Strictly '18

17

-Dianne-
"Petty?" I repeated myself. "You think I was being petty."

"No! No. I meant petty on my part. I'm the one who screwed up here. And I'm sorry, I really am." He said as he sat down beside me.

"Who is she, Joe? At least tell me that."

"She was a friend of mine before Strictly. Before we even met, before I even knew you existed. We were kind of getting together and we had hooked up once already."

"You slept with her?" I frowned.

"It was a drunk mistake, Di! I regret anything that happened with her. I broke things off as soon as I got the deal with Strictly. I met you and fell in love. You're so much more than her. What I had for her was just lust, I have so much love for you."

"You understand why I'm worried though? Especially after knowing that you slept with her."

"Yes. I get it now. And I'm so sorry that I lashed out. It wasn't fair on you. Especially when you did what you needed to do to protect us."

"I understand why you did it though, Joe. It must be heartbreaking to think I don't trust you. I do trust you, but I've been cheated on before. I wanted to make sure it didn't happen again."

"I have too. But it makes sense." He sighed. "Um... can I have a hug?" I nodded and crawled over to him. He held me close and protectively like he usually does.

I couldn't relax in his arms even when he kissed the top of my head.

"Zoe mentioned that you had a panic attack whilst I was gone. Are you okay now?" He mumbled. I shook my head and started crying. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere."

"I thought I'd lost you over something stupid that I had done."

"It's not stupid, Di. I promise. It's okay, you had your reasons for doing it." He tried to reassure me. I kept crying.

I'm terrified of Joe leaving me. Without him, I'm by myself. It means Anthony can get to me, I won't enjoy my job and the media will keep harassing me.

He held me close and stroked my hair.

"Hey, deep breaths for me now." He told me calmly. I started to calm my breathing down and relaxed in his arms. He led down and held me close to him. I led down and rested my head on his chest.

Soon enough, my breathing was back to normal and I fell asleep on Joe.

———

I woke up to Joe tucking me into bed. I reached out for him so he sat down with me.

"How you feeling now, Di?" He smiled softly.

"Better. I'm just quite hungry." I mumbled sleepily. He smiled and stroked my hair.

"Well that's alright then. Our food has just been delivered. And don't worry, I got something I knew you'd like."

"Oh, what is it?" I sat up, excited for my food.

"It's a surprise. I'll bring it in for you. Wait here." He told me. I nodded and he ran out of the room. Within minutes he returned with a tray of food. I looked at it all and it was our favourite foods.

"Joe! Thank you!" I grinned as I looked at it all.

"Well it's the least I could to make up for being a prick earlier." He chuckled softly as he sat down on the bed. I shuffled over to him and hugged him.

"I thought we both decided we were being reasonable. So stop blaming yourself. Please, Joe." I sighed as I rested my head on his lap.

"Yeah. I know. I've just figured that everything that's gone wrong in the past is also my fault."

"Hey, none of our past arguments have been your fault. And all that stuff you told me about the last girl who cheated on you isn't either." I tried to reassure him. He shrugged and stroked my hair. I led there and watched him.

"I've always been told it's my fault though, Di." He sighed. I sat up straight away and looked him directly in the eye.

"Nothing has been your fault." I told him. "Well so far anyway." I chuckled softly.

"Thanks, Di." He chuckled and kissed me. I smiled and kissed him back.

"I'm right though. Nothing that has happened with us was completely your fault." I said as I leaned over and grabbed something from the tray. I popped it into my mouth. He nodded and hugged me, he buried his face into the crook my neck.

"I'm just scared of losing you." He sighed.

"I am too. So we just need to work together and we'll be fine. Like you said the other day, we're a team now and nothing else matters." I said as I kissed his head.

"I love you, Di." He mumbled.

"I love you too, Joe." I smiled. "I've also got something for the occasion."

He sat up and looked at me.

"Wait here." I chuckled as I stood up and ran out to the kitchen. I grabbed two wine glasses and a bottle of wine from the bottles I had bought earlier. I ran back into our bedroom. "How does a glass of red sound?" I smiled as I sat down, placing the bottle and glasses on the bedside table beside me.

"It sounds just fine to me. And red is my favourite." He grinned as he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me.

I giggled as he started kissing all over my face. I squirmed as he started tickling me.

"Joe. Please!" I squealed. He started kissing my neck softly.

"When are you gonna open that bottle? I want a taste of the red..." he whispered against my skin.

"In a minute. I'm too busy enjoying this." I chuckled softly as I relaxed.

"It was a metaphor, Di." He chuckled as he sat back and looked at me.

"What do you mean?" I giggled.

"Well... oh god." He laughed. "The wine's red and you can taste it. But I call you red every now and then. And I was offering to..."

"Oh right. Oh god, Joe!" I started laughing.

"Well I didn't think I'd need to explain it to you." He kept laughing as he leant over a picked up the bottle. "I'll just stick to drinking this."

He opened the wine and poured it into the glasses.

"Maybe you can try the other red I've got after this." I told him as I smirked softly.

"I'm not drinking two bottles of- oh. Right." He chuckled as soon as he realised what I meant. I laughed and started drinking my wine.

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