this years love

just friends?

joe's pov

it was week 4 of strictly! i somehow managed to get through my first ballroom dance and now i was back to latin which i thought i was exciting but the cha cha is very hard, i'm loving it though and since i wasn't too bad at it dianne wasn't getting annoyed at me too often which always helps. however it's only tuesday so something could still go wrong.

i entered the training room to see dianne sat on the side, still holding her bag and wearing her coat, clearly engrossed in something on her phone since she didn't notice me come in where as she's normally warming up. i can't help but notice something is different with dianne. i've never been one to read into people's emotions but i really care about dianne. she's a special girl and we get on so so well.

"morning dianne!" i said coming closer

"oh hey joe, sorry i didn't see you there....how are you?" she asked looking at me with tired eyes

"i'm good, are you doing ok di?" i asked trying not to come across like i was invading her personal life

"what do you mean?" she replied, clearly trying to hide whatever was on her mind

"you don't have to tell me, it's just you look really tired and look upset" i said rubbing her arm

"anthony and i broke up last night...we don't need to talk about it. i'm meant to be professional, shall we just continue with the dance?" she replied still looking really down

"hey no, it's fine, let's take a few minutes. i consider you one of my best friends and i want to help you anyway i can"

"ok well i don't know why this has affected me so much because it was a mutal decision...we both knew our relationship was over a while ago. i guess i'm just worried because i don't want everyone thinking that it's the 'strictly curse' that has broken us up. plus i'm professional, i didn't want to be cutting out any of our rehersal time so we could talk about my stupid feelings so i was trying to get it all out last night but i didn't end up getting a lot of sleep. i'm sorry joe" she said, tears beginning to form in her eyes

"you can call/text me whenever you want dianne, i'm here for you" i replied not really knowing what to say so i just gave her a hug, i felt her relax in my arms as i rubbed her back.

"our relationship had been rocky for some time and we had a break a few months ago. i think it's the fact that last time it was a bit of space and now it's a proper break up and we're both going to have to say something and then people might hate me and it might get us voted out...i'm sorry if i've let you down joe." she said bursting into tears

"hey hey hey...shh it's ok di. if we don't get through it will never be your fault, i'm the one who can't dance afterall and you said we have that timing in that shirley will like" i replied

"you're right, we've got guapocha timing in and it's only tuesday! forget about what i said, just focus on the dance"

"i know i'm not the best with emotions but i really mean it when i said you can come talk to me"

"you're the best joe" she replied

***

saturday

i woke up early after a good nights sleep since our cha cha went well in rehersals. one thing i was slightly worried about was that dianne told me last night we were going first which scared me a lot!

i was broken out of my trance by a soft knocking at my hotel room, i opened it to see dianne standing there.

"you ready to head down for breakfast?" she asked

"yeah, you have a good nights sleep?"

"much better, your sleep playlist helped" she laughed which i hadn't heard for a few days so i was glad that it was me who made her feel better

"haha i'm glad, let's get some food i'm starvin!" i said wrapping a friendly arm around her

a/n: this chapter wasn't laid out the best, i know. i'm sorry it's so short but this one is a bit of a filler.