A/N: What to say other than I'm truly sorry that it had taken me this long to finally get this chapter up. But I've done it I do pray that it was wortht the wait. I have to admit that I did lose my way a little there, so I had to re do it. And re do this chapter again, but I'm finally happy with it. I relaly hope that you like it and that you continue to want to read this story.

Previous Chapter:

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 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. 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.

"Well isn't this sweet." 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,"

Chapter Twenty Seven

Jacob could only stay till the weekend and I felt sad and strangely hopefully when I dropped him off at the airport Monday morning. I didn't get much time to dwell on it because work was more hectic than usual. Everyone needed something from me. But it was completely normal as we were getting the end of the year statements ready.

In a few days was the charity ball which I hadn't thought about. It was the only way to actually deal with it and then it was Christmas vacation. I'd be heading home to Washington to see my Dad. My Mom and my step father would meet me there. Maybe the thought that I'd see Jacob again in a couple of days helped me not feel too depressed when he left. And the fact that he'd left on good terms with my new friends. I wasn't sure how the Cullen's, Alice, Edward, Emmett and the to-be's, Jasper and Rosalie would feel about Jacob but eventually they began to get along. It took Rosalie the longest but she'd come around enough to actually team up with him against Emmett and Alice at pool.

I was completely exhausted when I fell unto Alice's bed face first. She was in the corner working on the dress strapped to a headless mannequin, something for the Charity ball maybe? I didn't get a great look at it, but I was sure it was going to be breathtaking.

"My mother called today. My father and Esme are coming down for the Charity."

"Really? It would be nice to see them again," I mumbled unto Alice's comforter.

"Have you found something to wear?" I could barley hear her, I was already drifting away into lala land. It wouldn't get much sleep because Alice hated talking to herself. I groaned, the only thing I had energy to do hoping that it would satisfy Alice. It did. I wasn't sure how long I was out but when I stopped breathing due to the fact that my face was still down in the bed, I jumped up gasping for air. Alice stared at me wide eyed.

"Are you okay?" she asked as I sat up. I nodded.

"You were sleeping weren't you?" She stated dryly. The thought about lying crossed my mind but I really didn't have a reason too. Alice knew I'd been asleep. Nothing slipped by Alice unnoticed.

Instead I got to my feet and headed into her bathroom. I glanced at myself in the mirror and wished I hadn't. I looked like I had been through hell and back. I turned on the faucet and proceeded to try and wake myself by splashing large handfuls of water on my face. I heard Alice begin to talk again. She must know that I couldn't understand her but it wouldn't be the first time tonight that Alice was left to entertain herself. I dried my face, taking what was left of my make up off. I didn't bother to fix my hair as I was about to get back into Alice's bed. I was just peeling off my heels when I stepped out of the bathroom only to find Edward Cullen seated on the end of Alice's bed, pulling at his red and navy argyle tie. They both turned to me at the same time.

I was quite aware of what I looked like. I wore half of my suit, one shoe, no make up and my hair appeared as if a bird had recently claimed it as it's home. But did I care? Not one bit. It was just my best friend's brother and the man that employed me. No to mention the man who made my heart beat out of my chest. But I had nothing left. Even Edward appeared exhausted. So peeling off the last pump, and throwing it off into a corner and I once again fell face forward into my best friends bed.

Breathe...

In...

Out...

But no matter how many times I told my self those three little words I couldn't catch my breath. I was panicking. Really taking it to another level. I should have listened to Alice. I should have done what she'd told me to do a day ago. I had five hours until the Charity Gala and the dress that I thought I was going to wear was no where in sight. I could of sworn I'd seen it in my closet just yesterday. But now my room was a mess, flooded with the rest of my closet as I tore through it to look for the gown that had gone missing. How did one lose a whole dress? It was the only gown I had. The gown I'd worn to a friends wedding less than a year ago.

I groaned and fell back against my bed. What was I going to do? Should I call Edward and cancel? Yes, maybe now I wouldn'y make a fool of myself in front of all those people. However I had to go. I promised him, and a small part of me wanted to go. With him that was.

I heard a loud knock on my door. I didn't have to guess who it was. Alice was coming over which was why I'd proceeded to unlock the door an hour ago.

"It's open," I called. Getting to my feet. I was going to search again. It had to be here. It had to be.

"What happened here?" Alice asked standing in my doorway. She looked amazed and curious at the same time.

"I can't find my dress. Y-you know the b-blue one?" I dove back into my closet. There really wasn't anywhere else it could be because my closet was empty. Still I couldn't give up. Not when I was so close to an offical dat- I mean outing with Edward.

"What? You mean this dress?" I heard Alice chuckle and shivers crawled up my back. I leaned back slowly to peek at her from behind my closet door and there she was holding my dress in her hands. Relief flooded over me as I rushed to her.

"Oh my gosh, Alice you are a God send. Where did you find it?" I took the dress from her. I had to hold it, feel that it was real and not a dream. It wasn't. More like a nightmare. For some reason the dress didn't look as good as I remembered it a year ago. But it would have to do.

"I took it with me last night,"

"Huh," Then I remembered, one minute I was talking to Alice on my bed and the next thing she was gone. I text her to see why she'd left so quickly and without a word but she'd only replied back that she had something to do and that she'd see me tonight.

I gasped out of disbelief. "Alice why would you do that,"

"Because this," she eyed me up and down. " is priceless," she smiled.

"And because that's not what you're wearing." She then held up a dress bag, the ones you place clothes in to keep them nice and opened it. The bag fell to the ground and the most beautiful dress replaced it.

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. The dress was amazing, simple but gorgeous. From the cut to the color everything was prefect. I stared in a amazement. I could tell immediately that it was one of Alice's. More mature than her usual style but I'm sure she made with me in mind.

"Do you like it?" she grinned. She had to be fishing for a compliment but what was there not to like.

"Like it? It's gorgeous, Alice. You really made this for me?" I'd never seen or recieved anything like it.

She nodded and I reached forward to touch the material. It was as soft as it looked, satin I believed it was. Maybe with this dress I wouldn't embarrass Mr. Cullen after all. But more than that Alice had gone through to trouble once again to dig me out of my own grave. I turned to her tears on the brink of overflowing.

"Thank you Alice." I hugged her. How could I not. "Thank you so much,"

"You're welcome Bella," She pulled back and grinned. "But enough with the Thank You's, it's time to get you ready." She took hold of my hand and pulled me toward the bathroom.

EDWARD'S POV

I wasn't a man that got nervous very often, actually I couldn't remember the last time that I had been but here I was in my limo and my heart was beating out of my chest. I even caught myself every few minutea wiping my clammy hands on my pants, or straightening my tie, not that it wasn't already perfect. Emmett made sure of that. Now I wished I had asked him and Rosalie to come with me, but I wanted to do this on my own. After all this was our first outing together. I wasn't sure how she would perceive tonight, as a date or something else but either way I was geting what I wanted.

I wasn't sure why I was so on edge but I really must have been because I was surprised when we stopped in front of Bella's building. I could have sworn it would take longer to get here, that I would have more time to prepare myself. But I was out of time, so settling my heart I pushed open the door to the limo and noted to Vinny, my driver that I would be back shortly. I climbed the stairs to her apartment slowly, working to get my self under control. This was driving me insane. I had never had one women drive me to such an extreme. And why was it Bella? What was really so special about her besides the fact that she looked at me differently than anyone had before. That she saw the real me without having really tried. She was also amazingly smart, clumsy, something I found all too adorable and beautiful. Taking a deep breath, I knock on her door. Bella's beauty didn't just lie within her physical being, it was so much more. She had something that I had never encountered before.

"Come in," I heard and recognized my sisters voice. I shouldn't have been surprised that Alice was here. I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

"Hello," I called to the empty living room.

"We're in here. Bella will be right out." I heard whispering back and front then and smiled. It seemed that she was even more nervous than I was.

I slipped my hands in my pockets and waited. Finally I was back to normal. I didn't feel my heart beating to escape my chest and my hands had dried. I closed my eyes for a brief moment.

"Edward," I heard her voice and my eyes flew open. I wasn't sure how I reacted. Hopefully I was keeping my cool. But my breath had caught in my chest.

Bella was stunning in the champagne colored gown made of yards of silk, lined with matching lace. Her hair was curled and pulled to lay over her right shoulder, gold jewelry adorned her ears and neck and her make up was light and flawless. Much like her over all profile.

Bella didn't think she was pretty, much less beautiful but tonight she had to know how amazing she really was. How breathtaking she was.

I heard my own voice and watched as her face turned the perfect shade of pink and her eyes fell to the floor.

"Do you really think so?" She uttered. I stepped forward and touched her chin so she that'd she look at me.

"You should know by now how beautiful I think you are." I watched as my words made her face turn a deeper red. But I smiled and I held out my hand.

"Shall we?"

I didn't plan to leave Bella's side tonight, not when she looked the way she did. And I was sure she would appreciate it as she wasn't use to events such as the Charity Ball. I for one was quite glad as she held on to me as we stepped from the car though it was more for her balance issues than my ego. She wasn't aware that the event was so publicized and wasn't prepared to be greeted by the flashing lights of the paparazzi that lined the red carpet leading to the front doors of the mansion. I whispered for her to take a deep breathe, and smile as I calmly lead her inside to were we could leave our coats.

"Now that wasn't so bad," I stated helping her from her fur wrap. (Don't shoot me PETA)

"Speak for yourself. That was terrifying. I'm sorry I embarrassed you."

I didn't reply immediately just turned to woman taking the coats.

"Thank you," I stated when she took them and handed me a number.

The Ball was being held this year at the Mayors own home. I hadn't told Bella because I knew how she's react. She would find out eventually but I'd deal with that when the time came. What I was more concerned about was her donation. Another thing she had no idea about. She only assumed she was coming as my guest, which was partially true but she'd also made a generous donation to the Relief of Haiti Fund, this year's receiving organization. A donation that came from my bank account.

"You never embarrass me, You make me laugh though." I smiled leading her into the large gathering room. I heard her gasp as she entered. She'd never seen anything like this and I had to admit it was best I'd ever seen. Bella had many adorable things about her and I had to say that this was fastly taking the cake. The way her eyes shone as she took it all in. I couldn't help myself as I stood there and watched her.

All the tables and chairs had been removed to reveal a rather large open floor where a flood of famous actors and Politicians twirled around to the music played by a live orchestra . The room appeared to be made of gold but that illusion was created using floor to ceiling mirrors and large fabrics of gold satin that hung from the ceiling. It almost matched Bella's gown and somr how she stuck out like a sore thumb. But in a good way.

As I stepped forward and touched the small of her back I felt her grow stiff next to me. I turned to her, the color in her face had fled and she turned and clutched almost too tightly to me.

"I don't think I can do this. In fact I think I'm going to be sick." For a moment I thought she was too but then I took both of her hands. "Bella, Bella look at me." She tilted her head up to gaze at me. So beautiful, I thought.

"You are going to be fine. Just take a deep breath." Her lips parted as she inhaled and I wanted nothing more than to press mine to them in front of everyone in the room. But I restrained myself and smiled instead.

"Better?"

She nodded. " Yeah."

"Alright, let's do this."

The one thing I hated about this event was that I HAD to talk to everyone because I had a large amount of clientele in the room. Some from the past and many that would become future endeavors. I greeted everyone with a smile and stuck to small conversation. But because I had never brought anyone to the Ball before they were rather curious to who Bella was. And tonight Bella was not my assistant. I would apolgize later if I made her uncomfortable. I just couldn't bring myself to call her that. Not tonight.

"This is Bella Swan. Bella, this is Connie Summers." Bella politely shook the woman's hand and a light conversation was started. Grateful the women spotted an acquaintance across the room and politely asked to be excused, leaving us alone.

We'd already been here for over an hour and this was the first time we'd had to ourselves since.

"Well that wasn't too bad," Bella declared from beside me.

"See and you were worried." I grinned. "But you are enjoying yourself?" I asked.

"You haven't been able to tell." She laughed. I could tell, she'd smiled the entire time.

"I'm glad," I stated and reached for her glass. She had been sipping on a glass of champagne and had finally managed to finish it.

"Let me get you another," I proposed and she nodded.

"Will you be alright?" I didn't want to leave her alone but there was no reason to have her trail me like a love sick puppy.

"I'll be fine," I believed her and headed to where the refreshments were being served in an adjoining room.

It took longer to get back to Bella because everyone felt like that was the perfect time to stop and ask me about my personal life. Especially the young models and senators daughters. Most of them were subtle about it, wanting to know who my 'friend' was. I simply told the truth, she was a special friend of mine. Other's were more assertive, like Megan Rich. She was daughter of Jimmy Rich, CEO to Rich Industries. We'd met on several occasions as her father and I ran in the same circles and she had never been shy about what she wanted from me. To her she needed only one night. But I didn't believe that was all, she wanted me to be hers and only hers. I had never encouraged her and even dated a friend of hers a few years back. Things never went anywhere with me and Sara and Megan wasted no time trying to creep back into the picture. I was rather surprised that she hadn't tried anything during the time I was with Sara but that didn't help her any in my mind.

After about twenty minutes of her draining chatter I was finally able to get away but not before I downed both glasses in the process. I retrieved two more and made my way back to Bella. She wasn't where I left her and was rather surprised to see her twirling around the room with the Mayor himself. I was scared for a moment before I realized that she was doing great. She was astonishingly graceful, something that I hadn't expected. She was so clumsy at any other moment that I thought dancing with her would have been harmful to anyone around us. It was good to know that it wouldn't be. I watched as the dance came to an end and the Mayor walked her back to me. They both appeared to have enjoyed themselves.

"Ah Edward Cullen," Leslie Welch, Mayor of New York City stated when he spotted me .

"Where did you find this delightful creature," He laughed as he put out his hand. For a moment I wasn't sure what to do seeing as I was holding both glasses still but Bella reached forward taking a glass from me. I smiled and shook the Mayor's hand. We'd met many times before, and were actually great friends.

"Actually Leslie, she found me." I grinned, winking at her. So chessy, not my style and yet I had done it. however it made her smile so I guess it was worth it.

"Delightful girl, don't let her out of your sights." He turned to Bella and pulled her hand to his lips. "Or I may just take her from you." Bella's face brightened as she smiled shyly. I didn't like it when she did that. I mean I did, just not for Leslie who was English and just as good looking as I was.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," I answered but he would never know how much I was planning to stay true to that. And it wasn't just him, it was all the others as well. Bella may not have noticed all the pair of male eyes that had been watching her since she'd entered but I definitely had. I wondered if I could survive the night without having to fight off anyone for her. I glanced back at her.

I highly doubted it.

I Hope you liked it. I really enjoyed this chapter. Took forever but I think it was worth it. Let me know. R&R!