I liked the whole espresso thing. I’d liked coffee as a human, and now that I couldn’t really eat anything—well, I could’ve, but I didn’t want the literal pain that apparently came from that sort of thing—I still liked sipping my espresso while others ate around me.
I closed my eyes as I took in the diner around us. There was a couple arguing on the other side. Something about what wallpaper to buy for the nursery. I smiled.
There was someone with blatantly too strong cologne sitting a few booths over. My nose wrinkled.
A mom with a toddler sat at the other end of the space, yet the kid’s happy squeals were a lot. I winced, then did what Rian had told me to do: I started to systematically listen to other things nearby, and my hearing began to ignore the baby.
Rian chuckled.
I opened my eyes and realized they were all looking at me. “What?”
“Nothing. Just looked fun.” Ben kissed my cheek.
“You were concentrating very hard,” Carys piped up, grinning.
I felt like blushing for some reason. “Oh.”
Rian reached over Ben to squeeze my arm. “Well done.”
I ducked my head and smiled, wondering how I got here. In a middle of nowhere town’s diner, swimming in gratitude and pride from the slightest compliment, when I’d commanded the stage in front of tens of thousands of people less than a year ago.
I took a sip of my espresso to ground myself. Max’s shoe knocked against mine under the table.
Carys and he continued their conversation from before, the topic seemed to be what they might want to study now that they had their GEDs.
Ben kept drawing circles on my thigh, while he and Rian talked about Ben’s workday so far.
I closed my eyes again, the small cup in my hands as I inhaled the fragrant steam, soaking in everything around me once more.
By the time the others were done eating and we’d paid, I was starting to feel overwhelmed.
We stepped onto the snowy street and I sighed with relief. Rian, Max, and Carys went toward Rian’s SUV, while I stayed a few steps behind with Ben.
“Better?” Ben asked, smiling at me.
“Definitely.”
He pulled me close and kissed me gently. “I don’t want to go back to work.”
“Mm, but you promised your boss to replace the transmission on that Explorer before we leave the day after tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah.” He made a face, then ran the backs of his fingers along my cheek. I could smell the engine oil on him, but it didn’t bother me, because it was so…Bento me by now.
“Oh, hi Ben!”
We turned to look, and a pretty, young human man beamed at him.
“Hi, Ethan,” Ben said, giving him a bland, pleasant smile.
“I was about to head to the garage. I went to put more air in my tires at the gas station, but the pump there was broken.”
“Well ours definitely works.” Ben’s tone was polite. “I’m going to head there in a bit.”
That was when Ethan seemed to realize Ben wasn’t alone. His eyes caught on the way Ben’s hand was holding mine, then he followed my arm up to my face and—“Holy shit!”
Ah.
I raised a brow at him, unable to help the small smirk curling my lip.
