Page 8 of Planning on Happily Ever After

Ben chuckled, the sound a little unfamiliar even to himself. He didn’t laugh often, but it felt nice. Certain parts of him were coming back online after being shut down for too long. His lungs felt fuller and his brain tingled with possibility, even his body felt more relaxed, like he’d done a series of stretches after a long run. And all he’d done was talk with Holly. “Well, they give the player experience and test their skill. Anyone can mash buttons to fight off an enemy, but it takes a lot more patience and competence to do it while defending someone who is almost completely helpless.” The more he talked, the more relaxed he became.

“Tell me about it. I feel like growing up with Henry was one long escort mission,” Holly jested. “Hey, ow. Jeez, I was kidding, Hen. He punched me in the arm, can you believe that?”

Ben grinned at the interaction, and for once wished he and Henry were gaming in the same room. Being an only child, having sibling comradery was something he envied. If he could find someone he was that at ease around, he would hold onto them with two hands and never let go.

“Well, you did just refer to him as helpless, so you were kind of asking for it.”

Holly gasped audibly. “What? What kind of knight are you? You’re supposed to be all about saving damsels in distress and all that. I am a damsel and right now my brother is causing me a great deal of distress.”

Ben laughed, his lungs expanding even more as he tried his best to focus on the game, but was finding the conversation with Holly far more entertaining. “I’m sorry to leave you in distress, milady, but something tells me you’re the type of person who can save herself.” Between the ease of this conversation and his desire to spend more time with his accident-prone acquaintance, Ben wasn’t sure what to think. This didn’t seem like his normal life, and while it wasn’t entirely unpleasant, the change was a little disconcerting.

“Damn right I can,” she replied emphatically. “Now, I’m going to save myself from any more arm punches by going to bed. It was nice speaking with you, Benjamin.”

“It’s just Ben, but thanks. Have a good night, Holly.” He almost didn’t recognize the sound of his own voice, the lighter tone undoubtedly a reflection of the smile on his face.

Some more shuffling sounds happened and Henry came back on the line. “Sorry about that. She likes to talk to people and doesn’t really know how to take no for an answer.”

Ben chuckled as he swung his sword for the final blow to the dragon.Mission success!“It’s fine. She was surprisingly easy to talk to.” Not being face-to-face surely helped with that, but there was also something about Holly that put Ben at ease.

“Yea, she can be. Nice killing blow by the way. Sorry my mage just wasn’t cutting it in the game tonight,” Henry lamented.

“Don’t even think about it.” Ben chewed the inside of his mouth for a moment and decided to use the sudden bout of confidence that had come with talking to Holly to try and be a better friend to her brother. “Everything alright with you, man?”

“Oh, um...” Henry couldn’t hide the surprise from his voice at the question and it made Ben feel like a total dickhead for not having been more invested in their relationship before now. “I’m okay, I guess. The other night I went out on a date and I thought things were going really well, but at the end of the night she mentioned how I gave off ‘little brother vibes’ and probably wouldn’t want to go out again.”

Ben winced. “That sucks, dude.” Never having really gone out on a limb like that, he couldn’t truly understand what Henry had gone through, but he could empathize. He may not be the most talkative or inquisitive person, but Ben had paid enough attention to know that Henry was a great guy, very thoughtful and liked to take care of others, which could explain the brother vibes his date had mentioned.

“Yea, tell me about it. Anyway, once more into the breach or should we call it a night?”

Ben stifled the yawn that was threatening and spoke into his mic. “I’ve got to call it a night. I need to get an early start on some coding that needs fixing before I meet my mom.” He had about a days’ worth of work backlogged and it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon if he didn’t buckle down and focus on it.

“Cool. Talk to you later.” Henry was always so relaxed about everything, probably one of the reasons they were still friends, something Ben should appreciate more often.

“Later, man.” Shutting down the game, Ben leaned back in his chair, enjoying the stretch despite his muscles feeling looser than usual. Standing, he padded over to the bathroom, the white tile floor freezing cold under his bare feet, gave him enough of a jolt to provide the energy he needed to get ready for bed.

Ten minutes later, Ben was crawling under the tan sheets and pulling up the large down comforter. As he sunk down into the mattress, he sighed and tried to relax into a state of restful sleep, performing the breathing exercises that helped him whenever he was anxious. His lungs expanded and muscles continued to unfurl, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the woman from earlier, and to Henry’s sister. He should probably try to forget about the stranger he bumped into as he probably wouldn’t see her again, although he had run into her twice in two weeks. Maybe it would happen again. If not, perhaps he would finally take Henry up on that offer to game in person and run into his sister while he was there.

Ben smiled at the ideas, but reality soon came crashing back down and he flipped on to his side, punching his pillow to get more comfortable. It didn’t matter who he ran into because eventually they would tire of him like everyone else. His ability to converse with more ease than normal this evening was an outlier. Vibrant women like Holly and the one who he seemed destined to bump into were probably the type that wanted lots of romance and conversation, and that just wasn’t him, no matter how much he wished it could be.

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