To everyone that commented, yes, Joey will be opening her own restaurant in the near future. However, unlike Angelo, she will have qualifications (although, maybe a little accelerated to fit with the timeline), it will take some work and won't open a couple of episodes after she has the idea, and it won't be quite so arrogantly named! Thanks to everyone for your lovely feedback. I had a very bad week so reviews have been an extra special blessing for me! Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Nine

Having hurriedly paid the taxi driver, Charlie and Joey crashed through the kitchen door. Kissing fervently, Joey pushed Charlie onto the kitchen table. She ran her hands over her, tugging at her clothes. A button pinged across the room as she ripped open her shirt, trailing kisses all over her chest and tummy. Breathing heavily, Charlie made a clumsy grab for Joey's t-shirt, pulling it over her head and flinging it onto the floor. They crushed their lips together again before stumbling as a unit into the lounge. Resting on the back on the couch, they battled for possession of each other. Joey struggled with Charlie's belt, pulling her trousers down. Charlie kicked them and her shoes off before standing on her own two feet, dragging Joey to the bedroom. Kissing hard and giggling loudly, they flung themselves on the bed, eager to make mad, passionate love.


The following morning, Joey woke up with a groan. Her head pounded and the sunlight creeping through the open window made her eyes hurt. She felt sick and every inch of her body ached. Beside her, Charlie also began to come to. She also moaned loudly in protest and was just grateful that she had the weekend off work. Entangled with Joey's body, she lay motionless, never wanting to rise from her slumber.


An hour later, a particularly groggy Charlie and Joey just about found their way to the kitchen.

"Nice night?" Leah asked innocently.

"Um..."

Suddenly Ruby burst out with what Charlie hoped was an exaggerated impression of some of the noises she had apparently been making last night. She cringed and busied herself with making coffee.

"Were we that loud?" Joey asked, turning pink and sitting down heavily in a chair.

"Yes!" Leah and Ruby said in unison, before Ruby carried it on by screaming the same word over and over again.

"Sorry!" Joey mumbled. "And please stop being loud. My head hurts."

Charlie finished pouring coffee and came to sit beside her. She rubbed her temples, groaning over her hangover.

"Yep," Ruby said brightly. "We heard a lot of that too."

"Sorry," Joey apologised again. "We were drowning our sorrows."

"In each other?" Leah asked with a cheeky grin.

"Yes, but first in booze," Joey explained. "And for the record, it was totally Charlie's fault."

Charlie snapped her head up and then regretted it, demanding to know how it was her fault.

"You were the one that kept going back up to the bar," Joey pointed out.

"Yeah, because you finished your drinks before I'd even sat down!" Charlie argued.

"Uh oh," Ruby teased. "Lovers tiff."

"They'll have to go and have makeup sex later," Leah said.

"I think I need to be out," Ruby decided. "Because I can't listen to that all over again."

"We're not normally that loud!" Charlie insisted. "We were just drunk. We lost our inhibitions!"

She managed to grin at Joey. They had definitely done that. Most of the evening was a blur but they'd tried all sorts of new, if rather clumsy positions, and it had been a lot of fun.

"You also lost your clothes," Leah said, standing up in order to finish getting ready for work. "We folded them neatly and put them on the couch."

Charlie and Joey blushed even further.


That afternoon, Charlie and Joey made another attempt to apologise to Leah by offering to collect VJ from his friend's house where he had spent Friday night. Charlie pulled up outside and Joey, still feeling fragile, climbed out of the door to let him know they were there. VJ appeared, looking particularly miserable. He flung himself into Joey's arms and held her tight.

"I don't think VJ was feeling very well," VJ's friend's father explained apologetically.

"Are you okay, Veej?" Joey asked.

The little boy nodded. Then his friend, Riley appeared. He looked Joey up and down and then smiled.

"VJ said he's going to be at the Diner all day," Riley said. "Can I come too so we can play?"

"Um..." Joey faltered.

She looked at Riley's Dad who said it would be fine.

"Well, I guess so," Joey said. "Do you want Riley to come and play, VJ?"

"I guess," VJ replied.

Letting go of her, he headed towards the car and dived onto the backseat. Riley followed. Joey thanked his Dad politely and then returned to the car herself.


Back at the Diner, VJ and Riley had gone outside to play while Charlie and Joey were nursing coffees and still feeling a little sorry for themselves.

"Maybe we should hop online and look through the college website today," Charlie said, sounding more cheery than she felt.

"What?" Joey asked in confusion.

"You know, about the cheffing, cooking, thingy," Charlie reminded her.

"Oh yeah," Joey remembered. "Listen, Charlie, I don't think..."

Charlie reached out and held her hand.

"If this is something you want to do then I really think you should do it," she said. "But if you don't, just say so and I'll stop pushing. I promise!"

Joey grinned, assuring her that she wasn't being pushy at all.

"I love that you care so much," she added. "But honestly, I wouldn't have the first clue how to open a restaurant or do anything like that."

"Well, that's why you'd go to college and learn," Charlie pointed out.

"But surely the first thing I need to do is get a job?" Joey said. "I can't afford to go to college full time."

Charlie nodded. While she would be more than happy to pay for Joey to become a student and try her hand at the career she had wanted almost as much as trawler work, she knew her girlfriend would never agree to be supported in that way. It had been okay when she was finding her feet and between jobs on those two occasions but this was different and she knew Joey wouldn't be willing.

"There must be part time courses you could do though," the police officer said brightly. "You could work in the day and do night school or something."

"Maybe," Joey said.

"Do you want to?"

Joey nodded with a shy smile. The more she thought about the idea, the more she remembered just how badly she had wanted to do this when she was younger. Trawler work and boats were her first love but this had been a very close second. It had only been circumstances that had prevented her from going forward.

"Then let's go for it," Charlie encouraged.

Taking her hand, she led her over to the computers at the back of the room. Pulling up Internet Explorer in order to Google the local college, Charlie glanced to the spare computer on her right. She pulled a face at the image of a nude woman on it. Glancing around, she saw that all of the computer screens had been set to the same image.

"That's not Google!" Joey squeaked.

Charlie turned back to their computer and pulled a face.

"Leah!" she yelled. "You might have a problem!"


"That was awesome!" Riley said as he and VJ hurried away from the door of the Diner.

VJ was not quite so jubilant. They ran into Riley's crowd of friends and VJ's heart sank. He didn't want to hang out with them. They were horrible boys. But he couldn't find a way out.

"VJ just switched all the Diner computers' home pages to a porn website!" Riley informed his mates.

"I don't want to do this anymore," VJ said quietly.

"I've already told you," Riley said. "If you want to hang out with us then you have to do what we say."

"I don't want to..."

"And if you don't hang out with us, you'll be completely in your own because we'll make sure everyone hates you!" Riley added.

VJ sighed, feeling utterly helpless.

"Oh, and we all want to know more about that hot girl who picked you up today," Riley told him.

VJ thought of Joey. He definitely didn't want to share her.

"Joey?" he asked.

"Which one was she?"

"The one who came to do the door."

"She was hot," Riley stated. "And so was the one driving. They both were. How do you even know them?"

"I live with them," VJ explained. "They're my Mum's friends."

"I definitely want to know more about them," Riley decided.


"I don't even know how this happened," Leah said, embarrassed and frustrated.

Charlie was busily setting the homepages back to Google.

"There should have been a password," Leah said. "Nobody should be able to change anything like that without a password."

"I didn't even see anyone on the computers today except..."

Joey trailed off.

"VJ," Leah realised.

She asked the girls to hold the fort. Then she charged outside to track down her son.


Next time... Angelo frets about being transferred and VJ confesses all to Joey...