“Ben, I need you to call me back. Right away.” I hung up and opened our messages.
Me: I need you to call me.
Me: We need to fly home tonight.
I waited a minute to see if he would open my texts, but when he didn’t, I felt my anger rising.
Maybe he left his phone in his bag.
Who did he say he was going with?
Peter?
I pulled up the contact information for Peter and gave him a call.
“Melanie?” Peter asked, sounding surprised.
“Hello Peter, I’m sorry to bother you but I’ve been trying to get ahold of Ben, it’s urgent.”
There was a long pause.
“Uh, I’m not sure… did Ben say he was with me?” Peter cleared his throat.
“Oh, um…” I tried to remember his exact words from that morning: “he said he was going golfing with his work team.” I grimaced, “I thought that you were all on the same team.”
Oh no, I hope that they weren’t purposely excluding Peter, and I just outed Ben…
“Sorry Melanie, I’m not golfing this weekend. I can try to call one of the other guys and check if you’d like.”
“Thank you, I’m really sorry. My family just called and told me that my grandmother passed away, and we are needed in North Dakota tonight,” I explained, embarrassed by my mistake.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I will have Angela talk to Sydney about his schedule for the next few days to see what we can do to help. Let me make some calls to see if I can track Ben down for you.” Peter said.
I looked at my messages with Ben again, and they still hadn’t been opened.
I called my father back and let him know what time our flight was due to land, and he assured me that my brother would be there to pick us up.
About twenty minutes later, Ben finally called me back.
“Hello.” I said quietly.
“Melanie, why is Peter calling me saying my wife is looking for me?” Ben sounded frustrated.
His tone finally broke me out of my shocked state, and I started to cry.
“Gram died.” I sobbed.
“Shit.” He mumbled, and there was rustling, and then it went silent on his end. I blinked through the tears and pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t ended.
“I’m on my way. It’s going to be okay.” He said. He sounded breathless, and I heard the sound of his car unlocking.
“Why did you mute?” I asked through the sniffles.
“I had to tell the guys I needed to leave. I’ll be home in about twenty minutes, babe.”
“Ok…” I sniffled loudly, “I booked us two tickets back home tonight.”
“What?!” Ben sounded alarmed.
