EPOV

"Yes." she smiled and I froze in my space.

What did she just say?

Had she really said what I thought I had heard or my ears were deceiving me? And if I heard it correctly, did she mean it or was just fooling around?

When I had asked her "Marry me" , I wasn't sure if she would respond positively.

But she had said a 'Yes'.

A 'Yes'!

"What?" she was wearing mischievous expressions over her face, "Why are you staring at me like this?"

"Really?" I asked, as I was still unsure whether she actually meant it or was just joking.

"Yes." she grinned.

"God...You just made me the happiest man on the planet," I said and lifted her in my arms, which resulted in a happy laughter from her.

"Edward... Put me down to the floor," she giggled.

I followed her instruction and put her on the ground. "I love you." I said and captured her lips with mine.

Isabella Swan and I were best friends since... forever.

She was the most important person in my life along with my family since my childhood. She was a constant chattering machine. I couldn't take a single decision without her suggestion. She was the one who would tell me which girl I should date during the high school.

I still remembered when we were sixteen and Bella's dad had lost his job. After few months, Charles Swan had got a nice offer in California.

Bella had cried like a three years old girl saying she wasn't going to leave Seattle and me. I also hadn't liked the idea of losing her, but I didn't cry, because you know, right? Real men don't shed tears.

My parents had offered that Bella should complete her high school by staying at our home. Her parents didn't agree at first, but later asked for Bella's wish. I had tried my best to convince her that she should stay with us.

And well, she had agreed. That had made my mother may be the happiest person ever. She always said that Bella and I were made for each always hoped to see her as her daughter-in-law.

We had always made clear to her that we were just best friends, nothing more. But she always kept her hope alive.

Well then we gave up. I mean, what else could I do, if she didn't want to accept the truth. Still, we had tried our best to convince her that we were never going to fall for each other.

That year, a new transferred student Tanya Denali had entered in our class. She was nothing like the girls I had seen before. Her beauty was exceptional. I began to feel like she was the girl I should be with.

For first few months, I didn't even dare to talk to her.

Again, my best friend came to the rescue.

Bella became friends with her and she introduced me to Tanya. Soon I found myself spending my days on chatting and going to movies dates with Tanya. I realized that I had began to fall for her.

Everything was good until the high school year came to the end.

"I'm going to miss you," I said, as watching a match on television and Bella was packing her stuff.

"Yeah right," she said.

"What would I do without you? This is perhaps the first time we're gonna separated, isn't it? Hope you'll be back soon. "

"I'm not coming back." she said.

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked without taking my eyes off the television.

"I'm not coming back." she repeated.

"Wh-what?" I looked at her.

"I miss Mom and Dad. I'm moving to California." she said without looking at me.

"What are you talking about?" Immediately I went to her and grabbed her shoulder.

She didn't reply.

"How can you? And why the fuck didn't you tell me before?" I cursed.

"Mom and dad are also missing me. They said I should complete rest of my school with them." she smiled.

"What about me?" I snapped.

"You have Tanya." she smiled. "You won't miss me."

"Tanya? What the hell she has to do with this?" I said and but then suddenly realized that I had been spending all my time with Tanya and may be, I was ignoring Bella?

"And we'll stay in touch, you see? There's internet and all these stuffs," she continued.

"Are you leaving because you think I'm ignoring you because of Tanya?" I grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes.

"Of course not," she smiled. "I really miss my parents."

"Then you're not going," I declared and started unpacking her stuffs, "Not even for holidays."

"Edward, please..." she held my hand, "Don't make it difficult for me."

"Please don't leave," I said in defeated voice.

"Sorry..." she shook her head.

"Fine then." I began moving towards the door, "Leave. I don't care. I fucking don't care."

"Edward..." I heard her calling my name, but I didn't stop and left her room.

The day she was leaving, initially I had refused to go to the airport to give her a farewell. Because I was scared that I might cry when I would say goodbye to her. And you know, right? Real men don't cry.

But I had gone there finally.

And when she left, it was the first time I had cried, as long as I could remember.

Bella had told me that we would be in touch. She said that we would meet every year in vacation.

Nothing of that had happened. Initially we stayed in touch but later, the frequencies of e-mails and phone calls had begun to reduce, leading upto almost null.

Lots of things had changed during next few years as I joined the college.

Tanya and I broke up, as it was almost impossible for us to maintain a long distance relationship. I felt like I was becoming a different person as I grew up. I had become more serious about life now.

My goals were different.

My goals were clearer.

I knew what I wanted from the life.

I made new friends and became very closed with Jasper Hale and Emmett McCarty.

But nobody was Bella. I missed her like crazy.

I had called her on her birthday that year and she had said that she was in love with Riley Biers, her classmate. I was happy to hear that. I was glad she had found someone.

After completion of my college, I had joined my family business. On the same day, I had received a call from Bella that she was getting married. I felt a weird thing when I heard the news, but couldn't judge what was that.

I couldn't go to her wedding, but due to some unavoidable business commitments, but my parents had attended.

My mother insisted that may be I should find someone too, but I was too busy with my work to focus on my love life.

Four years later, I had heard a voice of a person I had least expected to hear in a Cafe in Florida, when I was there for a business deal . I could never forget that voice.

"Bella?" I asked in disbelief, as she turned and I saw her face.

"Edward?" I was sure she was wearing the mirror expressions of mine.

"Oh my God...It's been so long." I rushed to her and took her in an embrace.

"Oh my God... I can't believe it." she grinned.

I couldn't believe she was standing in front of me. I couldn't remember when was the last time we had even talked. May be before a year, when she had told me that

she was getting a divorce, after finding out that Riley was cheating on her. I was really mad towards Riley on that day. How could he cheat on a woman like Bella?

"What are you doing here?" she grinned.

"For a business deal," I said, as I couldn't take the grin off my face. "You?"

"I moved here last month," she smiled widely.

"Oh..." I said.

We had spent the next few hours together, talking about almost everything. Those few hours were enough to make me realize how much had I missed her. I had extended my stay and decided to spend the weekend there. We had spent every moment of the weekend together, we only parted our way for the night. I realized that even though years had been passed, she was still the same. As if, our bond was still the same.

"What the hell?" I asked, after she grabbed the cigarette and threw it; like she always used to.

"Oh my God... I'm so sorry..." she said with embarassment.

"It's okay," I smiled, "May be they say it right. Old habits die hard."

"Yeah right," she chuckled.

On Sunday night, I realized that my feelings for Isabella Swan wasn't just the friendship.

I wanted more.

I wanted to spend more time with her.

I wanted to do everything with her.

It was pretty crazy that I was feeling like this only after spending few days with her, while I hadn't felt something like that when we were younger.

I told her next morning that I might be in love with her. She dropped her jaw and asked whether I had lost my mind. I replied her saying no, I wasn't. I had begged her to give us a chance, if she was having even a slight hope in heart that this could lead somewhere.

I was lucky that she agreed. She still had doubts in her mind, but I said that I was ready for a heartbreak, even something like that was in hindsight.

For the next three months, we talked constantly over the phone and through the skype. We realized that we indeed could make a nice couple. I visited her over next weekend and declared my love for her. I was glad that she reciprocated it this time.

I said I was smart one between us to realize the feeling first.

She caught me by surprise by saying that she was in love with me back in the high school and had thought that her feelings had died along the time and she was glad that it didn't. I asked her why hadn't she told me earlier. She said that I was with Tanya and she didn't want to come in between. She told me that she had left because she wasn't sure if she would had been able to hide her feelings for a long time and she hadn't wanted to do anything stupid.

She said she had wanted me to remember her as my best friend, not some jealous ass girl, who wanted to break up his relationship.

It had taken me some time to digest this news. I kept cursing myself why was I so blind and couldn't see her feelings. Bella said that we should forget our past and should only care about present and future, which looked amazing at this point.

Few weeks later, she moved back to Seattle.

Life was great.

"Our moms are gonna say, see we told you that you both are meant for each other," She laughed and rested her head on my chest.

"You can bet on that," I chuckled, "I love you," I placed a kiss on her temple.

"I love you,too." she said and snuggled closer to me.