"Welcome to Il Palazzo Reale Museo D'arte, you three!" exclaimed a beautiful brunette woman inside the doors. Her hair was down to her waist and her hazel eyes were bright and cheery. "I am so looking forward to getting to know you!"

"You too, Esme," I said, extending a hand with a smile. "I can't wait for the gallery to debut."

"It's going to be a hit, I can assure you. And you must be Edward," she said, smiling brightly at the man next to me. He nodded and held out his hand as well.

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he said, kissing the back of her wrist. "Bella and I both look forward to working with you."

"They are so polite, Alice!"

"I know, they are a joy to work with. Just wait until you see the paintings, they are gorgeous, so beautiful."

"You're just saying that, Alice," I said, scrunching up my nose. Edward wrapped an arm around my waist.

"You need to kick up the courage, sweet-cheeks. You are stunning, so get over it."

"He's right, you know," Esme said, beckoning us to follow her. "The two of you together are even better. You compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses very well."

"What do you mean?" I asked, pulling to catch up.

"Well, I guess you could say that where Edward is hard and lean, you are lush and soft." I flushed lightly. "You both have your strong suits, like compassion, domination, and liveliness, which all adds to a piece. An artist can't usually pull something like this out of the air, there has to be a physical manifestation in front of them. And from what I can see, you two are the embodiment of love and passion." We entered a tastefully decorated study, elegantly sparse, a few pieces of art decorating the space. "Go ahead and have a seat." We sat on a love seat while Alice took a leather chair off to the side. "Will you tell me about yourselves? Bella, I heard from Alice that you know sign language. How or what made you want to learn?"

"I had a best friend named Georgia when I was little. She was deaf, and all of the other kids made fun of her. So, I learned sign language so I could talk to her," I said, smiling happily before my face dropped. "We were playing catch in the street one day when a car came too fast around the corner. The driver honked, but she, of course, couldn't hear it. He ran her over. I was eleven years old. She was twelve. That was my first funeral." Edward laid his cheek on my head, and I sniffed pathetically.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Bella. You probably know that I lost my son, already. He died of lung cancer when he was twelve. He was my little angel. You know, Edward, you remind me of him. His name was Peter, and he had the greenest eyes in the world. But he had brown hair, like his father. He couldn't go outside for very long, so he learned to play games. He was very good at Scrabble. I had to bury him alone."

"Esme…" I said, my heart breaking for her.

"Don't worry about me, darling. The years have dulled the pain. Edward, what about you? Where did you learn sign language?"

"My mother," he said quietly. "She was deaf in one ear, and her sister was completely deaf. She taught me so that I could talk to my Aunt Irina. She died only a year later, but in that year, I had many long and colorful conversations. Our mother tried to teach Alice and Emmett, but they never wanted to learn."

"I regret it, now. When everyone was gone, Edward and Mom and sometimes Dad would translate what she said. She talked about her childhood and her pets, and her husband, and I remember being jealous that they could talk to her and I couldn't."

"It hurt Emmett, too. He couldn't learn Aunt Irina's super-secret recipe for chili, and I could," Edward chuckled.

"Edward stood at the funeral for Aunt Irina and translated everything for the audience. She had so many friends, and many of them came up to him afterwards and told him how much it meant to them, being able to hear the service, as it was," Alice added. I hugged Edward tightly, my nose dripping onto his shirt. I hope he didn't mind.

"Please, let us move on to happier topics," Esme said, reaching for the Kleenexes on the desk. We nodded. "Tell me how you got into modeling."

"Well," I chuckled nervously. "Edward can go first!"

"What? Why me?"

"Because I went first last time."

"Esme went first last time."

"I'm telling you to go first this time," I said, elbowing him in the ribs. He reached around me and pulled me to him, tickling my sides as he went. I laughed, but managed to pull myself away.

"I'll go first, only because you asked." I smiled up at him. "I let Alice paint me for a school project. A critic came to the show and asked her who the model was, and here I am. Your turn, Bella." I pouted.

"Mine's not that normal, I'm jealous," I sighed. "So, I was the amusement park one day with my friend Angela, and she decided to drag me onto one of the roller coasters."

"Let me guess, you puked on the fashion dude," Alice said, giggling. I turned to glare at her.

"I can control my stomach, thank you. On the contrary, he puked on me. All over me, to be exact. When we got off, he said sorry, bought me a hotel room and a change of clothes, and that was that," I said, shrugging. "And, Alice, it just so happened to be your father."

"Dad's not a fashion scout!" Alice exclaimed.

"My dad up-chucked on you?" Edward asked, mortified.

"Six years ago, to be exact. And no, he isn't a scout. But the hotel that he put me up in had one staying there. He saw me in the outfit Carlisle picked out and offered me a job. Granted, I was sixteen at the time, and I needed cash for my car, so I said yes."

"And then I met you at one of your shoot with your sister! We got to talking and bang! I totally remember now!" Alice cheered. "That shopping cart must have really messed with my head!"

"What shopping cart?" Esme asked, confused. I snickered.

"Bella and I were at the grocery store to buy groceries. We thought we would make a race of it, so we were running around with the shopping carts trying to beat each other. I left my cart at the end of the isle and ran to get something-"

"Pasta sauce," I interrupted.

"Yeah, pasta sauce. And here comes Bella, whipping around the corner. I was bending over to grab the sauce off the bottom shelf, and I look up, and the next thing I know, I'm sprawled out on the floor, Bella and a super hot guy standing above me," explained Alice calmly. "I only forgave Bella because she introduced Jasper and me."

"Sure did!" I said proudly. "Jasper is her girlfriend."

"Then why did you two act like you didn't know each other?" Edward asked, confused.

"You and Rose didn't even know that we knew each other. How awkward would it be if I knew your sister's boyfriend, too?"
"You have a point, there," he said.

"I know," I said, snuggling up under his chin. "That's why I'm smarter."

"You haven't even graduated from college, yet, missy," he said, smirking.

"How did you know that?" I asked, pouting up at him.

"Your sister has her diploma framed in your kitchen. I'm sure yours would be up there too, if you had it."

"Fine, Mr. I'm-So-Much-Better-Than-Bella, what did you graduate for?" I asked.

"No one is better than you, Bella," he said, leaning down to kiss me. "But I got my Masters in Music and my Bachelors in Teaching and Theater."

"What are you planning on for your Masters, Bella?" asked Esme. I blushed.

"My Masters is in Journalism, and my Bachelors is in Classical and Historical Literature. I want to do something that involves words, and preferably no public speaking."

"You know, dear, you are going to have to speak at the opening of the gallery," Esme said gently, leaning towards me. I paled.

"Really?"

"It's true," chirped Alice from next to me. I turned my eyes to her.

"Okay, screw the paintings, Alice, I can't speak in public."

"WHAT?!" she screeched. "You can't do that to me!"

"I cannot speak in public, Alice!" I replied, standing, as did she. "You didn't tell me that I would have to speak!"

"Why are you so afraid of speaking in public?" came Edward's soft voice in my ear as he caressed my arms gently. I leaned the back of my head into his sternum, looking up at the ceiling.

"I was giving a speech when I was a junior in high-school to the student body. My first boyfriend was there, and I wanted to impress him. So, I gave my big speech. He didn't even applaud at the end. So I asked him to Snow Daze, the girls' choice dance. He flat out refused and broke up with me in front of the whole student body. Told me why, too. Said that I sounded like an idiot, and that he didn't date idiots, and especially not idiots as ugly as me. He pointed out what I was wearing, and that my body was all wrong, and that he couldn't believe that he ever liked me." I spoke in monotone and didn't let a single tear fall.

"I'll kill that bastard," I heard him mutter under his breath. I laughed hollowly.

"You're too late. He came crawling back to me a month later, after getting his new girlfriend pregnant, begging me to take him back. He said that he couldn't live without me, that I was the only one who made his heart race. I told him to go screw himself and take care of his kid. Found out three days later that he shot his pregnant girlfriend and himself in his garage. I felt sorry for the girl; she never should have had anything to with him. But I'm glad I don't have to worry about him anymore." Edward just stood there and hugged me, for which I was grateful. I had had too many people tell me that it was going to be okay and that things would turn out fine that I just wanted to shoot myself.

"That's a lot to handle," Esme said. "You don't need to speak if it makes you that uncomfortable, Bella." I looked up.

"No, I need to try this. I can't live my life afraid to do something because of what happened in the past. As long as Edward is up there with me, I can do it." Ha smiled down at me.

"I'll be there, I promise."