She waited three days for him to get in touch with her and it was the hardest three days of her life.  She was tempted to go round to Doug's place a few times, even managed to stand at the end of his street watching to see if she could get a glimpse of him.  She was driving Bessie crazy, constantly watching the door hoping that he would ring the door bell, but on the third day she resigned herself that he wasn't coming.

She made decision then and there.

She picked up the phone and dialled the number at the top of the typed page.

"Emerson, Lowe and Benton."  Came the polite answer.

"Yes, hello can I speak to Mr Lowe please?"
"May I ask who is calling?"

"Josephine Potter"

"Hold please"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  Time to join the real world Jo!  She said to herself.

"Josephine, I hope your calling with good news."  She heard the man who had interviewed her and offered her the job on the spot on the other end of the phone.

"Mr Lowe, hi.  I'm hoping that the job offer is still open."

"It is indeed."

"Well, I'd like to accept."  She saw Bessie come in and look at her with a confused look on her face.

"Very good.  When would you like to start?"

"As soon as possible."

"That's fine I'll get the paperwork started and you can start on Monday.  Did you go home?"

"Yes I did, but it didn't work out the way I planned."

"Nothing ever does Josephine.  I just hope that you found what you were looking for."

"Thank you Mr Lowe.  I'll see you on Monday."  She hung up the phone and looked at Bessie who was still standing looking at her.

"Don't start!"

"What?  I never said anything!!"  Bessie said sounding angry

"You have that look on your face that says I'm doing the wrong thing.  I can't stay here knowing that he's just a few miles away and that he doesn't want to be with me."

"Has he actually told you that he doesn't want to be with you?"

"I think avoiding me for the past three days speaks volumes.  It's time to stop holding onto my childhood fantasies and get into the real world.  I don't know what else to do Bess.  I just feel lost.  I'm on edge and I just have to get some normality back in my life."

"And running back to Boston is going to do that?"

"I'm not running.  I'm going back to my life.  My apartment and my new job."

"Seems like your running to me.  You know Joey, it doesn't matter how far you run or how much you bury your head in the sand your problems follow you.  You have to deal with them or else you just create more problems for yourself.   So Pacey is being an idiot and you put yourself out there but you can't run from it.  He works and lives in Boston too and sooner or later you may just run into him and then what.  You tell him that you love him again and he blows you off again and then you run somewhere else."

"No, no, I don't know.  I just need to get away from here.  I'm leaving on the three o'clock bus."

"You've got it all sorted then!"  Bessie said sounding pissed off.

"I guess so.  I'm sorry Bess, I just have to go."  Joey walked to her bedroom to start packing to go back to Boston.

Bessie was exhausted.  She had tried to talk Joey into staying but she was having none of it.  She had left on the bus looking deflated.  Bessie had wanted to go and talk to Pacey but she had made a promise to Joey that she wouldn't go near Doug's house.  She didn't know how she always managed to get wrapped up in her sisters dramas. 

There was a knock at the door at 8.30pm.  Bessie opened the door to find Pacey standing before her looking nervous.

"Well, well, well.  If it isn't Mr Pacey Witter."

"Hey Bessie"                                                         

"Are you coming in or are you just going to block the door all day?"
"Sorry."  He walked into the sitting room and looked around.  Bessie always made him nervous.

"What can I do for you Pacey?"

"I was wondering, if um, if your sister was home."

"Your too late Pacey!  She's gone!"

"What? Where? Why?"

"She's gone back to Boston.  Got tired of waiting around for you"

 Pacey slumped down on a chair.

"This is your fault" Bessie said

"Mine!!  How did you work that out?" Shocked at her sudden outburst
"Men!  Why can't you just admit that you want her?"  Bessie said ranting on.

Pacey sat in silence, head in his hands.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What do you want me to say Bess?  That I love your sister and that I'm scared as hell.  That I want to be with her but am terrified that I'm going to hurt her again!"

Bessie sat down beside him and sighed.

"I don't know which one of you is worse.  I tried to get her to stay but she wanted to go."

Pacey laughed.  "You never did like me did you?"  He asked her

"It wasn't a question of liking you, I just thought you were a little too cocky, but here's the thing and this is something I just can't get my head round, my little sister loves you, no questions asked. Truly, madly, deeply in love with you, even after all these years, she still wants you.  Her face lights up whenever someone mentions your name.  If the only reason that you don't want to be with her is because you're scared then you don't deserve her.  We all get scared at one point in our lives but get over it because you'll regret never having tried."

"You sound like Dougie!"

"I knew there was a reason I liked your brother."

It was on the tip of Pacey's tongue to tell Bessie that Dougie had been in love with her but he decided against it.

"I guess I should go find her."

"What are you going to say to her once you find her?"

Pacey shrugged his shoulders.

Bessie hit him on the arm.

"Ow!  What was that for?"

"Figure it out Pacey.  And if you so much as hurt my sister I swear to God I will hunt you down and I will make sure that Pacey Witter will not be able to procreate.  Do you catch my drift?"

"Yes ma'am!"  Pacey said with a smirk.  You had to love the Potter girls.