Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the characters. I'm borrowing them.

Surprise!

It's not terribly long and it's more of a teaser than anything, but I think you'll all enjoy it. ;)

Thank you all for sticking around and leaving reviews after all this time – I truly don't deserve any of you and appreciate you all more than you know. I'm absolutely aiming to keep going, so here's hoping that I can update again soon! I love you guys!

As always, thanks to Shae who has put up with me since somewhere around 2009 without fail.

*Edward*

I grabbed my phone from the end table in my parents' living room, watching as my father attempted to light a fire while my mother insisted she needed s'mores, and sighed quietly.

I'd exiled myself from the bowling alley party because Tanya had mentioned that she was going to be there and with the way my body seemed to literally crackle when I was around Bella lately, I didn't want to take any chances. I didn't want to be away from Bella and the rest of our friends on New Year's. I wanted to be at the bowling alley, watching Rose make a fool out of herself, laughing at Emmett when his face turned purple because drunk Rose was driving sober Emmett insane, internally drooling over Bella when she merely flipped her hair over her shoulder… I wanted to be there for all of that, and I had no one but myself to blame.

My parents had decided to spend the holiday at home instead of going to the town community center like they usually did every New Year, and I suspected it had a lot to do with me deciding to stay home as well. Apparently, I was in too fragile a state to be left alone.

What had my life become?

"No, Carlisle, just use the fire starter!" my mother insisted, sighing heavily. "It's easier than all this newspaper!"

"So we can litter the earth some more with all this waste? Not a chance, Esme."

She threw the chocolate bars on the coffee table and turned to me, crossing her arms and glaring at me.

"I have no say in this!" I immediately defended myself, holding my hands up in innocence.

"This is madness!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands out at her sides before disappearing into the kitchen.

I snickered and finally unlocked my screen, sighing heavily when I saw Emmett's text about how Bella was going to kill the both of them. A few seconds after I replied to question him about why, he sent me a picture and my jaw dropped.

She looked absolutely gorgeous.

The mid-thigh navy sequined dress fit her like a glove and even the bored look on her face didn't detract from how absolutely beautiful she was. I was too busy ogling her to notice the man in the picture at first but when I did, my pulse spiked.

What did this mean? Was she looking for a way out of our agreement already? Why didn't she tell me that she wanted to see someone else, or start dating again? I know we hadn't had a lot of time together lately, but it doesn't take too long to send a text stating that things were over with us.

Why did that bother me? That was the agreement.

I worried my lip ring, still staring at the picture when Emmett sent me another text.

Emmett:

Bella asked Rose if we knew anyone to set her up with for the holiday and for whatever reason, this scumbag was the first one she thought of.

Me:

He looks revolting.

Emmett:

He is.

I sighed and set the phone off to the side, watching as my father finally got the fire going and ran off to get my mother and show her. An outsider would think they'd never used the damn thing before, much less lived in the same house for the entirety of my life.

I'd opened my text messages and stared at Bella's name for the better part of the night, not wanting to be the killjoy in her night if she was actually enjoying that guy's company. The picture Emmett had sent me didn't support that thought, but when alcohol was involved, at some point everyone started having a great time.

So I spent the rest of the night trying to fend off my mother force-feeding me poorly constructed s'mores and doing my absolute best not to run back to my bedroom and hide there until the morning when all of this foolishness would be over and Bella and I could go back to how things were.

Wait.

Would we be able to? What if she liked that guy? What if she wanted to stop seeing me to be with him?

Hold up.

We were just friends. Regardless of having really great sex occasionally, we would always be friends.

What if this messed everything up? What if sleeping with her would push her away and she'd never want to talk to me again? Or found it uncomfortable to talk to me after she started dating someone else?

I didn't want to lose a friend over this.

I didn't want to lose Bella.

Fuck, what had we done?

I jumped when my phone rang and sighed, excusing myself as I walked out of the room and started up the stairs, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Hey, Emmett."

"Dude, I think you should get down here."

His tone made me stop dead in my tracks, my heart picking up speed. "Why?"

"Bella just had to fight off her date and now she's outside."

"She had to—what?"

It felt like my heart completely stopped and I curled my free hand into a fist. No one touched her against her will and for fuck's sake, why wasn't anyone around to save her from him?

"He was trying to get her to go home with him and according to Roger, he wouldn't take no for an answer. I guess he got handsy but was too drunk and ended up falling over, thankfully."

My vision went red, I was pretty sure of it, and I had to calm myself down before I asked the next question – through my teeth.

"Is she okay?"

"She says she is, but I think you should come. Everyone else is too drunk and I'm scared to leave Rose."

"Where the hell are Alice and Jasper? Mike? Anyone else?" I barked as I took the rest of the steps two at a time and barged into my bedroom.

"Drunk."

"And you? I know you're focused on Rose, but Jesus, dude. Bella is our friend," I snapped out, jumping around as I attempted to put my boots on without dropping the phone.

"I was in the bathroom. Even sober people have to piss every once in a while."

I rolled my eyes, grabbing my keys from my bedside table once I finally got my shoes on, not bothering to tie them.

Logically, I knew that Bella could take care of herself but it didn't stop the knot in my stomach and all the questions and terrifying scenarios that were flashing through my head.

"I'll be there in twenty."

I hung up before he could respond, threw an excuse over my shoulder at my parents, grabbed my coat from the hallway and leaped outside before any more questions could be hurled my way. I sped the entire way there, nervously glancing at the clock and impatiently tapping my fingers against the steering wheel every time I hit a red light.

I ignored damn near everyone when I walked in, my eyes on Emmett as he sat at a table near the stage.

"Is she still outside?" I asked, barely stopping on my way towards the sliding doors.

"She doesn't have a coat," he confirmed.

Great. She's gonna freeze to death.

I dug through the pile of coats on the rack by the fireplace, finally finding hers. Why Emmett hadn't thought to bring her hers was beyond me – most of this night seemed to be beyond me, anyway.

I made my way outside, my eyes on her completely. She was amazing and beautiful and the way the light bounced off her cheeks when she turned towards the parking lot nearly took my breath away. She seemed to be two seconds from playing the incident off as nothing and I can't say I wasn't relieved when she ran into my arms and held on for dear life. I could feel her, hear her breathing, see that she was physically unharmed and my heart rate finally slowed.

I didn't want to leave her side for the rest of the night. I also didn't want her to think that everything was just about getting laid, and I made sure to tell her that before she told me to be still and I lost all sense. She was sensual and sexy and everything I never knew she could be but had occasionally dreamed about.

I know I'd been with Tanya for 12 years, but it didn't mean that I didn't occasionally look at other women. I'd had a few fantasies about Bella, sure, but never in a million years was I going to jeopardize my relationship with Tanya on a fantasy. Never in a million years did I think that I'd be in this position with anyone else to begin with because Tanya had been my end game.

Then there was Christmas Eve and Bella and when our lips connected, I'd felt something I'd only heard about from other people. That spark, that electricity that zinged through my entire body when we'd accidentally kissed had been a sensation that was completely foreign to me before that night. Maybe I shouldn't have asked for more; maybe I shouldn't have suggested more or suggested this stupid friends with benefits shit because Bella deserved more and I knew it, but I didn't want to lose that feeling.

Not after feeling what I didn't realize had been missing from my relationship with Tanya, not after questioning everything that I hadn't realized had been going wrong with our entire relationship from the beginning and definitely not after accepting that there could be something more than what I had with someone I'd never given serious thought to having more with.

I knew I was walking a thin line, but I wouldn't have asked Bella to just keep it as platonic as we could if I didn't think we could make it work this way. She was one of my best friends; there was no way it would change things that much.

Then she asked me to make love to her and I couldn't move for a minute, no matter the position we'd been in. That was entirely different than what we had been doing; that entailed softness and emotion that I wasn't sure I was capable of giving to her. That had been the deal when we started this – no emotions, just sex.

I felt her damn near stop breathing and when she buried her face in my chest, I blew out a deep breath.

It had been a hell of a night for both of us – what harm could a little softness and slowness do?

So we made love and somewhere along the way, a wall fell down and blinders were removed from my eyes and now…

Now I was fucked.