Until There Was You

The Moment of Realisation

12. 

Joey glared at his phone screen in the half light of the back seat of the car. It was currently 7am and his parents had dragged him out of bed for a road trip to Pismo Beach. They had plenty of perfectly good beaches in California in Joey's opinion, why they had to drive four hours at this stupid time in the morning was beyond him. Luckily it was around 10am in New York so Lauren was awake and texting him.

'I'm so excited to see the beaches in LA'

'They're the same as the Michigan ones' Joey replied as his Mom attempted to start a conversation from the passenger seat.

"So Joey, are we picking Lauren up on Monday?"

"You guys don't have to come, I'm happy to take the car and pick her up," Joey replied as he read Lauren's new message.

'Yes but these ones are warm' He laughed and quickly responded.

'You got time to FaceTime?'

"And is your girlfriend allergic to anything, dairy, nuts? or is she vegan or anything?"

"Hey Lo," he grinned completely ignoring his Mom as Lauren's face appeared on his screen.

"JoJo!" She exclaimed rubbing a hand over her face. She was snuggled up in a quilt with bed hair and not an inch of make up.

"Hi Lauren!" Joey's Mom chimed in as Joey rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Hi Mrs Richter!" Lauren called back staring at Joey uncomfortably.

"We were just talking about you," Joey said, "She's gluten free Mom," he added remembering her earlier question. "The amount of gluten free crap we have at our house is ridiculous but Lauren is permanently hungry so we have to keep it around."

Lauren flushed a bright pink and scowled at Joey through the screen.

"You don't complain when I make that gluten free risotto though do you?"

"That's because that's incredible," he replied, his stomach rumbling at the thought of his favourite dish.

"I thought we were FaceTiming because you missed me not to be mean to me." She said.

"Sorry," He grinned already feeling much more awake. "So how's New York and how's Darren?"

"New York is so beautiful Joey, you've got to come out here and see it for yourself." He noticed she studiously avoided his question about Darren but decided not to push her on it.

"Soon," he smiled, "what've you been up to out there?"

"Well we did all the fun touristy bits yesterday and today we're going ice skating in Central Park and seeing a movie at an outdoor theatre,"

Joey stopped listening as he imagined her doing all of those things with Darren. He hadn't spoken to his best friend more than a handful of times since he left Michigan for New York and whilst that certainly hadn't been his intention Joey had to admit it was nice having Lauren to himself. Hearing her speak about him like she used to was like a punch in the stomach. He was pretty certain she was over him and he really hoped this trip would prove that to her but everything she listed sounded quite romantic.

"You're not even listening to me anymore are you?" Lauren asked waving a hand in front of her camera. Joey snapped back and had the good grace to look sheepish.

"Sorry," he said pretending to blow her an apology kiss.

"Are you excited to see me next week?" She asked glossing over his little space out.