Yet another Richpez fic

Part 7

Long Distance...

Lauren rolled over and instinctively reached out to the other side of the bed, expecting to feel the warm skin of her boyfriend. But instead finding the cold, empty mattress. She opened her eyes and stared into the abyss taking up half the bed. Joey had only slept there for a few weeks but she had grown so used to his presence, that his absence was keeping her up at night. She checked the time. 7:26 am. Meaning it was 4:36 am in LA. Far too early for her to call him. She rolled on to her back and thought to herself. "I can do this..."

****************

Joey burst in to his apartment, throwing his bag on the couch, kicking his shoes off and rapidly calling Lauren's number. As the phone rang he checked his watch. 10:42 pm.

"Come on Lo, please pick up." he muttered to himself. A tired voice answered.

"Hey, how'd everything go today?" Lauren asked, trying to suppress a yawn.

"It went great, did I wake you up? I'm so sorry I know it's like 2 am over there, I got so caught up with everything after the shoot, I only just got in."

"It's fine, I couldn't sleep anyway. So how'd it go?" 

Joey started filling her in on his day filming a small role for a new show on Disney. Lauren listened, occasionally asking a question or making a joke about his new found fame, before she slowly started drifting off to sleep.

"... and then I had a scene with this guy and they told us to just improv it so I had a ton of fun with that and... You still there?" he listened to her slow, deep breathing on the other end of the phone for a few seconds before smiling to himself and whispering "Night Lo, I love you" and hanging up. "... We can do this..."

**********************

"Hey Joey, is this a bad time?" Lauren asked

"No of course not, how's your day been?"

"Fine I guess... Didn't book that commercial. But I assumed I wouldn't, they were really pushing hard for the tall blonde girl." she muttered bitterly

"That's Hollywood baby. The glamorous lives we live huh?" Joey was trying to cheer her up, but it was killing him that he couldn't just wrap his arms around her and just be there for her.

A large group of kids ran past Joey screaming as he moved further away from the crowds to hear her a little better.

"Where are you Joey?"

"Uh... DisneyLand. Corey sort of arranged it last minute." 

"Then why the hell are listening to me complain, go have fun!"

"No, I... I want to talk to you. I miss you. So much..." admitting this hurt Joey more than he though it would. It had been over 5 months since they had last seen each other and it was starting to wear on the both of them.

"I miss you too. I know you were planning on spending Thanksgiving in Chicago, but that's 3 months away. I was thinking of coming to LA for a week, sometime next month. Is that ok? I mean, if you're not too busy?" she tried to hide the pain and urgency in her voice, not knowing if she could handle the distance for much longer.

"Really? That's awesome! Yeah please, I would love it. My mom's been hounding me to bring you over for dinner too." he was excitedly pacing around.

"Great, I'll see you in a few weeks. I love you Joey."

"I love you too"

"Now go have some fucking fun will ya!"

***************

"A full length musical?"

"Yeah!"

"What's it gonna be called?"

"Either 'Spy Another Day' or 'Tomorrow Never Spies', like a Bond movie but with spy instead of die."

"Right, and what's it about?"

"...Spies?"

"Yeah no shit! What's the story?"

"Well we're still working on it. But Curt and MK already said yes. So are you in?"

"Sure! What's my character?"

"You're gonna be Curt's boss. You basically spend the whole show yelling and swearing at him."

"Sounds fun! And you guys think you can pull it off?"

"How many musical have we been in at this point? I think we got general idea of how to do it."

Joey hesitated for a second, allowing his nerves to subside before pressing forward.

"I'm excited about the show, plus it's gonna be great to spend a few months together. It feels like I haven't seen you in forever."

"I'm excited too, about the show and the whole seeing you thing too I guess. I just hope Brian's ok with having an extra roommate for a while."

"Well... I wanted to talk to you about that. What if... After the show... You stayed?"

"In LA?"

"Yeah. Don't get mad, I know we said we didn't want to rush this, but I've found a few one bedroom apartments, completely affordable, Landlord's totally cool with pets... What do you think? Wanna live together?"

Lauren sat in silence for a few seconds, contemplating everything he said, wondering if she was ready to make this big step not just in her own life, but in their relationship.

"...Lo?"

"... I don't know Jo, what if living with me drives you crazy?"

"All I know is not living with you is driving me crazy! Besides, what habits do you think you have that I don't already know? Farting in your sleep? Cos that's not a secret baby."

"You're an asshole!" she laughed as her face flushed. "Fine, how about this. I'll bring most of my stuff to LA, I'll live with you and Brian for a few months. And if we're not totally sick of each other... I'll stay."

"Really!?" Joey held the phone in the air and danced around his living room. "I can't fucking wait! I love you so much Lo!"

"I love you too, I just hope your ready to fight Julia cos she's not gonna be happy about this."

"Yeah right, she's probably gonna be thrilled she doesn't have to listen to you fart all night anymore!" 

"Ok, I'm hanging up now you dick!"

Joey threw his phone on a  cushion before collapsing onto the couch. 

"... We fucking did it. We made it..."