Love and dances - Joel Dawson

Cheap wine

Dear Joel,

I wasn't really expecting you to stay with us for so long, so we only have some leftover reheated chicken for lunch, I hope you don't mind.

"Oh, this is fancy..." Joel joked as Maple scoffed, but smiled anyway, climbing out of the window of her apartment to sit beside Joel on the fire escape ladder just outside as she showed him a half full bottle of wine while holding two plastic cups in his other hand. "Here, let me help you."

And, without missing a beat, Joel reached for the bottle of wine in Maple's hand and grabbed it in his, holding it in place in between his legs as he shot out his hand toward the girl beside him again, helping her settle down on the empty space beside him.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, once she had sat down properly beside Joel and pulled one of the cups from inside the other to offer them both to Joel. The boy smiled back at her, pulling open the wine as he poured some of it in each of the cups and reached through the window to place the bottle inside the house, near them. "But this is literally the cheapest wine I could find in the market down the street and we're drinking it from plastic cups, so this is as far from fancy as it could get."

"I don't mind." Joel shrugged, earnestly. "I kind of like it, if I'm being honest."

At his words, Maple chuckled. She was pretty sure that, if anyone else had said that same thing to her, Maple would have been offended, almost as if thinking it was a lie. After all, what was there to like about sitting in a fire escape ladder with their legs dangling out of it while drinking cheap wine from even cheaper cups after a meal that wasn't even cooked that day? There was literally nothing to like about it and Maple knew it, but something about Joel... Something about the way he spoke to her and acted around her... Something about him made Maple believe he meant it. Something made Maple actually think he was having a good time with her, sitting there and looking over a not-that-busy street from New York underneath them.

"I'm sorry for dinner tonight, by the way." Maple said, her eyes refusing to meet Joel's as she looked down at her feet swaying underneath her even if she could tell Joel was looking right at her. "But you're really a fighter, you know? I mean... Surviving a whole meal with Clyde and Minnow... Not that easy."

"They really are something, huh?" He asked, as Maple giggled.

"Yeah..." She nodded. "I usually say that in this house, you either get a good meal or a good night's sleep. Never the two of them. So, considering dinner tonight was a complete disaster with Minnow spilling half of her juice on her shirt and Clyde almost choking on a piece of chicken from laughing at something she said, I guess it's safe to assume at least we'll sleep well."

"I hope you do." Joel nodded, his eyes still glued to Maple and unable to look away even when the girl finally turned around to look at him too. "But dinner wasn't a disaster. I mean, the chicken was amazing. Did you cook it yourself?"

"Yeah." She nodded back at him, her voice catching on her throat a little at the way she could almost feel Joel's eyes burning into her soul. "It usually tastes better when it isn't reheated, but..."

"Stop." Joel shook his head, a small smile on his lips, but his tone stern somehow. Maple frowned at him then, watching the boy quietly with her lip trapped between her teeth as she tried to understand what was going on. "Stop putting yourself down like that, Maple. You're incredible."

"No, I'm not..." Maple scoffed, taking a bit sip of her wine as Joel sighed at her reaction. "I mean, I could barely teach you the basics of ball dancing today."

"That's because I'm a shitty dancer, I thought we had gone through that already." Joel chuckled, nudging Maple on the ribs as the girl smirked at him. "But that's not what I meant. What I meant is... I mean... You're 21, Maple, and you're basically raising your little sister on your own while keeping yourself in college and working in the library there to make some money for you two. That's amazing work. That without mentioning being an expert in ball dancing."