Author's Note: I decided I wasn't totally happy with the last few chapters so I decided to re write them! Chapter's 11-13 have been replaced so to not miss out on any of the fun you may want to re-read them =)
Please read and review, I love hearing your thoughts!
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but I own this story line
I managed to keep my news from Alice while we were getting ready to go out for dinner with the guys.
She noticed something was up, of course, Alice notices absolutely everything, but I told her I'd tell her later.
This annoyed her to great lengths; she hated not being in the know about everything.
She became even more suspicious when I announced I was wearing a strapless midnight blue cocktail dress with super high heels out.
Rose opted for a siren red one shoulder number and Alice eventually stopped prying for long enough to settle on a plum purple halter dress.
When we got in the cab to head to the restaurant she was unusually quiet, I hoped I hadn't offended her by not telling her my secret.
I knew once I let the cat out of the bag she'd be so excited she'd forgive me immediately.
The guys were already at the restaurant when we finally pulled up outside, they were sitting in a booth nursing a beer each.
Emmett wolf whistled when he saw us walking toward them. That got Jasper and Edward's attention. Edward's appraising eyes made me blush furiously.
We all ordered a drink while we perused our menus, finally the anticipation became far too much for the wee pixie.
"So can you tell us your news now Bells?" she begged, "Since we're all here now. Puhlease!"
I rolled my eyes and grinned at her.
"What news?" Edward asked curiously.
"C'mon Bellsy" Emmett whined, jumping on the Alice train.
"Okay, okay, since you're all here" I began; they all looked at me, waiting.
I smiled widely at them all, "You are now looking at the Chief Fiction Publisher for Eclipse. I got a promotion!" I squealed the last part.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Alice squealed bouncing in her seat.
Emmett whooped loudly while they all congratulated me.
"This definitely calls for a celebration" Rose announced grinning at me, "I'm so proud of you!"
"She's growing up so fast!" Alice teased.
"I know where has the time gone?" Rose sighed.
I laughed in response.
Emmett cleared his throat, holding up his half empty glass of beer, "Here's to an epic evening" he said in a serious tone. "Well done Bellsy" he added grinning.
"Congratulations Bella" Edward said, he was also grinning at me.
"Thanks" I replied, blushing again.
After dinner and several drinks we headed to the nearest club where Emmett announced he was buying us all a few rounds of shots.
Keen to make tonight a memorable one I eagerly agreed.
It wasn't long before I was feeling a rather nice buzz, thanks to the tequila Emmett was plying us with.
Alice was eager to hit the dance floor, I wasn't quite there yet so after promising to join her soon she dragged tipsy Jasper along with her.
Rose and Emmett followed leaving me and Edward standing at the bar.
"It's really great news about your promotion" Edward said suddenly breaking the silence, "I'm really happy for you" he added smiling sexily at me.
"Thank you, it's exciting and kind of scary" I admitted.
"You'll be great" he reassured me.
I smiled at him and much to my intense displeasure we were interrupted by Tanya.
"Hiiiii Edward" she 'purred', wrapping herself around him.
I grimaced looking away; I hadn't failed to notice though that she also had the pink stripper dress that she was wearing when I first met her in other colours too. Today's was silver, metallic and sequinned.
Teamed with silver heels covered in glitter she resembled a human disco ball. I bit back a giggle and turned to catch her staring at me. I couldn't wipe the smirk off my face in time.
She pursed her lips before demanding Edward buy her a drink. I rolled my eyes and walked away before I had to listen to her whiny voice for another minute.
"I see the evil bitch queen has decided to grace us with her presence tonight" Rose commented as I slide into the seat next to her.
"You mean the human disco ball?" I asked, smirking again and taking a sip of my drink.
Rose burst out laughing, "Holy shit you're totally right" she replied glancing at Tanya who was clinging to Edward like super glue. "Except you couldn't hang her up and shine lights on her, all that plastic and hairspray would cause a fire."
I choked on my drink struggling to contain my laughter. "We are such bitches" I giggled.
"Maybe, but she's the biggest bitch of all" Rose replied shrugging. I had to admit she did have a point.
"Disco fever" I muttered causing us both to explode with hysterics.
"So what's the hilarious joke I'm missing out on?" a male voice asked. I looked up to see Riley and Diego with beers in hand pulling up a couple of chairs.
"Oh it's just girl talk" Rose replied with a wave of her hand. I shot her a grateful look.
Riley looked at Diego and shrugged before leaning over and kissing my cheek. "You look pretty tonight" he whispered.
"Thanks" I told him with a smile.
Rose chatted with Diego for a while so I could tell Riley about my promotion. He was thrilled for me, of course. But I could tell that he was a little hurt I hadn't told him first and I understood that.
Although that didn't mean I felt guilty, hell we had only been on two dates, Tuesday and Thursday this week so we were not at all official. I still hadn't even decided I wanted to be official.
I knew he wanted to be though and we were going out tomorrow night on another date.
"Bella?" he asked waving a hand in front of my face, he was smiling at me.
"Sorry I was kind of lost in thought, work you know?" I told him. Ah Bella, lying bad choice.
He nodded, "Fair enough, I mean you've had a full on week."
Rose raised an eye brow and smirked across the table, of course she knew I was lying. I was shocked that he hadn't picked up on that though.
"Wanna dance?" he asked holding out his hand.
The rest of the night was fun, well apart from Edward and Tanya leaving early and her making suggestive comments about what they would be doing. Each other, ew. Well her not him…. Her and him. You get the picture.
On Saturday night Riley picked me up and announced we were going bowling. I shuddered at the thought; the last time I had gone bowling it had been a total disaster.
For the uncoordinated bowling is an incredibly dangerous game, potentially deadly. I had somehow managed to release my ball backwards causing it to smash into the table with our drinks on it, narrowly missed dropping it on my toes and the when I finally managed to bowl it forwards I used to much force and it jumped several lanes knocking someone else's pins down.
Like I said, tonight was going to be a disaster.
"I haven't been bowling in ages" Riley commented as he drive through the wet streets of Seattle.
"Me neither" I admitted.
"It should be fun" he replied with a grin.
Yeah fun, if your idea of fun involves the possibility of broken bones.
I grinned back feeling bad for not warning him but maybe just this once luck would be on my side and I would miraculously develop some hand eye coordination skills in the short drive to the bowling alley.
It wasn't likely but a girl could hope.
"We should go as a group next time, your friends and mine" he suggested.
I fought back a laugh, Alice hated bowling. Well not bowling as such but she hated the shoes. Alice refused to wear shoes that had been worn by a million other people with sweaty feet and skin diseases as she put it.
We arrived and Riley paid slipping me the shoes the attendant had passed over the counter. I followed him down to the lane that had been reserved for us, being here, with all of the memories rushing to the surface of the last time I was here; I decided that perhaps it would be a good time to mention my lack of skills.
"Uh Riley" I said, he turned around weighing up different sized balls. "I'm really not that good at bowling, actually I'm really bad."
He smiled at me, "I'll help you Bells and it'll be sweet."
I highly doubted that but I wasn't going to rain on his parade. I just grinned back and nodded.
An hour later we were walking out to the car with me apologising profusely. "I am so sorry Riley, I didn't hit you with it did I?" I asked.
"No you missed, just" he replied grinning at me. As predicted it was not a total success, although if I had hit him with my ball that seemed to have a mind of its own it could have been a total disaster.
I groaned.
"Really it's okay, no more bowling" Riley added, trying to make me feel better.
We made our way to the restaurant, Italian this time and the rest of the evening went a lot better. As we walked out to the car Riley grabbed my hand and held it in his.
"Do you want to hang out a bit more or shall I take you home?" he asked as we walked.
Fuck, I didn't know what I wanted. I knew what Alice and Rose would say, they would tell me to live a little, enjoy the moment. They knew as well as I did that I hadn't let myself open up to anyone after what happened with Jake. Ergh Jake I thought.
"Sure, let's hang out some more" I told him.
He beamed at me, "My place?" he asked "We could hang out, maybe watch a movie."
"Sounds great" I told him.