I lied down on my bed, my hair still damp. I closed my eyes, head still spinning.

When I opened my eyes, my room was dark. I looked over at my digital clock which read 6:42pm. I must've fallen asleep at some point. I got up to turn on my light and my stomach growled. Had I slept through dinner? Where was Renee?

I checked my phone. There were two messages.

"Phil and I have a party this evening. Won't be back for dinner, sorry! Will see you tonight. Love you. –Mom"

Of course. It was fine though, I was used to being by myself anyways. I checked my other message. It was from Edward.

"I know you don't want to talk to my right now but please let me explain everything. Have dinner with me? I'll be at your place at 7. See you then."

Dinner at 7? Did I even have a choice in this? I checked the time. 6:45pm. Crap, I had 15 minutes to get ready. I frantically rushed to the bathroom to tidy myself up. My hair was a mess. It was all over the place with some parts that were dry but others still damp from my shower. Great. That's what I get for falling asleep with wet hair. I reached for my hair dryer and quickly dried my hair dry and ran my brush through it. It wasn't the best but it would have to do. I ran to my closet. What was I supposed to wear? I opted for my favorite pair of jeans and the closest shirt in my reach. Where did I put my cardigans?

Ding-dong.

Oh, crap. Is it 7 already? I ran out my room and to the top of the stairs. Edward was already here, making his way into my front door as he chatted with Annalisa who was star struck once again.

I quickly made my way down the stairs. Darn these spiral stairs. They can get so dizzy when you go down them this fast.

Edward looked up and smiled his beautiful crooked smile. His cheeks were pink from the cold and his green eyes were brighter than ever. Any feelings of bitterness from earlier that day and all of my million questions disappeared at that moment. He was breathtakingly handsome.

"Hi," he breathed. That's when I noticed what he was wearing underneath his peacoat. Black dress pants, a crisp white dress shirt, and a black tie. I immediately felt underdressed.

"I'm sorry, I… just woke up and saw your text not too long ago," I admitted sheepishly. "Can you give me 5 minutes?"

"Yeah, absolutely," he said, smiling.

I rushed up the stairs again, almost tripping at the top of the stairs. I made my way to my room and into my closet. Did I even have anything nice to wear? I scanned the not so many items of clothing I owned, slightly panicking. Then I noticed a couple dresses hanging at the end that weren't there this morning. There was a note attached to one of them.

"Went dress shopping today and these were on sale. You don't have any dresses and these were your size so I thought your closet could use them! Love, Mom."

They were gorgeous… but rather short. Definitely not something I would really wear on a normal basis but I assumed that Renee got them for me for special occasions anyways. Thank you Renee for saving me today. But it was so cold out, could I wear this in this weather? I guess I didn't have a choice. I would have to suck it up.

I chose a black body-con dress. It had a lovely v-neck and was embellished with black and gold beads on the front. I quickly got some tights, on praying that they would save me from the cold, grabbed my coat, and made my way back towards the main entrance where Edward was patiently waiting.

"These are for you," Edward said handing me a bouquet of red roses once he saw me. "You look stunning."

"Thank you…" I blushed accepting the roses. Stunning was definitely an overstatement. My hair was still somewhat messy, I had no makeup on for the occasion, and I got dressed within 5 minutes.

"You really do," Edward said offering me his arm for me to take.

I smiled and he led us outside to his silver Volvo. As soon as I stepped out, I instantly regretted my choice of attire. But remembered that I had nothing else and Edward looked so nice. I gritted my teeth as we made our way to the driveway and was a little too happy when we reached his car. Edward swiftly opened the passenger door for me and closed it once I was in. His car was so warm. He had left the engine on to keep the heater running. There was soft classical music playing from his car's audio sound system.

He got into the car, letting a bit of cold air in. "I hope you're hungry."

I was starving. My stomach betrayed me as it growled, making it quite obvious. Edward let out a laugh. "I'm glad."

"Where are we going?" I asked him wondering why he was dressed semi-formal to begin with.

"You'll see," he said with a grin.

We barely exchanged any words the entire ride there. Although it was only about 10 minutes, the music thankfully filled in the silence. We finally drove into the parking lot of a cozy but fancy restaurant called Prima Beliana. I had heard of this restaurant. Apparently you had to call in weeks ahead for a reservation.

"How..?" I asked looking at Edward.

"The owner is a good family friend of ours, so I was able to pull some strings," Edward said with a wink.

He walked me inside, his arm around my shoulders. The interior was gorgeous. The lights were dimly lit, there was a candle in a glass cup at every table, the walls were decorated with white Christmas lights and soft jazz music was playing throughout the restaurant.

"Reservation for Masen," Edward told the host.

The host was pretty with short blonde hair to her chin and deep blue eyes. She looked older, maybe in college. She led us to a table for two in a quiet corner with rose petals scattered on the table. She smiled at Edward handing him the menus and saying "your waitress will be with you in a moment". Edward smoothly thanked her but his eyes didn't even glance at her. They were fixed on me. My heart skipped a beat.

Edward handed me a menu. The food was ridiculously expensive. The entrees averaged about $52 per dish. I had never eaten such expensive pasta before. A few minutes later, our waitress arrived, her face expectant. The hostess probably dished behind the scenes and the new girl didn't look disappointed. She flipped a strand of her long, curled brown hair behind her ear and smiled with unnecessary warmth.

"Good evening, folks. My name is Olivia, and I'll be your server tonight. Could I start you two with something to drink?" She was facing Edward and her back was almost directly turned to me.

Edward looked at me.

"Oh, uh I hadn't even had a chance to look at the drink menu…" I said.

"Should I order for us?" Edward asked politely.

"Yes, I think that would be best, I'm fine with anything," I responded struggling to find the list of drinks.

"We'll have a bottle of Perrier water and a bottle of sparkling grape juice," Edward said still watching me. "Are you ready to order?"

I gave a slow nod.

"Okay then, I can take your order now if you'd like. What could I get for you?" Olivia said.

"Bella?" Edward said.

Olivia reluctantly turned to me.

"Oh.. I'll have the mushroom and prosciutto ravioli," I said.

"And for you?" Olivia said turning back to Edward.

"We'll start with two house salads and an order of calamari for starters. For my entrée I'll have the Salmon Brûlée," Edward said still not looking at the server.

"I'll be right back with the drinks and get your order put in for you," Olivia said with an unnecessarily enthusiastic tone and warm smile… all towards Edward of course.

When she was gone, Edward reached for my hand that was resting on the table. His touch was so warm against my skin. He began to gently caress my hand with his thumb.

"Bella, I… I first feel that I owe you an apology. So I would like to apologize for not being completely truthful from the start. I am so sorry," Edward said his green eyes smoldering and gazing straight into mine. He looked so sad. "I was such an idiot. I should have told you."

I was at a loss of words. I so wanted to just wrap my arms around him.

"But I want you to know," Edward continued, "that all of things that I did and said were not because of what you may think. They had nothing to do with Arabella. I meant everything for you. It is true… that at first I was drawn to you because a lot of you did remind me of her. But I found myself looking beyond that and seeing you for you and who you are. I should have told you… I'm so sorry. But I do love you, Bella. Ara has been long gone now and it's you that I think about every moment. You're the one who's taking up the space in my heart now. I'm sorry that you got hurt. But please don't think that I see her in you because that is not true… I love you, Bella. I really do. And I want so much for us to continue and get to know each other more."

My heart hurt hearing the words that I so wanted to hear. My eyes began to brim with tears.

"Edward… I… I haven't been truthful to myself or to you, either," I began, my voice cracking. "There is so much I want to tell you… but I don't know how much I can say and…"

I took a deep breath.

"As crazy as it seems, I, too, lost someone who had a resemblance to you… and I wasn't truthful to you. Right now, I don't know if I love you or if I love him... I mean I think I love you… but I feel that I need to be honest and in all honesty, I'm not sure… I'm so sorry but I can't say that confidently right now," I said, hot tears rolling down my cheeks.

After a moment, Edward got up from his seat and walked over to me. He kneeled on one knee and wiped my tears, holding my face in his hands. He was so beautiful and I so desperately wanted to tell him that I loved him, but he was honest with me and I owed it to him to be honest, too.

"You take all the time you need. I'll be waiting… I'll have you fall in love with me," Edward said.

He came towards me to have his lips meet mine. His lips were also warm and moved tenderly.

A/N: I hope you guys are enjoying the story. Please leave reviews on your thoughts! And yes, I'll definitely be finishing up the story this year. Just realized that I had first published it in 2008, wow wow. Life has been quite busy! But thanks to those for sticking around and for any new readers, thank you for reading! xo, Haileigh