Lauren heard the front door open and close and Joey's car start up and pull off the drive. She got out of bed and she locked the bedroom door and got back into the bed, pulling the covers over herself. She was in between a tearful state and an angry state, unsure of which was going to first.

After an hour she got up and unlocked the door and she went downstairs. She lay down on the sofa to wait for Joey to get home, after thinking things through she realised that Joey hadn't meant anything by what he said, he was right they did have a healthy sex life, and she missed it too, even though she didn't want to actually have sex with him. She decided that she would go to the doctor's, she would make an appointment tomorrow. Maybe the HRT tablets that he would give her would make her start to feel more human again instead of the way that she felt. She flicked the TV on, turning the sound off and she turned the lights off downstairs and she waited for Joey to come home. She heard his car pull onto the drive and she turned off the TV and she waited. He came into the house quietly, his phone rang and he answered it quickly.

'Miss me already?' he said

Lauren lay as still as a statue on the sofa, she closed her eyes, deciding to pretend to be asleep in case he came into the lounge. She listened to the one sided conversation.

'No I did, it was just what I needed….thank you….yes I will call you tomorrow…..when I've dropped the kids off at school…..yes…. yes I promise…..'

Lauren frowned as she listened to the phone call, not sure what to make of it. She heard Joey laugh softly

'Yeah babe me too… I've got to go…..I'm home now and I don't want to wake the kids…yeah …..bye' he ended the call and he walked up the stairs and didn't come back down.

Lauren swallowed. She heard him call someone babe. He called Alice babe. Maybe he was on the phone to his sister, she knew that sometimes they spoke to each other later at night on the phone. But then where did he go? She thought with a frown, maybe he needed to get some air, she had jumped down his throat again. She felt guilty. She got up and she went up the stairs and crept into the bedroom, she could hear the shower running, she frowned again and got into bed and snuggled under the covers, waiting for Joey to come back into the room. She glanced at the clock. It was 3:00am, Joey had been gone for 5 hours, and he was having a shower at 3:00am, she wondered why.

She heard the shower stop and five minutes later Joey got into the bed with a sigh. His phone beeped and he picked it up off the bedside table, she heard him send a text and then put the phone back down.

Lauren lay awake, troubled by her thoughts. She drifted off to sleep at 6:00am.

Lauren woke when Angel shook her gently 'Hey' he said 'It's 1:00pm' he told her 'I need to pop up, Jamie's having trouble with the safe at the club, I'll be about an hour, maybe two' he told her softly. I brought you a coffee and a sandwich'

Lauren rubbed her eyes and she looked at the bedside table and she nodded 'thank you' she told him quietly 'I might be not be here when you get back, I'm going to see if I can get a Doctor's appointment' she told him

'You don't have to' Joey said 'I'm sorry about last night, I didn't mean to upset you' he told her softly

'I didn't mean to snap' she replied

'I know' he told her with a smile 'I'll be back as soon as I can okay'

'Okay' she nodded. Joey gave her a quick kiss to her forehead and he left.

Lauren sighed and she lay in bed for half an hour longer, she climbed out of bed and she heard something fall on the floor. Looking down she saw that it was Joey's phone. She picked it up and she looked at it. She licked her lips and she swallowed, she could look at his phone and see who he called last night, see who he text. Her bladder reminded her why she got out of bed and she put the phone back on the bed and rushed to the bathroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and splashed her face with water, before dabbing it dry with a towel.

Returning to the bedroom, sitting down on the bed she picked up Joey's phone and she unlocked it, she stared at the picture on his phone, one of her taken on their wedding day. She felt bad for snooping on his phone, it was probably Alice anyway. She was about to put the phone down when it rang, It was Joey's work. She answered the call, thinking that Joey had got there and realised that he had lost his phone and was calling to see if Lauren had found it.

'Hi babe, your phone is here' she said softly

'Er… I was ringing Joey's mobile?' she heard a male voice

'Jamie?' Lauren frowned It's Lauren' she said

'Oh hi Lauren, you all right?'

'Yes fine thank you?'

'Well no not really…. Is Joey there?'

'Is he not with you? He told me he was coming in?' she said to him 'Something about trouble with the safe?'

'Oh er right he is, has he left then?'

'Yeah about half an hour ago, he should be with you…'

'Perhaps he's stuck in traffic' Jamie offered.

'Probably yeah' she said

'All right I'll wait for him then' Jamie said and he hung up.

Lauren frowned, 'The club was only 15 minutes away by car, Joey should have been thereby now. She looked at his call history and the last call he had received was at 5:00pm last night. She swallowed and she looked at his text history. There was no record of a text being received or sent in the early hours of the morning. Her mouth felt dry suddenly and her heart was racing in her chest.

He'd deleted his history. She scrolled through the numbers on his phone looking for a number she didn't recognise but she couldn't see any. She got dressed trying to think of a reason that Joey would delete his history. She carried the phone down the stairs with the tray and she took a deep breath, she threw away the coffee and the sandwich and she left Joey's phone on the bar after locking it again. She left him a note on the table to say that she had found it, she picked up her car keys and she went out locking the house up behind her.

She drove to Walford and she parked outside her parent's house and she walked across the street to the Vic. There were people behind the bar that she didn't know and she ordered a double vodka and coke and she took it to a table in the corner, unaware that someone had heard her.

'Lauren?' she heard Tyler's voice 'Are you okay Lauren? You look …..like someone's run over your puppy'

She looked at Tyler and she licked her lips and picked up her drink and she drank it down in one, closing her eyes when she had finished.

Tyler couldn't believe the next words out of her mouth 'I think Joey's having an affair' she whispered

AN: Is Joey having an affair? What do you all think?

What is Tyler going to say to her?

Thank you for your reviews

Just a note to some guest reviewers - can you look up the word "story" in the dictionary.

Nobody is forcing you to read any of the stories posted here if you don't like it DON'T READ IT! And please stop posting reviews. That way we won't have to read your crap either. You know who you are. Thank you.

For the rest of you R&R as always