Love and dances - Joel Dawson

Epilogue: A year later

Dear Maple,

I promise I'll save you a dance tonight. In fact, I'll save you as many dances as you'd want me to.

Joel smiled as soon as Maple came out from her bedroom, the ends of her dress lifted a little as she walked around barefoot, keeping a close eye on Minnow as her sister all but hopped all around her, talking animatedly to her. Maple looked beautiful. Well, in Joel's opinion, she always did, but tonight... Tonight there was something different. She had her hair down, straight this time and reaching a little below her shoulders. Her makeup was light, but her lipstick was bold, just the way she usually liked it. All the way from the living room, Joel could already smell her perfume - a floral one that he had given her for her birthday a few weeks before and that, ever since, she had been wearing every day. In her neck, she had a pretty golden necklace that matched exactly with her earrings and he was pretty sure the little stone in them had the same silvery shine her shoes had too and everything looked amazing on her, but nothing made her beauty pop quite as much as the dress she was wearing.

It was a floor-length, silky dress, in a deep shade of emerald green that made her skin glow. Her shoulders were out and so was most of her chest and while the rest of her body was covered, Joel could still see most of her curves along the shapes of her dress. It made him smile, just seeing Maple standing there, putting on her heels as she entertained Minnow while the younger girl talked.

Looking down at himself, Joel almost worried he was underdressed - he'd look as much standing beside Maple, he was sure -, but he thought he looked quite good in his smoking. It was the same one he had used the year before but something was different. Something had to be different, considering Joel had gone all out to make sure it looked different. After all, if the year before he had ended up matching his tie to Maple's on accident, this time, he had bought his new emerald green for the sole purpose of matching his girlfriend's dress. And as soon as Maple was done putting on her shoes and turned around to take a look at him, Joel knew she noticed it.

Offering Joel a small smile, Maple started to make her way across the room toward him, completely ignoring Clyde in the kitchen as he watched the young couple with a knowing smile before whispering with Minnow when the younger girl rushed over to him as well. Maple shook her head at their antics, but kept her eyes on Joel as she moved to stand in front of him. She reached a hand up toward him, meaning to rest it over Joel's shoulder only to frown a little when he took a small step back.

"Give me a second." He whispered with a smile as Maple kept on looking at him, confused. "Just let me take a look at you."

And, at his words, Maple rolled her eyes, but judging by the way she blushed a little, unable to hide her smile, Joel knew she appreciated him. So, grabbing her hand in his, he brought it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles so he wouldn't mess up her makeup.

"You look beautiful." He said, as Maple bit her lip with a smile.

"So do you." She admitted, taking another step toward Joel and giggling when he didn't step back this time. Reaching her free hand up again, Maple let her fingers trace over Joel's tie. "I like this."

"Oh, this old thing..." Joel shook his head, trying to pretend he hadn't stressed for over a week to try and find the perfect match to Maple's dress. "Just found it laying around."

"Did you?" The young woman raised an eyebrow, laughing when Joel blushed a little.

"Not really." He admitted and Maple could swear she could melt at the exact moment.

But before she could even say anything else anymore, Minnow rushed over to the two of them.

"He asked me to send him like... Twenty pictures of your dress so he could find the perfect tie!" She announced, laughing when the couple turned to glare at her and Joel placed his open palm to her face. "Joel!"

"Don't rat me out like that, you little bugger." Joel chastised her playfully, taking his hand from her face when she licked his hand. "Hey!"

Minnow showed Joel her tongue then, and the young man just laughed. Watching the two of them with soft eyes, Maple also giggled, one hand resting over Joel's shoulder as one of his encircled her around the waist, pulling her closer to him, just as he had been doing for almost a year now. Deciding to join the three of them in their little exchange, Clyde moved to stand behind Minnow, resting both of his hands on her shoulders as she and Joel kept on making funny faces to one another to make the other laugh.

"Well, if you don't want to be late, you two should probably get going." The older man said, as Maple turned around to take a look at her clock before gasping when she noticed it was already seven and she and Joel had promised Aimee they'd be there by then.

"We're already late." She said, tugging at Joel's arm as her boyfriend stopped for a moment and turned to look at her. "We should go."

"Okay." He nodded. "So let's go."

Nodding back at him, Maple let go of him and reached behind her to grab her small purse from a table nearby before spinning back around to look at Clyde and Minnow again. "You know the rules... Ten o'clock is time to go to bed and no stalling, huh? And you be good to Clyde, okay? Don't disobey him, okay?"

"Yeah, okay..." Minnow rolled her eyes as Maple sent her a look and messed up her hair gently. "Maple..."

"We should be back by midnight." Maple said, turning to look at Clyde, as the man nodded.

"No problem." He nodded. "We'll have dinner, watch a movie, I'll put her to bed and then I'll finish my last revision of my book. I mean, now that I have all the illustrations I need, we can finally send it to the publisher."

At his words, Joel smiled a little, looking down at his feet as Maple just smiled brightly up at him and nudged him gently on the side.

"Lovely to hear." She said, knowing neither of them would continue the subject. "But we really need to go now. So... You two have fun tonight and if anything happens, you call me."

"Okay." Minnow nodded, rushing over to Maple to give her a hug, before doing the same to Joel. "Have fun!"

And after saying their goodbyes to Clyde, the couple turned around to leave, Joel holding the door open for Maple as the girl smiled at him and stepped outside, waiting for him to close the door after him before grabbing his arm as the two of them started to make their way down the stairs and toward Clyde's borrowed car.

"So... Are you planning on saving me a dance tonight?" She asked, smirking at Joel as he rolled his eyes, but moved to pull open the passenger's door to him.

"To be honest, I'm planning on saving all of my dances for you." He said, as Maple nodded, all giddy at his response.

"Good." She smiled. "And I'll save all of mine for you. Well, not all, because I do have to dance with Henry, you know? Tradition and stuff."

"Oh, sure..." Joel pretended to be annoyed, closing the door after Maple once she was properly inside the car and moving around it to sit on the driver's seat instead. "I only hope he doesn't dance better than me."

"Oh, come on now, babe..." She breathed out a laugh while Joel turned on the engine of the car already holding in a chuckle, fairly certain what was about to come out of his girlfriend's lips about his dancing abilities. "Everybody dances better than you."

Gasping playfully, Joel reached a hand over to Maple as he tickled her lightly, already driving off with her toward the restaurant where Aimee would be holding her annual benefit just as they had done the year before. But this time, if the giggles coming from the girl beside him and the way his own heart soared in his chest, he knew this night was going to be ending a lot better than the one from the previous year. And that was exactly how Joel wanted it to, this night and all of the other nights still to come.