Disclaimer- The characters belong to Stephenie Meyer, not me.

BPOV

"How was your shift?" I asked when I answered Edward's phone call.

"It was good," he said. "I'm tired. How are you feeling?"

"Better," I said. I wasn't keen on telling him about the whole visit with Angela in our apartment.

"What did Alice do when she confronted you about… the whole shower incident?"

"Can we talk about that later?"

"Okay," he said. "Can I come over tomorrow morning?"

"Tomorrow morning?" I asked. "You can't spend the night?"

"After the last time I saw you, I don't think it would be the wisest idea, Isabella," he said. "Unless you want to break some boundaries. And I'm quite tired, I don't want to be under Alice's nose, either."

"Alright," I said. "We can't go over to your place?"

"No," he said. "I'll bring bagels, though. Which do you like?"

"The Cinnamon Raisin crunch from Panera."

"Panera it is."

The next morning, I got up early, showered, washed my hair and put on some make up. I didn't put on too much, because I didn't want Edward thinking I had tried too hard. I hid the vibrator (which was still in it's hardshell plastic shrinkwrap) under my bed with my scale. I hoped Dizzy didn't find it interesting, like she did my underwear and socks and the food I hid around my room.

Edward was at my apartment at 7:30, on the dot, with the bagels and coffee. He was in a sweater and corduroys. I didn't realize that Alice hadn't moved her stack of Cosmos and porno books like she had promised she would from the coffee table until he was in the foyer.

"Good morning," he said, kissing me. "You look beautiful."

"Hi, Edward!" Alice called brightly, coming out of her bedroom, all smiles. Edward blushed- but I was far past blushing at this point. "I'm off to work. Lots to do," she said, winking, slipping out the door. "Have fun, guys."

"I don't think I'll ever be able to look her in the eye again," he said, once she was out the door.

"You don't want to know," I said darkly. I was too embarrassed to tell him what had happened while he was working- and I wasn't going to let him into the living room.

"Once we've finished breakfast, I thought we'd go out to the University."

"Aren't you sick of it, by now?"

"Just sick of the hospital," he said. "But, I wouldn't be anywhere else, though. Except with you." He turned to go into the kitchen, which would take him through the living room, and I grabbed his shoulder. "I need to put my shoes on- can we eat in my bedroom?"

"Bella, I thought we were going to avoid tempting spots,"

"I thought it was my call," I said, guiding him back into my room, away from the living room. I was going to send a very angry text message to Alice.

I only ate half of my bagel crust before I told him I just couldn't eat anymore. I didn't have the all-out balls to chew and spit in front of Edward. I put my shoes and jacket on in my room while started on breakfast. "What are you doing?" I asked, seeing Edward loading the camera into its carrying case.

"Never miss the opportunity for a good picture."

Carrying our coffees, we went out to the Aston-Martin and went to the University. "You've never played the piano for me."

"It's always too late when you come over," he said. "I have to be aware of my neighbors."

"There's a music building."

"You really want to hear me play, don't you?"

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Alright, then," he said. "We'll go there, first."

We crossed campus from his designated parking spot and found the music building. After asking around, we found a practice room that wasn't reserved for another half hour that had a practice piano in it.

"So, what do you want to hear?"

I drew a blank. "What can you play?"

"Just about anything," he said. "Name something."

"Well…" the song Blackbird popped into my head. Renée's favorite song had been Blackbird. "Can you play the song Blackbird? The one by the Beatles?"

"Yes, I know that one," he said. "It's a bit simple, though it sounds better on the guitar. Forgive me for not warming up, first."

He popped his knuckles and took a deep breath in. He began playing. I didn't know that he was so good. He began to sing softly.

I rested my hands on his shoulders lightly, as he played. I stood there quietly, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Bella, are you okay?" he asked.

"That was my mother's favorite song," I said quietly, wiping my face with the back of one of my hands. "Play something else."

He began to play another song- Clair de Lune. Another song that Renée liked. He couldn't have known. I didn't want to tell him. It had been so long since I had heard it. I pressed my face into his hair to wipe my tears. He launched into something else- something I didn't recognize. "What was that?" I asked, when he finished.

"I wrote it for you," he said. Something inside me broke, a little bit- but not in a bad way. I felt uplifted, like a hard outer shell was breaking and a newly healed, yet tender, pink center inside me was rising out. "About you."

"Yeah?" I asked. A small chuckle emerged emerged out of my mouth through the tears and sniffles. Nobody had ever written anything for me before.

"Yes," he said, as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He lifted my fingers and pressed a kiss to them.

"I love it," I said. "It's beautiful."

"It's almost nine o'clock. We need to get out of here," he said. He took my hand and Edward took my camera and I took my backpack and we went onto the courtyard. It wasn't raining any more.

Edward began to fool around with my camera while I finished my second cup of coffee. I was still wiping away my tears. "You know, you outdid yourself, with that camera," I said. "I think Charlie got a little jealous that he couldn't give me something that nice."

"Hey, I'm just trying to get in your pants," Edward replied. I gasped. He began to laugh. "I'm just kidding, Bella. I just felt bad over your ruined camera."

"Hey, I ruined it," I said. "I was trying to do too many things at once. Besides, it's not a bad thing for you to try to get in my pants."

He laughed. "I thought we were going to take this slow," he said. "You're actually pretty funny when you catch me off guard. It's cute."

I could actually be funny. And cute. I didn't know this about myself. What a surprise.

"Honey, I'm home!" Alice hollered.

"Are you going to move those hideous books out of living room?" I called to Alice when she came through the door.

"Alice, you showed her these?" an unhappy voice asked. Jasper had come home with her.

"These and I gave her a present."

"What kind of…"

"Come with me and I'll show you."

"Ewww," I muttered. "Do you two need me to leave?"

The door to Alice's room slammed. Those books weren't moving and I had my answer. I did not want to touch them at all. I had spent an amazing day with Edward, too. He went with me to my therapist and we went to the bistro/coffee shop and had lunch. I just liked being around him. Damnit if Edward was doing another three day shift. I packed up my laptop and went down to the coffee shop to get some decaff so I could give Alice and Jasper some privacy.

While I was waiting for my decaff, I was clobbered by a huge, tall person.

"Bella!"

I turned around to see who my attacker was. "Emmett!" I cried. "Hi!"

"How are you?"

"I'm pretty good," I said. "Just giving Alice and Jasper some private time in our apartment."

"That's a lot nicer than I'd be to them," he said. "I can't wait for you to come to our wedding!"

"I've never been to Chicago."

"Does this mean it's going to be your first weekend trip with Edward?"

"Pretty much," I said. "He came to Forks for my birthday to meet my family, but stayed with some friends since our house isn't too big."

"Yeah, he and Jasper skipped out on a football game that weekend."

"My birthday wasn't that exciting."

"Did you like the camera?"

"You knew about the camera?"

"Yeah," he said, shrugging. "I helped him find it online. Did you like it?"

"I love it!" I said. "Where's Rosalie?"

"Rose is going crazy," he said. "I'm trying to spend as much time out of her hair as possible."

"Yeah, planning a long-distance wedding is pretty difficult," I agreed.

"Do you want to join me?" he asked, holding up his coffee cup.

"Okay," I said. I liked Emmett- I wanted to get to know him better, anyways. "You might have some dirt on Edward."

"Oh no," he said. "I've got some dirt on you- already."

"What?" I cried as they called my coffee order out.

"I heard something about a shower the night of our dinner party," he said. I gasped, my cheeks aflame. It was getting less and less embarrassing, but it was still horrifying in certain situations.

"From who!?" I hissed. "I'm going to kill Edward-"

"Not Edward!" he cried, laughing. "Jasper told me about it." He guided me over to a table.

I clapped a hand over my face, sitting. "There's a great explanation behind that, but it's extremely embarrassing to explain it."

"Oh come on, I've done it all," he said. "Okay, maybe not everything, but I've done most everything straight people can do."

"I caught a stomach bug that night," I said. "That's why we left early. I got so weak, I couldn't stand up on my own."

"So you decided to take a shower with him?" he asked smugly, grinning.

"No, I had started throwing up," I said. "I couldn't stand the smell on myself. He helped me get cleaned up. I didn't think it was that romantic."

"Well, when you mention vomit…"

"Okay, Emmett," I said, shaking my head. "Haven't you immortalized it in a cartoon, yet?"

He laughed. "So, you've heard about that, have you?"

"Yes."

I began to figure out that there was no embarrassing Emmett McCarty at all.

I called back to my apartment to see if Alice and Jasper were done with what ever they were doing around 10, and they were. "When are you going to come home and use that present we gave you?" Alice crooned. I groaned and hung up, although Emmett could hear her.

"What present?"

"Never mind," I said. "It was good getting to talk to you, Emmett. The next time I'll probably see you will be at your wedding. See you then."

"Yeah, bye, Bella."

I skipped out to my apartment.

"Honey, I'm home!" I called. Jasper was laying out on the couch in the living room, looking over one of the porno books, looking seriously relaxed and four beers on the coffee table. His hair was wet, too.

"We're not moving these books until you thumb through them," Jasper replied. "You can't seriously think you're going to coast through your first time without a little homework first, do you?"

"I'm a hands-on learner," I said proudly. What a quick, snappy comeback!

"Then you should get some batteries, Bella," Alice said entering from the bathroom, her hair wet, a wicked grin on her face. She snickered wickedly.

"You guys are never going to leave me alone!"

"Nope!" Alice said.

"We're going to have a god-damned audience," I muttered, stomping into my room.

Jasper and Alice laughed.

Clicking on the pictures on my laptop that I uploaded, I found pictures of me in the courtyard from this morning. Edward had taken them when I wasn't looking. I hadn't heard the camera going off. I was smiling, I looked happy, despite the tears. Yes, I was changing. I could feel it in myself.