piece by piece~j.d

~52~

Josh took a seat at the local cafe, tying Archie to his seat so that the dog wouldn't get away, having just ordered his coffee at the end of part of his walk for the morning as he did before every game. He looked out on the rising sun that was doing it's best to heat up the already bitterly cold morning, he was just thankful that he had rugged up before leaving the house and wasn't freezing half to death.

"Josh?" An unfamiliar female voice called out and broke him from his gaze of watching the sun continued to rise through the gap in some of the trees.

"Yeah?" He asked back unsurely, when he turned his head he found himself familiar with the women who was waving at him politely. "Ebony right?"

"Yeah that's me, I've heard so much about you. It's good to actually meet you." The brunette smiled. "You don't mind if i sit, do you?"

"Of course not, by all means please do." Josh replied, he knew that Aubrey and Ebony had gotten close since he and Aubrey had split, and seeing as they seemed on track to get back together, it was in his best interests to get to know the person that Aubrey had spoken about so many times. "How's your morning?"

"Pretty good so far, I have a family lunch today so I thought I'd enjoy the morning before the stress of all of us being together hit." Ebony laughed, taking a sip from her own drink that she had ordered. "You boys have a game today right?"

"Yeah at 4:30ish so I thought I'd keep myself calm and seeing as Aubrey isn't awake yet, I thought I'd let her sleep in." Josh said, though Aubrey was at his house and he knew that she wouldn't be upset if he woke her up, she had mentioned how much she missed her sleep ins and so he decided that he could get his coffee without her.

"Nice, I'm sure she'd appreciate that." Ebony laughed, also having been on the end of many of Aubrey's rants about sleeping in. "Good luck by the way."

"Thanks, we might need it." Josh laughed, watching as Archie jumped up so that he was standing up with his front legs on Ebony's lap. "Sorry about Arch."

"That's okay, he's a cutie." Ebony rubbed behind his ears and cooed at the brown dog. "So are you and Aubrey back together orrr?"

"Not technically I guess, but yeah pretty much. She's big on the whole, me asking her officially which I don't mind. But in that regard, no I haven't asked her to be my girlfriend again. I honestly don't know why, I'm just like, I don't know if she'll say yes." Josh spoke, it was his irrational doubts that kept him from asking. Being an over thinker had its many many negatives.

"You know you could just bring it up in a random conversation and she'd agree, she's probably wondering why you haven't already." Ebony said, Josh sighed internally knowing it would send another swirl of thoughts around his mind when he would be trying to fall asleep that night.

"Don't you think she deserves more then that?" Josh asked, messing around with the hair tie that he kept on his wrist just in case Aubrey would need it.

"She deserves the world but I think you'd both find it just as special if you just randomly bought it up in a conversation instead of doing something crazy and sentimental."

"You might have just given me an idea." Josh said, a smile growing on his face.

"You're welcome Dunkley, treat her right and I feel like we could be great friends." Ebony chuckled, she shook her cup a little bit to show that it was empty as to not seem rude. "I guess I'll be seeing you around a lot, and good luck with whatever you're going to do as well as this afternoon."

"Thanks Eb, see you later. It was nice meeting you." Josh waved and the girl responded accordingly before getting up and walking off. As this happened Josh's phone started to ring and the familiar contact name 'aubs☺️' popped up. "Hey."

"Where'd you go? It's cold here." Aubrey complained, her voice still groggy from sleep. Something that made Josh smile as he thought of how adorable she must look curled up in the blankets, her eyes and cheeks still puffy from sleep.

"I was getting coffee Aubs, I saw Ebony by the way, she sat with me for a few minutes. I can make my way back now if you want." Josh said.

"That's good, you guys better be friends. Yes please, I don't want to get out of bed to turn the heating on because the blankets are to annoying to walk in and you took the hoodie that I had next to the bed for morning, and I texted Kyle as well but he's not awake or he ignored me." Aubrey complained, fully aware that she was being high maintenance, but after a long week she thought it was fair enough.

"Sorry, I'll be back in ten minutes at most." Josh promised. "Don't die of hypothermia before I get home."

"No promises."

~~~

"Babe? Are you alive?" Josh called as he walked into his room and just saw a lump in the blankets. He had turned the heating on, on his way in and quickly checked to see that Kyle was asleep as expected.

"Barely, I need a hug to keep my alive for a few more years." Aubrey said, her voice muffled from the layer of blankets.

"You're a child sometimes. A real child," Josh laughed, regardless kicking his shoes off and getting under the covers. His arms making their way around Aubrey's waist and pulling her into him so that she could take his body heat.

"What did you and Eb talk about?" Aubrey asked, turning her body around so that her head was buried in Josh's chest. "Did you like her?"

"We talked about you, and yeah she seems really nice. Plus it's not really up to me who you're friends with, is it?" Josh replied, Aubrey smiled knowing that him trying to control that had a large factor contributing to why they broke up, that and a lot of left over alcohol in the bloodstream and frustration.

"We're going to be just fine."

sometimes i hate being a saints supporter.