"Cullen and I had sex."

Alice drops her fork and goes wide-eyed. "I fucking knew it was only a matter of time. How was he?"

I grin. "Ah-mazing. It's never been so good before. He's taking me out on a date tonight."

She squeals. "Oh, I'm so happy for you! I knew the two of you would do it eventually. You're both clearly obsessed with one another and used the bake off as an excuse."

"Hey, I really did want to beat him."

"Sure, but you liked having him as a rival."

I finish my lunch and nod. I did like competing against Edward. It made it more fun this year—even if I did lose the pie contest. But there's always next year to kick his ass.

My radio goes off—car accident—so I leave money for lunch and tell Alice I'll see her later before rushing to my patrol SUV. I'm not far from the accident, so I'm first on scene.

It's not too bad. Both parties are uninjured, but we'll need a tow for the cars. I get both stories, and it's a road rage incident. The back car followed too closely, and the front car brake checked them. Stupid people. They both get tickets.

"He was riding my ass!" Driver One says as I hand him his ticket.

"Well, you can't brake check people. You're lucky you weren't hurt."

Driver Two is just as unhappy with the ticket, but I couldn't care less. They both got reckless driving tickets, which will be a pretty penny and maybe make them think twice.

Once I'm back in my patrol car, I radio in and wait for the tow trucks to arrive. Thankfully, it doesn't take long, and then I head back to the station to write up my report.

There are flowers on my desk.

"Eric, who sent these?" I ask, holding the vase up.

"Dunno. Got a secret admirer there, Chief?" He snickers.

I walk back into my office and look for a card. When I find it, I'm not surprised to see Edward's name. No one has ever sent me flowers before, but … I like it. They're beautiful rainbow roses, and the card says he didn't know my favorite color so he went with all of them.

I'm fucking swooning.

He's officially not an asshole anymore.

I call him up, hoping he's not too busy to answer. It takes a few rings, but he does pick up.

"You got my gift."

I smile to myself, fiddling with the petals. "I did. Little over the top there, dude."

He laughs. "You're over the top, so it's only fitting. I should be out of here around six, so I'll pick you up at seven for our date?"

I nod to myself. "Seven works for me. And Edward?"

"Yes, Bella?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, gorgeous."

I fall into my desk chair and just grin. This feels unreal, but I've got a hickey on my chest to prove it. We made out like teenagers last night before he ravished me again. I thought I'd had good sex before, but he makes it even better than I ever could have imagined. It's like he's got magical dick powers. A super dick. He's dicktacular.

You get the point. I love his dick, and I want it forever.

I finish up my paperwork for the day, and then head home to get ready. I don't have a ton of dressy clothing, but I do have a black dress I usually save for funerals or the Christmas party. It'll have to do.

It's a wrap dress and with the perky push-up bra I'm wearing, the girls look good. I even put on actual makeup, not just mascara and powder. I let my long hair flow down in waves and add a necklace to complete the look.

I feel pretty. It's nice getting out of my jeans and flannel shirts for once.

Of course, I'm ready a half hour early and have to avoid Ulysses because side of cat hair is not on the menu tonight. I give him food to distract him, which seems to work well. At six-fifty, my doorbell rings, and I open it to find Edward. He's wearing a light blue button-down, black slacks, and a black coat, and damn does he pull it off well.

"Wow, you look beautiful," he says, graping at me.

"I clean up well," I tease. "And you look rather handsome yourself. Let me just get my coat."

I pull on my peacoat, and then lock up, following him to his Volvo SUV. He opens the door for me like a true gentleman, and then comes around to the driver's side and starts up the car. I ask him where we're going, but he says it's a surprise. We leave town and head for Wheeling, and he pulls into a fancy restaurant that is almost impossible to get reservations to.

"When did you book this? Two months ago?"

He chuckles. "Let's just say I know the head chef, and he owed me a favor."

"My favors usually involve free coffee and pastries."

"Come on. We don't want to be late."

He shuts the car off and comes around for my door. I take his hand as I slide out of the SUV and keep it in mine as we walk into the restaurant.

"Ah, Dr. Cullen. We've been expecting you," the host says, grabbing two menus. "Please, follow me."

We do as he says and are taken to a secluded area near the back of the restaurant. The table is candlelit, and Edward pulls my chair out for me. It's all so incredibly romantic, and I love it. He really went out of his way.

"Do you want wine?" he asks.

Like I'd say no to liquor. "Please. Anything red."

When the waiter comes over, he orders a bottle for the table as well as some appetizers. I'm mostly interested in the fried mozzarella, but he gets these spinach pinwheels too that look good.

"So, how was your day?"

"Not bad. I had lunch with Alice, and then had to respond to a car accident where both drivers were idiots. Other than that, it was paperwork. You?"

"The ER wasn't too crazy. I also had paperwork to catch up on."

"It's the worst part of the job."

He nods. "Bane of my existence."

"So, we need to get to know each other, right? Let's start with twenty questions."

He chuckles. "I'm game. You go first."

"What's your favorite color?"

"The shade of brown in your eyes."

I roll my eyes. "No one's favorite color is brown. Be honest."

"Okay. I guess green. Yours?"

"Green as well."

"And you get to pick my eye color? Not fair, Swan."

"It is! But I'm more of a mint green girl."

"Fair enough. What did you want to be as a child?"

I smile. "From the time I was fourteen, I was committed to being a cop—like my dad. Before that, I wanted to be a writer."

"Do you do any writing?"

"Two questions. Not fair. Me first. Why are you a doctor?"

"I enjoy helping people, and I'm fascinated by the human body. Doesn't hurt that my dad and sister are also doctors. Now back to my questions. Do you write?"

I blush. "I dabble."

He cocks his brow. "Dabble how?"

It's my deep dark secret, but I figure if this goes anywhere, he's going to find out. "I dabble in fanfiction, all right? It's not weird."

"What's fanfiction?"

"You take the characters of a book or movie and write a story about them. It can be canon—follows the books—or non-canon where you make up a whole new world for the characters. Don't judge me."

He grins. "No judgment here. Writing is a good kind of exercise. Have you ever considered writing your own fiction?"

"I don't think it's your turn, but yes. I have an original fiction I'm working on. Now, it's my turn. What's your deep dark secret?"

"Hmm, let's see. I would say my love of baking, but you already know that. So, I guess that I play D&D with James, Eric, and Bert. I'm the gamemaster."

I laugh. "I did not picture you playing D&D, but that's cool."

"So we're both nerds apparently."

I nod. "So it seems."

Our appetizers are delivered, and we order our food. I know girls are supposed to be all dainty and order a salad on the first date, but I've wanted to try a steak from here forever. Edward orders the same, though he goes medium well instead of my medium rare.

He tops off my wine, and I take another sip, enjoying the flavor. "No wonder this place has such a long wait. These fried mozzarella are to die for."

He nods, biting into one himself. "Very good. Now back to our twenty questions. We're on what, like, eight? I lost count," he says with a chuckle. "But ask away."

"How long have you liked me?"

"Damn, Swan. You hit hard. And I guess … it's been a few months. Probably since you came into my ER with a concussion. There's always been something about you."

"I was not nice to you about the concussion."

He smiles and laughs. "You're a bad patient. Speaking of which. You haven't pulled out your own stitches yet, have you?"

"Nope. I was going to have you do it tomorrow."

"Good girl."

"I'm not a complete idiot."

"No, you're just too smart for your own good. And ridiculously brave. I worry about you endlessly."

I smile, taking his hand on the table. "I used to run into hostage situations and disrupt arms deals. Trust me, I've calmed down. I'm just used to getting my hands dirty."

"You were SWAT, right?"

I nod. "I was a lieutenant."

"And you quit because you got hurt? Sorry, but I've noticed the scars."

"Yeah, I got shot three times—armor-piercing rounds. I needed emergency surgery and technically died for a few minutes. That's what this scar is." I trail my finger down the center of my chest.

"Sternotomy. You're lucky to have lived."

"I am, but I needed to take a step back, so when this job offer came through, I jumped at it. You know my dad is a small town Chief of Police too."

"So we both followed in our father's footsteps."

I nod. "And I wouldn't change a thing."

"Me either. Even though I trained as a trauma surgeon like him, I like being chief of the ER."

"As long as you like what you do, that's all that matters."

Our entrees arrive, and I'm drooling, looking at my steak. We dig in and keep talking about our lives. Rosalie is his only sibling, but they're close. I don't have siblings, but Alice has become like a sister to me. I don't tell him their secret, but I mention someday I'm going to be an honorary aunt.

"OMG this steak."

"It's good, isn't it?" He laughs, and I nod, taking another bite.

"So good," I mumble.

We finish our meal in comfortable silence. Edward takes the check, just putting his credit card in it without glancing at it.

"Wanna go back to my place?" I ask with a sultry smile.

"I would love nothing more, lovely girl."

I don't own Twilight.

Thanks to Ashley, May, and Mary prereading and Sally for beta'ing.