What just happened? Did Grande Jim Hopper just ask her out on a date? Oh god, did she blow him off? Did she agree? What the hell just happened!?

"Mom, let's go! I don't want to be late for Dustin's party," Will beckoned.

Joyce realized she was standing at the register for no reason while her son packed up his things. Lucy had arrived to take over the shop, and Joyce was due to clock out in ten minutes. She had to update the inventory spreadsheet in the back and then drive Will to Dustin's birthday party.

But she could barely think about anything other than the way Hopper—that name fit him better than anything, actually—had looked at her when he asked her out. Well, not really asked, but…no, yeah, he had asked her out! He wanted to know if she would like to have dinner with him on Friday. Friday night dinner, that was a date. God, she was so stupid! She couldn't just be a normal woman around a man she liked. She couldn't just smile and maybe blush in an attractive way and tell him she'd love to go out with him. No, not Joyce Byers.

It wasn't like she hadn't dated since Lonnie left. Back at her old job, she was always getting hit on by people. She was younger then, after all. And more than once, one of the guys hitting on her actually did it in a nice kinda way. She'd been out on a few dates here and there. She'd only slept with three people since the divorce, but that wasn't worth thinking about. Well, except Bob.

Sweet Bob who worked in the tech department at Walmart when Joyce had been working there. He had treated her right. Took her out, cared about her and her kids, attentive and loving in every possible way. But then it became clear that he wanted to be a part of the ready-made Byers family. And on the one hand, Joyce loved him for it. But on the other hand, it started to feel a little invasive. Like he wanted to skip the new parts of a relationship and the building of a life together. That was probably unfair to Bob. There wasn't a conniving bone in his body. It was just that this was her family. Her house. Her boys. And Bob just didn't fit. The boys didn't mind him or anything, but Joyce had started to relish when he wasn't around, appreciating it being just the three of them without him. And that's when she had to end it. She had already given her notice at Walmart and was due to start at the coffee shop anyway. She hadn't seen Bob after that. It had been almost two years.

Joyce shook herself. She almost missed the turn to Dustin's house. Will practically jumped out of the car with the birthday present in his hands. "I'll pick you up at six!" she shouted through the window after him.

Will waved goodbye and ran over to Mike and Lucas, his other friends from childhood, who had also arrived for the party.

Before she drove away, Joyce pulled out her phone. She didn't want to leave it another minute. She'd already spent enough time feeling like an idiot. Time to fix the problem. Hopefully.

She scrolled through her messages to the one labeled El's Dad. She went in and changed the contact name Hopper. She saved it and went to type a message before hesitating and going back to editing the contact. He was now saved in her phone as Hopper (Grande Jim). God, if he ever saw that, she would be mortified. If anyone saw it, she'd be mortified. But it made her smile for the time being, so she left it like that.

Joyce typed a message and sent it before she could let her anxiety talk her out of it. Sorry if I reacted weird when you asked me to dinner. I was surprised you wanted to go out with me.

She put the phone face down in the passenger seat so it wouldn't distract her while she was driving. Her car was too old to have Car Play or anything that would show her texts on the display screen, thankfully. She put on the oldies radio station and turned the volume up on the way home. It was really depressing that the music that she danced to at prom was now on the oldies station, but Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper cheered her right up. But then they got into some nineties stuff that had been popular when she was involved with Lonnie and not really paying attention to popular music. Though it did cause her mind to wander to whether Tupac was still alive. There had to be some good stuff on YouTube about that.

When Joyce got home, Jonathan was sitting on the couch with his laptop and books all around him. He looked up and said, "Hi, Mom. How was your day?"

"Do you think Tupac's death is a coverup?" she asked in response, putting her purse down on the floor and sitting on the couch to get the remote and open the YouTube app.

Jonathan stared at her. "I'm still working on my paper. Could you do that on your phone with earbuds instead?" he requested.

The guilt washed over her. Some great mom she was. "Yeah, I'm sorry." She turned the tv off and went to scrounge around in her purse for her phone. She'd go in her room so she didn't bother Jonathan. Only her phone wasn't in her purse. It was still in the front seat of the car where she'd left it to hide from Hopper's answer.

Joyce hurried out to her car and checked her phone. Sure enough, Hopper responded. It did make her smile to see the way his name came up. She opened the message to read it, heart pounding in her throat.

You shouldn't be surprised I wanted to go out with you. But we can just have dinner as friends, if you want. Not as a date.

Her heart sank from her throat to the pit of her stomach. She didn't know what that meant. Did he not want it to be a date? What did he mean that she shouldn't be surprised he wanted to go out with her?

She tried not to spiral and instead responded quickly, Dinner as friends is good. A date is better. If you still want to. She bit her lip, staring at the message she'd just sent. When the three dots appeared that he was typing, she gasped.

Definitely want to. Friday. Seven? I was thinking maybe Enzo's. I hear they've got good chianti. I can pick you up.

Joyce smiled. Enzo's was one of the nicer restaurants in town. She might have guessed he was an Applebee's guy. Nothing wrong with Applebee's, but Enzo's was just a little more special. She'd have to figure out what to wear.

She quickly typed back, I'll meet you there. Probably easier that way. And that gave Joyce a means of escape if she needed it. Not that she anticipated needing to escape Hopper, but she'd been on bad first dates where she wished she could get home by herself. Better safe than sorry.

With a satisfied huff to herself, Joyce finally took the phone inside the house and started googling Tupac.