Trace of Innocence | Sweet and Sour (Book 4)

Chapter 92

(No Control | Holding Me Ransom - 92 - The Missing Piece) 

I watch Callie's face carefully. 

"While you were still in Cardiff," she begins again, speaking directly to Jess, "Adam caught up with James and said things had gone pear-shaped between you because you were still hung up on your ex. He'd figured out it was Harry, and he also told James about what happened that night at the hotel, where you got really drunk and... wanted to sleep with him."

She has the decency to cast me an awkward look at this point. I hope that by keeping my face completely impassive I'm creating the illusion that she isn't rattling me, when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. 

"He wasn't bragging about it," Callie adds hastily. "He just said you were really eager to do it, and he stopped it from happening because he knew you were only doing it to try and forget your ex. I was so angry, Jess. I hated Harry for making you throw yourself at Adam." 

Hold on - I didn't "make" her do anything! Why am I getting blamed for this as well? 

"You don't sleep with people on a whim and you're not easy" Callie is saying. "You're worth so much more than that, and I was furious that Harry had got you into such a state, yet again."

I'm mollified to see Jess is shaking her head. "I reacted badly to everything Harry said but it was a lot to take in!" she exclaims, a little defensively. "It was a shock, finding out what really happened in New York. However, Harry didn't force me to behave that way with Adam that night, that was my choice." 

Exactly! I throw her a look of gratitude but she is still staring at Callie. 

"I'm not judging," Callie backtracks. "I know what you went through - I supported you through it all. But hearing Adam's side of it was the final straw. So when Harry got in touch with me a few weeks later, I wasn't exactly in the mood to play nice."

"Wait - Harry got in touch with you?!" Jess repeats, looking between me and Callie. I say nothing and wait to hear how Callie remembers this. 

"Yeah - he texted me and wanted to meet up," she replies, which is the truth. "I refused, of course. I told him to fuck off." Again, the truth. "But he was persistent - you of all people know how persistent he is. I didn't know what to do at first, I didn't know what he wanted. I didn't want anything to do with him." 

"How did he get your number?" Jess wants to know, and they both turn at the same time to look at me. 

"I asked Grimmy to get it," I reply. "I knew that he sort of knew Callie through a friend of a friend."

"Why?" Her tone is incredulous. "Why on earth did you want to meet up with her?"

I'm half expecting Callie to jump in with a sarcastic comment but she is looking at me too, waiting for my answer.

"When I came to your flat the day I got home from tour and you cooked me that lasagne," I begin, "I joked about having a brew in your One Direction mug. You told me you'd thrown all your memorabilia away - or rather, Callie had done it for you. I wanted to get it back for you. You sounded so regretful about binning it. I had this idea of surprising you with it, once we were on better terms, so I texted Callie and asked her to meet up with me so I could ask her if she really chucked it in the bin or if she kept it. I know how close you two are; I guessed she just might have hung onto it in case you changed your mind. But I hadn't bargained on her being such a control freak about it all."

I can't help this last bit falling out of my mouth. I think I've done pretty well not to throw something at her yet. 

"I refused to meet up with him," Callie tells Jess, "and eventually he asked me over text if I'd binned all your stuff. I told him I hadn't and he asked if he could have it. But I wasn't about to hand it all to him, only for him to break your heart all over again! I told him to stay away from you. He said he wasn't going to, and that he loved you, and he would do everything in his power to make it up to you and win you back."