"What?" I asked, completely nonplussed.

"I said, 'Who's Adam Plan B?'" he repeated, getting to his feet.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, staring at him. "What do you mean?"

"You've just had a text. From Adam Plan B. Something about a date?"

"What?!" I exclaimed, staring at my phone in Harry's hand. "What are... ohhhh...." Suddenly it clicked.

Callie had put James's friend's number in my contacts the night I had left my phone at The Rose Garden as 'Adam Plan B'. Oh shit.

I looked up at Harry's face. He looked pissed off, and crushed.

"Oh God - Harry - this really isn't... this is Callie's doing, honestly... I don't even know this guy... I've never... oh God." I rubbed my hand over my face. I couldn't get the words out quick enough.

He said nothing, but just watched me stammering and floundering. It must have looked bad.

"OK, the night I drunk dialled you and you hung up on me - the same night I left my phone in the bar - Callie wanted to set me up with one of her boyfriend's mates...."

"Yes I know. Grimmy said," Harry interrupted, his voice emotionless. His eyes didn't leave mine. I got the impression he was scrutinising me, trying to read me.

"Yes, so you know that his mate's name was Adam," I continued, staring into Harry's eyes. "Well this Adam wasn't there with us that night so Callie put his number in my phone because... because she thought I needed a Plan B in case things didn't work out with us. Me and you." I sighed. "I know how callous that sounds but I never had any intention of doing anything with it. It was just easier to humour Callie than to try and argue. I think she was fed up of me moping around over you and wanted me to move on. She knows how I feel about you but she's practical - a realist. She doesn't let her heart rule her head, and she expects everyone else to be the same."

I reached out to touch Harry's arm but he pulled it away out of reach, still staring at me, his expression hard.

My stomach lurched. No way - this could not be happening. I was not about to let this go belly up over absolutely nothing.

"Harry, come on - do you honestly think after all this I would be interested in some guy I've never even met, over you? After everything I told you last night?"

"Why is this guy texting you then?" Still no emotion in his voice. Christ.

"I honestly don't know!" I said, my heart pounding. I suddenly had the feeling he was slipping through my fingers all over again. "He's never texted me before. I can only assume Callie told him to get in touch after the fiasco at the Big Weekend yesterday. But I don't know, I haven't spoken to her properly since I left Norwich. What did the text even say?"

"Something about a date."

"What about a date? Give me my phone."

"I don't know, it was only on the preview screen."

I rolled my eyes, and began to feel relieved (and a bit pissed off). He hadn't even read the whole text? Over-reaction, much? Although I appreciate I was in a glass house throwing stones right now.

I took my phone from him, unlocked it and handed it straight back. "What does the text say?" I asked him.

He looked at me for a moment, and then down at my phone. He tapped the screen and I saw his eyes read the message. He looked up at me.

"Well?" I said.

"'Hi Jess it's Adam. Just wondering if you fancied coming on a date with me some time?'" Harry read. "Smiley face, two kisses."

I wrinkled my nose. "Ok. And are there any other messages before that one? From either me or him?"

"No," Harry replied softly.

"Exactly. So do you believe me now?"

There was a pause. "Why didn't you tell me about him?"

"There was nothing to tell!" I said exasperatedly. "I'd forgotten all about him! When Callie put his number in my phone I was drunk and miserable - because of you, I might add - and this is the first time I've even remembered it was there."

I reached out for him and he didn't pull away this time. I put my arms around his waist and looked up at him, and he sighed.

"Harry, you can't honestly think I would be texting someone else behind your back. And I don't do fuck buddies. I'm not - " I stopped myself just in time. I'm not you, was what I'd been about to say. Christ, where did that come from?

"You're not what?" he said, pulling my arms off his waist."You're not me, right?"

"I'm not like that," I said, putting them back around his waist.

"But I am?" he snapped, pulling them away again.

"No!" I said desperately. "That's not what I meant... I'm just trying to explain that I would never go behind your back. You know how I feel about you, Harry."

"Actually, Jess, I don't," he said loftily. "You've never told me."

"What?!" I said in disbelief, hearing my pitch rise and trying not to sound like a whiny brat. "I laid myself on the line last night! I told you everything!"

"That was everything?" he challenged.

"Yes!" I said, feeling tears pricking the backs of my eyes. "What else could there be? Apart from this whole stupid Adam thing which isn't even a thing... it's just been blown out of proportion!"

"Forget it," he muttered, turning away and zipping up his bag.

"Forget what?!" I practically shouted. "You're not making any sense!"

He didn't answer. I grabbed my phone out of his hand and quickly typed a reply to Adam.

To: Adam Plan B: Hi, thanks for the offer but I've got a boyfriend.

"Are you watching this?" I snapped at Harry. He turned and looked at me and I thrust my phone in his face as I pressed send. Then I went into my contacts and deleted 'Adam Plan B.' "Delete," I emphasised. "Happy now?"

I locked my phone and threw it on the bed.

We stared at each other for a moment. "Yes," he said sarcastically.

"Oh my God, Harry!" I groaned. "What else is there?! What else could I possibly tell you to make you get it?!"

As I said the words I suddenly understood. I stared at him, my heart pounding. I suddenly couldn't speak. The realisation must have shown on my face because immediately his anger was gone.

"Tell me how you feel," he said. "You never have - not... not really."

My heart was hammering so hard I knew it was visible in my chest.

"I have," I said, weakly.

"You haven't." He took a step towards me so there wasn't an inch between us.

"Yeah... well... neither have you," I managed to say.

We looked at each other for a few moments. I suddenly thought what a beautiful shade of green his eyes were. His gaze dropped to my lips, and I licked them nervously and swallowed hard. Neither of us said anything. He looked into my eyes again.

"I know you do," he whispered.

Oh God. He knew I did what? Loved him? Is that what he was talking about? If it was, how did he know? Did he feel the same? If he did, why wasn't he just saying it first?

"Jess?"

I raised my eyes to the ceiling. "Not now, Calvin."

"I heard you shouting," Calvin said, coming into view in the doorway. "Are you alright?" His eyes darted between me and Harry.

"Fine," I nodded.

"You don't look fine."

"I am, I promise."

"We should get going," Harry said, picking his bag up from the bed and handing me my phone.

"What?" I said, confused.

"It'll take a couple of hours to get to my mum's from here," Harry explained. The moment was gone.

"Oh."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, Jess," Calvin put in.

"Of course I want to," I said. "Calvin, honestly, I'm fine."

I followed Harry out of the room, past Calvin, and down the stairs.

"Are you ready to go?" Harry asked me.

I looked into his eyes and he smiled at me. I took this to mean we were kind of ok, even if we had just been interrupted at the worst possible moment.

I nodded, and we said our goodbyes to my parents.

Maddie suddenly appeared in the doorway of the lounge. "Please can I have a picture?" she blurted at Harry, her face bright red.

Harry smiled at her and put his bag down. "Of course you can," he said.

I watched as he went and stood next to her and put his arm around her, and she threw her phone to me so I could take the picture.

"Thank you!" she said after I threw it back to her, and Harry picked his bag up again and slung it over his shoulder. "And I won't show anyone, I promise."

"Your fans are still outside," I said to Harry, peering through the window. "There are about 15 of them now."

"We'll just be as quick as we can, then," he said.

He slipped a pair of sunglasses on and I opened the front door and pressed the remote to open the garage. As soon as we stepped outside the girls began to scream, and we walked quickly across the driveway. Harry blipped the Audi open, and threw his bag into the boot and I did the same.

I jumped into the passenger seat and slipped my sunglasses on and Harry slid in beside me. I could see the girls at the end of the driveway, blocking our exit. They all had their phones out, filming or taking pictures; I couldn't tell which.

Harry started the engine and backed the car down the drive. As we neared the gate the girls slowly moved out of our way and to my surprise Harry slid the window down.

"Please don't post my number plate on Twitter," he said as they crowded round the car, squealing and shouting various questions.

He pulled onto the road and we drove off, leaving them in a squealing gaggle, hugging each other and crying.

"That'll be all over the internet in minutes," I said.

"Probably," he nodded. "Check your Twitter in a minute and see."

"I don't follow any of the update accounts anymore," I said. "Not after we fell out."

"Didn't you refollow?" he asked, turning to look at me.

"No," I admitted. "I didn't want to generate any more speculation so I thought it best not to."

Harry was silent for a minute as we headed towards the M11.

"I've been thinking about that actually," he said.

"About what?" I asked.

"About the speculation surrounding me and you. And I can't help but thinking it's where we always go wrong."

"I don't follow."

"Well, the media leave Liam and Sophia alone, for the most part. Same with Zayn and Perrie, except when he was..." Harry trailed off and cleared this throat. "And they left Lou and El alone too. Until they split up, and then it went crazy again."

"I don't think I'm ready to talk about Louis and Eleanor yet. It's still a bit raw," I said, without thinking.

Harry turned to look at me again, a smirk beginning to break on his lips. "What?"

I closed my eyes in embarrassment. "Never mind."

"No, come on," he said, grinning. "Let's hear it."

"Nooooo," I whined. "It's embarrassing Directioner stuff. It doesn't matter."

"Come on, you're my girlfriend now. You can't keep secrets."

My stomach flipped over and I grinned out of the window. I caught a pedestrian's eye and he looked at me strangely so I hastily looked away.

"It was just a bit traumatic for us when they split, that's all," I said. "It was so sudden. No one was prepared."

He laughed raucously and put his hand on my thigh. "You are funny," he said. "It's amazing, having this insight into a Directioner's world. I feel like I've got insider info."

I couldn't help grinning back. "You don't know the half of it."

"Sounds intriguing," he said, giving me a sideways glance out of the side of his sunglasses.

"Anyway, what were you saying?" I asked, eager to get off this subject.

He thought for a moment and said, "When the media know you're in a relationship, they lay off a bit. The speculation eases up because they're not all fighting for a story. I'm thinking maybe this is where we've been going wrong. We've attracted so much attention by keeping quiet and it's put a strain on us. Maybe we should... y'know... go public?" He gave me another sideways glance.

Whatever I thought he was going to say, it wasn't that. I gawped at him for a moment.

"I just think, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," he continued. "And I don't want to be hiding away all the time. I want to show you off, tell the world."

I couldn't help myself. "I JUST WANNA TELL THE WORLD THAT YOU'RE MINE, GIRL!" I sang loudly. "DUM, tsss-DUM, tsss-DUM!" I did the noise of the drum beat and at the same time I beat it in the air with imaginary drumsticks.

I looked up at Harry who was looking at me with a completely straight face, his eyes obscured behind his sunglasses. I laughed delightedly.

"Sorry," I said, and he shook his head at me. "You were saying?" I grinned.

"Na na na," he said, wagging his finger at me. "Please. You carry on." He smirked.

"THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE THINGS WE DO," I sang, waving my arms in the air slowly. "THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT... the..." I trailed off.

I see what you did there, Harry, I thought to myself.

"Anyway, enough of my shit singing," I gabbled. "What were you saying? Public, or something?" Christ, it was hot in this car. I fiddled on the dashboard, turned the air con temperature down a couple of degrees and switched the fan on me.

"So yeah...," he said, still smirking. "Do you wanna go public? You know. Official."

"At-sign Niall Official," I said, drawing an @ sign in the air to punctuate the point.

"What?!" Harry said.

"Niall's Twitter username," I explained. "This is what Directioners do, Harry. Any word that is even vaguely 1D related has to be acknowledged and celebrated. Is it annoying you yet?" I grinned.

"It is when I'm trying to have a serious conversation about our relationship," he scolded, but he was grinning too.

"Well, this is what you get when you date a fan," I retorted.

"Date," he scoffed as he indicated and drove round the roundabout, onto the slip road and onto to the M11. "We're not dating."

"What are we then?" I asked.

He hesitated. "Well I don't know what the word is, but it's not dating. That makes it sound casual."

"Is it... it is not casual?" I asked, my heart pounding.

"Well... not for me," he said, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. He didn't ask, but I answered anyway.

"It's not for me either," I mumbled, and I sneaked a peek at him and caught him grinning. My stomach flipped.

"So what do you think?" he asked after a minute of silence.

"About what?"

"About going public!" he said with an exasperated sigh.

"Oh... errr.. I don't really know," I said. I'd been too busy thinking about his 'not casual' comment. "It's pretty terrifying, to be honest," I admitted.

"Why?" he asked, reaching over and entwining his fingers with mine.

"For loads of reasons!" I said. "People will talk about me and write about me and wonder about me. They will wonder why you're with me, what you see in me. They'll laugh at my Twitter account and send me hate again, worse than what they already do -"

"You've been getting hate?" Harry interrupted.

"Only mild stuff," I said. "I haven't looked at it for ages, not since I was in LA with you. You must have seen it - don't you read Twitter?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "But I wasn't sure if you'd seen it. You never said anything to me about it so I assumed you hadn't."

"Like I said, I haven't read any mentions for weeks. And before that I didn't see the point in bothering you with it. You have your own shit to deal with."

"It wouldn't be bothering me," he said, squeezing my hand. "You need to tell me stuff like this, be honest with me. That's where we went wrong the last time."

I nodded. He was right.

"So, going public...," I said after a minute. "How would that work?"

"However you wanted it to," he replied. "I'm not really one for big announcements, though. We could let the paps see us out together, holding hands and stuff. And next time I do an interview and get asked if I'm in a relationship, I'll be honest."

I contemplated all of this for a couple of minutes. "When would this happen?"

"We'd need to speak to Modest - my management -"

"Yeah I know who Modest are," I said, wrinkling my nose.

"Course you do," he grinned. "Well we'd need to talk to them first and they'd set out some guidelines, but ultimately it's up to us. Whenever you're ready."

"You've clearly thought about this," I mused.

"Yeah, I have," he smiled. "It's what I want. But I understand if it's not what you want."

"We can't hide it for much longer I suppose," I said.

"Well don't sound too eager," he teased.

"Sorry - I didn't mean it to sound like that," I said quickly. "It is what I want. I think."

"You don't have to make a snap decision. Think about it."

"I don't really need to," I said. "Of course it's what I want. It's you. You're everything I want."

He smiled at me and I smiled back, before looking out the window and rolling my eyes. When did I get so pathetic and sappy? I was starting to embarrass myself.

We drove in silence for a while. My mind wandered to Harry's family, and I pondered what their reaction would be to us going public. I wondered if they would try and talk him out of it. I started to feel sick again at the thought of meeting them.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked. "You've been frowning for about five minutes."

"Just nervous," I muttered.

"About going public?" he asked. "We don't have to rush into anything."

"No, about meeting your family."

"Aww, you don't have to be nervous," he smiled. "They're really looking forward to it."

"Does Gemma hate me?" I blurted.

"What?! No! Why would she?"

"Um, because I was an absolute bitch in Norwich?" I said, looking down at my lap.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Kissing Gary," I mumbled. "She must think I'm a right cow..."

"She doesn't know," Harry said softly.

"She followed you when you stormed off!" I said. "I saw her - I caught her eye when she walked past me."

"Yeah, and she hassled me for ages about why I was angry," Harry replied. "But I didn't tell her. I couldn't."

"Why not?" I whispered.

"I didn't want her thinking badly of you," he sighed. "I was furious with you but I didn't want her to be furious with you too."

"And your mum...?"

"...doesn't know either," Harry finished, and I exhaled loudly.

"I can't believe you kept it from them," I said, feeling ashamed. "I'm so sorry."

"We've already sorted this out," he said. "You don't need to apologise again."

"I do, for coming between you and your family," I said.

He shrugged. "I was hoping we'd sort things out. I didn't want it to affect their opinion of you. Even though I was furious with you at the time, I think I knew deep down why you'd done it. You hit me where it hurt. But let's not go into all that again." He squeezed my thigh.

"Sorry for hurting you," I said in a small voice. "And thank you for not telling them." I love you, I added in my head.

You can't tell him that now! My subconscious scoffed. He'd probably crash the car or something.

Yes, I am aware of that! I snapped at it.

"It's fine," he said.

My phone pinged with a Twitter DM and I picked it up and opened the message.

From: @Louis_Tomlinson: Does this mean he's going to stop biting our heads off?

Eeeekkkkkk!!! As if Louis had just DM'd me! I glanced over at Harry but he was looking at the road, so I allowed myself a silent fangirl moment which included a full-on body tremble.

To: @Louis_Tomlinson: Huh?

From: @Louis_Tomlinson: You and H? Saw the pictures of you both in his car. You're back together then? Thank fuck for that.

To: @Louis_Tomlinson: Where? Twitter? Yes we are. Has he been a misery pants? Haha

From: @Louis_Tomlinson: Understatement of the year. Yes on Twitter. Have fun making up ;)

Oh my God. Dirty bastard.

"What are you grinning at?"

I dropped my phone and went red.

"Nothing," I blushed, but Harry raised his eyebrow at me so I mumbled, "Just a DM from Louis."

I sneaked a peek at him, worried he would be cross, but he rolled his eyes and grinned, and I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"The pictures of us in your car are already on Twitter," I told him.

"No surprise there," he said. "I just hope they don't realise we're going to Holmes Chapel. It'd be nice to have a couple of days' peace."

"Mmmm," I agreed. "I'll need to get the train back on Monday night though. I'm back in work on Tuesday."

Harry creased his brow at me. "No, I'll drive you."

"Don't be silly," I said. "I'll be fine on the train."

"I'm sure you would be. But I need to be back in London by Wednesday anyway so we can drive back on Monday night."

"Ok," I said, smiling. "If you're sure. What are you doing in London?"

"I'm going to see Fleetwood Mac at the O2 Arena," he said.

I nearly choked. "Shut up, no you're not," I said in disbelief.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm going with Callie and her mum!" I spluttered.

"Really?" he grinned. "Small world."

"Stuff like this freaks me out," I said. "Sometimes I wonder how many times our paths may have almost crossed in the past and I just didn't know. It's too coincidental that it's only just started happening."

"Maybe so, when I've been in London," he mused. "Maybe it was inevitable that we would meet one day."

"You can't say things like that, Harry," I said breathlessly. "That makes my head explode."

He chuckled and looked back at the road again.

"I didn't know you were a Fleetwood Mac fan," he said.

"It's Callie's mum that's the real fan," I admitted. "I'm just going along for the ride. We're going for afternoon cocktails and an early dinner before the concert."

"Will I get to see you?" he asked, side-glancing me yet again.

"Probably not on Wednesday," I said. "It's girls only. But I don't really have much planned for the rest of the week. I'm sure I can pencil you in somewhere, in between washing my hair and stuff."

I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye and couldn't conceal my grin.

"Ouch," he teased. "I thought this playing-hard-to-get business would stop after you practically begged to be my girlfriend again."

"Pfft, only because you made me," I retorted.

"I didn't make you last night," he smirked. "And you were practically on your knees begging."

I dropped my mouth open in mock horror as I turned to look at him. "As if you just said that."

"I notice you're not denying it." Damn that smirk.

"I distinctly remember telling you I wasn't going to beg," I declared.

"You may not have said the words, but you were begging," he said smugly. "Don't try and tell me you weren't."

My whole body flushed. I knew I couldn't deny it. He was absolutely right. But did he have to be so damn cocky about it?

"You're asking for it," I muttered, my face on fire.

"No," he said slowly. "You were asking for it." He was grinning widely now.

"You fucking loved it," I retorted.

"Touché," he acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~

We stopped at a service station about halfway there, and Harry stayed in the car while I went and got us two frappés from Costa. We drank them en route, and I was just starting to feel a bit hungry when Harry said, "We're coming off at the next junction. We're nearly there."

My stomach lurched painfully and I nodded. I took a deep breath as discreetly as I could, and Harry smiled at me.

"There's really no need to be nervous," he said softly.

"I know," I said shakily.

I was silent as we came up the slip road and round the roundabout. There were fields either side of us, and I admired the scenery as we drove along.

It seemed like only a minute until the car was slowing down and pulling up a driveway towards a big, expensive-looking house. My stomach flipped over as Harry killed the engine and turned to me, slipping his sunglasses off.

"Ready?" he asked.