Want You Back | c.h.

16.

"God, Cal. I always knew you turned into an idiot around her but I thought you at least had the mental capacity to get some way to contact her after setting up a date." Ashton's laugh bellowed throughout the apartment and Calum had to resist the urge to punch him.

"It's not funny man. What am I gonna do? By the time I realized I didn't know where she was staying and had no way to contact her, she and her friend had left the beach." He let out a groan as he fell onto the sofa. 

How could he be so stupid? Another blown chance. Fate kept trying to help him get her back and he kept dropping the ball.

"Jesus, Cal. Are you really willing to give up again so easily? The girl agrees to meet, there's a slight roadblock now, but shit, I thought you would move mountains to get her back."

"Have you got an idea then?" He asked, turning his head so Ashton was in better view. 

"Well, it's the 21st century, Calum. Have you tried social media?"

"It's always been set to private. I tried to follow her on Instagram and Twitter once but she denied my request."

"When was that?" 

"Like a year ago." He replied sheepishly.

"Okay, so she didn't let her ex follow her social medias when she was in a new relationship and you guys had a rough breakup. I doubt the same applies now when the woman literally agreed to go on a date with you."

"It's not a date."

"You said she called it one."

"Yeah, and I love that she's willing to, but I want our first date back together to be perfect if I get the chance. We still have so much to talk about and work through if we want to see if we could ever find a way to make it work." He sighed.

"Would you chill out and just ask to follow her?" Ash asked exasperated. 

"Alright, alright." Cal said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Well I'll be damned."

"What?" Ash asked.

"Apparently she got to me first." He smiled and turned the phone towards his best friend, Emi's profile on the screen the "Follows you" message appearing beside her name.

"She always was two steps ahead of you."

•

Calum's breath shook slightly as he stood in front of the apartment building he had been given the address to. He wrung his sweaty hands trying to find the words to say when he answered the door. He couldn't recall if he had been this nervous before his first ever date with Emerson. 

He remembered the day well though, he'd picked her up at Lindsey's house then. Was she still friends with her?

He had so many questions he wanted to ask her and he could ask none of them while standing outside her building so he made his way to the stairs, taking them two at a time due to his excitement to just see her and get to spend time with her. 

He opened her message from last night that had given him her address and checked it three time before lifting his hand to rap on the door. 

It opened suddenly and startled him. The girl who answered wasn't Emi but he recognized her from her restaurant.

"Hi, um-."

"She's almost ready, come in." The girl said ushering him inside and gesturing for him to take a seat on the couch. "I've heard a lot about you, you know? I'm Callie by the way, I guess I should have started with that."

"Really?" His eyebrows shot skyward in surprise. "And I'm Calum, Calum Hood."

"Yeah," the girl said softly. "She didn't talk about you so much before, but since we moved here she's told me a lot."

"So you know how much of a dick I was to her, then." He said gloomily. 

"I think she wants to put that all in the past. She talks about you fondly, but she knows you have faults. After all, so does she, so do I, so does everyone." He let out a breath thankful that if Callie was right, he might have more of a shot than he thought."

"Cals are you in here spilling all my secrets?" Emi said as she breezed into the living room from somewhere down the hallway. Her eyes were on the ground as she put in her earring.

"No, no, nothing like that. More like just reading him the riot act." Callie chuckled.

"Yeah, right. You wouldn't hurt a fly."

Cal smiled at the easy banter between the two of them, missing when he and Emi could joke around like that and hoping he was on the way to getting at least that much of his relationship with her back.

He stood and moved towards her as her gaze fell to him. 

"You look gorgeous." He said, his eyes falling down her body. She could make anything look good. Her black jeans hugged her curves and her red camisole was low cut, giving him a mouth-watering view of her chest. She slid her arms into a distressed jean jacket and looked back to him.

"Thanks. I wasn't sure what we were doing, where you'd want to go to chat. Is this okay?"

"Yeah, um, if it's okay, I was hoping we could just go back to my place. Sit on the terrace, play with Duke, not have to worry about random fans or paparazzi overhearing us or stirring up rumors. I think that's probably more than you bargained for when you agreed to talk to me."

"Yeah, okay. I guess that's fine. I miss Duke."

"I think he's missed you as well." He said. "You good to go?"

She nodded curtly and stepped through the door that he held open for her. As nervous as Cal was, Emerson was just as anxious or maybe even more. For a long time she had been convinced that Calum was the great love her life and even now, part of her still believed he could be. 

"You've really moved up in the world haven't you. A Range Rover?" She asked, her eyebrows raised as she slid into the passenger seat.

He chuckled joining her on the driver. "Yeah, our last album did pretty well and after I paid off some debt for my parents and sister I decided to upgrade that old beater I had. I bought myself a Porsche too."

"Wow, must be nice, and don't talk about Ron that way. He was a great car."

He snorted. 

"I forgot you had named that fucking car."

They fell into a comfortable conversation as he drove them across town. The short drive made longer by LA's nightmarish traffic. The stop and go gave them time to get reacquainted before they had to face their problems head on.  

"This is me." Calum said as he pulled into the parking garage of what was obviously a lavish and luxe apartment complex.

They exited the car and Emerson trailed quickly after him towards the elevator. She tried to not let her shocked expression show when he pressed the button for the penthouse.

"Shit, Cal. I knew your band was doing well. I know you've had like three number one albums, but I didn't know you were doing 'I drive a Porsche and a Range Rover and live in a fancy penthouse' well. That's a big step up from the shitty mini van and that little house we had."

"A lot of things have changed Emi, but I still have that house." He said stepping from the elevator and letting them into the apartment. 

AN: Kind of a filler but they finally are ready to talk things out

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ILY 

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