For All Eternity

That Boy

"'Ello, Shweet'art," Joe said with a mock, thick cockney accent, excitement oozing from his voice.

"Hi," it was diminished compared to usual and made his heart sink through his stomach.

"Still not feeling well, huh?" the comedic accent had disappeared and he had, instead, laced his voice with his usual caring, soft tone.

"Not really, my entire body hurts, my stomach feels like it's constantly doing roly-polies and I have a migraine that seems to like going, only to come back," she detailed and Joe could see, through the low light of her hotel room, that she was cocooned in the duvet and had a familiar white strip stuck along her forehead. He pouted at her and found his fingers itching to search train times to Manchester, despite needing the weekend to work. He stopped himself though, she was capable of looking after herself and he could cheer her up from a distance, without risking getting poorly himself.

"You poor thing, how was the car over? Did you share with Karen in the end?"

"No, David showed up so they went together. I was feeling way better when I got in it but by the time I got here all my energy had gone again. I've literally been sleeping on and off since I arrived," Dianne answered, her voice hushed, in order to prevent herself from losing it.

"Good, sleep is really good," he nodded, glad she was finally listening to her body, "So I know you're feeling poorly but I've sent you a really important email."

"Want me to check it now?" she yawned.

"If you could honey-bunny. You should still be able to see me if you press the home button," Joe informed her, trying his hardest to remain nonchalant, he didn't want to spoil the email yet.

"Wait, shit, what's my password again?" she audibly mumbled.

"big C-zero-s-three-p-h-colon, wait you call it those two dots, and then an end bracket," Joe recalled the password she had changed all of her log-ins to when she thought she had been hacked.

"Coseph and a smiley face right. So... from you, I've found it."

Joe waited for a moment, smiling at his screen, as he watched her read, one eye open. "What do you think?"

"I'm seeing double, hold on."

"Bless you, just open the attachments," he said, the text wasn't overly important.

"The old school house? Huh?" her brow furrowed further in her confusion.

"It's a nice old house with a new kitchen and four bedrooms. Or if you open the other one; four bedrooms again, bit more modern with loads of back garden. Both of them for sale and both of them well in our budget." He grinned, looking at them on his laptop screen.

"Joe! They look beautiful. Imagine."

"I know, I'm still looking obviously, and you could too. Then in the week you're back but not a tonne of tour stuff is happening I thought maybe, if you were up for it, we could have a look at a few of them."

Dianne nodded and felt herself welling up, "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying."

"Because it feels real?" Joe suggested, wishing he could dissolve the distance and kiss her temple, "and, you're not feeling well at all."

"Yeah. Three kids- four bedrooms?"

"I think so, don't you?"

"Definitely."

"And one of them ones has a little granny flat at the bottom."

"Granny flat?" she rubbed her eye trying to figure out what he meant, her headache fogging up her mind.