Mafia Princess

Chapter One-Hundred Ninety-Eight

Twilight...not mine (sigh).

Chapter 198

BPOV

Felipe spent the night at my condo as I told him about my entire life; the death of my mother, my life as a mafia princess and the expectations of that role. Felipe was adamant that I wrote my story. I pulled out my laptop, showing him the first few chapters of Il Principessa del Mafioso. He had read some of my erotic short stories and was impressed with them. However, he was astounded with my characters and the depth behind them. As a result of his excitement, I gave him a copy to read and to possibly edit because he sounded like it would be a best seller.

After that evening, I finished working on my classwork and turned in my final papers of my college career. I still had to take the finals, but that was a cakewalk. The professors all but told me that I was getting an A in their classes. I just needed to show up for the finals.

The next two weeks flew by. I completed my internship and made arrangements for my employment with Simon and Schuster, starting in July, after a vacation to Italy for two weeks with Emmett, Rose, Edward, Jasper and Alice. It wasn't my usual month in Italy, but the time of being a child is over. My life is dramatically different now. Rose, Jasper and Alice only had two weeks off and that was only after a lot of finagling. Edward had to be back in early July to take the Bar Exam and so, I coincided my start date with his test.

I finished my exams and was surprised with a text from Esme as I was leaving campus. I had told her about my conundrum about graduation. She sent me a message, asking me to meet her at a bistro near Pike's Place. I drove to the bistro, parking on the street. Esme was seated outside since it was a rare sunny day. I walked toward her, sitting across from my boyfriend's mom.

"How does it feel to be an almost college graduate?" she asked.

"Good," I chuckled. "I'll be happy once I'm official and stuff."

"Have you decided if you're going to walk or not?"

"I'm still up in the air," I shrugged. "It seems kind of pointless without my family there."

"You know Carlisle and I will be there," she chided. "I know we're not your parents, but we're proud of you."

"Thanks, but I would have loved if my dad could be there, or even Edward," I sighed. "Based off our phone conversations, Edward is stuck in Boston until he graduates in June. He feels awful, but..."

"Edward would move mountains to be here," Esme said, taking my hand. "He's still praying for a miracle that he can make it. Leslie is also trying to get it to work out. Now, I know you said that you were going to walk to the university, but make the decision the morning of the graduation."

"I'm definitely leaning toward no," I said, shrugging.

"Nonsense. Come on, let's eat some lunch and go buy a new dress for your graduation," Esme insisted, waving down a waiter. I arched a brow but ordered some food. She told me about this new house that she was decorating for an affluent family. Their design choices were a bit suspect, supposedly. She showed me pictures of the sofa they chose and I wrinkled my nose. It was reminiscent of my mother's grandmother's furniture, complete with plastic coverings. Esme tried to get them to choose something else, but it was what they wanted.

We finished our lunch and drove to a local mall. Alice and Rose were standing outside of Nordstrom. I smiled at them and then at Esme. She's sneaky. In the store, I bought a fair amount of new clothes. I needed things for my new job. What I owned, for the most part, were cute flirty dresses, short skirts and tight tops. Goodwill was getting a decent donation of club wear once I got home.

Once we were done with girly shopping trip, Alice and Rose took me to my usual salon to get a touch up of my highlights, a blow out and a wax. As a thank you, I treated both of them to mani/pedis. Then, we went back to my place to watch some moronic chick flicks as I emptied out my closet. Rose even took some of my older dresses. It was the most fun I'd had in over a year.

Well, minus the hot sex that Edward and I have on a somewhat regular basis.

Let me tell you, Skype sex is quite an erotic experience.

Just sayin...

The next day was the dress rehearsal for the graduation. I had received my grades and I got all A's. As a result, I was graduating the top of my class in my major. I was also in the top five percent of the graduating class in general. I wrinkled my nose when I got that news. My advisor all but begged me to go to the ceremony. Begrudgingly, I picked up my allotted tickets. The rest of the afternoon, I spent driving the tickets to Emmett, Carlisle, Esme and Felipe. On the off-chance that Edward could make it, I left one with Carlisle and Esme. I wasn't holding my breath, though.

A/N: Two more chapters. Next one is Edward and the last real chapter is Bella. Then, the epi!