A/N: Okay so I completely understand that's been like a month since I last updated but allow me to explain. Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous note but I've been moving. I also recently got back from D.C. and the internet and cable have just been installed in my new apartment. A month too late I know. I had this chapter finished a while ago so I reedited in my time of no access to the outside world. I really hope it's worth waiting for. Please Enjoy!

Summary of Ch 25: Edward caught the flu and Bella kissed him unconsciously. She went to the extreme out of pure shock and decided in her head that she had raped him. Once again, to the extreme.

Chapter Twenty Six

*Edward's POV*

Bella called in sick the next day from work and immediately my day began to drag. I was feeling a lot better with her help and wondered if I had passed on the nasty bug that had left me mindless for a full twenty hours. Maybe I should check on her? I thought to myself seated behind my desk. I had gotten little to no work done since I had arrived and it was just past eleven. I swiveled in my chair to face the floor to ceiling glass windows, taking in my view of the busy city below.

I didn't remember much of what happened yesterday besides the fact that Bella had come at all. Many things where still foggy but what burn bright in my mind was the dream that I had felt Bella's lips on mine. And even though it had felt so real I knew it had to have been a dream because that was something Bella would never do. I wished she would but wishing wasn't going to be enough for this girl. She just didn't see herself the way that I did. The fascinatingly breathtaking women she was.

After spending half the day contemplating I decided that would I check on her, just to make sure she was okay. I was lying to myself now, not that I wasn't worried but many assistants in the past had called in sick and I had never felt the need to make a personal appearence at there place. The sad truth was, I wasn't sure I could go even one day without seeing Bella. Seeing her every morning had become quite quickly of the higlights of my day. I had to see her, not for her but for my sanity. So with that thought passed I got down to work. I had a lot of end of the year settlements to make and tax season wasn't too far in the future.

*End Edwards POV*

Seated in my dark room, I still couldn't drive my mind to think about anything but the mistake that had happened only a few hours a hour ago. It was black outside but it was early. Early enough for me to still make it to work. I wanted to go just to give my brain something to do but I dreaded seeing Edward. I was almost sure that he wouldn't remember yesterday but there was small percentage that was so dominant in my head that it made me call out. Naturally he would believe that he'd gotten me sick and at this point I wouldn't of have the courage to deny it. If I had spoken with him. But no, I was too chicken to even hear his voice, like the words 'I raped you' would come falling out of my mouth. Of course it wouldn't have been the first time. It was almost as if I was making kissing him unwillingly a to-do thing.

So instead of calling Edward, I relied on my good friend. Angela was worried about me but she gladly accepted my request to let Edward know I wasn't going to be coming in today. After a few deep breaths and a couple of motivational whispers to myself I got up to start my day.

Since nothing was physically wrong with me, today was a great day to catch on some laundry and True Blood re-runs.

It was late in the morning and I was making myself a bowl of ramen noodles when I heard my door bell ring. My first thought that it was Alice paying me a visit but then realized that not even Alice knew I was home. Still Alice was full of surprises. So with a fork in one hand and baffled curiosity I trailed over to my door. I pulled it open with a grin.

"It's a little early for you to be knocking on my door," I stated.

"Oookay. I'll just come back later." Jacob stated a large goofy grin plastered on his tanned face.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Jacob?" I asked wide eyed. Was he really here right now? His smiled widened.

"The one and only."

I jumped into him for a hug, throwing my arms around him. Jacob wasn't a small guy. Six feet, seven inches, if I remembered correctly and he picked me up almost accidentally as he hugged me back. It felt like ages since I had seen him. It felt good to hug his nostalgic body. I was hugging him with all the strength I could muster. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him until now. Until I'd smelt him.

"Wow," he chuckled. "Did you miss me that much?" He was joking but he honestly had no idea. I couldn't answer, I was already choking back tears. I felt him relax beneath me and I knew that he understood. He knew that I just wanted to hold onto him, if only for a moment. I took take three.

So for three minutes, with my legs dangling above the ground he let me hold him.

Jacob was more than a friend. He was part of where I got my strength. I needed him to survive. And even though it had been months seen I'd felt so close to him, in less than a thirty seconds, life had returned to being easy, free. It all because of who Jacob was. You just couldn't help being happy when he was around. He was like my own personal sun who warmed me from the inside out.

Inside my apartment now, I help Jacob bring his things in. It wasn't more than a small duffle bag, but I was sure he had everything he'd need.

"Sorry about that," I apologized closing the door behind him. I hadn't really meant to latch on to him like a starving leech in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.

"Don't worry about it, surprised me that's all." He grinned. He took this time to look around, as I rushed to the stove to turn it off otherwise I'd burn down the loft before I got to show it to Jacob.

"So this is how people live in the big city." He glanced through my things, at the few photos I had up. He'd seen most of them before.

"This is how I live," I answered. And even though I knew that it was real, that he was for sure here I couldn't help believing that my head was playing a nasty trick on to teach me a lesson. To repay me for ditching work today.

"Yes Bella, I 'm really here," I glanced up and Jacob was looking at me. Had I spoken out loud?

"I know, what I don't get is why?," I asked as I poured the hot water over the uncooked noodles.

"Why?" He clutched the place over his heart as if someone had hit him there. "That hurts, Bells," I laughed. He was such a drama king sometimes. He smiled before he took a relaxed seat on a bar stool, over looking the sink.

"The truth is my best friend upped and moved to this God forsaken pla- what's that?"

"What?" I asked, placing the empty pot into other side of the sink. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the meal I was preparing.

"Noodles, why?" I glanced at him.

"Are we still in college? Come on!"

"What? These saved us a couple of time when neither of us had any money." I reminded.

"No, I had money I just didn't want you to feel bad." It was probably true. Jacob fixed cars for a living and back then everyone needed there car fixed including me. Old Red and I wouldn't have made it without him.

I pushed him away playfully. This was the reason I loved Jacob the most. It was so easy to be with him, effortless. It didn't matter if I talked to him every day or if I hadn't for weeks, when we were together we reverted back to the days when we inseparable.

"Well I just flew 6 hours to get here, I'm starving and I'm not eating that. If I wanted to eat half cooked pasta I would have stayed home," I chuckled at his mini rant.

"Why didn't you just eat on the plane?" I asked stirring the noodles so they would cook evenly.

Jacob cocked his head to side in a way that made me smile even before the words came out of his mouth.

"Have you seen me? Now picture me getting full on a happy meal at McDonalds."

I laughed, much like I hadn't in awhile. It would take at least six of those kids meals to out a smile on Jacob.

"Now are you going to feed me?" He eyed me. What choice did I have now when he put it that way.

"Fine!" I dropped everything in the sink, and moved towards my bed room to change. "Beside there's this place that I think you'll like."

I took him to lunch at the Greek resturant that Edward had taken me too a few times. Surprisingly Jacob liked it. Ordered about four Gyro's but appeared rather happy when we left. It was a great time to catch up on how our lives had been since the last time we'd spoken, but he did end up asking the one question I hadn't wanted to answer.

Why I hadn't gone to work?

Immediately Jacob read my face, and knew that something was up with me. I didn't want to talk about it at first, but eventually with a few manipulating words from my best friend, I spilling myself about what had happened only yesterday. But for some reason when ever I mentioned Edward, I started grinning like a silly highschooler. Jacob picked up on that but didn't comment on it much. He basically stuck to the topic I wanted to forget.

"You didn't really rape him Bella," he stated, grinning like Cheshire cat. "You know that right?"

We were walking back to my apartment and for it to be just after one, Brooklyn was quite busy.

"I know," I staggered beside him. "But I feel like I took advantage of him." I couldn't put into words how horrible I felt about the "incident".

"Bella," Jacob groaned.

"Okay okay," I admitted. "I didn't rape him." In my head I knew what I'd done couldn't be called rape and of course I hadn't. I knew that. Beside it was like Jacob had said. Edward had been so out of it that he'd probably hadn't even known. Plus it was time to move on. Jacob was here and should enjoy that. He was only in town for a few short days and I needed to enjoy this time with him.

I took Jacob on a short tour of my side of town staying far away from Manhattan, not wanting to chance anyone from work seeing me. I was suppose to be sick after all. And for a few hours I got to forget everything and just enjoy being me.

It was a little after four when Jacob pulled open the door to my apartment building just as someone was come out.

"Oh my bad," Jacob apologized. Of course my face went pale and the air in my lungs got trapped in my throat. I was just thinking about not getting caught and the one person whom I really didn't want to see was coming out of my apartment.

He didn't notice me right away as I was half hidden behind Jacob but when he moved to pull the door open for me Edward's eyes caught mine.

"Bella?" I wasn't sure if he sounded surprised or just confused.

"Uh..." My brain simply froze.

At that moment things began to run together. I had spent half the day avoiding the upper side and here he was standing in front of me, still dressed for work. He was holding two bags of groceries and suddenly everything made sense. I saw Jacob move from the corner of eye, he watched me and then turned to Edward, then back to me again. Next he smiled.

"By the horrified look on Bella's face, I'm guessing you're Edward." Edward turned away from me to look at Jacob.

"Uh, I'm sorry have we met." Edward raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, name's Jacob." Jacob stated as he reached over to shake Edwards free hand. Edward was a tall guy but still a few inches shorter than Jacob and it felt weird seeing them meet each other. Like I was waiting for something more to happen.

"It's pretty odd meeting you now after I've been hearing about you all morning." My jaw dropped open. Was I hearing what I thought I was? I hit Jacob across his arm and shoved him away.

"Don't listen to him," I pleaded. " He's crazy," I added as I glared at my smirking best friend.

Turning back to Edward I prepared myself mentally. I had been caught in my own lie and I was about to pay the price. In truth I was getting what I deserved. I opened my mouth to utter the sincerest apologize I could but Edward surprised me by speaking first.

"I'm sure your wondering what I'm doing here,"

The thought had crossed my mind but I didn't really pay attention to the fact until now. This fueled my response.

"A little, yeah."

"I thought that maybe you'd gotten sick because of me, so thought I'd return the favor." He held up the two bags. "But I guess that's not necessary seeing as you're fine." He glanced at Jacob behind me.

I sighed. I couldn't even try to hide it anymore. I wasn't sick in the least and I wasn't very good at lying as he'd pointed out on many occasions. I let out a breath completly defeated.

"Okay the truth is I'm not sick, I'm jus-"

"Then why did you call out today." Edward cut me off.

I nibbled on my bottom lip, "Well… you see I, um- Well you-uh….." In all my years I had never found anything as hard as I did trying to tell Edward the truth. It was like someone had taken hold of my brain and was giving it a good shaking. Nothing stayed put long enough for me to get it out.

I heard Jacob sigh drasticlly.

"She kissed you, okay?" Jacob stated from behind me. I swung around shocked at what I'd just heard. The very thing that I had been denying to this very moment and to the person I had been avoiding all day. I hit him as hard as I could. "Jacob!"

"What!" he tried to protect himself from me. "It's true, isn't it," Right now my head was spinning so fast that I felt sick. Literally sick to my stomach. I had to will myself not to topple over.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you had to tell him." I swung at him again but Jacob just danced out of my way. Jacob might have been my best friend but at that moment I wanted nothing more than to hurt him. In those few seconds I'd even forgotten that Edward was even there. Well until I heard him sigh.

"Is that what this is about? Bella, we both know that was an accident." He stated reminding me of the time I'd tripped unto him resulting in our first unintentional kiss. "Come on, I thought we were over that?" he sounded slightly irritated. I stopped myself and turned back to him.

"We are, I mean I am. What Jacob's talking about happened yesterday." I couldn't even look at him as I spoke with out consideration as to what I was saying. I regretted it as soon as the words came out but I couldn't lie to him. I felt the heat in my face grow.

"I'll just leave you two alone," Jacob whispered and closed the door into my apartment building behind him.

"Yesterday? I don't remember you kissin- wait so that wasn't a dream?" Edward asked speaking more to himself.

"A dream?" It was my turn to be baffled.

"I thought that was a dream. I never imagined that you had actually done it."

"I know. I didn't mean too… I just.. Well you were sleeping and I don't know what came over me. One moment you were just there and the next thing I knew I'd kissed you. Well it really wasn't a kiss, more like a peak but I um…." surely I was digging my own grave.

"I'm so sorry," I sighed.

"So that's it. That's why you didn't come in today. You were too embarrassed to face me?" I can't believe he was making me admit this but I nodded.

If nothing else had done it, this one would. I was fired. Not only had I taken advantage of my boss but I'd also lied about it. I closed my eyes to prepare myself for it. I was ready. I'd move back home and stay far far away from New York. I didn't really belong here anyways. I'd miss it sure, Alice, Jasper, Angela, even Mike. But every good thing has to come to an end. And this was mine.

Edward actually surprised me even when he started to laugh. My eyes shoot open and I stared at him as if he'd gone insane. Surely he was mad, had cracked because nothing, I repeat nothing was funny about this situation. Then he gently set the bags on the ground and stepped to me.

"You silly girl," He stated cupping my face in his hands before he chuckled and kissed the top of my head. At this point I was frozen. Not only from Edward's recently awkward behavior, but from the fact that he'd just pressed his lips to my forehead. Okay, not only was I fired, but I'd also dead and gone to heaven. Since that was the reasonable explanation for what was happening.

And as I tilted my head up, I became light headed. I was pretty sure that it was because my heart had stopped beating.

"Does this mean I'm not fired?" I asked hopful beyond measure. Were there even jobs in heaven? He continued to hold me and smiled.

"No you're not fired," he smiled and my heart began to pound again, bringing life back to me.

"Thanks, because I really do like my job." I stated truthfully. He looked pleased to hear me say that. As if it wasn't written on my face everyday. Or maybe it was more like a 'My boss is great to look at' face.

"eh eh em..." We both turned our heads surprised and saw Alice and Jasper exiting a cab. Jasper appeared calm as always but Alice had a large smile on her face and I think both Edward and I knew that she had something turning in that twisted mind of hers.

"Well what do we have here,"

A/N: Alice is my favorite right now because I know what she's planning. lol. I hoped you liked it and that you didn't lose faith in me or the story. Please Review. All input is welcome. If it's about the editing, it's duelly noted. I tryed, I theres nothing more I can do. I've tried beta's but no one has ever come through.