“We’re running out of time,” Benji protested. “The wedding is in two weeks! I’m supposed to pick something today!”
“Alright,” Noah said. “What do you want? Forget about dresses and suits.”
Benji thought about it. “I want it to be… soft? And simple, but not boring. And some color, but not a lot of it.”
“I think I have an option.” Noah leaned past him, meaning to head toward the stack of individually wrapped clothes in Benji’s giant fitting room.
Then Benji’s phone rang. Noah diverted his path and bent down to pluck it out of Benji’s discarded slacks pocket.
“Unknown number,” he reported.
Benji took it out of his hand.
“Benjamin,” Noah warned.
“Sometimes unknown numbers are important,” Benji said, looking dubious. He put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
Chet’s voice echoed around the rooms, huge and booming. “You’remarryinghim?”
“Okay, Katee works fast,” Benji muttered.
Noah sighed. “Just hang up on him. Wait, let me remind him about the restraining order first.”
But Benji was already putting the phone back to his mouth. “Fuck OFF, Chet. Nobody asked you. Literally nobody asked you, nobody’s asking you for interviews once they realized you’re a two-bit loser con artist who ran out on his kids.”
“No, wait,” Chet continued. He almost managed to sound livid. But there was something desperate behind it that had nothing to do with the welfare of his youngest child.
“Dad,” Benji said flatly. “We know you don’t actually care. Is Mikey even paying you for this anymore? Our guys said you got kicked out of your hotel because you couldn’t afford it.”
“Justwait,” Chet said, too fast. “I-I think I might have been too hasty. Y’know, judging you. I want to patch things up between us. I want?—”
Benji laughed, the noise echoing loudly around the empty rooms. “Oh my god, hedidditch you! What, tearing me down isn’t profitable anymore, now you want back in my good books?”
“Benjamin.”
“Fuck off,” Benji replied sharply. “Call me again, and I’ll get myhusbandto beat the shit out of you.”
He hung up and threw the phone into his discarded clothes. Then he started pacing, his dress swishing around his bare ankles in a way that made Noah want to drop to his knees and push the silky fabric up.
“Son of a bitch,” Benji hissed as he paced. “Son of abitch! Stupid, selfish,jackass! He doesn’t call in years, and now I have money, he comes crawling back.”
“Baby,” Noah tried.
Benji whirled on him. “Want to know why my safeword is oregano?”
“Yes,” Noah said honestly. He was always eager to hear more about Benji’s world, even if so much of it made him sad.
Benji laughed again, even more bitterly than last time. “Okay, so I’m seven years old, right? And Chet comes home one day and gives me an envelope. Tells me I can’t let anybody have it, no matter what. Says it’s important. And I put it at the back of my drawer and forget about it. Next week, this guy comes to the house. He won’t leave. And I’m freaking out, I think about calling the cops, but Chet said never to call the cops, you know? So, I don’t. But then the guy fucking breaks in, like he shatters the window and everything, he’s holding a piece of glass, and I’m screaming and he’s screaming, and I think I’m gonna die. He says give him the envelope, and I do. And he looks in it and goes, what the fuck is this? And throws it at my feet.”
Benji sniffed, still grinning bitterly. Noah reached up, trying to take his face in his hands.
Benji batted him away. “Anyway, I put it together later when I ran into some of his jackass friends. He got tricked during his short stint as a drug dealer. He thought it was something important. But it wasoregano.That’swhat I got my ass kicked for.”
“What happened to the man who broke in?”
“He smacked me around and left. Chet never apologized. Don’t think he even noticed. When he finally came home, the bruises were mostly gone.” Benji swiped at his wet cheeks, annoyed as he always was when he cried outside of bed.
Noah took over. Benji flinched, but only for a moment. Then he leaned into it, allowing Noah to wipe the wet tracks from his cheeks.
