Shannon stood under the shower trying to wash the events from the previous evening out of her mind. She felt grubby in more ways than one. She'd kill Kelly when she felt halfway human again, she'd gone too far setting her up like that. Did she honestly think the evening would have ended with her and Joe walking off into the sunset? Angrily she scrubbed her face as the sound of the front door buzzing interrupted her thoughts. Talk about perfect timing!

She ignored it but the noise didn't stop, whoever it was obviously wasn't going anywhere until she answered the door. She got out of the shower and slowly dried herself off; if they were that desperate to see her then they could damn well wait until she was ready. Pulling a robe around herself she headed to the door thinking it was probably Kelly coming to apologise or maybe Katherine and her Huskies were going to warn her off. She let out a laugh, no Joe called them pit bulls and clearly with good reason.

Cautiously she looked through the spy hole, jumping back when she saw Joe standing on the other side.

'Come on, Shannon, open the door,' he said pressing his finger to the buzzer again. 'I'll wait here all day if I have to and that's gonna get pretty boring for the both of us.'

She winced, the noise irritating her delicate head as he'd surely anticipated. 'Fine come on in,' she said unlocking the door and arranging her face into what she hoped was a displeased expression.

Joe stepped inside. 'Is he here?' He pushed past her looking in the living room and then poking his head into the kitchen.

'Would you like to inspect my bedroom while you're at it?' she asked her voice scathing.

Joe turned, his shoulders sagging. 'No, I guess he's already left. That's why you let me in, right?'

'I let you in because the noise was driving me crazy,' Shannon said pulling her robe tighter around herself and scooting past Joe to get into the kitchen. She filled the kettle up, desperate for a coffee. 'But to answer your question, Donnie left last night.'

Joe pulled a face. 'So he didn't even stay, that's-'

'What Joey? Treating me like you did?'

Joe inhaled deeply. 'Touche. I guess I deserved that, I shouldn't have tried to start something up with you while I was still with Kat. But Shannon, why would you let Donnie use you? I mean you could have any guy, why him?'

Shannon shook her head. 'Nothing happened. You really have a low opinion of me, don't you? And a low opinion of your friend?'

Joe grabbed her arm. 'Are you serious? You left the club with Donnie-'

'Yeah we left the club, that's all. Not that it's anything to do with you. You're still engaged.' She snatched her arm away from him, welcoming the indignation that washed over her.

How dare Joe start getting territorial when he was the one in a relationship?

She turned to the kettle and switched it off as it began to boil, making both herself and Joe a coffee.

'You still remember how I take it,' Joe remarked forcing her to meet his eyes.

'Old habits,' she said looking away.

'Shannon, I'm not engaged any more.' She looked at him warily. 'It's the truth, the wedding's off, you can ask my mom.'

She swallowed, struggling to find the right words. 'Okay, I guess I believe you but only cos I can't believe Katherine would still be contemplating marriage to you.' Joe gave her a half smile and her mouth turned down. 'You are still in a relationship though.'

'It's all but over, Shannon.'

'Except it isn't!'

'Kat knows I'm here.'

'Oh.' She gripped her cup tightly not trusting herself to speak, she knew Joe was trying to soften her up. He stood up and opened her fridge door. 'What are you doing?' she asked frowning as he rummaged around.

'I thought I'd make you breakfast,' he said opening a cupboard. 'I'd imagine you need something to soak up all the alcohol you drank last night.'

'Joey you can't come in here and start acting like you're my dad or something,' she said watching him curiously.

'How about your boyfriend then?'

'I mean it.'

He turned to her frowning. 'Is this kitchen for decorative purposes only? You have literally no food.'

'That's not strictly true,' she said letting herself get sidelined. 'There's some cereal bars somewhere around. But I don't like to have a load of clutter.'

'Food isn't clutter, Shan,' he said chuckling under his breath. 'What are you like? Go get dressed and I'll take you to get something to eat.'

~~~

Joe took Shannon's arm as she got out of his car, and she looked at him her brows furrowing.

'Aren't you scared someone will see you with me?'

He shook his head. 'I've told you, it's over with Kat and after last night I'm sure she realises.'

'Even so, to be seen with another woman before you are officially over, that's indecent haste.'

'Yeah I guess you're right,' he said but he kept hold of her arm, leading her towards the restaurant. 'I'm not proud of this, but me and you, well it's different.'

She frowned looking up at him. 'How so?'

'We were always meant to be together.' He let out a laugh. 'When we were babies I bet our moms' were already planning our marriage.'

Shannon smiled slightly. 'My mom probably was, yours I'm not so sure about.'

'Nah she loves you,' he said. 'She was never going to be happy with whoever I ended up with. I know one thing, she likes you a lot more than she likes Kat.'

Shannon froze and he knew he'd said the wrong thing. 'Why do you keep comparing us?'

'I don't, I was just pointing out that my mom doesn't disapprove of you.' He pulled open the restaurant door, ushering Shannon inside. Luckily the place was quiet and they were instantly seated. 'I guess it's still early for the lunchtime rush.'

'Hmm,' Shannon said picking up the menu. 'You know I'm only here with you cos I'm hungry.'

'So if I'd enticed you with food you wouldn't have avoided me these past few weeks,' he said trying to tease her.

'I asked you to do one thing, and to stay away from me until you had.' She put the menu down and gave him a hard look. 'And I'm still not convinced you are going to do it.'

'So why are you here then?'

Shannon bit her lip. 'I guess we do need to talk.'

'That's what I've been trying to tell you.'

Shannon shrugged helplessly. 'I don't know where to begin, or what to say.'

'How about I love you,' he said reaching for her hand. 'I should never have let you go all those years ago. I was so stupid and egotistical, I should have fought for you.'

Shannon shook her head. 'I honestly don't think it would have worked back then, I needed to be alone for a while.'

More like needed to see other people.

He cleared his throat and she tensed up. 'Okay, you're probably right, I should have been more mature about it all. So why are you speaking to me now? After weeks of radio silence.'

Shannon picked the menu up and he didn't think she was going to answer his question. 'I thought I was pregnant,' she murmured and he had to strain to hear her.

'What?'

'You heard, I thought I was pregnant.' She lowered the menu from her face. 'I wasn't, obviously, but it certainly helped me put things into perspective. I don't want a friends with benefits relationship, and I don't want to live in limbo while I wait for you to decide who you want to be with.'

'I want to be with you Shannon,' he insisted. 'I want a real relationship, marriage, babies, the works.'

She pulled a face. 'I don't think you should be mentioning the M word, do you?'

He thought for a moment. 'No, probably not but all those years ago I thought that was where we were heading. You know, if you had been pregnant, it wouldn't have been the end of the world for me.'

Her jaw dropped. 'Oh be serious Joey, the timing would have been a disaster. You can't even break up with Katherine, would you really be happy telling her there was a baby to throw into the mix?'

'It would have been the kick up the ass I needed,' he said feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. 'I've always known what I had to do, but Kat, she hasn't done anything wrong, she doesn't deserve to be dumped.'

'No one ever does,' Shannon said somberly.

'Are you talking about your ex?'

Shannon nodded looking down. 'Kinda. I dumped him but I had no choice after everything that had happened, and I'm pretty sure he was seeing someone else. So in many respects, I felt like the rejected party. I just got in first as far as the actual dumping went.'

Joe's eyebrows came together in a frown. 'That's what I don't understand about Kat. She knows I've cheated, she knows I love you and yet she's still hanging on. Why doesn't she end it?'

Shannon shrugged. 'That's a conversation you'd have to have with her.'

'Yeah I know,' Joe said as his phone vibrated again. He took it out of his pocket but he knew without looking that it was Katherine calling.

'Are you going to answer that?' Shannon asked tilting her head to one side.

'No, it's nothing, I'll speak to them later.' He switched his phone off and put it back in his pocket. 'I'd much rather be talking about me and you.' Shannon raised her eyebrows. 'So how many kids do you want? I recall we were going to have boy/girl twins.'

Shannon let out a laugh. 'Oh my god, you remember me saying that!'

'Yeah, I do. I think you wanted to get the whole pregnancy thing over in one go.'

Shannon giggled. 'Yeah, I was kinda dumb.'

Joe relaxed as Shannon reminisced about their past history. Finally, their relationship was heading in the right direction and maybe he had Donnie to thank for that. If he hadn't taken Shannon home, he'd have continued on playing games with Katherine, pretending that they were working on fixing their relationship. He owed Donnie a drink, at the very least.

~~~

Thank you for reading, apologies for the late update, life has been getting in the way ;)