Page 16 of Planning on Happily Ever After

Kelly: Stay on after the meeting. I have an idea.

Ben narrowed his eyes at the message.Was that really meant for me?He replied with an “ok,” and nodded to the rest of the team as they all signed off from the zoom meeting except for Kelly. “Did you want to talk to me?”

She laughed at him and nodded, her bright purple hair bobbing up and down along with her head. “Obviously. I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had, but I didn’t want to go over it with the whole team.”

Ben hesitated, a sinking feeling creeping into his stomach. No one ever requested a one-on-one chat with him. Clearing his throat, he grabbed the Pac-Man stress ball his mom had put in his Christmas stocking this past year, inhaling slowly and squeezing the ball as hard as he could. Veins in his hands rolled and popped as he continued to crush the spongey ball, but the toy had started to do its job. Ben leaned back in his chair, letting the tension seep out of his body.

As he exhaled, he felt a little better, but only just. “Okay. What’s your idea?”

Kelly looked to her left and right as if someone from the office would overhear her, even though she was in her own home, and leaned forward toward the camera. “Well, I have this really great idea for a game. I can send you the file with all my designs and some rough code, but basically, it’s an open world game that would take place in the Norman period in England. There are fantasy elements to it as well, with fairies and monsters and the big baddie is this malevolent force that has captured the main city and forced everyone in it into a deep slumber so he could control the realm. The goal is to defeat the big bad and wake the castle, specifically the prince who would be king since his father was killed during the takeover.”

Ben nodded at the Sleeping Beauty retelling, intrigued by the idea. “That sounds pretty cool, but I’m a little confused as to why you wanted to talk to me about it.” He wasn’t exactly known for being the guy you confide in with pretty much anything that wasn’t related to their current project, and even then, he was probably the last person anyone would go to.

Kelly flicked at the screen, annoyed but smiling. “Because the main protagonist is a female knight, and since you brought it up just now, I thought you would want to help me.” She sat back in her chair and shrugged a shoulder. “Besides, we all know you’re the best when it comes to world building, and you code hella fast.”

Ben sat back, surprised at her assessment of his skills and thankful his chair was there to keep him from falling to the floor. “Huh. I didn’t know you guys thought that.” Maybe he should talk to his coworkers more often than he was mandated to. They might not think he was as disagreeable as he thought they did.

Kelly snorted. “Oh, you’re definitely disagreeable, but we still like you and you should definitely talk to us more.”

Shit. Ben hadn’t realized he said that last part out loud and squeezed the crap out of Pac-Man to help quell his embarrassment. “Uh, yea. I’ll do that.” He stared at his screen, wondering exactly what it was she wanted from him and whether or not he could calm his anxiety long enough to do it. “So, you want me to help you with the designs so you can pitch it for development?”

“Yes, and then if they go ahead with it, I want you to head up the world design team.” Ben studied her face, waiting for her to crack a smile at the obvious joke, but it never happened.

Ben scoffed, his voice threaded with the anxiety that was building back up in his body. “Are you serious? I can’t head up a team.” He could barely get up the nerve to talk with his coworkers now. How would he manage to do it if he was essentially the one in charge of them?

Kelly rolled her eyes at his panicked admission. “Yes, you can. You may not realize it, but you’re kind of our de facto leader now. Just because you don’t talk to us about personal stuff or ask how we are doing or anything like that doesn’t change the fact that anytime any of us has a question about the job, we all come to you.”

“Really?” Ben hadn’t noticed them coming to him for much. He thought they all just chatted with each other while he put his head down and got the job done.

“Open your teams chat and see, dummy.” Kelly rolled her eyes again, but her smile displaced Ben’s worry over what she’d been thinking.

Ben did as she asked and scrolled through the various instant messages between him and his coworkers. His name was almost totally absent from the chats titledhappy hourandfunny memes, but the individual conversations with his coworkers were numerous and each contained a bunch of questions posed to him with his curt, but accurate responses.

“Huh.” He may not enjoy conversing on everyday topics, but it turned out he was able to talk to his coworkers about anything related to their job.

Kelly’s smile widened at his finally realizing what she’d seen as obvious. “See. You aren’t totally inept when it comes to dealing with other people.”

“I hadn’t thought I was,” he lied. Ben had totally thought that, and to find out he wasn’t was a pleasant surprise, though it was a bit unsettling to realize that other people might not view you the way you thought they did. Between this and his interest in Holly, Ben felt like he was unrecognizable from the person he was a month ago, and yet he wasn’t as bothered by it as he expected.

“Sure,” she said knowingly. “So, you’ll help me? I really think this is a good idea and a lot of my gamer friends want a strong, female protagonist. Even my guy gamer friends said they would play it.”

Ben took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, wondering if he was making a mistake yet feeling the urge to do it anyway. “O-okay,” he stuttered out before he could change his mind. “But I don’t have a ton of extra time to devote to this, just so you know.”

Kelly waved her hand to dismiss his comment. “Not a problem. I just need a little tweaking to what I’ve already done.” She smirked and tossed her purple hair over her shoulder. “The real work will come after they greenlight the project. I’ll email my files and we’ll talk later. Thanks, Ben,” she exclaimed before abruptly signing off of the call, probably so he wouldn’t have a chance to change his mind.

Ben got back to coding, but not two seconds later, he had a message from Kelly with the files she mentioned. As he clicked through the incredible looking design sketches, his brain fired off ideas for how to expand on her vision of the world for the game. He could already picture it in his mind’s eye, and he felt a flutter in his chest, both from the excitement of the game potential and from the anxiety at having to possibly head up a design team. He might have to go into the office once a month instead of every three or so, but he could live with that. Most of his work would still be done remotely and his interactions still via chat or email, and other than the occasional meeting, not much would change. He would be nervous as hell the entire time, but he could get through it.Probably.Maybe?

Ben slumped down in his chair, second thoughts about the whole thing creeping into his brain. It was so hard to believe that his coworkers actually saw him as something more than just a gruff jerk, but Kelly said they did, and he had the chat receipts to prove it. The more he thought about it, the more he really liked the idea of being the one in charge of the world building for a game, of having more direct input instead of just following someone else’s orders. He also wanted to throw up a little bit at the thought of it, but his excitement overrode his nausea, at least for the moment. Ben was still lost in the fantasy world the design sketches set up for him when his phone pinged with a text notification from his mom.

Mom: My double root canal is running long. Do you think you could meet Holly at the flower shop?

Ben’s heart raced at the thought of seeing Holly again, and before he could chicken out, he typed out a message in the affirmative and signed out of his computer, grateful for his flexible work hours. Twenty minutes later, Ben pushed his way into Best Buds, panting his breath from sprinting down the sidewalk at a breakneck pace. He often walked quickly, always trying to outrun the anxiety that flooded his system at the thought of being late or having to be out longer than necessary, but this afternoon felt like he’d been running toward something—someone.

That someone was currently standing near the side of the shop, looking like every dream he never dared to have and the beautiful blossoms she was surrounded with paling in comparison. Light coming in from the window next to her gave off a halo effect, making her look even more angelic than she normally did as she brought a pink flower up to her face and inhaled, her expression peaceful.

Ben wasn’t sure how long he stared at Holly, studying the curve of her cheek, the fullness of her lips, or the way she smiled at the bloom in her hand, but it had been long enough that an older man nearby started to give him some serious side-eye. “Can I help you, son?”

Ben sputtered, embarrassed at being caught staring. “Um, flowers?” Rolling his eyes at himself, he tried again. “I’m here to pick out flowers.”

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