Massive apology for the length of time since I posted! Trying to keep three boys, a husband and a dog entertained has proven tricky! I have started the next chapter and will do my very best to get it done asap!

Thanks for reading, reviewing and sticking with me and also to Donna for casting her eye over this for me but I tinker like mad everytime I read through it so as usual mistakes are mine but the characters are not!

Chapter 5

"Check out that smile," Jasper said glancing over the top of his screen as I walked past his desk on Monday morning just before seven forty-five.

"It's Monday," I said, yawning. "I'm not smiling, I'm grimacing. No one smiles on a Monday morning."

"A little birdie told me you were smiling after your date with Bella yesterday."

"There may have been a slight upward turn in my mouth," I agreed. "I had fun."

"I bet you did," he said.

"It was just coffee," I objected.

"That's it?"

"Maybe a kiss just before she left," I said, grinning. "Like I said, I had fun."

"Imagine the size of your smile if you had gotten something else?"

I left Jasper still smirking and went to my office. I really had enjoyed myself and would have liked to have arranged to see her again before she left yesterday, but I also knew she had something heavy going on that she wanted to keep separate so I had to just let her call the shots for now.

I was curious, desperately curious to know what it was, but I wasn't the kind of guy to push anyone to tell me something they didn't want to and I especially didn't want to do that with Bella.

I had only been sitting down for a minute when there was a knock at the door. I glanced up and groaned when I saw my assistant with her head poked around the door. Tanya usually left me alone for the first hour unless absolutely necessary, it was an unspoken agreement we had and the fact I'd barely sat down meant it was going to be a long day.

"Not today thank you," I said to her and she smiled apologetically as she opened the door fully and came inside. "I'm serious, go away."

"Sorry, but I come bearing gifts," she said hopefully and produced a brown paper bag from behind her back.

"That just means you're trying to sweeten me up so it must be really, really bad." I braced myself for it.

"Maybe," she said. "Just a little, teeny, tiny bit."

I opened the bag, saw the present and closed it again quickly. "Not a chance. No way. Not going to happen."

"What? I thought you liked their bagels," she said, feigning innocence and I laughed.

"This is you pulling out the big guns and the big guns only come out when it's the end of the world. Take your attempt at bribery back." I held the bag out to her, but she refused to take it back, so I sighed. "Tell me."

"So, you know that when you took this job, Markus wanted you to find your feet and gave you free rein to reshuffle the department?" she began casually and I nodded once, no clue where this was going. "And you know how impressed he is with you?"

Reminding me about how impressed the VP of the New York office was with me made me even more suspicious. Tanya wasn't the type to blow wind up someone's ass, so this was really bad.

"Cut the B.S, Tanya. Compliments and bagels mean either I'm fired or something much, much worse."

"Worse."

"Shit." I put my head in my hands and groaned. "Just spit it out."

"My reliable source tells me he wants you to organize and do the charity presentation at the Summer Event."

"Bagels and compliments were not nearly enough," I told her.

"Damn, I was going to go with hard drugs and alcohol instead. I'm sorry, Edward."

"Why me? I could list thirty other people who could do a better job and who would probably want to do it."

The company I worked for held a Summer Event every year. It usually involved team-building exercises, a free bar, fundraising for a charity and prizes to the staff who attended. Each year Markus would pick someone, usually a department head, to organize it and decide which charity we would represent. Then, three or four people from those charities would be invited guests and the organizer would present them with their cheque. The bigger egos within the company loved it but I couldn't think of anything worse. I always made the effort to go to the summer events but the idea of organizing one was terrifying and then add the speech I'd have to make—cue the sweating.

"I'll help you," she offered.

"Are you going to do the speech?" I hissed. "There's no way I can do that."

"It's four months away, Edward. We'll put our heads together and come up with something short, snappy and funny. The quicker you organize everything, the longer you can practice and it will be a breeze." Tanya sat down opposite me. "You have a free hour this afternoon we can sit down and make a start?"

"How reliable is your source? Could she be wrong?" I asked.

"Why do you assume my source is a she?"

"Guys make rubbish sources," I said to her. "Who's your source?"

"Kate told me."

Kate was Markus' assistant and if she was saying it, then it was going to happen.

"Shit." I sighed and asked her, "Why hasn't he told me yet?"

"You have a meeting with him tomorrow morning at ten." Tanya saw my pained expression and laughed. "You could try telling him you'd rather that he gives the job to someone else?"

"No," I said and shook my head. "If I pass on this then he might pass on me the next time I ask him for something."

"We'll come up with something fantastic, Edward," she told me and I rolled my eyes. "James wants to see you."

"Jesus, worst Monday ever," I grumbled. "What does he want?"

"He claims he's on the verge of pulling in his biggest client yet—but they have some concerns about IT security, and he wants you to go to the next meeting to reassure them."

"He should take Garrett," I told her. "His team deals with the software for that, all I can tell him is our procedures with the servers."

"Garrett's going too," Tanya said and I whistled. "He wants to cover all his bases."

"You mean he hasn't got a clue what he's talking about so wants us there when the client asks him a question he can't answer." I looked quickly at my calendar. "I'll see him at three; but at three-fifteen you disturb me with an urgent call."

"Consider it done. It's Lauren's last day on Wednesday before she starts her maternity leave," Tanya told me. "We've already got her a basket of baby goodies but shall I have some flowers delivered to the office for her?"

"We?"

"Okay me… you owe me ten bucks, everyone's chipped in."

"Do I have to do a goodbye speech or anything?" I asked nervously and she shook her head. "Thank God for that."

"Nothing else work related to discuss, tell me about the party." Tanya set down her note pad and pen and rubbed her hands together expectantly. "Eric hasn't stopped talking about how good it was and Mike still looks drunk."

"Mike was wasted," I told her, laughing, "But it was a good night, you should have come."

"I'm a little old for that kind of party. Who's the hot brunette? Eric hasn't stopped talking about her either."

"Bella," I said, unable to stop myself grinning. "We had coffee yesterday afternoon."

"Good for you, Edward," Tanya said genuinely.

"Hey, Tanya, do you think you could—" A thought occurred to me and I started to ask her a question but stopped myself. "Doesn't matter, it might be weird."

"Weird for who?" she asked. "Me?"

"No, it might be weird for Bella—like stalker weird."

"What were you going to ask me? If you're referencing stalkers in the same sentence as what you were considering, Edward, I have to tell you it's a little weird for me too." She waited for me to continue and I sighed.

"What if I told you that Bella works for her friend, Alice? And what if I told you Alice owns her own floral shop?" I looked at her nervously. "What would you say the chances are that my amazing, resourceful assistant could find that florist and maybe try to use them for Leah's flowers? Or was I right to be concerned about looking stalkerish?"

"I'd say leave this in the hands of your amazing, resourceful assistant for a few hours and she'll see what she can do." She winked and stood up. "I love a challenge."

Tanya left me to get on with my day and it passed quickly which only further improved my mood, until I remembered I had the meeting with James. I hoped he'd cancel but unfortunately, he arrived bang on time with a smug smile on his face. Tanya showed him in and he sat down.

"I'm expecting a call from a customer, James so we have to do this quickly?" I never acted like an ass at work and compared to other people's level of assholeish behavior mine was quite low, but this guy bugged me.

"Did you hear about the new client I'm on the brink of securing?" he asked cockily. "I'm talking huge—the commission I can get for this is off the chart."

"Of course, it is," I said under my breath. "Tanya told me it's not a done deal though, that they have concerns?"

"Just the guy wanting to dot his i's and cross his t's. I just need you to reel off some technical shit he won't understand and tell him how awesome your department is and then Garrett can tell him the same about his department and I'll have his signature before the meeting is over." James put his feet up on my desk, moving them quickly when he saw my expression. "I'm meeting them Friday at nine—does that work for you?"

"I've never had to go to meet a client before—procedure is you give me their specifics and we put together a portfolio for you to let them keep. Nothing they can ask in the meeting won't be covered by that portfolio, so I'm confused as to why you want me there unless he needs something else or he's just a pain in the ass?"

"He's old school." James shrugged.

"So, he is a pain in the ass," I said and he didn't respond. "How bad?"

"Fine, he's a massive pain in the ass. The guy I was dealing with initially was happy to sign with us, but his boss knows he's a big fish and wants us to show him how much we want him." James didn't look so smug now. "I've tried to sweeten him up for the last few weeks, but he's asked for this so I'm asking for help here. If we don't impress on Friday, he doesn't sign and I've been bigging this sale up for ages—I don't' want to lose this."

"Look I'll talk about what we do but I'm not sales, James, if you want someone there to impress this guy, I'm not sure Garrett and I are your secret weapons."

"I'm willing to try anything." He stood up. "Friday at nine—I'll arrange a car service for us."

"I'm bursting with excitement." I grimaced.

"I'll let you get back to it," James said and then frowned. "The old man puts a lot on presentation so you might want to run a brush through your hair on Friday."

I forced a smile and gritted my teeth as he left my office. Not once in the short meeting had he used the words please or thank you.

"He's an ass," I hissed when Tanya walked in.

"Shall I try and get you a stylist for Friday morning," she said, thoroughly amused. "I'd have to get them here at about seven to give them a fighting chance of succeeding where others have failed."

"Not only am I not going to brush my hair on Friday but I'm going to make it even messier before the car service picks us up." I used my fingers to show her what I meant and she laughed. "He didn't even thank me for agreeing to go."

Tanya said nothing but sauntered over to my desk and sat down opposite me. "I need to hear four words from you." She looked smug.

"I hate that guy," I said, counting on my fingers as I spoke. "James is an ass. I need a coffee."

"All good but the ones I was looking for are, Tanya, you are awesome."

"I can't possibly say 'Tanya, you are awesome,' until I know what you have that will make me think you're awesome." I grinned and she shot daggers at me with her eyes, so I backtracked quickly. "Tanya, you are awesome."

"Why thank you, Edward." She pushed her notebook towards me and said, "Bella from Forget Me Not Flowers will be delivering a bouquet for Lauren on Wednesday morning."

"You stalked?" I asked and she nodded. "Shit, you are awesome. How did you find her?"

"A magician never tells." She laughed.

"Question?" I said. "What would the stalkee think about the stalking and would she hold it against the stalker when she found out?"

"Firstly, it's not like you're watching her sleep through her bedroom window or planting listening devices in her home. You met someone you liked and as it happened you had a genuine need for the area in which she works." Tanya seemed unconcerned.

"How many florists did you call to find her though?" I pressed.

"Compared to how many florists there are in the state of New York I'd say not too many at all." Now she looked more concerned.

"But compared to how many you would have called had you not been looking for the stalkee?"

"I plead the fifth," she quipped and I laughed. "I wasn't going to let you come across badly, so I was honest. When I called, I asked for Bella and when I found the right florist, I told the girl who answered the phone that my boss met a girl and that girl was Bella. I explained we had a genuine need for the flowers but that he'd quite like it to be Bella who delivered them. The girl I spoke to knew all about you and not once did the word stalking come up—in fact she seemed to think it was cute."

"Then I'm glad you stalked." I had a big smile on my face that mirrored the smile I had on the inside. "Thanks, Tanya."

"I can just picture my Christmas bonus getting larger by the second." She winked. "I've tried telling some of the other assistants, it's not about being sexy and flirty to get what you want it's about being awesome."

"I'm pretty sure awesomeness isn't learned though, Tanya. You've either got it or you haven't… you definitely have it," I said to her and she looked unimpressed.

"Nice try, I prefer a bigger Christmas bonus to charm and compliments." She stood up and let out a long-satisfied sigh. "Today I reached new levels of awesome, I look forward to your next challenge."

"The summer event," I muttered. "You get me out of that and you can have whatever you want."

"Actually, I wouldn't even if I could," she said. "I've been thinking about it and I will allow you to use my awesomeness to plan but I think this might be good for you."

"I can see your Christmas bonus shrinking," I said glumly.

"We'll see." She left the office just as smugly as she entered.

Tanya had been my predecessor's assistant for eight years before his departure. I'd heard she was good at her job, but I also knew she had a bit of a reputation for being difficult to handle. I admitted she terrified me the first time she sat across from me and she found that hilarious. Maybe she took pity on me or maybe she just knew I'd give her no trouble, but either way our dynamic worked and she made my life a hell of a lot easier.

There was no denying she was attractive—tall blonde and in great shape. I didn't know her exact age, she looked early-thirties maybe but I daren't ask—aware of the ass-chewing I'd get from her if my guess was so much as a day in the wrong direction. Emmett and Tyler thought she was hot and that there was something wrong with me when I told them sleeping with her hadn't ever crossed my mind. Despite the fact I'd had a girlfriend at that point, I just didn't see Tanya like that. She was more like an older sister who had my back. At their request I'd told her about what they did for a living and for the past eight months she had been one of their clients. I'd seen enough of her at the gym to know that I was never getting on the wrong side of her in a fight.

After I finished work, I went straight to the gym for an hour, so it was almost eight when I finally got home. Emmett had called me earlier to say he was home alone and apparently been on the brink of fainting with hunger so he'd ordered take out. I laughed at the mountain of food on the counter.

"Are we expecting all the people who live in our building to come and join us for dinner?" I asked him as I helped myself to some and then went to sit down on the couch. "Because we could feed them all and still have stuff left over. What am I eating anyway?"

"Some of it's for Tyler, he'll be home in about an hour," Emmett said with his mouthful of mangled food. "It's all good, I ordered from that new place Health Nut so eat your heart out and take some for lunch tomorrow. You tell them what you want, what your calorie limit is and how many portions and they build you the meal. They'll work round any diet too; I've been over-indulging this past week or two so tonight I went for high protein and low carb."

"And low taste apparently," I said and pushed the fork around my plate.

"Suck it up," he said. "I can't just eat pizza and Chinese food to maintain the body of an Adonis."

"So why am I suffering with you? I don't want the body of an Adonis," I muttered and forced another mouthful down. My phone rang and I put down my fork, grinning at Emmett. "It's Bella."

"The day after your date? You made some impression for just a coffee and a kiss." He laughed.

"Hey, Bella. It's good to hear from you," I said happily.

"Alice said I should wait until Wednesday to call you, I don't want to look too eager apparently," she said, laughing. "What you up to?"

"I appreciate the eagerness," I said honestly. "I'm force-feeding myself food Emmett's ordered us from a new healthy-eating take out."

"Sounds good," she said.

"It's really not," I told her. "Give me a slice of pizza any day. How's your day been?"

"Good. Just had an idea, are you doing anything right now besides eating nasty food?"

"Moaning to you and Emmett about eating nasty food, but that's about it. Why?"

"I'm just with my mom so I'm only a few blocks away from you. Can you meet me near that coffee shop we went to yesterday?" she asked. "It would mean you'd have to stop eating the nasty food and leave now though."

"What a travesty that would be," I joked. "I'm on my way."

I hung up and saw Emmett's face. "What?"

"You've just taken your first booty call," he said smugly.

"Well, she's not coming here and I'm not going to her place so unless this booty call is in the middle of the street, I'd take an educated guess you're wrong."

"Have fun booty-call boy," he shouted as I closed the door behind me.

It only took about ten minutes to walk to the place I was meeting Bella, but she was already there. I laughed when I saw her with a pizza in one hand and a bottle of soda in the other.

"I hadn't eaten dinner and you weren't enjoying yours so why not kill two birds with one stone," she said. "I felt bad for taking off early yesterday so this is my way of making it up to you."

"You didn't need to feel bad," I told her and sat down on a bench. "But if feeling bad gets me pizza then I'm grateful."

The last time we'd shared a pizza Bella had done the eating and I'd watched. This time she laughed as I wolfed down a slice in about three bites.

"No one is going to steal that," she joked.

"You might," I said, laughing. "I remember how quickly you devoured the pizza that night we met."

"Fair point," she agreed and took a slice for herself. "This is good."

"You should try it after attempting to eat the crap Emmett bought." I pulled a face.

It occurred to me that a few hours ago, Tanya had been on my stalking mission and I wondered if this was another reason behind the phone call from Bella. Had she found out about it? I didn't know if I should mention it or keep quiet. What if she didn't know and it made her uncomfortable? What if she did know? What if I didn't say anything and let her turn up on Wednesday, only to later find out that I'd arranged it and not said anything to her?

Shit. Perhaps the stalking mission was a bad idea. What do I do?

"You're overthinking again," Bella said and I glanced at her. "You're funny when you drift off like that."

"Sorry, I can't help it sometimes," I admitted. "Just nudge me or something the next time."

"There you go with that or something," she said. "I told you about that on Saturday. You open yourself up to a lot of assumptions when you say or something."

"Okay, so just slap me around the back of my head the next time," I said and she laughed.

"I think I preferred the vagueness of or something."

Far too soon, the pizza was gone and we were just sitting on a bench. I'd have happily sat there for another two hours just to chat to her, but I saw Bella check her watch and I tried not to look disappointed.

"Thanks for the pizza," I said, assuming she was about to leave. "I'll let you know the next time Emmett orders from that place and we can do it again."

"Do you have to get home?" she asked. "We could grab a beer or something if you have time?"

"I thought you just told me not to say or something. Or something might give me the wrong idea," I laughed as I spoke. My attempt at being flirty was impressive for me.

"As much fun as or something sounds, tonight we'll have to settle for a beer. Maybe we can or something next time?" She winked and I sighed.

"You can always out do me, even when I surprise myself with a witty comeback you just fire one right back." I stood up and she did the same. "A beer with you sounds just as good as or something anyway. Shit, how cheesy was that?"

"Not cheesy—sweet." She nudged me with her elbow. "So sweet that there'll be no witty comeback from me on this occasion."

There was a bar just down the street, so we headed straight there chatting as we walked. The conversation was always easy with Bella, never forced or uncomfortable. The more time I spent with her, even eating pizza on a sidewalk, just made me like her more and more. It was busy inside and there was only one stool free at the bar, no other tables or booths for us to sit on so I let Bella sit down and stood close beside her.

"How do people drink and socialize like this every night and still get up for work?" she mused and I laughed. "I'd get fired so quickly."

"You work for your angry friend," I pointed out. "Would she fire you?"

"Well maybe not fired, but I can imagine the look of disapproval and judgement if I rocked up hungover or late," she said. "You've met her—the wrong side of Alice is not a nice place to be. I feel for your friend, if she ever gets her hands on him, he's done for."

"And I hope I'm there to see it," I told her. "After the start my Monday made, I was sure it was going to be a crappy day, but it's turned out great—thank you."

"Any time," she replied. "What made your Monday crappy?"

"A meeting with the type of guy that makes me wish I was rude and violent," I laughed. "And finding out I get to plan and do a speech at a summer event my company throws each year. Now I've thought about it again, I'm not sure even beer and pizza with you makes me feel any better."

"Is the speech at the beginning or end of the event?" she asked.

"Towards the end," I said. "Why?"

"So just get everyone hammered and they won't care what you say." She took a drink of her beer. "I'd like to see you do the speech."

"Yeah, right," I scoffed.

"Just make sure you act like Hugh Grant and you'll charm everyone over."

"The bumbling brit from the chick flicks you told me to watch?" I remembered her description from the party. "So instead of wowing everyone with my way with words you want me to put on a British accent and make them all feel sorry for me? I'm not quite sure that's what my VP is looking for."

"It would impress me," she said casually. "With or without the accent. Shit, now who's being cheesy."

"Cheesy is underrated," I told her. "And if that's you being cheesy keep it coming."

"I'll do my best."

We had a couple of beers and soon it was almost midnight. As was becoming the norm, I was having so much fun in Bella's company the time just flew by. She made me laugh and I apparently made her laugh which surprised me.

"Why is it, time flies when I'm in your company," she said glumly and made me happy to know we were on the same page. "If I didn't know your answer already and if I didn't know what Alice's reaction would be, I'd ask if we should just pull a sickie at work tomorrow and stay here all night."

"We should have started earlier," I said and before I could change my mind, I took a leap of faith. "How about we do that on Wednesday night? We could have dinner—anything but the healthy shit I was subjected to tonight—and a beer afterwards?"

"I'd love to," she answered quickly.

"If anything comes up and you can't make it don't worry about it, okay? Just let me know and we'll sort it for another night."

"What time do you get off work?" she asked me. "I usually finish around four, depending on how many deliveries I have to make."

Shit, deliveries! Tell her or she might not be so keen to see you Wednesday night.

"Stalkers," I said randomly and Bella frowned.

"Huh?" she asked, clueless.

"I was telling my assistant about you this morning," I began.

"You have an assistant?" she interrupted. "That's fancy."

"Yeah, Tanya, she's almost as scary as your friend." I laughed and then continued, "Anyway, so I told her about you and then it came up that we needed to order some flowers for a girl in our office and so…"

"So, I'll be the one delivering your flowers? You stalked me?" she said, no longer clueless and seemingly not upset.

"Not me," I said, shaking my head. "Tanya stalked. I was thoroughly disgusted in the stalking, unless of course, you don't mind the stalking and I'll admit I may have approved the idea that she stalked."

"I don't mind, it's not like you were spying on me in my sleep or following me so I wouldn't class it as stalking." She really wasn't offended. "It makes sense anyway we're the best florist in Manhattan, so your stalking was justified."

"Thank God," I said, sighing in relief. "I had a vision of you looking horrified on Wednesday if you saw me and realized what I'd done. In fact, I think come Wednesday I'd have probably just hidden in my office until you'd left so you wouldn't find out until much much later."

"Now you know I'll be as happy to see you as I was Saturday and today, so I'd better see you on Wednesday, Edward." She finished her beer and stood up. "I'm actually sorry it's not Wednesday tomorrow."

I knew what I wanted to do and I almost chickened out, but Bella had been right that first night we met, she definitely didn't do mixed signals, so I leaned down and kissed her. I didn't sense any hesitation or reluctance on her part and I relaxed instantly. Kissing Bella was even better than I'd remembered after the first time. I didn't want to stop but we were still in the bar and we both needed to call it a night.

I saw her pout when I pulled back and I chuckled. "I'm even more sorry it's not Wednesday tomorrow," I admitted.

"And I'm sorry I told you off for saying or something earlier. Maybe if I'd taken you up on the or something instead of the beer, we wouldn't be saying goodnight now." She smirked when I groaned. "Sorry."

"We couldn't have done or something either way," I said to her seriously. "Emmett told me this was a booty call and I said nothing was going to happen."

"So, had or something actually been on the table you would have turned it down just so you could say I told you so to your friend?" she raised her eyebrows and then laughed. "You're so cute."

"Please never speak of this conversation," I said, shaking my head. "Emmett's new friend already thinks I'm gay because of my lack of a sex life, imagine what she'd have to say if she hears about this."

"I won't speak of it to anyone else. I reserve the right to wind you up about it at periodic intervals—it's too funny to not wind you up about it." She stood on her toes and kissed my cheek.

"Are you taking a cab home?" I asked and she nodded. "I'll wait with you and then go home, dying of shame each time I replay it in my head."

She held onto my arm and we walked outside. I saw a cab parked up but she didn't head towards it, instead she held onto my jacket and tugged me closer. "I think we need to distract you a little, give you something else to replay in your head so you don't worry about what you said."

Our third kiss was the most intense of them all. Honestly, it was probably the most intense kiss I'd ever had in my life. Her hands let go of my jacket and wandered up to my hair and her fingers tangled themselves up in it, pulling my face closer if that were even possible. I wrapped my arms around her waist tightly and feeling her pressed against my body only made it even harder to stop, but I did, reluctantly.

"Sorry," I said breathlessly, "But if that carried on much longer, we might have been doing or something on the street."

"You really shouldn't kiss a girl like that knowing she has to go home," she said. "It's not fair. Wednesday seems like even further away now."

"You kissed me," I pointed out. "But your plan worked. I'm definitely distracted."

"Then I'm glad I helped," she whispered. "Thanks for tonight, Edward. It's been the most fun I've had in months."

After she left in the cab I walked home as quickly as I could. I expected the guys to be in bed at this time, but they were both still up when I walked through the door.

"His hair's a mess," Tyler said before I even spoke. "And he's smiling. Pay up."

"His hair's always a mess," Emmett scoffed. "But I'll give you the smile and he's been out a while."

"What's going on?" I asked and tried to head towards my bedroom.

"We have a little wager on what happened." Tyler cocked his head towards Emmett and said, "I think you had two had sex and he doesn't think you did."

"I told you it wasn't a booty call," I said to Emmett and he laughed. "We didn't have sex."

"You owe me twenty bucks," Emmett said triumphantly. "Thanks Ed."

"I think that classes as insider trading, I wouldn't pay up, Tyler." I laughed. "Anyway, thanks for your faith or lack of faith in my sex life. I'm going to bed."

They were still arguing over the pay out when I climbed into bed and let my mind think about Bella.

Hope everyone is staying safe and well! Hopefully be back sooner for the next chapter.

Lots of love Katy xx