No Control (Book 1)

67. I Would

Harry hung back for a minute and let me through the door first, and I scooted over to where Callie and her mum were sitting. 

"Do you want another drink?" Callie asked as I sat down. "Or did you want to head off?"

"I'm fine to head off whenever you're ready," I mumbled.

"Are you alright?" she asked, frowning.

"Fine," I sighed. "Just tired."

"Should I call a cab then?"

"I think Harry's driver is taking us home," I said. We stood up and started pulling our jackets on just as Harry came through the door behind the DJ's booth. He walked straight over to us.

"Are you going?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I've got work in the morning."

"Jess, I - "

"Just leave it, Harry. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"OK," he said uncomfortably. "I'll get Paul to bring the car round."

I turned away and as I did I heard Callie snap, "What have you done now?"

I looked round in surprise to see her glaring at Harry with her arms folded.

"Been an idiot," Harry replied.

"Nothing new there then," Callie fired at him.

"Callie! Leave it," I said, pulling her away by the arm.

She continued to glare over her shoulder all the way to the door and I ushered her through it before glancing behind me at Harry. He was standing where I left him, watching us leave, and as he caught my eye he mouthed, "Sorry."

I gave him a half smile and walked through the door to see a car pulling up. Paul jumped out and opened the door for us, and once we were safely inside he got back in and drove us back across London. Callie was pestering me to tell her why I was so quiet, but I wasn't ready to share what Harry had said.

Paul dropped Callie and her mum off first, and then took me back to Belsize Park. I pulled on one of my One Direction tshirts and a pair of pink checked pajama bottoms, made a cup of tea and got into bed. I went onto Twitter and saw that quite a few people had noticed Harry and I had both been at the Fleetwood Mac afterparty, and were speculating about us, but had no proof. 

As I was reading through some more of my mentions my screen changed - Harry was calling me. I hesitated. I wasn't in the mood to listen to any more apologies. I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and think about it tomorrow. I let the call divert to voicemail, set my alarm, and turned the light out.

A minute later my phone pinged. I sighed and reached for it, knowing who it would be.

From: Harry Styles: I'm sorry about tonight xxx

To: Harry Styles: I know. I don't want to talk about it x

From: Harry Styles: I was sort of hoping you would, though. I'm outside xxx

What?! I jumped out of bed and went into the lounge to peer out the window into the car park. Harry was standing by his black Range Rover looking up at the window. We stared at each other for a moment, before he began walking towards the front door of the building. I buzzed him in, then opened my door and stood in the hall to watch him walk up the stairs. My stomach flipped over at the sight of him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he reached the top of the stairs.

"Grovelling," he replied. "Nice tshirt."