Disclaimer: I don't own Hot in Cleveland.
Thank you so much to everyone that's read and reviewed thus far, you're all gorgeous.
Will love you forever if you read and/or review.

A few evenings later, Victoria and Melanie sat in the front room. Victoria hung up her phone in awe.

"I can't believe it," she told her friend, "I just got another job offer!"

Melanie scoffed: "Please, like you don't know why. This is what you were hoping for, right?" Victoria was utterly nonplussed.

"What?"

"You know…with your little publicity stunt the other day?"

"My wha-oh, right…yes, of course!" Yes, it all made sense now. As soon as she'd seen the paper and Melanie and Elka had demanded to know what was going on, she'd panicked and blurted "Publicity stunt!" Joy, thank God, had gone along with the lie, although she'd taken to giving Victoria filthy looks whenever the others' backs were turned. Victoria had been pretending not to notice, and thankfully, she'd been flooded with offers of new acting jobs, which meant she could distract herself from thoughts of Joy and what she'd done and how much it hurt. Which was good. Because there was nothing to think about. It couldn't be undone. And she wouldn't want to undo it, even if she could. No. No, she wouldn't. She still wasn't sure how the paper had got hold of the picture, though. It had been taken the time when they'd kissed out back, so one of the local paps (or, actually, the one local pap) must have chosen that particular night to spy on her place of residence.

Now she realised that it was because of the article that she'd got all this new work…well, that changed everything. She'd thought that she'd only go down in the estimation of the public if it ever got out, but it had had the opposite effect.

She tried to shoot an "Excuse me," in Melanie's direction, although she couldn't tell if she'd caught it or not. Or if she'd even managed to choke the words out. The next thing she knew, she was standing outside Joy's bedroom, banging on the door with all her might. Joy didn't say a word when she finally came to the door, looking adorable in her pyjamas and glasses and messy ponytail. She just leaned against the door frame, crossed her arms and glared at Victoria until she spoke. That was fine. She knew what to do.

"We're a couple."

This was enough to make even Joy blink: "What?"

"You and me. Us. We're a couple. That's what we are. That is, if…if that's what you want us to be."

Joy raised her eyebrows. She was thawing. Good.

"Go on."

"I'm sorry. I was a bitch. I was trying to protect myself, and I ended up hurting the one person that's…" she broke off. This was the hardest part: "…that's even more important to me than myself."

That did it. Joy leapt on her and kissed her. She'd forgotten how good that felt. Or rather, she hadn't let herself remember. She kissed her back, wrapping her arms around her waist. And Joy led her into her room, gently pressing the door closed behind her.