Disclaimer: i do not own twilight or any of the well known names and places in this story.

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Chapter 9

Getting to Know You

BPOV

I got up the next day with a mild hangover, mild meaning I'd had worse. I rubbed my eyes and lay in bed a while. I reached over to grab my phone and found I had two messages, one from Edward and one from Alice. Edward said he got home fine, Alice's simply said 'be good' with a winking smiley. I smiled then got out of bed. I made my way to my bathroom to brush my teeth and splash some water on my face. I then put on a pair of shorts and went to the kitchen.

I found Rose sitting at the dining table drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. "Morning Rose, any good news?" I asked her.

"Well, if GM filing for bankruptcy and people killing each other in Iran is good then yes, but if not then no." She said. I then went for my mug and filled it with coffee. When I had my morning caffeine ready I took a sip and looked at Rose. I found her looking at me with a smile. "Seems you had a good night." I said to her.

"I did. Did you have a good time as well?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips.

"I did." I said, nodding my head and taking another sip of my coffee. "You want some breakfast?"

"I'll just have whatever you're having." She answered me.

"Well, eggs and sausages it is then." I said heading to the fridge to get out the ingredients. Just then Alice bounced out of her room. "Good Morning!" she shouted with the usual Alice hype.

"Good morning, breakfast?" I asked her.

"Sure, what are you having?" she asked back.

"Sausage and eggs." I looked over my shoulder. " Ok, I'll put on some toast." She bounced to the cupboard. Rose also began setting the table.

"What do you girls want to do today?" Alice asked us while putting the bread in the toaster.

"I have a lunch meeting with Andrew Brown for the vocational education program. They wanted to know if I can teach a class part time in the evening or the weekends." Rose said.

"Ok, so Rose is engaged. What about you Bells?" Alice said looking at me with a cocked eyebrow. What was that for?

"Uhm, I have no plans Ali. I was just going to stay in and go over my plans for the hospital." I explained putting the food on plates and brought them over to the table.

"Plans for the hospital or someone in the hospital?" she asked.

"Plans for the hospital Mary Alice. Besides he said he would call today, which he hasn't yet by the way, so I have no plans with someone from the hospital," I retorted.

"Ok, no need to get touchy, touchy," she said then sat at the table and started to eat. We finished our meal in silence and cleaned up while Rose headed to her room to get ready for her meeting. At about 11:00 there was a knock on the door. I went to get it and was surprised to see Emmett in gray slacks and a white button down shirt standing in the doorway.

"Morning Bella, is Rose ready?" he asked me.

"She's still in her room. Come in." I said and stepped aside to let him enter.

"Wow, you guys have a great view of Cambridge." He commented.

"Yes, we do. It was one of the reasons we got this place." I told him.

"What made you guys decide to live together?" he asked while he took a seat on the couch.

"Well, we basically missed Alice too much. Since we were at Cornell and she was at NYSID. We used to have different apartments, all smaller than this. Then after a while we noticed we would basically be in one apartment an entire week week and in another the next. We found it a waste of money and since we all got into Harvard for our Graduate studies we just decided to get a place together." I finished just as Rose stepped out of her room in a red silk sleeveless blouse, black knee length skirt and knee high boots.

"Hi, Em," she greeted him as she walked over.

"Hello, Rose. You look beautiful as always," he complemented, offering his arm and said "Shall we?"

"Yes, we shall. Bye Bells. Tell Alice I left already. I think she's still in the shower." She told me.

"Ok, be safe you two." I said as I walked them to the door. I waited till they got on the elevator before going back into the apartment. I then grabbed the paper and skimmed through the news. Rose was right, nothing really new. Alice then emerged from her room dressed in a lilac summer dress and white wedge sandals.

"You look cute. Where you off too?" I asked her

"Well, if you must know, Jasper and I are going shopping for some stuff for the therapy rooms. It is part of the interiors," She plopped herself sown on the arm chair beside me.

"Ok, Ali, if you say so." I said just shaking my head and smiling. Then there was another knock on the door. Alice jumped up from her seat, grabbed her purse and headed to the door.

"Hi, Jasper." She greeted him.

"Hi, Alice. Hey Bella." He called over Alice's shoulder.

"Hi Jasper. Did you sleep well? This one may keep you on your toes. She had like four cups of coffee this morning." I warned him and saw Alice throw daggers at me with her eyes.

"Thanks for the heads up. We have to get going. See ya Bella." He waved.

"Bye, be safe you two" I called out.

"Bye, Bella. Behave!" Alice said to me trying to stare me down. What the hell was that? I just brushed it off and went to my room to grab my iPod. I plugged it into the stereo in the living room and put on my classical play list. I then sat myself on the couch and stared out into Cambridge. The next thing I knew there was another knock on the door. What is with this people! I got to the door and was dumbfounded by who was standing in the door way with flowers and take out.

"Hello, Bella. Did you sleep well?" Edward asked me. I stood there for a bit more taking him in. He was wearing faded jeans, a black fitted shirt, which defined all the muscles on his torso, and chucks. "Bella, are you ok?" he asked me. That brought me back to reality. "It's not polite to stare you know" he said with a chuckle using my own line on me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Come in please," I said to him and moved aside, closing the door behind him. He put the bags on the counter and turned to me, "These are for you. I didn't think you were the roses type so I took my chance with sunflowers." He said handing me the flowers.

"Thank you. And you were right, I'm not fond of roses, sunflowers are actually one of my favorites." I said before going to the kitchen and putting the flowers in water. "So do you have other surprises? Aside from yourself that is?" I asked him and took the flowers to the dining table and set them there.

"I did say I would call." He said with his crooked smile.

"Yes, you did say you would call me, not call on me." I said back and he laughed, obviously getting what I meant. That's when I remembered I was not bathed or dressed. "Since your visit is unexpected, you'll have to excuse me because I have to get showered and changed." I said to him.

"Ok, I have Chinese food. I'm not sure what you want so a got a bit of each. I'll set the table while you get ready. Where are the plates and utensils?" he asked, glancing into the kitchen.

"Plates are on the top cupboard by the sink and the utensils are in the top drawer near the stove. I won't be long." I turned and headed for the bathroom. It took me about fifteen minutes to get showered and dressed. I put on a pair of jean shorts and an orange tank top. When I was ready I found him seated on the couch and reading the paper.

"Did you find something interesting in the paper?" I asked him.

"No not really. So are you hungry?" he asked me as he stood up and made his way to the table.

"What would you want to drink. We have water, juice, iced tea, or coke" I asked him while looking in the fridge.

"Just water please." He said. So I got two glasses form the cupboard and brought out the pitcher from the fridge. I was surprised at what he brought. There was pork, chicken, fish, vegetables, noodles and even soup.

"Did you plan on feeding my whole floor?" I teased.

"No not really. I did say I wasn't sure what you want to I got one of each." He said and started to dig into the food. I just smiled and nodded then started to eat as well. Our conversation this time revolved more around our families.

"Tell me about your family," he said.

"Well, Charlie, my dad started as a county police chief, then became the head state trooper. When he got fed up with that he put up his own security firm. My mom, Renee, is a grade school teacher in Bellevue. It's about half an hour from Seattle. We used to live in Forks but my dad found it easier to establish his business in Seattle so they moved to Bellevue cause my mom did not like to live in the city, and Bellevue is closer than Forks. Rose and Ali's parents live in Bellevue as well. What about you?" I asked.

"Me? Well, you know my dad is a doctor. He used to live in Chicago but moved to New Hampshire for his college and med school. That's where he met my mom. They fell in love with the north east so they decided to settle down here. My mom was an Art major. So aside from the foundations she does appraising for some auction houses and does some interior decorating on the side." He said then popped a spring roll into his mouth.

"Wow, your mom does a lot." I said before taking a bite from the piece of pork I was holding.

"After Emmett and I went to college she had a lot of time on her hands." He smiled at me. We just kept talking through lunch. We then decided to watch movies in the afternoon which extended into the evening. We ordered pizza for dinner and had some coffee and pie I had in the fridge. "What's in this pie? It's really good." He asked me.

"Well, there's banana, coffee cream, and caramel" I answered.

"Wow, and you made this? My mom would love you," he said.

"I'm assuming she cooks too?" I asked him.

"Yes she does. Cooks, bakes, you name it she can do it" he laughed. Before we knew it, it was already midnight. "I had a really good day Bella, but I have to go. I have to make sure we're ready with the site then I have a thirty-six hour shift" he said as we got up and cleaned up the plates.

"That's not really healthy. Why do you have a thirty-six hour shift?" I asked.

"It's only supposed to be twelve hours but Mike is out sick so Garrett and I split his shift so it's not too heavy," he said.

"Oh, ok then. Well, thank you for the food, flowers and for spending time with me." I hugged him before making our way to the door.

"Thank you, too. I had a great time. I'm really comfortable when I'm with you. We could do the simplest things and it seems to mean the world. I'll call you before I go to bed. Will that be ok?" he asked.

"Yes that would be fine. Drive safe." I said to him. He hugged me tight and kissed my hair before turning to head for the elevators. I stood at the door waiting for him to get on. He waved at me before he climbed on and I waved back before turning back into the condo.

The rest of the weekend the girls and I just bummed around the apartment. Monday came and we continued working the usual projects. We ordered the needed materials for the projects we were about to start and we could start the gazebo on Monday and the hospital on Wednesday. That was good because I tried to make it a point to always be there the first day of construction.

Edward's shifts were a mess during the week because someone was out sick. We didn't get to talk long when we got the chance since our waking times were opposites. But nonetheless we made it a point to talk to each other every day. Work was also tiring so I would get home, call him, shower then go to bed. For some reason the guys were busy throughout the week end so we had a girls night on Saturday.

Monday came around and I spent my whole day at the Garden Club site. I agreed to have dinner with Edward that night. We had a simple dinner in Quincy market then just walked around after grabbing my Starbucks of course. I told him that Wednesday I would be at the hospital supervising the start of construction. He seemed to love the idea cause he was smiling the whole time after I told him this.

Wednesday came and I dressed down to casual slacks and a short sleeved silk blouse and ankle boots, making sure the heel is a chunk and not too high. Edward had the mid day shift that day and he offered to pick me up and take me home. He was at my apartment at 8:30 am. We got to the hospital in about fifteen minutes. His shift was to start at 11:00 so he spent a couple of hours with me watching me order people around. I'm not fond of doing this but sometimes it is necessary.

We had lunch at a diner near the hospital and we ordered steak and eggs and eggs and hash and shared the portions. He had to go back to work and I went back to my site. At about 5:00. I was wrapping up with the foreman when Edward appeared at the site.

"Are you ready?" he asked me.

"Yes almost, fifteen minutes?" I said then turned back to the foreman. As promised I was done in fifteen minutes, so I gathered my things and we walked to his car. When we got to the parking lot I heard someone call out to him. "Dr. Cullen," it was a female voice. I turned and saw a blonde running up to him holding something in her hand. He turned and greeted her. "Yes, Jessica, what is it?" he asked her.

"I need your signature on this. They wouldn't release the meds to me." She smiled flirtatiously and handed him the clipboard. He took it and signed, then helped me into the passenger side of the car. I noticed she was still standing near car. He said something to her and then she turned and walked away.

He got into the driver's side and looked irritated. "Is something the matter?" I asked him.

"No, just the usual irritating people you meet at the hospital." He started the engine.

"Irritating meaning she likes you, and you don't like her and she won't leave you alone?" I guessed. He looked at me stunned and said, "Yeah, something like that. How did you figure that out?" he asked.

"Lets' just say I've had my share of experiences. And since you're gorgeous it's not hard to figure out." After realizing what I had said I felt my cheeks get hot. He didn't respond anymore and just drove. I peeked at him through the corner of my eye and I could see him smiling. After a few minutes he asked me if I wanted to get some dinner.

"Well, I want to take a shower. Can we get some take out and eat at my place? Or your place if you want," I said.

"I'd love you to see my place but how do you plan to shower there? Did you bring you stuff?" he asked. "Oh I didn't think of that, well I guess my place then." I said then looked out the window. He just chuckled at me. So we picked up some soup, salad, and sandwiches from Rebecca's then headed to my place.