Author's Note: No pictures for this one, but I had the same city/downtown in mind while writing it.

Nice reviews are better than chocolate, unless maybe you're licking that chocolate off someone.

One

September 24th, 2008

"Edward?"

He looked up and whipped off his reading glasses, but in his zeal he flung them across his desk and onto the floor. He pushed back his chair and kneeled down at the side of his desk to pick them up. Still looking down at the floor, he cleared his throat, "Bella, uh, hi, what are you doing here?" Brilliant. Edward stood up and watched her enter the large stadium style lecture hall, setting his glasses on the desk; he kept one hand on them, fiddling with an ear piece. As she moved closer he backed up, the backs of his legs coming into contact with his chair, as if being too close to her might make him burst into flame.

"Well, ok, here's the thing. Well, the thing is," she smiled, her cheeks reddening slightly. "I finished it," she beamed at him; it took him a second to come out of his daze enough to understand what she meant.

"Your book?" What else would she be talking about? "Congratulations! I'm so proud of you, Bella, really," Edward leaned forward slightly, smiling at her.

"Well, I was hoping," she pulled a jump drive out of her book bag, "that maybe you could take a look at it, tell me what you think?" Bella handed it to him, it was small enough that their fingers brushed during the exchange and Edward pulled back quickly. Stupid.

He laughed to himself under his breath. "I remember writing on paper, with a pen, when I was an undergrad. I even had a typewriter for a while," he grinned crookedly at her.

"You aren't that much older than I am," she said wryly.

"It feels like it when people call me Professor Cullen all day."

"That's because you teach freshman English, they're used to having to call their teachers that. But if you insist on feeling that way, I can help, Professor Cullen." She chuckled to herself.

Edward opened his mouth partway, 'Professor Cullen', sit down before she notices. He plopped himself into his chair and Bella raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, that's ok. I'd be happy to read it. I'm not going to be here tomorrow, so if you want," what are you doing?, "you can come over to my place tomorrow evening and we can do it together - read it together – I mean, go over it…together, I…" Stop talking. He looked down at her jump drive.

"Sure," she smiled. They both turned as people began to trickle into the room. It was late September and the students still had 'I'm too cool', yet somewhat lost looks on their faces. "I should go, I'll see you tomorrow, Professor," she bit her lip and Edward really wished he was alone after she walked out of the classroom. After a long mental moan, he stood up and got on with class.

Later that day, Edward was sitting in his office, actually it was basically a cubicle, the graduate students on the teaching staff didn't get their own offices. He opened up his work e-mail and saw one from Bella.

Hey, I just realized I don't have your address. Have a good rest of your day!

Edward sent her a reply. They had known each for two years, but only through the university. He had just started working on his graduate degree in English and Bella was working part time in the English department. He spent the first few months coming up with excuses to talk to her. Um, do you have scissors I can borrow? She started putting candy in a jar on her desk and it was easier to come up and talk to her. I have a sweet tooth, can't resist chocolate. Well, he couldn't resist something.

Once he finally got the nerve to start talking to her for real, he learned that she was an undergraduate, studying creative writing, and she had just started working on a book. She had taken a year off from school the year before to figure out what she wanted to do. She really wasn't that much younger than he was, four years. The real problem was that Edward had no idea what he was doing. Well, you're doing something now. Sometimes he got the feeling that Bella might have feelings for him as well, but when the thought came to him he tended to brush it off as wishful thinking.

He packed up his things around 5:30 and headed to his apartment. It was small, but it had a view of the park and high ceilings, plus it was rent controlled. Inside, he set his things down and changed his clothes. Padding back to the living room on the dark wood floor, he layed down on the couch with his laptop resting on his stomach. He plugged in Bella's jump drive and opened the file with her book, Grace.

Are you still considered soul mates if the other person doesn't seem to know you exist?

The first line jumped out at Edward and he leaned up, adjusting his reading glasses. He read for the rest of the night, finishing some time around morning. Moving his now plugged in computer, which ran out of juice way before Edward, he got up and went into his bedroom. He lay on top of the covers on his back, running his hands through his hair. The book was brilliant. Mostly, it was about being afraid of living, which was a frighteningly accurate way to describe Edward.

All day, Edward was jittery like he'd had one too many cups of coffee. He'd only actually had two, ok three. He cleaned up his apartment, but that didn't take long, he wasn't that messy. He took a jog around the park, did some work on his thesis, made a fourth cup of coffee, and by 7:00, he was walking around his kitchen trying to decide if he should make Bella dinner. She was due to come over around 7:30. That's dinner time, isn't it? Crap, I don't know what she likes besides peanut butter cups. He decided against dinner until she got there, he'd just ask her if she was hungry.

It was 7:30.

It was 8:00.

9:00.

Bella didn't have a cell phone and Edward didn't have her home number. He sat in his kitchen on one of the two stools that sat beside the island. He had his laptop open and he was logged into his e-mail. He hit refresh again, nothing.

10:00.

10:30.

11:00.

12:00.

He didn't know any of Bella's friends, let alone have a number for any of them.

12:30.

It was only Thursday night and Edward had to go to work in the morning. He closed the lid of his laptop and went to his bedroom. Absently, he wondered if Bella would be at work the next day.

September 26th, 2008

He was at work by 7:30 the next morning. He had an 8 o'clock meeting with his advisor and he had decided to force himself to go by Bella's desk first. Her office was in a suite of offices which basically meant that she was in the reception area and three other offices plus a mail room was branched out from hers. He peaked in the window of the outer door and saw that she wasn't there. Walking in anyway, he checked the small mail room, she wasn't there either. His irritation about being stood up was slowly being replaced by worry. In truth though, he wasn't even sure what time she was due into the office. Edward decided to go to his meeting and then check back, she was bound to be there by then.

The meeting took just under an hour. They discussed a lot of things that Edward forgot as soon as they were said. When it was over, he tried to keep a casual pace as he went back to Bella's office. He stopped outside the door, looking in. She still wasn't there, but there were three people standing near her desk, serious expressions on their faces. It made Edward's heart beat faster even though he couldn't name why.

The chair of the English department, an admin assistant, and one of the program coordinators all turned to look at Edward when he walked in. They all had their arms crossed, which suddenly struck Edward as funny; he didn't laugh. They looked aged, stress creasing their features. "Hi…is there something wrong?"

The chair of the department sighed and moved to the front of the group, closer to Edward. "Ok, we'd like you to keep this to yourself for the time being. We're trying to figure out the best way to handle telling everyone," he paused. Edward stood still, afraid that if he did anything, Christopher would decide not to tell him what was going on. "There's been an accident, from what we know, Bella Swan was on her way somewhere on foot last night and she was hit by a car. The man driving was drunk, he's –"

"Is she ok? What hospital is she at?" He tried to let Christopher finish, but he couldn't keep his questions down. His body had turned cold, he felt faintly ill.

"She's not at any hospital."