I know, I know...We all HATE Tanya. This chapter is a little short, but I wanted to give you a little idea of what Bella and Edward were thinking the day after the horrible date. Hope you enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight or anything associated with it.

"He did WHAT?" Rosalie growled, nearly tearing clothes off of the rack we were browsing through in her anger.

"He danced with her. To our song," I repeated calmly, snatching a few dresses out of Rosalie's hands and placing them back on the rack.

"I can't believe you let him," she turned to me, pointing her finger at me accusingly.

"Well I didn't think he actually would!" I defended myself, "I mean, shouldn't he just know that I wanted him to keep dancing with me? Even if I said it was okay?"

Alice, who had been searching through a rack nearby decided to join the conversation. She sighed and looked at me with pity in her eyes, "Oh, Bella...Haven't you figured it out yet? Men are completely clueless to things like that."

Rosalie was still grumbling beside me, "He still should have known better. Emmett knows good and well that half of the things I 'give him permission' to do, I don't really want him to do. And if he does them, he won't enjoy things later."

"I do the same with Jasper, although no one has really been bold enough to approach him when I'm around. Maybe you should just test Edward some more, see if he learned his lesson."

I looked at Alice like she was crazy, "You want me to what? Test him without him knowing?"

Alice nodded and Rosalie stopped grumbling long enough to agree with her.

"You have got to be kidding," I scoffed, "There is no way that I would do that. Its not fair to him."

"Well the least you could do is condition him a bit just in case the situation happens again," Rosalie offered.

"Are you suggesting training him?" I was appalled at my friends today. When did they turn into a male obedience school?

"Just so it doesn't happen again."

I sighed, looking through the racks of clothes. Even though I told Edward that everything was okay, it was still eating me alive inside that Tanya had the guts to disrupt our date. She knew Edward and I were together, that we loved each other, and she still wanted to try and get between us. That was obvious. How Edward did not notice that was beyond me.

I know it wasn't necessarily fair of me not to tell him that I was still upset, but I figured he understood and would make more of an effort to stay away from Tanya the next time around. It didn't help that he had a lesson with her on Monday, but he was always professional with his students. He was friendly, but never actually crossed the line and became good friends. That fact alone kept me sane, knowing he would be alone with Tanya for an hour in two days.

He still felt guilty for upsetting me. I all but sobbed openly in his car last night, and I could tell that truly hurt him. More than the fact that it seemed as though I didn't trust him. I do trust him. Its Tanya that I don't really care for. He knows this now, and I'm praying that he will be cautious from now on. I don't think I could take much more of a roller coaster the next few days.

When he dropped me off at my apartment he kissed me sweetly and told me he would understand if I didn't want him to come inside. My first thought was to tell him to go home right away, let him think about tonight and what went wrong. The other, more forgiving and Edward-hungry side of me wanted him to come and keep me company for a while. I invited him in, letting him know he couldn't stay but I just wanted him to lay with me for a while.

And for the next hour that's what we did. He tucked me into bed and stroked my hair while we just talked about everything under the sun. It reminded me a lot of the conversations we used to have when we first got together, in our lunch dates in my office. When I started drifting to sleep, I reminded him he had to leave. As much as I wanted him to stay, I knew I had a lot to think about.

What upset me so much about Tanya? Why was I so threatened by her? Was it her obvious interest in Edward? Her looks? Her confidence?

I decided it was a combination of all three, and when I confided in Alice this morning she was outraged. "Bella," she said, "You are coming with me today. We're going shopping and I'm going to show you how beautiful and desirable you are. Tanya shouldn't make you feel inadequate. You should be the one threatening her!"

It was hopeless to argue, so here I was, shopping for a few choice outfits with Alice and Rosalie for the day. Rosalie had run off to try on the dresses I had snatched from her earlier. She claimed she was running low on dress clothes for work. I knew for a fact that she just never wanted to wear the same thing twice.

A ringing from my purse pulled me from my thoughts. Debussy filled the air and I smiled, knowing it was Edward.

"Hi, you." I grinned into the phone.

"Hey, beautiful. How are you?"

I could hear noise in the background, "I'm good. Shopping with Alice. Where are you?"

"I'm at the park with Emmett and Jasper. They called to play some football. Listen, what are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know, the girls haven't mentioned anything. Why?" I was both excited and nervous about potential plans with Edward. Even though last night ended sweetly, the rest of it was a disaster and I was still a little shell shocked.

"I want to take you somewhere. Somewhere fun, nothing serious. Just you and me, going on a date, acting our age."

"For the second time this week? Jeez Edward, I don't know," I responded sarcastically, "I kinda like acting like an adult."

He chuckled at me, "What do you say? Are you up for it?"

I thought for a moment before realizing I was being silly. Why wouldn't I want to spend the night with Edward? Silly, Bella. "Of course. I'll see you tonight."

"Be ready by 5:00. I love you."

"You, too." I flipped my phone closed and searched the store for Alice. It seemed like we had a lot of preparing to do for tonight.

EPOV

I hung up the phone will Bella and turned back to the guys, throwing my hands up to signal I was up for another pass. I was glad when Emmett had called to suggest football in the park. It was a rare sunny day and I wanted to take full advantage of it. Plus, I needed some advice about last night. Emmett and Jasper were able to handle two of the most high maintenance women on the planet; I was pretty sure they could help me out with Bella.

Upsetting her last night had nearly torn me apart. Having her sobbing in my arms was almost unbearable and I wanted to do anything I could to prevent that from happening again. I was just as surprised as she was that Tanya showed up last night, and actually had the nerve to ask to cut in on our dance. When Bella told me it was okay to dance with Tanya I was shocked, but I knew it would be rude to refuse Tanya after Bella gave permission right in front of her.

I should have known that it wasn't what Bella wanted me to do, but I was so surprised that I don't think I could have formed the words to say "No, thank you."

Monday could take its sweet time arriving as far as I was concerned. An afternoon with Tanya was not very high on my list of priorities. The fact that Bella was uncomfortable with it made me less eager as well. I still couldn't see why she was so upset about Tanya, though.

Could she not see that I only had eyes for her? Was there really any way for me to show her, to make her believe me, other than telling her every day? It hurt me that I even had to worry about Bella trusting me. I guess that was just something we had to work on.

Emmett and Jasper could tell my mind was somewhere else and they ended our game quickly, handing me a bottle of water and motioning for me to sit down. "Okay, spill," Jasper said, sensing my distress.

I sighed, not about to deny that I was struggling, "Bella and I had a fight last night. A pretty big one."

"Go on," Jasper nudged. Emmett began doing crunches while he was laying down in the grass.

"A new girl showed up at the institute yesterday wanting to take piano lessons. She's probably a year or two younger than Bella and I. She requested to take lessons from me and Bella is uncomfortable with her being around, I think she feels threatened by her. Anyway...She showed up on our date last night."

Emmett froze mid crunch and looked at me, letting a low whistle leave his mouth.

"I didn't want to be rude, so I invited Tanya to sit with us. I didn't think she actually would."

Emmett was shaking his head, knowing where this was going, "No man...No."

I nodded, "She sat with us. It was the most uncomfortable dinner I have ever had to sit through. And then when I got up to dance with Bella at the end, Tanya asked if she could cut in."

"You didn't let her, did you?" Jasper asked, slightly panicked.

"Well...Bella told me I could."

Both men groaned and fell back into the grass. "Edward," Emmett sighed, exasperated, "We have got to teach you a thing or two about these women."

Well, that couldn't be good. Clearly the test that Bella had issued last night was a common occurrence. I would have to take note of that.

"They never mean it when they tell you its okay...Not if you think it is something they wouldn't want you to do. Never mean it," Jasper clarified, sitting back up and looking at me seriously.

"I don't understand why she is so upset though," I threw my hands up in the air, "She freaked out on me because I wouldn't tell her what Tanya and I talked about."

Emmett and Jasper exchanged looks again.

"That was another bad idea, wasn't it?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"The worst."

I sighed, "But we didn't talk about anything important! She just said she was excited about piano lessons, that she'd already bought her book and couldn't wait for Monday. That was it. But I knew Bella would throw everything out of proportion because she was so upset."

I began picking at the grass around me, not wanting to look up and realize I'd made yet another mistake with Bella last night. Is there anything else I should have known before all of this happened? Any other secret tests I would be given?

"She wouldn't even let me stay with her last night," I mumbled.

Emmett shook his head sadly from side to side, "Rose did that to me a few times when we first started dating. That was before she trained me." He said the last part so casually that I had to laugh.

"Trained you?"

"Oh yeah," Jasper cut in, "She and Alice have it down to an art. She thinks we're oblivious to it. We just go along and do what they want us to do. Being around them when they are unhappy is like hell on wheels. Its best to just go with the flow."

I nodded before standing up and brushing the grass off of my shorts. "Well, I have another date with Bella tonight to make up for the disaster that last night turned in to. I'll catch you guys later."

They both wished me luck as I jogged back to my car. I had about an hour until I had to pick Bella up, so I had to work fast.

The entire time I was getting ready I was nervous. What if Tanya managed to show up again? I don't think Bella could handle that again. Of course, I knew how to handle the situation now, but that didn't help matters at all. What could I do to get her to just relax about the entire situation?

I swung by the florist and picked up an arrangement of wildflowers that I knew Bella would love and I was pretty confident that I could make things better tonight.

Nothing could have prepared me for what greeted me at the door of Bella's apartment.

Oooh, What is Edward met with? Review and I'll give you a sneak peak into the next chapter, and even try to throw something you want to see in the story!