Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.

Take It Easy, Make It Last by kysouza3123

Chapter 2

I wanted a baby of my own. It's too bad that we can't afford having one. It would be way too expensive. Emmett often commented that someday, someday when he makes enough money, we would move to a different state and settle down in a nice house and have a baby.

I didn't see that happening anytime soon.

We were living on a tight budget as it is, and were a month late with the apartment rent. The landlord knocked on the door four times asking for the money, and I tried to plead with him. He shook his head and threatened to evict us if we didn't have the money by the end of the month. I sighed as I shut the door.

"What is it, babe?" Emmett asked as he came out of the bathroom, freshly showered with a towel around his waist. "Is something wrong?"

"Felix wants the money for the rent we owed last month," I said slowly.

Emmett sighed. "Yeah, okay. I'll get the money as fast as I can. It's difficult."

I sniffed as I walked into the kitchen. I opened the cabinets, but there wasn't anything in them

"There's no food in the house!" I wailed.

"We have some leftover spaghetti from last night," Emmett said, trying to cheer me up.

"I want some real food, not canned stuff all the time!" I sat down at our cheap 'dining' table and placed my head on my folded arms.

"It's okay, Rose. We'll get through this, one day at a time. You just gotta have faith," Emmett said reassuringly.

How could he be so calm?

"Whatever, I'm making mac and cheese," I stood up and went to grab a box. We had tons of mac and cheese because they were on sale; $0.50 cents per box. Emmett bought soup for a dollar a can so we also had a big supply of them.

I heated up some water and stood by the stove. When the water bubbled, I poured the macaroni elbows in.

I made enough for the both of us and got a second bowl out for Emmett. He sat down and smiled at me. I tried to give him a smile, but it was very forced.

"Anything to drink?" he asked.

"I'm just having water," I said, starting to eat my lunch.

"Oh!" he grinned. "I remember, there is soda from last night's take out. I'll go get it." He stood up and opened our ugly fridge.

He came back with a half-filled soda container.

"It probably tastes plain by now," I said. "The ice melted into the soda and the fizz is gone."

He sucked through the straw and frowned. "You're right. It tastes bad, oh well."

After we were done eating, I brought the bowls to the sink and quickly washed them.

I saw Emmett putting on his coat and went to the front door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Gettin' a lottery ticket," he responded.

"Oh," I said. I wanted to ask him to get more condoms, but was a little nervous.

"Can you get more... condoms?" I asked quietly.

"More what?" he leaned in closer, a grin on his face.

"Condoms," I whispered quickly.

He chuckled loudly. "Of course."

And then he opened the door and strolled out.

I cleaned the apartment a little and tried to spray some of my perfume around the living room. It smelled kind of odd so I wanted to clear up the stink.

Emmett came back half an hour later with a bag in hand.

"I got two lottery tickets," he said, plopping down on the worn couch. I headed over to him and grabbed the bag.

Emmett dug a hand into his pocket to get a coin so he could scratch the cards.

I was inspecting the condoms he bought. There were 36 condoms in the box.

Good enough.

I put it back in the bag and brought it into our small bedroom. I took it out of the bag- again- and placed the box in one of the nightstand drawers. This way, if we were ever going to have sex, it would be close by and convenient.

I headed back to the living room and found Emmett grumbling at the first scratch card. He threw it on the ground and I walked over and picked it up. Ah, dang it. You had to get four of the four-leaf clover symbols to win a million dollars. Emmett was missing one.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Emmett slammed the coin on the table as he stood up, fuming.

"Emmett, calm down," I told him, placing a hand on his muscular shoulder.

He turned and peered at me for a second, his eyes softening. "You're right, sorry Rose." He kissed my cheek and I hugged him tightly. "It's just difficult. I'm trying to save as much money as I can, but sometimes I can't take this." He walked into our room and shut the door.

I sighed as I took his empty spot on the couch. He had ripped the second scratch card into pieces and they lay on the carpet. I gathered it up and threw it out.

The first scratch card was still on the floor, unmoved. I went over to it and inspected it closely.

I read the directions twice and then my eyes widened. We still had a chance of winning. I quickly went to put on my coat and knocked on the bedroom door.

Emmett's expression was glum as he swung the door open. "Yes?"

"I think we still have a chance of winning. It said that if you had three or four of the four leaf clovers, you could win a prize. You had three out of the four, which means we can still win a prize!" I said giddily.

A huge smile appeared on his face and he dashed to the closet to put his coat back on.

"Let's go!" I announced.

.....

Though the name of the scratch card was Lucky Four – Leaf Clovers, it didn't necessarily mean that you had to get four. You could get three and still have a chance of winning, like us.

I walked into the grocery store after Emmett and followed him to the lottery section.

He handed over the scratch card to the man behind the counter and turned back to smile at me. I gave him an encouraging wink and ushered him forward. We watched with bated breath as the man scanned the card.

"Congratulations!"

We both looked up eagerly. "How much did we win?" Emmett asked excitedly.

"A thousand dollars," the man said with a grin.

I was happy but the other half of me wished for more money. Oh well. We would take what we were given.

.....

Emmett deposited the money into the bank that very night and decided that we would use a hundred bucks of it to eat at a nice restaurant. The extra money helped tremendously. Felix came by the day after we received our winnings, stating slyly that he heard we won some money. He asked if we were going to pay the rent, and Emmett shoved a wad of cash in his hand to get him to leave. I was relieved that we didn't have to worry about rent for another month. This money would lessen our stress about being able to pay for bills.

We sat in the fancy restaurant, looking around happily. I had never been in a restaurant this nice. They even provided live music in the center of the restaurant.

It was probably 'casual' to people who could afford it, but to me, this was fancy.

"What would you like to drink?" our waitress asked.

"Water please," I responded.

"Root beer," Emmett said, chuckling teasingly. "If I can't get beer, this might as well be the closest thing I can get."

I scowled at him before opening the menu that had been placed in front of us when the host seated us earlier.

"Your drinks will be out shortly," the waitress said and left.

We thanked her and then resumed perusing the menu for dinner choices. Everything looked so good, but the prices made me cringe a little. We could afford it, but I didn't want to splurge it all in one sitting. I wanted to enjoy the rewards as long as I could.

Emmett smiled at everyone who passed our table. He was certainly in a good mood this evening.

I finally decided to get a soup and seafood alfredo. Emmett got a gigantic burger with a side of fries and salad. The waitress came back with our drinks before placing our orders in the kitchen.

I sipped my water slowly and stared at a couple a few feet away. I squinted a little and realized that it was my boss and her husband. Edward and Bella Masen were currently a table away. And they had the most delicious dishes on their table I had ever seen. Edward Masen was cutting his steak smoothly, all the while staring at his wife, who was taking small bites of her vegetable platter and buttering a roll gracefully.

Mr. Masen said something to Bella and she laughed, throwing her head back. He smiled and then looked down at his dinner. He brought the fork up to his mouth and ate the piece of steak he had cut.

Bella nibbled the bread roll she buttered and dipped it into a small little dish of olive oil with basil. She swirled the roll around once and then ate the roll.

Emmett was having fun with his napkin and utensils. I looked at him and then back at all the other husbands in the restaurant. They were paying close attention to their wives and looked at them with adoring expressions. I wanted Emmett to be like that more often.

Our food came and I turned my attention away from my boss and her husband to enjoy my meal.

"This is good," Emmett commented, chewing with his mouth open and nodding to the burger in his hand.

Of course it was good, I thought. It's almost twenty-five bucks!

My dinner, however, was only eighteen dollars, so I thought it wasn't too bad.

I speared a shrimp and chewed. The shrimp was cooked to perfection and I examined the rest of the shrimp as I held my fork up to my face.

"Is something wrong with the shrimp?" somebody asked. I looked up to see our waitress standing beside our table, a look of worry on her face.

"Oh no," I responded, quickly putting the fork down. "The food is great."

She nodded and walked away. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was embarrassing. I made a mental note that I would never do that again. The waitress probably thought I was weird.

We ate slowly, so by the time I was wiping my mouth and getting ready to order dessert, I noticed Edward and Bella Masen standing up from their table. He helped her put her trench coat on and then pushed the chair back into the table. I glanced at the plates on their table and noticed that there was still food left on some of the plates. The steak was gone, but there was still soup and other small appetizers left on the table.

I didn't think they took leftovers home, ever. They didn't need to.

Their waiter immediately showed up beside Mr. Masen and handed them back his shiny, black credit card. He gave the waiter a fifty-dollar tip and took his wife's hand. The waiter stared down at his hand and his eyes bulged. I smiled at this and turned to Emmett, who gave me a weird look.

"You've been staring over there the entire time," he grumbled moodily. He took a fry and popped it into his mouth and chewed.

"So?" I snapped.

Emmett stared at me for a moment before shaking his head and finishing off the remaining fries on his plate.

"Tell me," I demanded. I wanted to know what he wanted to say.

"Nothing, it's nothing," he replied. I knew he was hiding something, and it made me upset that he didn't want to tell me anymore.

"Well obviously it's something since you gave me that weird look," I said in annoyance.

"For your information I was not giving you a weird look. I was just frustrated that you spent the majority of the dinner staring at the couple the next table away instead of talking to me. I thought you might have been happy I decided to go out to dinner with you tonight." Emmett huffed and pushed his plate away. He placed his elbows on the table.

"The couple I was staring at was my boss and her husband, Emmett!" I whisper-shouted. "It was shocking to see them outside of work and I was curious how they acted and stuff. It's not a crime."

Thankfully, the waitress appeared just in time and took our plates away. She returned and asked if we wanted anything for dessert. I asked what she would recommend and she smiled and said the strawberry cheesecake was "to die for", so we went along with that.

I didn't check the menu this time, opting to be 'surprised' when I saw the price.

She came back with a slice of cheesecake topped with two strawberries on top. She put the plate in the middle of the table and placed two clean forks beside it.

"Enjoy," she said, and left.

"Thank you," I said.

Emmett and I started taking tiny bites. The cheesecake was fabulous. The whip cream was sweet and fluffy. We finished it quickly, each taking a strawberry to eat.

The bill came and I took a deep breath before opening the black folder.

I breathed a sigh of relief. We could pay for it easily.

Emmett held his hand out, so I passed the folder over to him. He opened it and scanned the bill for a minute before reaching into his pocket to pay.

The waitress came back for the folder and thanked us. Emmett left a tip on the table. I told him to tuck the money under the salt and pepper shaker, because that's what I saw a lot of other people doing. He sighed and did as I said. I smiled at him.

"Let's go home," he said, slipping on his coat and walked over to my side of the table.

"Sorry about earlier," I whispered.

I felt really bad for snapping at him. It was him that won the money in the first place. Emmett was the one who suggested we go out to eat. Emmett was the one who paid. I was just being a bitch to him.

He shrugged. "I don't really care anymore."

I swallowed, hoping we wouldn't get into an argument once we got home. I already ruined today's celebration, so I decided to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the evening to avoid ruining our relationship.

I apologize for the long wait for this story. It just took forever to write this chapter. I hope I can get chapters out much more easily next time. Please review! :) I would like to hear your opinions on this new chapter and the lottery part.