Chapter 10: Love

As lovely as spending the day with the Cullens was, I felt anxious to see Paul again. He'd called me in the early afternoon and asked if I wanted to do something that evening. When I asked what he'd had planned, he hadn't wanted to tell me, wanting to surprise me again.

As much as I hated surprises, deep down I loved that Paul got so much joy out of surprising me with fun excursions.

Anticipation bubbled in my stomach as I walked from Forks to La Push to meet him at his apartment complex.

It was a mild day with an extremely light drizzle in the air and I enjoyed taking my time as I walked to La Push. Small towns usually made me feel unsettled and uneasy, but there was something about the air and energy in Forks and La Push that made me feel at ease.

I approached Paul's building and saw that he was already outside and leaning against his car as he waited for me. He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans and a black leather jacket on top of a charcoal grey t-shirt that fit just perfectly over the defined muscles of his chest and arms.

He grinned at me as he saw me approaching and came towards me, enveloping me in his arms and kissing me.

"You ready?" he asked when we'd broken apart.

"That depends on what we're doing."

"You'll see," he said, smiling slyly at me.

"Last time you surprised me with an excursion, I nearly killed someone," I said, teasing lilt to my voice.

He and I walked to his car and got inside. As he started the engine, he said, "And hopefully what I have planned will make you feel better about that."

"Paul…" I warned.

"It'll be okay," he promised. "I won't let anything happen."

"You're not taking me to a hospital, are you?" I muttered.

He chuckled and grasped my hand, gently squeezing it. "No, definitely not."

As he drove along the highway, I gazed out the window and watched the trees of the forest fly by. I hated that my slight lapse in self-control had made me so anxious about Paul taking me somewhere for a surprise. I hated that one moment had made me feel like I needed to constantly be on edge and on guard.

As Paul drove, he continued to crack jokes and lighten the mood, almost making me forget my earlier uneasiness. He always knew just what to say to make me feel better, no matter what was going on.

After over an hour of driving and after he'd driven past a 'Welcome to Port Angeles' sign, he pulled into the parking lot of a large movie theatre and flashed a grin at me. "I thought about what you'd said about never seeing a horror movie before and I thought we could do that."

My eyes widened at him—did he seriously think that it would be a good idea for me to be trapped in a room with humans? That was the exact opposite of what I needed right now.

"I know what you're thinking," he began. "This movie has been out for a few weeks—it won't be crowded."

"If you're sure…"

"Positive."

"If it gets too crowded…"

"We'll leave," he said without missing a beat. "But I think it'll be good for you."

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that he was right. It would do no good for me to hide out in his apartment or the Cullens' house. I needed to get comfortable being around humans again and this would be an easy way test that.

I allowed him to lead me into the movie theatre, the smell of popcorn filling the air. I entwined my fingers with his, needing the physical connection to keep myself calm. We approached the counter to purchase our tickets and I found myself holding my breath as we got closer to the teenager at the desk.

"Two tickets for Night Crawlers, please," Paul said, squeezing my hand.

The teenager began to process our tickets and I took the shallowest of breaths through my nose. The scent of his blood hit me and…

I was fine.

As good as his blood smelled, it didn't send my throat into a fiery frenzy like it had yesterday in the forest. I felt my entire body relax as I inhaled deeper and Paul squeezed my hand again, noticing my change in posture.

He paid for our tickets and led me to the theatre that would be showing our film. It was a slow night in the theatre in general and I was relieved by that. I'd been fine in front of the teenager at the counter, but he'd only been one person. If the theatre had been packed, I had no idea how I'd manage.

I was breathing regularly and I was completely fine. The few other patrons of the theatre hadn't made my throat burn either. Perhaps I could finally accept that the only reason I'd nearly lost control was because of how much blood the man in the forest had already lost.

"You're doing amazing," Paul whispered.

I smiled and squeezed his hand, oddly finding it difficult to express in words how much I appreciated his belief in me.

We sat in the very back corner of the theatre, just in case it started to get busy. I'd been fine earlier, but if I was sitting right next to a human through an entire two-hour movie, who knows what would happen?

Paul lifted the armrest between us so I could lean against him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him and I rested my head against his shoulder.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better than expected," I said.

"I was a bit concerned you'd be mad at me," he teased.

"No, it seems that you've resigned yourself to the fact that you'd be an accessory to murder if your little plan didn't work out properly. That's on you, not me."

"It was a risk I was willing to take," he said with a laugh, then sobered almost immediately. "Now listen, usually I would have shown you one of my favourite horror movies as your first one instead of one I've never seen before, so apologies if it's awful."

I laughed. "I'm sure it'll be fine. What is your favourite horror movie?"

"Probably the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie," he said. "It's a classic."

"You'll have to show it to me sometime," I said.

"Oh, it's absolutely on my list of films to show you," he teased.

"You've already made that list, have you?" I asked.

"As soon as you said you'd never seen a horror movie," he confirmed.

As it turned out, Night Crawlers was actually pretty good and Paul seemed surprised by it. He'd said that he'd set relatively low expectations for it but was pleasantly surprised by it. It wasn't scary by any means—we'd both lived through enough horror to last a lifetime.

When we left the theatre, we went to a small restaurant so Paul could get something to eat. The restaurant was slightly busier than the theatre had been, but it still wasn't anything that made me too uncomfortable and it was a good way to test my self control. We'd been able to get a circular booth so I could sit snuggled close to him.

He ordered himself a huge plate of nachos that would normally be shared between two people so it wouldn't be suspicious that I wasn't eating anything and we each ordered a drink.

Our waitress brought our drinks over to our table and I couldn't help but notice how hesitantly she was interacting with us. I couldn't tell if she was intimidated or was just having a bad day.

"I think we're scaring her," Paul teased.

"You noticed it too?" I asked, watching as she retreated into the kitchen.

He chuckled. "Hard not to. She barely wants to talk to us."

I closed my eyes and focused my hearing, trying to hear if she was saying anything about us in the kitchen. The very last thing I needed was for some stranger in Port Angeles to be suspicious about what we were.

"Sarah, I'm telling you—they're the most gorgeous couple I've ever served." I heard her say, sounding flustered. "I can barely look either of them in the eye."

"Go outside and take a breather, Lindsay!" The voice belonging to who I assumed was Sarah said. "If you don't start acting normal around them, they won't tip!"

A smile quirked at my lips and I looked at Paul. "We're not scaring her—she's just intimidated because she thinks we're hot."

His laughter shook his body. "How do you know?"

"I just heard her tell another waitress that we're the most gorgeous couple she's ever served," I explained. "Honestly, I'm a bit flattered."

Paul drained his drink and I quickly swapped his empty glass with my full one to avoid drawing any suspicion.

"Would you like a refill, love?" Lindsay asked, approaching our table with Paul's nachos. She was a lot friendlier this time—clearly stepping outside for a few minutes had calmed her nerves.

I smiled warmly at her. "That'd be great, thank you."

She set down the nachos and took the empty glass from the table and retreated into the kitchen to refill the glass.

"She seems like she's calmed down," Paul noted.

"She had to take a breather outside," I said.

"I'm not used to having this effect on people," he said.

"Sadly, it comes with the territory of being a vampire," I murmured, memories of the way Will and I had drawn humans in when we were hunting flooding my brain. It was always so easy; our vampiric perfection nearly always drew them in without much effort.

I detached myself from Paul so he could eat properly and looked around the restaurant, seeing all the happy couples and happy families. It was hard to forget that there was a period of time when I would've seen them all as my prey and it would just be a matter of picking the ones who would be the easiest to convince to follow me home.

"What are you thinking about?" Paul asked.

"Nothing important," I said quickly. "There's a couple arguing a few tables over and I'm loving the drama."

He laughed. "Snoop."

"I can't help it," I said with a laugh.

Lindsay returned with a fresh drink and we thanked her, trying to be as warm with her as possible. I felt a bit bad that she was so intimidated by us but there wasn't much we could do about it.

"God, Sarah, they're so nice too! It's not fair!" I heard her say in the kitchen.

"She's so exasperated by us," I murmured to Paul. "She said that it's not fair that we're also as nice as we are."

"She's clearly not a very good judge of character," he teased.

He finished his meal and Lindsay brought over the bill for us. I snatched the bill off the table before Paul could even look at it and slid my credit card into the little folder.

"You didn't eat anything," he objected.

"You paid for the movie tickets," I replied. "It's only fair."

Lindsay returned to the table with a handheld payment terminal and I began to key in my information to pay. I left her a very good tip as something of an apology for intimidating her so much. As the receipt printed out, I saw her eyes widen slightly at the amount charged but she recovered quickly and thanked us for our patronage.

Paul and I left the restaurant and began to walk back to his car. The brisk evening air felt refreshing and I breathed in deeply, smelling the fresh scent of the ocean from the nearby boardwalk.

Once in his car, I couldn't keep my hands off of him. I got as close to him as I possibly could and peppered kisses along his jawline and neck, hands roaming his body.

"If you don't stop, I'm going to drive us off the road," he warned lightly.

"We'd survive."

"Yeah, but my car wouldn't," he chuckled "We're almost back at my apartment, I think I can manage."

"That sounds like a challenge," I said, gently tugging at his shirt. "Is Jared home?"

He shook his head. "He's patrolling all night tonight."

"Good," I said, kissing his neck right above his pulse. His hold tightened on the steering wheel and I felt the car accelerate slightly, making me smile against his neck—I was glad our thoughts were along the same lines.

He parked in his spot at the apartment building and before we could get out of the car, he lifted my face to his and crushed his lips against mine, passion flying like sparks between us. When we broke apart, he was breathing heavily and I detached myself from him, now in a rush to get back into his apartment.

We walked inside and he pulled me flush against him, unwilling to break any sort of physical contact between us. As we crossed the threshold into his apartment, he lifted me off the ground and my legs instinctively went around his waist. He carried me into the bedroom and we fell into his bed together, pulling off each other's clothing before passionately making love to one another.