A/N: once upon a time, I lied... Kind of. The hiatus really is over, I just have been working on this chapter a while trying to decide where the cut off would be and what order I want the next events to take place in. But here it is, a little longer than normal, and I'll try not to keep you waiting too much longer ;)

The next morning Edward woke me with a kiss to the forehead and told me that he had to meet a client but he'd been back in a few hours. I groaned and waved him away but he kissed me again, his soft chuckle vibrated against my lips and then he was gone. He was only gone ten minutes when I heard my alarm system alert me that the front door had opened.

"Uh oh," I heard Alice's muffled voice from the living room and I jumped up, not caring that I was in my underwear and a t-shirt, running out to the living room to punch in my code before the annoying alarm could go off.

"Alice, what the fuck," I asked, pushing my tangled hair back, out of my face, and glaring at her.

She smiled timidly and rubbed her belly for added effect, I wasn't buying it. "I need your help."

I stared at her for a second longer before huffing aggravatedly and reaching past her to shut the door. Alice followed behind me as I headed back towards my bedroom, pulling my wayward hair back into a ponytail and slipping a rubber band off my wrist to hold the mess in place. "What do you need," I finally asked, searching around my bedroom floor until I found my jeans and slipped into them.

"Edward and Jasper had to meet with a client or something this morning and won't be back for a few hours," she started and I sat down on the bed, waiting for her to get to the point. "So I was thinking that since you probably weren't doing anything either—"

"Besides sleeping."

"Besides sleeping," she rolled her eyes. "I figured you could help me paint the nursery."

"Wait, I thought Jasper already painted the nursery."

"He did. Which is why we have to do it before they get back."

Alice was smiling excitedly at me and I couldn't help but laugh. "Alice, you're ridiculous. It's 7 o'clock in the morning, there's no way we're going to find an open hardware store to buy paint and supplies, and then get everything painted before they get back."

"I already bought paint." I groaned and lay back on the bed, closing my eyes and considering playing dead. I was screwed; I was painting a nursery.

As a recovering pinterest addict, I can tell you that DIY projects look so easy, I never understood why more people didn't do DIY projects. Now, though, I'm reminded of my dad telling me "if it was that easy, everyone would do it." I don't remember what he was referring to, probably not painting a nursery, but the point still applied. It took us four hours to finish everything; I was exhausted, my entire body ached, and I was pretty sure I smelled a little bit. Plus, if painting was hard, it was torture to do with a gimp arm.

Originally, Jasper had painted the nursery a light blue with big fluffy clouds everywhere; then Alice had decided it was too cliche and she wanted something different. Now the walls were grey with blue and white polka dot decals. Alice had carefully stenciled on one of those big monograms with the letter W in the center and a slightly smaller D and an A on either side of it. Despite my nagging, she still refused to tell me his name.

"What the hell happened in here," Jasper asked, his tone a mixture of shock and amusement when he and Edward appeared in the doorway of the nursery as Alice and I were cleaning up.

Alice smiled shyly and popped up on her tip toes to give him a kiss, careful not to touch his suit jacket with her paint stained hands. "Don't you like it," she asked, looking around the room at our handy work.

"Of course I like it, babe, I just thought we'd already painted in here is all." Edward chuckled and shook his head, his gaze meeting mine and I shrugged.

"I don't know, I was just looking at it and I knew it wasn't right. I wanted to surprise you by doing it while you were gone, that way you wouldn't have to worry about painting again."

Jasper brushed a hair out of Alice's face, in a moment that seemed too intimate to watch, and kissed her forehead. "I would have painted a hundred times until we found something you liked, Ali; you shouldn't be doing stuff like this in your condition."

The words left his mouth and the air in the room changed. "On that note," Edward said, motioning for me to follow as he quickly left the room. I slipped past Jasper, who looked like a deer caught in headlights, and an angry looking Alice.

"My condition," she asked, her tone harsh. I didn't look back as Edward grabbed my hand and quickly led me out of the apartment. I couldn't make out Jasper's words but his tone was obviously apologetic and I knew he was backpedaling as quickly as possible. Edward pulled the door the apartment shut and I started laughing.

"Poor Jasper," Edward shook his head with a laugh. I nodded my head in agreement and Edward pulled me to him for a kiss. "You look cute all painted up," he told me and I smacked him playfully.

"I could use a shower," I countered and he grinned wickedly, scooping me up and throwing me over his shoulder before heading for the elevator.

We ordered pizza for a late lunch and made a picnic on the floor in my living room. "I'm sorry you got sucked into help Alice today," Edward told me, grabbing the biggest slice of pizza from the box and taking a bite. He moaned appreciatively and I follow suit.

"It's my own fault; I shouldn't have given her a key," I joked and he laughed.

"This is true."

I picked a piece of sausage off my pizza and popped it into my mouth before taking a drink of my soda. "So why don't we ever go to your place; I don't even know where you live," I asked curiously. It's something that had occurred to me before but I wasn't sure we'd ever had the conversation.

"I live across town… with Emmett," he told me, his dramatic look said it all. Edward took another bite of his pizza and shook his head, "Stupidest decision I ever made." I rolled my eyes at his dramatic attitude; he may fool some, but I knew that he loved his brother. "We could go there sometime, I just figured it was more convenient for you here; plus privacy is a great thing."

"True, privacy is important; but I would like to see where you live when you're not living here," I joked and he smiled, leaning across to kiss me softly. "At this point, I sort of figured you'd given up your apartment and had secretly moved in. Might as well."

I stopped when I heard my own words and looked at Edward, trying to gauge his silent reaction. I may have been out of the dating world a while but I definitely knew you weren't supposed to make jokes about living together or marriage or babies. Pretty much anything that claimed commitment was taboo.

"Did you want me to move in," he asked after a beat and I started chewing my lip nervously.

"I don't know," I replied, picking at the toppings on my pizza slice before taking another bite.

Edward seemed to contemplate this for a moment, then nodded and took a bite of his own pizza. "I'll tell you one thing, there are no impromptu floor pizza picnics when you live with Emmett. Em takes his pizza very seriously." I laughed my the moment was recovered.

"Well then we know my apartment is better; impromptu floor pizza picnics is what we do here." Edward slid closer and pulled me into his side, kissing the top of my head.

"Would you like to do something tonight?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know; why don't you call up Rosalie and ask what she and Emmett are up to?"

I should have known that Rosalie's idea of doing something would involve alcohol. A part of me probably did know, but didn't want to scare off Edward. We'd been together a couple of months now and I still didn't really know what he liked to do. Our mutual hobbies mostly involved sex and food. It was actually a little depressing to think about, so I decided not to. Maybe I would get into school and I would finally have something to do with myself again because staying home all day while he worked was getting old, fast.

These were all things that I hadn't told him yet though; really our communication skills were lacking. They could continue to lack for one more night though because tonight I was having fun. I dug a denim mini skirt out of the back of my closet, circa 2002 so I decided it was vintage and therefore acceptable, and paired it with a red sox shirt. Rose tended to frequent the less classy bars so I was comfortable wearing chucks with my skirt. Edward had gone home to change; he didn't really have any casual clothes here. I wasn't really sure what casual Edward looked like; the most dressed down I'd ever seen him consisted of khakis and a button up. Did Edward even own jeans?

I put on full war paint, wondering if it'd elicit a desirable response from him, and tousled my hair a bit. In the end, I was satisfied with the result; I looked young, like a normal college aged girl should look. It was one of the things I loved about going out with Rose, she kept me on my toes and it kept me young. There wasn't much I could do about the splint but I was really getting used to it rather quickly. It barely hurt anymore.

Rose texted to tell me they were on their way to the bar; I was going to take a cab and meet them there, no reason for them to come all the way across town to pick me up, and I responded that I was headed downstairs. Another quick glance in the mirror and I shoved my ID and some cash in the back pocket of my skirt, my phone in the other, and set the alarm before I left.

Sam — one of the new night doormen — greeted me politely as he hailed me a cab. JR's was only about 10 minutes from my apartment, I probably could have walked it, and I was happy to see that Rose hadn't changed her style for Emmett — the place screamed sports bar. I tipped the cab driver and climbed out as Edward's black sedan pulled up to the curb behind us. There was no helping the stupid, childish grin that spread across my face when I saw him climb out.

The answer to the question was yes, Edward owned jeans, and yes, he looked hot as hell in them. They were a faded color and snug around the top, hugging his ass when he reached back into the car to offer Rose his hand, but loose around his legs — the way that jeans should be. When he straightened, stepping back so that Rose could get out, I noticed that he was wearing a red shirt and that we sort of matched.

Rose took the cake though, as always, in her tight little jeans and white tank top. Her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and her make up was on point. "You can't do anything without looking like a million bucks, can you Rose?"

I teased and she winked, "I don't know what you're talking about, Bella; I woke up like this."

I couldn't help but laugh when Emmett came running around from the other side of the car and pulled her into him from behind, squeezing her sides playfully. "I've woken up next to you, you lie," he teased her now and she smacked his arm, unable to hide her amusement. Rose was practically glowing and her happiness was infectious; she deserved this. "How's it going Belly Beans," Emmett asked, his attention turning to me as he released Rose and took possession of her hand.

Belly Beans? Really? I couldn't help but roll my eyes and he grinned. "Can't complain," I told him. "Glad to see you clean up so well." Emmett wore a blue t-shirt with Knuckleheads, one of the local bands, written on it and a darker pair of jeans. He wasn't really my type, maybe nobody was anymore, but I could appreciate what my friend had going on for her. I caught Rose's eye and she winked; I laughed.

"Hello beautiful," Edward said, finally addressing me after he'd finished the conversation he'd been having with his driver.

"Hello yourself," I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck as he pulled me against him. I stood on my tip toes and pressed a kiss against his lips, pulling back when he tried to deepen it. "Huh uh, there'll be time for that later." I winked and Edward pouted.

There wasn't a game tonight, which was good, but the place was still pretty busy. We managed to grab a table in the back, near the pool tables, and Emmett and Edward set out to get us drinks from the bar. "I'm so glad you called, we haven't been out in forever," Rose said, not entirely sounding like herself but not in a bad way, I noticed.

"I know; it's kinda nice to get slutted up with you again."

Rose laughed, "it's kinda nice to finally have men with us, too."

"Well you always had men with you," I told her, eyeing the room and counting at least three who were looking her way. Rosalie rolled her eyes and flipped her hair dismissively.

"I gotta say, your boyfriend is definitely eye candy in those jeans."

I snorted, surprised and amused, and Rose laughed. "Emmett's not too bad either; we could do worse for ourselves."

"We have done worse for ourselves," she commented and we both laughed.

The boys returned with a waitress in tow that looked like she was going into heat, further emphasizing our point, but she carried a tray with four beers and a round of shots for the table. She was wearing one of those skimpy little referee outfits that showed off her cleavage, and I didn't miss the way she leaned in close to Edward as she sat the last shot on the table.

"Let me know if you need anything else," she said, specifically to him, and then sauntered off.

"Wait staff really seems to have a thing for you," I commented drily, picking up my shot of — something purple? grape bomb? — and the others followed suit. I downed it quickly, feeling the jaeger in my nose as I swallowed and mentally cursed them for choosing bombs, and Edward leaned in to kiss the hair right above my ear.

"I only have a thing for you," he whispered hotly and the rush of lust helped the liquor take root in my belly. I squeaked, which I hoped was a sound lost in the volume of the bar, and reached for my beer.

"Anyone up for pool," Rose asked, and I remembered they were probably watching our exchange.

By the fifth beer and third shot, I was feeling more than a little gone. The edges weren't quite fuzzy yet, but I definitely wasn't feeling any pain either. Rosalie and I had actually gotten pretty good at pool from all the time we'd spent in sports bars together, but apparently not as good as Edward and Emmett. Being one handed now, I wasn't sure how this was going to work but I was willing to give it a shot. They beat us two games out of three; I'm not sure if they let us win the third game or if the shots had taken hold by then, but I'd take it either way.

Rose and I made a trip to the bathroom after that and when we returned Edward told us the car was waiting out front — sore loser. I downed the rest of my beer and followed him outside. Do you know the feeling when you know you're drunk but it doesn't really hit you until you're outside, ready to leave? Because I certainly do. We'd just stepped onto the sidewalk outside the bar when my legs got a little wobbly and I had to lean into Edward as we walked to the car.

It was a little cramped in the back with four people, especially with Emmett being one of those people, but I didn't really mind. As soon as we were in, he attacked me. His lips crushed down on mine, almost painfully, and I felt his hands pulling at my hair roughly. I could taste the booze on his breath, something that used to turn me off but sort of turned me on right now, and I knew he could taste me too. I nipped at his lip, flicking the spot I'd bitten with my tongue, and pulled back to look into his eyes. They blazed at me; molten lava beneath his green eyes burned my flesh and I could feel the heat between my thighs, waiting for him.

I glanced over to see Rose and Emmett were in much the same condition we were, before moving to straddle his lap. "I need you," I whispered, grazing his ear lobe with my teeth before running the tip of my tongue along the shell of his ear. Edward groaned, his fingers gripping my thighs firmly as he raised his erection to grind against me. I bit back a moan when the rough material of his jeans made contact with the thin material that separated him from my sensitive core.

"We've arrived," the driver announced and I pulled back, panting; this wasn't my apartment.

"Thank you, Simon," Edward responded, sounded very business and contained rather than drunk and worked up. He reached over and opened the door so that I could climb out, rather clumsily, and he followed me.

A/N: Things are about to get interesting... are you ready? ;) -K