To Have And To Hold

24 - Sophistic Shopping

Months later, and nothing had changed for Joey and Lauren, apart from the fact that Joey would occasionally still feel awed when he caught sight of the wedding ring on Lauren's finger, or when mail started coming through for Mr or Mrs Lopez-Richter.

Besides that, they were still as happy and in love as they had always been, and Joey woke up every day looking forward to life with his best friend.

He was thinking exactly that one day while they were out doing grocery shopping, feeling grateful for finding fun in even the mundane parts of life whenever he was with Lauren. She would make little quips about everything or hang onto his shoulder as she went on tiptoes to whisper something ridiculous in his ear and make them both crack up in the middle of the aisle.

"We're gonna be in this store all day at this rate," Joey said as he got distracted from what they were supposed to be picking up for what felt like the millionth time, scanning the shelves to try and remember what they'd come down this aisle for.

"Then let's just get what we need and go," she said, smiling as she shook her head as though she wasn't the one delaying them. Not that Joey minded. He'd happily spend all day in Trader Joe's laughing with Lauren until they couldn't breathe. She wandered off down the aisle in search of her favourite brand of bleach, leaving Joey staring after marvelling at how lucky he was to get to enjoy something as simple as grocery shopping with the love of his life. He'd never imagined happiness like this, and he felt so thankful for Lauren and the unending joy she brought into his life.

He felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist from behind and turned around, smiling down at Lauren.

"What are you doing?" he said fondly.

"You weren't there so I had to come back and find you," she said, handing him a bottle of bleach as she stepped out of his personal space. 

"Lauren?"

They both heard the voice at the same time, and spun around. Joey didn't recognise the girl walking towards them, who looked to be about their age. He glanced down at Lauren to see if she did, and she had a slight frown on her face as though the girl seemed familiar but she couldn't place her. 

"I'm sorry, you probably don't remember me, but we went to high school together," she was saying.

Lauren's face lit up with recognition. "Lillian! Hi! I didn't know you were living here."

"I moved about a year ago," Lillian said, switching her basket to her other arm.

"It's so good to see you again!"

"You too! Are you still acting?"

Joey listened as the two girls caught up, his arm instinctively wrapping around Lauren's waist as she talked animatedly.

"Oh! Lillian, this is Joey," Lauren said, as though she'd just remembered he was there. "My ex boyfriend."

Lillian seemed slightly surprised at that, but turned to Joey with a smile nonetheless. Joey, however, was shaking his head at Lauren, who seemed about two seconds away from bursting into a fit of laughter. 

"I told you you've gotta stop saying that," he muttered, barely holding back his grin.

Then he turned to Lillian. "I'm her husband," he explained. 

"Oh! Nice to meet you," she said, looking a lot less uncomfortable.

"Anyway, we should get going," Lauren said, looping her arm through Joey's. "But hopefully we'll see you around!"

The pair of them walked away arm in arm, Lauren seeming a little too pleased with herself. The corner of her lips stayed curled up in a smirk as they exited the store into the parking lot, and she was practically skipping as she swung the shopping bag.

He didn't want to give her comment the attention she clearly wanted it to get, but Joey couldn't help bringing it up out of curiosity.

"How long are you gonna keep the ex boyfriend thing up?" he asked as they pulled up outside their apartment.

She grinned. "As long as I can get away with it." 

Joey rolled his eyes. "You know people don't find it funny?"

"I find it very funny," she said with a smug grin. And as loath as he was to admit it, Joey found it very funny as well, although he had a strong feeling he was right to say that no one else did.

"You'll run out of people that don't know you're married soon enough."

"Then I'll just have to meet new people."

He unlocked the front door, pushing it open to let her enter first. "I hope you're not just embarrassed to be my wife," he called out as she disappeared into the kitchen.

She paused in the doorway, turning over her shoulder to look at him with an adoring smile that couldn't fail to melt Joey's heart. "Never."

A/N sorry this chapter's a little on the short side, the next one (the last one!!) is longer. This fic was painful for me to write in more ways than one but I'm sad it's almost at its end