Until There Was You

Blueberry Pancakes and Broken Promises

10. 

The next morning Joey awoke around 8:30am and padded softly into the kitchen. His two housemates were still fast asleep so he switched the radio on to a quieter volume and began pulling ingredients from the cupboard.

By the time Lauren had arrived he already had a stack of blueberry pancakes waiting for her.

"JoJo, this smells incredible," Lauren groaned as she let herself into his house. She moved into the kitchen and hugged him quickly from behind. "Did you put blueberries in them too?"

"Yep!" Joey grinned, twisting around to drop a kiss to the top of her head. "Where's your bike?" He asked as he continued to stir the batter.

"In the hallway," She replied, "Need me to do anything?"

"I'm almost done but I suppose you could put the flour and milk away," He motioned to the ingredients on the side and she moved to pick them up.

"Wait," Lauren said as she held up the flour, "you got gluten free flour?"

"Yeah?" Joey replied frowning at her, "You're gluten free aren't you?"

Of course he had bought gluten free flour; he didn't want her to be uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Lauren climbed onto the counter to put the flour away and then turned back to him confused.

"How could you possibly know that?" She asked, her legs dangling from the kitchen side. Joey thought about his reply for a second before he shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe Darren mentioned it once?" He turned the gas down and reached above her for the chocolate chips in the cupboard.

"And you remembered?" She said placing her hands on top of his to stall his movements. He looked her directly in the eye confused.

"What's the big deal?" He asked. Lauren looked up at him, her brown eyes soft. Sat on the counter they were almost at eye level. She moved her hands to his shirt to pull him down and she gently pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. Joey forced himself to remember to breathe. This was a new form of contact that he was not sure he could take. Having her this close to his lips was doing things to his body: his heart rate was going mad and he itched to press her to him.

"Thank you," she whispered clearly touched.

Everything about her was burned into his entire existence, how he could forget anything about her was just beyond the realm of possibility particularly something as important as being a Celiac. She pulled back and Joey coughed nervously scratching the back of his head.

"No worries," he replied just as softly. "Now!" He cleared his throat and pulled her off the counter as she squealed, "Go and eat those pancakes before they get cold."

"Yes sir!" She grinned at him and settled herself at the breakfast bar. He joined her moments later with his chocolate chip pancakes and together they ate in comfortable silence. Lauren offered to wash up as he had cooked and he was struck by how very domestic they were today. His phone vibrated with a message from Sophie and he pushed away his thought process and focused on his phone.

'Had a really nice night, hope you're having a good breakfast!'

'Me too, we should have a rematch soon. I made pancakes so of course it's good!' He replied.

'You'll have to make me pancakes one day so I can find out for myself.'

'Say the word and I'll make you anything you want.'

"So how did your date go yesterday?" Lauren asked from the sink.

"It was really good actually," Joey smiled, "We went bowling and had a couple of drinks,"