Bella.

"Come in!" I yelled from my living room, flipping the channel on the television without even looking up.

It was Saturday morning, around 8:00 o'clock, and Alice had already called earlier to let me know that she would be coming over. Alice was always welcome in my apartment, of course, but I had to admit that I was somewhat reluctant about inviting her– – given the way she behaved last time I saw her.

I heard the door open up, and the locks start to turn, but never once removed my eyes from the screen before me. Was TV always this utterly mundane?

"Good morning, Bella." Alice's voice sang from the across the room.

I scowled at the casualness of her tone, not forgetting her decision to be talkative during dinner two nights ago. If she wanted to try and play innocent, she could act all she wanted. I knew that she knew that I would question her on her actions at dinner. Alice wasn't the blabber-mouthed type, so there had to be some reason for her gossiping attitude before– – and I was going to find out about it.

"Whatcha watching?" Alice asked curiously, plopping herself on the empty sofa seat across from me. Without turning to look at her, I continued flipping through the channels half-heartedly, and blurted out, "Alice, why in Gods' name were you being so talkative at dinner?"

I didn't bother saying anything else, since I knew that Alice understood what I was implying. She was far too observant and smart not to.

Though I had refrained from looking at her all that time, my head suddenly snapped in her direction as the sound of giggles erupted from her small frame.

"Why are you laughing?" I demanded, putting the Television on mute, and finally bringing my eyes to look at her.

I scowled at her meek, impervious expression.

"Are you sure you would like to know?" She inquired, biting back a large smile.

"Yes." I managed to say, without sarcastically retorting. And darn, did I want to!

"Fine then," Alice chirped. I watched impatiently as she slid her purse off her shoulder, along with her extremely flashy looking, yellow jacket, and tossed it onto the cushioned table in front of us. Turning her attention back to me, she started, "Your friend, Edward Cullen, gave me a feeling."

And at that, my mouth completely dropped open.

Cullen gave Alice a feeling? I shook my head as if to cast away something so ludicrous, and managed to choke out, "But… what about Jasper?"

Alice appeared taken aback by my question, but laughed as soon as understanding crossed her face, "No, silly! Not like that. I had a feeling in a whole different way."

Before I could stop myself, I let out a sigh of relief. In an instant, it felt as if the weight of the world, or at least half of it, had been taken off my shoulders. Thank God…

"Feeling relieved?" I heard Alice ask, but I was far too preoccupied with my own realization of what I both felt and thought? Relief? But why would I be relieved that Alice did not like Cullen.

Before my thoughts could get too dangerous, I settled on the conclusion that it would have caused problems for me. Alice was my best friend, after all, and she was great when she wasn't being weird. Cullen, on the other hand, was my model, and a tactless, obnoxious one at that. It would have pained me to see Alice go after someone as much of a jerk as Cullen was.

Not to mention that he already had a girlfriend…

I scowled, as last nights idea made an attempt to invade my brain.

might be beautiful, but he really is a major pain in the ass."

Alice cocked her eyebrow at me, skeptically, and I almost gulped. Her expression seemed to be incredulous, and I was instantly nervous at whatever it was that she was implying.

"So, what kind of feeling did you get?" I asked, in a desperate attempt to change the subject back from me to Cullen. Not that that subject was any better, of course.

Alice simply shrugged, and my eyes probed wide at her response, "I had a feeling that you guys were meant for each other, in the way that Jazz and I are."

And God, I wish I could have denied that my heart had secretly fluttered at her words, but it was not so– – my heart was in turmoil over her latest "prediction", and beating like mad.

This time I really gulped, and tried to argue, "What are you talking about, Alice? You know that that wont happen." Of course it wouldn't happen. I couldn't stand Cullen. He was far too wishy-washy for my liking. One day he was a total jerk, making me want to knock him upside his head with the closest, hardest and– – when severely provoked– – sharpest thing I could find. While other days, like last night, he was more natural and fun to be around. Thinking about it now, he may suffer from multiple personality disorder….

Alice raised her eyebrows again, and challenged, "Bella, you know very well that my intuitive feelings are almost never wrong."

"Exactly, Alice! Almost never wrong," I knew that I deserved the death glare she shot my way, but I wasn't going to budge. She was speaking nonsense! "But you are completely wrong, now. First off, Cullen drives me crazy. I wouldn't want to be with him even if he was the last person on the face of this Earth," Alice smiled a little at that, but I ignored her and continued, "and secondly; I have Jacob."

This immediately brought the smile off of Alice's face.

"Bella, I told you before, many times in fact, that Jacob isn't the one for you. Yes, he's nice– – but he just isn't the one. You know that what you have for Jacob is nothing more than attraction and some sort of empty obligation as the one who found him, forced him away from home, as pushed him past him limits."

I flinched at Alice's words, but immediately regained composure and snapped back coldly, "Alice, do not define mine and Jacob's relationship to suit your silly whims. There is nothing false about these feelings; I care for Jacob a lot!"

Alice didn't even react to my harsh tone. Instead, she snorted, and said, "Exactly. How many years has it been, and yet all you feel for the boy is "care"? Not once in all these years have I ever heard you claim to love Jake."

Once again, I flinched at Alice's words. She was, after all, exactly right. But it wasn't because I didn't love Jake. I did love him… almost as much as I loved Alice. I loved Jake, and I was very much attracted to him– – which was self evident in itself that I loved Jacob in that way as well. I just, for some reason, couldn't say it. Jake had always said it to me, but I always replied with somewhat cruel retorts such as "Mm", "Ditto", "Same here" or, my most famous one, "Right back at ya!". Well, after a while, or about a year to be meticulously exact, he eventually stopped saying it. I knew I loved Jake; that much was not a lie. I just couldn't say it aloud. I don't think I was ready to say it aloud.

"We're not even dating yet, Alice! I'm not going to go tell a guy I love him, when we aren't even in a relationship! It's irrational, it's impossible, it's against my religion!"

Alice scrutinized my face, probably searching for any traces of having lied, or at least stretched the truth, within my features– – then sighed from what I assumed was resignation. Of course I wouldn't be lying: Everything I said was true.

"Fine," Alice grumbled unhappily, hopping up from off the couch, "I'll let it go for now. However," she stared at me very intently, with such intense force that I wouldn't have been able to look away, even if I had tried, "I wont back down. I meant every word I said about this Edward Cullen. I really feel that you two fit well with each other, and I trust my intuition completely."

Stopping at that, Alice's face returned to it's normal, bubbly shine, and she smiled broadly while picking up her purse and jacket from the table, "Now let's go. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be late for work."

I sighed, and let Alice pull me up from the sofa. We walked to the door, and I slid on my coat, before taking a quick glace at my reflection in the mirror next to the front door.

As Alice and I walked towards the street, we hugged goodbye before going our separate ways. Once in my car, I exhaled deeply, and clasped the seatbelt over my body. Alice had certainly given me too much info today. I couldn't get her assured words about Cullen and I fitting together out of my head. At the same time, I couldn't stop the guilty feeling that was clawing it's way inside of me when I thought of all the times that Jake had told me he loved me, and I rebuffed his declarations.

I did love Jake, I kept repeating in my thoughts and though it was still unknown to me, I just didn't feel like I should say those three little words to him. In all honesty, it just didn't feel right, and I figured that it was because we were not even dating.

Exhaling even more deeply, I stomped my foot on the gas pedal and pulled out of my parking spot, not providing much attention to the cars directly before and behind me.

I was still at a loss as to why Alice had even come over in the first place.

"We're going to be late!" I snapped at Cullen in a desperate attempt to motivate him into walking faster.

"Don't worry about it," he scoffed at my desperation, refusing to pick up the pace even a little, "we'll be fine."

My mouth dropped open, and I stole a quick glance at my watch which read Ten-thirty-five a.m.. We were still nearly five blocks away from the building where 'Spell' would be holding the photo shoot, and those blocks were not short at all.

"The shoot starts in thirty minutes!" I spat in his direction, ushering him with wavering hands to walk faster. Did he not realize that even if we so happened to make it on time, make-up, hair and getting dressed would take at least an hour?

Cullen abruptly stopped walking, and I almost came crashing into his back.

"W-why'd you stop like that?" I growled, staggering backwards unsteadily.

Cullen slowly turned his head around to look at me, and winked. I felt my teeth gritting together as he casually said, "Don't worry. It'll be fine," all behind an irritating smirk as if he had any basis for his assurance. "If we're late…." I had to shut my eyes tight so that I wouldn't attack Cullen right in the middle of the crowded street, and almost snapped when I opened them to see Cullen walking ahead of me.

What nerve!

I followed after him, infuriated to realize that he was still walking at the same speed, and mentally threatened Cullen to the damnest of hell. Wasn't it he who thanked me for giving him another chance? If he believed that I wouldn't fire him if he was late to his first job, then he was highly mistaken. In the back of my head, I was already imagining myself filling out his transfer forms.

The whole walk there, I was refraining from glancing down at my watch. I knew that if I did, I would just go crazy. Cullen couldn't take pictures with a black eye, after all.

Once we made it to the building, I swiftly looked at the time– – ten forty-eight– – and sighed. We made it to the building on time, but we were sure as hell late for his make-up appointment.

I quickly flashed my I.D. and admittance card to the young man at the front desk, grabbed Cullen by the arm– – he wasn't going to walk slow this time– – and fled to the elevator. Luckily, it was already on our floor when we reached it. I pushed Cullen into the glass elevator and hastily pushed the button for the 17th floor, completely ignoring the desperate cries of whoever it was who was too late to reach us on time, before the door closed. Yeah, I would probably feel bad about that later on, but for the time being, I couldn't care less.

Sighing, I turned around and realized that we were in an transparent, all-glass elevator. I walked towards the back of it, and stared in awe at the beautiful city spread out before and under me. Seattle was truly a pretty place.

"Hey, Cullen. Did you see this view?" I shot my head back, with my fingers still pressed upon the glass facing the city and looked at Cullen and frowned.

He had his back facing me and was pressed up so close to the elevators doors, that I was afraid he was going to break right through them.

"Cullen?" I asked, worried at his sudden appearance. He was standing extremely stiff, and breathing rather heavily– – considering that we hadn't even run here.

When he refused to answer me, I stomped up to him, which took me almost ten full steps in such a huge elevator, and grabbed him by his arm– – twirling him around and closer to me.

At the movement, Cullen's eyes probed open wide, and he gasped. My eye brows knitted together as he roughly pulled my arm off of him– – which, admittedly, hurt– – and retreated back to the doors behind him, closing his eyes tightly and breathing heavier.

"Cullen…?" I whispered, even more worried now. What was happening? God, please don't tell me he was having some attack…. .

Before my mind gained its coherency back, a ding sound rang through the elevator, almost making me jump. Cullen, however, had much faster reaction-time than I, and spun out as soon as the gong sounded. The doors hadn't even opened all the way when he slid through a margin, that even I thought impossible to squeeze through, and bolted towards the end of the hall all before I had even managed to step out.

What just happened?

I walked towards Cullen hesitantly, as he stood slumped against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, and gasped. So that was it!

My mind reeled back to our dinner the other day, and Cullen's story of falling out of a tree played itself over in my head, and I almost clapped my hands together in realization. So he was scared of heights!

Biting back the urge to smile at my sudden discovery, I stopped in front of him, and said, "You should have told me you were afraid of heights."

Cullen flinched at my words, and remained silent for a while before answering, "But that's so uncool."

I snorted, and took a step closer to him, "Having a Bird Phobia is way more uncool, I think."

A whole minute passed before a slight grin ran across Cullen's face, and I found myself smiling along with him. His grins really were infectious.

"Come on then," he sighed, pulling himself off the wall, and grabbing me by my wrist, "If we weren't late before, we certainly might be now."

I rolled my eyes, surprised that I didn't feel angry at all, and said, "We were late before. You were just too much in denial to realize it."

Cullen chuckled, and shook his head, "I told you it would be alright, didn't I? Have you no faith in me?"

I cocked a brow at him, and suppressed a smirk. Trust? In him? Was he crazy?

"You could at least lie," he pointed out, bending his upper body low so that our faces could be closer, a devilish grin on his face. How could someone look so good…looking so bad?

"I don't like to lie," I told him breathily, as he stepped closer to me.

"Really?" he murmured gently, bringing the hand that wasn't around my wrist, up to my face. I gulped as his fingers touched my cheek to grab what I assumed was a strand of hair, and brushed it behind my ear.

I felt my face heat up.

"There. Much better."

Before I could fall under the power of his magic-casting– – or so I figured– – eyes, I averted my gaze, and wheeled around him. It was no good! I always felt like I was falling when he smoldered me with those unbelievably sexy eyes.

Falling? Falling for what?

Before another word could be said, or another thought created, a sudden voice called out from in front of us, and my head jerked up in alarm.

"Edward, darling!" A gorgeous man who looked to be in his late twenties came basically skipping towards us. He was twirling. He was literally twirling!

"God, I've been waiting so long to officially meet you!" The man, who I soon recognized as Ben Cheney, an upcoming fashion designer and photographer, gushed at Cullen.

Cullen merely smiled at him, a polite smile, and said, "The pleasure's all mine."

Ben beamed at him, and sent a wink flying his way, before turning to me and saying, "Hello, Bella. It's a pleasure working with you again."

I nodded, trying to hide my surprise at the man's previous exuberant behavior, and said, "It's you who I am honored to work with. You always handle our models with great care, and bring them onto a whole other level. Twilight Runway appreciates all of your decisions to hold contracts with us."

Ben grinned at me, and said, "Of course! You do covet the gorgeous Jacob Black," he then paused, and backtracked up to Cullen, and wrapped his arms around Cullen's elbows, while squeezing himself tighter to him, "but this guy… he's just dazzling. You certainly do have a good eye when it comes to the great ones. I've only seen him in pictures, but now that I see him in the flesh, I can tell you that he's going to hit it big. Perhaps Edward-darling will be even more popular than Black?"

Edwards lips curved into a smile.

And to my surprise– – and utter horror– – mine did as well.

"My God…" I breathed as I watched the an incredible sight before play out before me.

I just couldn't believe my eyes. Was such a thing even possible?

I watched as Cullen alternated different poses and positions, and I couldn't help but stare in awe at the figure of perfection that stood before me.

It was impossible! No human being could look so… completely perfect!

Before the shoot had started, I asked Ben, who still refused to release Cullen from his hold, if we had to time to apply some last minute make-up and accessories. I was astonished when he waved his hand in front of me, nonchalantly, as if brushing away a nonsensical suggestion, and laughed, "Make-up? On his perfect face and skin? I would never!"

I could do nothing more than stare at him with my mouth agape.

"His complexion is marvelous! His eyes are the perfect color, his hair is remarkable! No matter how many professionals we hire, we would never be able to attain such a sexy, disheveled look, and make it seem so natural. Edward-darling is remarkable as he is. All he needs to do is change his clothes, and we're ready to shoot."

And I repeat; All I could do was stare at him with my mouth agape. Like I said, was that even possible?

Ok, so Cullen was unbelievably and inhumanly handsome, but even the most attractive of men needed to be toned up. Even Jake– – with his blemish-less face and even complexion– – needed to be touched up before a shoot. I figured that Ben was just trying to save time. Time was money, after all. I figured that, until I witnessed for myself just how God-like Cullen was on shoot.

If I hadn't been sitting, I was almost positive that my knees would have collapsed. He looked so amazing… so incredible…that I couldn't even put it into words! His body was carved to perfection, and his clothes shaped him all the more. I had to refrain from licking my lips when I saw him walk out in a tight, green turtle-neck shirt, revealing his six pack and large arm muscles, which ran down into a pair of mahogany jeans and stylish black and green shoes. The shirt complimented his eyes to the extreme and would stand out immensely in gray-scale pictures. The pants, which I recognized as "Spells" newest denim-type, tugged nicely at his sides, and even nicer at his rear. In other, non-fashion obsessed and bodily detailed words; He was hot.

I marveled at him, and watched his every move, completely immersed in his features and face. It really was a sin; to look so great. Must the majority of jack asses in the world, look so damn good?

The shoot was going perfectly fine, that is, until the second model made her appearance: Fashion Aries #3 model, Lauren Malory.

I had never had a problem with her before. But of course, before she wasn't clinging her gorgeous body all over my model in front of the camera!

It took everything I had to stay in my seat, so that I wouldn't intrude on the scene and rip her away from him. This was a photo shoot, for chrissake! The theme was 'Sensual pop'– – Not 'Sex on the beach'!

Every time she clung to him, or pressed her body into his, I just wanted to scream. Cullen might have been a bastard, but he certainly didn't deserve to be molested by some skimpy tramp. My scowl deepened until the point that I was frightened it would permanently engrave into my face.

And then Ben's next few words made me breathe a sigh of relief.

"And that's a wrap! Great job, everyone!" he called out, to my supreme happiness.

Even though the words were clearly said, Lauren didn't remove her hands from around Cullen's neck.

I shot up from my seat, fully prepared to pull Cullen away from her, when I suddenly froze. Why was I even getting mad in the first place? So what if some woman was hanging all over him. Why would I be angry about that?

I continued to stay lost in my thoughts, when a sudden vibration felt along my outer thigh. I pulled out the phone from my pocket, and in the process, looked up at Cullen who was a few feet away from me. How had he even managed to get away from Lauren?

He really is handsome…

Remembering that someone had called me, I flipped my cell phone over, and slightly frowned as the name, 'Jake' appeared on the screen. I rarely ever picked up my phone during work, unless it was work related, but Jake knew that perfectly well.

My frown deepened, and without thinking, I lifted a finger to silence Cullen– – who opened his mouth to say something– – before he could come within a three foot proximity to me. Turning my attention back to my cell, I pressed 'talk', and placed the phone on my ear.

"Jake?" I asked, concern in my voice. Jake knew that I didn't like being interrupted by personal calls when I was at work. He knew, yet he had called anyways. My head was becoming overwhelmed with the assumption that he might have been hurt. Or something might have happened to him.

Jake remained quiet, and I grew all the more panicked. Cullen was standing right before me, but I didn't dare to look at his face. I didn't know what expression he would carry, or what expression I expected him to have, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a good one, so I kept my eyes downcast and strained to listen to any sound coming from the other line.

"Jake?" I repeated, even more urgent.

"Bells?" His voice asked, surprised. I frowned at his tone. Why was he shocked? Wasn't it he who just called me?

Another second of silence passed, and Jake finally spoke, "I'm sorry Bells. I think I inputted your number, though I wasn't intending to," another moment of silence, and then, "but it's probably because I was thinking about you so intently, so…"

I couldn't help but chuckle. Jacob was really too sweet and adorable. Only he could pull of saying something so heartwarmingly cheesy, and get away with it without looking like a loser or desperate pervert.

"Well, since you picked up, do you want to have dinner later on?"

I rolled my eyes. Why would he even ask?

"Sure, Jake. When and where?"

"Mm…" He mused, "I'm not sure. I'll meet you at your apartment after the audition, and we'll decide from there."

"Alright. See you tonight, then?"

Jake agreed, and we hung up without saying anything else. He must have been surrounded by people, well, important people, for him not to conclude the call with some more cheesy and romantic comments. Jake usually ended a phone call with something along the lines of, "Can't wait to see you" or "I'll miss you".

I smiled again. Why did I have a feeling that he had every intention of calling me for dinner?

Snapping the phone shut, the smile on my face faltered when I looked up to see a fuming and highly annoyed Cullen staring back at me, with narrowed eyes.

Despite the fact that I was confused as to why he had such an expression, all I could think was "If looks could kill…".

"Cull– – " I began, but my words were stopped short when Cullen's hand fell over my mouth, and stepped closer to me, pulling our faces so close together that we were nearly inches apart.

"Bella, go on a date with me."

And the only thing I heard after that was the sound of my phone slipping through my fingers and landing to the floor with a sharp thud.

That, and the sound of my pounding heart.