3. Weekend proposal

Joyce and El had been home for about twenty minutes by the time Hopper arrived.


"The kids wanted to order some pizza, I hope that's okay with you?"


"Everything's fine with me, Joyce." He said, smiling.


"Okay", she said, returning his smile as his eyes crossed hers.


----


Will had just finished eating and got up, walked over to the couch to choose a movie from the little pile on the TV.


"Hey! Don't choose by yourself", Jonathan said as he walked towards him.


Joyce watched him walk away with a smile on her face. She hadn't seen her sons so happy in a long time. She had no doubt that Nancy was one of the main reasons her eldest son was happy.


Hopper turned to her, and Joyce lost the thread of her thoughts.


"So, how much do I owe you?"


He reached his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out an old wallet.


"No, Jim, put it away."


She put her little hand on the bills he was starting to count and pushed them slightly towards him, hoping her message was clear.


"Joyce... seriously..."


"I don't want to. I won't accept your money, I warn you." She said, pointing at him as if to accuse him of something. 


"But I-"


"There's no "but." I had a very good day with your daughter, she's lovely and I'm happy to buy her some clothes. So please don't."


"All right, I don't want to fight with you." He said, raising his arms in the air.


"That's a very good choice and you’ve just saved time because even if you would have tried, you would have lost."


She laughed and then got up to settle down on the couch but Hopper grabbed her hand, forcing her to turn around to face him. Joyce turned her head thinking she would find his gaze above her, but he was still sitting on the chair.


"Thank you for her", he said, gently releasing her hand. "But I'll find a way to really thank you."


Joyce smiled as she thought how stubborn the man in front of her was.


Hopper glanced at El, who was watching from her chair, not daring to move, because of the risk of stopping their discussion and their silly smiles.


"I hope you at least thanked Joyce?" He said, frowning.


El nodded her head to answer because her mouth was still full and she didn't want to get a new telling-off for talking without finishing first what she was eating.


"Yes she did, don't worry. She is well brought up", she added, smiling again.


And Hopper smiled back at her.
 
For a moment El thought that time had just stopped around them.


Neither of them moved, their eyes staring at each other's. She felt as if she no longer existed.


The teenager stood up and put her glass back on the table, which made them turn towards her. 


"Um... are we going to watch the movie?" She asked to break the embarrassing silence that had just settled in.


"Uh... yes..." Joyce replied, rubbing her face with one hand.


And they joined the two boys already settled on the couch. 


—♡—♡—♡—♡—♡—


The week had gone a little more smoothly than the previous ones. The mall had opened again and so they had already started to lose customers.


It was Thursday afternoon and Joyce was placing new items on the shelves when the doorbell rang behind her, she turned to see Hopper coming inside. 


Joyce smiled at him as she got up to join him.


"Hey, you okay? What are you doing here?"


"Here, this is for you."


He handed her a bottle of water which she took as she looked at him with her eyes squinted.


"Uh... thanks. But why exactly are you giving me a... bottle of water?"


"Come on, today is the hottest day Joyce. I don't want you to get dehydrated", he said, raising his eyes to the sky.


"Are you serious?" She said frowning. "Are you aware that I work in a store, Hop. A store where you can find... I don't know... for example... bottles of water..." 


Joyce sneered and Hopper rubbed the back of his head with his right hand and smiled as he lowered his head.


"That's right..."


"I’m under the impression that you never work."


She put the bottle on her checkout and went back to fill the shelves.


Hopper followed her with his arms folded.


"What do you mean I never work?"


"I mean you come in here a lot to see me. You certainly don’t have anything to work on to be able to do this, or you miss me so much you can't help it."


She hid her smile by placing bundles of band-aids at the back of the shelf, turning her back on Hopper.


"Actually, I came because I had an idea but since I'm bothering you, I'll go and talk to you about that later on."


Joyce suddenly turned around to catch him, but she found herself facing him, smiling up to his ears, knowing that would be her reaction. 


"I never said you were bothering me!" She protested, raising her eyes to the sky.


"That's what I understood", he answered crossing his arms again.


Joyce looked up again with a feeling of déjà vu. He acted like a child sometimes.


"So, what did you want to tell me?"


"I was planning to go on Saturday morning for the weekend with El to spend two days by a lake that is a little over two hours away from here and I thought it would be a good idea to take you guys there too. If you want to come, of course. We could all spend the weekend together. I won't hide the fact that a lot of this is to thank you. Everything you do for El makes her happy and so it makes me happy. Besides, I told you I was going to thank you somehow, so... would you be okay to come?"


"Wow I... I don't know... I have to ask the boys..."


"Especially tell Jonathan that it's beautiful, he'll be more than happy to take pictures there, he can even ask Nancy to come if he wants... but I'll have to take a bigger tent in this case..."


"Thanks, Hopper. I'm sure Jonathan will love the idea and Will will be happy to spend a weekend with El. Bu-"


"Oh, come on. When I suggested her the idea, she jumped all over the house. I think she'll be as happy as he will be."


"Yeah, but... I don't know... I'll tell you later. Okay?"


"I... as you wish, yes. Just let me know before Saturday anyway." He said, laughing.


"But you're coming tomorrow night. We can talk about it then, can't we?"


"Yes, that's fine."


"That's great. I'll leave you to it. I have to work or otherwise I'll get fired because of you."


"Don't blame me if you don't do your job correctly, Horowitz!"


Then he walked out, closing the door behind him, leaving Joyce alone.


That idea of a weekend was pretty tempting, for sure. 


After all, she deserved to relax a little... but with Hopper it was... strange. Everything had been different in her head for a while. He was different in her head.

Comment