant about trying before buying.
"Marriage?" she asks. "I don't understand. It's the twenty-first century. I thought guys are the ones who are supposed to be rearing to get in the sack."
"But I love you. You're my everything. And it's how I was raised. Waiting means respecting not only the relationship and my future wife but the sanctity of marriage itself. You don't have to compromise yourself for my sake."
I love you. He's never said that to her before. She likes the way the words sound on his tongue. It's almost mesmerizing enough to distract her from the fact that she's somehow found one of the last celibate guys in the city.
But he respects her too much? He could still respect her after a handjob. Bella doesn't understand the correlation.
"Oh. Okay. I, um, love you too," she stumbles over her words, feeling more alienated than ever before. She isn't lying, she does love him, but she's taken aback by this recent development.
She never really thought about marriage in that way. It was just a prequel to divorce in her mind. Some legal forms you fill out so you can more easily divide assets and negotiate child custody when things fall apart.
And is he saying he wants to marry her? The thought makes her stress levels soar.
She'll have to think about it more later. She's too frazzled and caught off-guard to discuss it now.
He kisses her with a smile and grabs a slice of pepperoni out of the pizza box. "I'm glad we're on the same page."
...
Beads of rain run down the windshield of the car. Light from the nearby street lamps reflects off the water as it gets pushed this way and that by the steady passing of the wiper blades.
"Thanks for picking me up," Alice says as she fastens her seatbelt.
"No problem. I have to get gas before I drop you off. I'm running on empty," Jasper says, turning down the oldies rock station so that it's playing quietly in the background of the car.
"Okay!"
The green Honda creaks as he makes a U-turn and drives back through campus toward the Ave.
"Do you always stay so late?" he asks.
"No, I lost track of time. I was watching Netflix on my phone while I was sewing, and accidentally binged an entire season of Sex and the City. What were you doing on campus?"
"Writing a paper for Psych on herd mentality."
"Fascinating."
He laughs. "What were you sewing?"
"Satin. The dress is amazing so far, but it's a pain to stitch with a machine. It's so slippery."
When they get to the gas station, Jasper gets out and fills the tank. Alice checks her Twitter timeline and hums along to the Queen song playing.
A Snapchat from Emmett pops up and she opens it. He's eating ribs with mac and cheese at a sports bar downtown. She sends him back a selfie with a filter that makes her eyes and mouth huge captioned, NOMS!.
Jasper gets back in the car and starts the engine again. "Okay, to Bellevue?"
"To Bellevue! Can I Venmo you gas money?"
"No, don't worry about it."
She can get a better look at him now that they're under the bright glow of the gas station. He looks tired or maybe stressed. His hair is damp, so he must not have gone to the library attached to the garage. He's wearing a black rain jacket over his t-shirt and jeans.
"I want to apologize again for the other day," he says, looking over momentarily and catching her gaze. "You shouldn't have had to take care of me like that."
"I would feel bad if I just left you."
He sighs, looking torn.
After driving with just music covering the silence for a few miles, Alice can't figure out if he's going to continue the conversation or not. She picks back up humming along to the melody of the radio to fill the void.
The tiniest inkling of a vision comes through. Something's wrong with Bella's laptop.
She brushes it aside, trying to focus on the present. It feels like Jasper's about to say something.
"You told me when we first met that you were waiting for me because of a vision," he says slowly, seemingly choosing his words carefully. "What exactly did you see?"
"What do you think I saw?" she asks, looking over at him again.
While she could just tell him that they had a high chance of falling in love, she wants to hear his current thoughts on the matter. It might help her get a frame of reference for their relationship.
She can't see his expression well in the dark. A flash of light from an overhead highway lamp lets her catch a glimpse of his side profile concentrated on the road ahead.
"I don't know. I'm just wondering why you're still talking to me."
"Do you not want me to talk to you?"
"No, that's not it. Like I said before, I like talking with you. It's just that I almost threw up on you and then told you a bunch of really horrible stuff that I've done."
"I was assuming the throwing up wasn't intentional, but if it was, I might have to reconsider."
He obviously isn't in a joking mood. She can feel him looking over at her and she's fairly certain it isn't with the lighthearted smile that he always has in her dreams.
He must still be in a funk from the other night. She should say something nice to try to make him feel better.
"The past doesn't bother me. I'm much more interested in the future," she says with confidence.
"Are your visions ever wrong?"
She thinks for a moment, trying to consolidate a list of times she's been wrong. Except for a handful of situations where she intentionally did things to alter a less-than-desirable future, they're few and far between. "Rarely. I don't think they'll be wrong about you."
He takes a deep breath and adjusts his grip on the steering wheel. The beginning of a David Bowie song starts to play through the speakers. Rain continues to pelt the car.
"You saw us in a relationship?" he asks.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! she thinks happily to herself. "Would you like that?"
They arrive out front of her Bellevue home just as a flash of lightning flickers through the sky. He parks in the driveway beside Bella's truck.
"I don't think I'm very good company to keep."
"Are you preemptively breaking up with me?" Alice asks with a frown. She didn't see this happening, but it doesn't seem to prompt any dramatic omens. They will be okay.
"No. No, I..." he sighs. "I really like you."
"I know you do. Get some rest," she says, patting him on the arm. "I'm fully capable of deciding who is or isn't good company to keep. You don't need to worry on my behalf, especially when it's concerning yourself."
He gives her a doubtful expression but doesn't object. "Good night, Alice."
"Night, Jazz!"
Alice exits the car and hurries up the front steps to avoid the downpour. She grabs her keys out of her bag and turns the lock.
Inside, Edward and Bella are sitting on the couch with a box of half-eaten pizza, cuddling and watching tv. They jump when they see her.
"Sorry, ignore me. I'm just going upstairs," she says apologetically. She quickly removes her heels and carries them with her up the steps.
...
Bella gets home a little after midnight. She parks her truck under the freeway overpass and crosses the street to her apartment building.
She's hardly left Edward's house before she starts to miss him again. She doesn't like leaving. She wishes he would invite her to stay.
Maybe he isn't a fan of pre-marital bed-sharing either. The thought makes her deflate a little.
She's digging her key out of the front pocket of her jeans when she notices broken glass covering the sidewalk in front of her building's door. It looks like the window's been smashed. She can hear the quiet buzz of the alarm system sounding.
Looking around the dark street, she doesn't see anyone else around. She'll have to call maintenance to let them know.
She walks up the stairs to her apartment and finds her roommates are already asleep. They left the living room light on for her, and there's a note stuck to the fridge saying something about how Jessica's going to be out of town the upcoming weekend to visit her aunt in Olympia.
Bella kicks off her sneakers in the hallway and heads into the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. She's too tired now, so she'll shower in the morning.
She chews her bottom lip absentmindedly as she walks from the bathroom to her room, regretting her habit when she realizes how chapped the skin is from kissing. She should put on some lip balm before she goes to sleep.
Once in her room, she flips on the light and sees her laundry hamper's been tipped over from inside her closet. She puts it back upright, wondering if Jessica or Angela were looking for something. Or maybe she knocked it over in her rush out of the apartment that morning.
She sets her phone on her nightstand and changes into her pajamas. As she pulls the old, oversized t-shirt over her head, she notices that her laptop's charging light is orange.
It should be fully charged by now if she plugged it in before she left. That was hours ago.
If the battery is dying and she has to get it replaced, that will cost an entire paycheck. She can't afford that right now.
She wakes up the MacBook with a frustrated sigh.
There aren't any programs left open that should cause any significant energy usage. Just her internet browser and her half-written project for journalism.
Hopefully, it will be able to keep a charge through her classes tomorrow. If not, she will have to schedule a repair appointment and make a trip to University Village in the afternoon.
Climbing into bed, she checks her phone to see a goodnight message from Edward. She replies back wishing him sweet dreams before closing her eyes to sleep.
