DISCLAIMER: The story doesn't belong to me; the characters are property of S. Meyer, and the plot belongs to Annalau Thank you so much for letting me share your story in English!

Gracias Laura, por darme esta oportunidad!

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Chapter 20

Jess squeals in her euphoria and throws herself on top of me, knocking me down on the couch.

"I'm so happy for you!" She grabs my face and kisses my cheeks, "Now you have a real boyfriend."

I push her off me and she just grabs my shoulders shaking my body.

"Edward is your boyfriend!" she announces with great drama.

After a few seconds her face scrunches up.

"I don't want to go," she pouts, "promise me that if you do it with Edward you'll talk to me right away and tell me."

I roll my eyes; pushing her out the door.

"Give my regards to your parents, Jess."

She nods, smiling mischievously.

"You're on your own, huh. So you can invite Edward whenever you feel like it," she raises her index finger. Don't forget to wear protection, remember, no balloon, no party.

I close the door in his face and drop to the couch still feeling like I'm floating in the clouds.

"Edward," I murmur with my eyes closed, "you are becoming very important to me."

My silly smile is erased the instant I open my eyes and check the mess in the apartment with dirty plates and glasses all over the room.

It's time to stop dreaming and start cleaning the house; without much encouragement I go into my room looking in the closet for the best homeless clothes I can find: a wide black cotton T-shirt with bleach stains all over it, I wear it with my dark panties.

After the first few hours on Monday of doing housekeeping and exchanging a few messages with Edward our little apartment is clean and smelling fresh.

I'm starting to do homework on my laptop and a Korean series starts to distract my mind, I open the Netflix window and hit play on the chapter where I left off.

Kim Tan on his knees crying because Cha Eun Sang left him [...] -my eyes sting. How could he leave him?

I spend the next hour in front of my laptop crying over a Korean series until I'm interrupted by the doorbell, I rub my backside still undone with sadness and open the door.

I quickly wipe my face as Edward stands in front of me. I blink.

I can feel the butterflies in my stomach fluttering with excitement at the sight of him.

His eyes sweep over me from head to toe, raising an eyebrow:

"What a nice welcome," he pulls me closer to his body holding my waist and kisses my lips. "Are you crying?"

I deny.

Edward holds my face, and his fingers begin to wipe away my tears. I'm so pathetic.

"If I tell you the reason I'm sure you'll laugh."

The features on his face harden, then I point to the screen.

"Are you serious? You're crying over a show," he laughs, sitting down on the couch while looking at the laptop. He stretches out his hand for me to sit on his lap, I accept as I choose to pause the video. "Does that guy have makeup on?" he asks in the middle of a fit of laughter.

Seeing my discomfort, he remains serious.

"I can't believe my girlfriend likes guys with makeup," he says sliding his hand down my shoulder, then stops it and rubs my skin a bit causing my butterflies to keep fluttering in me. "Nice outfit by the way," he grabs my old t-shirt in a fist.

"Don't tease me, I've been doing my homework today and I prefer to be comfortable," I hold the fabric with my hands, keeping it from riding up my thighs. "And how did they let you come up here?"

"I told the doorman I'm your boyfriend."

I look at him. Edward has a look of pride on his face that he can't hide; he moves closer, leaving a short kiss on my shoulder and cradles my cheek with his hand.

"Can you wait a moment?" I ask, "I'm going to take a quick shower."

I'm about to stand up and his arm wraps around my waist. I decide to stand up before he makes me forget my name.

I smile at the sight of his face unhinged by my unexpected escape from his lap.

"I like you," he murmurs, kissing me passionately.

Even though his mouth is relentless with me and makes me faint as he takes possession of my lips, I am very aware of one of his hands starting to slide up and down my thigh.

I decide to stand up before he makes me forget my name.

I smile at the sight of his face unhinged by my unexpected escape from his lap.

"I won't be long," I smooth out my shirt, trying to cover a little more of my thighs.

"You should pack a small suitcase."

"A suitcase?" I ask; "What for?"

"I want you to go to my place, I won't leave you alone in this building any longer."

"I'm not going anywhere," I object, "don't come here to impose your will because it won't work."

Angrily he immediately walks away crossing his arms, reloads from the counter.

"Carlisle left my mother, he left home."

Totally shocked, I walk over.

"I don't know what the fuck my father is planning, but I'm not going to risk you."

"Maybe you are just exaggerating" I look for the exact words to calm his bad mood. "In all this time Carlisle didn't try any kind of contact with me, maybe he really has another woman and I'm not the cause of the separation."

He lets out an exhalation and rubs his face, I know he is overwhelmed.

"I don't understand what's going on. The only thing I know is that in all these months I didn't manage to find out anything because simply nothing happened. He spent his time in the office concentrating on the new hotel, there was nothing out of the ordinary that didn't require the time needed to close a new deal. Nothing, Isabella, nothing of interest happened with Aro or my father that would make us suspicious."

His arm wraps around my waist again.

"I want you to go with me," he pleads.

"Let's make a deal," I say. "I'll stay here, and we'll go on living normal. The first strange thing that happens, I promise I'll tell you and let you take me with you, okay?"

"Why are you so stubborn? Don't you realize that this is not a game?"

"Because I'm not willing to change my life because of your father, it's not fair."

He pulls me into his body, hugging me protectively. I know he understands my point of view.

"Get dressed, we're going to lunch with Pat."

.

.

.

After three weeks I continued to live in the apartment without anything out of the ordinary hindering our lives.

In the course of those days we found out that Carlisle had extended his vacation in the Mediterranean while Esme was looking better and starting her life again.

Also my free vacation from University is allowing me to focus my senses on my work and have enough time to return to my old passion which is designing. Every night I can spend hours and hours creating jewelry and many times I could count on Edward and Pat's presence.

Oh, Edward... what can I say about him? In these weeks he has been the perfect boyfriend I could have. He fills me with attention and makes my heart throb with emotion in every kiss, I must admit that my affection for him is growing. And everything would be perfect, if it weren't for his ex who seems to have a maternal streak for her son overnight, I detest that woman and I can't help my jealousy when I realize that she and Edward will always have a close relationship because of Pat.

For this reason she takes advantage and makes my blood boil with anger.

How now that she's grimacing in disgust in front of me.

"I'll tell Pat you're waiting for him."

"It's not necessary, my son knows I'm here."

Her shrill voice is so desperate it tempts me to smash my fist into her perfectly straight, Botoxed face. I look at her with the same disdain as she does returning to my place where I am working on my new creations.

"I really don't understand what Edward sees in you." She starts spitting her venom, dammit. Of all the girlfriends he's had you're the most... simple," she twists her lips, "quite dull. I still remember Kate's natural beauty, Eddie's great love because Irina was very gray, nothing important in his life," she sighs theatrically. "I assure you if Kate showed up right now you'd be walking out the door never to return, I don't think in all this time Edward has ever been able to get over her."

"Your life must be so boring for you to have enough time to remember Edward's every partner. You sound so hot talking to me about those women, don't do it because you're just making a fool of yourself."

The smile that adorned her red lips fades as she hears my response, she is now looking at me as if I am the walking plague and about to attack her body.

"Bella," Pat arrives and hugs me, I know he has said goodbye to Edward because his eyes look watery. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"Me too, but don't worry we'll wait for you so we can have fun together." I flex my arms around his thin body, he's so cute.

"Don't go to the Grand Canyon without me, promise?"

"I promise," I bring my right hand to my chest making him smile slightly. "Take care and have lots of fun."

The boy drags his suitcase reluctantly, he looks sad with a downcast countenance and in no mood to leave for a whole month to Paris with his witch of a mother. It must be terrifying to spend time with that woman who is not even capable of feigning an ounce of affection to her only son.

Edward intercepts him on the way giving him a last hug that Patrick shuns in annoyance.

Edward exhales and tries to cradle his son's face, but he shies away from him again this time leaving the house with Charlotte smiling triumphantly behind him.

"Why did you let her take him?"

Edward breathes in, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Charlotte and I have shared custody, it's not easy to deny her time with her son. There are agreements we have to keep as Pat's parents."

When he turns to look at me I can see the sadness in his mostly fierce eyes. Edward is just as affected as his son by being separated for so long, it's so unfair.

All I can do is hug him tenderly giving him my support I hide my face in his chest.

It doesn't take him long to respond; he wraps his arms around me and kisses my hair.

"You had told me that Charlotte rarely wanted to have Pat, why now she does? What changed?"

She smiles at me, pressing her forehead to mine.

"Stop worrying," he kisses my nose. "I'll figure it out soon enough for Pat's sake."

"Help me make dinner," he asks leading me by the hand to the kitchen, "What do you want to eat?" I see him rummaging in the fridge, "Meat, chicken, fish….?" seeing that I shrug my shoulders he decides to cook salmon.

"You've become very serious. And I'm scared of you," he admits in front of the stove. He has been concentrating on chopping different vegetables.

"I admit I'm surprised by your culinary skills."

"Hey, I'm a single parent," he winks at me, "I have to feed my son well."

We laugh. We talked. We dined. We clean his kitchen.

With Edward any action can turn into an adventure, like now as we lie on the couch watching my Korean series on the TV.

His fingers run down my back over the fabric of my dress.

I lift my face to see his, he smiles at me and I do the same, moving closer to kiss his lips as I stroke his beard.

"Stay with me tonight," he whispers as I am leaving short kisses on his neck, I breathe in his scent and suck on his skin making him gasp.

He shudders holding my face, his eyes look longing. And I'm sure mine look the same.

"I don't know, I've never slept..." his finger silences my lips to kiss me tenderly.

I sigh as he stands up and pulls my hand leading me to his room.

Hello! Here I am with another chapter where Edward and Bella's relationship is getting stronger as the weeks go by. I know you're anxious to know what Carlisle's silence means, that will come later, just wait a bit.

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