35 Ways to Say 'I Love You' | Joanne (One Shot Series)

Mango (Physical Touch)

Joe was drawn downstairs by the loud whirring of the juicer.

"What's today's concoction?" he asked as he walked into the kitchen, where Dianne was busy preparing a mountain of fruit.

She smiled up at him. "Morning," she said, focusing on cutting up a banana, "it's a bit of a mystery. I just kind of thought I'd throw everything in there and see what happens."

Joe slid onto one of the stools, not wanting to get in the way. He watched as Dianne threw more fruit into the juicer to the side of her, making a complete mess of his kitchen. She grabbed a mango from the side, squeezed it and laid it on the chopping board.

"Careful!" Joe shouted, just as Dianne tried to press the knife directly into the centre of the round fruit. "That's going to roll and you're going to chop your fingers off. Here," he got up and walked behind the counter, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's waist as he held her hand on the handle of the knife. "Hold it carefully" he said gently, "but watch your fingers."

"I've got it" Dianne said quietly. "Thank you." Turning her head, she pressed a gentle kiss to Joe's cheek. "I love that you look out for me like this."

Joe smiled. "Well, someone's got to."

Dianne put the mango into the juicer and pressed 'on'.

"Do you want some?" Dianne held out one of the slices of mango she had yet to put through the machine.

Joe took a slice and ate it. "That's good" he said as he finished. Looking down at the pieces Dianne still had by her side, he grinned. "I bet you can't fit a whole slice in your mouth."

Dianne looked over at her boyfriend. "Odds on?"

"1 to 8."

She nodded. "3...2...1.... 7!"

Joe grinned. He knew she'd go for 7 as it had been his chosen number for a while. "Loser!" he exclaimed. "Go on then."

Dianne shook her head. "I want to reverse the odds."

"Fine by me."

"3....2...1.... 6!"

Joe groaned. He had gone for 7 thinking Dianne wouldn't change her plan. "Well, that backfired" he said in a silly voice.

"Unless" Dianne picked up the slice of mango and held it out, "since we both lost, we could 'Lady and the Tramp' it?"

Joe rolled his eyes. Of course Dianne would be the one to suggest doing something so random so early in the morning.

"Fine" Joe said, "but let me film it."

Dianne finished the juice while Joe set up his camera. She had never been bothered by what she looked like on film, and so she had no urge to go and put makeup on or sort out her bed head. Instead, she waited, half a slice of mango dangling from her lips, while Joe quickly made a makeshift tripod and pressed 'record'. He ran back to her and rolled her eyes as she clasped his hand and held it outwards like they were dancing.

The two of them tried to stifle their giggling and focus on the task in hand. However, the mango seemed to be going everywhere. As they both took a bite from the edges in their mouths, Joe's eyes followed the middle of the slice as it fell to the floor. Dianne grinned at him, mango juice all around her mouth before pretending to continue to eat, moving closer and closer to Joe until her lips were on his.

"Fruity" Joe said as they pulled apart. "I mean, we failed massively at that one, but it was fun." He wiped his mouth, noticing how sticky he was. "I might just go and wash my face."

Dianne watched as Joe left the room. She poured the juice she had made into two glasses and set about making herself some toast. While the toaster did its thing, she went over to Joe's camera and re-watched the footage. They had caught a few kisses on camera before, but they had been edited out of anything that was published online. This, however, was such a cute moment that she wanted to share it with everyone.

"Joe, can you send that video to me?" Dianne asked once the two of them had resumed their normal breakfast routine.

Joe nodded. "Of course. You can do whatever you want with it. I just wanted to preserve that moment somehow."

Dianne smiled. "Thank you. I promise I won't put up the kiss bit."

"I don't mind" Joe said gently. "I mean, it's... it's a habit I picked up from Zoe and Alfie. Something they said about keeping parts of your relationship for yourself. That's why they never kiss on camera. Obviously, before you, I'd never really had to think about it. And, when I did, I just kind of copied them because the media were trying to make out like we were all over each other all the time."

"That's fair. I mean, you know I'm not bothered either way, so I'm happy to go with whatever makes you the most comfortable."

"You" Joe said softly. "You make me comfortable. So, I don't mind. Maybe..." he paused for a moment, closing his eyes before slowly looking at his girlfriend, "maybe now is a good a time as any to finally break the seal?"

Dianne shrugged. "Maybe. I... I'll think about it."

"Right," Joe tapped the counter, "I need to get showered and dressed. And you" he gestured around them, "should probably clean up. You look like you've been playing real life Fruit Ninja in here."

It didn't take long to clean up the debris from breakfast. Once the kitchen had been returned to a presentable state, Dianne took her laptop and sat cross-legged on the couch. Joe had already uploaded the footage to the fancy server he had spent a whole day teaching her how to use, thanks to the Bluetooth built into his camera. Dianne opened the video on her editing software and set about making it look cute.

It was only a few seconds' worth of footage, but Dianne managed to pick out a few frames. Remembering some of the things she had learned from Joe, she used a filter to slow the footage down into a sort of stop-motion style, the two of them leaning closer and closer- mouths on each end of the slice of mango- until the fruit was gone and their lips were touching.

"No time like the present" Dianne said. She began to prepare her post for Instagram, checking that the little clip worked properly and looked good. Now, all she needed was a caption. She could go long and soppy. She could just put something like 'good morning', but she wanted something better than that.

"Man... man go..." she muttered to herself, "mango makes my man go crazy? Nah."

"Mango... mango..." she continued, tapping on the edge of her phone case.

Suddenly, her eyes went wide. "Got it!"

It was only when she heard the familiar sound of laughter that she realised Joe had been watching her the whole time from the doorway.

"What are you doing, little bean?" he asked.

Dianne held her hand up. "Just... give me a second. Right" she pressed 'post' and waited. "You should get a notification. What do you think?"

Joe opened Instagram and smiled as he realised what a good job Dianne had done with the footage. For a first little kiss on camera, it suited them so well. It was silly and cute and lighthearted, just like they were.

"What do you think of the caption?"

Joe scrolled down and grinned. "You're so clever. I could have sat here all day and I never would have thought of 'it takes two to mango'." Walking over, he kissed Dianne on the forehead. "It's moments like this that make me realise how much I love you. You're perfect."