“So, Daph, now that you’re back from France, there’s something I want to talk with you about,” Benjamin says as he makes his way down the street toward the shelter where Tess works and lives. “Your mother and I…ah, reconnected while you were away. And our relationship’s become…more."
Silence. Then: “What exactly do you mean by more?”
Benjamin jolts a little. He wasn’t expecting follow-up questions. Just a hearty congratulations.
He clears his throat. “Well, uh…your mother and I have become very fond of each other. I asked her to come as my date to the Boston Charities Man of the Year award ceremony, and she said yes. I wanted to tell you first, so there wouldn't be any surprises.”
Another silence. This one seems to go on forever before it’s broken with, “So last week before I left, you two hated each other's guts. And now this week you're planning on going to Boston together?”
Wow, she is really grilling him about this. “We never hated each other.”
That earns him a huge snort. “My dude, that is not the vibe I was getting off Mom.”
“Okay, maybe your mom hated me,” he admits. “But things change. Relationships change. We cleared up some misunderstandings—”
“What kind of misunderstandings, exactly? Because like any nosy teenager whose birth parents hate each other, I’ve asked both of you what was up with that several times, and neither of you ever told me. Does that mean you’re going to tell me now?"
“No, that subject is still off-limits for a while, I think.” Benjamin tugs at the collar of his Boston Hawks tee. “I’ll have to check with your mother.”
“And what if she says no? Do you expect me to just sit by quietly while you two keep on having grown-up sex and go to Boston like it’s not bonkers that you went straight from hating to dating while I was in France? I’m so confused. Maybe y’all should just forget about going to the Boston ceremony and date behind my back until you’re sure this is real. I say y’all because I still haven’t fully lost my Louisiana accent. Also, how married are you to this nickname Daph? It kind of makes me sound like that duck from the Looney Tunes cartoons.”
Benjamin stops walking and looks down at his conversation partner to say, “I know I missed a lot, but I’m pretty sure those Looney Tunes cartoons were before Daph’s time. And just so you know, Daph has never complained about me calling her Daph before. Know what else? I really don't think she would give me the third degree like this.”
Tess breaks character to harrumph and answer, “That’s because you've never given her any reason to grill you like that. Trust me, our daughter is going to have a lot of questions, especially after getting burned by Stephanie’s secret husband. She's not going to just accept things like she did when she was twelve. And, we’ll just have to agree to disagree about Daph.”
Despite Tess’s grumpy tone, her use of the word “our” when referring to their daughter makes a smile tug at Benjamin’s lips as he starts them walking again.
“Or maybe she’ll be happy for us, no questions asked,” he suggests. “Ever consider that possibility?”
Tess twists her lips to the side. “Half my job is talking girls out of magical thinking and into practical plans for their futures, so I tend to go for worst-case scenario in these role-play situations.”
That makes complete sense. But as they come up to her building, Benjamin has to ask, “Is that what you’re doing here? Worst-case scenarioing us? Because you said you’d come to Boston to be my date if I broke the news to Daphne myself. Now it’s kinda sounding like you’re trying to back out.”
“It’s just…” Tess slumps her shoulders like a criminal caught in the act. “We moved way too fast the first time, and we just fell into bed all over again a few days ago. I appreciate your honesty, but I don't want to make that mistake again.”
“It wasn’t a mistake,” Benjamin insists, cupping her cheek around the back of her neck. “It was a misunderstanding. And if anything, it’s killing me to go slow this time. I knew what I wanted then, and I know what I want now. You.”
She wraps her hand around his wrist with a soft gaze, but she still insists, “We were just kids, Benjamin.”
“Yeah, we were just kids, but sometimes when you know, you know. I knew. And I spent the last sixteen years regretting that I didn't trust my gut. I’m not doing this thing in the shadows again. Not for Daphne. Not even for you. I want to be with you, and I want everybody, especially our daughter, to know I’m with you.”
Tess throws her head back with a groan. “Okay, you’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?” Benjamin asks with a confused shake of his head.
“Saying romantic things, and making it hard for me to see reality, even though my whole mission in life is helping girls who made the wrong decision because they let some boy get into their head.”
“I'm not a boy,” he points out, a little bit more of his hard Boston accent creeping back into his voice. “Not anymore. I'm a man. But I don’t want to tell our daughter that we’re back together by myself. I want us to tell her together. Let’s do it right this time."
He’s right. He knows he’s right, the same way he knew from the start that Tess was the best thing that ever happened to him.
But she stubbornly shakes her head. “You want to tell her were full-on back together after just a week of me pretending to be sick when I was really holed up in your apartment?”
“It’s only been a few days of calling in sick for you. But it's been sixteen years of regret for me,” he answers, his voice just as stubborn as her headshake. “Look, Tess, I want to come up to your apartment, and I want to be waiting here with you when Stephanie brings Daphne home from the airport. I don’t want to rehearse anymore or wait until tomorrow to have this conversation with her. I want to tell her with you. I want us to do this together.”
All sorts of conflicted feelings are passing over Tess’s face, but he refuses to give in to her second-guessing.
He knows their relationship is new. He knows it’s fragile as a freshly bloomed flower in the early spring. But he has to do things differently this time, even if he raises the possibility of messing everything up between them again.
“If you’re not on the same page. If you honestly think this second chance isn’t the best thing to happen to either of us since Daphne was born, then fine, you don't have to come to Boston,” he tells her, taking a step back. “We'll keep our relationship behind the scenes until you’re comfortable sharing it with our daughter. But if that's not the case. If you’ve been secretly yearning for me, the way I yearn for you, then invite me up. Let’s wait for our daughter to get home. Together. What do you say?”
* * *
Benjamin tries to turn his grin down a few watts as he follows Tess up the shelter’s back stairs to her apartment.
They just spent the week before Daphne was due home pretty much rolling around in bed with breaks to do urgent remote work and order from various door delivery companies.
But the shelter Tess lives above has rules—made by her. So, Benjamin has to remain circumspect as they walk up the stairs and enter her apartment. If anyone sees them together, they should come off as nothing more than two parents meeting to discuss some piece of custody business.
But Tess said yes to telling Daphne about their relationship together. Even after spending a whole week doing nothing but boinking each other’s brains out, he can think of only one way to celebrate.
They crash into each other as soon as the door closes behind them, and all pretending comes to an end as they kiss and tear off clothes with Tess pulling him toward the couch.
Which they might have fallen onto if Tess didn’t suddenly pull away from him. “Stephanie!”
“Don’t worry,” he says, immediately zeroing in on that special neck spot that drives her crazy. “She and Daphne aren’t due here for, like, four hours….”
But then he trails off when he sees why Tess stopped kissing him.
Stephanie is sitting on the couch underneath a blanket that matches the one she crocheted for Daphne to keep at his condo. There are Uber Eats containers scattered all over the coffee table. And her face is puffy and tinged red. Like she’s either fallen sick or been crying.
“Stephanie? What are you doing here?” he asks. “Are you all right?”
She squints at them somewhat confusedly from the couch.
“I’m fine,” she answers carefully. “Galen gave me a choice, and I chose to go, because unlike him, I’m not a total psycho. Sorry, Tess, I know you hate when I use insensitive words for mental health language. But maybe I’m a psycho too because I can’t stop crying like I’m going through a real divorce. And I came here because I didn’t know where else to go. I’ve been waiting for you to get back so that we could talk. But the real question is: What are you doing here with him?”
Stephanie suddenly breaks off, and her eyes glaze over as she repeats, “Stephanie? What are you doing here? Are you all right?”
Oh no….oh no….
Tess draws back from Benjamin, her expression filled with concern for her sister, who’s suddenly started talking in the third person.
But Benjamin’s just stills. He understands what’s happening before Tess does. Maybe even before Stephanie does herself.
“We…um…Fine. We were just…” Tess stops and pulls back her shoulders. A warrior, who’s decided to commit to her fight for love.
“We’ve decided to start dating,” she explains to Stephanie, her voice resolute and clear. “And I’m going to be Benjamin’s date next weekend to the Man of the Year ceremony for Boston Charities.”
If not for the way Stephanie is looking at him, Benjamin would be beaming from ear to ear. But it’s like watching a car crash from too far away.
You can see what’s about to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it.
“We were planning on telling Daphne, and I guess you too, as soon as you got here,” Tess adds, completely mistaking the reason for Stephanie’s lack of reaction.
But then, as if to confirm the sliver of dread piercing his gut, Stephanie says to Tess while looking at Benjamin, “I remember. I remember everything.”