Acting on Instinct

Contemplation

Dianne rolled over in bed to check the time, her thoughts swirling around into a cloud too big to let her keep sleeping. The clock glowed 6:00am. Way too early for a Saturday.

Groaning to herself, she rolled back over, curling up into a ball and squeezing her eyes shut in an effort to block the images that had been invading her thoughts, but, as per usual, a pair of baby blue eyes popped up in her subconscious, staring straight through her soul.

"Damn it," she mumbled, giving up on falling back asleep and opening her eyes, staring at the dark ceiling of her flat. It actually finally felt like her flat, she realized, momentarily distracted from her inner thoughts, as she gazed around the dark room. Carl's things were gone. Had been gone now for weeks. And she'd begun to fill in the empty spots with things that she'd stored in order to make room for Carl's messes.

Her eyes skimmed over all the framed photos she'd placed where Carl's anthologies of literature had previously sat, taking in the images of her family. Her mum and dad, her two brothers, her niece and nephew...all staring back at her with jovial expressions on their faces, the photos taken during her last visit over Christmas. Smiling to herself, she continued her appraisal of the room, taking in the new glossy mirror she'd purchased to replace Carl's dusty old one, and the empty space in the closet where his clothes had been that was slowly disappearing as she'd let herself buy a few more professional pieces for her new job.

She let her gaze linger on the sparkly green material that peeked out from behind her other dresses, and she felt herself spiral again. It was as if Joe Sugg had a hold on her, and he wasn't letting go. It had been two weeks since the charity gala, two weeks since they'd played the part of girlfriend and boyfriend perfectly, and she found herself just as sleepless now as she had been the night he'd dropped her off.

The night when she'd nearly convinced herself he'd actually wanted to kiss her on that dance floor...and when she realized she had wanted him to do it again when they'd said goodbye.

"You're literally going insane," she muttered to herself, before grabbing her phone and checking the time in Australia. Knowing she needed a distraction, she pulled up her mum's number and hit "Call".

---

Joe stretched overhead, checking the clock on the wall for the time. He knew it was early - his bedroom was still dark, no light peeking in through the curtains, and his head felt fuzzy. The clock clicked to 6:15am and he groaned to himself. No wonder he was fuzzy. He hadn't fallen asleep until after 1am - and once he had finally drifted off, his dreams had been full of the same petite, beautiful, redhead who had haunted his sleep for the last two weeks.

"Jesus, Joe," he muttered to himself, leaning over to click his bedside lamp on, grabbing his phone and sinking back into the pillows to scroll through emails.

The charity gala had been two weeks ago, and he still couldn't get the image of Dianne in the green dress out of his mind. Or the feeling of her lips on his.

They hadn't seen each other much the last two weeks, which hadn't allowed them the time to talk about anything, let along the giant elephant that now lay between them. Zoe had commandeered Dianne's attention by having her work on the product lines that would be featured in the stores, and Joe had been forced to finish the construction oversight alone. He'd missed her - and not just because those sites were boring and cold. He'd missed her smile. And her laugh. And her ability to make work fun, just by being there next to him.

Trying to push his brooding thoughts away, he clicked open an email from Zoe sent five minutes earlier, his eyes widened in shock.

Leo is having lunch with Dad next week. You have to tell him about Dianne.