What Friends Are For

Something had definitely shifted in Joey's relationship with his best friend. Rather than sitting on different furniture, as had always been the case before, he and Kayleigh were facing each other in close proximity on the same couch - her knee was even resting lightly on his thigh as they spoke. She wasn't as tactile and didn't push her body as close up to Joey's as Charlie did, but her whole demeanour when they were alone felt much more girlfriendy than before. Joey had decided not bring up his thoughts on The Naked Truth again that evening - apart from anything else, Kayleigh was so stubborn any further protestations would probably only make here even more determined to go through with it - but she decided to broach the subject herself in a way he hadn't anticipated.

"It's going to be so weird for me when you see me naked"

It wasn't like Joey hadn't considered the prospect of seeing his best friend unclothed since she had first talked about her show with him the previous day. In fact, he hadn't been able to think about much else. Still, her words had caught him off guard.

"Why? Loads of people are going to see you like that if you undress on TV"

"I know, but I don't really care about them. You're super important to me"

"So I should be the only person who doesn't see you naked because we're close??"

"I didn't mean it like that. It's just you and me will be hanging out like this in future, and we'll both know you've seen me fully frontally nude. That has to put some kind of new perspective on our friendship"

Great. Now Joey had a boner. Kayleigh could hardly blame him if she noticed it - how did she expect him to react to that thought?

"So what would you like me to do? Shut my eyes?"

"Maybe you should let me see you naked too, so we're even"

Joey wasn't sure if that was flirting or just banter - he was never very good at picking up on stuff like that.

"Yeah, never going to happen. I'm not the one making a radical, completely out of character career decision because Dawn thinks it's a good idea"

"I think it's a good idea too, Joey!" Kayleigh protested, before smirking a little mischievously "I suppose you've got the jump on the other viewers when it comes to seeing Dawn naked though"

Joey decided it was better to change the subject.

"That reminds me - in all the drama around your decision to become a stripper, I somehow forgot to mention.." shit, that stripper remark had come out sounding more judgemental than jokey "Dawn and I went to see the Vice President at the White House a couple of days back"

"YOU MET CLARISSA CLAYTON?" Kaylieigh exclaimed like an excited schoolgirl as she clasped Joey's shoulders, his partly unintentional dig at her already forgotten "And you're only telling me now?"

"I wanted to save it as a surprise because..."

Joey paused dramatically. He loved it when he got to do something nice for Kayleigh, but he also liked to tease her and drag out any good news as much as possible, knowing full well how mad that drove her.

"Because what Joey? Tell me!"

She was still holding onto him and had shifted even closer.

"Well, I was in the room with her alone at one point, and I was thinking about what you said recently, about us being more proactive and using my abilities to make positive changes in the world"

Kayleigh's eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth as she started to do the maths.

"So I mentioned you to my good friend Clarissa, and now she wants to meet you, to discuss some of your ideas"

"WHAT? Are you fucking with me? Because I warn you now, I'm not going to find it funny if you are"

"I'm completely serious"

"Why does she want to meet me?"

"Because I told her you had more integrity than any other journalist I've ever met and that if people in power listened to what you had to say the world would be a much better place"

"You did that for me?" Kayleigh asked in astonishment "You bullshitted the Vice President of the United States of America?"

"It wasn't bullshit, Kayleigh"

His friend paused for a moment, her eyes welling up.

"Joey..."

"What?"

Kayleigh leaned forward, put her hands on either of Joey's cheeks, closed her eyes and placed her lips onto his. It was a long, tender, passionate kiss, that felt even better than it had done on the many, many occasions this kind of scenario had played out in Joey's mind.

Until Kayleigh suddenly pulled away and stood up from the couch.

"Shit, I'm sorry Joey"

"What? Why?"

"That shouldn't have happened"

"Shouldn't it?"

"No, of course it shouldn't!" Kayleigh told him, her cheeks burning red "We're best friends. You have a girlfriend, you have something going on with Dawn and there are obviously still lingering feelings between you and Charlie - I can tell by the way she looks at you"

"You can?" Joey asked in surprise.

"Totally" Kayleigh nodded as she folded her arms "I'm not going to be one of your women, Joey. It could fuck up our entire relationship, and I'm on my own in this city. I can't risk losing you"

"Fine, let's just forget that ever happened then" Joey suggested, surprised at how worked up his friend was getting herself over this.

He was never going to be able to forget, though.

"Okay, let's do that and not talk about it again. Thanks"

Kayeligh sat back down, but not as close to Joey as before and with her arms still crossed. He decided he needed to take her mind off their kiss quickly, before it turned into a bigger issue than it needed to be.

"Look what I have here" he announced as he plucked a card from his wallet.

"What?"

"The phone number of a certain Vice President of the USA I happen to know"

"Seriously? Lemme see!"

"Uh-uh" Joey smirked as he pulled the card away from where Kayleigh could reach it "I promised not to show it to anyone else, not even you. I can call the number though"

"You aren't seriously gonna do that are you?"

"It looks like I am" Joey grinned as he started tapping buttons "Clarissa's really keen to talk to you"

"That's great, but not now. I'm not prepared"

"You know as well as I do Kayleigh that, in our profession, you have to strike while the iron is hot..."

"Joey, seriously, fuck off with this!"

He held a finger up to indicate Clarissa's phone was now ringing and it might be best to keep the cursing to a minimum. A suddenly very self conscious Kayleigh started preening her hair, like that could make any difference to her call.

"Oh hello Clarissa, I hope this isn't a bad time, but Kayleigh is here with me now, and I know you are extremely eager to talk to her.........Okay, I'll put her on now"

Joey passed his phone to his friend who jumped up and began pacing the room as she spoke.

"Uh, hello Vice President Clayton......Oh, okay, hello Clarissa. I'm Kayleigh Preston, a reporter with the Washington Post. I don't know how much Joey has told you about me?.........Oh, well that's very flattering, but he does tend to exaggerate......Wow, I've never been to the White House before. Yes, I'd love that. I'm sure I can make space in my calendar for whenever works best for you..."

Joey smiled happily to himself - partly because he knew how much this phone call would mean to someone he truly loved, partly because he realised the amount of good Kayleigh could do for the world with someone as powerful as Clarissa listening to her but, mostly, because he was still thinking about that kiss.