Sorry - real life friends demanded my presence this weekend, so writing got put on the backburner. I put some extra cheesy Edward lines in to make up for it. ;-)

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“I still haven’t given you your Christmas present,” Edward observed later that day after we escaped from Alice’s clutches. My mind flashed to the small package for him that was still sitting in my closet and I felt a rush of nerves hit me at the thought of giving it to him. What if he didn’t like it?

I suppressed my sudden fears as best I could and instead smiled teasingly at him.

“What if I say I don’t like presents?” I challenged.

“Well,” Edward started, mocking being deep in thought. “Then, I guess, I’d have to say too bad because I rather like giving them.”

He punctuated this with a sweet kiss and needless to say, I dropped all arguments. You just can’t argue with a man who has such persuasive lips.

“I actually have yours in my room if you want,” I murmured, pulling away from his lips to look him in the eyes.

“Why don’t you go get it and then we can run over to my place so I can get yours?” Edward offered and I nodded eagerly, jumping out of his arms quickly. He laughed as I stumbled in the hallway before I got to my room and I threw a grin over my shoulder as I recovered and sprinted into my room to grab his gift from my closet.

I made my way back to him a little more slowly, still feeling a bit apprehensive about the gift. He was pulling on his coat as I walked back in and held mine, which he had draped over his arm, out to me. I set his gift down on the table while I put it on and as I flipped my hair out, I noticed him eyeing the small package curiously.

“No, you can’t shake it to see what’s inside,” I teased. He grinned, one side of his mouth pulling higher than the other in a sarcastic lilt.

“Not even just a little?” he pouted playfully, pulling me close and slipping his hands underneath my coat. I shook my head firmly and tilted my head upwards in search of a kiss that wasn’t long in coming. Edward tightened his hold on me as he captured my lips with his and I gladly melted into his embrace.

When we parted a few moments later, we silently agreed to go and I grabbed my gift for him before heading out the door. The drive was quick and in no time at all we were pulling up to his apartment complex. I noticed with relief that Emmett’s huge Jeep was nowhere in sight. Edward seemed to notice this too and breathed his own sigh of relief.

“I was hoping he’d be gone,” he said, sounding satisfied.

“Why?” I asked curiously.

“He’s been absolutely insane lately,” Edward explained with another sigh, running his hands through his hair. “He bought a ring for Rose, but he’s being such a pansy about asking her, he’ll use any excuse in the world to postpone it. Personally, I think it’s because deep down even though he really wants it, he’s afraid of the long-term commitment.”

I smiled to myself as I followed Edward in. The idea of Emmett being scared of anything was almost a foreign concept, but my heart twinged in sympathy for the guy. Proposing had to be hard when you were proposing to someone like Rosalie, the absolute epitome of beauty. My self-esteem still hurt every time I came in contact with her and I always tried to avoid standing right next to her, so I wouldn’t pale in comparison quite as much.

“What are you thinking about?” Edward asked curiously as he closed the door behind us and led the way into his room.

“Just sympathizing with Emmett.” I shrugged.

“Why?” His mouth curved upwards in obvious amusement. I watched carefully as he sat down on the bed, pulling a small, oblong box from his nightstand.

“Must be hard, is all,” I elaborated. “I mean…to propose to someone like Rosalie.”

“What about Rose makes her so hard to propose to?” he asked, suddenly more alert to what I was saying. He set what I assumed was my Christmas present aside, so I did the same as I sat down on the bed next to him, playing with my hair nervously.

“It’s just, I mean,” I stumbled as I tried to explain. “She’s gorgeous. She’s the kind of girl any guy would fall all over himself for.” I stared down at the hair I was twisting in my hands, feeling embarrassed.

“I didn’t,” Edward said firmly and grabbed my chin, guiding my eyes to his. “The only girl I’ve ever fallen all over myself for is you,” he added quietly.

My heart probably skipped about ten beats at his words and I stared at him speechlessly until I gathered enough of my senses to reach up and kiss him. I smiled hugely as he pulled away and kissed the tip of my nose, hugging me close to him.

“Thank you,” I said and he shrugged.

“It’s the truth,” he answered earnestly and I smiled all the more at that. He kissed me sweetly once more before asking,” Do you want your gift now?”

I groaned in mock reluctance, but inside, I was dying of curiosity. Usually I hated gifts, but I was eager to receive anything at all Edward would give me. He grinned at me, as if he sensed this, and grabbed the white box he had set aside earlier. I fingered the delicate golden bow that kept it shut before pulling it gently away and lifting the box open.

I gasped openly at the beautiful bracelet that lay in the box. It was a silver link bracelet with a single charm: a diamond heart. The charm threw off rainbows as I lifted it wonderingly out of the box.

“Edward,” I whispered in awe. “It’s beautiful.”

“You like it?” he asked eagerly and when I looked up to meet his eyes, they were brimming over with happiness. I grinned at him and nodded profusely before holding out my wrist so he could put the bracelet on. Once it was clasped, I brought it up to eye level to further admire it. It was the most perfect piece of jewelry I’d ever had.

In a daze, I reached for his gift and put it in his waiting lap. He opened it slowly, ceremoniously, and his eyes gleamed with interest as he pulled the colorful box from the wrapping.

“The boy at the music store helped me pick it out for you, but if it’s not the right kind we can always return – ” I started to explain my choice but Edward cut me off.

“Bella, stop,” he said gently, holding up a hand as he inspected it further. “This is amazing. Really, it’s wonderful.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“You really like it? It will work?”

“Yes, I really like it and of course it will work. It will work great,” he assured me, excitedly reading the contents of the box before opening it and pulling out the manual, CDs and other electronic equipment it contained.

“Good,” I sighed. It was my turn to be relieved. “Because I really don’t know anything about recording systems or computers and I was completely trusting the boy in the store on it. I half expected it to be all wrong and that you’d hate it.”

“Silly Bella,” he murmured as he set the stuff aside and leaned toward me, pulling me into a short kiss. “I would never hate anything you gave me.”

--

We spent the rest of the night playing around with the recording software I had bought Edward. He had promptly wanted to install it on his computer and try it out and I readily agreed, wanting to see how it worked and most of all, wanting to see Edward play his piano.

The software required being plugged into the electric piano Edward kept tucked away in his closet.

“I never play this thing,” he had commented as he pulled it out and set it up in the living room.

“Why not?” I’d asked.

“Doesn’t feel as real,” he explained with a shrug as he ran his fingers over the keys to dispel the dust. “Doesn’t sound as real.”

Three hours later, it sounded plenty real to me as Edward’s fingers lithely danced across the keys to a simple melody that read on the computer as a thick, spiky, blue line. I had long since retreated to the nearby couch where I watched him happily play with his new software.

Around midnight, the peaceful play was interrupted by Emmett slamming the door behind him before he barreled inside and threw himself in the armchair, barely even noting our presences. Before either Edward or I could greet him, he flicked on the TV to a sports channel and held up a hand to silence us.

Edward stood up from his piano and stretched before walking over to me and sinking down into my arms. I smiled as he settled himself so he was lying against my stomach. He kissed the spot where my shirt was riding up along my hip before smiling tiredly up at me. I ran my fingers absentmindedly through his hair and looked over to Emmett, who was still staring at the TV stoically.

About ten minutes later, he grabbed the remote and violently turned the TV off before falling back against the armchair with a loud exhalation.

“I couldn’t do it,” he said suddenly, breaking his silence. His voice was tortured as he spoke and Edward sat up from where he had been laying on me to study his brother who had buried his face in his hands. “I had the perfect moment tonight and I just couldn’t do it.”

“Why not?” I asked breathlessly, desperately wanting to help. I had never seen Emmett look quite so lost as he did in that moment and it pained me to see the energetic man looking so forlorn.

“I froze,” he explained, staring in horror at his hands. “It was beautiful. We were standing on this bridge downtown, all alone, and the clouds had cleared up so you could just see the stars and Rose…Rose looked perfect and I was getting the ring out of my pocket...” he trailed off, still staring at his hands which he was now clenching and un-clenching at random.

After a moment of waiting for him to continue, Edward prompted, “And?”

“I froze,” he repeated. “I just let the moment pass me by. The clouds came back and then this big group of people stopped right by us, so we had to move.” He sighed loudly and slumped further down in his chair. “What a disaster. I should have never bought this ring.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Em,” Edward muttered darkly and got up to cross the room quickly to his brother. To my shock, Edward shoved him roughly and then pulled him to his feet.

“Edward,” I cried, my eyes wide at the unwonted behavior. He threw me an apologetic look before turning sternly back to his older brother.

“Emmett Cullen, you’re getting off your sorry ass and going back to her tonight. You have to propose to her now or you never will. Now go and get her before she realizes that you are some cowardly pansy,” Edward said firmly, punctuating his speech with a hard shove towards the door which Emmett took in stride.

To my surprise, instead of turning around and slugging Edward like I usually would have expected from him, Emmett continued toward the door and left us without another word. I stared after him, a little shell-shocked, before turning back to a now apologetic Edward.

“Sorry,” he interjected before I could even open my mouth. “It’s just sometimes he needs a good solid shove in the right direction or he’d never do anything.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I tried to process the sibling interaction between the two. Finally deciding no real harm had been done, I smiled and rolled my eyes for good measure. I had a feeling I would never fully understand the way the Cullen siblings interacted with each other, but I could try.

“Besides,” Edward added with a smile. “I was really planning on being alone with you the whole night and I didn’t want him intruding on that for much longer.”

“Such a charmer,” I laughed and took the hand he offered to me to pull me up from the couch. I let him lead me into his room and gladly fell against him as he tugged me with him into bed.

Later that night, as we lay together after making love, Edward stroked my hair gently and I couldn’t help but admire him as he stared down, obviously deep in thought, at his fingers running through my hair.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked in a whisper at last.

“Just that, when I propose to you one day, there won’t be much waiting around after I buy the ring.”

I think my heart skipped twenty beats that time.

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Reviews? Yeah, they’re awesome. And look! We’re almost at 3,000. Woahhhhh. Way to be cool. I’m thinking that we have about two more chapters and an epilogue left. Maybe. Depends. I don’t really actually know. Still have a bit more Edward territory to cover and I don't know how long that will take, so really, I guess it all depends on how it pans out when I'm writing and how much more you guys would want to see of this story...? (surely you're tired of me by now?) ;-)