Banana Girl: a thatcherjoe love story

Chapter 19- 7 hours

Both of us tried to forget Joe's disappearing act, as we both felt guilty and angry at ourselves.
After, of course, I'd explained to Joe that I did want marriage, just... Not yet. For Alfie and Zoe, it was different- they'd been together a lot longer, and they were ready, I just... Wasn't.
"Hey, honey?" Joe came bounding into the room with a smile. I was sat on the sofa, and he came and knelt beside me.
"Yeah?" I said, "what's up? You look eager!"
"I am!" He answered, enthusiastically, "and so should you be."
"...why's that?" I smiled.
"Do you fancy a date, my dear?" He joked, in a posh voice.
"Well, Joseph, darling," (I could be posh, too!) "that sounds like a truly spiffing idea!"
We both laughed and he hugged me.
"Good." He said, no longer posh, but he was sexier that way.
"Can I ask-" I started.
"No. You can't, Just know this much; Friday, 7:00 pm, dress code sexy, and pack a suitcase."
"Really?!" I asked, shocked. We hadn't been on a trip together yet, so I was understandably excited.
"Yep!" He beamed, radiating happiness and pride. This was going to be interesting.

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I ordered a small vintage-style navy blue suitcase with cream cherry blossom on it off of Amazon and a matching laptop case, ready for my trip. I was so excited!

I packed a slutty black dress, a knee-length pale blue one, a summery white chiffon dress, and a very clingy red dress (that was so short you could almost see my butt), 2 pairs of jeans, 2 shirts, underwear, a pair of trainers, blue heels, black heels, white flats, red 6-inch heels, a jumper and a red shirt. I had no clue where we were going, how long for, what we would do or who with, so I needed to be prepared.

"Vi? We're leaving! Let's go, we can't be late! Jesus, how much stuff do you need!?"
"I have packed appropriately. Let's go."
I got in the car and put my case in the boot. It was huge and felt as though it weighed as much as the car itself.

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"We're here!" He cried, getting out the car and opening my door so I could get my case out of the back. WE'd arrived at Heathrow airport.
We walked to departures and Joe said a few things to the people there, handed them some pieces of paper and showed them his passport, and after around half an hour, we were sat in 2 very comfortable business class seats, heading to... New York! 

I was quite excited at this: unlike many people, it has never been high on my travel list (Bari, Bali, Torino, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Canada, The Australian Outback, Thailand, Vietnam etc. etc.) as I've always thought it a bit too commercial and crowded, but I did want to go at some point.

Joe was on his laptop and I read for ages, and we took off.
They served lunch around 12:30 and I had a peanut butter sandwich with a pack of cheese and onion crisps, Joe got a ham sandwich and salt and vinegar crisps. We had cokes, but also both had small glasses of red. It was so amazing! Because it was business class, we had these little TVs, so Joe put on a creepy film (those seemed to be his favourites) and I held his hand and nuzzled into his shoulder as I watched- I found it a bit too creepy.
The plane wasn't very loud or anything, so I could sit and read when the film finished, but I was really pretending to read. I was too busy admiring my anniversary bracelet, wondering why we were going business class and thinking,
How the f*ck can Joe afford this? And how did he keep it a secret?! I'm so excited!

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After around 7 hours, we arrived.
We got off the plane and walked to the luggage carousel, collected our cases and went to the toilets, then headed to arrivals, where Joe said we had someone waiting to pick us up.
"There they are," said Joe, pointing to the right, "just there, see?"
He pointed to a group of young people surrounded by others with cameras.
"Who-"
"Viiiii!" Shrieked a girl who was running towards me.
"VIOLET!" Shouted another, who started running, too.
"Tan? Zo? Guys? Oh my gosh!" I shrieked back, realising it was Tanya, and behind her, Zoe.
I thought Joe was bringing me here as a romantic and private trip, but he wasn't... We were all going; this was even better! We were in another country, independent and free, with the best people in the world.