callmeemily | BACKDATED (for Joel, dated Aug 22)

They've looked at a couple of places, but til now, none of them have hit the mark. Too big, too dark, no kitchen even though they'd been told it had a kitchen, that sort of thing, but this one they've been told that they'll 'love', and that's got Raleigh wondering as she waits outside of Crossroads, sitting on the bench outside because she's trying to soak up the sun before it's fall and they're plunged back into short days and cold nights.

She tips her head all the way back when she hears the door open and close and Joel lock it, and she's smiling. "Hey, thanks for doing this." She's thanked him with every one they've seen, because he takes the time out of his day - and more than that, he's the one who's signing the lease, because-- because. Because he's kind, because he's family, because he's honestly one of the nicest guys Raleigh's ever met.

She hasn't told him about the disastrous date that she had last night, or really given him feedback on The Most Boring Date In Existence, since he's the one who set her up on it - but she figures it may come up now, if he's heard the gossip. Either way, hopefully this would be the one.

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He raises an eyebrow when she says she and dates don't even get along and he takes that to mean the date he set her up on didn't exactly go well. It's fine, he isn't about to take it personally, but he thinks Michael is nice and he wonders what it is that didn't work. Maybe they just didn't have much in common and that's fair, but he is curious.

He doesn't ask, but he smiles when she says she thinks she can see herself here with children one day. They haven't talked about it a lot, they haven't really discussed what Raleigh wants one day, but he and Spencer know where their little family is going to go and when he hears Raleigh say that, it makes something in his chest loosen, something feels a little lighter. Her children will be here one day, she'll teach them to bake, she'll have this place with them, and Joel knows any children he and Spencer have will be welcome here, too.

"That's an incredible thing to imagine," he says, reaching out to tuck some of her hair back without thought before he looks around the kitchen again. She's one of few people he's able to touch without being awkward, without overthinking it and he pauses, running his hand over a windowsill that's thick with dust. "If it's the right place, then it's the right place. You know the work that needs to go into it, but you know that I can help you with a lot of it and if it feels right..." He trails off and shakes his head, smiling at her. "I just didn't want to make it too easy on the agent. Hopefully she'll come back with a few more options for us now that she thinks we're not entirely sold."

Raleigh laughed when he talked about making it easy on the agent. "Hey, I'm leaving that one-hundred percent up to you, because I know that if I open my mouth, it'll be clear that she could ask for the moon and I'd try to find some way to make it work." Shaking her head, she looks at him for a long second, and she's been sort of wondering, wondering what'll happen with her while he and Spencer build their life together, but it's not really the time to ask. Maybe... maybe she'll talk to Spencer about it, because it's the kind of thing she knows they should talk about, at the very least.

She smiles, instead, shoving her hands into her back pockets. "Thank you. The offer to help, I mean, I... I wouldn't have been able to do this without you, or even really- I mean, I don't know what I would do, you know? So... It means a lot."

Someday, maybe, they'll talk about what she wants, what she thinks her life should be like, but right now what she thinks it will be like versus what it should be like are different enough that she thinks the conversation won't be a good one - but this is the first step in changing that.

"You would find away," he says and while he's more than happy to help, he's sure that this is something Raleigh wants badly enough to make it work no matter what his level of involvement. Maybe having here makes it a little easier for her to do certain things and he's glad he can do that, he likes being able to help her, especially when it comes to something like this, something she's been dreaming of. But she's determined and she's capable and if he wasn't here, he thinks she'd still find a way to make it happen.

"You want it and you're smart," he says. "Without me, you'd still find a way." And he has no doubt, no matter what she does, this place will be successful. "But I'm happy to help. I'll take care of things with the agent, but I'm fairly certain we'll be able to work out an arrangement that will work best for you. The landlord wants to get this place rented and I don't think they're going to have a lot of luck. There aren't a lot of people looking to open new businesses here who are capable of doing the work that's needed."

He's getting excited now and he grins over at her. "So tell me what you're seeing," he says. "Walk me through this place and then we'll go back and see the agent. It'll make her think we've had to spend a lot of time really thinking about whether it's worth it."

Raleigh laughed. "I'd mortgage my teeth if i had to, to get this place." She's not kidding, and she looks around at it, and she sees.... she sees things that aren't there yet, and she knows he's right. She'd find a way, but this way? She's not going to have to barter her first born for it. "We'll figure it out, I'm not worried."

He's smiling, and then he asks her to walk him through it, and she just sort of... lights up.

She's so excited, so happy, right now.

Grabbing his hand, she pulls him to the front of the store, careful to step around the stacks of... well, crap that the previous owner left. "Okay. So, everything, obviously clean, and no wallpaper, right? I'm thinking mostly white walls, and that one little wall - that'll be bright yellow and have a big square with chalkboard paint that's framed out in natural wood so that the specials can be on it." She chews on her lip for a second. "Wood shelves, not metal ones - they're not homey enough, if they're metal. A couple little tables in here, and outside - I mean, there'll only be room for like, three, but yellow chairs. Wood tables. Wood floors, if that's what's under the linoleum."

She chews on her lip. "No blinds. Curtains, maybe, but the rod goes so far past the window that when they're open, you can't see them from the outside. Whenever we're open, they're pushed all the way back." She turns back to look at him. "Does that sound- I mean..." She bites her lip for a second. For all that she knows exactly what she wants, she doesn't know if that's just... her. "Would you like being in a place like that?"

He lets her pull him along as she describes what she wants to do and it's all easy enough to imagine. The shelves and tables are things he can make, though he suspects she'll probably want to find a place where she can buy the chairs instead of leaving those to him, if only for the comfort of the people sitting in them. Joel is great at building rustic furniture, which is what he thinks she wants from the shelves and the tables, but he's never put much time into learning the more delicate process of making something a person can comfortably sit in for longer than five minutes.

"I can make those. The tables and the shelves. Probably even the chalkboard, too," he says, nodding as he imagines it. What she's describing sounds like a great little place and what's important is that she has such a clear vision. He knows of businesses that suffer simply because their owners are never quite sure what they want them to be, but Raleigh knows and that gives Joel even more confidence in the fact that she can do this.

"It sounds great," he says honestly, giving her a smile. "You know what you want and... people will love it. We'll make it work, we'll make it exactly what you want it to be, I can promise you that."

BACKDATED (for Joel, dated Aug 22)

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