Bella didn't answer Edward's question and just stood to one side to let him in. He came in and stood there awkwardly, looking around as Bella locked up behind him.

As she passed him and went towards the living area she motioned to a seating area. "Uh, come on in."

Edward followed behind her and set the bag of Chinese on the coffee table. "I really am sorry, Bella. I just lost track of time. I know it isn't an excuse for standing you up like that and I feel retched."

"Would you like to have a seat?" she asked as she motioned to an empty chair while she moved around, cleaning up the empty pint of Ben & Jerry's, dirty spoon, napkins, and the Heather's DVD cover.

Edward wasn't sure if he should take off his coat or not, but he did so before he moved to sit down. "Thank you." He looked around. "This is a nice place."

"Thank you," replied Bella as she moved to the kitchen and put the empty carton in the rubbish bin and put the spoon in the sink. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Um," Edward hesitated, "You got a beer?"

Bella nodded and grabbed a beer from the fridge as well as a bottle of water for herself before she made her way back to the living room. Handing the bottle to Edward as she sat down, she asked, "Rough week?"

Edward nodded and managed to give her a bit of a smile. "You can't even imagine."

"Oh, I have a bit of an idea," said Bella.

Edward sighed. "I'm sure you do."

She sat there fidgeting with the glass of water, feeling awkward. Edward was fiddling with the label on his bottle of beer.

"I really feel like a heel for standing you up, Bella." He really didn't know how else he could apologize and he felt like hiding under his coat when she just continued to look at him. "Um…so…have you eaten? Something other than ice cream I mean."

Bella blushed brightly at the reminder of all the ice cream she'd eaten while sulking because he hadn't shown up. She was definitely going to have to work off those calories. She hesitated and shook her head.

Without waiting for an invitation to do so he moved to the edge of the chair he was sitting on and started to unpack the Chinese food from the brown paper bag onto the coffee table. "I didn't know what you like so I got a little of everything…"

"I'm allergic to Chinese food," Bella stated flatly.

Edward paused in the act of unpacking and looked at her with wide eyes, turning red. "Oh…I…I should have called…I'm sorry…I'll…"

She sighed. "I'm just kidding, but yes, you should have called."

Edward winced a bit, nodded, and wasn't exactly sure if he should continue unpacking the Chinese food. Taking the decision out of his hand, Bella moved to help him unpack the rest of the food.

"I sat here waiting for an hour and a half before I changed," she said with a frown.

Edward felt like shit. "I'm really sorry, Bella. It won't happen again. I'll make it up to you."

She arched a brow at that and dug around in the bag for some chopsticks. She opened them up and opened the container of lemongrass chicken. Edward looked in the bag and asked. "Um, may I borrow a fork?"

"You don't know how to eat with chopsticks?" she asked with a smile, the first smile she'd actually given him since he got there.

He shrugged sheepishly. "Just…never learned."

"I think you should try," she said, sliding a pair of chopsticks over to him, though Edward missed the mischievous look in her eyes as she did.

"Uh…all right." He was pretty sure that his was going to end in disaster.

Sure enough, a short time later he was covered in sweet 'n sour sauce and both of them were laughing as he tried to stab his pork with the chopstick, trying to use it as a skewer.

Laughing Bella started to get up. "I'll get you a fork."

He looked down at his stained shirt and chuckled. "Bit late for that, don't you think?"

She chuckled. "Well, there are a few clean spots left."

He smiled crookedly at her. "A fork would be great."

He watched her walk away and smiled. She'd seemed uncomfortable with him at first, but it seemed the she was loosening up and he was glad. He liked her laugh and her smile. As she came to sit back down on the floor next to the coffee table where he was waiting he said, "I really did have a nice evening planned. I had made reservations at a bistro near the National Mall, and then I was hoping that we could go for a walk."

"That sounds lovely," she said, eating more chicken.

"Maybe we can do that soon?" he asked hopefully.

She looked up from the carton of fried rice she'd been picking through and simply said, "Maybe."

It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either. He nodded and ate much more easily now that he was using a fork.

"What were you watching if I may ask?" he asked while pointing to the television which now had the DVD player's screen saver showing.

"Oh, Heathers. It's a movie with Winona Ryder and Christian S…" before she could finish her sentence he interrupted her.

"I've seen the movie Heathers," he chuckled.

"Oh, well, great revenge flick," Bella said with a shrug.

Edward shifted a bit uncomfortably where he sat on the floor in front of the coffee table. He'd driven her to thoughts of revenge. That wasn't good. "Oh, um, yeah. I think everyone has those fantasies in high school."

"Hmm," said Bella, "not just high school."

Edward frowned a bit and nodded in agreement, "Uh, yeah."

Bella knew that she was making him uncomfortable and chuckled. "Don't worry, Edward. It's just a film that's full of angst. I'm not plotting against you or anything. Besides, I'm sure in your own way, when you were in school you were more like the Heathers."

"Hm," Edward said while looking thoughtful, "so, let me get this straight. You think I was popular?"

Bella nodded and continued to eat.

"Think I had it easy?" Edward asked with an arched brow.

Bella shrugged and finished her bite of food before replying, "With certain things."

Edward only replied with a, "Hmm," frowning a bit as he picked through one of the cartons of food with his fork. "Well, for the record, I wasn't all that popular,"

She arched a brow at him as if to say, Really?

"Well, not in the way that you think," he said with a bit of a smile in reply to the look she gave him. "My family was popular, that rubbed off a bit, but people never got to know the real me. People wanted to hang out with me because I was a Masen, not because I'm Edward. I wasn't popular. Does that make sense?"

Bella nodded and gave him a bit of a smile. "Yeah, that makes sense." She couldn't imagine what that was like.

He nodded and took another bite of his food.

"I didn't recognize you when we first met you know. Not even the second time when we started talking. It didn't click until Jasper said your name," Bella said with a blush. "In other words, I didn't agree to go out with you because you're Edward Masen."

He smiled at her. "I know."

"I actually almost cancelled because you're Edward Masen," she said with a sigh.

He frowned. "You mean because of my family history or because I work for Aro Volturi?"

"Both," she admitted with a smile.

He nodded. "Understandable. I almost cancelled for the same reason. Uh, I mean because you work for Senator Cullen." He quickly added. "It's not the reason I was late though!"

Bella just sighed and nodded.

"A meeting with the Senator ran over and then I was getting caught up and before I know it my Deputy Chief of Staff, Emmett McCarty made me aware of what time it was and I knew I was fucked. Uh. Pardon my language," Edward said with a bit of a grimace.

Bella couldn't help but snicker. "So what? You just decided to show up on my doorstop 3 hours later with a bag of Chinese and a potted palm?"

Edward ran his hand through his hair nervously as he replied, "Uh, yeah. I just…I didn't want to just call and really wanted to apologize in person, and since we were supposed to have dinner together, I figured you might not have eaten. I was really just hoping that you wouldn't slam the door in my face."

"What's the story with the palm anyway? Is it some sort of plant thing that I don't know about? Like red roses mean love, potted palms mean you're sorry?" Bella asked while glancing towards the palm which was still where she'd left it near the door.

Edward laughed, "Yeah, potted palms signify that you royally fucked up and every flower shop is closed on a Friday night."

Bella couldn't help but laugh as well. "Where did you get it?"

"Well," Edward hedged, "I really did stop at two flower shops, but they were closed. I gave up on that and went to pick up the food when I saw a flower display there and asked if I could buy it. They looked at me like I was crazy and refused. I insisted. The owner finally agreed to sell me the palm. I figured it was better than nothing."

Bella couldn't help but giggle.

Edward looked to the potted tree and shook his head. "Damn thing was heavy too. Walked almost three blocks juggling it and the food."

Bella burst out laughing then and he couldn't help but join her.