Love and dances - Joel Dawson

The easy part

Dear Joel,

I honestly thought I'd never see you again... But now that I did, I don't actually know how to react...

"What are you doing here?"

If Joel was being honest, he had no idea how Maple would even react to seeing him there in her apartment, but, all things considered, that was not the worst that could have happened. Still, something shifted in Maple's face as soon as she noticed the slight grimace on Joel's and she instantly gasped.

"Shit, sorry... I... I didn't mean to be rude, I just... I mean, I... I thought you'd be on a plane by now."

At her words, Joel smiled a little, the corners of his lips curling just slightly as he took in the image in front of him. Maple looked amazing, even more than she did the first time he had seen her in that same red dress. Or maybe, she looked the same - she probably did - but only this time around was Joel actually being able to actually realize how beautiful Maple Rhodes really was. In her pretty red dress that complimented her skin just right, soft curls in her hair that she probably made herself in Minnow's instance, a soft makeup look in her eyes and her favorite shade of lipstick in her lips - the same one Joel had spent a whole afternoon in a mall looking for so he could present Minnow with a similar one. Or maybe that was the one he had actually given the younger girl; he couldn't tell. But as he stood there, in front of Maple with the same tux and red tie he had used for Aimee's benefit, struggling a little to keep his eyes looking at hers, afraid of finding in them any kind of rejection, Joel found he didn't care. If she was using her own lipstick or the one he had given Minnow, Joel didn't care. All he really cared about was making sure that this night went exactly as planned and that, by the end of it, Maple Rhodes would be able to, at the very least, forgive him for everything he had said to her that fateful night.

Still with a small smile on his lips, Joel forced himself to look away from Maple and toward the small clock she had just above the door and nodded to himself when he noticed it was marking seven o'clock sharp.

"I was... I would be." Joel nodded. "For twenty minutes already. If the plane hadn't gotten off late, that is. And if... If I had boarded. At all."

"Why didn't you?" Maple frowned for a moment then, as Joel sighed. "I mean, I... I thought you were going to California. Minnow... Minnow said that was what you told her. I mean when... When you came earlier."

"Yeah..." Joel admitted, looking down at his feet for a second, trying to recollect his thoughts as he carefully went through his next words. "That was... That was the plan. And I... I almost did it. I mean... I almost boarded the plane. I was... I was already inside the waiting area and the boarding was meant to start soon. But then... Then something came up and... The plans changed."

"What happened?" Maple asked, and just by the slight crack on her voice, Joel was pretty sure she had an idea of what had actually happened. Still, as she looked at him with unreadable brown eyes and a small pout on her lips, it almost looked as if she didn't want to let herself believe in whatever it was that she thought was happening. "What changed your mind?"

And, at that, Joel smiled, stepping aside a little to hold the door open wider and invite Maple inside. The way Maple looked at him, with a small smile on her face as she chuckled at the situation let Joel know that she was thinking the exact same thing he was - it was weird to have him invite her inside her own house, but, for the sake of everyone involved, neither of them pointed it out. Instead, Maple just nodded, picking up the ends of her dress as she stepped inside the apartment and took a second to look around a little better while Joel closed the door behind him.

Maple's smile widened a little more each time she noticed a little new detail in the little and rather hasty decoration Joel had, apparently, put all over her apartment. She smiled at the way the place looked freshly clean, how the living room now had a wide open space with the couch pushed aside and the center table resting over it. She smiled at the little candles Joel had lit up all over the living room and the kitchen, along with some of her fairy lights that she never really had the courage to put up in any other period of the year other than Christmas. She smiled at the table set in her kitchen, one of her favorite table towels adorning it along with two plates, silverware and a pan in the middle of it that, judging by the smoke coming from it, was still rather hot.