Warnings: Some self deprecation

Word Count: 1593

You opened the visor in your car and flipped the mirror open. Your eyes were puffy and red from the sobbing you had done on the way to Josh's house, but you knew that Josh would start to worry if you didn't walk inside soon. Part of you wanted to text him and tell him that you had to stay late and sit in the car until you no longer looked like you were crying, but the other part of you wanted to go inside and wrap your arms around your boyfriend and forget all the bad things that had happened at work today. Regardless, you didn't want Josh to worry about you.

You were still debating what to do when you noticed movement out of the corner of your eye. The front door to Josh's house had swung open and he was walking outside carrying two bags of trash. His back was turned to you still, so you hastily wiped away the few remaining tears and made yourself look as presentable as possible.

Josh's face absolutely lit up when his eyes landed on you. You took a deep breath and climbed out of the car while he walked over and threw the trash bags into the bin on the side of his house. He must not have noticed how upset you looked yet.

"Y/N!" he smiled, walking over to where you were standing next to your car. "I was starting to get worried about you, thought maybe you decided not to spend Friday night with me."

Your heart clenched a bit when Josh mentioned that he thought you were skipping out on him. The two of you always made it a point to get together at Josh's house on Friday night to watch movies and order takeout to celebrate you getting through another week of work. Josh knew that you hated your job, and your Friday night celebration gave you something to look forward to each week.

"I would never skip out on you," you sniffled.

Josh's eyebrows furrowed as he got closer to you and noticed your splotchy cheeks and puffy eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked, reaching out and placing a hand lightly on your forearm.

Josh's gentle voice was enough to cause you to start crying again. You buried your face in your hand and crossed the other across your stomach, a feeble attempt at shielding yourself from view.

"Was it something I said?" Josh said, stepping closer to you. "Or did work go bad?"

Unable to talk, you just shook your head and let your shoulders shake. Josh wrapped an arm around your shoulders and led you inside. He walked you over to the couch and grabbed a nearby blanket to wrap around you, knowing that it would help you feel a bit more secure.

"I'll be right back, you just sit tight," Josh said, walking off down the hallway.

You wrapped the blanket tighter around you and pulled your knees up to your chest, trying to make yourself as small as possible. You hated to break down this way in front of Josh, but work today had been worse than usual. Between your boss yelling at you and your coworkers giving you the cold shoulder, it felt like everyone was against you.

"I figured you didn't want to be in your work clothes, so I brought you one of my big t-shirts that you like. There was also a pair of your sweats that you left here a few weeks ago that I kept forgiving to get back to you, I thought you might want them," Josh mumbled.

You hadn't even heard him walk back into the room, your mind had been so spaced off.

"Do you want me to order some food while you get changed?"

"That would be nice," you said.

"What do you want? Pizza? Soup? Pasta?"

"Pasta," you mumbled.

Josh nodded and walked over to where his cell phone was sitting on the kitchen counter. You unfurled yourself from the blanket that Josh had placed on your shoulders and shuffled into the little hallway bathroom.

You looked over yourself as you unbuttoned your work shirt. No wonder Josh had been worried, you really did look like a mess. You fixated on each little imperfection in your appearance as you changed. Maybe your coworkers not wanting to talk to you wasn't so unwarranted, after all.

"Y/N? Are you ok in there?"

"Yeah," you lied as you kicked off your slacks. "I'll be out in a second."

"Ok."

Josh's footsteps retreated back towards the kitchen. You turned on the sink and ran your hand under the water to test the temperature. Once it felt warm enough that it wouldn't be painful, you splashed some water on your face to get rid of some of the splotches. You quickly dried your face and walked back out into the living room.

Josh was sitting on the couch when you returned. He was scrolling through Twitter on his phone, liking the occasional tweet. You walked over and sat yourself down on the opposite end of the couch, a solid few feet away from Josh.

"What are you doing all the way over there?" Josh asked, setting his phone down on the coffee table.

You shrugged and twisted the strings on your sweatpants around your finger idly. Josh raised an eyebrow at you.

"You know I'm not going to let you just sit there while you're upset, right?" Josh said, scooting a few inches closer to you. "In fact, I refuse to not be touching you because I know you like to be hugged when you're upset."

Josh continued to inch closer to you, all the while you stared down at the couch and practically ignored him. You wanted nothing more than to be wrapped up in his arms with your head on his chest, but your mind was screaming so many negative thoughts at you that it was hard to imagine yourself in that position.

Josh reached out and lightly grabbed your wrist, slowly pulling you towards him. You tried to hide the smile on your face, but Josh saw straight through you. Once he saw the smile on your face, he completely wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into him.

"You can't fool me, Y/N. I know exactly what you need me to do when you're upset. So do you want to talk about what has you so distressed?"

You took a deep breath and began to tell Josh all about the terrible day that you had at work. Josh made sure you were calm the entire time. He pressed light kisses to your knuckles and the top of your head, ran his fingers lightly along your arm, and played with your hair. When you began to cry halfway through the story, he wiped your tears away with his thumb and allowed you to pause for as long as you needed until you could keep going.

"I'm so sorry, love," Josh said, squeezing you tightly. "You don't deserve any of that treatment, especially when you didn't do anything wrong."

You shrugged against Josh's chest, "They don't really care."

Josh sighed quietly, "Well you're here with me now and that's all that matters."

You nodded and began to idly draw patterns on Josh's chest. Josh gently placed a hand on the side of your face and tilted it so that you were facing him. You avoided eye contact and instead stared at his t-shirt collar.

"Love?"

"Hmm?" you hummed.

"Will you look at me?" You bit down on the inside of your cheek and looked up at Josh. "I love you so much, and I know it's had for you, but can we just try to focus on tonight? You don't need to face work for a few more days and I hate to see you stressed over it."

"I can try," you said quietly.

"That's all I ask."

Josh leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on your lips. You smiled and laid back down on his chest.

The rest of the night passed by relatively uneventfully. You and Josh ate way too much pasta, watched movies, and cuddled on the couch. Josh would steal kisses whenever he could, which ended up being quite often. By the time that you were walking back out to your car to go home, the day's events had been pushed to the back of your mind.

"I hope you know I'm stealing this shirt," you said as you pulled your bag over your shoulder.

"I knew the second that I handed it you that it was yours," Josh smiled. "Besides, I'll find a way to get it back eventually."

"Sure you will." You opened the front door and paused in the doorway. "Thank you for everything you did, Josh. I love you so much."

"I love you too, and that's why I do what I do."

Josh pulled you into a hug before kissing you deeply. You eventually had to pull yourself away, knowing that if you allowed yourself to keep kissing him you wouldn't want to ever go home.

"Let me know when you get home," Josh called after you as you hopped into the driver's seat of your car.

"I always do," you called out the window.

You closed the door behind you and started the engine. Josh waved from his doorway as you pulled out onto the street. As you drove home, you couldn't help but wonder how you had gotten so lucky.