Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse or Breaking Dawn. I do not own Edward Cullen or Bella Swan or any other characters you may recognize from the series. I do however own the one-shot this is based on entitled 'White Carpet and Wall Sconces'.

Did he seriously just ask for a repeat? Who does he think he is? Who does he think I am? I tossed my cup in the trash bin on the way by and fished my keys out of my pocket. The look on his face said something different than the words that came out of his mouth. The look on his face was somewhere between worry and hurt. The set of his mouth when I told him I was leaving nearly made me turn around and comfort him. The way his eyes were wide and sad cut deep inside me. But why was he so sad? Guys like Edward Cullen went after easy, vulnerable girls, for easy, no-strings sex, and they sure as hell didn't look broken down when they got turned down by some girl they met in a bathroom.

I wasn't ready to go home yet, and face the piles of unsorted papers all over my floor, so instead of turning left onto my street, I turned right, following it straight to the end to the small apartment building where my friend Angela lived with her boyfriend Ben. Angela would know what to say to make me feel better and I knew Ben worked Saturday nights so she'd probably be alone.

Angela and Ben's building was a small, two story building with eight apartments inside. Just like our building, there was no buzzer so I just climbed the small staircase to their upper floor apartment and knocked. Angela's face appeared in the crack as she peered out at me. Her brown eyes were wide with surprise.

"Bella?" She opened the door wider and motioned for me to come inside.

"Hey" I said, stepping by her into the tiny space. "Is this a bad time?" I looked at the coffee table covered in text books and the TV playing Dirty Dancing on mute.

"No, no of course not. Come on in. I was just watching a movie and trying to do some homework, nothing that can't wait." She smiled genuinely and hung up my coat. "You look frozen half to death."

"It's pretty cold out there." I rubbed my hands together and went to sit in the arm chair opposite the couch. "Sorry I didn't call first."

She shook her head and went to the kitchen. I heard her flick the kettle on. "Tea?" She called, peeking her head around the wall.

"Sure. Thanks!" She was always so homey and welcoming. I could barely remember a time when I hadn't come to Angela's and had tea and cookies. Except in the summer; in the summer she always had lemonade and gold fish crackers. It reminded me of little kids at the beach. Angela loved gold fish crackers.



Moments later she appeared with a mug of steaming tea, made just the way I liked it, and a plate of raisin oatmeal cookies. "Store bought sorry. I haven't had much time lately."

I laughed at her. I had been living on pizza pockets for the last month, store bought cookies were practically gourmet. She sat down on the couch and curled her feet under her, watching me closely. It was a long time before either of us spoke. Finally she broke the silence with her quiet, sweet voice.

"What's up Bella? Is something wrong?" She sipped her tea and watched as I broke a cookie apart and at the pieces one by one.

"Kind of" I admitted, looking at my tea. She sat quietly, waiting me out. She was never one to push. That's what I loved about her. "I'm a little bit confused. I thought maybe you could shed some light on the situation." I looked up at her; her eyes were searching my face for some sort of clue as to what was to come. She nodded for me to continue.

"I went to this party last night with Jessica and I slept with this guy, and then I thought that was it, but then I saw him tonight and he was all weird. And he was terribly rude, said he wanted a repeat and all that shit. You know, typical ass hole things to say. But then, when I turned down his, quote unquote offer instead of you know, trying to convince me otherwise or being pissed off or whatever, he looked…" I paused, peeking at her face which was completely blank, hoping to get some sort of reaction.

"He looked…" she repeated, waving one hand absentmindedly around.

"Devastated?" I tried. The look was beyond sad. It wasn't just disappointment, it was something more.

She nodded again, thoughtfully and then leaned forward, closing all the textbooks on the table and piling them in a neat pile on the floor. Then she propped her feet up on the coffee table and leaned back into the corner of the couch. "It was just sex?" I knew Angela didn't agree with casual sex, but she'd stopped judging Jessica and I on our choices. I nodded.

"I didn't even plan on it to begin with. It just…sort of spun out of control faster than I could rein it in."

She raised her eyebrows and looked over her mug at me. "You're telling me you let a guy get you in a room alone and you didn't even plan it? Bella come on, I wasn't born yesterday."

"No. Oh my god. I wanted to get away from the crazy party downstairs so I figured I'd hide in the bathroom." She snorted back a giggle and I glared at her. "Anyway, he was in there too, doing the same thing. I was going to leave, but staying with one sober person seemed like a better deal than going back to forty drunken ones."

"God Bella, maybe you're made for each other. How many other people hide out in bathrooms? Where'd you run into him tonight?"

"At the marina. And we are not made for each other! I was not made for Edward Cullen!" I clapped my hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to tell her who it was. I hadn't meant to tell anyone who it was.

Her face said it all. The shock was radiating from every pore of her being. "You slept with Edward Cullen?"

I looked down at my knees; my face was surely a brilliant shade of red by now. I nodded meekly.

"You slept with Edward Cullen, and now you feel bad because he asked you for another booty call and you turned him down!"

"Not exactly" I mumbled. She sighed, exasperated. "I'm not feeling guilty that I turned down a booty call" I clarified. "I'm guilty that I made him look so…sad."

"Bella, I know what you're thinking. We've gone through this before. You hook up with some guy, then you get all down about it and you wonder if he has feelings for you above and beyond anything sexual. In most cases, I'd gladly say that there was a very good chance, but in this one, I'm going to go with no. Edward Cullen doesn't care about anyone but himself. Do you feel something more for him?"

I felt the sting of tears as I took a deep breath. "You make it sound like this happens all the time" I told her. "We've had this conversation, what? Once before?" She held up two fingers. "Fine, twice. You can't exactly say it's a common occurrence."

She shrugged. "Do you have feelings for him Bella? Seriously."

"What? No! Maybe! I don't know. No. No, there is no way I have feelings for Edward Cullen. I just don't like hurting people's feelings."

She watched me closely, thinking about everything I'd said so far. "Why was he at the marina?"

"No idea. He said he liked to go there to think." Her eyebrows shot to her hair line.

"But you…"

"I know. It's weird. I mean, I guess it could be coincidence."

"Could be." She agreed. "Probably is. Maybe you should talk to him. Try to find out what his deal is. I mean he seems open enough to talking to you."

"Open enough to fucking me" I said crudely.

"True. Was he at least decent?" It was the most Angela would ever ask. It was more than she'd ever asked before.

"Definitely" I said, somewhat begrudgingly.

"Even if he didn't follow you to the harbor, which is pretty unlikely since he would have no idea that you'd go there, he did stop to talk to you when you were there."

Sure, Angela was right, he had stopped to talk to me, but I hadn't wanted him to. I hadn't wanted to see him or think about him ever again. He was Edward Cullen for crying out loud. I had a lapse in judgement; we all have them, why was he torturing me about it?



"Maybe he's not that bad. You know for someone who's a known partier I've never actually seen him out."

I laughed out loud. "Ange…in order to make that statement, you actually have to go out."

She feigned shock. "I do go out Bella. Just not to frat parties. And somehow, I don't think Edward Cullen is the frat crowd type." She bit into another cookie and grinned at me. "How bad can he be? Really."

Edward's Point of View

"She wants a baby! A mother fucking baby! We're twenty three freaking years old! What the hell are we going to do with a baby?" I watched Emmett's pacing form take over the kitchen as I sat quietly at the table, only half listening. "Are you listening to me Edward? You don't look nearly shocked enough! I said, ROSALIE WANTS TO HAVE A BABY!"

Emmett's girlfriend of two years had just come back from a visit home to Rochester and apparently, while there found out that her friend was pregnant. They'd been readying the baby's room and buying clothes the entire time she was there. And now she'd come back and told Emmett that she thought she'd like a baby of her own. Needless to say, Emmett wasn't taking the news well.

"I heard you Em, sorry. I'm just preoccupied."

"Well get your little mind out of whatever sick fantasy you're in at the moment and give me a moment of your time. I need to know what the hell I should do."

"Are you serious? You want to know what you should do. I have no idea. It's your girlfriend. You love her don't you?" He made a weird noise in his throat and resumed pacing. "You kind of need to talk to her. You're obviously not ready for fatherhood."

"You think!? I'm pretty fucking sure I'm not ready for fatherhood. What is she even thinking? Just because Vera's having a baby doesn't mean she needs to follow suit." I secretly wondered who the hell called their kid Vera, but ignored that question. I would let Emmett rant at me, because I needed to think about what I was going to do about the girl that even my sister's toga-wearing boyfriend wasn't keeping out of my head.

What had she meant by maybe she'd see me around? Why was she ignoring me? I had thought everything had gone well, and I'd given her no reason not to talk to me. Was she just really insecure? Had my reputation gotten the better of me? Was she embarrassed?

And why was she freezing her ass off at the marina? She had said she'd chosen Seattle for the ferry boats, which seemed like a really strange reason to choose a city, or a university for that matter. But even if that was the reason, and even if she really liked ferry boats, it didn't make sense that she was freezing her ass off in late January just to have a coffee by the water. I thought I was the only person that did that.

Maybe she did really like ferry boats. Maybe I could take her on a ferry boat ride. That would be nice wouldn't it? Or would that seem too much like a date? That sounded like a date thing to me.

I thought back over the entire conversation. Maybe telling her I was ready for another round wasn't the best tactic. Maybe I should have been more stealth about it. Maybe I should buy her a coffee and go to her house and butter her up a bit first. Maybe I should tidy my room and invite her back here. Maybe I should find out where she lives.

"…don't exactly have room for a baby! She's just so… so…. Inconsiderate of my feelings! I have needs you know." I was brought back to the present by Emmett's constant grumbling and pacing. "Emmett's needs were not really my concern, but he seemed to think I should be involved in this problem he was having. "Edward really, what are you thinking about that has you so out of it?"

I just shook my head at him. "Sorry Em, I have no idea what you should do about this. You obviously need to talk to Rose. And I clearly need to go upstairs. I need to think a bit."

Alice's arm darted out of her door as I reached the top of the stairs, and her finger beckoned me inside. She closed the door behind me and pushed me toward her bed. Her room was impeccably neat and tidy. Every shelf was organized to a tee. All of her school things were colour coded. And the walls. The walls hurt my eyes. I never knew a nineteen year old girl to want bubble gum pink and white striped walls. For a girl with fabulous fashion sense, she couldn't decorate to save her life.

"What happened between you and Bella Swan?" She stood in front of me; hands on her hips, eyes alight with curiosity.

"Wh-what?" How did she guess? What did she know?

"Just answer the question, Edward. I'm not stupid you know. You ask about her then you leave. You don't ask about any girl. So what happened Edward?"

"Nothing happened." Nothing I was going to tell my little sister about anyway.

"Bull shit. You've been acting weird all day long. The only time I saw your face relax was when you asked me about her. You've been pinched and nervous since the first time I saw you this morning."

I sighed, wondering if I should just give in and talk to her, and hope she could help. It was pretty embarrassing. Not that I'd had sex with Bella Swan, obviously if I could I'd brag to everyone I knew that I'd had sex with Bella Swan. No, the embarrassing part was that I couldn't stop thinking about her. And not the normal things I'd think about after hooking up with a girl, like how great her tits felt in my hands, or how good she tasted, or how turned on I was, or how tight she was. I thought about other things. Like how she'd slapped me and how I was almost glad she had. And how stunned and embarrassed she'd looked when she'd realized I was in there to begin with, and how she'd blushed crimson when she'd told me I didn't need to leave. I thought about how good she smelled, and how her hair was soft between my fingers, and how she'd moaned my name, and how there was nothing I wanted more at that precise moment than to hear her say it again. I thought about how she'd smiled ever so slightly, and how she looked up through her eyelashes and how her lips curled slowly into a half smile when I touched her face. I thought about when she kissed me, how warm and sweet her mouth was and how I wished I didn't need to breathe so I didn't need to stop.



I thought all of these things, and I didn't know why. I kept wondering about her. Why did she love ferry boats so much? And why had she not wanted to talk to me? And how did she like her latte? Was she a regular or a no foam or an extra foam kind of girl?

"Edward? What happened?" Alice was still standing there, hands on her hips, but her expression was softer.

"We hooked up." I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back on my elbows to peek at her face and take in her expression.

It was blank, almost scarily so. "You had sex with Bella Swan? You? My brother Edward? Seriously?"

I nodded mutely.

"So, is that it then? You had sex with her? You have sex with everyone."

"That's not fair."

She snorted. "Well, you hooked up. Why are you acting so weird?"

"I don't know Al. I seriously just need some thinking time."

"Do you loooove her?" Her voice was mocking. She was smiling now.

"Obviously not" I scoffed, making a move to stand up. She pushed me back now.

"I was honestly kidding with the life changes Edward. This is weird."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Are you about done?"

"Nope. Not at all. You loooove Bella Swan."

"Oh seriously Alice, I do not love Bella Swan. I don't even know Bella Swan."

"But you want to, and that's a start." She walked over to her computer desk and scanned the wall behind it. There had to be five hundred post it notes stuck to the surface. She reached her finger out and drew it down the wall until she found what she was looking for and plucked the bright pink paper off the wall. "This is her number. Call her." She placed the sticky sheet in my hand and pushed me out the door. "You need to leave now. Jasper will be here in a few."

I threw her a dirty look and hurried toward my room, the post it note with Bella's phone number, hot in my hand.