Love and dances - Joel Dawson

Instincts

Dear Maple,

Before I left, Clyde told me to follow my instincts. But what if my instincts only lead me back to you?

Joel had thought leaving New York would've been easier. After all, he had nothing keeping him there anymore, did he? All of his plans and ideas for his big move across the country that had taken him so long to convince his parents of and so much patience on his part to listen to all of his friends' mocking of him... None of them had worked. He wasn't a great illustrator in New York. Aimee had rejected him. It had been at least six months since he had moved and Joel had been, pretty much, stuck in place instead of taking off in the Big Apple. Actually, Joel realized, he was actually kind of worse now than he was when he arrived because, if when he arrived to New York, he still had the privilege to call Maple his friend, now, not even that he had anymore.

And he had tried. Even after he had left her apartment earlier that day, Joel had tried to call Maple several times to, at least, talk to her for a minute before he had to board his plane, but it had been for nothing. Maple Rhodes was still, pretty much, ignoring him and, probably, would continue to do forever now that she was free of him. And the worst part of it was that they had had a fallen out over a stupid fight.

"You should've seen it, Boy..." Joel mumbled, talking, once again, to his dog, considering he was, at that point, the only one who would even listen to his ramblings in the first place. "God, if I could go back in time, I swear I would... I would've never said all of those stupid things to her. Because, you know what? In the end she was right. I was ungrateful, you know? After everything she did for me and I repay her that way... I mean, I didn't even dance with her like I had promised..."

Boy was sitting by Joel as the two of them waited for their plane to start boarding people. It was a good thing Boy wasn't that big so that Joel could take him with him on the flight because the young man was about 90% sure that if he was alone during that time, he would've gone insane. But he was also sure, for anyone looking from the outside, he probably already looked insane anyway.

After all, what kind of person sits in an airport talking to a dog while looking ahead of him with hazy eyes as memories of the past few weeks go through his mind? Not a sane one, of course. But, considering the fact Joel didn't seem to think of anything else other than Maple Rhodes, he wasn't sure sane would be a word he would use to describe himself.

Because, as he sat alone - well, with Boy, really, but essentially alone - at the airport, Joel realized he couldn't seem to shake away from his mind all of the best moments he had shared with Maple.

He remembered the day they had gone to that café up their street. The one she had bought him his first ever caramel latte. He remembered how, that day, he had bought her a coffee instead, saying he had to repay her somehow. He remembered how she had argued against it, but when Joel said he had seen a coffee with some chocolate in the menu and it had reminded him of her, she had suddenly stopped. Maple had let him pay for their drinks then, refusing a croissant for them to share just the way they had the first time they had gone there. Joel remembered the smile on her face as soon as Maple took a first sip of her drink. He remembered the reddening of her cheeks as he watched her expectantly for her reaction to the reaction she'd have about the drink he had chosen for her. He remembered her quiet hum of satisfaction and the way her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him as soon as her lips left the cup for a moment.

"This is amazing." She had smiled at him, her hands wrapping around the cup to take advantage of the warmth it offered. "I love chocolate."

"Anything with chocolate." Joel had shrugged at her then. "I remember."

And, as the memory replayed in his head, Joel could see the way Maple smiled gently at him, raising her cup to her lips again before almost spitting out half of her drink when her eyes widened.