Slow Burn | HS

you're the fire and the flood

March 2017

Joelle and Mia had both made it through their midterm week relatively unscathed. Niall had called for celebration after talking to Joelle about it on a rare occasion that he had enough free time to eat lunch with her. As a result, he volunteered on Mara and Liam's behalf to host a get-together at their apartment in honor of the end of midterms. Joelle insisted that they not, but Mara loved to entertain. Mara invited anyone she could think of, and, to Joelle's relief, didn't tell them it was thrown to commemorate a "job well done" to Mia and Joelle for surviving one of the worst weeks of the semester. She simply started a large group text that included a lot of numbers that Joelle didn't recognize, calling for another "family dinner" on Saturday night.

Joelle and Mia were in charge of bringing desserts, so on her way back from a quick morning shift at the hospital, Joelle decided to stop by a local bakery to see what they had. She scans the items in the display cases, which include everything from pies to scones to strudels. Joelle tells the assistant she'd like a banana creme pie and is about to pay when some cupcakes catch her eye. She quickly adds a dozen vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting to her order.

Balancing the small pie box on top of the larger cupcake container, Joelle starts the trek back to her apartment and carefully pulls her phone out of her back pocket. She clicks on a contact she's been communicating with more frequently lately and hits the call button.

"Hey, Jo!" Mara picks up after a few rings, cheerful and excitable.

"Mara, hey," Joelle greets. "I just left a bakery and picked up a few desserts. I'm free for the rest of the day, is there anything else I can do to help out tonight?"

"Joelle, you're an absolute angel," Mara croons. "I just had a client request to tour a house today, and even when I told them that they were supposed to give 24 hours advanced notice, they insisted." Joelle manages to dodge a businessman on a mission and his swinging briefcase. She tucks the phone between her shoulder and ear so she can keep two hands on the boxes. "I'll be stuck in Cambridge for most of the day. I didn't have time to make sure the apartment is clean, and, obviously, you're not a maid service, but could you possibly pop in a little before people are supposed to show up and make sure the apartment is somewhat tidy?" She's rambling and her words are flowing so quickly that Joelle has to really concentrate to catch everything "It should be fine because I'm kind of a neat freak, but could you just make sure that Liam's socks aren't lying around anywhere in the living room? And maybe light the candle I have sitting on the counter."

"Of course I can do that, Mara," Joelle tells her, making a mental list of everything she has to do.

"Thank you so much. Usually, I'd make Liam do it but he's at the gym all day training with Harry," Mara says. Joelle almost tells her that she knows this, but decides better of it because it might enable Mara to deduce that she and Harry text about their daily happenings. She doesn't think Mara would be too suspicious, but it's better to avoid giving away any hints until Joelle better understands how Harry is feeling.

"Oh, and one more thing!" Mara remembers. "I have some packs of beer for everyone and some cans of coke still sitting out on the counter. Do you think you could put those in the fridge when you get there? There should be plenty of room because I really need to go grocery shopping."

"I can do that. Do you have a spare key hidden somewhere?"

"Yes, behind the wreath on our door. And the code to get in our building is 2876." Joelle can hear elevator doors opening with a ding through Mara's side of the phone. "I've got to run, Jo. Thank you so much for helping. You're the best."

"No problem. I'll see you later, okay?"

"See you tonight."

Joelle hangs up the phone and puts it back in her pocket. Pressing her back against the door because her hands are full, she opens the door to her building and makes a careful ascent to the second floor. Mia's home, so luckily the door is unlocked and Joelle doesn't have to rifle through her bag in search of her keys. She's at the kitchen table, painting her nails with careful concentration when Joelle crosses the threshold.