Who's ready for some alone time?

December 7

Christmas music blares through the speakers of my iPhone dock as I sing along. Flour and dough are strewed from one end of my kitchen to the other, and the delicious smell of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies waft through the air. I've been baking since eight this morning.

Baking has always been one of my favorite things to do during Christmas time. Renee and I would get our pajamas on and bake everything we could think of and then stay up all night watching movies.

While the last batch of cookies cool, I'm carefully placing the other cookies into the Santa Claus tin when someone knocks on my door.

"Crap." I cringe as I look down at my flour covered leggings and oversized sweater. There's another knock so I rush over to the door hoping it's just Alice. Cracking it opened, I see a mess of coppery hair and my heart leaps. I quickly shut the door to unlock it and open it again.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" I step back so he can come in. He wraps his arms around me and gives me a soft kiss.

"I wanted to see you." My lips curve into a smile and I get up on my tiptoes to peck his lips again. "And I also wanted to ask you a question."

"Oh, okay what is it?"

He runs his hand through his hair. "Spend the day with me."

I smirk. "That's not a question."

He rolls his eyes, but he's smiling excitedly. "We can grab a quick lunch, then go ice skating, and end the day with a nice dinner." He sees me grimace. "What?"

"I would love to do that today, but you've seen how clumsy I am. Do you honestly think ice skating would be the best thing for me to do?"

With his arms still around me, he leans his face down brushing his nose against mine gently. "I won't let you fall." He whispers.

Before I can stop myself I say, "okay."

"Good let's go." He grabs my hand and pulls me to the door.

"Hold on." I say laughing. "Can I at least put on shoes?"

He smiles sheepishly. "That would probably be a good idea."

"Come here." I drag him to the couch. "Sit down, watch tv and let me finish these cookies. Then I'll got get ready so we can leave."

"Cookies?" He trails behind me into the kitchen. His tongue practically hanging out of his mouth like a dog.

"Yes cookies. I'm making them for work." He reaches for a chocolate chip cookie and I pop his hand. He grabs it anyway and stuffs it into his mouth.

"Hey those aren't for you." I scold him teasingly.

He swallows and grabs another one. "So good."

I chuckle and finish filling the tin up with cookies. Once I'm done, I place the lid back on and stick a pretty red bow on top.

Twenty minutes later, I've finished the other tin and Edward has eaten seven more cookies... that I know of. "I'm glad I made extra. You're a cookie pig." I poke his stomach.

"No you haven't seen pig yet. Make a batch of those peanut butter flake things–."

"Corn Flake Peanut Butter Cookies." I correct him.

"Yeah those. I can eat the whole pan. Although that could be because in our house if those were made you had a short period of time to get some before Dad sniffed them out. And once he did, it was over."

Laughing, I finish putting the bow on top of the last tin. "I'll have to make you your very own batch then." I wink at him.

"That's all I ask." He kisses my cheek.

After cleaning up my mess, I leave him to get dressed. Throwing my hair into a ponytail, I pull on my favorite pair of dark jeans, a warm cable knit sweater, and boots.

He's sitting on the couch when I tell him I'm ready to go. "Where's your coat? Do you have gloves?" He asks.

"Oh yeah. In the closet." Going back to my closet, I grab my coat, a scarf, ear muffs, and a pair gloves. "Now I'm ready." I say coming back into the living room. He shakes his head chuckling and grabs my hand.

We have a nice lunch at a little pizza place sharing a large pepperoni and sausage pizza, although I'm not able to eat much. My nerves have been on edge since we left the apartment. Edward on the other hand has been all but skipping around. He's so exited to go ice skating with me that I almost feel sorry for him... almost.

We arrive–far too quickly in my opinion– at the ice skating rink. He laces his fingers in mine when we get out of the car. I drag my feet all the way up to the building causing him to laugh.

"If you really don't want to do this we can leave."

I shake my head. "No, we can do it. But I can't promise I'll let go of you until we are off the ice." I warn him.

He smirks mischievously. "Then I'll be sure to keep you on the ice as long as possible."

After he helps me get the skates on my feet I practice walking around in them. "I think I'm doing pretty good right now. Why don't I just walk around on these while you go skate?"

He looks up from his skates he's lacing up. "I'll carry you around if I have to, but you're getting on the ice one way or another." He finishes and stands up holding his arms out to me.

I back away a little. "Fine. I'll go." I grumble.

Following closely behind him, I carefully step onto the ice. I'm happy to find out keeping my balance isn't so hard when I'm holding onto the side but then he makes me let go and skate out with him.

One of my skates wobble underneath me, and I tighten my grip on his hands almost painfully.

"Look at me." Edward says. I keep my eyes trained on my feet and shake my head. "Bella. Please look at me." I glance quickly at him and back to my feet. Next thing I know his arms are circled around me and he puts a finger on my chin so I have to look at him. "Just watch me and follow what I do. I'm holding onto you. I promise I won't let go."

I snort. "Coming from the man who first met me by knocking me down."

"I'll never live that down." He groans.

"Nope." I giggle backing away from him. "Okay, teach my how to ice skate."

Three hours later, Edward guides me off of the ice rink and I plop down onto the bench and immediately release my feet from the confines of those horrible skates. I never want to move again.

"That's was good. The next time we come you'll be even better." He grins.

"Ha. Next time?" I pull on my boots, grab the skates and go turn them in.

I can hear him following behind me, and when I get in line he puts an arm around my waist. Instinctually I lean back against him feeling relaxed despite every muscle in my body being tense. He kisses my head and I decide right then that if he wants to come back I'll do it. I'm coming to realize I'll just about do anything for him. That's a little bit of a scary thought when we barely know each other, but standing here with his arms around me, it doesn't feel like we just met. It feels like I've found something I didn't know I was missing.

He nudges me and I realize the line has already moved quite a bit. "Sorry." I mutter.

Since we still have a while before dinner, I convince him to stop at the store before going back to my apartment. Making him stay in the car was a job but he finally agrees and I run in grabbing everything I need for the corn flake peanut butter cookies. We get home, I ask him to stay in living room. He eyes me suspiciously but goes along with it turning on Netflix.

Keeping it a surprise is a little hard considering we can see each other from across the room but I somehow manage it. Not long after I get them in the oven, I hear him get off the couch. His footsteps get closer to the kitchen.

"Bella what are you doing?" I ignore him. He's standing on the other side of the bar smiling crookedly while watching me clean. "Am I smelling what I think I'm smelling?"

I shrug but I can't keep the smile off of my face.

He comes bounding around the bar and picks me up sitting me on the counter. He kisses me passionately. I giggle around his lips pulling back. "I wonder what you'll do when I make you your favorite dinner if this is what I get just for cookies." He silences me with more delicious kisses until the timer goes off. We spend the rest of the afternoon eating cookies and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.