To Have And To Hold

6 - Inadvertent Irritation

Joey texted Lauren from work the next day when he got a break.

'I miss you'

Her reply took a few minutes to come through, but it arrived with a picture of her holding Diane in her arms, their faces pressed together.

'We miss you too'

Joey smiled, saving the photo to a folder of very similar pictures she'd sent him and he'd accumulated over the years.

'I can't wait to get home and see you both'

'We'll be waiting'

Joey spotted Lauren as soon as he walked in the door when he got home from work. She was sat at the dining table with her back to him, her laptop open in front of her. He hung his keys up on the hook, taking off his shoes and tucking them out of the way.

"What are you doing baby?" Joey asked as he walked up behind her, his eyes flicking to the screen displaying dozens of wedding dresses.

Lauren jumped, clearly not having heard him come in. "I was helping Jaime with, uh, some research," she said, closing the laptop and turning round to him with a smile. "Did you have a good day?"

"It wasn't too bad," he said as he walked over to sit down on the couch, Lauren coming to sit beside him. "Much better now," he smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Diane immediately jumped up between them and Joey scratched behind her ears, forgetting about the weird moment with Lauren, and just soaking in the feeling of being home.

"She's hardly left my side today," Lauren murmured, gazing down at Diane.

"Alright for some," Joey joked, and she patted his cheek sadly.

"Well, you've got me all night," she said, nudging his shoulder.

He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she slapped his arm lightly. "You know that's not what I meant," she laughed.

She reached out to check the time on her phone. "We should probably start getting ready to leave soon."

He nodded in agreement. They were meeting up with some of their friends that evening, and Joey was looking forward to getting to see some people he hadn't seen for a while. Although he always loved getting to hang out with Lauren on a night in, it was also nice to spend time together with their friends.

Lauren put on mascara while Joey changed his shirt, then they walked out of the apartment hand in hand, Joey tossing and catching the car keys. The drive over to Julia's house took no time at all, and Joey immediately retook Lauren's hand on the walk in.

The apartment was already beginning to be crowded with people, clustered in groups and engaged in animated conversation with the music just an undercurrent. Joey let his eyes drift about the room, feeling grateful for having found this family.

The first person they ran into was Andrew, where after exchanging greetings the conversation swiftly turned to his upcoming wedding.

"Yeah, it was nice of you guys to involve Lauren with the wedding planning," Joey said with a warm smile.

Andrew's eyebrows raised, and his eyes flickered to Lauren. "It's been nice for me to have something to do while Joey's been so busy editing and stuff," the girl in question said.

"Oh, you've been great," he nodded, smiling. "We're grateful for the help," he said, looking back at Joey. "Besides, it might be good practice for when she has to plan a wedding of her own." He nudged him with his elbow.

"Yeah, yeah," Joey said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious, I'm sure it won't be long," Andrew persisted, giving him a pointed look.

Joey tried to smile, but he suspected it looked more like a grimace. He knew Andrew didn't mean anything by it, but he was willing him to shut up.

"Weddings don't come cheap though, so you might wanna start saving sooner rather than later," he advised.

"Can you just back off, okay?" Joey said coldly. "Maybe we don't want to get married."

Lauren flinched at his side, and he immediately looked down at her with concern. Andrew muttered an apology, then made his excuses and slipped away to talk to someone else, though his absence was hardly noted by the couple. Lauren's expression was closed off, and Joey placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You okay Lo?"

"Mhm," she said unconvincingly, not looking at him. "I'm just going to the bathroom." She shrugged him off and disappeared without a look back, leaving him staring after her.

He didn't know what was wrong with him; he was rarely confrontational, and he'd certainly never spoken to Andrew like that. He was already feeling bad, so he scanned the group of people until he spotted Andrew, and went over to offer him an apology.

"Hey man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," he said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"No, I shouldn't have been interfering. Forget I said anything," Andrew said sincerely.

Joey clapped him on the back, grateful to diffuse the conflict, but Lauren was still playing on the back of his mind. He couldn't remember the last time there'd been tension between them like this, and it worried him. He cast a look round for her, but she still hadn't reappeared. He did see Darren raise a hand in a wave from across the room, and nodded at him with an attempt at a smile, but he remained caught up in his own worries. All he wanted was to talk to Lauren and find out what was going on, but she was nowhere to be seen. He found himself wishing he could turn back the clock to ten minutes ago when the two of them had walked in and he couldn't have been happier to be here with his best friends and his life partner.

A/N I promise this does not last long, these babes will be back to their usual completely in love selves very very very soon