The girls had had a sleepover at Adelaide's the other night, causing there to be no communication between her and Joseph. Neither expected it, but even in just two days, they had developed a habit of keeping contact at all times, making it weird for them to not have talked in over 12 hours.

Joseph, not being able to take the lack of contact any longer, Facetimes Adelaide I hopes that she might pick up. "Calling...Snowflake ❄️💖" the notification pops up on his phone screen as he waits for Adelaide to pick up.

Adelaide's peaceful sleep is disrupted by her phone's ringtone going off. She fumbles across the bed before answering the call without even checking who the caller was.

"What?" she snaps with an annoyed tone.

"Good morning to you too," Joseph chuckles from the other end of the call, causing her to finally open her eyes and look at her phone screen.

"What're you doing up so early?" she asks, slowly sitting up agaisnt her bed's headboard.

"Early? How is this early?"

"It's 2AM, Jo. Of course it's early," Adelaide states in a 'duh' tone.

"Okay, you've officially lost it. It's 2PM, Del. Didn't the girls wake you?" he quizzes as Adelaide checks her alarm clock to see it was, indeed, PM not AM.

"Oh," she replies, "no, they didn't wake up. I think they left."

"Good," Joseph says, causing Adelaide to raise her brow at him.

"I mean, good thing they let you sleep," he quickly adds with a sheepish smile, "you should get up and eat something, you know."

"Hm yeah, except I have nothing here. I mean, nothing I can make."

"Want me to come over with food?" Joseph offers as an idea pops up in Adelaide's mind.

"Food sounds very appealing right now, but...what if we went out? Rachie was telling me about this new place about a 20 minute drive from here. Apparently it's reallyy good. What say?" she suggests.

"Are you sure you want to go out already?" he retorts, causing Adelaide to frown, "I mean, I have no problem with it. But the media are already publishing so many articles about us and if paps find us..." he trails off.

"I don't care," she simply replies, "all I want if food, right now. And the media just need stuff to write about. We can't hide away for them. We agreed to go on dates, didn't we?" she asks rhetorically.

Joseph thinks for a second before nodding, "alright, I'll pick you up. And when I say be ready in 10, I mean 10, Del," he teases as Adelaide glares at him through the call.

"Don't make me ditch you, JoMo," she playfully threatens.

Joseph chuckles, "see you soon, love," he replies before hanging up. Adelaide stares at her phone's empty screen for a minute, a blushed smile plastered on her face. She changes Joseph's Caller ID on her phone before getting up and walking to her washroom, getting ready for their brunch date.

"Angel Eyes💖" the Caller ID now read.

༆☼︎☾︎ꨄ︎☽︎☼︎༆

When Joseph finally reached Adelaide's place after half an hour, he found the main entrance to be wide open, causing him to frown.

"Oh look, you're finally here. Took you long enough," Adelaide says monotonously as she grabs her purse and begins to walk out when Joseph holds onto her hand and stops her from walking.

"How are you ready this early?" he jokes, noticing how tense her mood was.

"Don't make me hit you with my purse," she glares, "can we please just go? I've been waiting for 20 minutes."

"Yeah sure, we can go," he replies as they walk out and he holds the passenger door open for her, "I just wanted to give you enough time to get ready."

"Because I just take that long to get ready, don't i?" Adelaide rolls her eyes as Joseph backs out of the driveway.

"Seriously Del, what happened? You seemed fine when I called you this morning," he asks in concern, wondering what could've gone wrong in such a short amount of time.

"Nothing. I am fine."

"Did I do something?" he asks in fear then.

"What? No, seriously Jo, I am fine. Probably just cranky cause I'm hungry," she says before turning up the radio and beginning to sing along.

"You're supposed to sing along, Jo," she points out after a few more songs.

"I would if I knew the songs," he replies as Adelaide's eyes widen as if he had grown two heads.

"You...you haven't heard 'Blank Space'? What about 'Chandelier'? 'Shower?'...That's like all they play on the radio anymore," she retorts, "oh god, I seriously need to educate you on pop culture."

"Maybe after we're done with brunch," he says as the car comes to a stop outside their destination. He quickly gets out of the car and walks over to the passenger side, holding the door open for Adelaide, "thank you, kind sir," she jokes as Joseph closes the car door and they walk into the restaurant with intertwined arms.

They find themselves a table in a secluded corner and order their meals when Adelaide's phone continues to ding the entire time.

"Seriously who's texting you so much? Answer it, might be important," Joseph says, halting their previous conversation when the sound wouldn't stop.

"It's no one," Adelaide replies as Joseph's raises her brow at him, "I swear," she adds.

"I'm not doubting you," Joseph clarifies, "I'm just saying...the person really seems to be trying to reach you."

"It's not important," she replies and Joseph decided to drop the subject, seeing she wasn't interested in talking about it. But before their conversation can resume again, Joseph's phone starts to ring.

"We can't get a single moment of peace, can you?" Adelaide quizzes rhetorically, "it's okay, answer it," she tells him as he gets up to answer the call.

By the time he is back, their food has arrived.

"You're fighting with you parents?" Joseph asks her as soon as he retakes his seat, causing Adelaide to freeze, a spoonful of spaghetti hanging hallway between the plate and her mouth.

"Wh-what? Who told you that?"

"Will did. That was him calling," Joseph says, "shit, I shouldn't have told you. Don't tell him I told you."

"Wil told you? Since when do you two talk?" Adelaide then asks.

"We've always talked," Joseph shrugs, "we just talk a lot more often now. He says he's 'evaluating' me to see if I'm good enough for you."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I don't know what's wrong with him," Adelaide apologizes, "you do know you don't have to play along with this crap, right?"

"I do, but it's alright. He's looking out for you and I do want to make a good impression on your family someday," he replies, "which brings us back to our first topic- why are you fighting with your mom?"

"I'm not fighting with her," Adelaide groans in frustration, "she's being unreasonable."

"About?"

"You," she blurts out.

"Wh-what?!" Joseph yells in shock as people from other tables turn to glare at them, "sorry, I mean, what? What about me?"

"They read the articles, saw the posts and now they want to meet you. So mom wants me and you to fly to Australia to meet her and my step-dad. When I said no, pops offered for them to fly here," Adelaide tells him.

"And what did you say?" Joseph inquires.

"No."

"Why? I don't mind meeting them," Joseph says, " I don't want them to think I don't want to meet them. That's not a good impression."

"Can you stop worrying about this 'good impression'? Everyone loves you, it's almost annoying at times," Adelaide groans, "and I don't want them to be here taking up the time we're getting right now with ourselves, it's too soon."

"We have enough times, though," Joseph points out as Adelaide's face falls, "don't we?"

"Um...about that, the schedules for Season 3 of Reign were sent to us today," Adelaide states sheepishly and realization overcomes Joseph.

"Oh, when...when do you have to go?"

"They have the cast flights to Ireland scheduled for 10th August," she tells him.

"The day after your birthday?" Joseph asks as Adelaide nods, "that's in 9 days."

"I know," Adelaide mumbles, "and I hate it. But I can't stall work either. With TVD, they made Kaitlyn a recurring character for Season 5 and 6, but I can't skip on Reign, it's all me."

"When do you return?"

"October 12, for Candice's wedding," Adelaide whispers as Joseph remains silent.

"Jo, say something," she nudges, placing her hand over his and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"I don't know what to say, I mean...it's your work and I knew you'd have to go back. I just didn't expect it to be this soon," he replies in a sad tone.

"I know, I didn't either. We were supposed to start in October but apparently there could be some snowstorm then so they're moving the dates up. I get time off from October till New Year's then," she tells him.

Joseph clears his throat, "hm it's alright. We'll make it work, right?"

"Of course we will," Adelaide smiles as him reassuringly as he smiles back, "now, moving on to better topics. I need to ask you something."

"Go on," Joseph encourages as they resume eating after they get past the tense conversation.

"The Monte Carlo film festival is this Sunday," Adelaide begins, "and the executives are making me go. So, I was wondering if you'd like to be my date to the event?"

"You want me to be your date at an award festival? A place that is going to be swarmed with paparazzi?" he asks in an astonished tone, causing Adelaide to roll her eyes at him.

"Yes, Jo. I want you to be my date to an award festival full of paparazzi," she retorts, "look, if we're going to do this, I want the full experience. I know I said I need time but we can't just sneak around while we explore this either, right?"

Joseph nods, "well then, I'd be honored to be your date," he says as Adelaide smiles widely at him, "but where do I get a suit in two days?"

"Steal one from Daniel's costume rack," Adelaide jokes, "I'm wearing a black dress so just any suit works. Men don't need to put too much effort into their outfits, anyway. Kinda unfair if you ask me," she mumbles with a mouthful of spaghetti.

Joseph smiles, yet again at how comfortable she was around him, now more than ever. He slowly reaches out to wipe away some spaghetti sauce from the corner of her mouth as she smiles at him.

"You're so cute," she says before her eyes widen in shock of what she said, "sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud."

Joseph chuckles at her words, "it's okay. You can tell me if you think I'm cute. It's good for my ego," he teases as Adelaide tries to glare at him but is unable to do so as a smile breaks out on her face.

"I think your ego is doing fine without my compliments that I didn't even mean to give you," she teases back.

"But you were thinking it, weren't you? I wonder what else you think of me," Joseph smirks at her teasingly as she leans over the table and nudges him playfully, causing him to chuckle and hold his hands up in mock-surrender.

"For what it's worth, I think you're beautiful too. Cute. Adorable. Pretty. Graceful. All of the above," he compliments as Adelaide's face flushes red.

"Stop it," she mumbles, "I'm trying to eat spaghetti, not look like the tomato that goes into the spaghetti sauce," she jokes.

"Well, I meant it. You're like a snowflake, you know," Joseph adds, "unique in every way. Never like the others. Always standing out. Different. Special. Even my contact name for you is 'Snowflake'."

"Wait really? That is...so cute I could cry," Adelaide says with a big smile on her face.

"What's mine?" Joseph then asks her.

"What's your what?" Adelaide retorts as Joseph raises his brow at her, "ugh, I'd rather not tell."

"Is it bad?"

"No," Adelaide says, "it's...embarrassing? On my part, at least."

"Okay, now I'm curious," Joseph grins as Adelaide glares at him, "come on, I told you yours. I deserve to know mine. Pretty please?" he requests with his puppy eyes.

Everyone knew Joseph could never say 'no' to Addy's puppy eyes, but what they never noticed was that even Adelaide was a victim to his charmingly adorable puppy eyes too.

"Ugh fine," Adelaide sighs in defeat before handing her phone to him, "I can't say it out loud so here you go. But you should know, you're getting me ice cream for making me do this."

"Sure, anything," he says before taking the phone from her. A wide grin overtakes his face as he reads the contact ID and Adelaide buries her face in her hands in embarrassment.

"Angel Eyes?" Joseph asks out loud, "you think I have angelic eyes?"

"No, I don't," she groans in response.

"Of course you do, Del. One shouldn't lie to their partners," he continues to tease.

"Ugh I hate you. And now I want ice cream and waffles. Keep going and I'll keep adding to the list," she threatens.

"I don't know about the 'cute' but this was definitely a major ego boost," he continues as Adelaide snatches her phone from his hands.

"Will you stop or not?" she asks while pointing her butter knife at him.

"You need to stop threatening me with knives," he says, gently taking the knife out of her hands, "specially a butter knife. You need to learn better defense too."

Before Adelaide can reply, a waiter approaches them, "sir, ma'am, could I get you anything else?"

"Um yes, two double scooped choco-chip ice creams and the red velvet waffles for takeaway, please," Joseph tells the waiter, who nods and leaves.

"Did I tell you that even when I hate you I think you're the best?" Adelaide grins at him.

"Maybe you should tell me more often," Joseph smiles back as Adelaide scoots to the seat beside him.

"Well, you are the best," she says before placing a small kiss on his cheek before moving back to her old seat.

"Del, you got spaghetti sauce of my cheek," Joseph complains when he realizes what she had done.

"That was intended, JoMo. And that was your lesson on why you should never, ever tease me again," she says with an evil smile that Joseph, of course, found adorable.

"You're crazy," he says as they pay the bill and walk out of the restaurant with their takeaway.

"But I'm still the best," Adelaide jokes as Joseph whispers, "that you are."

[tagged: adelaidebrown]

Comments have been limited on this post

mr.danielgillies Sick invite

↪ adelaidebrown That's what you get for taking JoMo's side

↪ mr.danielgillies But you're talking to him!

↪ adelaidebrown Because I like him, but you...not so much

↪ paulwesley Ouch harsh

↪ phoebejtonkin Why're you always lurking in the comment sections, Paul?

↪ adelaidebrown Yes Pauline, why? Don't you have better things to do.

↪ therealjosephmorgan No, he doesn't

↪ paulwesley You're all mean

↪ mr.danielgillies Don't worry, man. I got you

↪ paulwesley #bros4lyf

↪ iansomerhalder The second-hand embarrassment I'm getting from this is INSANE

↪ phoebejtonkin ^^

[tagged: therealjosephmorgan]

Comments have been limited on this post

therealjosephmorgan Thank god my shirt survived the spaghetti sauce

↪ therealjosephmorgan And the butter knife

↪ adelaidebrown Did you just reply to yourself?

↪ therealjosephmorgan So what if I did?

↪ adelaidebrown Nothing, I suddenly understand Pheebs' embarrassment better

↪ phoebejtonkin Welcome to the club, sis🤍

↪ therealjosephmorgan Please, I'm not half as bad as Paul is

↪ adelaidebrown Whatever you say, angel eyes

mr.danielgillies "Angel eyes" omg can you hear me crying-

↪ phoebejtonkin ^^

↪ iansomerhalder ^^

↪ elizabetholsenofficial ^^!!!

↪ imsebastianstan I am going to barf

↪ nina same cuz you two are CUTE

↪ adelaidebrown And you all are embarrassing

↪ therealjosephmorgan I agree

↪ claireholt Of course, you'd agree

↪ natebuzz WHIPPED