Alice and Bella arrived at Rosalie's apartment early for a bit of girl talk before dinner, and it was a good thing they did. When they got there the smoke alarm was going off and after she threw the door open to let them in she ran back to the open windows, trying to fan smoke out of them.

Bella and Alice stood there a moment and then they tried to help, coughing at the smoke in the apartment.

"What happened!" asked Alice as she peeked in the kitchen only to see something charred and black sitting on a baking pan on the stove.

Bella, not knowing Rosalie that well, just opened another window and coughed a bit.

Eventually Rosalie explained that she'd been trying a new recipe that called for her cooking fish in parchment packets. She had no idea what went wrong, but while she was getting ready when the smoke alarm had gone off.

Rosalie looked distraught. "I'm trying to impress this guy with my cooking and I almost set the place on fire!"

"This that guy Emmett you were telling me about last night," Alice asked.

Rosalie nodded and huffed in disgust as she looked at the kitchen. "Now what am I supposed to do? He'll be here in an hour and I have six people to feed including myself!"

Alice looked at the kitchen and then back at Rosalie. "Well I can't cook."

They both looked at Bella and her eyes widened. "Well, I know how to cook, but we only have an hour and I don't even know what ingredients you have in the kitchen."

Rosalie groaned and let her face fall into her hands. "This is a disaster."

"I think I know what we can do," said Bella sighed.

)( )( )( )(

Emmett was walking up the hallway to Rosalie's place with a bouquet of flowers, Edward walking beside him holding a glass of wine.

"Who is going to be at this dinner again?" asked Edward.

Emmett shrugged. "Rosalie just said she was having some friends over. Shouldn't be too many. Her place isn't that big."

Edward sighed and nodded. It wasn't that he was anti-social, far from it; his job actually called for him to interact with all sorts of people in all sorts of settings on a regular basis, but when he could grab time for himself he usually took it. The only reason he was here was because he knew Emmett really liked this woman and wanted them to become friends. He didn't plan to stay longer than necessary, figuring he'd make his excuses after dinner.

Edward couldn't help but chuckle as Emmett took a deep breath and knocked on one of the apartment doors.

"Shut up!" Emmett hissed under his breath right before Rosalie opened the door.

Emmett's smile grew a mile wide as he pulled Rosalie towards him and kissed her without even saying hello. Rosalie kissed him back, laughed and stood to one side to let them in. "Hello, baby…Hi, Edward."

As Emmett handed over the bouquet of flowers and kissed Rosalie again, Edward came in and took off his coat, pausing in the act when he saw Alice and Jasper curled up on the couch in the living room.

Whitlock…with his boss' daughter? Who knew?

He tried to hide his surprise and nodded as he took off his coat. "Whitlock…Miss. Cullen I believe."

Jasper was equally surprised to see Edward and taking his arm from around Alice's shoulder he stood up and shook Edward's hand. "Good to see you, Masen. Uh…" he turned to look at Alice who was now standing at his side. "May I introduce…"

Alice grinned and held out her hand to Edward. "Alice Cullen. Very nice to meet you Mr. Masen."

Edward smiled politely and shook her hand. "Please, call me Edward."

"All right, Edward, but only if you call me Alice," she said in reply.

Edward glanced towards the door where Rosalie was talking softly to Emmett as he hung up his coat and he turned back to Alice, holding up the wine bottle he was carrying. "Where should I put this?"

Alice pointed. "The kitchen is right through there."

Edward nodded, smiled at Rosalie as she took his coat to hang it up and made his way towards the kitchen. He was still mulling over the fact that it seemed that Senator Cullen's Chief of Staff was in a relationship with the Senator's daughter as he walked into the kitchen and realized someone was there.

He nearly dropped the wine bottle when he saw it was Bella.

"Oh! Hello," he said and just stood at the kitchen entrance, blinking in surprise.

When Bella saw him she gasped and nearly dropped the salad bowl she was holding. "Edward!"

Both just stood there awkwardly a second before he held up the wine bottle. "Should I open this?"

"Oh, um, sure. I mean, I guess." She laughed. "Actually, I don't know. Perhaps you should ask Rosalie."

Edward nodded, but instead of doing that he set the wine bottle on the kitchen counter.

"I…didn't know you would be here," Edward said as he leaned against the wall near the kitchen's entrance and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I didn't know that you would be here either," Bella shrugged as she started to mix the salad in the bowl she'd been holding.

"Rosalie didn't tell you?" Edward asked.

"Uh, I don't know Rosalie all that well, this is only the third time I've met her actually." Bella replied with a shrug.

"Oh," Edward said with a surprised look. "You, uh, seem pretty comfortable in her kitchen."

Bella smiled. "She needed help."

Before anything else could be said Emmett wandered into the small kitchen with Rosalie.

"How's everything going?" Rosalie asked Bella nervously.

"Fine," said Bella with a smile.

Despite the fact that the small kitchen was now crowded with four of them in there, Edward wasn't moving to leave and Emmett just smiled at Bella and held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Emmett McCarty."

Bella smiled, wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and shook Emmett's hand. "Nice to meet you, Emmett. I'm Bella Swan."

Emmett's eyes widened and he looked at Edward and then back at Bella, "No shit! You're the hottie that Edward's been going on about?"

Edward groaned and palmed his face. Rosalie hit Emmett's arm, "Emmett!" Bella just blushed.

"What? Isn't she? I mean, I can't believe he stood her up is all!" Emmett continued.

Edward banged his head a bit against the wall. Bella blushed even more. Rosalie glared at Edward. "You stood her up?"

Alice had made her way to the kitchen and was trying to peer around everyone. Noticing the tense atmosphere she looked around and said, "Um, excuse me, but is dinner ready?"

No one said anything for a moment and then Bella finally broke the silence. "Rosalie, why don't you take that tray of appetizers out and Edward can open the wine…"

Rosalie was still glaring at Edward, but she nodded and shooed everyone out of the kitchen as she took a tray of assorted appetizers out of the fridge and headed out into the living room. Emmett following behind, whispering a loud, "Sorry, man," to Edward as he passed him.

Edward just sighed and looked around the kitchen. "Is there a wine opener?" he asked Bella as she continued to work on the salad.

Bella looked around a moment then she pointed to a drawer. "Might want to check in there."

Edward nodded and rummaged through the drawer before he came out with a simple corkscrew. "I'm sorry about that," he said with a sigh as he opened the bottle of wine.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Bella gave him a bit of a smile.

But, he was worried about it. He didn't need Emmett making the situation worse.

"Emmett, well, he sticks his foot in his mouth sometimes," Edward said as he finally got the bottle open.

Bella nodded.

"I really did enjoy the time we spent together last night, Bella," he added.

She sighed and finished with the salad. "Me too."

"I really would like to…" before Edward could finish what he was saying Jasper came into the kitchen.

"I wanted to see if you needed help taking the food out, Bella," Jasper said.

"Um, sure. Can you take the salad out to the table?" Bella said, holding out the bowl to him.

Jasper nodded. As he turned back towards the dining area he gave Edward a brief glare.

Edward just sighed. This was going to be a long evening.

)( )( )( )(

By the end of dinner everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves including Edward and Bella. The whole date fiasco was rehashed for the benefit of Rosalie and Jasper, who hadn't heard the story yet and though Jasper was still scowling in Edward's direction every now and then, most everyone agreed that the Bella and Edward's first "date" had gone well, potted palm and all. The guys didn't understand why the women kept referring to it as the love fern, but they just went with the flow.

"You know, the lasagna is great, hon," Emmett told Rosalie as he polished off another large portion.

"Uh, thank you." Rosalie responded, actually blushing as she glanced quickly at Bella and Alice.

Alice giggled and Bella just shrugged and started to clear off the table. Edward immediately stood up to help her.

Jasper nodded. "It is delicious, Rosalie. I would ask you to give Alice the recipe, but she wouldn't know her way around a kitchen with a GPS system."

"Hey," Alice laughed and stood up, helping to clear off the table.

"You'll definitely have to make more of this for me sometime, Rosie," Emmett said with a wink.

Rosalie had been sipping wine when he said that and she started to cough.

"Uh, it's her special lasagna, Emmett. She told me she only makes it once a year. Secret family recipe and all that," said Alice while glancing at Rosalie.

"Yes, her Grandma Angie's special recipe," added Bella, trying to keep a straight face.

Then all three women broke into giggles.

The men just looked confused.

"Did we miss something?" Jasper asked Emmett.

Emmett shrugged and looked to Edward who just seemed as perplexed.

Finally, Rosalie caved in and told them about the disaster with the fish. Bella had come to the rescue by calling her friend Angela who was a caterer in the DC area.

"Sorry, Emmett," Rosalie said, giving him a smile. "Honestly, I can't cook worth a damn."

Emmett smiled and reached out to squeeze her hand. "That's all right, Rosie." But, then he looked around the room. "So none of us can really cook, huh?"

"Speak for yourself," said Bella as she made her way to the kitchen carrying several plates.

Edward followed, carrying several plates himself. "So you can cook?"

Bella nodded and placed the dirty dishes in the sink. "Was kinda necessary growing up. My dad tried, but it always tasted rather bad."

Edward hesitated, "And, your mom?"

"She didn't like cooking much. She would try when I went to stay with her for visits, but we usually ended up eating out."

Edward nodded, figuring her parents were divorced.

Bella tidied up the kitchen a bit and then dried her hands on a kitchen towel. "Well, I hate to leave Rosalie with this mess, but I should be heading out."

Edward actually looked disappointed, but then he said, "Would it be all right if I walk you home? I wasn't going to stay long tonight."

Bella hesitated. "Are you sure? I don't want you to think you have to leave because I am."

Edward smiled and shook his head. "I plan to be up early tomorrow."

Bella seemed hesitant, but then she nodded. "All right."

)( )( )( )(

Emmett had given Edward a sly wink and Jasper had given him a scowl as they said their goodbyes to everyone. It wasn't long before he and Bella had donned their winter coats, scarves and gloves and were on their way.

At first they walked in comfortable silence and finally Bella asked, "So, what are you up to tomorrow that you're calling it an early night?"

"Oh, well, I usually get up and run on the treadmill on Sunday morning, watch some of the news shows, scan the papers, make notes on things I think we need to concentrate on for the week, that sort of thing." He shrugged.

"So, work," Bella said with a bit of a smile.

Edward nodded.

"I guess that's the way it is here in Washington," Bella said with a sigh.

Edward nodded and glanced her way. "Would…would you like to do something tomorrow?" He knew he was going out on a limb by asking. After all, she had said 'maybe' the last time that he had asked her out.

"What'd you have in mind?" she asked, thinking of Alice saying she had to make time.

Figuring he would get rejected he didn't actually have anything in mind so he avoided anything definite. "A real date maybe? No Chinese. No potted plant."

Bella smiled. "I'd like that, but it'd have to be early being a Sunday and all."

Edward nodded and grinned brightly. "How about I pick you up for lunch and we can do something after that?"

"Sounds good," said Bella. "So…around noon then?"

He nodded. "I'll be at your place at noon."

Bella blushed and smiled back at him. She hoped she wasn't making a mistake giving him another chance.

They talked about more mundane things, including dinner and their friends. Both Edward and Bella admitted that neither of them had known Rosalie very long, but they both seemed to like her and they both agreed that she and Emmett seemed to make a good couple. Edward talked a bit about his friendship with Emmett and Bella told him about her friendship with Alice.

As they reached the front of her building they stopped at the front steps and Edward asked, "Should I walk you up?"

Bella shook her head and smiled. "No, thank you. I'll just…see you tomorrow. Right?"

Edward nodded and smiled. "I'll be here."

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek, causing her to blush an even brighter shade of red. "Have a goodnight, Bella."

Bella nodded and made her way up the steps, glancing over her shoulder and smiling at him before she disappeared inside.

Edward watched her reached the safety of the inside of the building, smiled, sighed happily and made his way home.