My heart is finally starting to heal

Everything at your fingertips

It was 6:30pm the next day. Joyce was getting ready to make dinner when Hopper grabbed her hand and led her to the bedroom. He opened up her closet door and pulled out a black long sleeve dress.
"Put this on." He said handing it to her. "Why?" She took the dress and held it up to herself. "Just do it I'll tell you why after."

He left her alone in the room. She undressed and got into the dress. It was almost skin tight and fell right to her knees, the neckline was hung low. She opened the door to hopper waiting impatiently. He had changed into his floral button up and white blazer. He held out his hand. "Now can you tell me why?" She grabbed a pair of black heels. "I saw that there's an enzos only 20 minutes away from here." He led her out to the car, opening her door for her.

They arrived to the restaurant. They sat down across from each other. He ordered them a bottle of wine and an appetizer. They talked and talked until the bill came. They payed and walked out to the car. Joyce got in the passenger seat and put her hand on top of his. "Jim, I don't think I'm emotionally ready to be in a relationship right now. But this doesn't mean I'm any less in love with you. When I'm ready you will be my first choice." She lifted her hand but he gently held onto it. "I will wait for you. No matter how long it is. I want you and only you." He lifted her hand to his lips. "You're worth the wait."

The drive back to the house was fairly quick. He opened the front door for her and let her inside before him. She went to go take a shower while Jim changed and got ready for bed. He couldn't be happier. He had everything at his fingertips.

He got a call from El who was staying in Hawkins for the week. They had both agreed on nightly calls until she returned home. She told him about her day and he told her about his date with Joyce. They went on and on. Joyce got out of the shower as they were saying their goodbyes. "Alright honey I love you, have a good night. I can't wait to see you again." He smiled and hung up the phone.

Joyce wrapped the towel around herself. Did this mean nothing to him? Was he already trying to get with someone else? It hadn't even been an hour since he told her the 'he would wait' bullshit. She opened the bathroom door, hopper was sitting on the edge of the bed flipping through a magazine. "Have a nice shower?" She went over to get her clothes. "no" she walked back to the corner of the room that he wasn't facing to get dressed.
"Don't look." She said plainly. "What's wrong?" She didn't reply. Just got into bed and cuddled up under the blankets.

"Did I do something to upset you?" He turned his head but didn't look at her. "Of course not why would you think that." She said sarcastically. "Mhm clearly I did so do you want to tell what that was?" He turned to look at her. " I said don't look at me." She mumbled, cuddled up onto her side. He scoffed and got into bed putting a fair amount of space between the two of them. He started to speak again but she cut him off. "Just leave me alone please." He could hear the hurt in her voice and he genuinely felt terrible that he couldn't fix it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He scooted over and wrapped his arms around her. She was tense in his arms. "Not tonight."
They left it at that and they both drifted off at some point in the night. She didn't acknowledge his comfort care but he had no intentions of letting go of her at all that night