-Joe- It was a couple days later and it was time to go home. We had said goodbye to Zoe and Alfie and we had gotten all of our stuff packed into the car. I started driving us home.
"I don't want you to go tomorrow morning." I sighed.
"I know. And I don't wanna leave you."
"We'll be fine. We can call every day and text all day whenever you like. And you don't need to worry about Kaley because I just remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"Well you remember Britt, my friend that was at the final?" I asked and looked over. She nodded. "She's been staying at Oli's since she got here but she's staying at mine till she flies back to LA on the 23rd. She'll make sure nothing happens, don't you worry."
"Okay, that actually gives me more reassurance. I trust you but I just don't know what she's capable of."
"I know. But it'll be fine. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. So I guess you're going back to Wiltshire on the 23rd?"
"Yep. Christmas in Wiltshire, like it has been for the past 27 years. Oh that reminds me, your Christmas presents are at home. Make sure I give you them before you leave for the airport."
"Oh what did you get me?" She grinned.
"I'm not gonna tell you, am I? You complete donut!" I chuckled as I drove.
"Well it was worth a try." She told me. I smiled widely. I made sure to concentrate on the road as I drove. After a few minutes, I looked back over to Dianne trying to stay awake.
"Why don't you sleep for a bit? You're gonna be getting a long flight later, you'll need the energy." I told her quietly.
"Yeah. I might do that." She mumbled. I pulled the car over to the side of the road and opened my door. "Where are you going, Joe?"
"Hold on, you'll see." I got out and opened the boot. I went through the emergency bag and pulled out a blanket that was in there.
After closing the boot and getting back into the car, I saw Dianne struggling to stay awake.
"There you go. This'll keep you warm." I smiled as I wrapped it round her and kissed her head. "I'll turn the heaters up too."
"Thank you, Joe." She smiled sleepily as she snuggled into the blanket. I started driving again and started the journey home.
———
I pulled into the car park and saw that Dianne was still asleep next to me. I left her to sleep as I took all of our bags and Christmas presents up to my apartment.
I came back down and saw she was still asleep so I took the seatbelt off of her and picked her up bridal style. She started to stir once she was in my arms. I locked the car and started walking to the lift.
"Shh, go back to sleep, Di." I held her close and kissed her head. She rested her head on my chest as she relaxed again. We went up the lift and I went into the apartment.
As I went into the bedroom, I saw that she had left her plane ticket out ready before we left. I tucked her into my bed then looked at the ticket.
Her flight was at quarter to five in the morning so she would need to get there by quarter to three. She would need half an hour to get there so she would leave at quarter past two. She would want an hour to get ready and about an hour and a half to pack so I set an alarm on my phone at quarter to twelve to make sure she was awake by then.
It was only half four so I started unpacking my bags quietly. I realised she would probably want to take some of the dirty clothes from her suitcase on her trip back to Australia.
I took her suitcase and sorted her clothes into piles to wash together and set one of the piles on a quick wash.
As that was going, I started sorting through all the presents we had come home with. Once that was done, I took her clothes out of the washing machine, put a new load on and put the wet clothes in the dryer.
I found my suitcase and started sorting through my stuff, putting away things back where they belonged and making a pile of washing.
As I was folding up her dry clothes, I heard someone walking down the stairs. Dianne walked into the kitchen sat down.
"What are you up to?" She asked.
"Well I realised that you'd probably wanna take some of your clothes to Australia but they were dirty from wearing them this week. So I thought I'd get them washed and dried for you." I shrugged.
"Awh thank you, Joe. I didn't even think of that. What would I do without you?" She rushed around to the other side of the counter and hugged me. I chuckled and hugged her back.
"There's just one more load in the dryer. When that's done, we can do Christmas presents."
"Oh, yay. I'll go and get the presents for you. I had to hide them." She grinned and ran out of the room. I took her dry clothes out and started folding the last of it. As I finished, she came back into the room with a massive bag.
"I thought I had bought too much for you." I chuckled. "I'll go and get your presents."
I went into my office and carried the pile of presents into the lounge. I sat down beside her.
"Right. There are two joke presents in there. But the rest I know you'll love. Go on, you open first."
She started unwrapping the first one and grinned widely when she saw what it was. I had gotten a cushion printed with just my face on it. The picture was from when I was a teenager.
"It's so you can take me with you back to Australia. You can wake up every morning and see this ugly mug." I chuckled. She leant close to me and smiled.
"You've not got an ugly mug. It's a beautiful mug." She grinned and kissed me. I smiled and kissed her back.
"Go on. Open the rest." I said to her, passing her the next present.
[its been 2 days since I published this part and Joe is one the One Show tonight. I tweeted about it and the show actually retweeted my tweet. Hopefully, one of them notice me 😂 The time is 19:24 so let's see 👀 he doesn't finish presenting till 19:30
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