A/N: Trying to be all "let people wait and get through the other chapters" but I just can't. I'm an impatient person, and I want to share all of this story with you guys. So, happy Friday and here's another chapter for you! Love you all; thank you so much for the reviews. Please keep them coming! They tell me you want more!

I was still trying to wake up with a mountain of coffee when Alice showed up. Edward had been absolutely right by calling her a hurricane. She flew into the apartment, dressed up, makeup on, hair done, and practically hoping up and down. She frowned when she saw me in Edward's shirt and boxers, hair a haystack and no makeup.

"Bella! You need to get moving if we want to get to the mall before it gets too busy!" she admonished me.

I mumbled something unintelligible about her being a morning person, as if I were calling her a dirty word, when Edward came out of our bedroom. Alice glared at him, accusing him of being the reason I was so tired.

Edward laughed, kissed Alice on the head and then came over to wind his arms around me as I was sitting on the bar stool. "Alice, Bella is not a morning person. Get used to that now so we don't have any fights. Give her at least two cups of coffee and she'll be better. We only just got up."

"We could have been on our way by now if you hadn't kept her up half the night," Alice accused.

Edward held up his hands in defense. "Nope, we went to bed at a reasonable time. I swear, your honor."

"Whatever." Alice rolled her eyes. "What number of coffee cup are you on, Bella? And when can we leave?"

"I just started my second cup. Why don't you go and find something comfortable for me to wear? That will save time." Edward chuckled as he walked to pour himself some coffee. My manners were not so great this early in the morning.

He came over and sat next to me as Alice ran into the bedroom. "I can't believe you just gave her free reign to your clothes. I really should have given you some tips on how to handle her before you let her do that."

"I heard that!" came Alice's voice from the other room, right as I said "Oh crap."

I half stood up on the stool, yelling, "Comfortable means no dresses or heels, Alice!" I just knew she was trying to find the fanciest thing in my closet to wear; after all, she was wearing a stunning dress. I turned back to Edward who was trying to stifle another laugh as Alice swore from the other room. "Your sister may not make it through the day if she's going to focus on clothing like that."

He gave up trying to hide and was laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall off the stool. I glared at him. "I am only sharing, love. I've had to deal with this almost my whole life. Now that we are together, it's your turn."

I drained my coffee cup, setting it in the sink and turned to stick my tongue out at him. He laughed harder. "I love you, too, Bella!"

I walked into the bedroom where Alice had made three piles of my clothes. "What is all this? Am I supposed to wear my entire closet?"

Alice hopped around the piles, taking me by the hand and leading me over to them. "No, ok, so I made three piles. The smaller one is choices for you to wear today. The second one is what I can only hope are ones that you would never wear to work, and the third is the pile I think you should just throw away."

I closed my eyes and realized Alice was like every girl I had gone to high school with. But the difference is that she was Edward's sister and I really liked her, where the girls in school were just bitches. I could do this. She had accepted me, and I would accept her.

I sat down and went through the 'throw away' pile, only disagreeing with one shirt. "This was my Dad's when he was younger. I never wear it outside, but it's sentimental. You can toss everything else in this pile if I can keep this shirt."

She nodded; eyes wide. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. Of course, keep that one!"

Once we had made some rather scary removals from my wardrobe, the shopping was even more important. She had thrown away every pair of sweats I had, and almost all of my bras. I dressed from the 'chose me for shopping' pile, and ran a brush through my hair. I opted to skip makeup, though I did wash my face and put on sunscreen.

Edward kissed me goodbye, telling Alice to go easy on me. With one more look of terror, I said goodbye to him, too. I swore I heard him laughing again as Alice drug me out of the apartment.

She took me to her car – a freaking yellow sports car that probably cost more than I've ever made in my entire life! - and we zoomed through the streets of Seattle. We were pulling up to a mall in less than five minutes, and I was floored. It was huge! Bigger than the malls near where I lived in California, that's for sure. This one was four stories and looked magnificent.

Hurricane Alice kept me busy all day. We went into almost every damn store in the mall, where she would look around, grab a handful of items and force me into the changing rooms. I felt like a model by the end of the day, having tried on so many clothes and paraded in front of her for her opinion.

The best part of the day was the conversation. Alice was all business when selecting clothes, but in and around that we just chatted. My first impression of her was right on target; we really could be good friends.

By the time we were sitting in the food court eating lunch, I felt comfortable telling her about my ex. Her eyes were wide when I explained the name calling, but she looked pissed when I told her about him hitting me.

"And you didn't have the asshole arrested?" she asked, her face fierce.

I shrugged. "Probably not the best choice, but all I could think about was getting away from him and getting to Edward as soon as I could." I took a sip of my Orange Julius. "You have to understand, Edward has been my confidant for two years. He was the first person I would run to when things were bad. He watched as everything deteriorated around me, and he was the constant in my life."

"What about Angela? You said you two are best friends?"

"Yes, I would go to her also. But I always went to Edward first. I was calmer by the time I got to her, because he helped me to be that way. She never knew how bad it was because she only ever got a muted version of the events." I snorted. "Though, she never really liked him."

"How long have you known you were in love with him?"

I sat back, retracing my memories. "I was definitely attracted to him the first time I saw him." Alice snorted. "But truly fell in love with him? Or, at least, knew I was in love with him? A year ago, probably."

Alice practically jumped in her seat. "Tell me!"

"So, Edward and I were working on a project that was just horrible. Neither of us wanted it, but our boss stuck us with it because it needed to get done. By that point, we were known as closers. We would get the marketing material done in record time, always what the client had asked for, and almost always under budget. But this was a horrible one. So boring and we were at a loss as to what to do.

"I remember Edward and I making a lot of video calls to each other that week. It was toothpaste, and the client wanted something so dreadfully dumb we just couldn't figure out how to make it not stupid. Anyway, he and I were on a video call when my husband got home. He never really paid much attention to whether I was working or not – didn't matter to him, honestly. He walked into my office and started in on me for not cleaning up my lunch dishes. Edward opened his mouth to say something, but I held my hand out, turning to my ex.

"The fight was stupid and really petty, and it ended up with me apologizing and promising I would get off the phone and clean it up before making dinner. Edward never said anything during the entire exchange, but I knew he had heard every word."

Alice looked at me, her eyes wide again. "He got pissed over a few dirty dishes?"

I nodded, looking down. "That was common. I knew it would irritate him, but I was so focused on trying to get this stupid marketing pitch ready that I hadn't had time to clean it up. And by the time he got home, I had totally forgotten about it."

Alice reached over and took hand my hand for a moment. "I'm glad you have Edward now. He would never do anything like that. But please go on, I want to hear the rest."

"I closed the door, and went back to Edward, who looked like he was super angry. But as soon as he looked at me, his eyes softened. He leaned forward a little and told me that he was sorry to have to say this but my husband was an absolute asshole for treating me like that."

"That's it? That's what made you fall in love with him?" Alice laughed. "Man, I thought it was going to be something super big, or romantic, or something!"

I laughed with her. "One full year of working closely together and learning about who he was. One fight that he witnessed, and told me that I didn't deserve to be treated that way. That's what it took for me to fall in love with him. I knew already, but when he said that to me that's when I knew for sure. And also, when I knew I was fucked because I was already married."

Alice smiled at me. "No, I totally get it. You weren't used to people telling you that. Your ex made you feel small and unworthy of any kind of love. And here comes my brother telling you that you deserve more." She laughed again. "I've told my brothers for years that sometimes it's the simplest things that show others how we feel. Maybe Edward gets it now!"

We laughed together for a moment, before I got serious again. "I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't found Edward. Seriously, Alice, he makes me happier than I knew was possible."

"Then you hold on to that, B." She leaned over and put her hand on mine again.

"B? Is that my new nickname?" I snickered.

Alice shrugged. "It's sort of my thing. Everyone except Edward. He hates any version of his name other than the full one. So, I've never given him one."

"I like it. B. Yeah, that's cool. You can have it, my friend."

"We are friends, just like I knew we would be. So, as your friend, I have two things to tell you. First, I'm here if you ever need to talk through any issues you have because of the asshole. That's his nickname, by the way. I can't call him anything else, got it?" I laughed and nodded. "And second, we haven't even hit half the stores I want to, so we need to finish eating and go now!"

I almost fell over laughing at her enthusiasm. We quickly finished eating, throwing away our trash, and got back to shopping, just as Alice wanted. The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, and before I knew it, I had a whole new wardrobe of clothes for work, and for home. That had been fairly uncomfortable.

"Alice, I don't wear stuff like this," I complained for the fifth time as she handed me yet another piece of lingerie.

She rolled her eyes. "Everyone needs something like this in their life. Just, trust me, will you? You have so far."

And that's how I ended up with several pieces of clothing that had me blushing so hard I thought I may have looked like giant tomato. Alice and I walked out of the mall, arm in arm, carrying so many bags we may have fallen over at some point. By the time we got back home, I was mildly nervous to show Edward just how much we got.

When we walked into the apartment, Edward was at the piano playing a soft melody. He looked up and was laughing again, just like the morning. He stood up and kissed me softly.

"Did you guys leave anything for anyone else?" he said, chuckling. "Did you get everything you need for work, baby?"

I nodded and Alice laughed, saying "And then some."

I turned and gave her a hug, thanking her for all of the help. She hugged me back and promised that we would get together for coffee or something, before kissing Edward on the cheek and rushing out the door.

"Do you need help with all of this?" he asked, waving his hands around all of the bags spread throughout the floor.

"Yes, please," I said, still clutching the scary bag filled with items I didn't want him to see. He helped me carry all of the bags to the bedroom, and we set everything down to start removing tags and sorting to wash. Once everything was done, and Edward was laughing again at the mountain of clothes, I grabbed a pile and walked to the hallway throwing them in the washing machine. I would need to do several loads.

Once that was done, Edward and I sat down to dinner that he had made while I was gone. A cheese lasagna was cooling on the stove, with garlic bread in the oven. Suddenly, I was starving. We got our pieces and sat down at the bar to eat.

"When is the table coming?" I asked him, trying to remember which day that was scheduled for. "I like the bar and everything, but it will be really nice to have an actual table to eat on."

Edward pulled out his phone. "Tuesday. The couch and chair will be here tomorrow, and the kitchen stuff also. The guest room stuff won't be here until Friday."

"That means that by next weekend the house will be all set up." I smiled at him, leaning over to kiss him. "We almost have a home."

He pushed toward me, leaning his forehead against mine. "It's already a home."

I giggled at him. "I guess you are right." I looked up at him. "Were you playing the piano earlier?"

"Yeah, was just practicing something."

"Can I hear you? Will you play for me?"

He kissed my nose. "Of course. Let's finish eating first, and then I'll play for you."

The lasagna was still too hot to put away when we were done eating, so I settled on the couch, facing the piano as Edward sat down. He flexed his hands, making me laugh, before bringing them down and starting a beautiful song. I sat there just listening, letting the music overwhelm me – in a good way. The soft sounds escalating to louder notes.

I stood up slowly, making my way to the piano bench, sitting down next to him. A tear escaped, falling down my face. The music was so beautiful I couldn't contain it. Edward brought the song to a close, shifting slightly to put his hand on my cheek. He wiped the tear away carefully before bringing his mouth to mine. It was a soft and sweet kiss.

"That was beautiful, Edward. I'm so glad you brought this with you."

"Well, I didn't want to make a home without it. My parents bought me this when I was fifteen and I've always had it near me, except when I was in the dorms in college. I wanted this to help make our new place home. Then, I realized, as soon as you walked in the door that it wasn't the stuff that was important. All I needed was you." He kissed me again.

"You may be right," I said, kissing his cheek. "But the piano is staying."

He laughed, pulling me up so we were both standing. "I do have a surprise though. I thought for sure you would notice it, but since you haven't, I'll show you. I did some shopping today. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed your car."

"You borrowed my car? Why?"

"I'll show you."

He led me out the side door next to what will be our dining room, onto the patio. I had seen the view from there before, but I was surprised to see patio furniture there now. We could sit on our patio now and watch the lights of the Ferris Wheel and everything around the Pier.

"Oh, this is fantastic. Can we sit out here for a while?"

Edward chuckled, settling me on a red loveseat, facing the Pier. He ran back in the house and brought me one of his old UW hoodies, after putting one on himself. I smirked at him. "I have my own sweaters, you know."

He settled in next to me, pulling me against him and kissed my head. "Yeah, but I like how you look in mine better."

For a while we just sat quietly, wrapped around each other, watching the water, the sky, the Pier, everything that was within our view. Once again, as I had in the shower, I realized that this was my new life. Everything about before was chaotic, but now it was just peace and beauty. Edward was surrounded by calm energy that latched on to my fears and nerves and cooled them all down.

"Thank you, Edward." I said, not turning around. His arms held me a little tighter.

"What for, baby?"

I shifted, sitting on top of him, my legs straddling his. "For this. For bringing me here. For finding this apartment, the patio furniture, the piano...just, everything. Thank you for loving me, most of all."

He brought my lips to his. "Thank you for loving me back."

His hands slid under the hoodie, warming my back, while his tongue slipped inside my mouth deepening the kiss. I pushed against him, feeling him hardening underneath me. As a moan escaped my mouth, Edward stood up, keeping me in the same position. My legs wrapped around him as he carried me inside, never breaking contact with my mouth.

Once inside, I tore my hoodie and shirt off, leaving them on the floor as he continued to walk us to the bedroom. Sliding my tongue down his neck, I attacked where it met his shoulder, sucking hard only to calm it down with my tongue again. He moaned – almost growled – when I did that, and he stopped in the hallway. He pushed me against the wall, roughly shoving my pants and underwear down, barely releasing me to do it. Then, once I was naked in his arms, he undid his pants, forcing them to fall to the ground.

He went back to attacking my mouth, this time in a rush of teeth and lips clashing. We were breathing each other's air and it had never felt so amazing. He pushed his way into me, going all the way in with one shove.

"Oh, god..." I breathed, feeling my toes curl in response. Before I could say anything else, his mouth was on mine while he started to roughly shove into me. I moaned into his mouth, which caused him to move even faster. The way his body was hitting mine was just perfect, and I felt myself climbing high. Edward pushed into me hard, causing me to fall over the edge, moaning into his mouth again, convulsing around him. He fell with me, cursing as he pushed one final time inside me.

We were both out of breath for a few minutes, resting our foreheads together. He leaned back, looking sheepishly at me. "Damn. I couldn't even make it to the bedroom."

I peered over his shoulder. "Almost. I mean, the door is literally right there. Not that I'm complaining. Hell, take me against the wall whenever you want. Here, the living room, the shower..." I smirked at him again; he laughed and kissed me before disconnecting our bodies and setting me down on the ground.

He walked around picking up my clothes that were tossed away, walking back toward me. I was still leaning against the wall, unsure if I could walk yet. He stopped and stared at me for a moment. "I like this look. No matter what you and my sister bought today, you are welcome to wear this every day."

I looked down. I was completely naked. "I'm not wearing anything."

He grinned. "I know."

I nodded toward him. "I see you somehow avoided to lose your clothing. So, you get to be warm, while I walk around naked all day? Is that how this is going to go?"

He tossed his head back, laughing, bringing me my clothes. "Well, it was too hard to get my clothes off. So, I concentrated on yours instead. Made sense at the time." He leaned over, kissing my neck just below my ear. "If you were naked all the time, I'd keep you warm."

I blushed, looking down and continued to get dressed. "Yeah, I just bet you would."

Edward kissed me again, and then turned to walk into the kitchen. "Can I interest you in a drink, my lady?"

Laughing, I sat at the bar and demanded a "whiskey sour" from my barkeep. He looked at me for a moment, and fished a beer out of the fridge, setting it down in front of me. I took a long swig, before raising my eyebrow at him. "This is not a whiskey sour."

"I seriously have no idea how to make that," Edward laughed which set me off.

"What about a sarsaparilla? Moonshine?" I was still laughing.

"Sorry, little lady. I'll learn how to keep bar better for you," he said in his best Clint Eastwood voice.

The rest of the night was fun. We sat outside drinking just gazing out around our home. We chatted, joked, and talked about all sorts of things. Except one. None of us mentioned divorce, spouses or exes. Eventually, reality was going to hit us, I was sure of it. But, for now, I was focusing on just how much I loved the man sitting next to me.

A/N: So, how did we like hurricane Alice? I hope I did her justice for all of you. She was a lot of fun to write, honestly.

I was going to say I'll most more in a few days, but you all can tell I can't seem to wait too long. Let's be real, I'll probably post the next chapter tomorrow. Once again, thank you so much for the reads and reviews. Please give me more! LOL - I live for them. Anyway, more to come soon. Winding down-ish. More later, that's all I can say.

Love to my wonderful beta zombified419!