I'd deleted his number a long time before, though I wasn't really sure why. I mean, he still had mine. I guess there was less temptation to call somebody when you actually couldn't.

"Are you still there, Sweetpea?" Magnus asked. I had to double-take. Really? He called me that? It was like he had trouble understanding that we were on seriously bad terms.

"What?" Was my response. It had more to do with surprise than anything. I sort of wished I'd ignored his request and hung up on him instead of saying anything. Only sort of. I didn't put the phone down.

"Good, you're still there." Magnus breathed. He sounded relived for a moment but was composed by the time he spoke again. "Look, we definitely need to talk."

"No," I said. "No we don't."

We couldn't talk. We couldn't because I wanted to and I knew I shouldn't have wanted to. I wanted to yell and scream and bite his head off for everything in my life that he'd completely messed up; more than that I wanted him to kiss me again and actually say sorry.

Apologising was the one thing he'd yet to do. It killed me that he wasn't sorry.

"I'm done with this now, Magnus." I groaned. The whole situation was taking its toll on me more and more. I needed it all to go away. "Do you have any idea what people are saying about me?"

"I know exactly what they're saying, Darling, that's why I called." He explained. I leant against the wall, already feeling exasperated with the conversation.

"Enough with the pet-names." I told him, quite fed up with them by now.

I wasn't Magnus' 'Darling' anymore.

There was a pause while he seemed to consider my statement like it was a request. I resolved that if he called me anything endearing again I was going to hang up. Even if I knew the resolution was as fake as Magnus' single status. I wanted him to keep talking to me until it all started to make sense.

"Alright." Magnus said, with some caution. "Alexander, will you meet me somewhere?"

"No." I replied, without a second thought. "I'm not going anywhere public with you and you're not welcome in my Mother's house."

"There's always my place?" Magnus suggested. Like that was ever going to happen. If he'd been there I would have slapped him. Then again if he'd been there we wouldn't have been having a conversation about where to meet.

"You aren't funny." I snapped.

Why couldn't he say what he wanted to say over the phone? I felt safer over the phone. I was me that way, not whatever version of me I was under the influence of his eyes. When we were together he always got his way.

"I want to help you." Magnus pushed. He wasn't used to me fighting his will.

Neither was I, to be honest.

Sometimes I thought about Magnus when I was alone, without my family reminding me what an ass he'd been. Times like those, I remembered how much I'd loved him. When I was along all I did was miss him. But when I actually spoke to him the anger all came back. My mind was somehow less hazy in reality than it was making up scenarios.

In my head, when I imagined him calling me, everything worked out alright for us.

In reality, I was determined to make him leave me alone.

"You want to help me? Tell that magazine that I'm innocent and you're the horrible cheat." My voice was low and venomous when I spoke to keep my family next door from listening in. If they overheard it would be completely obvious who I was talking to. The last thing I needed was another pity-party when I was trying to move on past all the drama.

If talking to Magnus on the phone instead of ignoring him qualified as moving on.

"I'm not a cheat." He said.

Did he actually believe that? There was no way in hell that he could actually believe that. He was married. He was involved with somebody else for months. What more did you have to do to qualify as a cheat? Was he waiting for an official letter of recognition or something?

Maybe a magazine spread and a webpage full of fans flaming him for cheating wasn't recognition enough for Magnus Bane. Didn't stand out enough without being rainbow or covered in glitter.

"Cammie has more than her fair share of-"

"I don't care what your wife did to you!" I yelled before he could spew more of his anti-monogamy preaching at me. "If you're not sorry about cheating on her, fine, but you did it to me too!"

There. I said it. The selfish thing I wasn't supposed to say.

I heard a heavy sigh on the other end of the line.

"I'd really rather have this conversation face to face, Alexander." Magnus repeated. "You won't hear me out this way."

There was a very good reason for that. Hearing Magnus out was too hard. Sure, it was immature not to listen to the other side of a story. But I was happy with the version I knew.

Alright, fine. Not happy, happy. There were a lot of things I'd change if I controlled the story. But with this version at least I knew how I should feel about it. I was satisfied, more accurately, knowing the small amount I knew and why I couldn't be with Magnus because of it. I didn't need him to complicate things.

Yet there I was, about to cave, before my angry little sister snatched my phone from my hand out of nowhere.

I tried to argue with her but she put a finger on my lips. She used to do that when we were kids and I'd normally bite her. I didn't think that would be very appropriate given the situation. She was really fuming.

"Delete this number." She demanded. "Oh you've memorised it? Then I suggest you forget it."

"Izzy..." I hissed. Just because her heart was in the right place didn't mean she had to step in. I had it under control. Ish.

She put her whole hand over my mouth to keep me quiet while she continued to listen to Magnus. I felt weirdly jealous that she had the phone now. I wanted to know what he was saying.

Eventually Izzy hung up with some snappy remark, declaring that she had solved the problem. When she handed me back my phone I stood there in the hall staring at it. She'd hung up.

Why wasn't I happy about it?

Sorry the updates are spacing out more, I need to give myself more time to form an ending and I'd rather leave a day or two between the chapters that are ready than make you wait a long time for the newer ones, so that's why they aren't being released daily anymore. Big thanks to readers and reviewers. "Late Night Musings" is coming up next!