Page 64 of Cups of You

“You still could have said something instead of me just overhearing and finding out randomly. I mean, people had gossiped about why you and mom split, but I always told them they were lying.”

Benjamin clenched his jaw at the thought that he had kept things quiet in vain. He had known this town was quick to gossip, but he had hoped they would have kept it from the kids at least.

“Why didn’t you tell me people were gossiping?”

Olivia shrugged. “You were busy at the café and I could already see you were sad. I didn’t want to make it worse.”

He couldn’t help but be warmed by Olivia’s concern for him. He didn’t know what he did to deserve such an awesome kid, but he was thankful for it.

“You can always talk to me about anything, bean. You never have to hide things from me.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I had never planned to keep this from you forever.”

“When were you going to tell me?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he replied. When she opened her mouth, he held up a hand to stall her words. “Let me finish kiddo. If you had asked me later down the line what went wrong between your mother and I, I would have told you the truth.”

She frowned but didn’t move away. “I don’t see what the difference would be between telling me when it happened and telling me when I’m older. It would have pissed me off either way.”

“Yes, but you would have more life experience and be better able to handle it. And that’s not me saying that you aren’t handling it well now,” he clarified.

“But I wanted to make sure the divorce did as little damage as possible to you, and your mother and I agreed that this was the best way.”

“Well, I don’t agree.”

Benjamin nodded. “And I get it, Liv. I really do. But can you trust that your mom and I were doing what we thought was best for you?”

She stared at him, gaze flitting side to side. He made no move to look or turn away. Everything was out now and anymore secrecy was pointless.

Whatever Olivia saw must have been enough. She nodded and her lips turned up slightly at the corners. It wasn’t her normal smile, but it was something edging towards familiar and it comforted Benjamin all the same.

“Fine,” she huffed leaning away. “I don’t know how to act around mom now though. I’m so mad at her.”

He nodded. “I know you are, Liv. But the same way you are talking to me, you need to try to talk to her.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

Benjamin sighed heavily and squeezed her shoulder. “That makes two of us. I won’t lie to you, kiddo. I hadn’t thought this far ahead when it came to this conversation, but I do know that your mom loves you and so do I. That I can promise.”

Olivia looked up at him with a small smile. “I know you do.” He felt her shoulders drop and her smile dimmed. “But I’m not ready to talk to mom. Can you tell her that?”

“Sure. I’ll text her and tell her you just need some time.”

“Thanks dad.”

Benjamin nodded. He gave her shoulder a final squeeze before standing. “Anything else we need to talk about, bean? I know you told your mom about your girlfriend.”

She snorted and shook her head. “No. I mean, yes I told her, but I don’t need to talk about it.”

He opened his mouth but paused before saying anything. He didn’t want to push Olivia to talk about something if she didn’t want to.

“Okay. Well, I’m here for you when you do.”

Olivia tilted her head and looked up at him. “I know.” She pushed him away. “Now go. I want to call my girlfriend.”

Benjamin chuckled but went with it walking over to the door. He paused and looked back at Olivia, but her attention was on her phone. He figured that was cue enough for him to leave. He closed the door behind him and leaned back against it as he stared at nothing in the dark.

TWENTY-FOUR

Amber looked down at her phone. She had returned to Millensville four days ago and texted Benjamin hoping to talk to him, but outside of an initial hello, there hadn’t been much of a response back. It was odd and she didn’t quite know what to make of it.

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