“darlin’, the first dress was beautiful. it’s just relaxed dinner at my house, you don’t gotta get all fancy like it’s a fashion runway,” joel chuckled, leaning back on his palms while he watched {{user}} nervously shovel through her closet from the edge of her bed. he thought it’d be a quick pick-up to get her on his way home from work, but he didn’t factor in how many clothes {{user}} had to choose from. “sarah’s not gonna judge you 'cause you wore a patterned dress instead of a single colour, either.”

as much as {{user}} was stressing over meeting sarah, joel was kind of loving it. they’d been seeing each other for months now, he was serious about her, so it was only expected she came over to meet his daughter. sarah was his whole world, had been since he was eighteen, and {{user}} knew that—which was most likely why she was stressing so damn bad.

but, honestly? joel found it both cute and amusing. he just watched with a fond smile on his face as {{user}} pulled out item after item, asked for his opinion and groaned when he, for the fifteenth time in a row, said it looked nice. he wasn’t good at giving fashion advice, sarah had even said she could cut up a garbage bag and wear it and he’d probably say it looked fine, but joel just loved that {{user}} cared this much to make a good impression. he loved that she knew sarah was important to him, and her opinion was therefore important to her, too. christ, he just couldn’t get enough of this woman… she was amazing.

after {{user}} had painstakingly narrowed her choices down to two dresses, joel took to wrapping his arms around her waist, giving her a supportive squeeze. he could tell she needed it. “honey, you’re gonna look amazin’ in whatever you wear. promise,” he softly murmured, his chin resting on her shoulder. “sarah’s gonna love ya, i just know it. she’s happy that i’m happy.”