Author's Note: I virtual curtsy for you all, many thanks. Also, finally! I've had this ready to post since yesterday morning.

Nice reviews are better than chocolate, unless maybe you're licking that chocolate off someone.

Twenty Seven

November 22nd

I had been too scared to answer the phone; I didn't want to hear the disappointment in my friend's voices. So I had ignored them and now I had to face them. But if I wanted to even remotely hope that they'd forgive me I had to come out of hiding. I started with Alice; I figured that would be the most difficult.

I decided to drive into L.A and see her; I knew she would be at her store and as a shameless bribe I brought her favorite chocolate chip cookies with me. I put the container in my purse and walked out of the parking garage into the overcast day; it was still strangely bright despite the cloud cover.

I missed Alice, more than I even realized before that day. We had talked since coming home, but it wasn't the same; the conversations were brief and non-invasive. After our initial fight, neither of us brought up New York again. I didn't even know how things were going with her and Jasper; I knew they were still together and that she seemed happy, but that was all. I had been a bad friend and I wanted to make it up to her; I just wasn't sure how. Be honest.

I opened one of the big glass double doors and walked inside. "Just a second," Alice called from the back. She came out a minute later holding a mannequin head with red lipstick on. She froze for just a moment before relaxing again. "Oh, hi, what brings you to L.A?" She turned back around and stuck the head on a shelf just inside the stock room door and then moved to sit behind the glass counter.

I felt awkward which mostly just made me feel stupid; she was my best friend for crying out loud. I walked around the counter and sat on the stool in front of the register. "You." It came out sort of like a question.

Her gaze flickered up to mine and she sighed. "I don't want to do the whole you're sorry I'm sorry thing. Look, I understand…or I'm trying to…"

"I'm sorry anyway. I just want us to be ok again," I looked at her, still not sure what else to say. I wondered if I was just born with the ability to suck at human communication.

She nudged me playfully with her elbow, "we'll always be ok."

"I promise not to be all stupid and evasive and a crappy friend anymore…and I brought you cookies."

"And chickenshit. Gimme."

I handed her the bag and laughed at her adjective use; she was Alice, she could call me what she wanted.

Even though she said she didn't need an explanation, I gave her one anyway. I told her everything that I'd held back since we got back to California, even telling her about Jacob calling me a coward.

"He's not allowed to call you that."

She volunteered me for cashier duty since the one that was supposed to be there called in sick. We caught up between customers. She had gotten offers from several stores to stock her clothing and was working double time to get orders filled. I didn't know what help I could be, but I offered it anyway.

She closed the store early on Sundays, so by six o'clock we were sitting in a little coffee place splitting a deli sandwich in half. "So," she started out slowly, "there's something else I wanted to tell you."

I took a bite of my food and nodded.

"I've decided to open a second store."

I smiled and put the sandwich down, "oh, that's great Alice!" And it was, no jealously, no pangs of guilt, I was just happy for her. It kind of surprised me.

She smiled too, but it looked a little forced. "I'm opening it in New York."

She said it like she was ripping off a Band-Aid. At first I didn't entirely understand what she was getting at. In my head, I was thinking – oh, that's wonderful; New York will be the perfect place to open her store. Then I realized what she meant. "Oh," I still felt the residual happiness for her, but I could also feel something else – separation anxiety. "When?"

"Jasper is helping me scout locations right now; I'll be going back mid-December and then if all goes well, I will go there permanently at the end of January." Alice looked like she was waiting for my inevitable meltdown.

"Are…are you getting your own place?" I felt strange, sad and happy and worried and a little anxious. It's called a normal human reaction.

She shook her head and then did something I had never seen her do in all the years I'd known her; she blushed.

It shook me out of my sadness, "Alice Brandon, are you shacking up with Jasper?"

She grinned, "you make it sound dirty." She told me she'd planned on finding an apartment, but in a roundabout way Jasper suggested his own. We talked about the move and I interrogated her until I knew as much as she did. I still had the sad, happy feeling, but I trusted we'd both be ok. She said so after all and besides, she can see the future.

Alice and I were walking to the parking garage before she brought up Edward. "Have you talked to him since September?"

I shook my head, "I'm afraid it's too late."

"It's not," she paused, "he misses you."

We got into her car; she was going to drive me up to the second level to mine. "Have you…talked to him?" I wondered if she could hear my heart beating.

"No, but Jasper has."

"Does Jasper hate me too?"

"Not at all, and Edward doesn't hate you. He's just hurt, but he wants you back." She pulled in next to my car.

I played with the door handle, contemplating jumping out and running away. My car was just a few feet from where I was, I could get in and forget about this whole day and I knew Alice would forgive me. "I don't know how to make things right with him."

"Why don't you show him those -,"

"They're too personal," I said before she could finish.

"You have to open up to him sometime; he deserves that much."

I sighed and stared out the window at my car; I knew she was right. Dammit. "When did you get to be so smart?"

"I was born that way."

Alice's voice was stuck in my head the whole way home; she was right, I did owe him an explanation. I just didn't know if that would be enough. Enough for what, exactly? I didn't really expect him to forgive me; I just didn't want him to be unhappy anymore.

At home I grabbed the box I'd kept Edward's letters in, with a few more additions it was now almost overflowing. I sat it on top of my closed laptop and ran my fingers over the smooth wood; it was mahogany and had a lock in the front. The brass key sat next to it on the kitchen table; it had a sage colored tassel hanging off it. The thing cost way more than I should have ever paid just for a box, but I thought it was beautiful. I stuck the key in and turned once, leaving it in the lock when I was done. I leaned back in my chair and kept staring; the box seemed to be getting bigger the more I studied it and I kind of hoped it would get big enough for Edward to jump out.

I laughed to myself. It was the week of Thanksgiving and my school had all five days off, at this rate I'd be officially crazy before Thursday. I should probably have made plans or gone out anywhere, but because I couldn't resist, I opened the lid to my laptop and signed into my e-mail, something I hadn't done since before New York. I was afraid of the various things I might find. I had a few e-mails from the online service I'd used to buy my plane ticket, three from Rose with baby pictures of David, two raunchy forwards from Emmett, nothing from Alice, and nothing from Edward. Not even an I hate you e-mail.

I bit my lip and weighed a couple of things – what I wanted to do and I what I should do, possibly stupid versus probably more responsible. I moved my gaze from the screen to the box of letters I clung to, from the box to the table.

It wasn't exactly an epiphany and I wasn't exactly certain if it would even remotely work, but I knew what I was going to do.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so short, but I needed some transition. The next one is not short.