Attending an event where people were auctioned off for dates was the last thing Julia wanted to be doing, especially when she could easily just be at home eating pizza in her underwear instead, but Elsie had insisted and she just couldn’t tell the girl no. There had at least been a promise that there would be a buffet, though it was a mediocre one at best it tided her over while they found seats and watched people filter onto the stage, waiting to be bid on. People were getting more and more charitable with their offers though she knew that probably had more to do with the odd number of attractive individuals that walked up the steps one after the other, and she figured that they might actually shape up to being really good dates with the amount of money that was being thrown out.
Elsie had handed her a paddle with a smile and Julia humoured her even though she knew damn well she wasn’t going to bid on anyone, but it worked nicely as a fan to disperse some of the hot air in the room due to there being so many people crammed together. She had been busy picking at the chipped red polish on her nails when another name was called, and she looked up to see a burly, bearded fellow step onto the stage looking as uncomfortable as she imagined people did in those ‘high school speech in only my underwear’ nightmares that people always talked about, and she chuckled to herself. Poor bastard.
Paddles started to fly up into the air though people out bid each other quickly, and she tried to focus on the numbers being called despite a very itchy sensation that had spread across her arm, getting increasingly more irritating by the second. Eventually it started to burn and she couldn’t help but throw her arm up to try to relieve it, which unfortunately was the one holding the paddle, and she heard a small laugh behind her and turned to see none other than Levi. There was no time to tell her off however, as the auctioneer was soon pulling her out of her seat and congratulating her on her purchase of a date with Mr. Beard.
She’d debated even going at all up until the actual day, when she decided that she at least would get a meal out of it, and when she learned that the guy was Levi’s older brother Joe, she thought perhaps they could get revenge on her for her clever prank at the auction, too. They’d agreed to meet outside Messina and there he was waiting for her, his eyebrows raised as she strode over to him, her heels clacking on the pavement. “Alright, Joseph. Where are we headed?” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him expectantly.
Over the years, Joe had realised that his life was documented by the varying levels of ‘pissed off’ he was towards his sister. As soon as Levi had been born, crawling into his life all red hair and freckles and wailing that turned into childish whines and complaints, he rarely remembered a time when his little sister hadn’t annoyed him. Of course, underneath all the claims that he had never wanted a younger sibling in the first place, it was pretty obvious that he’d flip his shit if anything happened to her. Their father’s parenting skills were limited and his paternal instinct was rarely anything but absent at the best of times, which meant he was the one who’d dragged Levi up from infancy. Both he and his sister knew he hadn’t done the greatest job, but after everything that had happened with Louis recently, Joe and Levi had dropped the charade where they pretended to both hate each other.
That still didn’t mean he didn’t want to kill her at that exact moment.
He’s spoken to Julia Clark a grand total of one time. Yet now he was going on a date with her after his sister’s scheming. He’d been subject to Levi’s pranks ever since the kid could walk but he supposed he’d underestimated her. Levi was skilled with whoopee cushions, booby traps and acquiring masses of fake bugs to hide under someone’s pillow. He hadn’t realised that she was also conniving and manipulative enough to orchestrate a grand scheme like this.
“Have fun!” the bane of his existence called after him as he made his way out of the apartment. He glanced over his shoulder, brushing his hair out of his eyes and raised his middle finger towards her. Her returning cackle grated on his nerves and he scowled.
“I find one fucking scratch on my X-Files DVD’s and you’re dead, shithead,” he warned her, receiving a wiggle of her fingers in a farewell gesture, as a reply.
Sighing to himself, he stepped out in to the hall and closed the door behind him before jogging down the stairs. It was good manners to wait for the woman first which was why Levi insisted that he be early. Date protocol was a foreign notion to Joe however, who didn’t do the whole dinner and a movie thing often. Bars and hook-ups were familiar territory for him, and the one time he had forayed into the dating game had been a short-lived idea that left him determined to never try that again. Thoughts of Hayley still getting on with her life back in New Mexico made his heart clench painfully in his chest, and he pushed thoughts of the tiny woman away. His brain seemed to be filled with sealed pockets full of bad thoughts as of recently. The majority of them revolved around Gerard Denver and what Joe would like to do with the man if he ever got his hands on him. He knew he should be catching a flight to Lowell, Massachusetts in order to allow his fists to have a friendly word with the smug bastard’s face, instead of going on stupid auction dates. Levi hadn’t left room for an argument though.
Hearing the door swing open behind him, he turned on the spot. Julia was striding towards him and, Joe had to admit, she wasn’t looking half-bad. Had he been in a better and more accommodating mood, he may have taken great care to study the way her dress clung to her shapely figure, or the way her make-up complimented the blue of her eyes.
“I was thinking we could go to the restaurant they organised for us,” Joe smirked, fishing into his pocket so he could pull out two (crumpled) coupons that had been given to him after Julia ‘won’ him at the auction.
He was about to suggest that they make tracks when movement at the corner of his eyes caught his attention. He glanced upwards, just in time to see a curtain fall into place at his apartment’s window, shutting of the orange glow that had cast shadows on the pavement only seconds before. Letting out a groan, he rolled his eyes and turned back to Julia.
“Fuckin’ Levi,” he muttered as an explanation. Eyeing the woman, he couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the better of him. “You really didn’t know she was going to make you bid for me?”
He patted at his chest, just over his heart. “Because I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to use that as an excuse to ask me out. Let me guess, our five minute conversation before left you head over heels, right?”
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