"Jess?" Harry said softly from beside me, jolting me out of my thoughts as I stared at the doorway through which Callie had just left. "Baby? Are you OK? Are we OK?"

"I...," I began, not knowing how to answer. I didn't know if I was OK. I didn't know if we were OK. 

He took my arm and steered me gently across the room to the sofa tucked away under the slope of the stairs, where we had sat exactly one year ago laughing and flirting, and becoming acquainted. He sat down next to me and peered at my face while I stared blindly at the floor.

"You should have told me," I said eventually. "You shouldn't have kept this from me."

"I did it to protect you," he said quietly. "And a little part of me was afraid she would turn you against me if I put a foot wrong."

"Do you really think my feelings for you are that easily influenced?" I asked, looking directly into his eyes for the first time since these revelations. "Surely the past year has proved where my loyalties lie."

"Yes," he said carefully, "but you also chose to look after Callie over New Year, when you knew how much I wanted you to come away with me. You are fiercely loyal to everyone you love, Jess. I would never presume that was exclusive to me. Callie was right about one thing: she has been there for you through thick and thin. As much as I disliked her for how she was behaving towards me, she was still doing it out of concern for you; albeit a sick and twisted interpretation."

I dropped my face in my hands and sighed. 

"I'm sorry if you feel I've betrayed you too," he said sadly. "I honestly didn't know what to do for the best. I didn't want you to fall out with Callie over me. She's your best friend, and I didn't want you to lose her. But I was also afraid of losing you myself. And in the end, she realised she had been a living nightmare. She gave me all your stuff, retrieved your pictures from your icloud, helped get you here tonight, and tipped me off when she realised you were planning a surprise for me, so that my surprise for you wasn't ruined."

"Yet she managed to ruin tonight anyway," I said bitterly.

"Yeah, well," he muttered. "I did try to stop her from shooting her mouth off, but she wasn't to be silenced. I won't deny I'm pretty pissed off about her timing."

"Would you have ever told me, if she hadn't?" I asked.

"Honestly? Probably not," he admitted. "Unless she'd started playing games again, or holding me to ransom. In which case yes, I would have told you everything myself. I was wary of her at first, when she started helping me. But I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and in the end she came clean herself. I suspect her own guilt was eating away at her."

I rubbed my face and looked up at Harry. "I'm so, so sorry for what she put you through," I said sincerely. "You didn't deserve any of that. She had no right to control you the way she did, and I can't believe you went along with it for so long."

"I wanted to do this for you," he shrugged, gesturing around us. "The more she made me work for it, the more determined I became. I wasn't trying to be underhand in keeping it from you. I was doing it with the best intentions."

I nodded. "I know."

He smiled softly at me, and I leaned towards him and put my arms around his neck. He hugged me too, his palms caressing my back gently. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm sorry for not telling you, and I'm sorry for taking my frustrations out on you at times, when it all got on top of me. And I'm sorry that our anniversary was spolit by all of this."

I pulled back from him, my arms still draped loosely over his shoulders, and kissed him softly on the lips. "It hasn't been spoilt. I shouldn't have said that. This whole thing is absolutely perfect."

"No, that's you," he teased, leaning forward and poking the tip of his nose against mine. "And do you realise we're making no attempt to keep our relationship under the radar anymore?"

I shrugged, not even bothering to see if anyone was watching us. "I don't care if you don't."

"You know I don't," he breathed, as he kissed me gently again. "What do you say we get out of here? Can I tempt you to accompany me to a club? I hear there's a great little place called Lagoon, not too far from here. It's very discreet."

"Lagoon," I mused, tapping my finger against my chin and looking at him out of the corner of my eye. "I may have been there before."

"You may indeed," he nodded. "I took a girl there once, bought her a bottle of Dom Perignon and showed off some of my dance moves. She was putty in my hands."

"Yes she was," I grinned. "She still is."

He beamed back at me, his eyes twinkling. "Come on. I'll call a car."

We stood up, and I caught sight of Maddie coming towards us as Harry rang Paul to come and collect us. 

"We're heading off," I said to her. "Where's Calvin?"

"Gone after Callie," she answered. "She was bawling her eyes out. What's happened?"

I felt a stab of misery at the thought of Callie's despair, but pushed it away as I exchanged looks with Harry. "Is he coming back?" I asked.

"I hope so," Maddie replied. "I'm supposed to be staying at his flat tonight."

As if on cue, Calvin strode through the doorway. "We're leaving," he said bluntly to Maddie.

"Are we?" she snapped, equally as bluntly. 

"Yes," he replied. 

"Is Callie OK?" I asked timidly.

"She's pretty upset," he said, looking directly at me. "I don't know quite what's gone on; she wasn't making much sense. I'm going to take her home."

I nodded silently, my guilt intensifying as I imagined the state Callie must be in, but my anger towards her was still too strong to be abated. 

"Do you want to talk to her?" Harry asked softly.

I shook my head. "No. I want to celebrate this evening with you, and think about everything else later. Tomorrow, maybe. Next week - next year, even. Definitely not now."

Calvin looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, before nodding once. "I'll make sure she's OK."

"Thank you," I said sincerely, and Maddie gave me a one-armed hug before they left.

"We don't have to do this tonight," Harry said as I picked up the bag containing my One Direction merchandise and Harry's hoodie.

"Yes we do," I replied. "And I want to. Our relationship means the world to me, Harry. Tonight is about us, and no one else. Nothing is going to come between us anymore."

Harry's phone buzzed in his hand, and he looked down at it. "Paul's outside," he said, picking up his laptop. "Let's say bye to Grimmy and Ellie."

We bid our goodbyes and thanked Ellie again, and then walked out of the house into the crisp night air where Harry's car was waiting at the end of the drive. We slipped into the backseat, and Paul gave me a nod and a grin. "Lagoon?" he said.

"Please," Harry confirmed. 

"Will there be paps outside?" I asked, as the car moved off.

"Very possibly," Harry replied. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all," I said firmly. I pulled my compact mirror out of my bag and checked my reflection. My mascara needed reapplying, thanks to having cried it all off earlier, so I quickly swiped on a couple of coats as we stopped at a set of traffic lights, and dabbed some foundation under my eyes to hide any puffiness. I didn't usually wear lots of make up, but had I known how tonight would pan out I would have made sure I looked flawless. Harry seemed to read my mind.

"You look incredible," he murmured.

"Do I look pap-worthy?" I worried.

"I repeat, you look incredible," he said. "But just keep your head down if you want and I'll guide you to the door."

"No," I said, firmly. "I don't want to hide my face. If there are paps there, I want to walk in with you, if that's what you want, too."

"You know it is," he smiled. "Are you sure? It will set the rumour mill off again."

"So let's leave everyone in no uncertainty, so it won't be just a rumour," I said defiantly, and his smile turned into a grin.

"You know there's no going back," he reminded me. "Are you ready to break Twitter?"

"Yes," I said, without hesitation. "You're not going to change my mind. I've had a year's experience of being linked to you. I know I struggled with it for a long time, and I'm sure there will be times in the future when I will struggle with it again. But I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be; I've never claimed to be. I'll handle it the best way I can."

He nodded. "OK. You don't need to convince me anymore. Let's do this, Jessie Braddy. One year to the day we were pictured for the first time."

"You know your fans will be straight onto that," I chuckled. "We really will break Twitter."

He laughed too, and I checked my reflection again before putting my mirror back in my bag and watching nervously out the window as we approached Lagoon. The car indicated and slowed, before pulling up outside the main entrance where there was a handful of paparazzi that immediately began taking photographs. 

"They recognise my number plate," Harry said, as Paul jumped out of the driver's seat and scooted round the back to my side. 

As soon as the car door opened the paps were in my face, blinding me with their flashes and confusing me with their usual shouts. I slid out, Harry close behind me, and he rested his hand on my waist as I waited while he shut the door. We ignored their questions, and I felt Harry's hand take mine and interlace our fingers as we walked steadily towards the entrance.

The shouting intensified, along with the noise of the clicking cameras and the flashing that could have been mistaken for strobe lighting.

"Harry!"

"Harry, this way!"

"Is this your new girlfriend, Harry?"

"Are you out on a date?"

"Harry!"

"You OK?" Harry murmured under his breath.

"Of course," I murmured back, and the bouncers stood aside as we ascended the stairs into the club.

My heart was hammering as we walked over to the bar, and I took a moment to take in my surroundings. I had only been here once before but it felt like yesterday. It looked exactly how I remembered it in my head (and I had relived the night we met countless times.) Harry ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon at the bar (of course) and we headed to a private booth in the corner, out of view of the dance floor. The place wasn't busy yet as it was still relatively early, and I had eyes for no one but Harry as we slid into the leather seats opposite each other with the table in between us, and Harry poured out the Champagne.

He clinked his glass against mine. "To us," he said, and we both took a sip. 

"Do you think the paps got enough clear shots of us outside?" I asked.

"I think they'll be wetting themselves waiting for us to come out so they can get some more," he grinned. "Give it half an hour and the pictures will be all over Twitter."

"If they go viral, won't that mean a load of fans will be waiting too?" I wondered.

"Also a possibility," he nodded. "We don't have to stay long if you want to avoid a crowd."

 I shrugged. "Let's enjoy this drink first. I'm in no rush, if you aren't?"

He gazed back at me, his eyes twinkling. "Suits me. I could get used to this carefree approach."

"I'm sure you'll be changing your mind once the world starts hassling you about our relationship," I teased, and he inclined his head in acknowledgement, but the smile never left his face.

He reached for my hand across the table, and we spent the next couple of hours reminiscing about the last year of our lives, from the good to the bad to the downright crazy. It was almost past midnight by the time we decided to call it a night and head home. We had made our way through two bottles of Dom Perignon and several dishes of complimentary canapés, and I was starting to feel full and sleepy after the excitement of the evening. 

Harry called Paul again to come and pick us up, and we decided to leave through the main entrance and face the paparazzi that would undoubtedly be waiting. I made a quick dash to the bathroom to make sure my makeup was still in place, and when I emerged Harry was standing by the bar waiting for me. His face broke into a smile as I approached, and he held his hand out to me.

"Ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," I grinned. 

We walked down the steps towards the door, and already I could see a crowd of about twenty paparazzi and thirty-ish girls standing a few steps back from the entrance and obviously not in the queue to enter the club. 

"You were right about the fans," Harry said softly.

"Yeah, I tipped them off on Twitter," I quipped, and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"If you'd tipped them off there would be a lot more out there," he retorted.

"They're actually here to see me," I fired back, and he threw back his head and laughed.

"OK OK, you win that one," he grinned, and the bouncer opened the door for us and bade us goodnight.

Immediately there was a collective scream, accompanied by the usual camera flashes, as we stepped out into the chill of the night. The air seemed to crackle with electricity as my heart raced with nervous excitement, and our surroundings felt blurry and somewhat surreal as I attempted to keep my face impassive and avoid eye contact with anyone, as I followed Harry blindly towards the car.

His hand tightened around mine, and we ignored the same shouted questions as we were forced to weave our way through the paparazzi that insisted on thrusting their cameras right up in our faces. I stumbled slightly as a tall, beefy blond guy bumped into me in his exuberance to take my picture. Harry immediately stopped and turned around.

"Please don't touch my girlfriend," he said firmly but politely, which was somehow overheard by the fans amidst their screams. This immediately sent the entire crowd into a frenzy, and the waiting girls into a higher state of hysteria.

We finally reached the car where Paul was waiting to usher us into the backseat. Harry let go of my hand and I turned to look at him for a split second, our eyes meeting briefly and his lips twitching into a smirk. I hesitated for a moment with the car door open; the noise around us deafening, my heart pounding. His gaze dropped to my lips, and in full view of the paparazzi and a gaggle of tearful One Direction fans, he slowly leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips.

---***---

Ahhh... we're almost at the close 😭 The next chapter will be the final one, BUT there will also be an epilogue which I will post immediately after, so I guess you could sort of call it a double update 😊 I would absolutely love it if you could get this chapter to 1k votes - do you think you can do it?  I know it's a big ask; over 200 more than the last chapter, but it would mean the world to me to end this book with a bang xxx ❤