I was running out of time, and I didn’t want to be late to pick up Vera so I grabbed my cleanest option, got dressed and headed out.
I pull up in front of her place to find Ben coming out the front door. He cracked a smile when he saw me. “So your plan to impress my mom worked, I see.”
I blushed, which was ridiculous. “Laugh it up, funny guy.”
“I will. Seriously though, do I have to give you the talk?”
“What talk is that? The birds and the bees?”
“Eww no,” he shook his head. “No, no, no. I meant the whole ‘if you hurt her, they’ll never find your body’. That talk.”
I laughed, and held my hands up. “That makes more sense. And I wouldn’t dream of it. You can trust me.”
“I do actually, which is why I’m not giving you this talk with a chainsaw in my hand.”
“You forget I work with chainsaws too?”
He crossed his arms. ”Just act intimidated so I can go to my friend’s place, and you can get on with your date.”
I pretended to cower, “I’ll treat her like a queen, I promise.”
“I prefer a goddess, but we can work up to that,” Vera said, walking out the front door and turning to lock it behind her.
She was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and I mentally congratulated myself on nailing the date night look.
“Are you ready for our date, Goddess Vera?” I asked, bowing low.
She laughed, and Ben rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you later Benji, be home by ten, okay?”
She ruffled his hair, then kissed his temple, and he pulled away. “Mom, that is so embarrassing.”
“Fine, fine, goodbye.”
She climbed into the truck and we were off.
“Did my kid give you a hard time?”
“It’s his job as the man of the house, so I respect his commitment to his role. And as he will tell you, he’s not a kid anymore.”
She sighed. “I know, it’s just hard to see Benji as anything but the little kid who was terrified of the bathtub until he was four and would only eat toast peanut-butter side down.”
“He would hate that you told me that.”
“At least I didn’t break out the baby pictures.”
I glanced at her in my periphery. “This isn’t my place to say, and feel free to tell me to butt out, but you should call him Ben, instead of Benji.”
I half expected her to fight me on it, but she sighed again, and ran a hand through her hair. “I know I should. I mean, that is literally what we named him, but he has been my little baby Benji since he learned to talk. I think letting go of it feels bigger than it is.”
We were quiet for a moment, and I focused on the drive, worrying I had ruined our date before we had really started it.
“Do you think we can fit all the supplies for seventeen nightstands in the truck?”
I whipped my head around to look at her. “Seventeen? Is that how many you sold?”
She nodded. “I forgot I didn’t tell you, yeah, that was how many paid orders I got at the trade show.”
I patted her knee. “Vera, that’s fantastic! Hell yeah, we can fit all that in the truck.” We talked about what she would need to fulfill the orders as I drove, and before I knew it, I was pulling into the familiar parking lot outside the hardware store.
