Wait to start the song.
***Trigger warnings for a lot of food and some body issues.***

Josh waited until Ashley had cried herself out of tears before stopping in some random town to get something for her to eat. She remained laying in his lap as he pulled into the parking lot of a diner. He pulled the E-brake, shifted the truck into first gear, and pulled the keys out of the ignition before looking down at her. She looked back up at him through puffy eyes.

"Do I look too gross to go in there?" She asked him quietly, wiping at her swollen eyes.

Even if Josh knew she was going to be annoying about him saying this to her later, he replied, "You never look gross. Come on. If anyone looks at you weird, I'll beat the shit out of them."

She smiled slightly. "Promise?"

"Yeah, so sit up. Let's go," he told her impatiently.

She sat up carefully before pulling him in by the front of his shirt and kissing him deeply. He allowed that, mostly because Ashley's teeth tugged a bit too harshly at his bottom lip, just the way he liked it. She smiled at him when she broke the kiss.

"I know you won't like me telling you this, but your loyalty is actually really adorable," she told him, laughing when he rolled his eyes and opened the truck door, climbing out. She scurried out through his door too as she laughed. "I don't really deserve your loyalty at this point, but I still think it's sweet. I don't know. I'm not saying any of this in a way you'd be okay with, but I guess I just appreciate you."

"So did you want me to buy you lunch or did you just want to make me throw up in this parking lot?" He asked her irritably.

She laughed, tangling her fingers with his and letting him lead her into the diner. He held the door open for her, and she blushed at the action. He didn't get that. He always held the door open for girls. That was polite. His dad used to get mad at him when he didn't do that.

They slid into a red and white booth, grabbing menus off of the table. The diner was nothing fancy, but it smelled good in here, and Josh was suddenly starving. Ashley was sitting across from him, which apparently to her meant it was okay for her to put her feet in his lap while she read though the menu. She must have dropped her flip-flops beneath the table because her feet were bare. Abbie did this to Josh sometimes too though, so he'd learned to just deal with it. Abbie usually moved her feet if Josh tickled them, but he wasn't going to do that to Ashley. She would interpret that the wrong way for sure.

"If I am pregnant, what are we gonna do?" Ashley asked quietly.

Josh looked up at her, finding her disinterestedly turning the menu over in her hands. Tears were gathering in her eyes again. He sighed.

"I don't know, Ashley. What do you want to do?" He asked her, forcing himself not to sound annoyed.

She shrugged. "I don't know." She hesitated before meeting his eyes nervously and saying, "Would you marry me if I was pregnant?"

Josh's eyebrows raised in surprise. His dad would probably want him to do that. That's what his dad had done when his mama had gotten knocked up. It wasn't up to his dad though.

"Would you want me to?" Josh asked curiously.

She nodded slightly, looking away from him quickly. "Yeah. I think so."

"Okay," Josh replied simply before looking back at the menu. "We could get married."

"Okay," Ashley replied quietly. After a moment she said, "Would you want a boy or a girl?"

Josh groaned irritably. "Can we just focus on lunch please?" Ashley shrunk away from him instantly, apologizing under her breath as she looked back down at her menu with tear-filled eyes. He sighed. "Girl."

Ashley smiled slightly. "Really? Why a girl?"

Josh shrugged, sliding her foot back into his lap and holding onto it loosely when it started to slip off of his thigh. "I don't know. I already know how to take care of Abbie. I could figure out how to raise a girl easier."

She smiled at him. "You'd be really good with a girl."

The waitress interrupted them, taking their orders before heading back into the kitchen. Ashley had barely ordered anything, just a cup of coffee and some toast. Josh wasn't sure if she was sick from the pill or if she was being one of those annoying girls who pretends she lives off of air and sunshine whenever there's a boy around. She didn't look sick.

"So you don't eat now?" He asked nonchalantly, tucking their menus back into their holder behind the little metal rack containing condiments and sugar packets.

Something shifted in her at the question. It happened so quickly that Josh almost didn't notice. He didn't know what was different, but she wasn't meeting his eyes, and she started to move her feet off of his lap. She stopped when his grip on her ankle tightened slightly.

"Ashley?" He pressed, keeping his voice more level this time so she knew he wasn't playing around anymore.

She shifted in her seat but left her feet in Josh's lap. "Brendon said I should lose at least five pounds over the summer so I don't look sloppy."

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Sloppy?"

Ashley shrugged, looking down at the table top. "I don't know. I guess I don't look good to him anymore. He thought I should fix it."

Josh rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you're dumb enough to put up with that. You used to be smarter than that."

Ashley shrugged again. "He loves me."

"He doesn't give a shit about you. If he did, he'd let you eat whatever the fuck you want. Besides, I've seen you naked. No part of you has five pounds to give up. You're not a big girl," he told her logically. "He's saying that so he can control you. Fuck that."

"I don't know...." Ashley whispered, trailing off.

Josh sighed. What would he do if this was Abbie? How would he get her to eat? He'd bribe her. He'd tell her he'd buy her everything on the menu that sounds good, and if she could eat it all, he'd buy her something she wanted or trade her rooms for a week or something. How could he reconfigure that to work with Ashley? Then it hit him.

He pulled one of the menus back out and set it in front of her. "Alright, princess. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna make a deal with you right now."

"What kind of deal?" She asked curiously, eyeing the menu.

"If you order whatever you want off this menu, and you eat it all, I'll go down on you every day for a week," he bargained.

"Whatever I want?" She asked interestedly.

"Whatever you want, even if it's ten different things. Order as much as you want, but you have to eat all of it."

A slight smile tugged at her lips, making him smirk back instantly. "And if I can't finish it?"

"You have to go down on me every day for a week," Josh decided easily, making her laugh.

"So this is a win win for me then?" She asked with a smirk.

Josh laughed. "Yes, ma'am. You got to play to win though."

Ashley's fingers traced the lettering on the menu lightly. "And if Brendon gets mad at me...."

"Then you break up with that piece of shit and eat whatever you want. Deal?" He asked her, holding his hand out for her to shake.

Ashley smiled slightly as she reached out and shook his hand. "Deal."

"That's my girl. Alright, let's order you some real food then. What are you gonna get?" He asked curiously.

She was practically beaming as she replied, "You'll see. Now you stop asking me questions. Your jaw's still healing, and it's gonna be killing you by the end of this week anyways."

Josh snickered. "Yeah, well, we'll see about that, won't we?"

"Not much to see, honey. I'm starving. Besides, I may or may not be eating for two here shortly," she said distractedly as she looked over the menu.

Josh found himself smiling slightly at that, rubbing her ankle lightly with his thumb. "Yeah maybe."

The waitress came back over, setting Ashley's coffee and Josh's sweet tea down on the table. "Your food should be out here in a minute," she let them know.

Ashley was grinning as she glanced at Josh and back to the waitress. "Actually, can we also get this, this, this, and this?" She asked, pointing things out on the menu to the absolutely baffled waitress who instantly started scribbling on her notepad. Josh smirked at Ashley, who was clearly trying not to laugh.

"Goodness, honey. Are you sure you can eat all that?" The waitress asked with wide eyes.

Josh snickered. "Yeah, honey, are you sure?"

Without missing a beat, Ashley replied. "I'm pregnant. I can eat whatever I want."

The woman apologized quickly before hurrying back into the kitchen. Josh and Ashley burst out laughing as soon as the door shut behind her. The elderly couple in the back corner gave them a dirty look, but Josh didn't even bother glaring back. He just scooted over when Ashley took her feet off of his lap and left her seat, climbing into the same side of the booth as him.

"So I made up my mind," she told him with a grin.

"About what?" He asked, still grinning.

She took hold of his cheeks and kissed him slowly before pulling back and grinning at him. "If I'm pregnant, we're getting married. Deal?" She asked with a grin, holding her hand out to him.

He smirked and took her hand, shaking it. "Deal."

She grinned, pulling his arm around her shoulders. "I would want a girl too."

"Cool," Josh replied, pulling her coffee over to their side of the table. "You better start praying your stomach ain't shrunk from not eating."

She shrugged, resting her head on his shoulder as she sipped her coffee. "Don't matter. Like I said, this is a win win for me."

"Ain't no fun if you ain't trying to win," he pointed out.

"Oh, trust me. I'll win," she assured him.

He laughed. "Yeah, well, we'll see."

---
Start the song. It's True Love Cafe by Nicole Dollanganger.

It took the waitress three trips to bring all of their food out, making Josh snicker as plate after plate was set in front of Ashley. His own burger and fries were right in front of him while Ashley's four buttermilk pancakes with syrup that were bigger than her head, hash browns and scrambled eggs that she smothered in hot sauce, apple pie with a massive scoop of ice cream on top, and heaping plate of green chilli fries took of the rest of the table. Josh laughed.

"That's such a gross combination," he said amusedly.

"You're dipping your fries in mustard, Josh. You don't get to judge my food choices," she told him as she cut out a bite of her pancakes and popped it into her mouth.

Josh grinned, maintaining eye contact as he scooped up a heap of mustard onto a fry before popping it into his mouth. Ashley giggled at the sight.

"You should know that I'm the least ladylike eater of all time," she told him as she stabbed her fork into her chilli fries and ate a gigantic bite, making green chilli run down her chin.

It was kind of impossible not to grin. "Yeah, me too," he replied simply, making her laugh.

Ashley's phone started to vibrate on the tabletop, and Josh could see that Brendon was calling. Ashley glanced at her phone as she stuffed another mouthful of pancake into her mouth. Without hesitating, she reached out and pressed the ignore call button before continuing to eat, hooking her ankle with Josh's under the table. Josh grinned as he picked up his hamburger. Marrying Ashley wouldn't be too bad. He could definitely do a lot worse than her.

"I don't know if you realize this, and maybe I shouldn't point it out to you, but we're kind of on a really weird date," Ashley said through a mouthful of pie and pancake, watching him a bit timidly as she awaited his response.

Josh swallowed the food in his mouth before laughing, making her smile uncertainly. "Yeah, kinda," he said as he picked up his sweet tea. "Well, if we're gonna get married, we might as well get used to this shit."

Ashley giggled, grabbing his tea when he set it down and taking a drink of it. He let her. She turned his face when she set it back down on the table as kissed him softly before looking seriously at him, her eyes searching his.

"You better promise me right here and now that if we do wind up having a baby, you and me are gonna be a million times better parents than ours were. Got it?" She proposed sternly.

"Yes, ma'am," Josh replied, making her smile and kiss him one more time. "Now shut up and eat your damn food."

Ashley grinned, picking up her fork again. "Yes, sir."

Josh wasn't even mad when Ashley won the bet, even eating a few of his fries alongside everything else. He paid the check with a smile on his face and let her hold his hand when they walked out to the truck. In a way, Josh kind of regretted buying her that pill today. Maybe knocking her up wouldn't be a bad thing. He didn't feel annoyed around her when he thought she might be pregnant already.

He couldn't really explain that. It wasn't so much that he liked her now as it was that he felt more inclined to take care of her. He felt like he had a reason to protect her or something. He didn't know. All he knew was that when they decided just to keep driving and to get a motel room somewhere when it got dark, he liked the idea. He liked the idea of knowing exactly where Ashley was and knowing she wouldn't be back at her house with Dusty where he wasn't sure if she was safe. He could protect her here. He could take care of her.