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One thing that Frankie was sure about, is that he's absolutely deeply in love with his best friend and podcast co-host, Joseph Patrick Santagato. He's pretty sure everyone but Joe himself is aware of that fact. He doest even try to hide it!!!
And that's how he finds himself in their studio, resting his cheek on his fist while Joey yaps. God he loves listening to him, he loves watching him, he loves spending time with him. He loves him.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He suddenly hears Joey ask him. Oh shit! 'Play it cool' is all that's running through his mind.
"I ju- I love you." he shrugs. Okay that was not supposed to come out. He was supposed to play it cool!
Joey makes a face before sputtering out an "enough" and all Frankie thinks to do is laugh off the awkwardness and the ping of hurt that just shot through his heart. Luckily Joey laugh with him and is not awkward at all.
He continues on with the recording even though he kind of wishes the ground would open up and swallow him.
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A couple of episodes later, and they are talking about food. Because Frankie can cook! And Joey can eat!
"Yeah dude I made a chicken, wrapped in mozzarella, wrapped in Parma ham and a side of mashed potatoes." Frankie explained, complete with the hand movements that went along with every word.
"Yeah? How did you come across that? How did it taste?" Joey asked. His tongue seeming to have a mind of his own when it decided to lick his lips.
"Louis Tomlinson from One Direction swore it tasted good and I decided to try it. And let me tell you; Louis Tomlinson is no liar." Frankie explained as his mind went back to the moment he put that first piece of baked chicken breast in his mouth. His mouth watering just thinking about it.
"Save some for me next time you make some." Joey nods his head at Frankie. His voice low and words quickly falling out of his mouth.
"Yeah sure dude. Of course." Frankie confirmed before they changed the subject.
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"Dude I swear to God, avocados-" Frankie starts to list out.
"Dude speaking of silicone." Joey interrupts Frankie before quickly apologizing.
"Your turn!" Frankie exclaims and watches as Joey laugh. That beautiful sound with this eyes all crinkled up before fully closing. All Frankie could think about is how beautiful this man is. "Go ahead. No, no, no, the floor is yours." Frankie forces himself to snap out of his head.
"Your turn." Joey repeats as he continues to laugh. He eventually tells the story about silicones that is not even funny at all but they both laugh anyway because that's what they do. They're stupid together and Frankie wants to be stupid with Joe all the time.
"What were you saying? You can continue." Joey says to Frankie after they both calm down.
"I can continue? Can I continue?" Frankie stalls because he totally forgot what he was talking about. And it's not because of the laughing fit they just recovered from.
"Yeah dude, you can carry on." Joe gives permission.
"Honestly I forgot what I was even talking about." Frankie admits.
"You were talking about avocados." Joe reminds his friend.
Frankie takes a second to try and remember but comes up blank. Oh well. "I decided to make sushi this past weekend." He decided to say instead.
"Oh yeah?" Something in Joey's eyes changed, something that Frankie never noticed before. "What kind?"
"Well I made two kinds." Frankie put two fingers up as he continues to studie Joey. "I had a lot of avocados so I made avocado rolls, added cucumber in some and smoked salmon in some."
"And were they nice?" Joey sounded like he was chasing something, almost desperate.
"The plain avocado ones were alright, they tasted plain to me. They were better with the cucumber. But I really liked the smoked salmon ones." Frankie watched as Joey swallow his saliva and his eyelids drop a little.
"I bet they were!" Joey said after he licked his lips.
"Yeah I'll call you next time I make them." Frankie watched as Joey nodded like he was just promised all his hopes and dreams.
Frankie couldn't help but think about how interesting that reaction was. It made Frankie think...
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"I did miss you though, quite a bit." Frankie declares to Frankie.
"Did you? I missed you too, dude." And honestly, Frankie cannot be held responsible for the weird reaction he just had. Joey rarely ever returns his I love you's and I miss you's.
He also doesn't blame Joey when he points out his weird reaction and asks him what he's doing with his hands. He can only apologize.
He stutters out a "say it again" and when Joey says he's not gonna say it again, he will never admit out loud how disappointed he got.
But he still has an ace up his sleeve.
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"I have something for you." Frankie said when the conversation died down.
"For me?" Frankie knows that even if his best friend will always deny it, he loves surprises. So he's not surprised that Joey is practically bouncing in his seat.
"Yeah. So I saw that Martha Stewart made this dessert called desperation pie, right?" Frankie placed a dessert on the table.
"Frankie, you did not make me something called Desperation Pie." His voice comes out exasperated but his eyes and the way he's swallowing his saliva are saying something different.
"Would you let me finish talking!" Frankie is trying to sound annoyed that he was, once again, interrupted but the small smile on his face is betraying him.
"Okay, go ahead." The thing is, Joey has not looked up from the dessert since it was placed on the table and Frankie is really happy about that.
"The South Africans were up in arms on Tik Tok! Absolutely disgusted that their beloved Milk Tart has been "Americanized". So I decided to make this Milk Tart they were talking about." Frankie slid the tart across the table and produced a fork to go with it.
Joey took the fork and tasted the Tart. The thing is, it doesn't look like much. It looks like Milk in jello form but God it tasted good!
"Oh my God this is good!" Joey exclaimed as he went for a second bite. "What's in this?"
"A lot of things and a lot of milk, topped with cinnamon." Frankie proudly said.
"Dude I want you to make this for my birthday." And Frankie knew that Joey was gonna have a strong reaction to the tart, he didn't expect the sounds that were coming out of his mouth.
And if Frankie got home with a semi that he took care of while replaying the look on his best friend's face and the voices he made, well that's nobody's business.
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He tried not to make it obvious that he's making all this food just for Joey, he didn't want to make the man suspicious. But he doubts that Joey would mind anyway.
The next 5 months, Frankie brought food to their tapings and hang outs. He made foods from different countries and cultures and took note of the ones Joey had strong reactions to and made sure to make those dishes on special occasions.
Today he decided to make something simple. Churros with whipped cream. He knows that Joey always buys churros when he sees them on the street or when they go to fairs. Joey loves churros and Frankie made them for him.
What he didn't anticipate is Joey being 30 minutes late to the studio. He called but his phone just rang, no answer. He tries to act cool and not at all hurt when someone else calls him and he answers the phone. He reports that he suddenly got sick and won't be coming in.
Frankie smiles at everyone and tells them that he's going to Joe's to make sure that he's alright and he doesn't need anything. Everyone agree and they pack up for the day.
When Frankie gets to Joe's, he debates on if he should knock and risk waking his sick best friend up or just using his emergency key to vet in. He decides to just use his key so that Joe can continue resting.
He walks in and hears the TV on so he walks to the living room. "Hey." He greets when he sees that Joe is not sleeping.
"Hi." Joe answers. His eyes wide and a panicked expression as if he got caught doing something wrong. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to check on you. See if you need anything." Frankie puts the churro container and can of whipped cream on the table in front of Joe. "You weren't answering my calls." He says looking at the phone that's sitting right next to Joe.
"Uhhh yeah. My phone was on silent and I was sleeping." He's stuttering and Frankie knows that's a load of bullshit. He doesn't call him out on it though.
"How are you feeling?" Frankie asks as he sits next to his friend.
"I'm better than this morning." But Joe is avoiding eye contact. He's lying through his teeth.
"Okay." Frankie takes in a breath and exhales. "You can either tell me what's going on and we'll try to fix it together, or you can continue lying to me and I can walk out of here. What's it going to be?"
It's quiet after that. Joe is looking everywhere but at Frankie and his hands are fidgeting. Frankie can see that he's actually really thinking about it.
"I just came down with the flu but I'm a little better now." Joe lies.
"Alright." Frankie puts his hands on his knees and stands up from the sofa. "Call me when you feel better."
Frankie is about to open the door when Joe blurts out "I think I'm in love with a man!"
Joe freezes with his hand on the door handle. He let's that sink in for a moment before he slowly looks back at Joe, who is already on his feet and watching him.
"Okay." Frank starts walking back to Joe. "Okay we can figure it out, I'm here for you. Are you comfortable sharing with me who this man is?" Even though his heart is breaking, Frankie knows that he will always be there for his best friend. No matter what.
"You don't feel some type of way." Joe asks when his friend is standing in front of him.
"No." It's Frankie's turn to lie because the thought of his best friend falling in love with someone that is not him is breaking his heart to pieces. "You're my best friend and nothing is going to change that."
"I thought you'd be upset." Joe whispers.
"Joe I'd never be upset at you for going after your heart's desires. And you don't have to tell me everything right now, I'm just honored that you trust me enough to share this with me." Because Frankie knows his friend. He knows that he's freaking out and there's a lot running theough his mind. "You don't have to figure it out right now. We can sit and order take out, watch TV, play vid-" and suddenly, there's a pair or lips on Frankie's.
He stands there frozen because he can't comprehend what's happening right now. "I'm so sorry!" Frankie can see that Joe is freaking out even more now. "You started talking and you know me so well and you always know what to say and I didn't mean to fall in love with you, I promise."
"You're in love with me?" Frankie learned to control his responses to words of affection coming from Joe but right now that control just flew out the window.
"I didn't mean to and I didn't realize until I was talking to my siblings earlier. And then I couldn't face you." Now it was Joe's turn to be surprised as he felt his best friend's lips on his.
"Joe I've been in love with you for a while now and I'm pretty sure you're the only one who didn't see it." Frankie softly said as he pulled away. "Why do you think I've been making you all this food? Haven't you heard that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach?"
And Joe's face is red as he started piecing it together in his mind. "I thought you just loved to cook and bake." Joe smiled at Frankie.
"I do, but I really love to watch you eat my food." Frankie sat Joe down and picked up the container on the table. "Which is why I have Churros for you today."
And it's like it's really written in the stars because of course the day he realizes he's in love with his best friend, is the day said best friend makes his favourite for him. How can he deny this sign from the universe?
Joe shakes the can of whipped cream and squirts it on the side. "So... what do we call this?" He timidly asks after taking a bite of a churro.
And because Frank knows his best friend, he doesn't want to rush him to make a decision. "We can call it whatever you want. Take it slow and just keep it to ourselves." Frank comforts the man next to him.
"Yeah, I'd like that." And he really is glad that Frankie is so patient and kind and not rushing him, because he has no idea what he's doing. But he knows that Frankie will be by his side as they figure it out together.