Big thanks to Iris, she cleans this up and can also come up with clever ideas when my gmail is uncooperative.

"Bella! Babe, wake up."

As her eyes flew open, Bella took stock of her surroundings. She wasn't on a desk at work with Edward. She was in her bed with Mike. Her leg was over his, and she had to stop her ass from grinding into his erection behind her. She stilled her hand, which covered his, between her legs.

"As much as I love that you woke me up like this, we haven't been together in a while. I want you awake for it."

She closed her eyes again. The dream was still fresh, her frustration acute. Mike started kissing her neck, and the guilt nearly overwhelmed her. As he hitched her leg up and entered her, Bella turned into her pillow and cried out.

This is Mike. This is Mike. This is Mike, she reminded herself. I turned Edward down. It was just a dream. This is my husband. My husband is making love to me, as he should.

As Mike thrust into her, she continued to stroke herself, but it wasn't her husband she was thinking of. She bit into the pillow to stop herself from crying out Edward's name.

When they were finished, Mike didn't move away. He pulled his arm out from under Bella and bent it at the elbow. He rested his head on his hand and looked down at his wife. "Babe?" He sighed, drawing his free hand off her hip to wipe the tears from under her eyes. "This isn't good, is it?"

Bella sucked in a shaking breath and shook her head. "We want different things."

"Honey, all I want is you."

Bella rolled off her side so that she was on her back looking up at Mike. "Not really, Mike. You know that's not all you want."

"I can give that up-"

"But you shouldn't have to. I shouldn't keep you from having a family. Do you know how fucking amazing you are? How many women want a man like you?"

"I don't care about other women." He looked down at her, blinking back his own tears. "Can we try counseling?"

"I don't know, Mike... I'm not going to change my mind. Maybe it would just be better to-"

He put his fingers over her lips. "Don't say it. Not yet. Just give me a little time. Let's try counseling. I can't let you go without a fight."

"Mike…" She choked out his name as he put his head to hers.

"Please, baby, just a little time."

"Okay," she whispered. She owed him that.

Given the start of Bella's weekend, it ended unexpectedly quiet. Mike and Bella continued to work around each other, but the tension had been replaced by a quiet sorrow. She wasn't sure if she was being fair to Mike. She wasn't going to change her mind, so counseling wouldn't fix their marriage. But when he looked at her with wounded eyes, she realized he knew that. What he really wanted was time to deal with this.

The space she had craved to think finally arrived on Sunday afternoon. The sun was managing to peek through clouds, but the rain hadn't started, so she decided to go for a run. As she set up her playlist, she thought back to Edward teasing her on their day together. She set off down the street and started to think of her life without Mike in it. She thought of Edward's offer. Could she go through with it once she'd dealt with Mike?

Was it worth losing Edward for good? He'd offered her sex, not a relationship. He didn't tell her he would change her. As her anger grew, her pace increased. He told her he'd love her always, begged her to betray her husband, but for what?

And then she got to the question that stopped her dead in her tracks.

Why did they come back?

She turned back to the house, nearly at a sprint now. When she arrived at home, she entered the house, grabbed her keys, and headed to the car. She needed answers.

She was so focused on what she needed to say, she missed Angela turn onto the road behind her.

Angela waved to her friend as she went by her, but Bella didn't notice. Assuming she was heading somewhere nearby, she decided to follow her. She'd heard from Ben that Mike had indicated things weren't going well, and she thought she should check in on her friend.

As Bella left town, Angela changed her mind. She realized Bella was probably heading to the reserve to see Jake. She pulled into the next driveway with the intent to turn around when she remembered some gossip she'd heard at church last week. Mandy Tannin had shown up with a new Coach purse, bragging that her husband had made a small fortune selling Edward Cullen a house right on the ocean.

Angela knew the property. Mandy had gone on forever about it. At the time, Angela didn't wonder why Edward would be buying himself a house. But as she sat in the car, she wondered about the changes in her friend and her avoidance of talking about anything Cullen related on Friday night. Angela came to a decision; she'd drive by the property to put her mind at ease.

Edward was in the middle of ripping out the wood-paneled walls on the top floor when he heard a car pull up. It had happened a few times this week, but as soon as the couple in the car had seen the open door and Emmett's new pick-up truck full of refuse, they'd backed out, disappointed but determined to find a new place to work out their teen hormones.

He realized quickly that he could still hear the car and a heartbeat, but he couldn't hear a mind. He jumped from the open window to meet Bella as she got out of the car. He was nervous. It wasn't like her to just show up.

As he landed, he realized that in his haste to see her, he'd neglected to put his shirt back on. She hadn't seen him yet, and he was just about to jump back into the house when she turned to look at him.

As she watched Edward walk toward her, she felt all the anger drain from her. She needed to remind herself why she'd gone. If she thought he was beautiful before, it had nothing on him half-naked.

It was thinking of him naked that reminded her she was looking for answers. But her confidence had been wiped out. She was still in her running clothes, damp now from sweat and the rain that had just started to fall.

"Don't worry. I won't ask you to sleep with me again so long as you don't tell me you thought of me while you got off." Edward decided to go for the joke, but the look on Bella's face told him that he'd made a gross miscalculation. He had no idea how close to the mark his words had come. "Sorry. I'm still pretty embarrassed about that." He started toward the house. "Come in out of the rain. I'll put a shirt on. It looks like you've got something to say."

She jogged up beside him, nearly crashing into his bare back when he stopped under the cover of his porch. He turned around quickly and grabbed her arm.

"Angela's just turned in. She suspects we're having an affair. Pretend you need to pick up something for work." He dropped his arm as Angela pulled into view. He hoped he'd been fast enough, but her thoughts revealed that he wasn't.

"I'm not going to lie to her. There's nothing going on." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Seriously, Bella? Do you not see how suspicious this looks?" He ran his hand through his hair to stop himself from touching her again.

"I don't care what this looks like-"

"Well, I do," he hissed. Angela was getting out of the car, and her doubts about her friend were firming as she watched the two of them argue by his door. "She'll go to Mike. Do you think we'll still be able to continue with this friendship if your husband suspects something is going on between us?" He didn't give her a chance to answer and turned to wave to Angela. "It's a mess in there. I hope you don't mind waiting here. I'll grab it now." He spoke just loud enough for Angela to hear.

Angela nodded at Edward as he closed the door. As soon as she thought she was in the clear, she turned to her friend. "Are you having an affair?"

"What? With who?" Bella hoped that Edward had taken himself out of hearing range, but she was sure he was on the other side of the door.

"Don't be deliberately obtuse. You know who I mean. I think you're having an affair with him." She tipped her head in the direction of Edward's door.

"I think you're being ridiculous."

"Does Mike know that you're here?"

Bella thought about lying, about saying Mike knew where she was, but she realized Angela would find out. That would make her look even guiltier. "No. I-"

Angela interrupted. "Bella, you're spending time with a single man, and you've lied to your husband about it."

"That's hardly an affair." She was going to go with Edward's story and tell Angela she'd just stopped by to get a file. Instead, she lost her patience with Angela.

"That's exactly what an affair is."

"No. An affair would be if we were sleeping together. That would never happen." Angela, of course, didn't know that Bella was still being deliberately obtuse.

"So you're not having sex with him?"

"No."

"Do you want to have sex with him?"

"I… uh… No…" Bella hadn't been ready for that question. Now, she really hoped that Edward had given them some space.

"Well that tells me everything."

"What exactly - other than no - does that tell you?"

"You stammered through that answer. I know you, Bella. You can't lie."

"I'm not lying! Look, I know he's attractive, and there's always going to be a 17-year-old girl in me who wants him in that way, but it isn't going to happen."

"He still looks at you like you're the only woman in the world. I'm sure he still wants you. I think all you'd have to do is say yes."

"But I didn't, so this whole conversation is moot." Bella cringed as she realized what she'd said.

"You didn't? That's past tense. He asked you to sleep with him?"

"Ugh, Angela, can you just drop it?"

"No, Bella. What's going on with you? You used to tell me everything. Then suddenly Edward comes waltzing back into town, and you tell me nothing. You're sneaking around behind your husband's back. You're contemplating having an affair –"

"I am not!" Bella came very close to stomping her foot.

"You just admitted he asked you to sleep with him. That should have been the point where your friendship ended. The fact you're still spending time with him indicates some part of you is contemplating it."

"No. Please trust me on this. I'm not. But I like him, and I want to have him in my life. As a friend."

"Bella, I love you. I do. That's why I'm risking our friendship with what I am about to say. You're being incredibly selfish. You're a married woman, and Mike's a very good man. He isn't going to tell you what to do, or who you can or can't spend your time with. And the fact that you've lied to Mike about spending time with Edward shows you know how much it would hurt him, but you're doing it anyway. And not that I want to defend Edward in this, but clearly he loves you, and you're stringing him along, too. For what? To satisfy some inner 17-year-old need you have?" Angela rolled her eyes as she made air quotes around the phrase to emphasize how ridiculous she thought the idea was. "You're a good person. I know he hurt you. I know it took you a long time to get over what happened, but you got over it. You're happy. Let him go, Bella."

"Angela." Bella took a deep breath. "It's not like that."

With that, Edward opened the door, his shirt on and a file folder in his hand. "Here you go, Bella. I'm sorry that I didn't get this back to you in time." He smiled as though he had no idea what Bella and Angela were discussing at his front door.

Angela looked back and forth between the two of them before settling back on Bella. "You know I'm right. I won't go to Mike. I've learned my lesson. I'll stay out of your marriage. But Bella, this is all going to come back to hurt you, and when that happens, who's going to be there to pick you up this time?" With that, Angela walked down the steps.

Edward knew what she was going to say before she stopped and turned to him. "You're not good for her." It was a twist on what he'd told Bella ten years ago. Her words were a direct hit to his confidence.

Bella said nothing until Angela's car was out of sight. Not that she was watching Angela's car. She hadn't taken her eyes off Edward.

"Is what she said true? Do you... Am I the only woman in the world to you?"

Edward's hand played with the back of his neck. He looked at Bella, opening his mouth to say something, but closed it just as quickly and looked away, first at his open door and then to his feet. The silence stretched between them. He once again looked at Bella.

"Do you really have to ask me that?" His voice was practically a whisper. "I've told you that I love you. I've asked you to sleep with me for fuck's sake. Ten years ago, I was against pre-marital sex, and now I've practically begged a married woman to come into my bed." He shook his head. He couldn't keep his irritation at his behavior and Bella's question out of his voice. He didn't even try.

"I'm sorry. I'll go."

"Shit. No. I'm the one who should be apologizing." He started fidgeting again, looking everywhere but at her.

"Edward?"

He looked at her but said nothing.

"Why did you come back?"

"I told you. Alice had a feeling we needed to."

"Would you have come back without it?"

"I don't know, Bella." It was honest, but he knew it would hurt her.

"Why are you still here?"

"You." He didn't hesitate.

"But why? To have sex with me and leave?" She thought about her fears, that his innocent virgin act had been just a rouse to get girls into his bed.

"Do you really think I'd leave?" He stepped toward her. "It's the only lie I've told you since I've been back. Why do you keep believing the lie?"

"I don't know what to believe when you keep lying." She turned and walked away from him.

He nearly let her get to the car before he went after her. He leaned his hip against her door, blocking her until he'd said what he needed to. "Look, I'm a fucking idiot. I know this. What I don't know is what I'm doing here with you. I don't know how to act, what to say. I'm probably going to keep fucking this up. But I'm not going anywhere." He tilted her chin up to look her in the eyes. "Unless you tell me to."

She thought of her dream.

She nearly told him she couldn't. Instead, she whispered, "I won't."

Edward dropped his hand and walked away. "Just so you know," he called out as she opened her car door. "The only reason I'm heading into that house right now is to stop myself from kissing you."