Camille called me every day for the next five days. Her only aim? To pester. And to fill me in on all Magnus' chosen methods of sulking.

I got one call from a party. A big red-carpet event that Isabelle had been watching on TV. Camille had gone to great lengths to tell me just how 'fabulous' it was, in order to increase the impact when she let me know that Magnus had refused to attend.

Today the topic was fashion. Magnus and his clothing line, to be precise. She'd already had her rant about the blue colour palate he'd fallen in love with. She blamed it on my eyes, which were rolling the whole time she spoke. I tried to tell her blue was a perfectly usual colour which had nothing to do with me and she started talking about how he'd taken up a habit of adding intentional holes.

"I saw what you were wearing when we met." She said. "It wasn't that dark."

I tried to balance the phone between my ear and shoulder as I packed my things into boxes. I was at my Mother's house, that's where most of my things were, and it was about time I cleared my old room out. Leaving it there while I stayed with Father was bad enough, but I was moving into a shared rental now and I couldn't leave it behind.

"I'm sure that there's another explanation." I grumbled, tossing a torn shirt of mine into a bin-bag instead of packing it. "Trends and all that."

"Trends and all that? You're completely cluele-"

Camille's voice cut off. Her foreign lilt halted by the sound of a door closing. There was the muffled sound of her greeting somebody else.

"I'll be right with you, Magnus, I'll just say goodbye to Alexander."

"Magnus?" I said. My heart rate got a little faster. "Magnus is right there?"

But there was nobody listening to me. The two of them had started to bicker between themselves. Not in an angry way; just with a lot of fast chatter. I half-heartedly glanced at the end-call button. I could have just hung up and left them to their spat. But I didn't. It was dumb, but I wanted to hear him again.

Magnus and I hadn't been in touch since Isabelle told him to delete my number. I was always wondering if he really did delete it or if he just didn't care anymore. He might have been – probably was – completely past it. Camille was just calling to be a nuisance.

Maybe her idea to break off the marriage had nothing to do with how Magnus felt at all. I mean, wasn't it possible she was fed up and looking for an excuse? Her usual affairs weren't enough to split them up but maybe she was hoping I would be.

"Give me the phone, Cammie." I heard Magnus say in a slow, warning tone. Then his wife's light laughter echoed through the speaker.

"You want to talk to him?" She asked in a teasing voice. She sounded like Isabelle with the remote when one of her brothers wanted it. I found it hard to picture Camille waving the phone mischievously in front of her but that was what I expected was happening on their end of the line.

I bit my lip like a nervous teenage girl; for some reason I hoped he'd say yes. I hoped that Magnus did want to talk to me even though nothing good ever seemed to come of it. It just would have been nice if he wanted to. A little confirmation that Camille hadn't just been making things up in a failed attempt to guilt trip me.

"I want you to stop talking to him." Is what he said instead, his voice getting clearer as he approached Camille. "I've caused him enough trouble."

There was a static thudding sound, like he'd made a grab for the phone. My breath hitched and I waited to find out if he'd managed to take it. His wife laughed again and I assumed it wasn't the case.

So, she was pretty much a pain.

"If you're the one causing trouble why am I the one who can't speak to him?" Camille said slyly. The phone thudded again. For somebody so tiny she was keeping the device away quite well.

I fell back onto the bed and listened to them a little longer. In my position I remembered the first time Magnus had been in my room; the bubbly feeling I had right there next to him. How he answered Camille's call and left.

"Alec?" I jumped in surprise when I heard his voice breath into my ear. I opened my mouth to respond no sound came out. I was frozen there listening to his breathing.

It kind of sucked that he couldn't see me. Would he think I hung up? No, there would have been a dial tone. He must have known that I was there. I wanted him to say something. An apology. A request. Even a goodbye.

"Magnus." I choked out of my dry throat, just so that he knew I was listening.

There was silence for a moment where neither of us said a thing. It felt oddly like meeting somebody for the first time. When you had to awkwardly scramble for an icebreaker to get the conversation rolling.

I never was any good at that but my brain mulled over any ideas to make him speak. Not that I owed him it, or anything at all, really. I guess I kind of wanted to talk to him again, for some reason. I just couldn't think what that reason was. And my internal crisis was that I felt like I really needed a reason.

I didn't know if the part of me that wanted to keep talking to him existed for the right reasons. There was a chance I'd just been worn down to that point by time and the stress that seemed to pile on every time I refused him. My hearts way of telling me 'make this stop' by just giving these people what they wanted.

"I had no idea that she was bothering you." Magnus explained. Of course I already knew that. It was a funny turn of events that now it was him who didn't know about the two of us being in touch. "I won't let it happen again."

"How are you?" I blurted. Just to make him talk about something other than Camille. I'd been dealing with that woman all week while she pestered and span stories. If I was going to talk to Magnus there was a lot more that needed explaining than her chats with me.

"I've been better." He said in a careful tone of voice. Like he was worried about saying the wrong thing.

I'd never known Magnus to be that way. Unsure. He was one of the most confident people I knew. This was a guy who was happy to wear make-up in public. A man who turned up at my house once disguised as a history Tutor with no doubt that he'd get away with it. Somebody who didn't even stutter when his wife and the one he'd been having an affair with met.

"Look... I have to ask while you're there." He began. Careful, careful. "Please, I need you to meet me in person. I have things to say to you I can't say over the phone."

This was it. The moment I knew was coming. The thing I was meant to be thinking about all this time, deciding what I would do if I got the opportunity to see him again. When it finally happened it didn't matter how much or little I'd thought about it. It was the kind of thing where you just… chose. Like when you toss a coin to make a decision and ignore the outcome; because you knew what you really wanted while it was in the air.

"We met in person, before." I reminded him, thoughts drifting to his talk of things I didn't understand and how much effort it took to leave him behind.

"I was an idiot, before. Please, Alexander."

Thank you all for reading! Hope that it was okay.

The next chapter doesn't have a title yet, but half of it is done so that's a plus.