GAH! So...hi... :)

Life in general is insane but times that by 5000x and that is how mine has been.
Brother coming home from Afghan, Nursing Programs, Classes, Fulltime Job, ETC.

So yeah, it's insane. And...I write this when I want a break from everything. I write this for my fun- my few and far in between spare time.

Enjoy, if you are still out there somewhere.

BTW- No copyright infringement is intended. Stephenie Meyer owns all. Really, she does.

Hint: Show starts...next chapter!

Love Gets Me Every Time

Bella POV

Los Angeles, California
May-June 2009

"First off, Bella, you have some explaining to do," Rose said as she got comfortable at our table.

After we had parted our separate ways—it was a mutual agreement that toothbrushes and showers were needed before we wanted to seriously talk—we ventured out of the hotel to find something to eat.

We were sitting in a little breakfast café shop that was two blocks from the hotel. It worked well for all of us; Alice got her greasy breakfast burrito and Rose and I got our morning coffee and pastries.

I leaned my elbows on the table and looked to my right at Rose incredulously. "What planet are you on?" Alice snorted but said nothing and went back to eating her breakfast burrito. She barely spoke a word this whole morning, back to claiming a major hangover. Which was just so damn convenient for her. "Did I or did I not see you promoting the walk of shame this morning?"

She rolled her eyes. Alice took another huge ass bite. "My god! It's not the walk of shame. What Emmett can do with only—," she started.

"Too much!" I shoved my hands on top of my ears, almost spilling my coffee.

She laughed. "Sorry." She shrugged, smiling, while taking a small bite of her croissant. "I would only be ashamed if he had some sort of STD." She cringed. "And even then, I would be ashamed for my lady parts and nothing else." Her smirk was satisfied.

I thought about it and nodded while laughing; she had a point. "Okay." I shrugged and took a bite of my gooey cinnamon roll. It smelled like heaven. Although, it didn't have anything on eau de Edward. "I don't get you sometimes."

"What's there to get?"

I just shook my head with a smile. Rose was just…Rose.

"Uh, Alice…you don't have anything to contribute?" I asked.

"What? I don't need to explain anything. It's pretty self-explanatory. When a boy and girl love each other, the man takes his happy stick and—," she said seriously before I cut her off.

"What is with you guys and too much damn information?" I tried to hide my smile.

"You know I'm funny, Bells. Don't try to hide it," she said, grinning like an idiot.

"You are such a freak," Rose told her, starting to playfully shove her off her chair.

"Hey, stop," she whined. I laughed. People were starting to stare. "I'll tip over! You're handling 98 pounds of precious cargo here!"

They laughed and Alice screamed, holding onto the handles of the chair as I thought over what I wanted to say.

It seemed to be looming in the back of my mind this morning and last night. I didn't want to think about it too much. I wanted to enjoy my time with Edward—only if it is several days—and hope for the best. But it was hard not to think about it. What if I really fell for him? Wouldn't it just be easier to never talk to him again and forget it ever happened?

"What are we going to do?" They stopped and looked at me curiously.

I couldn't stop thinking about it. He just lived so far. I didn't see how it could work out. On top of the fact my contract with the show states I can't be romantically involved. Uh, too late now. That's a whole new obligation. It scared me because in no less than a few days I was supposed to meet ten really good looking guys that didn't rival Edward at all in my mind. At first, when I agreed to do the show, I was really excited, albeit skeptical, but I knew in the back of my mind it would be a fun experience. It had to be. After getting to know Edward though, I was dreading it. I couldn't stop comparing the men I saw on the audition tapes to Edward. There was no comparison.

I shifted in my seat and put my head in my hands. "They live in Chicago. How is that supposed to work out? Why does he have to live so far? I'm pretty sure I'm cursed. Nothing ever goes right," I said a bit hysterically in response to their curious gazes.

Alice looked at my sympathetically and Rose spoke up. "Just spend every second you can with Edward. And when the time comes to part, just know that you have no regrets because at least you got what you could out of it, right?"

"But won't that just make it worse to say goodbye in the end when all things are said and done?"

"Well, what about if you tell him about the show? Maybe he'll understand. Hell, maybe he'll laugh about it. You never know," Alice chimed in.

I snorted. "Yeah, and then I say, 'Wait for me!' while I spend my next month trying to find love with 10 other guys that aren't him. That'll work out just dandy," I said sarcastically.

"Who knows? Maybe if you say you promise to be with him afterwards, he may agree? What will it hurt? It's worth a shot at least," Rose added.

"Ugh. I've barely known him for a day," I said as I rolled my neck, trying to release the tension and brought my head up to look at my friends. "I'm contracted to the show. I can get in a lot of trouble if they find out I am romantically involved with anyone."

"Who's going to find out?" Rose asked. "It's not like you guys are having sex in the lobby."

Ugh. "Yeah, but we haven't been very discreet either."

"The likelihood that any staff working with the show will see them is actually pretty high," Alice said, finally finished with her damn mando burrito.

Rose glared at her. "No, it's not. If anything, you'll be hugging or touching. So what? Friends can hug."

"I know, but it's just too conspicuous. I don't want any trouble or drama. I think they could sue me. Do you think they can? Since technically I signed the contract," I sighed and closed my eyes for a brief moment, wanting to forget about the damn show.

"I don't know about that. Maybe you should call Angela. That seems pretty extreme just because they saw you with someone, you know?" Alice shrugged hopelessly. I felt hopeless. Calling a lawyer to get help scared the crap out of me. I shouldn't need a lawyer to date who I choose. What did I get myself into?

"Yeah, I'll call her," I sighed while finishing the last of my coffee.

We all sat there silently for a few moments pondering the royal fuck up I got myself into. I didn't want to never see him again. I knew that for sure. But then what was I supposed to do? Set myself up to only later never see him again or tell him and humiliate myself? Even if I did tell him, and in the off chance he didn't have a problem with it, I was supposed to choose 'the love of my life' on the show. That's the whole point. Why did I feel like then, that I wished Edward was on the show? No. I erased that thought completely. It would just make the impossible worse to bear.

On top of everything else, a long distance relationship certainly wouldn't work. It would cause more trouble than anything and eventually one of us would end it. Right?

I couldn't not see him. I would end up with too much regret, wondering what could have happened; the "what if's" would nag at me constantly.

"I'm going to keep seeing him. I just have to be careful, right? I really want to see where it goes. Who knows, he could turn out to have some really annoying habit I hate and could never get past," I joked, trying to ease the seriously tension and tell them that I was fine. I could handle it.

They looked at me sympathetically, with small smiles. I just shrugged my shoulders.

Then I remembered something else I wanted to ask them. "Do you guys want to know my plan for tonight? I called the lobby and set up to have the whole kitchen to the hotel to ourselves. I'm going to make him dinner. Do you guys think that's a bad idea?"

I chewed on my nails awaiting their answer. My emotions and feelings pertaining this subject were laughable. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster. A rollercoaster I didn't want to get off of. A little giggle escaped. I'm going insane.

I looked up remembering that I was supposed to be getting an answer from Rose and Alice. Instead of answering my question though, I saw them looking at each other knowingly. They turned to look at me with big smiles on their faces.

"What? So you like the idea?" I asked curiously looking at them both.

"It's a great idea, Bells. What are you going to make? We should probably go to the store, huh?" Alice asked sweetly. I was sure that the look they exchanged didn't exactly pertain to my plan for Edward and I tonight, but I decided not to push. They would have told me if they wanted to.

"Yeah, let's grab a cab. I'll tell you when we get to the store." I finished my cinnamon roll quickly and thought of something else. "I don't want to take the limo…that will draw way too much attention," I said, rolling my eyes, as I stood from my seat.

Attention that was very unwanted at this point.

We left the coffee shop and walked back to the hotel to have them call a cab.

After shopping for all the ingredients I needed to make dinner and desert, we headed back to the hotel. I dropped off all the groceries in the fridge and thanked the chef for letting me use his kitchen. He didn't seem to have a problem with it telling me they would just use the larger kitchen in the restaurant seeing as it was closed by the time they would do the switch. The hotel was barely busy because it was only a weekday.

As I left the kitchen I checked my phone for the time; it was nearing three o'clock.

Oh shit.

I had a meeting with Peter. I panicked. I didn't want to talk about the show. I wanted to pretend that it didn't even exist and that I could spend my week with Edward without having to worry about Saturday morning, the first day of filming; the night I meet all ten guys.

The pit of my stomach tightened as I tried to reassure myself. I couldn't freak out. That would just make it that much harder when the show started. I needed to play it by ear.

I called Peter and he said he had the conference room of the hotel booked for us to meet in. I was going to meet all the staff; makeup crew, camera crew, set crew, producers, everyone. I thought it was weird we were meeting in the hotel conference room and not somewhere more…private…but I didn't question him. I told him I would head over there right away.

I was nervous. I sent a quick text message to Alice and Rose informing them of the meeting. After we got back to the hotel, they went to find Jasper in Emmett while I dropped off the groceries. They were probably with them now. Was Edward there? Ugh. I needed to get a hold on my thoughts. This was crazy.

My phone beeped with a new message.

Good luck, babe! Call us when you're done, we're going to the sauna later. Xoxo Rose

I sent a quick reply letting her know, as long as we had time before six o'clock, it sounded good to me. I shut my phone off, afraid of the disruption from the meeting. I don't know many of the people working here yet, but I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be too fond of that.

I walked down the corridor, following the directions the receptionist gave me. The hallway was wide with red, green and gold carpet. The designs reminded me of the fleur de leis pattern. When I reached the wide, tall double doors carved with gold designs—just like the receptionist described—I took one last deep breath.

The room was a large conference room, almost more like a small auditorium. Each table connected with the next to make one large half circle surrounding a taller stand with a long table and a microphone. Many people were on the left side of the fancy hotel meeting room, chatting and snacking on whatever food was placed out for the occasion. Whatever this occasion was.

"Oh dear! Gorgeous! Just gorgeous! I love it! Turn around for me sweetheart, let me see all of you," a voice from behind me said. I blushed and quickly turned around to come face to face with a very fashionable man. He had dark pants on with pointy black dress shoes, a white button up and a skinny black tie. To top it off he had silky blonde hair, fresh skin, and smelt like apples. His teeth were pearly white and his skin was faintly tan.

I smiled and sighed in relief.

"Um, who are you, exactly?" I asked him with a small laugh.

"Oh, how rude of me!" His smile widened. "I'm Laurent…your personal stylist and makeup artist…" He curtseyed. "And you're the fabulous Belle Maria!" He clapped his hands together in front of him just like Cinderella does when you take your picture with her at Disneyland. I smiled wider.

…And laughed some more. "That I am. It's actually Bella, though."

He rolled his eyes with a smirk and waved his hand in a gesture of unimportance. "Nonsense. Belle Maria is so you. So classy."

"Okay, then." I shrugged.

Hell, who was I to deny him etiquette on name classiness?

"So, I'm kinda new to all of this, think you can point me in the right direction?" I asked, looking around at all of the unfamiliar people in the room. I hadn't spotted Peter or James yet, but it wouldn't be long.

"Just stick with me honey," he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and squeezing. "Let's go find the man in charge of this shindig."

We walked through the large auditorium size room passing too many people to count, over to the head table where a few girls in tight skirts and thin blouses were arranging coffees and paper on the table. I then noticed Peter standing off to the side speaking to a small group of people.

"Ohhh Peter!" Laurent sang in a high pitch voice. I laugh and nudged him.

"He's talking to people," I said, muffling my laugh. Although I tried to sound serious, I couldn't help but smile at this eccentric man.

He waved his hand in dismissal again. "Oh they're nobody. He told me to keep my eye out for you before you got here; I'm your new confidant," he told me, accenting the last word in a really bad French voice.

I shrugged and smiled. I liked this Laurent. "Awesome." It was nice to know I could have a friend in a sea of unfamiliar people. Although, I guess you could say I wasn't all that familiar with him, but he seemed willing to befriend me, so I wasn't going to say anything.

"Bella," Peter said, approaching us with a smile. "I see you've met Laurent."

"Belle Maria is so perfect for the show, Peter. I can't wait to find her knight in shining armor!" He started playing with my hair as I spoke with Peter.

I almost choked. Night in shining armor. My thoughts turned to Edward and I sighed. How was this going to work out? I wanted to kick and scream and yell at all the damn mighty gods that sent Edward to me at such an unreasonable time. Part of me considered faking an illness or something equally drastic just so I could get out of it—but I knew this wouldn't help. I knew I just needed to form a plan and stick through it til the end. I couldn't think of the future or any ramifications now.

I noticed the conversation had lulled off and Peter was staring at me expectantly, so I went with the first thing that came to mind.

"I seem to have adapted a new name."

Peter shrugged. "I kinda like it myself…" He trailed off, trying to muffle a huge grin, I could tell.

I raised an eyebrow, surprised at how comfortable I seemed to be—how much I was in my element—here already. "Sure you do." My tone mocked him.

Laurent smiled his perfect white grin and curtseyed at someone across the room.

Peter looked at Laurent and laughed. "Anyway, we should get the meeting started. But first I'd like to introduce you to a few important people. Now, I don't want to overwhelm you too much, so I'm thinking maybe just a few of the more important ones. Our other producers: Kate and Emily, Chris Harrison—of course, you will be with him a lot throughout filming," he said, checking off names on his fingers. "Oh, and I think you'll want to meet some of the men, no?" He teased.

I laughed, a little reluctantly because he scared the shit out of me there. "Very funny," I grumbled halfheartedly with a smile. I was a little frustrated because I wasn't going to be meeting the men until we were actually on camera. I had asked Peter earlier in the week on the phone why it couldn't be fake and acted out like I thought it was going to be, and he laughed with me, saying those were just false rumors. Part of me was happy and jumping for joy that I wasn't going through this process for shits and giggles, but another part was insanely scared because that means a would have to actually work at dating these men and getting to know them, it was a bit intimidating.

And that's when the other part of me sighed in complete realization—again—that I wouldn't be able to get to know Edward like I wanted to. Why did this opportunity have to come up now of all times?

I shook my head to resign those thoughts. They weren't helping, nor were they positive. There was nothing I could do, I was contracted to this part of my life right now, and other than that fact, I was looking forward to my time spent with these people.

The meeting was fun and managed to excite me for the show more than I thought. We played some bonding games to get to know one another, talked about the filming schedule, discussed press junkets, planned photo shoots, and organized every other form of advertisement possible. I wasn't looking forward to that too much, but all the positives outweighed the negatives so I didn't dwell on it too much.

I met up with Alice and Rosalie at the Sauna on the first floor of the hotel. I only had about 20 minutes of relaxation time before I had to make my way upstairs to get dressed and ready for my night with Edward.

"I think you should convince the producers to add Edward to the show," Rosalie laughed while I sulked. I adjusted the towel around my chest and leaned back against the warm, moist wood paneling.

Sighing, I responded, "Rose. Please, can we not bring this up? I mean, it really sucks that I met him now of all times, but I really think this is going to be a great experience and I want to make the best of it. Edward or no Edward." I looked over at Alice who was texting on her iPhone. "I think we can still stay in touch. He mentioned he may be here a while and you guys clearly have grown close to Jasper and Emmett."

My throat clearing brought Alice back to the conversation. "Sorry," she mumbled sheepishly with a small smile.

"Mhmm," I hummed, although, smiling at her obvious affection for Edward's best friend.

Rose interrupted. "I think you should move to Mexico."

I choked on air. "What? Why? Are you insane?" I stared at her incredulously as she examined her perfectly manicured nails as if she didn't just mention I move across the United States of American into a foreign country.

"Well, it makes perfect sense. You and Edward could buy a little condo on the beach and ditch this moldy sponge.

"Moldy sponge?" Alice cringed, yet continued to type on her iPhone. She was trying, I gave her that.

Rose rolled her eyes and continued with a teasing smile. "They can't follow you to Mexico, you know."

I barked an incredulous laugh. "You are insane! I'm not moving to Mexico with Edward!"

"Why not?" A deep voice smooth as melted chocolate voiced. I glanced to my left to find all three men standing at the door to the large sauna room in their suits. Edward's was all black that contrasted perfectly to his skin and toned body.

I followed his chest up his neck and to his eyes where I found I was caught ogling him. I smirked, unashamed. I found myself rather bold when it came to Edward.

"Ladies, if you are moving to Mexico, count me in! I want me some tequila where it's five o'clock anywhere!" Emmett whooped and tossed himself on the bench next to Rose, flinging his arm around her shoulder as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Jasper silently walked over to Alice and sat down next to her, whispering in her ear. I then noticed her iPhone set aside, and smirked.

I knew it.

Rose rolled her eyes at Emmett but I could see the look of adoration she had for him in her eyes. "It's five o'clock somewhere, Emmett. Somewhere."

I laughed and turned to Edward. "Excited?"

"Excuse me?" He cocked an eyebrow and smirked that devilish grin that turned my tummy into knots.

"About our date tonight..." I reminded him...still apprehensive about calling it a date, but excited nonetheless.

He leaned in close and smoothed a hair out of my face while brining his thumb to my bottom lip I didn't even realize I was chewing on. "Very," he breathed softly and then chuckled at my dazzled expression.

I smiled. "Me too."

I'm already working on the next chapter, so hopefully it won't be another few months. Classes are out in 2.5 weeks!

Let me know if this chapter even makes sense. I feel like I barely know these characters it's been so long, Lol.