Sunday August 14th 2022

Joe stood outside Taylor's apartment door. She was taking forever to answer.

"Taylor?" He knocked.

"Babe." He was getting nervous she wasn't answering. He pulled his phone out to call her.

"Sorry. I was in the shower." She opened to door, a towel around her.

"Oh you aren't ready yet?" He asked when he walked in and followed her back to her bedroom where she'd be getting ready.

"Huh no. I didn't know what to wear, and then I realized my hair was disgusting and-"

"Tay..." He stopped her from rambling.

"I'm sorry. I'm just nervous." She played with her towel.

"Relax" he held her hands and kissed her.

"I know what you could do to help with that." She smirked in between kissing.

"I don't think we have time for that."

"Please? I want you so bad."

"You always do haha." He laughed at her.

"Don't act like you don't." She dropped her towel from around her, making him look her naked body up and down.

"Ha…baby do not tempt me with a good time." He shook his head and stared up at the ceiling trying not to look.

"Just come on. It'll be quick, promise." She said and pulled him to her bed.

"Babe no. I don't have any condoms."

"You don't think I do!?" She pulled a box of them from her side table.

"Why am I not surprised." He walked towards her.

"Shit, it's empty!" She rummaged through the door hoping there was one loose. Then she looked at Joe, who had his arms crossed at her.

"You don't have any like in your car or wallet!?" She asked.

"Taylor that's a box of like 40 condoms." He said, not answering her question.

"And?"

"And we only did it a handful of times, is your body count that high?" He asked.

"…You're right. We don't have time anyway. I'll get dressed." She ignored what Joe said, threw the box on the bed and headed off to the bathroom.

"You gonna answer me?" He stood, leaning against the bathroom doorway, arms crossed again.

"What?" She asked and flipped her head upside down, drying her hair with the towel. He knew she was trying to play dumb and avoiding eye contact.

"Did you see someone else between Chris and Brian?" He wondered.

"Not exclusively." She said.

"Okay…I'm not being jealous or controlling I'm just wondering. Cause you said Brian and you never…"

"Wasn't Brian." She interrupted.

"Okay good, I just-"

"You know I'm not standing here asking how many times you and Angelina fucked you know?" She got angry.

"Taylor I'm not trying to piss you off. Just talking." He treaded lightly.

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk about it right now. I wanna get dressed and go."

"Me too. I'll wait in the living room." Joe left her alone.

The idea of her sleeping with someone else between Chris and Brian freaked Joe out. It's like what happened with Kelsey, but she got pregnant by the guy. He almost needed a confirmation that that wasn't the case here too, because that would be some shitty luck.

A couple minutes had passed and she was ready to go. He could tell she was nervous so he tried to just forget about everything from earlier. He focused on making sure she was comfortable and okay.

The car ride was quiet until it wasn't.

"I screwed the new dentist." Taylor said in the midst of the silence.

"Uh…?" Joe didn't know what she expected him to say.

"Not when we were together!" She corrected.

"So you mean before you met Brian?" Joe wondered.

"Yeah. He just started working there and beings the office is so small, well we got to know each other really well. He asked me if I wanted to get dinner after work one night, so of course I said yes, he was the young hot new dentist." She rambled. Joe just listened to the story not wanting to interrupt.

"So we got dinner and went back to my place…things happened…a few times and yeah…"

"So you screwed him 40 times?"

"Haha no! All I'm saying is between all our times, then Chris, then him…It makes sense." She said.

"I guess." Joe shrugged, he still was gonna go ballistic if this hot shot dentist knocked her up. They pulled up to Franks cutting the conversation off. She took a deep breath when they started towards the door.

"why are you so nervous?" He asked her.

"It's your whole family!"

"Babe you've met nearly all them."

"I haven't met your grandfather, or your great grandfather who both happen to be very important people of past and present day New York City!" She reminded.

"They'll love you. And you forgot about Danny and Sean." He added.

"Ugh." She groaned. Joe laughed and grabbed her hand.

"Ha, C'mon" He pulled her along.

They walked into the house, everyone was already sitting down waiting.

"Sorry we're late. I'd like to introduce you all to my girlfriend though, this is Taylor." He held her hand in front if everyone.

"Hi everyone." She waved shyly.

"Good to see you again!" Eddie said.

"Welcome!" Henry added.

"Long time no see." Jamie told her.

"Hope your hungry." Erin said with a smile.

"Glad you could make it." Frank told her.

"I'm Danny, this is my son Sean." He introduced.

"Hi." Sean smiled at her and they sat down.

"Who wants to say Grace?" Frank asked and looked around at the regulars.

"I'll do it! I mean…I can…" Taylor offered. Everyone was surprised at her confidence. Joe sorta panicked at it.

"Babe do you even-"

"Raised in the Catholic Church from little on up, thanks to my grandmother." She said cutting Joe off and put her hands together.

"Fantastic. Let's here it." Henry said enthusiastically.

"Yeah I'm starving." Danny didn't care he just wanted to eat.

"The floor is yours." Frank said with an approving smile. Taylor bowed her head and started the prayer with everyone following.

Over dinner everyone was curious about Taylor's life and upbringing, they really wanted to get to know her more. She was very open with her life. She told them about the death of her parents and grandmother and how it impacted her.

Joe was very surprised she was being so open to them, especially after seeing how nervous she was earlier. He just let her talk though, he'd rest his hand under the table on her thigh or run it up and down her back. He just wanted her to know he was present and listening, and he loved that she was an open book with his family.

——

After they left Joe couldn't express to her enough how well she did and how great he thought it went.

"They're so fun, I hate I was so nervous." She admitted.

"I told you, but it probably helped you met some of them before."

"For sure." She agreed.

"Where are we going?" She asked when Joe parked along the street.

"Condoms." He put the car in park outside a drugstore.

"Oh right. I can run in." She unbuckled her seat belt.

"No I got it. You wait here." He stopped her and got out instead.

When he got inside he walked around and finally found the condoms he preferred and then stared at 30 different pregnancy tests. He picked the one he recognized, it was mostly pink, the same kind Kelsey showed him after she told him she was pregnant.

He quickly took them to the counter and paid for it. On his way out he started to sweat, wondering how this was gonna go. Hopefully she'd understand right?

———

Ooooo this could go south…if I was Joe I'd wanna make sure she wasn't pregnant first either, he's scarred for life with that. How do you think she'll react though? Leave your thoughts!