BPOV

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I gasped, looking up into shining green eyes.

Edward's hands were wrapped firmly around my biceps, steadying me and making my entire body feel like it was fluttering away with my butterflies. He cleared his throat and quickly dropped his hands once he was sure I wasn't about to topple over.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

"Um, yes. Thank you. Sorry," I stuttered, dropping the annoying bracelet in my bag and trying to quickly step out of his way.

He didn't let me. He kept a firm grip on my arms and maneuvered us both into his dressing room a few feet down the hall. The door slammed shut behind us and his lips were on mine. Soft and hard at the same time and making my butterflies twirl in a vortex in my stomach.

Firm hands roamed around my back and down my waist. He pulled me flush against him, lips still tangled with mine, and stumbled backwards until he fell to the couch.

I had no time to think before he pulled me into his lap, my legs on either side of his. I pressed my lips back to his and groaned as his tongue slid across my bottom lip.

His hands started sliding up my thighs, tightening around them before pulling me against his very prominent arousal and making me groan out his name.

My dream from Friday night was still twirling around in my head. I hated it and loved it and hated it again. It did nothing but prove that my crush on him wasn't fading away like I wanted it to. And it made me wish I wasn't supposed to be at his house in five hours.

"You okay, Bella?" Emmett asked, rounding the corner as I shut off the treadmill.

"I'm fine," I panted, resting my arm on the console and staring out the window. It was tinted glass so gym members could see outside but passersby couldn't see in, which I appreciated.

"Don't sweat the whole Jacob thing," Emmett said quietly. It was eight in the morning on a Sunday but the gym wasn't too crowded. It wasn't really the type of gym that catered to early risers. It was the kind of gym you went to because you wanted to tell your friends you did. It was expensive and high tech and would be completely out of my price range if Rose and Emmett weren't letting me in for free. "You're too good for him anyways."

"Thanks, Emmett," I sighed, grabbing my keys and water bottle. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Truth was, I hadn't thought about Jacob since Friday night. I had spent a good twenty-four hours thinking of the dream I had about my boss, though I couldn't very well tell that to Emmett.

I got home and showered before Rose even woke up. We hadn't talked about Friday night yet, but I knew it was coming when she was sitting on my bed when I came out of my bathroom.

"So?" she asked, eyes wide and excited.

"So?"

She sighed, curling her legs up underneath her and turning to watch me rummage through my closet. "What did you think of Jacob?"

"He was… nice."

"Nice?"

I frowned to myself. "He kissed me."

Rose gasped from behind me. "Was it good?"

"I pushed him away."

"Bella," Rosalie grumbled.

I pulled out a white pencil skirt with a thin black checkered pattern and a nice black V-neck t-shirt. I clutched the clothes to my stomach and attempted to bypass Rose.

She grabbed my hand gently. "I'm sorry if I pushed and you weren't ready. I really did think you'd like him."

"I know. It's not that I didn't like him. I don't know. Everything is confusing lately and I don't know what's going on half the time and I – "

"It's okay, Bella. You're stressed and starting a new job. Probably not the best time to add new boyfriend to the mix, either," she sighed.

I flopped down on the bed, keeping my towel wrapped firmly around me. I couldn't tell her that half of my problem was the butterflies that constantly fluttered around whenever Edward was nearby, but I was glad she understood part of my problem at least.

The entire situation would pass eventually. Crushes went away. Edward was completely unattainable, and I knew it. The butterflies just constantly flustered my mind and filled it with dirty dreams.

If I was looking on the bright side, the whole night wasn't a waste. It was my first date and I didn't make a complete idiot out of myself. Even though my mind was off in the wrong direction, maybe the whole thing would be a step in the right direction eventually.

"I survived, so I guess that's something, right?" I smiled softly.

"Yes, it's something. I have a pair of heels that would look perfect with that outfit, by the way" she added, gracefully changing the subject.

-B-

Getting into Edward's neighborhood was a lot easier with the visitor's pass I got at the beginning of the week. It hung on my rearview mirror and I barely had to stop at the gate. Of course, part of me wished for the delay at the gate when I drove up his driveway and saw a slew of other cars parked there.

I frowned at the clock in my car that read five to one and got out slowly. It only took a second after I rang the doorbell for the door to swing open.

"You must be Isabella! Come in!" Alice Cullen greeted me, ushering me inside quickly.

The house was loud, a drastic difference from the last time I was here. Happy chatter floated from the living room where Alice was quickly leading me.

The entire Cullen clan was gathered around the open area, the large glass doors to the pool open and letting a nice breeze in. I recognized them all, every one of them came up during my time researching Edward.

Alice skipped over to the couch her fiancé, Jasper Whitlock, was sitting on. Alice was a personal stylist and worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment, while Jasper was an orthopedic surgeon. An unlikely couple, but they met years ago when Alice broke her arm and Jasper was still an intern at the UCLA hospital.

On the opposite side of the sectional Alice and Jasper were sitting on was Esme and Carlisle Cullen. I straightened immediately seeing her, considering she was technically my boss. Or my bosses boss because she probably had more power than Newton or Cheney in this case.

I was grateful Irina seemed to be missing. I still wasn't sure about their dynamic. They were friendly, obviously, considering she was comfortable enough to try and out me and my NDAs to him. But did she ever come over on the weekends with her kids? Did Edward ever go there?

A splash caught my attention and I saw a girl, who I guessed was Lucy, get covered in water after Masen jumped in the pool.

"Lovely to finally meet you, Isabella," Esme said kindly, standing from her spot and walking over with an outstretched hand. She was in a simple black maxi-dress, caramel hair tossed over her shoulder.

Her husband followed, reaching for my hand next. "You seem to have done wonderful work with Edward so far, Ms. Swan," he said with a smile. "I don't think I've seen him roll his eyes in three days on the show."

"Oh, he has," I said before I could think better of it. "I keep count."

For some reason, that got everyone in the room laughing.

"I think you'll fit in quite well here, Isabella." Esme said with a chuckle. "Please, have a seat."

I would have hesitated if it was anyone other than Esme Cullen telling me to sit down. "Just Bella is fine," I said quietly. It felt like I was on display with four sets of eyes on me.

"Edward isn't being too stubborn for you, is he?" Esme asked, taking her seat again and looking at me with worried, motherly eyes.

"I'm not stubborn," Edward's voice came from beside me. He was in an outfit similar to the one he was in last time I was here. His t-shirt was a forest green that made his eyes look even brighter than usual, and his jeans casual. He sat in a chair beside me and, of course, my butterflies appreciated it.

"You are, actually," I blurted out. "But you've been more amenable than I thought you would be, so it's fine."

Again, there were chuckles throughout the group.

"And you got him on Instagram within a week," Lucy added, walking over from her sunbathing chaise to sit next to her grandparents. She gave me a soft smile which I returned. She was beautiful, long blonde hair that was the exact same shade as her mother's. She had Edward's eyes, though. Both of the kids did, which I liked.

Her mention of the Instagram account made me wince, though. I didn't dare look over at Edward.

"My brother with a social media presence? Scandalous," Alice chuckled.

It was easy to feel his eyes on me, and in a room full of so many people I knew they were all waiting for a reaction as well.

"In my defense," I sighed, turning to look at him. "It is one of the things I was going to talk to you about today."

Edward sighed and stood. "Shall we, then?"

"Oh, um, sure," I agreed, feeling somewhat awkward leaving his entire family behind.

"Don't worry about them. They came over unannounced. You're supposed to be here. There's a patio upstairs where we can talk," he told me, leading me upstairs with an arm on my back.

Butterflies. Butterflies. Butterflies.

I had never been upstairs. It was lovely, of course. It seemed to be mostly bedrooms, Edward's taking up a majority of the floor. Because my body seemed to love betraying me, my cheeks heated up as he walked me through his bedroom to a large outdoor patio. My eyes zeroed in on the large bed; extravagant white padded headboard and pristine looking matching bedding.

I collected myself, and my thoughts, by the time he sat us down outside. It was a beautiful day, and the view even more beautiful from up here than on the main floor. I set my tote down beside me and pulled out my coveted Edward notebook. I had been working on him for three weeks and it was already nearly full.

"I really was going to tell you about the Instagram page today," I admitted. I didn't like grumpy Edward so much, and I was hoping to have this meeting without him around.

"I believe you," he sighed. "May I see it?"

My eyes snapped up to his, surprised that he wasn't immediately against it. "Oh, sure," I mumbled, grabbing my phone out of my bag and pulling it up. The tips of his fingers touched mine as I handed him the phone, exciting my already fluttering butterflies.

As he scrolled I started talking, attempting to soften the blow. "It really is kind of necessary these days. You need at least the smallest online presence. Instagram seemed like the lesser of the evils. Twitter is kind of a hell hole and Facebook is dying. You do have an old Twitter account though, from your acting days. Good news is you don't have any racist or homophobic or derogatory statements on there. So, another check in the basic human decency category for you. I – "

"Bella," Edward interrupted with a laugh. "You don't have to defend everything you do. You're obviously better at this kind of thing than me."

I frowned at him. He had made it pretty clear I did have to defend most of my decisions. "What about the NDAs?"

"Irina came in pissed, which pissed me off. And I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

"Oh," I sighed. So he wasn't trying to defend her? "Well, you should probably still know that I, um, sent an NDA to all of the six."

Nothing to stun the butterflies in to submission like remembering the six drop dead gorgeous women he had been with in the last few years.

"Six?" Edward asked, frowning at me.

"The six, uh, women. From your list."

"Ah. Understandable," he muttered, handing my phone back to me.

"Everything I've done so far has been kind of… damage control. I know you don't want a life open to public scrutiny, but you're going to have to be a little more open so they see you and not the guy you've been showing them the last few years."

"And I'm sure in that notebook of yours you've got a plan for that."

I relaxed into the chair. This was the kind of conversation I was comfortable with. It was easy to talk to him about why he needed to expand his online presence, and it was comforting to see him lean in every once in a while and nod because he was paying attention.

When I was done with that portion of my spiel, he handed me his phone with a newly installed Instagram app. I smiled and quickly logged him in.

"Don't go crazy with it, though," I warned. Not that I saw him doing anything with it, really. But it needed to be said.

"I'll try to control myself," he laughed.

"I also…" I started, unsure what his reaction was going to be to my other admission. "Nothing is confirmed, yet. Not until you agree you want to do it. But, I talked to Garrett."

"Garrett, my agent?"

"Yes. Anyway, as long as you're interested, we can get you booked to host Saturday Night Live in three weeks. The season finale. And they want you to help write the episode."

His eyebrows shot up. Hopefully in a good way.

"They don't let hosts write."

I shrugged. "You're not a regular host."

When he told me a few days ago he lost his passion for writing his own show when he got too busy, I tried to think of a way to help him get that back. I couldn't force him to make time to write his show. But, I could give him some kind of inspiration to get back in to it. I thought getting him in a writer's room, with fresh faces and ideas might help.

It also helped that it was excellent exposure for his new and improved personality.

"You'd have to be in New York for at least a week, maybe closer to a week and a half. I know you do periodic breaks from your show – "

"Book it," Edward interrupted, eyes shining and… happy.

My butterflies took that happiness to be directed at them, even though I knew better.

"Okay," I smiled. "Good. I think that's all I have for now, then."

I started packing up my things, smiling a bit to myself because things were going much more smoothly than I first imagined. Yes, my butterflies were distracting sometimes but I now had a genuine urge to help Edward. Not because I had dreams about him or because he was the most handsome man I had ever seen.

He was good at his job, and he just got lost. Life got in his way and that was something pretty much everyone in the world could understand. Everyone got distracted and grumpy and hated going to work in the morning sometimes. His bad days just always ended with filming a television show.

I wanted to get him back on his feet because he deserved it. He was good to his employees. I talked to basically everyone in the building the last week and no one had a single bad thing to say about him. He put his children above his own happiness, watching his wife live with another man so they didn't have to hear stories about them in the news. He was good and kind and deserved to be known for it.

Standing from my seat, I looked up and saw Edward staring at me. His eyes were unreadable, but didn't leave me. Even when I caught him staring.

"What?" I asked, suddenly terrified I had lipstick on my teeth or a stain on my clothes.

Edward cleared his throat and stood quickly. "Nothing. Here, let me carry your bag."

He took it from me before I could protest.

"Jesus, what do you have in here?"

"Everything I would need in case of an emergency," I shrugged, glad to be free from his distracting hand on my waist as we walked out of his room and down the stairs.

"Like an axe?" he joked.

I rolled my eyes. "Not that kind of emergency. It's just my laptop, chargers, backup chargers, phones…"

"Oh, good, you're done! Bella, you're joining us for the bar-b-que, right?" Alice asked, skipping around the corner to us.

"No, I don't want to intrude on your family time," I answered quickly. I was surprised they were all still here. I checked my phone quickly, surprised it was already nearing five. We had been talking a lot longer than I realized. "I have some work to do, too."

"Well, your work is Edward and he's going to be outside at the grill," Alice shrugged, snatching my bag from Edward's hand and skittering off.

"Hey," I snapped at Edward, though my voice was embarrassingly high-pitched. "I leave you in charge of my bag for two minutes and you let it get stolen?"

Edward shrugged, attempting to look as innocent as possible. "I'm impressed she could carry it. What with the laptops and chargers and backup chargers."

"You're going to be thankful for the backup charger one day," I countered.

"Oh, I have no doubt. You should stay, though. It's just dinner, then I'm sure Alice will give you your bag back." He had the nerve to wink at me as he walked away. The butterflies in my stomach really gave me no choice but to stay.

-B-

Dinner with Edward and his family was possibly the farthest I had ever been out of my comfort zone. I didn't do big families or parties or anything. My entire life since I was eighteen consisted of school and work. And Rose. I didn't have funny stories to tell or witty anecdotes to add in.

My formative years left me with the mindset that my opinions, my needs, and my input were unimportant. Hell, even my safety. Nothing about me was of consequence to anyone and it took me a good year of Rosalie pestering me for information to realize that she might like me at all.

So, witnessing a family gathering where Esme was completely engrossed in the story Lucy was telling her about her friends at school, where Jasper and Masen discussed the merits of what I could only guess was maybe a car engine, and where Carlisle tried to convince Alice to let him choose her wardrobe for a week was more than a little mind boggling.

I sat awkwardly at the counter beside Edward as he grilled a plate full of meat from burgers to brats to hotdogs. There was a small little outdoor kitchen off to the side of his backyard, grill included.

I swirled my straw around the soda that had been put in front of me and kept my eyes on the beautiful landscape in front of me. That was, until that view was interrupted by Edward leaning across the counter in front of me.

"I'll make you a deal," he said, intertwining his fingers and resting his head on his hands.

His eyes were bright, his cheeks a little flushed from the heat of the grill, and his hair its usual mess. Looking at him made me want things. Some things I didn't even know what they were, but I wanted them.

"A deal?"

"If you answer three questions, I'll take a picture of myself grilling and use whatever cheesy caption you want and put it on Instagram."

My mouth fell open. "You'll take a selfie?"

A look of pure disgust crossed his face, making me giggle. "Christ, don't put it like that. But, yes. If you answer three questions."

It was quite the intriguing offer. "Three questions about what?"

"Yourself."

"Oh." That was a deal breaker. "You didn't learn enough about me during your research?"

Edward smiled at me, making my butterflies ecstatic. "I only got the basics. I like details."

"Um." I took a sip of my soda for a distraction. The last thing I wanted to do was answer questions about myself, but the idea of Edward somewhat voluntarily using his Instagram was too good to pass up. "What are your questions?"

Edward checked the food on the grill quickly before resuming his spot in front of me.

"What made you go in to public relations?"

I nodded to myself. That was a question I could handle. "I like thinking ahead and trying to figure out how people are going to react to something. And I like solving other people's problems."

Edward nodded, his second question already prepared. "What do you do in your free time? Any hobbies?"

I shrugged. "I don't have much free time. I get up, go to the gym, then work."

"The gym can be a hobby," he mused, eyes still on me.

"It's more of an… anger management technique for me," I admitted before I could stop myself. It was the eyes. They were like little sparkling forests that dazzled me in to saying every thought that floated through my head, no matter how closely guarded the secret was. They were dangerous.

Edward's voice was soft and inquisitive when he asked his next question. "What has you so angry?"

"Pass."

His head jerked back a bit, surprised at my answer. "You don't get a pass."

"I think I should. Just one." I was hoping he couldn't hear how desperate I was for the pass in my voice.

"Okay," he nodded. "How was your date?"

My brows shot up, surprised that was what he was using his last question on. Not that I was all that interesting in the first place. It just seemed odd. "It was okay, I guess."

"You guess?"

I could have made an argument that his questions were up, but it was surprisingly refreshing to talk to someone. Have someone who wasn't Rosalie be even remotely interested in something about me.

"I'm not great at the whole dating thing," I admitted.

Edward was about to say something else when a timer went off beside him. We both seemed to wake up from the odd distracted haze between us and quickly get back to reality.

We ended up at the outdoor dinner table after a few more minutes. I sat at the end of the table, opposite of the end Edward was sitting at. Alice and Carlisle were on either side of me, and I spent the entire time wondering why it was that I answered anything Edward ever asked of me.

He tore down every carefully crafted wall I had around myself without seeming to try. Maybe they were just getting weaker over time. Whatever it was, his eyes on me throughout the whole dinner didn't help the issue.

A/N: We're getting there… let me know what you're thinking! See you Wednesday!