Well, here we are at the end of the line for these two. I can't tell you how much fun I've had with them and with all of you. It means the world to me that so many of you took to them and to the story so completely. Your enthusiasm and encouragement made it so rewarding and your reviews have made many, many days infinitely brighter for me.
This has been an absolutely fantastic experience for me. I started out thinking I was just doing it all on my own as a fun little hobby, but I've "met" so many people during the process of posting this, people that I consider friends now. This is a wonderful community and I'm grateful to be a part of it.
Oh, and this is really long. Since it was my last chance to hang with them, I was inclined to be indulgent and let them rattle on. Especially Edward. That boy would not shut up!
Requisite disclaimer: Twilight's not mine, but if you change their names to Steve and Patricia? That story is totally mine.
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EPOV
I re-tied my bow tie for the third time and gave it a few tugs until I had it laying more or less the right way. It wasn't perfect, but I was sure Alice would attack me before I left the house and make sure every inch of me measured up, so I might as well leave it for her to fix.
The stylist had just finished my hair twenty minutes ago, but you'd never know it. It had instantly sprung back to its usual chaotic, unruly state. I was secretly proud of it, how it refused to bend to the will of hair care products. I ran a hand through it, which only made it worse, then told myself sternly to keep my damned hands off it tonight. It was no use. I always ran my hands through my hair when I was nervous, and tonight I was pretty nervous.
I checked the time. I needed to get downstairs. No one had come looking for me, but if I wasn't in my position, standing in attendance the second Alice decided Bella was done, she'd take me apart. I headed down to the entryway to see where everyone was. The TV was on to a football game in the living room, I could hear the sounds of Jasper and Emmett shouting at the TV about a call they didn't agree with. Jasper mentioned that he and Alice had plans for later, after Bella and I left, but the guys must have decided to come hang out here while we got ready, since Alice and Rose were up there with Bella anyway. I thought about heading in there to watch the game with them, but Alice would want me right here when Bella finally made her appearance.
I passed the kitchen and there was Seth, sitting on a barstool reading a comic book, his giant fist buried in a bag of chips. He looked up and smiled as I passed before returning to his book. It figures that Bella and I couldn't have an employee, we had to have a freaking house pet. Bella even moved him into the pool house. He was here all the time. If he wasn't officially on the clock, then he was sprawled in the living room, watching Family Guy re-runs with Bella. But as much as I grumbled and rolled my eyes about it, I was secretly glad he was never more than a few minutes away from her side. Since my career had re-booted last year, I was away on location way more than I wanted to be and I couldn't stand the thought of her being here alone. Seth might be the overgrown adolescent little brother I never wanted, but he was good at his job and devoted to Bella. If he was there, she was safe.
"Is the car here, Seth?" I asked.
"Waiting outside," he replied promptly. "Just waiting for the munchkin to finish terrorizing Bells and we can hit the road."
Did I also mention the complete lack of professional decorum? But there was no sense fighting it. Bella was simply incapable of keeping anyone at arm's length, and I loved that about her. Hell, we'd have never even happened if she had done what she should have and kept me at arm's length, where I belonged. I was grateful every day that she hadn't.
It was the same reason our house was filled with her band, more often than not. She'd made a lot of noise early on about needing her space, how it was time for them to all get their own lives and quit living in each other's pockets, but that hadn't lasted long. They were family, and it's hard to keep your distance from family. And when one of them was dating Alice, who couldn't stay out of anyone's business, well, it was inevitable that we were all intruding on each other all the time. I had oddly gotten used to it. And again, I was glad she had them around when I couldn't be here.
The last year had been phenomenal for both of us. Once rumors from the set of the Scorsese movie began to circulate, and the buzz about my performance got out, the scripts just flooded in. I couldn't read them fast enough. I tried to be discerning, but there were so many good ones, amazing parts, it was hard to say no. And Bella was so damned supportive, encouraging me to say yes to whatever roles I wanted to take, even if it meant the schedule was hard on us.
The Scorsese movie alone wouldn't have been enough to kick-start my career, though. The rest was all Bella. When the studios saw that I never went back to my old ways, save for that one disastrous night in the beginning, they had the confidence to sign me again and that's when life got really crazy.
Okay, so there may have been one other incident, when I beat the shit out of Kid Rock at the VMA's. Sorry, but he staggers over drunk off his ass to "meet" Bella and proceeds to accidentally rub up and down on her tits. Justin Timberlake was at the next table. He saw that shit go down and he totally agreed with me. Kid had it coming. Aside from that memorable night, Bella and I pretty much lived a life of quiet domesticity. Well, when we were in the same place at the same time.
Her schedule wasn't much better than mine. The first album had dropped in the middle of all that shit last year and that helped propel it into the stratosphere. It didn't hurt that it was damned good. Eclipse had defied expectations once again by actually following through on their early promise and being good. Great, really, but I guess I'm ridiculously biased. They had toured for what felt like the whole fucking summer and fall, and once they got back to town, they'd gone straight back into the studio to start work on the follow up album. But at least while they were recording, she was home every night. The album was almost done though, and another tour loomed in our future, which meant more separation. I dreaded it.
We both hated spending so much as one night apart, but in our lives, it was inevitable. So we had instituted the One Week Rule. At the end of a week apart, if we weren't headed home yet, then one of us had to be on a plane to see the other, even if it was just for a day. A day hardly put a dent in the longing, but it didn't hurt that the reunion sex was always amazing, and it kept us from going too crazy. The rest of the time, we stayed flexible and tried to mold ourselves around each other's lives. If she had time off and I was on location, she came to Vancouver and kept herself busy writing songs in my trailer. She had finally gotten brave enough to try writing on her own and damned if my girl wasn't brilliant at it. If I had a break and she was on the road, I went with her and hung out on the bus and read scripts and spent time with Alice, who went everywhere Jasper went. It really didn't matter, so long as Bella and I got to be together. The byproduct of our dual success was that we still hadn't been able to get away for something exotic and romantic, Paris, or Ibiza or something, just the two of us. But I had plans to remedy that soon.
I heard Alice laughing at the top of the stairs and turned to look to where she stood, just behind…Bella. Jesus, every time I looked at her it was like I was seeing her for the first time. All the air left my lungs and I felt lightheaded and euphoric.
Bella stood at the top of the stairs, looking back over her shoulder at Alice and Rose, a little flushed, just recovering from a giggle fit with them. The dress this year was another stunner, although I think I'll always be partial to the blue dress from last year and every exquisite memory that went with it. This year's was emerald green, satiny, fitted around the top, with a gently flaring skirt, billowing out in a train behind her. There was a trail of delicate little flowers made out of the same fabric as the dress, starting at a point on her right hip and angling up across the front of her and up and over one creamy bare shoulder. The flowers were set with sparkling little emeralds that caught the light. Her hair was caught up in an artfully tousled loose twist that somehow managed to look both like something out of the last century and something wholly contemporary at the same time. It was finished with a green jeweled comb on one side. Once again, there was some stupidly expensive display of jewelry draped across her neck, this one a network of diamonds with irregular dripping emerald pendants.
She recovered from whatever Alice and Rose had said that made her laugh and focused her attention on me, waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She seemed lost momentarily, just as I had been when I saw her, and I was grateful for her all over again. How I ever managed to win the love of this girl was beyond me, and I would never stop thanking her for it. I swallowed thickly and tried to stay focused. There was a very long day and night ahead of us.
Bella took a deep breath and started down the stairs towards me. She had spent so much time in the spotlight this past year, dressed up, being looked at, being the center of attention in any room she walked into, that she had developed quite a bit of confidence when she moved that didn't used to be there. She swayed gently down the stairs, not even glancing at her feet, her dark eyes locked on mine, her lips curling slightly in a seductive smile, her dress billowing up the stairs behind her. Her quiet confidence in her own beauty, the subtle swagger in her walk, was admittedly a turn-on. But then again, there was very little about Bella that wasn't a turn-on for me.
She reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed the hall straight to me, unhesitating, slipping her hands up my chest as soon as she was in arm's reach and gripping my lapels in her fists. She pulled down hard and my mouth came down on hers, sweet and urgent. I reached up quickly to grip her hips and pulled her closer, sinking into the sensation of her tongue slipping past my lips and into my mouth. Fuck. She could completely undo me with a kiss.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Alice's sharp bark from the top of the stairs pulled us both out of the fog of lust about to envelop us. Bella backed up a tiny step, but never took her eyes off mine, smirking.
"We just finished your lipstick, Bella!" Alice snapped. "And look what you're doing to Edward's lapels! Let go! He'll wrinkle! And what the hell is wrong with your tie, Edward? Did you tie it with your feet?"
Bella chuckled but we let go of each other and backed away a few steps.
"You look stunning," I whispered.
"The color matches your eyes," she whispered back.
Alice flew down the stairs towards us, going to work re-tying and smoothing and straightening.
"Relax, munchkin. We didn't do any more damage than last year and everybody thought we looked great then," I smirked.
"Are you telling me I slaved for weeks last year to create the most beautiful woman the red carpet has ever seen and you spent the whole night molesting her?"
Bella's blush and my shit-eating grin answered her question, but I added for good measure, "You have no idea, Alice…"
"Ugh, no more! I beg you!" she said, rolling her eyes, working on my tie.
Rose descended the stairs and sailed past Bella on her way to join the boys in the living room and she said breezily, "Yeah, I heard it was quite the marathon."
I stared after her, slack-jawed, for a second, then looked to Bella, who had the good grace to look embarrassed. But hell, that was pretty funny. And so what? I fucked her senseless for thirty six hours straight. Like that's something to be ashamed of? Hell, no. I fully intended a repeat performance tonight.
"You seem all reformed, but really, you're still a complete animal," Alice grumbled. She cast a look over her shoulder at Bella, "I don't know how you stand it."
"I like it," Bella muttered softly. Fuck, yeah. I know she does.
Alice kept fidgeting with my tie, so I stared over her head at Bella until she felt me looking and returned my gaze.
"Later," I mouthed at her. Her face flooded with color and she smiled back at me, her eyes nearly devouring me. I gloated over the reaction I had elicited from her.
Finally Alice declared us done and we headed for the door. Seth unfolded himself from the kitchen counter and stashed his rolled up comic in his jacket pocket, coming to get the door for Bella.
"Are you guys going to hang out here?" Bella asked casually over her shoulder, like it wasn't the least bit peculiar that all these people were just loitering in our house as we left for the night. And really, it wasn't peculiar, once you got used to it, which I had.
"No," Alice replied, "Jazz and I are going out."
"You're not watching us on TV?" Bella was surprised.
"Nope, not tonight! He's got something special planned, he says. Been sneaking around making plans for weeks!" Alice was smug and happy, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.
"You mean someone has managed to keep a secret from you?" I asked, astounded.
"I know!" she exclaimed, "I keep telling him he was only able to pull it off because it's Oscar season and I was distracted. He'd better not ever count on that again!"
"Well, have fun and call me tomorrow and tell me all about it!" Bella said, kissing Alice's cheek before following me out the door.
The drive to the Kodak was as endless as ever. We drank, we watched TV. And when we ran out of Deadliest Catch's to watch, I molested my girlfriend for a while, and that was fantastic. Although I ruined the lipstick. She'd have to fix that when we got there.
Charlotte met us at the sedan and we began to work the press line. Bella leaned into my arm and instinctively turned herself to her best angle for the endless pictures and I mostly just stared at her with a stupid grin on my face, drinking in how great she looked. Like last year, everybody wanted us, so we were out there for what felt like hours. Bella complained that her feet hurt, but Charlotte took no pity on her and just herded us to the next reporter. They never tired of asking us about our relationship. Bella and I had perfected our answers at this point. "We're very committed…we feel very fortunate to have each other…it's very difficult to manage our busy schedules…blah, blah, blah".
These encounters with the press had been awkward and difficult for a while last year when we first got back together. The reporters were shameless, always asking us the worst questions, trying to elicit some sort of emotional reaction from one of us. But we kept our game faces on, refused to comment about the past and would only talk about our happy future together. Luckily gossip reporters have the attention span of goldfish and the relentless media cycles are always producing new scandals. When I refused to give them anything new to sink their teeth into, they quickly moved on to some other cheating Hollywood spouse and went back to trumpeting us as the unlikely love story of the decade. Whatever. I was just happy that they'd stopped throwing Vicki in Bella's face.
Charlotte finally caved to Bella's whining about her feet and we were released from the tedium of the press line and ushered into the obligatory champagne reception. Bella got stolen away from me to get touched up, so I fielded all the directors, producers and writers who came at me, under the guise of a friendly hello and a handshake but really to talk about their next project. A lot of them sounded really interesting and I wondered how I'd possibly find time to do everything that I wanted to. I guess there are worse problems to have, like last year, when all I had was time and not a single job on the horizon.
Finally the show itself got underway and Bella and I got settled in our seats for a four hour snooze. Except this year was different, because I was nominated. I wasn't really thinking about it too much. When I say that stuff like that isn't why I do this, I really mean it. But even I had to admit that it was a little exciting, and everyone in my life was excited about it so I would enjoy it, however it worked out.
We were somewhere in hour two. Bella was leaning into me, whispering in my ear, describing the filthy things she intended to do to me later, and I was working hard on keeping my face completely passive and expressionless and my dick limp, in case the cameras were on us. Thank God I'm such a good actor. Jesus, I never would have guessed that she had it in her when I first met her. America's sweetheart, my ass. She was a goddamned harlot, at least with me. And I fucking loved it. I was losing the battle with my dick under the onslaught of raunchy images she was pouring into my head and I prayed that they didn't announce the nominees for Best Actor any time soon or I was in real trouble.
She was broken out of her x-rated narrative by the vibration of her phone with a text. She turned away from my ear to fish it out of her bag, her expression absolutely calm, like she'd just been reading me a fucking grocery list, instead of describing how she would like to slide her fingers…stop. She bowed her head for a moment to read the text while I took deep breaths and concentrated on making everything relax.
"Oh, my God!" she breathed. My head snapped up at her tone.
"What? What's wrong? Bella?"
She looked up at me, her face glowing, as she turned her phone so I could read it. It was from Alice, just two words.
"Jazz proposed!- A"
"Can you believe it??" Bella squealed softly, trying to keep her delight quiet less she draw attention to us.
No. No, I really can't fucking believe it.
That motherfucker! I tried. I really did try. After all, we got off on the wrong foot, under all kinds of wrong assumptions, none of which were really his fault. I knew that intellectually. And for both Bella's and Alice's sakes, I tried to leave all that behind, I really did try to like the guy. Sometimes I actually did. He was alright. But right now I wanted to fucking murder him.
Tonight was my night! How dare he jump on it like this! The little black velvet box in my breast pocket felt like it was burning a hole right through to my chest, taunting me. I sagged in my seat, my mood suddenly black and Bella noticed immediately, of course.
"Hey, what's wrong?" she whispered, "Aren't you happy for them?"
"Thrilled," I muttered.
"You don't sound thrilled. Is this about last year still? I really hope not, because you know that…"
"No! No, I know. It's not that, I promise."
"Then what? You don't like him and Alice together?"
"No, they're great. He's oddly perfect for her."
"So what's the problem?"
"His timing is lousy," I growled.
She looked puzzled for a moment. "Because of tonight? Because of the nomination?"
"I don't give a shit about the nomination. Look, I'm fine, I promise," I said, quickly, trying to recover my mood, or at least not give away how miserable I was. "I'll explain later. I'm really happy for them. Text back and say congratulations from both of us. We'll go out to celebrate later this week."
Bella seemed pacified by that and she went to work texting Alice back, a huge grin on her face. I slumped in my seat and scowled. All my plans were shot to shit now. Tonight was our night, mine and Bella's, it was the night we started. What better night to ask her to marry me than tonight, when we were back where we started, celebrating all that she had done for me? But I couldn't very well propose to Bella on the same night that Jasper proposed to Alice. It would look like I was stealing his thunder.
I tried to cut him some slack. After all, how was he to know? We had put together something like a friendship, but we were in no way confidantes. He didn't know what I was planning and I sure as hell didn't know what he was up to. Hell, for all I knew tonight was meaningful to them in some way as well. Although that would mean imagining things about him and my sister that I really didn't want to think about, so I didn't speculate too far.
But still, I'd been screwing up my courage to do this for months, made all kinds of plans, mobilized an army of people to make tonight spectacular... I felt utterly deflated.
As I sat there stewing while Bella happily texted back and forth between Alice and Rose, wouldn't you know it, they announced the nominees for Best Actor. Bella gasped and threw her phone into her bag, fully alert and at attention. She reached over and gripped my hand in encouragement. I took that as my cue to pull it together.
I straightened up in my seat and carefully assembled my expression, knowing the cameras would be all over me for every second of this. I had to put on a good show even though my thoughts were now a million miles away. The other nominees' names were read out and I gave a gracious nod and a little smile at each, recognizing their talent, their worthiness to win this thing instead of me. My own name was read out and I gave a modest smile of acknowledgement and gratitude. It's-an-honor-just-to-be-nominated, and all that. Bella was ecstatic, beaming and gripping my hand so hard it almost hurt. I turned to smile back at her, momentarily stunned by her beauty and the fact that she was here with me, supporting me, rooting for me, completely one hundred percent on my side. God, I loved her. Okay, so tonight being a bust was not the end of the world. I'd find another way to make the proposal meaningful on some other night. The important thing was that I had her, she was mine and she loved me.
And while I was sitting there, staring at her like the dumb, love-struck fool that I am, I became aware of her staring back intently at me, expectantly. Did I miss something?
"Edward?" she said, shaking my hand a little, "Edward, go! It's you!"
It's me? It's me.
I needed to get up and walk up there, but first I had to do this.
I reached forward with both hands, sliding them around the back of her neck and pulling her forward. I leaned into her and kissed her, brief and soft.
"I love you," I whispered.
She looked like she was going to cry. "I love you, too. Now go!"
I beamed at her and shot up out of my seat, heading towards the stage. The next few minutes were a pleasant blur that I would barely remember later. The presenter, an actor I'd done a film with a couple of years ago, happily handed over the statuette, shaking my hand and clapping me on the shoulder. It was heavy, the lights on stage were blindingly white. I wandered through a brief, unrehearsed acceptance speech, trying to thank all the usual suspects, Marty, Marc, Laurent, but my mind was elsewhere. My eyes searched the audience against the glare until I finally picked out the green of her dress. That's when things began to come back into focus. Because while a lot of people helped me out with this, there was only one person I really needed to thank. So I did.
"And last, before they start playing my exit music, I have to thank Bella Swan, for having faith in me when almost no one else did. She always knew I could do this, and this is for her," I paused for a second, trying to control my voice, which was starting to crack a little, "Bella, without you there just wouldn't be a point to anything. I love you, baby."
She was crying, I could see it from the podium. I wanted nothing more than to get my arms around her and run away out of here to somewhere we could be alone, but that wasn't going to happen. I couldn't even go back out and sit with her. I was escorted off the stage by a blonde model who looked like a twig in a gold dress. Once we were in the wings a stage manager with a head set took over and after a brief congratulation, I was whisked to the media room.
Charlotte descended on me almost immediately, practically bursting with excitement. At that very moment my phone started to vibrate incessantly in my pocket and the next several minutes were taken up with accepting everyone's congratulatory phone calls. Marc was beside himself, buzzing with plans and ideas. None of it seemed quite real to me yet. Winning in and of itself hadn't been that important to me. But it meant a lot to the people around me, so I was happy for them. And even if I didn't really care, I could clearly understand what this meant. For the rest of my career, I would no longer be just the actor, Edward Cullen, I would be the Oscar-winning actor, Edward Cullen. Fuck, when I died, that's probably the first thing they would say on the news reports. I looked down at the Oscar in my hand. That was a fucking sobering thought.
Yes, Marc and Laurent and Charlotte were right to be excited, everything would be different now. It's just that my mind was somewhere else, out in the audience with a girl in a green dress.
Charlotte led me to an area set up for the media Q&A. I stood at the podium with my surprisingly heavy Oscar next to me, and smiled and tried my best to focus on the questions coming at me from the pool of reporters while cameras flashed.
I glimpsed Seth slipping into the room, standing along the back wall, manning his post, as always. I'd have to tell him my plans for after the awards were off, unless I could wiggle out of here.
I leaned over to whisper in Charlotte's ear, "Can I get out of here now?"
She looked back at me, horror-stricken, "Of course not! There's hours of this to go, Edward! This is a huge night!"
Fuck. I couldn't take hours. I needed Bella now. I raised a finger to get Seth's attention and slipped away from the podium and the questions just long enough to speak to him.
"Can you go get Bella and bring her back here? And call the restaurant, tonight's off."
He looked surprised at that last part, but he nodded and disappeared to go find Bella. I gave myself back over to the media circus for a while, wishing I could cut out but knowing I was trapped.
I answered the same damn questions for what seemed like forever, patiently smiling and posing, and answering again, the whole time my head completely somewhere else. Eventually as I scanned the back of the room one more time, I saw the flash of green. She was here. I squinted to focus past the bright lights. She was beaming at me, her face so happy and proud, and my chest felt like it would explode.
Fuck this. I was doing it tonight, everything else be damned. If it caused some family drama, I'd deal with it, if Charlotte blew a gasket about me cutting this short, so be it. I'd never been more sure about anything in my life as I was that I wanted to ask her to marry me now, tonight. I wasn't letting this get away. Suddenly I knew just what I wanted to do.
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BPOV
Unbelievable. I still couldn't believe it had happened.
Edward won.
I was flooded with a warm, blissful feeling every time I thought about it. And what he said up there…saying it was all due to me, declaring he loved me in that completely public way….Not that I doubted for a moment that he loved me, but to hear him say it in that setting…how could I not burst into tears? At that moment, I felt like my heart would explode out of my chest with love for him. There just wasn't enough room inside of me for how much I loved him.
I was still trying to repair the damage to my face and get the waterworks under control when the texts started coming in. Emmett and Rose first, then Alice and Jasper right after. We all celebrated together as best we could via text, but where I really wanted to be was with Edward, wherever he was back there. I knew he would be facing a fierce gauntlet of media, but for the best possible reason, so I would sit patiently out here and find him later in the evening, maybe at the after party.
Then I caught sight of Seth along the side wall of the theatre, motioning to me. He had come to get me, but I was stuck until a commercial break. They don't like to see people getting up out of their seats and walking out on the telecast. So I had to wait until a break, when a stage manager came to get me and swap in a seat-filler, because empty seats don't look good on the telecast, either.
Finally I reached Seth and I threw my arms around him with a happy, silent squeal.
"Can you believe it??"
"It's pretty awesome," Seth said, trying hard to restrain his glee and remain professional. But fuck professional, I wanted him to celebrate with me! "He asked me to come get you. They have him all tied up in a bunch of media stuff."
"I figured," I said, as Seth started to lead me to the backstage. I held up a finger to stop him just outside the media room as my phone buzzed again with another text. Checking the screen I saw it was from Edward's mom. Esme and Carlisle were watching at home on TV in Seattle and were beside themselves with pride. I grinned ear to ear as I took a moment to text her back, sharing my own happiness and pride. I was so grateful for them. They had come to LA to meet me earlier in the year and Esme and I hit it off right away. I probably would have liked Edward's mom no matter what, but she and I had a genuine connection as well. And she filled a void in my life that I hadn't even realized existed until I met her. I finally felt like I had a mother again. We talked at least a few times every week.
We finally made our way into the media room and there he was, up at the podium, his hand curled lightly around the statuette next to him as he calmly answered one inane question after another. To anyone else they would think he was his usual, fully engaged, charming self, but I could tell he was bored out of his mind and only barely paying attention to anything happening around him. He was so beautiful…he still took my breath away. And I was so damned proud of him. He might play it off as no big deal, but he worked so hard on that role and this was huge for him. His whole career would be different now. And he'd probably be even busier, which would mean more time apart, I thought with an internal groan. But I would never stand in the way. We'd just find a way to make it work, just like we had so far.
He was answering another question about what it was like to work with Scorsese (didn't somebody just ask the exact same question?) but his eyes were scanning the back of the room non-stop, squinting slightly against the glare of the lights. His eyes met mine and he stopped abruptly. I felt the same electric thrill I did whenever we looked at each other. He smiled softly at me and I smiled back. Then he started talking again, hurrying through the rest of his rehearsed answer. I wanted him all to myself for a while so I could congratulate him properly, but I knew it would be hours and hours before I could hope for that.
Charlotte was pointing to another reporter so they could ask their question when Edward suddenly left the podium without a word, heading straight for me. I was delighted, but Charlotte looked horrified. He reached me in just a few moments, skirting the cluster of reporters who were scrambling to follow his unexpected movements. He stepped up in front of me, his arms instinctively snaking around my waist pulling me up against him. I slid my arms up around his shoulders, hugging him hard in return.
"I'm so happy for you," I whispered into his neck, turning my face, trying to hide from the cluster of frantic reporters just behind him.
"It's all you, baby," he murmured against my shoulder.
"It's plenty of you, too. Quit being so modest."
He laughed a little and then pulled back to look at me, "Let's go."
"Go? Go where?"
"Out of here. Come on. I want to be alone with you." He was smiling, off-handed, oblivious to the jostling crowd right behind him. Charlotte had just come to a panicked stop behind him, her eyes wide and pleading with me.
"Edward, you can't just go. Charlotte needs you," I said.
He groaned and rolled his eyes, "Bella, I just want to be with you. I can't deal with a whole night of this."
"Come on. Please?" I said soothingly, "Charlotte needs this. If you cut out on her Laurent will have her head."
He sighed heavily, but it seemed to work. He wouldn't do anything to fuck over Charlotte and he knew she needed him to do this.
"Fine," he said. Then he turned over his shoulder to address Charlotte, "One more hour, Charlotte. That's all you get. Then we're gone."
"But Edward…" she started to wail, but then she saw his face, that intense set of his jaw he gets when he's made up his mind about something and she just sighed heavily, deciding to make the best of what she had. She snagged his arm and began to pull him back to the front of the room.
"One hour, Bella," he said softly to me. "Stay here?"
"Of course," I said, "where else would I go?" Someone kindly fetched chairs for Seth and me and we settled ourselves down in the corner to wait it out.
I could see why he was bored, it really was endless and inane and even under the best of circumstances Edward easily lost patience with this stuff. But he seemed particularly keyed up and antsy tonight, for reasons I couldn't figure out. Maybe it was winning the Oscar, but if that were the case, then why was he so eager to get out of here? He had seemed really angry about Alice and Jazz earlier. That was bizarre. He and Jazz still weren't best of friends, but all that shit from last year had seemed completely forgotten. I was sure he was no longer jealous of Jazz in the slightest. And he said he was happy for them, so I really couldn't understand why Alice's text had made him so angry. I would get him to talk to me about it later when we were alone, but it still didn't answer why he was so desperate to get out of here. Something was definitely up with him, I just couldn't figure out what. Seth was no help, all busy on his cell phone sorting out some big plans he must have had.
Finally Edward was shooting Charlotte a look that said "enough" and she knew well enough not to push him, so she stepped in and wrapped the whole thing up with the media, while Edward slipped off the podium behind her and headed towards Seth and me. When he reached us he passed Seth the Oscar.
"Can you deal with that?" he asked offhandedly. Seth looked delighted, turning it over in his hands to examine from all sides. "Let's go," Edward said tersely, putting his hand on the small of my back and propelling us towards the door.
Seth had made all the requisite phone calls, so the sedan was pulled up and waiting down in the parking garage, once we'd negotiated the endless levels of security and Oscar personnel. Edward helped me and all of my dress into the back then he closed the door on me while he stood outside and started talking to Seth. What the fuck? What were they talking about and why didn't he want me to hear? I was starting to get slightly annoyed. Eventually they finished up their mysterious business and Edward slipped into the back seat with me. He ignored my pointed, questioning stare, choosing instead to lean over and plant a nonchalant kiss on my lips. But he was bouncing his leg up and down nervously. Edward never fidgeted. If he was nervous, he took it out on his hair, raking it with his fingers compulsively, which he was doing non-stop tonight, but he never fidgeted. What the fuck was up with him?
"What the fuck is up with you?" I finally spit out.
"What? What do you mean?" his voice was cool, but his eyes were intense.
"You! You're all jumpy and fidgety. And look at your hair!"
He self-consciously ran his hands over it to smooth it, but it didn't help. "I'm fine," he protested.
"You don't seem fine."
"It's just….winning. It sort of threw me for a loop. That's all. Everything's cool."
I looked at him skeptically. I knew that wasn't it, but he clearly wasn't going to share, so I let it go. It was making me a little bit nervous. On the one hand, I never doubted Edward. I trusted him implicitly. But on the other, I couldn't come up with a good reason for his bizarre behavior and that was scary.
We drove in silence for a while, Edward's knee bouncing continually. I stared out the window in silence trying to figure him out. Eventually I realized that we weren't anywhere near the after party venue yet and we should have been by now. In fact, we weren't even in the right neighborhood. Where the hell were we?
"Seth, where are we? Did you miss a turn?" I asked.
Edward reached out and put his hand on my knee.
"He's taking us someplace else," he said quietly. I got chills. What the fuck?
"Where? What for?"
Edward sighed heavily and raked his hair again. "It's a surprise. Can you just wait till we get there?"
A surprise? Oh, Edward was up to something. Okay, so that explained the mysterious behavior, but not the anxiety. Why would he be so anxious if it was a good surprise?
"Okay, I'll shut up. Surprise me," I finally said with a little smile, because it's not like I had a choice. I was absolutely baffled though. What kind of surprise would he have cooked up on the night of the Oscars? He knew that we'd be busy all night, even if he hadn't won. And it was so late already, where could we be going? Everything was surely closed at this hour.
I chanced a look at him, but he was staring straight ahead, that little muscle in his jaw working. I wanted to reach out and smooth it with my thumb, to make him relax, but I knew not to bother right now.
We still drove on, well out of the business district now, surrounded by dark houses and streets. Where were we going?
When Edward finally spoke into the silence it startled me. "Bella, will you close your eyes?"
"Close them?"
"Yeah. I want to surprise you. Please?"
Damn him, whipping out the 'please' with that freaking soft voice. He knew I couldn't resist him when he pulled that shit. The first time he ever pulled it on me he ended up buying me a house. I smiled a little in memory. "Okay, eyes closed." He smiled back at me and squeezed my hand. I closed my eyes.
Seth drove a little longer then I felt him pull over and heard him kill the engine.
"Okay?" he asked Edward.
"Yeah," Edward responded. "Just sit for a second, I'll be right back. No peeking."
"Okay, but this better be good," I smiled, eyes still shut tight. I heard him hesitate and linger another second, but he didn't say anything.
He got out of the car on his side and crossed around to mine, opening my door. I moved to get out, but then I felt one of his arms slipping under my knees and the other coming around behind my back. I started to protest, but then he was lifting me out of the car and carrying me off.
"Edward, what the hell are you doing?" I shrieked.
"Shh, not so loud," he murmured, "You'd have a hard time walking here, so I figured I'd help."
Huh? Where the hell were we?
He carried me in silence for a few more minutes and then I heard the surf and I knew exactly where we were.
I opened my eyes without asking if I could, but I knew what I'd see. The backs of those big fancy houses receding behind us, the twisting little path down to the beach, a long low reclining beach chair ahead of us. There was a partial moon tonight, unlike that night, so although it was still very dark and dim, I could see the ocean and the waves breaking, not like the last time we were here.
"Edward, what…" I stammered, "What are we doing here?"
"Um…surprise," he muttered again, still nervous.
"Well, I am…surprised. But I don't get it. Why did you bring me here?"
We'd reached that beach chair by now and Edward carefully set me down on my feet. I felt faintly ridiculous, standing on a dark beach in my green satin gown, my train trailing out behind me on the sand. My heels were sinking into the sand, but I didn't say anything, I just waited, staring up at Edward expectantly.
He exhaled heavily and raked his hair, clenching one fist.
"Bella, I…" then he seemed to lose steam and he trailed off.
"Edward, whatever it is, even if it's something bad, you know you can talk to me about it. But you're starting to scare me a little."
He looked back to me and his features softened a little and he finally smiled. He reached up his hand and stroked his thumb down my cheek softly and I smiled encouragingly, leaning instinctively into his hand.
"I love you, Bella. You know that," his voice sounded a little shaky.
I just nodded, terrified of what he was about to say. My brain flew through a million completely ridiculous possibilities. He had a terminal disease. He was going on location in Antarctica for six months. He wanted to give up acting and go make shoes in France. Everything I could come up with was crazy. And none of it made any sense with tonight and here.
"This isn't…..exactly how I pictured tonight going. I had this big elaborate plan and then…well, it all got shot to shit. But I really wanted to do this tonight. Tonight was important." He was picking up the tempo now that he'd started talking, rushing along a little. He reached forward and snagged my hands, holding them between both of his. He stared at the ground between us for a second, then he drew in a deep breath and looked up at me, his chin still lowered. "Bella, will you marry me?"
I blinked twice, my eyes fixed on his face, feeling his hands gripping my fingers, waiting for his question to shift around in my head and make sense.
"Oh, God…" I gasped. The relief I felt that it was nothing horrible momentarily swamped me. I pressed on my chest hard with my hand to slow my heart back down.
"Bella?" His eyes grew concerned and his forehead furrowed. He peered closely at my face.
Then I got it. Christ…Edward just asked me to marry him. And I was standing here staring at him, gasping like a fish out of water. Without warning, my eyes flooded with tears. "Edward…Oh, god…Edward, yes."
"Yes?" his eyebrows shot up, like he had maybe actually doubted what my answer would be. Finally the happiness overwhelmed everything else. Edward wanted to marry me.
"Yes!" Then I launched myself across the little distance separating us, throwing my arms around his neck. He laughed out loud, his arms immediately seizing me around my waist, pulling me up off my feet. "Oh, my God, Edward, yes!"
I felt him bury his face in the crook of my neck and inhale deeply, like he was calming himself down. "Jesus, Bella. I love you." He sounded nearly faint with relief.
I pulled away enough to look into his face, dumbstruck.
"Were you actually afraid I wouldn't say yes?"
His eyes cut away briefly to the water then back to me. "Well, I was pretty sure you would say yes. But it's still a hard question to ask. I've been getting up the nerve for months."
My heart melted, imagining Edward nervous and fretting about asking me a question with such an obvious, easy answer. Well, obvious to me, I guess.
"Edward," I said softly, taking his face between my hands, "I love you so much. Of course I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I can't imagine living a second of it without you."
He said nothing, just stared down at me a long moment. I wished it were lighter so I could see his eyes better.
"Bella," he finally said, "Nothing in my life had an ounce of meaning to me until I met you. Everything I am, I owe to you. I just want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy."
"You've already made me so happy, Edward." I leaned up on my toes and kissed him, soft and lingering. When I pulled back, he reached up and ran the back of his finger gently down my cheek, his face lit up with emotion.
Then without a word he reached into his tux jacket and produced a little black velvet box. My breathing hitched at the evidence of his planning and the tears started up again. He opened it and turned it so I could see what was inside.
Breathtaking. And unexpected. I honestly had never thought once about what sort of ring Edward would pick out if he were to go ring shopping. But I suppose if I had to guess I would have thought platinum and contemporary, with a giant diamond. But this was completely different. It looked old, turn of the century maybe, a filigree in a lovely ivy pattern and set in the center with a surprisingly modest diamond. I adored it.
"It was my great grandmother's," Edward explained, pulling it free and pocketing the empty box. He reached for my left hand, "Esme sent it to me a couple of months ago. She's been about to blow waiting for me to do this. She expects a phone call tomorrow."
I laughed, but it came out sort of blubbery since I couldn't seem to make myself stop crying. "It's so beautiful, Edward."
He looked up at me through his lashes, his breathtaking smile lighting up his face as he slid the ring onto my finger.
"My wife," he said softly, clearly delighted at the idea.
He still held my left hand, so I slid my right arm around his waist, drawing myself up against the length of him. In spite of the sweet, romantic moment, I felt the spark of heat between us at the contact and I suddenly couldn't wait to get him home and really celebrate. I craned up and whispered into his ear, "Maybe you should take me home now, husband."
His eyes fell closed and his head fell back a tiny bit. Gotcha. When he opened his eyes again to look at me, his face was dark with lust. "Let's get the hell out of here, Mrs. Cullen."
I smirked, "Okay, Mr. Cullen. But you should know, I'm keeping my name."
He laughed and pulled me into his arms. "Fine, Ms. Swan. I'm still taking you home and to bed for the next twenty four to thirty six hours."
"Promise?"
He leaned down and kissed me hard, "Never doubt it. Or me."
"I never will," I said.
Then without a word he leaned down and scooped me back up in his arms, heading back up the beach to the waiting car.
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A/N: To answer some questions that have come up in reviews: I have no plans for a sequel right now, but there is a one-chapter prologue coming up a little later. I am writing something else, it's going into queue as soon as this posts, so put me on author alert so you don't miss it!