There's a part here that I couldn't stop laughing at as I was writing it. XD

Enjoy! :D

-MW-

Chapter 7

"Goodbye – Miley Cyrus"

"White Horse – Taylor Swift"

"Take A Bow – Rihanna"

"Breakeven – The Script"

"Over It – Katharine McPhee"

Bella POV

"Do you love me?" His dark skin was still visible to me, even in the night.

"Yes," I said breathlessly.

"Will you give me another chance?"

I woke up to someone shaking me, making me unable to finish my daydream.

"Bella!"

"Huh… Wha… Where am I?"

"We're a few blocks from Swan Corp., stuck in traffic."

He was looking at me in a funny way.

"What?" I asked him.

"You looked like you were in pain," I took in a deep breath, "Are you alright, Bella?"

I was staring off at something outside the window.

"Edward, do you ever think about love?"

It was a while before he answered me.

"What do you mean?"

"You know… Love." I simply said, hoping he would understand what I was trying to say.

"I suppose so… What brought this on?"

"Jake…" I whispered.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's nothing, I'm sorry for asking in the first place."

He pulled my hand so I could look at him, and his eyes did that smoldering thing again.

"Please, Bella. I'd like to help."

"Jake." I answered him.

He raised his eyebrow, "No… Edward." He said pointing a finger to himself.

"No, I meant… You asked me, what brought this on. Jake. Jacob Black." I waited for him for some kind of reaction, but all I saw was Edward waiting patiently for me to continue.

"We met about a year after my father's funeral…"

-*-

He was working in the bank that day, and my assistant called in sick. So I decided to do some of the errands myself. I approached him for help, and then when I was about to leave, he asked me out.

"Friday, say, at 7?" he brilliantly smiled.

"Friday." I promised.

-*-

"We went on a lot more dates after that…"

-*-

He took me everywhere – amusement parks, fancy restaurants, movies, operas – you name it, he's brought me there.

I started getting worried after a while. We'd been going out so much I was worrying that he'd been spending so much on me.

"Don't worry about it, Bells," he said, "I've got it under control."

So I trusted him, but something still didn't feel right to me.

-*-

"After that, he went on this business trip. He didn't give me much detail, just that he'd call when he got back." I took a deep breath and continued,

"I didn't know when that was so I visited the bank one day, hoping to get some answers. But then his colleague, Seth, told me that he hasn't been coming in for a while."

-*-

"What?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, didn't he tell you? He got fired a while back. They gave me his job."

I couldn't believe it. I was in total shock.

That night, while we were out on another one of our expensive dates, I decided to confront him.

"Jake, how do you manage to pay for all of our dates?"

"What do you mean? I work at the bank, Bells." He said, smiling.

"I went there this morning, and I met Seth." That did it. He suddenly became quiet and was just staring at me.

"That's not right, Bells." He said, frowning.

"What? Not visiting my boyfriend?" I raised my voice.

He sighed and ran his hands over his face.

"Bells, let me explain…"

-*-

"What I should have done was left him there and just gone home."

"But?" Edward asked.

I sighed, "But I let him explain. He said that, yes, he'd been fired – that day I met him in the bank was his last, but he said also that he got a new job, hence the business trip to Seattle."

"So why didn't he just tell you that?" Edward asked again, this time I could feel something different in his voice. Anger?

"He said that he didn't want to bother me with it – "

"Bull." I had to laugh at this. I have never heard Edward curse at all, and this one time was priceless. But he wasn't laughing with me.

"So," he said slowly, "what happened then?"

"Then… All the problems started. We fought a lot, but he'd always keep calling be right back after and he left gifts for me in my office and at home. I thought it was very sweet at first, but then they got less and less, and eventually, they stopped coming.

"I thought that he was giving up on us already. I was pretty mortified at the time. But then I thought, what if he was finally coming to see me and apologize in person, right? That never happened. So, I went to his apartment, to see if I could still save our relationship."

-*-

I rang the doorbell and waited for him to open the door, but he didn't come. So I kept ringing the doorbell, until I grew impatient so I just got the spare key and let myself in.

"Jake?" I called out.

There was no answer.

I looked around his apartment and it looked like no one was there. Then I found a bunch of newspapers on his table, all of them had red circles on them. He was still looking for a job, and from what I could tell, the search wasn't going too well.

Then I heard muffled sounds and some giggling coming from his bedroom.

I walked to it, opened the door…

-*-

"And you can guess what happened next."I said quietly.

It was silent for a while between Edward and I. I didn't know if I should tell him the rest of the story, because that was the part I hated more than anything that happened between Jake and I.

If only I wasn't so weak at the time…

If only I told myself that I didn't need him in my life…

If only I told myself that I was better off without him…

If only I had realized at that time that he was a lying, cheating son of a –

"Are you alright?" Edward asked me.

I turned to him and this time, he looked like he was trying – with difficulty – to hold in something. His jaw was clenched so hard that I could see the tension in his neck and face, his eyes were narrowed and his lips were in a hard line.

He looked like he was about to get angry.

"Edward… You don't have to…"

But he cut me off by shaking his head at me.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and took deep breaths until he calmed down again, and I waited.

He sighed and turned to me.

And I sighed.

-*-

He was begging for my forgiveness, and apologizing… A lot.

He said that it was a mistake – he didn't know I'd be there and he knows what he did was wrong and that he was really sorry. He said he'd do anything to gain my trust in him back.

This is the part where I started to hate myself because I… took him back.

I was really lonely at the time, and breaking up with him meant losing another loved one in my life… I didn't want that to happen again.

And then he changed.

He didn't cheat anymore, but he wasn't the Jacob I once knew either.

He kept borrowing from me, mostly. Money, cars, connections, and he basically bummed around my house all the time.

I told myself that I was willing to share anything with him, because he said once before that he could see a future for us, that it wouldn't be easy, we'd have to work at it and it probably wouldn't be exactly what we imagined, but it was there, for us.

-*-

"So I believed him."

"Bella… Your future should be exactly what you imagine it to be, especially because you'd work hard for it. This Jacob kid certainly knew nothing about the future."

I smiled at him.

"Thank you, Edward."

"It's true." He smiled at me.

"So, you believed him…?"

-*-

And then all my money started to disappear. Not drastically, though it was enough to make me worry. I didn't need so much money, but I wasn't going to let my trust fund go down the drain. My father worked hard to give me that.

"Jake, could you perhaps lessen the street racing? I don't think my insurance can handle so much damage."

"Relax, Bells!" he said a little slurred, raising the beer he had in his hand, "The damage isn't that bad! It's fun! Besides, you could always get a new car, right?"

"Right…" I said, not believing him.

"Jake, it's not just the cars. The credit card company's telling me that I'm over my limit already? I just paid my bill two weeks ago!"

"Uh, yeah, I needed a vacation."

"In the Armani retail store?!"

"I can't go on a vacation without some new threads, Bells! Besides, I don't have as much clothes as you do!"

"Jacob," I only used his whole name when I was really mad, "Alice is a fashion designer and my best friend. She's been giving me samples since we were 13!"

"Really? Maybe I should give her a call…"

"JACOB!"

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!"

I exhaled sharply. I was at the end of my rope.

"Jacob, you can't keep spending like this, especially since it's not even your money to begin with! I still have a business to run!"

"Why not just sell the damn thing and retire?" he asked, nonchalantly.

"JACOB BLACK!"

"I'm sorry!! Bells, do you really think you can handle this by yourself??"

"I have been for some time now, in case you haven't noticed!"

He suddenly hugged me tightly to his chest and whispered in my ear,

"I'm sorry," it did sound like he was sincere. "I'm just… in a slump. I'm not used to having to share so much money. I promise it won't happen again."

I sighed.

"Jake, you said we'd have a future together. But we can't live on dreams and promises. We have to face reality too."

"I know, I know…"

I pulled back and looked him in the eyes. I could see some of the old Jacob from when we first met, I smiled. I was glad to have him back.

"Do you love me?" he asked me.

"Yes…" I said breathlessly.

"Will you give me another chance?"

-*-

And then I dumped him.

"Wow… I thought you said you were glad to have him back?"

"I was."

"What happened?"

I shrugged.

"Too little, too late. And Leah, the girl he cheated on me with, called a few minutes later saying that she was pregnant. I kicked him out that night."

"I'm glad you did."

I giggled at him.

"Well, it's true! No woman, especially one such as yourself, should be treated that way."

"Thank you." I said, smiling at him. Edward really had a way with words, "I'm sorry, by the way."

"For what?" he looked at me quizzically.

"Alice told me that you lost someone you loved as well…"

He looked thoughtful for a moment and looked at me with his crooked grin.

"Thank you. Although, I've moved on."

This time, I looked at him quizzically.

"I loved Tanya, I still do, but I've grieved enough. And I think she knows that too. So we both let each other go, in a sense."

I didn't say anything, and the silence that fell upon us was comforting.

R&R! :)

-MW-