I told you that I'd update quickly!

Edward had popped out to the shops to restock the ever-necessary staple in his house, chocolate. He had returned happy and content with a small bag of his preferred chocolates (M&M's and Snickers bars) and was just letting himself into his apartment when he heard the sound of a door opening beside him. Edward paused, keys in hand, to see his neighbor Bella slipping out her front door. His eyes trailed over her, taking in the long, glossy strands of her hair that had been hastily pushed out of her face. She was wearing surprisingly non-descript clothes that hung on her tall, slender frame that were clearly meant to downplay her appearance, for whatever reason.

Not that it worked, he decided. Bella invited attention wherever she went, regardless of how she chose to dress. His lips flattened into thin line as he mentally rebuked himself for staring a little too long at those damned legs of hers that seemed to go on forever and, instead, made to clear his throat. Bella obviously hadn't noticed him, and despite their antagonistic relationship (really more on her part than his, although to be fair, the things he said often didn't quite help matters), Edward thought it would be only polite to say hello.

But before he had the chance, Bella's brown eyes had snapped to his. Something crossed over her face before she seemed to set her jaw, straightening her back and flouncing off without another look in his direction.

Edward blinked and then scowled. Someone obviously had their panties in a twist. Would it have been so terrible to acknowledge his presence? Especially now that their worlds seemed to have merged. Since both of their friends had hooked up with one another, Edward and Bella were forced to spend a lot more time together outside of the brief bumps the came about the comings and goings of their home.

He watched her disappear, her footsteps fast and light against the floor as she clutched the lumpy bag close to her.

Edward frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to him. He moved outside just in time to see Bella disappear into a cab. His mind flashed back to her plain clothes and the rather cautious look on her face as she locked up her door behind her. He glanced down at his watch.

Edward had a feeling he knew exactly where Bella had gone.

As he tossed his bag of chocolate onto the counter and disappeared into the bathroom to shower and change, he thought back to the night he had first discovered Bella's secret.

He'd been out with his friends from the fire department he worked at on a colleague's bachelor night. They'd drunkenly stumbled from bar to bar and eventually found their way into the red-light-district of San Francisco. There had been a few stripper shows to choose from, but somehow, they had managed to find their way into the one that Bella Swan chose to dance at.

To say that Edward was shocked to see his next-door-neighbor dancing topless on the stage was an understatement. But he'd quickly collected himself and managed to convince his friends that the vibe in the club wasn't very good and that they should cross the road to another strip club that he claimed was way better. Emmett and Jasper, who had been with them, were both blind from drinking too much and fortunately never saw the brunette on stage.

It had been a good three or four months back, but ever since then, he'd gone every couple of weeks to see her.

Nearly half an hour later, Edward's car pulled up to the curb, and with a glance around his surroundings, he started to walk until he reached his final destination: Indulgences, one of the many strip clubs that populated the Tenderloin area, but the only one where a particular pretty, dark-haired woman could be found performing on most Saturday nights.

Edward settled at the bar to order a scotch on the rocks, and as he waited for his drink, he looked around. The club was dark and hazy with smoke from patrons who sat around, enjoying the sight of a topless blonde who was currently performing on the stage. He could feel his phone vibrating with a message in his pocket, but he ignored it.

As he watched the girl on stage, his mind turned back to the puzzle that was Bella Swan.

Why would someone like Bella, who held a good, steady job as a writer for one of San Francisco's most popular women's magazines, moonlight as a stripper on the weekend? He just didn't understand it. Nothing in the conversations that Edward had had with her or the interactions that he'd observed with her and their friends had ever pointed to this side of her. Did Rosalie know about this? Alice?

He had thought, at first, that perhaps he'd been mistaken – maybe her performance had only been a brief stint, some kind of crazy experience she'd wanted to have in order to write another article of hers. But then Edward had seen her performing the next week, and the week after that. He had always sat in the dark, closer to the back where he had a good view of the stage but less of a chance of being recognized by Bella. She was quite temperamental, and he wasn't sure what she'd do if she knew that he'd known about her little performing job on the side. Edward himself didn't quite know what to make of it.

He had debated on and off for a good month on whether to confront Bella about it. Every time he'd come, he had grappled with his decision as he watched her perform, only to slip away at the end of the night, silent and waiting for the next time to roll around.

But as Edward watched the blonde exit the stage and heard the loud rise of cheers and catcalls come up as Bella took the stage, he thought that perhaps he had waited too long.

He drained his glass and tipped the bartender before moving to the stage area to watch her dance, this time determined for her to see his face.

Uh oh...

This spells trouble. What's Edward gonna do?