On The Road To Love

EPILOGUE

Joe took a deep breath, wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers as he gazed out the window.

"You alright, mate?" Caspar's voice teased from the front seat.

"Oh, I don't know," he replied in a tense voice, "I'm only going to see my girlfriend for the first time in six months."

"Girlfriend..."Caspar let out a girlish giggle, "I never thought I'd hear you use that word...in reference to yourself anyway."

Joe reached forward and punched his friend in the shoulder, "Shut up."

Caspar smirked as Joe fell into silence again, deep in thought. To be fair, he had never thought he'd be able to use the term "girlfriend" in reference to himself either. But here he was. 

Joe felt his heart rate slow down and a smile begin to spread across his face as he thought about the last six months. It had gone quicker than he had anticipated - full of a lot of movie editing, new YouTube ideas, and FaceTime calls with Dianne. After he had returned to the UK, he and Dianne fell easily into a daily routine that allowed them the maximum amount of conversation even with the time difference. Joe couldn't help but laugh when he remembered chastising Caspar and Ambar's incessant need to talk while they were in Australia. However, now on the other side of the fence, he had quickly learned that those seemingly meaningless conversations were more important than just about anything else. Dianne would FaceTime soon after he woke up, as her workday was ending and his was just beginning. He'd take a break at lunch, and they'd chat again as her night was winding down. And they'd text every other waking hour.

"Every single hour,"Joe smiled, looking at his phone and scrolling through the thousands of texts from Dianne that he hadn't been able to delete. Over the last six months, they had discovered everything about each other through those calls and texts. Between mundane updates about their days, Joe discovered Dianne's favorite food was chicken curry. She first fell in love with dance when she went to watch Andrew perform onstage when she was just five years old. Lots of random things made her sad, like animal rescue commercials and movies where the heroes die. He quickly discovered flowers made her happy - and so did the little voice texts he would leave her to listen to when she was frustrated with her celebrity partner on Dancing with the Stars.

Nothing could replace having her in his arms - but they had managed to make it through the last six months unscathed. They had minor arguments of course - sometimes Joe was a bit oblivious to what being a boyfriend entailed - it was all new to him, made even more difficult with the distance between them. He actually hadn't even realized he was her boyfriend until she had casually dropped the term when explaining how she described him to her grandparents.

ONE MONTH EARLIER

"You called me your WHAT?" Joe spluttered out, staring at the redhead on the screen of his phone in disbelief.

"Boyfriend, Joe," Dianne rolled her eyes as she watched his brain put two and two together. "That's what you are, aren't you? Or should I go find someone else to call and text and tell all my life's secrets to?"

Joe grinned, the shock slowly wearing off. "Alright then. Hello, girlfriend."

Dianne giggled, "Hello, boyfriend."

Joe could feel his cheeks hurt from smiling at the memory, but his heart began to race again as he glanced outside, realizing they were now in a familiar place, quickly approaching the Buswell's house.

---

"Dot! Where is my hair gel?" Andrew bellowed out from the downstairs bathroom.

"How the HELL would I know?" Dianne shouted back, rummaging through her suitcase to find her heels.