Joe and Dianne: Life away from you

The train

Narrator's POV:

After her phone call with Joe earlier this morning, it would have been an understatement to suggest that Dianne was feeling more conflicted than ever. Her confession for her love towards Joe swimming around in her head, and as she was sat on the train on her way back from Liverpool, she found herself not looking forward to seeing her blue eyed boy for the first time since she had met him. 

Dianne Buswell was famous for many things. In public she was famous for her dancing, her appearance on Strictly for the past 2 years and more recently she was becoming more famous for being with Joe - however to her friends and family, Dianne was known for always having an answer to anything that came her way. If it was a question based on the spellings inside a dictionary, or a maths equation, she may not have had the correct answer tucked into her brain, but none the less, whenever any sort of situation would arise, Dianne Buswell would always, always have an answer. So when she found herself looking out into the swiftly moving countryside that passed as she made her way through the English railway system, for the first time in her life Dianne found herself completely out of her depth when she could think of no answer to the conundrum that had put a large section on her life in jeopardy. 

It was completely obvious to anyone who knew Dianne and Joe, either together or apart, that the care they had held for each other since their first ever rehearsal together all those months ago, had formed a bond between the pair that to everyone else seemed unbreakable. But in Dianne's mind and in her heart she knew that although they had said they loved each other, much like any couple the two of them could still be one argument away from a break up. But Dianne was adamant that the break up between them would not be down to her - that it would not be because she had broken Joe's heart after she had made a drunken mistake. Maybe she was being selfish. Maybe Joe would be better off without her stupid comments and childish remarks, and maybe Anthony was the push Dianne needed to start the ticking time bomb that would blow them apart. Maybe, just maybe all of this was actually beneficial for her. It has been well documented that all weather fronts pass eventually, and to Dianne it could be possible that the dense cloud of fog that Strictly had been clouding her vision with, was finally starting to clear, and her real mistake over the past few months was finally being revealed. It is perfectly possible that her mistake was not sleeping with Anthony two nights ago, but her real mistake was in fact letting him go at the start of last winter. Perhaps it was her time to leave Joe in the cold before the cloud lifted off of his eyes, leaving Dianne out on her own. Or she could just be being selfish - who could tell? All that was certain was that Dianne, the one person who has to be able to tell what was happening, could not.

Before her mind could get the better of her, Dianne looked up as a body moved in her peripheral vision, only to find Chloe leaving her conversation with Ben and sat down in front of the bemused red head.

C: Come on Buswell, spill

D: I still don't know what to do

C: ... Look Di, I don't know what to say to you, but if you would like my honest opinion then I can give it to you.

D: Please, literally anything would help right now

C: Well firstly Dianne I honestly can't believe that you did it too him -  y'know a week ago I was doing an interview where your names popped up. It was at that point I told the reporter what I thought about your relationship together, and the only way that I could describe it was as if it had been plucked right out of a fairy tale and popped into real life. I mean, you were thrown together by chance and look where it got you two - look what you have become, you're so perfect for each other that it is nothing but infuriating for the rest of us because we're jealous that our relationships aren't as amazing as yours is with Joe. But after this Di.... I don't know, I just can't wrap my head around why you did it. Is it because he isn't enough for you maybe?

D: WHAT? God no. Joe's amazing - he's sweet and kind and I couldn't imagine my life without him anymore

C: Then why did you do it?

D: I DON'T KNOW! I don't know why. Maybe I was drunk enough that when I saw Anthony my mind was reminded of a time when I didn't have to rush into things - when I didn't feel pressured to make brash decisions 

C: Such as?

D: Maybe I shouldn't be moving in with him. I mean it's only been 3 months. I think Joe only asked me because his roommate was moving out and he didn't want to be alone. And after he had put so much effort into making that night perfect for me, I just didn't have the heart to tell him no - to tell him that it was all too much, too soon. It's only now that I realise that I said yes FOR him rather than TO him. What do I do Chloe?

C: Well, he should hear what you just told me - he's a reasonable man and I know for a fact that he would wait until hell freezes over for you. So if you aren't ready then just tell him and I'm certain that he would understand and respect you for the decision you make.

D: Okay thanks Chloe

C: Wait Di - you should tell him that AFTER you tell him about Anthony

D:  (*Sighing*)  What if I don't tell him. He doesn't have to know - I know that it would break his heart if he found out what I did

C: No Dianne, you can't keep something like this from him - he's done nothing wrong and he deserves to know

D: But Chloe after this morning  I can't do it to him

C: Why what happened this morning?

D: Well- I called Joe just because I hadn't seen him or spoken to him in almost two days, and despite everything I was really fucking missing him. Anyway to cut a long story short, we got to talking and I... well...he

C: Dianne what happened?

D: He said that he loved me for the first time

C: And you ...

D: Said it back to him

C: But do you? ...Honestly?

D: I thinks so.... well.... no. I know that I do

C: Well after what you did the other night , drunk or not, and the way you just told me that you love him - I think you really need to think about that before you see him next. But I can't be the one to tell you what to do or what not to do - all I can tell you is that Joe is a good man, and he deserves nothing but the truth

After her words with Chloe, Dianne felt none the wiser. But as she heard the overhead speakers announce that they would be pulling into London Shortly, Dianne found herself itching to get of the train and run into her boyfriends arms, to tell him that she loved him and that her time away from him was easy in the terms of work, but was a nightmare without him in reality - but through the bull faced lie she knew she had to tell, deep down Dianne knew that she would have no choice but to break his heart in the end.

Joe's POV:

3 days. It had only been three days since Dianne had left me to go up to Liverpool, and although a lot of my time had been occupied with both work and helping Byron move his stuff around London, I still felt as if everywhere that I went I was missing something important. An importance that happened to take the shape of a red headed dancer from Australia.

But now 3 days had come down to three minutes as I was waiting for her train to pull in at the station. With an eagerness bubbling up inside of me that I just couldn't ignore, I found myself quite literally pacing as my heart, that was besotted with love, refused to slow down at the thought of her. I had never been in love before , but it hadn't taken me long to realise that the weird feeling I had inside of me every time her face popped up in my head was the feeling of love. Something I had convinced myself that I would never ever get the privilege of feeling. And now that I had this little feeling with me wherever I went, I couldn't quite express to anyone, not even myself, how much I never wanted to let it go.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the incoming train on platform 4 is the 10:45 from Liverpool" As the informative voice rattled round the grand station in central London, I felt my heart skip a beat. She was finally home, finally back where she belonged. And as I grasped hold of a small velvet bag containing the necessary keys for my .... for OUR apartment, I couldn't help but feel a tear come to my eye at the sight of a red headed dancer from Australia heading towards me, her bag trailing behind her whilst our future was before us - and nothing could hold us back.