He's not you.

Twenty-eight

Josie still didn't see any harm in the guy, but she wasn't about to let him sit there knowing that Hope would have to sit on the other end of her.

"I'm sorry but I have no idea who you are and my wife is supposed to be sitting here." Josie admits in a calm tone.

Roman eyes widen "W-Wife?" He shook his head. "I'm sorry, where are my manners, I'm Roman sienna, who may you be?" He questioned.

Before Josie could answer, hope stood behind him and cleared her throat "I think you should get away from my seat before I kill you." Hope warned as she crossed her arms.

Josie pushed the chair back and she cleared her throat. "Come on baby, let's just eat, and have an enjoyable dinner."

Soon Klaus walked into the dining room and sat down with everyone. "Enough rift raft, let's get to eating guys, I have so much stuff I want to share." Klaus smiled.

-

Every little once and a while—every single damn time—Hope would get angry, Josie would just give her wife a tight squeeze on her thigh.

Josie knew this was comforting and that's mainly why she did it. "So, what do you do for a living?"

Uh, there it was, the attention was back on Josie, where she didn't want it to be, Hope could feel the girl tense up and she chewed at her bottom lip. With a quick peck to Josie's cheek, Hope shook her head "if she doesn't feel comfortable with answering whatever your concerns are then she doesn't have to answer." Hope clarified.

The taller girl sighed "I'm fine hope, it was just a harmless question." She says before turning over and facing Roman. "I actually just recently quit my job." She admits.

The boy looked down at his plate and smiled, the only person who caught onto this was nik. He looked from Roman, to Josie, and then over again. "Why don't you tell us the story for when we made cupcakes!" Nik spoke up.

Josie glanced over at the young boy and she shot an worried look. "Well, I'm sure you remembered, you were there."

"Yeah but I'm sure there were far more good things that happened, if nik here, brought it up." Kol joined in on the conversation. "So tell us Josie, what else happened?" Kol asked.

Hope was confused because she remembered that day like it was yesterday and she didn't recall anything special happening.

Hope placed her hands softly at the tone of Josie's exposed stomach, as she pushed Josie back gently.

The auburn haired girl let her hands push Josie more back. "Josie..this is-" Hope couldn't get the words out.

Josie wrapped her fingers softly around hopes neck as she kissed on it again applying more pressure than before.

Hopes face heated when she realized that things did escalate that day. "Nothing special." Josie commented.

Nik shook his head. "No! Remember, that was the time Hope fell in love with you, remember?" Nik asked the auburn haired girl.

The boy didn't mean any harm or to expose his cousin but he didn't like the looks Roman was sending Hope.

Josie on the other hand was suffering from the heat of her face. "Is that so?" Josie asked as she circled her hand of hopes thigh.

Roman looked down to see Josie's hand placement and he scoffed. "Hope don't you remember the time when your father caught us." Roman spoke up.

Hopes smile dropped. "I don't know when I asked you to speak."

"Come on Hope, don't be like that, we you used to be the best couple there was." Roman smiled.

Hope rolled her eyes "most toxic couple."

The mention of them being a couple burned Josie, she was stung and everything made sense now. Josie moved her hand and Hope immediately frowned.

The auburn haired girl leaned over to her wife. "Is everything okay?" She asked in a whisper.

"I'm fine, I'm just not feeling well tonight, I think I should go-" Just as Josie got up, so did Hope. "Hope what are you doin-"

"If you leave, then, I leave with you, plus I'm not up for it anyways, I don't want to be anywhere near my ex at all, when I could be with you."

Roman rolled his eyes. "Seems like you changed." He muttered

Josie shut her eyes over to him. "What was that? I couldn't hear you." She was fed up with his bullshit.

"I said she changed, because before she was all over me and now she can't stand the thought of being around me, that's a lot of change." He grinned.

Klaus stood up from his chair along with his brothers. "I'm sorry, you need to leave, I thought you've changed but I guess you haven't." He gritted through his teeth.

Roman got up from his chair and he rolled his eyes with sass. "You know, I wouldn't have turned out to be the bad person that I am now, it's hopes fault." Roman blamed like a little kid.

Rebekah got up and started making her way over to him, she was stopped by marcel because he knew that she was about to fuck him up. "Get the hell out of here." Her voice was cold.

Roman pushed his chair back and made his way the door. Josie went after him for some reason and Hope raised her eyebrow.

"What did you do to her?" Josie asked as Roman hand plopped onto the door knob.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Roman says before he opened the door.

The brunette scoffed "you hurt her didn't you?" She paused for a moment. "I've never seen the hate in her eyes before you came along, but underneath them I see that she's scared, my wife isn't scared of anything."

—"wrong." Came a voice. "I'm scared of losing you so that's why I think we should just drop this." Hope says as she stood behind Josie.

Roman turned around and shook his head. "Have fun with that, she'll never give it up to you, she's just a scared virgin, some things never change, and for the record, I didn't hurt her, she hurt me." Roman slammed the door shut.

Josie looked over at her wife and her lips twitched into a unsure smile. "Don't listen to him, Hope, you're not a-"

"He's right. About everything, and I would have told you but like he said, I was scared. I am scared. I don't want to sound desperate but I don't want to lose you, like I said once before, and I'm tired of this back and forth thing, we know we love each other so why let someone get in between us?" Hope questioned with nothing but worry in her eyes.

Josie looked in the direction behind Hope and she looked back at Hope. "I don't know how many times I have to say that I love you." She paused for a moment. "Or maybe that's the problem, maybe I need to show you, how much I love you, and if you weren't ready Hope then you could have told me, I'm literally the most understanding person you could ever meet. I would have taken things slower." Josie admits in a rant.

"I just have a hard time expressing how I feel without having the fear of being left, I don't know why. I just do."

Josie brought Hope in for a hug as she eyed Henrik and tried to tell him to go away, in the most nicest way possible.

Henrik got the idea and he sighed before he walked off, he was only there to make sure his niece was okay, now that it was clear, he had a few parents asses to kick, starting with Klaus.

"I'll always be here to listen, no matter what." Josie whispered as Hope put a tighter grip onto the brunette. "Just no more unnecessary fighting, I can't take it anymore."