|27| Campanelle-2

"You have to bear in mind that this is still very new to them both, Izzy," Jasmine chipped in. "They're probably still figuring it out. When it all settles down, I'm sure they'll both start talking to you about it." Forever the voice of reason, Jasmine had probably hit the nail on the head. Neither of them would want to over-complicate something that might not have a future-otherwise I then really would be in a position where I'd face choosing sides. We shut off the TV and Jasmine pulled out a pack of playing cards, tossing them onto the dining table. "Who wants to play?" Nathan immediately rose from the sofa to pull out a chair, but I excused myself from the room to call Jess. There was a fine line between not interfering and not caring. "I'll give you a beating at Irish Snap, Jas," Nathan said. "You can try, but I should warn you that I've been known to draw blood. And I won't apologise for it." I left them to it and shut the bedroom door for privacy. Jess answered the phone immediately, her tone bright and cheerful. "Hey!" "Hey, yourself," I replied with a smile, settling on the bed. "Can we skip the part where you pretend you're calling for a general catch-up and instead get straight to the real reason?" Hurt rose within me as her defensive words registered. Was that what she thought of me? That I only wanted to speak to her because of Jack? "Bells? Did that come out wrong?" "I don't know. Maybe." "Sorry. My head is all over the place at the moment. I wasn't accusing you of not caring." "Okay, good. Because I do care. And I'm already struggling with the fact you feel you can't talk to me about Jack, so I don't want you thinking I don't give a shit about anything else." It looked like we were going to get straight to the point anyway, whether that had been my intention or not. "It's not that I feel I can't talk to you about him. I'm just making a conscious effort not to-for your sake." "Sorry. I think I'm just overly sensitive because of what happened with Nathan. I'm finally looped back into his life, and now I'm looped out of yours." "It wasn't my intention to make you feel that way. I get why you do, but they're completely different situations." I sighed, concerned that I risked making the situation worse. "Yeah, I know. I just feel like I'm a bad friend for not being able to help or be there for you." "Oh, Bells... Please don't feel that way. If anything, you're a great friend for not pressuring me into talking about it. But seriously, would you genuinely want to know what he's like in bed?" "You've slept with him?" I couldn't hide the surprise in my voice. She'd caught me off-guard and I'd reacted before having chance to censor my words. "Well, no. Not yet. But it's heading that way. See, this is why I didn't want to talk to you about it."