A/N: I'm back from my trip. Thank you for being patient with no updates last week. So without further ado ... let's get to it. Shall we?

Chapter-11: Ready or Not

EPOV

After my disastrous attempt at staying away from Isabella, I walked back to the hospital to finish working my shift, still wondering what the fuck possessed me to ask her out.

Is it possible for a vampire to be in shock? I didn't know the answer to my question, but from what I was feeling, I guessed that was a moot point anyway.

As I was walking by the front desk, Nurse Jackie called my name. "Edward, dear!"

"Hey, Jackie." I gave her a half-hearted smile back. "What is it?"

"It's a 'who', dear," she said with a bright smile. "There's someone to see you."

Immediately, I started to wonder how on earth could've Isabella come here to see me here so soon. I just left her at the bookstore. That's when I heard Jackie's thoughts.

She was right. He's going to be surprised to see her here, she thought, her words in no way reflecting malice.

I cleared my throat and started to ask her, "Uh … Jackie, who …?"

"Hey there, big brother."

I closed my eyes at the sound of the annoyingly smug voice and suppressed a growl. "Alice."

She stood up from her perch on one of the chairs in the waiting area and smiled widely at me. "Who else will it be? I was just missing my dear brother."

Oh how sweet these kids are! Dr. Cullen really has an adorable family.

I almost scoffed out loud when I heard the unsuspecting nurse's adoration for our family.

Poor Jackie. You have no clue just how adorable we can be when we sink our teeth into peoples' necks.

Alice walked forward to pull me into a hug.

How did your stalking go, brother? she thought to me as she tried to squeeze me with all her vampiric strength.

"Little sister, how I've missed you! It's good to see you here," I said for Jackie's benefit with a smile as fake as Jessica Stanley's silicon tits.

Looking at my watch, I saw that I still had a little over fifteen minutes left of my lunch break. So, I took Alice's elbow and started to steer her away from the prying ears. "I think I can spare a few minutes for my favorite sister. Have you had your lunch yet?"

She smirked at my words and said back, "Nope, I haven't yet, and by the looks of it, neither have you."

I'm glad you didn't have her for lunch, by the way, she added silently.

I ignored her ridiculous thoughts and hauled her toward the cafeteria.

After setting a useless yet necessary plate of food down in front of her, I glared at her. "What are you doing here, Alice?"

She shrugged and grabbed a fry from her plate before waggling it in front of my face. "You seemed like you could use some help."

"From you? No, thanks," I replied. "I'm trudging through this ridiculous idea of working at the hospital just fine—thanks for that by the way. But it's already my third day here, and I think I can manage the rest of the week."

Her grin widened. "Who's talking about the seven-day working thing you've got with Carlisle? I'm talking about your date, brother."

"Fuck! It sucks to have a nosy bitch for a sister," I murmured loud enough for her to hear.

She raised an eyebrow in question and asked, "Are you saying you don't need my help?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying," I replied. "You can go back home to being daddy's perfect little angel."

The haughtiness was very much discernible in her voice as she snapped back, "I am a perfect little angel. And you, my clueless brother, need someone to guide you. It is after all, your first date in … well, ever."

"You're an angel to those who doesn't know you," I told her before narrowing my eyes at her. "How do you know anything about my dating history?"

She shrugged. "It's not hard to guess. You were the poster-child of 'good boy' when you were a human." I opened my mouth to interrupt her, but she carried on, shutting me up. "Don't even try to deny it. I've seen how you interact with Esme. Jasper has sensed countless of times that she reminds you of your mother. So really, how can a guy respect his mother like that and not be a 'good boy' growing up?"

I let out a loud sigh, not really knowing how to contradict a delusional mind like hers.

She gave me a sad smile before continuing, "After you turned, you have been so consumed with bloodlust that I doubt you've ever thought of dating a girl."

I gave up any attempts at trying to prove otherwise and slumped back in my chair. "I still don't need your help, Alice," I mumbled. "I can just ask Emmett or Jasper for advice."

She looked at me like I had just suggested buying a tutu and starting taking ballet lessons. "Are you serious?" she almost hissed. "You think Emmett will keep quiet about you dating a human? Or do you think he's got a romantic bone in his body?"

"Point taken," I agreed. "Jasper then?"

"Oh no!" she replied with a quick shake of her head. "He's the sweetest man on this planet, believe me. But he can be a little too cheesy at times. I love his cheesiness and everything, but I doubt you'll look anything but a romantic if he asks you to recite Shakespearian poems to her."

"That's your idea of romance?" I pretended to gag. I had nothing against Shakespeare, but the idea of reciting poems to Isabella written by a creepy old man who had a knack for killing off all of his characters wasn't too savory for me.

"Be nice," she warned me.

I finally voiced the thought that had been bothering me since the moment I walked out of that bookstore. "It was a bad idea. I should cancel."

"What?" she yelled out loud before toning down her voice to a low hiss. "Are you out of your mind? Why would you do that?"

"Because I don't want to kill her, Alice," I said. "And I can't explain it … but her scent, it's nothing like anything I've smelled before. It's unique, and I don't know if I'll be able to control myself."

A smile took over her face as she started nodding. "I know. Her scent is unique for you because she's your mate. I haven't met anyone like us before who had a human for his mate, but I can tell you this, Edward, the way Jasper smells to me is very different than how anyone else smells."

I snorted at that. "You sound like you love smelling Jasper's armpits, Alice."

"You're gross," she retaliated, scrunching up her nose in disgust.

I kept laughing at her expression as she stood up to leave. "Good luck, brother. I hope to meet your girl someday soon."

My girl.

Those two words sent an unknown feeling coursing through me.

Can I make Isabella my girl? Will she want to be?

BPOV

"You're kidding me," Angela said from the other side of the phone.

I felt a smile pull at the corners of my lips as I shook my head. Remembering that she can't see me, I replied in my best Yoda voice, "Kid you, I do not."

She laughed at my answer and said, "This is so not like you, Bee. I mean poor Yorkie did everything short of falling down on his knees and begging you to go out with him, and you stood firm on your answer. But now, you've been there for what? Three days? And you're already going out on a date."

"Yorkie? You had to bring that one up, didn't you?" I told her. "He has a severe case of halitosis going on, Ang. I'm not vain, or anything, but how could I go out with a guy if I couldn't stand to be within ten feet of him? Even if I could've given him a month's worth of breath mints supply, I just didn't want that to be my first date."

"Good point. Don't forget the way he tried to make us wear painted on dresses for valentines last year," she agreed.

I shuddered at the disgusting memory. "Exactly." After a moment of silence, I added, "I don't know what this is, Ang, but I swear it's different. He's different."

"Different? How? Is it like he has a dick piercing kind of different? Or he looks like Casanova kind of different?"

Shaking my head at her weird metaphors, I thought for a second before saying, "It's more like I feel safe with him and his presence gives me an intense sense of belonging kind of different. I know that doesn't make much sense, but that's how he makes me feel. Everywhere I go, every time I face any problem in this little town, he's there. I sound like a silly little girl with a crush, don't I?"

There's silence on the other side for a moment, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and lined with emotions. "No, Bee, you don't sound like a little girl with a crush. You sound like a girl who's falling too hard too fast."

"How do you …?"

She didn't let me finish my question as she replied, "Because I know the feeling. It's scary and fuckawesome at the same time, isn't it?"

"Ben?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I think maybe he's it for me?" her words sounded like a question, and I couldn't help but smile, happy that my best friend has found someone so early in her life.

"I had a feeling about you two," I told her with a teasing note in my voice.

She laughed. "Right. Of course you did. Now let's talk about you."

I shrugged. "What's there to talk about?"

She let out an overdramatic sigh. "What am I going to do with you, Swan? You're going on your first date, girl. You gotta think of the logistics."

Frowning, I said, "He's gonna come and pick me up from home after work and we're gonna go for Italian food in Port Angeles. It's nothing extravagant."

The way she grumbled in response made me realize that I hadn't given her the answer she was looking for. "Bell, I'm not thinking of the destination, girl. Tell me, have you decided on a dress? Or shoes? Which shoes are you gonna wear? What about your makeup? Shit! I should be there to help you get ready for your first date."

She sounded like she was on the verge of hyperventilation. So, I took charge and called her name softly, "Angela?"

"Hmm?"

"Calm down," I said. "I'm gonna be fine. I wish you were here with me, but like I told you before coming here, I need to do this on my own. I need to grow up on my own. I may not know a lot about dating, but I know how to be myself, and I think he likes me just the way I am."

"Why do you say that?"

Her question made me remember the night back at the hospital, and I laughed. "Because if a guy asks you out after you've called him Dobby in your sleep, he might not care if you're a little crazy, you know?"

That made her laugh right along with me. "Dude! You called him Dobby? And he asked you out after that? He must like you!"

I blushed at her words. Surprisingly, I wanted Edward Cullen—no, just Edward, I corrected myself—to like me.

"I sure hope so, Ang," I told her. "Now don't worry about the logistics. I can take care of myself."

The smile was evident in her voice as she replied, "I know you can, Bee. Go get him, girl."

I intend to, I thought as I hung up the phone. And then, I sent a text message to him.

EPOV

I'm off at five thirty. So you can pick me up at six thirty, if you want, Mr. Dr.-to-be. Here's my address just to make sure you can find your way to me. ~Isabella

I stared at the message on my phone, unable to believe that she really wanted to go out with me. Did this girl have no self-preservation instincts?

When my phone chimed with an incoming text message from her, I had thought that she was texting me to call it off. However, that would have been rational, and I was getting used to the fact that Isabella was not big on being rational.

I looked at the address she had added at the end of the message and felt my eyebrows pull up in shock. The address was of the abandoned Swan house where the Police Chief of the town used to live before he and his family was killed.

The only exciting shit to have ever happened to this hell hole of a town, I thought.

As I went to answer her, I knew I should've told her that I couldn't make it and break it off, but instead the message my fingers typed out was this:

I would've found my way to you by any mean, Isabella. You didn't need to worry about that. I'll be there. ~Edward

As soon as I tapped the send button, it hit me that what I was doing wasn't the rational thing as well. Maybe Isabella and I did have something in common after all.

~*~*~*RoALS*~*~*~

I tried to keep my mind from wandering off to thoughts of her all afternoon, but that proved to be damn near impossible. So I went to Carlisle and asked him if I could take the afternoon off, offering to work double shift the next day in return.

Surprisingly enough, he agreed, and I was out of the hospital doors before he could change his fucked up mind.

With the afternoon free for researching, I went to find some answers … from Emmett.

"Em, can I ask you something?" I asked when I got home and found my brother sitting alone in the living room.

He looked up at me from the comic book he was reading and gave me a devious grin. "You wanna know what does Mommy and Daddy do at the night?"

I pulled a disgusted face at him and shoved on his shoulder. "Shut it, man! I don't want to revisit the O –ve I snacked up on this morning."

He rolled his eyes at me and said, "Fine, the girls are out at a spa today anyway, and I don't think Jasper is done with his history research for the day. So I might as well listen to you for a change."

"Gee, thanks," I replied scathingly. "Way to sound enthusiastic."

Laughing, he motioned at me to continue and I took a deep breath before asking, "Does Rosalie smell different to you?"

"What?"

Ok, so this may have been a bad idea.

I was trying to come up with ways to backtrack when he asked, "Which part of Rosie are we talking about exactly?"

I'm sure my eyes looked ready to pop out of my head as I stood up from my seat and started to get away from my brother and his disgusting thoughts … far, far away.

"Ed, wait up," he called, standing up as well.

Glaring at him, I said, "Forget I asked anything. I don't wanna know how Rosalie's butt crack smells to you. Thank you very much."

He held up his hands in defense. "You are the one with all the weird questions, Eddie boy."

When I narrowed my eyes at him for calling me that, he grinned widely before saying, "Fine. If you're that inclined to know about it, then yes, she smells different to me. I mean each of us have our distinctive scents, but she is something else. When she's with me, her scent wraps around me … it reels me in."

"You make it sound like she's your singer or something," I muttered.

He shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe the mating bond acts like the singers with a vampire. You know how it was when I met my singer. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't stay away from her."

So what does that make Isabella to me? Was she my singer or my mate? The question kept playing in my mind as I got away from Emmett before he could start asking questions about my sudden interest in the mating bond.

As I was walking through Esme's well-kept garden to get to the garage, my eyes fell on the flowers my adoptive mother had accumulated over the months we had been living in this town.

On a whim, I reached out to pluck a flower and then made my way to the garage.

I debated on which car to take before deciding on my Vanquish. It was slick and fast and had a good safety profile. And for the first time in my existence, I needed a safe car because I'd be carrying a package I couldn't afford to damage … Isabella.

When did I start worrying about human things? What changed?

A/N: So you get an extra long chapter today. :)

Share your thoughts with me and leave a review.

The song rec for this chapter: Wake me up by Avicii.

Thank you for reading.

See you next week.

Take care.

Ann