#noah2

With his beers nicely hidden by that typical brown bag from liquor stores, Thomas used his foot to knock on his brother’s door, smiling once he saw Noah coming to open to him. “Hello, big brother!” He walked past Noah and went straight to his kitchen, since he’d always felt at home at the older man’s house. “How are things? The lack of scotch says a lot, so what’s up?” He asked as he started rearranging the beers in his brother’s fridge, putting a couple in his freezer and leaving two out. He opened them both and handed Noah one. “Missed you, my little ray of sunshine.”

Even though it wasn’t the same thing she’d promised Dal that she would do, Beth felt like she could invite Noah to this spoken word thing that happened every Friday on a small café not too far from their houses. The proximity was actually how she ended up finding the event, by aimlessly walking through her neighborhood at night a few weeks ago. Ever since then, she’d started going every week until she was encouraged to present something of her own. Of course she was nervous---this was her first time opening up like that and showing something of hers. She could invite Andrew, but she really didn’t want to be criticized by him since the opinion that mattered the most to her, was Andy’s. And then we had Dal---but Dal was out either with her brother or with the firefighter she was seeing and even though she knew her roommate would do everything in her power to go there and see Beth, Beth herself didn’t think she was worth the trouble... which led her to Noah.

Noah was the perfect company, or so she thought. They weren’t close enough to make his opinion have a heavy weight on her shoulders, but they weren’t strangers enough to make the invitation seem odd, which, in her book, was the definition of perfect. 

She was, once again, with Lola on her lap, gently brushing her fingers along the small puppy’s fur while Lola rested peacefully on Beth’s lap as the woman trained her poetry, trying not only to memorize it, but also, to figure out what was the best way to interpret it. Romeo and Elvis were laying by the couch, too. Despite being very active dogs, they were somewhat quiet tonight and she wondered why. They had eaten normally and played normally when she tried playing with them, so maybe they were just tired. The dangling keys on the door made her heart jump a little because now that he had arrived, the invitation didn’t seem as easy as it would have been in her mind. “Hello...” Beth smiled, tilting her head to the side to greet him; the two dogs by the floor got up and went to greet him too. “Did you have a good day at work?”

The sun had long since set as she made her way over the address that Noah had on the back of his card. She had managed to locate another gun along with the one he had asked for and she was sure that he would be interested in it. So she let him know that she was on her way over with some things that might interest him. She held the two boxes as she walked over the street, confident that no one would be stupid enough to actually both her. 

He came looking for her as soon as the wedding ended, looking like an excited puppy.

He clearly needed to get laid. And so did she.

"I'll see you tomorrow" she texts Irene and makes her way to Noah. "Hey."

When he saw Ellie come towards him he stood up and tried to straighten his jacket out.  He walked towards her to shorten the gap.  "Hey, so how was the end of your work?"

 Ellie grinned. "Not bad. They'll like their pictures I think."

"So where are you taking me for after party fun?" She raises an eyebrow. "Drinks?"

 "Good! I'm sure they will.  I mean from what I saw of yours it was really good"

He grinned.  "Sure.  Anyplace in particular you want to get them?"

 "You're not just saying it because it was a picture of you?"

"Oh, surprise me." She matches his smile with one of her own.

 He laughed.  "I promise it wasn't just because it was me"

He acted like he thought about it for a minute before answering.  "Well I have a nice assortment of drinks at my place.  That is if you're up for it?"

Ellie grins and hops up a little as she adjusts the strap of her camera bag. "What are we waiting for, then?"

Noah grinned back and nodded toward the door.  "Follow me then."  When they started walking together he got a little nervous.  "I normally don't do this.. not that there's anything wrong with it... I just felt like you should know that."

 Ellie looked up at the tall, bashful man beside her. "If it helps, I don't do this much either. I used to.... but I stopped." She doesn't add why. It'll cast a dark cloud on her fun tonight and she's determined not to let that happen.

"So what do you usually do when you leave these parties early?" She changes the subject.

 "Well then to new experiences!"  He said with a soft smile.  He tried to push out the thought of Ellie with someone else, he knew he had no right to be jealous about that.  So he welcomed the subject change.

"Honestly I'm pretty boring.  I usually just go back to my apartment and watch Netflix.  You're looking at a true partier here."  He teased.

"That's okay. I like Netflix and chill as much as the next person." Ellie said honestly, wondering if he'd understand the reference. "Sounds like we're in for a wild night."

He smiled, the reference was lost on this old man.  Such an old man smh.  "I think we're both due for a little bit of fun tonight"

"Yeah?" Ellie smiles, liking this guy more and more. He's endearing. "So where exactly do you live?"

 "Just a couple more blocks, so not too much farther."  He was getting more and more nervous the closer they were getting to his place.  "What about you? Did you have to travel far for the wedding?"

 "Not really. Hannah sent a car for me and Irene at school.... said we shouldn't just take the subway with her bridesmaid dress and my camera and tripod." Ellie answered, hoping it really wasn't too far away. "So what do you do for a living?"

"Oh well that's fun!  What are you studying at school?  I do jingles for commercials and stuff.  It's a fun job."

When they made it in front of his building he started to nervously run his hands through his hair.  "This is it! I'm on the first floor too so luckily not a lot of stairs."  He fumbled for his keys to unlock the door.  Once unlocked he held it open for her.  "After you"

"Photography." She nods in acknowledgement and walks through the door. "Jingles? Which ones?? Maybe I've heard one."

"Oh... well I guess that makes sense.  I feel stupid for asking that now."  He laughed a little nervously.  "You know the State Farm commercial? "Like a good neighbor state farm is there"?  That's me.  I mean there's other ones but that's the most popular one."  He opened the door to his apartment,  "Well this is it.  Sorry it's not very big."

 "No, it's okay!" Ellie's eyes light up. "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!" She giggles. "That's amazing!! I love that one."

She stepped inside the apartment. It was small, but not terrible. "It beats my dorm room."

He laughed as she sang it back to him.  Usually he was tired of his own work but with her, it was different.  "Well I'm glad, that means I did a good job."

"I guess that's true.  It's hard to get smaller than a dorm room."  He looked around making sure it was okay.  "So what's your poison?  I have a little bit of everything so it's really up to what you want?"

 "You're a damn genius, Gump." She looks around the apartment, taking in every detail.

"Rum and coke?" Ellie picks up immediately on the piano. "So this is where you compose?"

 He blushed slightly, unused to the praise.  "Thank you, that's why I'm still in business."

He smiled and immediately went to his liquor cabinet.  "Coming right up!"  He started making themselves the drinks she asked for, he couldn't remember if he was wanting a rum and coke before or if it was just wishful thinking that they wanted the same thing.  She brought himself out of his thoughts when she spoke.  Looking up at her he grinned.  "Yep.  Well usually.  I also have an official studio that I have to go into to actually show I'm doing work.  But that's where I do most of the work."

He brought over the drinks in hand, giving her one of them.  "Do you play any instruments?"

 "Fancy. So where is this studio?" She asked, her index finger pressing down on a key.

She took her drink and thanked him, sipping her rum and coke. "Mm- no. Not at all. It would be nice to, but asides from a few weeks learning the recorder in grade school, no instruments for me."

"I did theatre camp though."

"More downtown, in the business district."

He held his drink as he traced his fingers along the lid of the piano.  "I mean I can always teach you.  I used to give piano lessons."  He laughed slightly at her playing the recorder.  "The recorder is a horrid instrument, though I see why people try to get kids to play it, it's easy."

"That sounds fun! Were you in a lot of plays?"

 "Yeah?" She got excited. Realizing that he might just be saying that without any intention of lessons or even a call, she set her drink to the side and sat at the piano bench. "Teach me something."

 "Sure!"  He grinned at her excitement and sat next to her.  "Okay so this one is an easy one, and there's two different parts so we can both do it!" He moved her hands to the higher register of the piano.  "So what you're going to do is do this rhythm.  You're going to get the most exciting part, in my opinion."  He pushed her fingers down in the tune of Heart and Soul.  "It's simple.  Now you're going to keep repeating that and I'll be playing a different melody farther down the keys."

Ellie let him guide her fingers, falling into the motion repetitively as he played with her. She looked up, grinning at him. "I'm playing the piano!"

He switched hands, so his right could be over hers and his left could be playing his own melody.  Completing the song.  He smiled down at her, happy to see her excited.  "You are! I told you I could teach you!"

With his hand over hers, Ellie kept her eyes on him, smiling back. And as soon as the song ended, she leaned in quickly for a kiss. Payment for her lesson, after all.

Noah grinned slightly against her lips and immediately started kissing her back.  He couldn't tell if it was because of who he was with or the fact that he hasn't done this in a while, but he could feel his heart beating faster and faster yuri and the daffodils: Ellie put her hands up to his face and threaded her fingers in his hair, eager in her kissing.

After a while, she broke apart from him to catch her breath. "Where's your room?"