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Chapter 343 Midnight Chat

　　Alone in her bed and unable to sleep, Jade tried to process all the information she had gathered during the day from Tom, Bryan, and Sonia.

　　Maybe he had liked her back then but had given up after realizing just how much her relationship meant to her and that she wasn\'t going to jeopardize it for him even though she thought he was pretty. 

　　That made more sense. He HAD been interested in her—past tense.

　　If she were to go by what they were saying, and think of his feelings for her in the present tense, then the central question on her mind now would be, why was he holding back? 

　　Not once had he made any attempt to reach her in the last four years or see her, even when she was sure he heard of Todd\'s death. She also knew that if Tom hadn\'t asked him for his help on her case, he still wouldn\'t have reached out to her by now, so how could they all think that he liked her? If he did, why wasn\'t he doing anything about it? What if she had gotten married or met someone else? Was it that he did not care? Or was he just one of those silly people who believed that what will be will be?

　　With a sigh, she turned over on her large bed, which was feeling particularly empty tonight. Funny that everyone else had someone in bed with them. Her parents were together, Tom and Lucy were in bed together, and so were Bryan and Sonia, but here she was alone. When was the last she was cuddled? She mused with a sigh as she wrapped both arms and legs around a pillow.

　　Her eyes fell on the bedside clock when it struck the hour. It was one in the morning, and she couldn\'t sleep. She was worried, but she couldn\'t seem to place a finger on what was bothering her even though she knew it concerned Harry.

　　If it weren\'t so late in the night, she probably would have given him a call. She still had to clear up that little lie before leaving if she didn\'t want it to fester and cause unnecessary problems. She was worried enough already about developing feelings for him and being scared that the feeling might not be entirely mutual. 

　　Yes, the feeling might not be mutual. Because if he really liked her as everyone else seemed to believe, he wouldn\'t be so comfortable with being away from her.

　　She sighed as she turned again on her side. Yeah, she knew that her thoughts were going around in circles, but there was nothing she could do about it.

　　Unable to help it anymore, she sat up and picked up her phone from the nightstand. Even if she couldn\'t call him because he was likely asleep, she could at least send him a text. That way, her message would be the first thing he sees when he picks up his phone in the morning, and then he would likely give her a call. 

　　What simple text could she send that wouldn\'t make her feel like she was bugging him at this time of the night? She needed to send a natural and light text that he wouldn\'t read too much meaning to 

　　She tapped her right forefinger against the tip of her nose thoughtfully until her eyes lit up with an idea. Yes! That was it, she thought as she started composing the text.

　　Away from there, Harry, who had just stepped out of the shower with a sky blue towel wrapped around his waist, preparing to go to bed, glanced at his phone when it beeped with a message notification, and then his gaze moved to the wall clock.

　　Why was someone texting him by one in the morning? Who could be texting him? He wondered as he went to pick up his phone, which he had left beside his pillow.

　　He blinked in surprise when he saw that it was a WhatsApp text from \'Esquire\', and he clicked on it without thinking twice.

　　"Hey! I\'m sure you must be asleep by now. Congratulations on your promotion. I guess you went to celebrate on your own and forgot my invitation to dad\'s birthday. Here are some photos of what you missed," Jade had texted, and attached to it were pictures of the hors d\'oeuvres, the cocktails and wines, the cake, the meal, and then a picture of everyone around the table, and then a goofy selfie photo of herself.

　　Harry felt his lips curve with a smile, and then he snapped out of it when he saw that she was now typing another message. He decided to respond to the first text, "Thanks. And I\'m sorry I couldn\'t make it. My dad came visiting, so I had to spend time with him," he texted back as he sat on the bed.

　　Jade grinned as she read his response. He was awake, that was good. "Yeah, Tom mentioned it. I thought you would be asleep by now." Jade texted again.

　　"I was just about to go to bed. We spent a lot of time watching the news and talking that we didn\'t realize it was this late," Harry responded before remembering to ask, "What about you? Why are you awake? Did you just finish partying?"

　　Jade lay belly down on the bed with her elbows propped on both sides of her pillow as she texted back, "No. I just couldn\'t sleep."

　　Harry\'s brows pulled together in concern, "Why? Are you worried about the case? Were you able to talk to Candace?" He asked curiously.

　　Instead of responding, Jade decided to give him a call since she preferred to hear his voice than chat with him. 

　　Harry was surprised to see her call, so he adjusted on his bed so that his back was resting on the headboard of the bed, with both legs on the bed now and the towel slightly loosened.

　　"Hey!" He said awkwardly when he received the call.

　　"I spoke with Candace. She agreed to go with me to meet Jero, but she wants to leave her son behind," Jade informed him, just wanting to talk to him about anything as long as he was on the line.

　　"Who is she leaving him with? Tom said your parents are going back tomorrow, and Lucy\'s parents too," Harry asked in concern, thinking that was probably what was keeping her awake.

　　"I\'m sure Samantha and the others here will care for him. Besides, Tom and Lucy can check in on him daily. How hard can it be?" Jade asked lightly.

　　"I take it Tom agreed to this?"

　　"Yes, he did."

　　"Cool."

　　"So how is your dad?" Jade asked, changing the subject.

　　"He\'s fine. He\'s asleep now," Harry said as he tried to figure out what next to say, "I saw the pictures you sent. That looked more fun than Tom made me believe you guys were having," he said, and Jade laughed.

　　"Well, at first, it wasn\'t. But then we had to make it count for dad\'s sake. And I was looking forward to seeing you," Jade said, and Harry felt his heart skip a beat. 

　　"Oh!" Wasn\'t that supposed to be a feminine reaction? Why did his heart keep acting funny?

　　Hearing the surprise in his voice, Jade almost smiled, and then she bit her lower lip when she remembered that she had to confess to him.

　　Deciding to go with the blunt and straightforward approach he usually used, to see his reaction, she blurted, "Harry, I know I kissed you last night."

　　This time Harry\'s stomach did a flip flop and he got off the bed. She remembered? When did she remember? What exactly did she remember? Why was she bringing it up now? If she remembered, then she had to have had a reason for kissing him, right? 

　　There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but he was scared that he might not like some of the answers, and even if he ended up liking the answers, he might not accept them, so it was probably best for both their sakes that he dismisses it as nothing. 

　　"Two nights ago," Harry said instead.

　　"What?" Jade asked in confusion.

　　"I mean, it was two nights ago. It\'s past one in the morning already," Harry said as he paced the bedroom, while Jade blinked back her surprise. 

　　That was the last thing she had been expecting him to say. She just confessed to having kissed him, and this was the only thing he could say? She had at least expected him to ask her why or something, even if she had no intention of stating the exact reason. From his response, it seemed like the kiss didn\'t affect him as much as she had assumed after all. 

　　"Oh, yeah. It was two nights ago. Why didn\'t you talk about it yesterday?" She asked curiously.

　　"I... I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself. I know that you were drunk, and I should have stopped you. I\'m sorry for not stopping you. I was caught off guard," Harry explained, and even as the words left his mouth, he cursed himself for taking the cowardly way out. 

　　Caught off guard? Yes, she had caught him off guard no doubt, but he had kissed her in return, hadn\'t he? What was there to be ashamed or embarrassed about? "I also remember that you kissed me back," Jade said, wanting to see how he would excuse that. 

　　Harry shut his eyes, "That\'s more reason why I feel embarrassed. I don\'t know what came over me. I should have known better than that. You were drunk, and my action is inexcusable," Harry said, and Jade sighed.

　　Okay. Maybe she had learned something from kissing him while pretending to be drunk. She had learned that they had chemistry. And she knew that even if she tried to say she had done it of her own volition and not because she was under the influence of alcohol, Harry being Harry, would likely not believe her. 

　　The only way to know for sure if he had avoided her and the topic because he was embarrassed for kissing a drunk lady or because the kiss had affected him more than he wanted to admit, was by kissing him for real. No alcohol. Just a passionate woman in her senses kissing a man she was sexually attracted to. 

　　"You don\'t have to feel embarrassed. I\'m the one who kissed you because I wanted to. I took advantage of you. I\'m sorry," Jade apologized.

　　Although Harry heard what she said about kissing him because she wanted to, he didn\'t bother to ask her to elaborate on it. No, he didn\'t want to know about why she would want to kiss him.

　　"You were drunk. There is no need for you to apologize," Harry assured her dismissively and then feigned a yawn, "We should go to bed now. I have to be up early," Harry said awkwardly.

　　"Yeah. Sure. Take care of yourself. Goodnight," Jade said, knowing that he was running away. She intended to see just how much longer he could run, and how far his strength would carry him.

　　"You too. Try to get some sleep. And don\'t forget to let me know if you need my help," Harry said, and Jade smiled.

　　Of course. There was no way she was going to forget something like that.