Ellie's POV -

"So, you're meeting up with Nathan today?" James asked me as he sat himself beside me on the sofa.

"Erm, yeah. Why?" I replied, unsure of where he was going with this conversation.

I wasn't actually going to tell him that I was meeting Nathan, but I knew who must have told him I was going to see him because there was only one person who James was actually spending any time with.

"Were you going to tell me?" he snapped at me, like he was suddenly jealous that I was spending one afternoon with Nathan.

"Does it matter if I was going to tell you?"

"Since we're supposed to be together, it would be nice if you told me that you planned on meeting up with your ex-boyfriend." he shouted, just as my phone began ringing.

I looked at the number and saw it wasn't one that I recognised and, usually, I wouldn't answer the phone to numbers that I didn't know, but I made the exception this time just to avoid this argument going any further with James; I really wasn't in the mood for it today and I was going to do anything I could to avoid it.

"Hello?" I said as more of a question than anything.

"Erm, El?"

"Nathan?" I replied in slight shock because I wasn't expecting him to phone me, I was just expecting him to turn up here later on and we go out for the afternoon together.

"Yeah. Sorry, I got your number from Tom." Nathan replied awkwardly, there was the sense that he was now beginning to regret phoning.

"Tell Parker me and him are going to be having words." I chuckled.

"I'm sure he'll hide from you if you remembers what you're like when you're annoyed with someone."

"He had better be running scared. I'm going to make him pay." I laughed. It was almost like nothing had ever happened between me and Nathan, and we were just like we used to be; I actually enjoyed it and didn't want anything to come between this moment.

But, of course, James was stood there and motioning for me to hurry the hell up so he could finish shouting at me about seeing Nathan in the first place and not actually telling him that's what I was going to do.

"You sure you don't want to meet here instead?" Nathan laughed, almost like he was joking, but it sounded like a good idea to me.

"You know what, I think I will meet you there. Is half twelve good for you?" I smiled.

"Erm, that sounds great to me. I'll meet you in reception?"

"OK then. See you at half twelve."

"Bye El." Nathan replied, and then he hung up, leaving me stood there with a smile on my face; much to the displeasure of James who looked like he now wanted to punch Nathan somewhere it hurt.

"So, you're actually-"

"Look James, I'm going to meet Nathan and there is nothing you can do about it. It's not my fault if you're jealous." I laughed slightly.

"I am not jealous. I just don't appreciate being lied to."

"What? You mean like that time you slept with your ex-girlfriend because I wouldn't do what you wanted me to do?" I snapped back at him.

"That was one time." James argued.

"Don't even bother lying to me James. I spoke to Sarah and she told me everything, from the secret text messages to you sleeping with her whenever you felt like it." I shouted, stiffling a laugh at the same time because I was just finding this whole thing hilarious.

He didn't even know that I had spoken to that slag of an ex-grilfriend, and that she had told me everything with evidence that she was telling me the truth; I didn't see her by choice, I was left with no other alternative after I knew he was lying to me and there was no way I was going to find out the truth from anyone else.

"W-w-w-what? You spoke to Sarah?" James replied as he fell over his feet and onto the sofa from the shock of finding this out now.

"Yeah. I spoke to her. She told me everything you refused to tell me."

"You've known about me and her for the entire time?"

"I know everything James, and she even showed me the evidence to go with it." I laughed again, his expression being one that was too good to miss.

"Then why did you stay with me? Why didn't you leave when you had the choice?" James questioned, his confidence suddenly reappearing from somewhere as he stood up and confronted me without any worries, but I wasn't scared and I wasn't going to let him get to me either.

"I was using you James. How stupid do you have to be to realise that?"

OK.

So, I might have been lying to him.

I wasn't actually using him and, when we first got together, I really did love him and think that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together - I even hoped that we might be able to start a family together somewhere along the line, but I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Not now Nathan is back on the scene and he knows that I know the truth about her and Sarah; there was no way we could ever actaully stay together and be a proper family.

"Well, bugger off back to Nathan then. But don't come crying to me when it all goes wrong." James snapped, turning and walking out of the room.

"Are you still going to watch Aimee for me this afternoon?" I shouted after him, only to hear him reply with some mumbled and seriously rude words which gave me the assumption that he wasn't going to be looking after Aimee for me as he promised he would do.

I decided that I was going to have to take her with me, and then Nathan would be able to meet her properly, without me telling him things about her; she would be able to tell him things for herself.

*

"Mummy, where are we going?" Aimee asked me as we walked down the road towards the hotel Nathan was staying in.

"We're just going to meet one of mummy's old friends." I smiled at her.

"Do I know them?"

"No. But I know you're going to love them and they're going to love you as well." I replied and, for the rest of the walk, she remained silent and didn't say anything else; other than when she was having a random conversation with herself about a passing leaf or someone walking past her in the street.

However, as soon as we reached the hotel, I could suddenly feel Aimee growing more nervous. She had never been good with big crowds of people, and I knew that she would panic if we went much further into the path of the screaming girls.

I wasn't going to put her through that, which is the reason I left in the first place, because I knew there was no way she would ever be able to put up with this. And, as it turns out, I wasn't wrong and she does panic when it comes to being in big crowds of people or when she's meeting someone new.

To Nathan;

I need you to come and meet me xx

From Nathan;

Why? Xx

To Nathan;

Please, just come and meet me, I'm just outside the hotel. You'll find out why xx

It wasn't long before the cheers and screams from the group got louder and that's when I assumed Nathan must have walked out of the hotel and be looking around for us.

"Mummy. I don't like it." Aimee spoke suddenly as she hid behind my leg and I could feel a wet patch forming from where she had started crying.

"I know Princess. Mummy's friend is just coming." I replied, picking her up and attempting to calm her down as she buried her head in my neck and hid herself from view; making it impossible for anyone to see her or even talk to her.

"El?" I heard Nathan shouting and I turned around to see Nathan running over to where we were stood.

"We need to get out of here. Aimee really doesn't like it." I said with a panicked tone and Nathan could tell that I was being serious because he just pulled me away from the crowd and down an alley, knocking on the door and being greeted by someone who clearly knew him as he ushered him into the building.

"El, this is Kevin, he's our security guard. Keving, this is Ellie, erm, she's an old friend of mine." Nathan said.

"I know who this is Nath. This is the Ellie you wouldn't shut up about her when she left you." Kevin laughed, and I laughed back at him without hesitation.

"Nice to meet you. Are you going to say hello Aimee?" I smiled as my daughter lifted her head slightly from my shoulder and looked between the two guys stood before her, but not saying anything to either of them.

"Hello Aimee. How are you?" Kevin asked her with a smile, but Aimee didn't reply, rather she hid her face back in my neck.

"Sorry about her, she's shy when it comes to meeting new people." I replied.

"Ah, it's fine. I'm sure she'll get used to new people as she grows up." Kevin replied, before he whispered something to Nathan and walked off with a grin on his face; leaving me and Nathan in the corridor we had been in before.

"So, this is my daughter then, is it?" Nathan asked, and I just nodded at him, allowing Nathan the time that he needed to take in his daughter and the features that she held which were similar to his own. "She's beautiful."

"She's got your eyes. I always see you whenever I look at her, made it all the more difficult to forget about you." I sighed, looking away from Nathan and towards the floor now because I had never really admitted that to anyone before.

"I wish things were different between the two of us." Nathan spoke after a moment of silence and looking rather awkward where he was stood; like he really didn't know what to say.

If Aimee wasn't here, then it probably wouldn't be this bad and we would be able to talk to each other a lot easier than we are right now.

Aimee just makes everything more awkward between us becase there are certain things you can't say while she is here because she'll only end up repeating them to James when we get home, and then there will be another argument about that when we get home later.

"You know it had to be this way though. It would never have lasted."

"Are you happy now?" Nathan asked me without a word of warning.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, are you happy? I mean, truly happy with your life as it is now?"

"Honestly, at the start of this relationship I was happy and I thought he was everything I needed to get over you. Now, he just makes me wish I had never left because he makes me feel so miserable and he spends so much of his time with Aimee, that he just forgets all about me and acts like I don't even exist. I want you back Nathan." I spoke with a couple of tears rolling down my cheeks still looking at the floor so that Nathan was unable to see all my emotions pouring out of me at the same time.