Work Text:
Ben frowned at his phone in confusion.
It was unusual for him to get a FaceTime call. In fact, he was sure he hadn’t used FaceTime in at least two years, the last time he had been in a relationship.
He had hated it, honestly, trying to carry on a conversation while his girlfriend stared at her reflection instead of focusing on him, on them.
In the end, it turned out that she thought he had been the one who had been too self-involved, as focused as he was on building his company.
These days, he mainly talked to his business partners, always on the phone or occasionally Zoom, especially now that they were all working from home due to a pesky little global pandemic. His parents usually called on Sundays and probably didn’t know what FaceTime was, a fact he was grateful for.
So when his new personal phone rang with a FaceTime call from an unfamiliar number, he should have known it was a mistake.
He swiped to answer, and saw only a tiny forehead on his screen.
“Uh, hello?” he said.
The forehead slid more into view, and the image of a toddler came into focus, staring down at him from above, like her phone was on the floor and she was hovering over it.
“Can I help you?” asked Ben, immediately wincing. He had no idea how to talk to a child, especially one this young, although he had no way to pinpoint her exact age.
She gave him a wide open smile full of tiny, pearly teeth.
“Where is your mommy?”
She continued to gaze at him, smiling at him in a way that no rational human should ever offer to a stranger.
He tried again.
“Does your mommy want to talk?”
Something seemed to click in the tiny child’s small brain, because she stuck one finger over her lips and said, “Mommy shhhhh.”
Suddenly, Ben was filled with panic. Was this one of those stories you occasionally saw on TV, where an adult passed out and a child or dog miraculously managed to alert the authorities? Ben leaned in and tried to look kindly and concerned.
“Is your mommy okay? Is she hurt?” He furrowed his brow, trying to translate to toddlerese. “Does Mommy have an owie? A, um, a boo boo?”
He felt silly, but the child giggled.
“Mommy shhhh,” she said again. “Mommy work.”
Ben relaxed and put down his extra work phone, which he had grabbed in preparation to dial 911.
“Is your mommy working? And you have to be quiet?”
The toddler clapped, which he heard rather than saw, as the change in position had caused her to slip out of the camera’s focus.
“ Shhhh .” It seemed to be her way of telling him he was right.
Ben didn’t have any children, but he had a number of employees who did. If there was something that they all liked to complain about together on Zoom calls, it was spending quarantine with their kids. He gathered that it was very difficult to get any work done with children home, and he felt a note of sympathy for the strange child’s parents.
“Where is your daddy?” he asked.
The child stared back at him.
“Ohhh...kay.” Ben scratched his neck. He was torn between feeling like he should hang up, and wanting to keep chatting, if it could be called that.
No one smiled at him like this little girl did, especially not children, who usually cowered away from his tall height and dark hair and expressions, looking like a villain in their Disney movies.
And if he was entirely honest, after being alone in quarantine for two weeks, he was bored. And lonely.
The toddler leaned into the camera expectantly. “Do bidah!” she said. “Do bidah!”
Ben looked around his empty living room, like someone would magically appear who could interpret.
“Bite?” said Ben uncertainly. “Bite? Are you hungry?”
“Bidah! Want bidah.”
“Hey.” Ben was struck with an idea. “Do you want to see a dog? Uh, doggy?”
The child clapped again. “Doggy!”
“OK, hang on.”
Ben crouched down to where his black Sheltie Kylo was napping on his dog pillow. He flipped the camera around so that the child could see all of him, much to her apparent joy. He ruffled Kylo’s fur a bit and lifted his head so she could see his face better. Kylo gave him side-eye and laid his head back down.
Still, the kid seemed satisfied to simply stare at his lazy, motionless dog.
“Doggy!” she repeated again and again.
“Yes,” said Ben, unnaturally pleased with himself for bridging the divide between adult and small human. “It’s a doggy. What do doggies say?”
“Woof! Woof!”
“That’s right! Good job.” The child beamed. “Umm, what does a piggy say?”
“Oink! Oink!”
“Good! What does a…” Ben’s voice trailed off as she left the camera screen. He reasoned that she was probably right out of frame, but he couldn’t muster his baby voice without actually seeing a baby.
In the corner of his screen, he could see the edge of a ceiling fan, and after a minute, he could faintly hear some noisy musical toy.
Apparently she was on to the next thing.
Reminding himself that it was probably her toddler attention span and not his inability to entertain that caused her to walk away, Ben ended the call and returned to his Netflix program with a small wave of disappointment.
Two days later, Ben was on a phone call with his CFO when his personal phone buzzed on his coffee table with a FaceTime call from the toddler’s number.
“Sorry, Hux, gotta run,” he said quickly, hanging up before Hux had a chance to respond.
He snatched the other phone and answered, his face breaking into his first smile of the day when he saw two tiny brown, spout-like pigtails in the bottom of his screen.
She crawled up until she was centered in the frame. “Doggy?”
“You want to see doggy?”
“Doggy!”
“Okay, let’s go find him.” Ben flipped his camera around to take her on a mini-tour of his house as he looked for Kylo, narrating it like it was the world’s lamest game of hide and seek. “Is he in the hallway? Nooo. Is he under the kitchen table? Nooo. Oh, I found him!”
He stepped closer to Kylo, who was stretched out next to his kitchen’s glass sliding door, enjoying the sunshine that seeped through.
“Doggy is taking a nap,” he explained. “Doggy is sleepy.” Pleased that he had landed on a topic that she may understand, he added, “Do you take naps?”
He had no idea when a child stopped napping.
“No!” she screamed. “No sweep! No tired!”
“Oh, okay,” he said quickly. “You don’t need to sleep. No nap. Sorry.”
“ No sweeeeep !”
No conference call with a boardroom full of investors had ever flustered Ben quite like this.
“Hey, hey, hey, um, hey, how about we give doggy a bone?”
Instantly sobered, the child leaned into the camera curiously. Ben propped the phone against a chair, still facing Kylo, and ran to grab a couple milkbones from his pantry.
He came back and popped the treats one by one into the newly excited Kylo’s mouth as the toddler clapped.
“More?” she asked.
“Sorry, that’s all I have.” Ben showed her his open hand before he flipped the camera back to himself. “If I give him any more, he might get a tummyache.”
“Doggy all done?”
“Yes, the doggy is all done.”
“Want shee-shees,” she said.
“She?”
“Shee-shees.”
It was clear that whatever gibberish she was spouting, she knew exactly what she was saying, and was frustrated that Ben didn’t, as well.
“Want shee-shees.”
Her face disappeared from view, and Ben was again left with the view of her ceiling fan.
The toddler’s voice called out from another part of the room, “Mommy! Want shee-shees.”
There was some shuffling, before he heard a woman’s voice. “Oh, you want goldfish?”
That seemed like quite the jump to Ben, but he figured that moms knew their kids’ unique language.
Ben was about to hang up when she said, “Hey sweetie, where is mommy’s pho---AHHHHHH!”
A woman came into view on his screen and screamed. She grabbed the phone, bringing her face more into focus.
“Who are you?” she shrieked. “And just so you know, I took a screenshot so I have your face, you creeper!”
“Wha-what?” Ben tried to collect himself to more properly defend his honor. “I’m not, I swear I’m not a creeper, or whatever. Your daughter called me.”
“I’ve read about guys like you in the news,” she snarled. “Hacking into baby monitors or whatnot, spying on children. You disgust me.”
“I swear I didn’t hack your phone. Your daughter FaceTimed me. We were just chatting. I showed her my dog.”
“Wait.” The woman’s angry furrowed brow softened a bit. “Has she called you before?”
“Uh, yeah,” said Ben hesitantly. “She called me a couple days ago. We chatted for a couple minutes about animal sounds. She told me you were working. And that was it.”
“Oh, no wonder.” She shook her head. “For the past couple days, my daughter has been handing me my phone, begging for ‘doggy.’ I tried to show her youtube videos, but she wasn’t satisfied. I think she wanted to see your dog.”
With her face and mood lighter, Ben was able to more fully take her in. She was very young, and pretty, with wavy brown hair.
“I’m really sorry,” said Ben. “I swear it was nothing untoward. Your daughter called me, and I figured out that she was supposed to be quiet while you worked, so I talked to her. It was really quick both times.”
The woman shifted to something that looked very guilty. “I know I shouldn’t let the phone babysit her, but I have to get some art commissions done in our bedroom, and she kept getting into my paints. I swear I could see her through my door.”
“You really don’t have to explain yourself,” said Ben. “One of my colleagues told me yesterday that his daughter had watched three Disney movies just that morning.”
“She likes to watch PBS Kids on my phone. I didn’t think she’d actually call anyone. Especially not a stranger. How did she call you, I wonder?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Ben. “This is a brand new number. I only got it a couple weeks ago so that I could have a separate phone from my work one.”
“You have two phones?” she said, but her attention was clearly elsewhere. The call paused for a moment, and then her face showed up again. “I checked my call history. You have my friend’s old number. Do you live in Chandrila?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, that’s where my friend is from. She recently changed her number to a local one. I must have not deleted her old number when I added the new one.” She looked right at Ben and gave him a small smile. “I’m sorry for coming at you like that.”
“It’s really alright. You had every reason to be suspicious.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Well,” she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, “I’m sorry again…”
“Ben, it’s Ben. And it’s no trouble. I enjoyed talking to her. She’s adorable.”
The woman on the phone started beaming. “Thank you. Obviously, I agree.”
Her smile was so pretty, Ben wanted to keep it there. “Before you go, can you answer one question about her? It’s been puzzling me for two days.”
“Shoot.”
“What is ‘bidah?’ She kept asking me to do ‘bidah.’”
The woman grinned, understanding. “She was asking you to do the itsy-bitsy spider. It’s her current obsession. She FaceTimed her babysitter a few days ago, and they did it together.”
“Oh okay.” Ben nodded, a smile creeping onto his own face. “And how did you get ‘goldfish’ out of ‘shee-shees?’”
“I think it came from ‘fishies.’ She likes to call things by the end of words, like ‘Mo-Mo’ for Elmo, or ‘nana’ for banana.”
“That’s good detective work.”
“Well, when asks for them about fifty times a day, you figure it out fast.” She bit her lip. “Well, anyway. We won’t take up any more of your time. Thanks for talking to her, Ben.”
“Anytime,” said Ben. “It was nice to make a new friend.”
She smiled again. “You’re kind to put it that way. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure it won’t happen again.”
She stayed true to her word. A few hours after they hung up, Ben got a text from the number.
Hey, just letting you know that I figured out a phone setting to keep her locked in an app, so you won’t get random phone calls from a 20 month old anymore
I promise she didn’t annoy me.
Thanks again for understanding
A few nights later, Ben was mindlessly scrolling through his phone as the daily news’ doom and gloom played on his TV in the background when he got a text from the number again. He sprang to attention as he switched his phone tab to messages to read it in full.
Hey again, I’m sorry to bug you. I know we’re still total strangers and you’re probably busy, but I was wondering if we could FaceTime your dog for like five seconds. I promise we’ll never do it again, but she won’t go to sleep unless she sees doggy and she’s throwing a tantrum like I’ve never seen and I’m so freaking tired
Ben began to respond, but she kept going.
I’m sorry
I shouldn’t have texted you
This isn’t your problem
Just ignore my crazy rambling and have a good night
You might even be asleep. You’re two hours ahead of me. I’m sorry
Hey
It’s fine.
I’m up.
Call whenever you need.
Her FaceTime call came almost immediately, and he swiped to answer.
“I’m so sorry to bother you,” came her hurried greeting. “It’s been a day. Kate wouldn’t nap no matter what I did, and I couldn’t get any work done, and now she’s over-tired and cranky but she absolutely will not go down unless she says goodnight to doggy.”
Kate’s mom, because apparently that was the child’s name - sounded as tired as she alleged her daughter was.
“Well I’m not sure that Kylo will say it back,” Ben attempted to joke.
She smiled weakly. “She’s like, 98% asleep. I’m sure that as soon as she sees him, she’ll drift right off.”
She leaned over a crib where Kate was crying.
“Hey Sweetie,” she said. “Ben is here. He’s going to let you say night-night to doggy.”
“He’s right here,” said Ben, lifting Kylo’s head into the phone screen.
“N-night doggy.” Kate’s voice was tired and scratchy from crying, but her quick greeting seemed to satisfy her. Her little fist closed over a polka dot blankie and her eyes drifted closed.
“Is -” Ben started to say, but Kate’s mom hushed him. She put a finger over her lip, shot him a threatening look, and stayed frozen in that position for at least thirty seconds, before tiptoeing out of the room and closing the door quietly.
“Sorry to shush you,” she said once she had cleared the door. “But the first couple minutes after she falls asleep can be a fake-out. It’s a dangerous game, slipping away.”
“I thought you executed your escape perfectly.”
“Thanks.” She collapsed onto a couch. “And thank you for taking my call. I’m sure I set a terrible precedent tonight, but if she asks again, I’ll guess I’ll have to stand my ground.”
“She can say good night to Kylo anytime,” Ben promised. “So now that Kate is down, does it mean you’re stuck catching up on work you missed today? What is it you do? Did you say you do art?”
“Well, technically I’m a waitress,” she said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” She grimaced right along with him. “So I’ve been furloughed for a while. I’ve had a tiny side gig for a while doing art commissions online, but I’ve been trying to do as many as I can to keep us afloat. I had to apply for unemployment benefits, too.”
“This pandemic has done a number on so many people,” said Ben. “I’m sorry that it’s hurt you.”
“In some ways it’s good my restaurant is closed for dine-in. Kate’s daycare is closed and her evening babysitter attends the local university but moved home when they canceled classes. I don’t know who would watch her.”
“Do you have any friends or family helping you out?”
Or at least her dad , he resisted asking.
“I have some friends who pitch in where they can,” said Rey, “but with everything going on, it’s been tough.”
Ben nodded sympathetically, before she turned the tables on him.
“So what do you do when you’re not entertaining strangers’ toddlers?”
“Ah, well, you see, that’s actually my day job,” Ben said, trying to make her smile again. “It was fortuitous that she called me of all random people.”
Ben knew he wasn’t funny, had never been funny, but the woman looked mildly amused.
“Is that so?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Business must be booming these days.”
“Oh it is. Lots of desperate parents out there.”
“So what do I owe you for your service?”
“Yours is on the house.”
“Ah, very generous of you,” she said, smiling.
“Actually,” said Ben, hoping to keep their conversation going, “I own a company.”
“Would I have heard of you?”
“Probably not.”
“Okay, well, I’ll let you get back to your family,” she said, yawning. “I have some painting to do, and I’ve taken up way too much of your time.”
“It’s fine,” Ben assured her. “I live alone. Well, I live with Kylo. It was-” He paused. “It was nice to have someone to talk to.”
“So you don’t have kids?”
“No.”
“That’s surprising. You’re really good with Kate.”
“I think she’s the first child I’ve ever talked to that long. I’m an only child.”
“Yeah, me too.” She was silent for a moment. “As difficult as parenting can be, I’m glad I have Kate. Makes things less lonely, especially these days. I’m sure you feel the same way about Kylo.”
“I do. And I’m happy to share him. Please don’t hesitate to reach out again if she wants to see him.”
The woman smiled. “That’s kind of you. Maybe I will. Good night, Ben.”
“You know, I don’t think I ever got your name.”
Her smile grew. In the crappy phone camera, he could barely make out a large dimple. “It’s Rey.”
“Well, then, good night, Rey.”
You lied to me
Ben jolted when he saw the accusing text from Rey.
What?
I’ve never lied to you.
Your full name loaded automatically into my contacts, Benjamin Solo
So I looked you up
You looked me up?
Shut up
It’s 2020. Do we have to pretend that we don’t?
You said I wouldn’t know your company
You invented the poggy???
I didn’t know that you would know about it
Your ads are all over the internet. Everyone knows the poggy
Scope the scoop! Skip the poop!
That commercial is so annoying
I agree, but our sales have gone way up since we launched the campaign.
How did you come up with a dog potty? Kylo?
Actually, I’ve only had Kylo for two years. My parents have this lap dog who they trained to poop on a patch of fake grass on their porch. It got me thinking about a toilet attachment instead.
It took me a million prototypes to get it right.
The funny thing is that Kylo doesn’t even use it.
He just goes in my backyard.
Well, it’s very clever
I saw that it has tons of good reviews on Amazon and it’s one of their top selling pet products
So good for you
Thanks
I'm assuming pandemic hasn’t hurt you financially
Ben winced.
It helps that the bulk of our sales are online. And pet stores are “essential,” so they’re still selling it. Pet adoptions are way up too, so we have lots of new customers.
Plus with so many people sheltering in place, lots of people are training their dogs to poop inside.
I’m a pandemic profiteer
I guess someone needs to be.
We’re about to launch the Cratter, for cats
STOP OMG
Like crapper?
Yup
Getting a little crass, don’t you think? ;)
Well, we’re a company built on poop, so I think it’s a lost cause
How is Kate today?
Good. She actually slept well last night, so thank you
Anytime.
Speaking of Kate, it’s about time I relinquish my phone so she can watch PBS
I hope she enjoys her Mister Rodgers Neighborhood or whatever she likes
Wow
You sir, are behind the times
It’s Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood now
Much flashier
Sorry I don’t keep up on children’s television
That’s what I watched
And Sesame Street
Sesame Street is still there!
Although technically, it’s an HBO show now
WHAT?
Thanks for saving the day again last night
I fear that saying good night to Kylo is part of her bedtime routine now
It was fine.
I liked talking to her
And you.
I liked talking to you too :)
Hey, is everything okay?
It’s way past Kate’s bedtime
Not judging, just letting you know we’re here if you need us
Hey Ben
She’s asleep. She didn’t ask to see Kylo tonight
I guess her phase only lasted a week
That’s a record
I was worried we’d be calling you every night for six months
Ben gulped hard and set down his phone, reaching over to pet Kylo anxiously. They had been ready, in position, for over an hour. He wouldn’t admit it to Rey, but talking to her had become part of his bedtime routine.
But that was silly. She was a stranger who lived two time zones away, who only called him so her kid would sleep.
A stranger who he had talked to for over an hour almost every night that week.
A stranger who made him laugh, made him feel light and at peace for the first time in months.
Kylo is disappointed
It was a coward’s response.
Oh really? Kylo?
Ben felt a tiny flicker of hope at the winking emoji she included.
He pulled out the treats he had pocketed, prepared to feed them to Kylo so Kate could watch, and held them high over his head. Kylo gave him a pathetic, desperate look, and Ben snapped a pic before tossing the treats Kylo’s way.
He sent her the photo with the caption, See?
Oh now that is very cute.
And sad.
Maybe I could creep into our room and show him her crib. Would he know the difference?
I wouldn’t want you to risk waking her up.
He held his fist in front of his mouth, nervously nibbling until he had the guts to send a follow-up.
I think Kylo is mostly disappointed about not seeing you.
Ben stroked Kylo’s fur so hard that Kylo gave him a look before finding another spot in the room to lie down. With nothing to do with his anxious hands, Ben focused on his breathing, which had become shallow and tense.
Oh
Well that is easily remedied
Ben quickly answered the FaceTime call that came. Her smiling face showed up on his screen, and Ben took breath like he had finally emerged from deep underwater.
Kate still occasionally asked to see doggy at bedtime, but regardless of whether she did, Ben and Rey talked every night. They talked about everything, from happy and funny experiences, to favorite TV shows, movies, and books, to troubled pasts and daily frustrations.
One night, after they had been talking for almost a month, Ben felt brave enough to bring up her finances.
“Are you going to be able to make rent tomorrow, Rey?” he asked bluntly.
“I got a reprieve,” she said. “My landlord is giving me a month.”
“But then do you have to pay two months at that point?”
Her wince was answer enough.
“Will you let me help you?” he asked. “I don’t trust your landlord from what you’ve told me. I’d rather you just paid him tomorrow.”
“Oh, you’d rather?” she snapped.
“I’m sorry,” he said instantly. “I’m not trying to be controlling. It kills me to know you’re struggling when I’m in a position to help.”
“You’ve already done so much. The toys for Kate, the water table, the tablet.”
“Those were gifts, and you know how much I love getting pictures and videos of her enjoying them.”
“It’s a lot. I’m not used to accepting help.”
“What about Kate’s dad?” he asked, breaching the “d” word for the first time ever.
“What about him?”
“Is he paying child support?”
“No, he never has.”
“That’s absurd,” Ben thundered. “He should be fulfilling his responsibility, whether he’s in the picture or not.”
“Ben-”
“That just pisses me off, that men get women pregnant and then get to get off, scot free. Do you need a lawyer to go after him?”
“Ben!” She raised her voice, cutting off his angry rant. “I have never gone after child support because I don’t want him to pay. I don’t want anything to do with him. I don’t want him near Kate. The day I told him I was pregnant, he, well, he wasn’t happy. Anyway, that day was a gift. It gave me the push to get out of that dead-end, podunk town we lived in and make a new life. It hasn’t been easy, and I’ve been broke more often than not, but we’ve survived and we will continue to.”
Ben tried to shake off the extreme anger that had risen in him at Kate’s dad, and focus on the incredible woman he was talking to instead of punching a hole in his wall.
“What you’ve done is amazing, Rey,” he said, forcing his voice to be calm. “But accepting help from someone who lo-, from someone who wants to help isn’t weakness. You and Kate are very special to me. You’re the best part of my day, everyday.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you should know that.”
“You’re special to us, too. To me.”
“So will you let me help?”
“Okay.”
Another month passed. It seemed like whenever Ben and Rey weren’t working, they talked. He could even understand Kate now. He taught her “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes,” which was one of the only songs he could remember from his childhood, and she asked for “toe-toe” every time she saw him. Whenever the song ended, Rey would grab her and tickle her tummy, and Ben’s ache at not being with them grew a little stronger.
He sometimes took them on virtual walks with him and Kylo, since Kate loved seeing the ducklings in his neighborhood’s man-made pond system.
Rey always rolled her eyes and called his neighborhood pretentious, but her smiles as Kate giggled over the baby duck gave her away.
The ducklings were growing, though, and so was Kate. “Mo-mo” had become “Elmo,” and “shee-shees” had become “fishies.” Ben’s heart hurt at how much she had changed just in the few months he had known her.
Meanwhile, the quarantine dragged on. Some states had opened restaurants for dine-in, but Rey’s hadn’t.
For almost a month now, Ben had debated discussing meeting in person. Up until then, the pandemic had provided the perfect excuse for him to not travel to her, or have her travel to him.
It was too risky. Airline travel was volatile, and they lived too far to reasonably drive.
But Ben had finally decided it was time. The nation was opening back up, and he was running out of excuses not to put voice to his feelings.
There had been so many times they had almost crossed that line. She had sometimes gotten embarrassed when she referenced the future, and would quickly backtrack and apologize for being presumptuous that he would be around for any of it.
He hadn’t had the guts to tell her that he’d stay forever, if she’d let him.
A couple nights before, he had slipped and called her “sweetheart,” something he had been referring to her in his mind for a long time.
Neither of them had drawn attention to it, but she hadn’t gotten angry, which was worth noting.
And he hoped the way that she had smiled after had been no coincidence.
It was almost Kate’s second birthday, and that gave Ben the push he needed to speak up. One night, after they had said good night to Kate (and Kate had said good night to doggy), Ben waited patiently for Rey to make herself a cup of tea and settle into her worn couch before he spoke up.
“What are you doing for Kate’s birthday, Rey?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Most places are closed. I guess I’ll get a cake. I’m sure she’ll want you to call in to sing.”
“I don’t want to sing over the phone,” he soldiered on. “I want to be with her in person. With you. Can you please come to visit? I’ll pay for everything, make sure you have plenty of Clorox wipes and gloves and masks for the plane, to be safe…” His voice faltered.
“Or I’ll come to you,” he added hastily. “Whatever you want. I thought maybe since I have tons of room for you, and Kylo is here, and I wanted to show her the ducks… Or we don’t have to do anything at all. Forget it.”
She was silent for a while, before she asked softly, “Ben, what is this?”
“This?”
“This. Us. Is this a thing? Are we a thing? Or do you just like Kate, or, or…”
“Rey.” He waited until she looked at him. “This is real to me. You two are the best thing in my life. I want you to be part of my life. All the time. I want you to visit, but really, I want you to stay.” It was time to be honest. “I love you.”
She squeezed her eyes tight as tears streamed down her face. “I want to believe you. It’s hard. I don’t have the best track record with men in my life.”
Ben felt a familiar wave of rage rush through him at the thought of Rey’s pieces of shit dad, foster father, and ex-boyfriend.
“You know everything about me,” he said gently. “And I’m just asking for a week. I promise that if you’re uncomfortable here, you can leave immediately, no questions asked.”
She took a few audible breaths. “Okay,” she said shakily.
“You’ll come?”
“Yes.” Her voice was stronger. “But if she has her birthday while we’re there, she’s going to need a plane ticket since she’ll be two.”
Ben laughed happily. “I don’t care. I’ll get two tickets. I’ll get two tickets in First Class, if you’ll let me.”
“I guess we’d better look for tickets.”
“I’ll look and call you right back,” said Ben.
“Okay.” Rey had started smiling, too. “And hey, Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you, too.”
Ben waited anxiously at the airport, holding a stuffed Elmo in one hand and a bouquet of sunflowers in the other. She had texted him that they had gotten off the plane, but that she needed to change Kate’s diaper.
They should be coming out any minute.
The stream of people that had likely come from Rey’s plane thinned out, and it was a couple minutes later that he finally spotted her, pushing Kate in a stroller. They locked eyes, and Ben wished he could see if she was smiling. He had wanted to see her smile in person for so long, and it was obscured by a sensible mask.
When they came close, Ben crouched down in front of Kate’s stroller, and pulled off his own mask so she’d recognize him.
“Hi, Kate,” he said, handing over the Elmo. She grinned at him, her little dimples matching her mom’s.
“Ben!” she said. His heart nearly burst with joy. She reached out her other hand for Ben’s sunflowers, and Rey laughed.
“She can hold them for me,” said Rey. He looked up to see that she had pulled off her mask. Seeing her, all of her, was everything he’d dreamed of.
“Well, all right, little lady,” he said, handing Kate the small bouquet. “But keep those safe for your mom, okay?”
“Where doggy?”
“Doggy is at home. He’s so excited to meet you.”
She smiled, before ignoring him in favor of her new treasures. Ben chuckled, and straightened up. He suddenly felt shy, coming face to face with Rey.
“H-how was your flight?”
She made a face. “Uhh, not relaxing. Traveling with a toddler isn’t a picnic.”
“I’m sure of that.”
Rey rocked on her feet. “So can I give you a hug?” said Rey. She looked around. “Is that allowed?”
“You’re staying in my house, so I guess we can’t distance anyway.”
Grinning, she pulled on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re taller than I imagined,” she said in his ear.
“You’re more beautiful than I imagined.” She squeezed tighter, and he let the fear and nerves fall away. He lifted her up and spun her around, setting her down as she laughed joyfully.
She leaned up and kissed him quickly, surprising him. He hadn’t planned to kiss her here, planned to save it for a few days later when she’d gotten comfortable with their new arrangement.
But this was right. They were together, and he wasn’t going to waste another minute.
He pressed his lips against hers, savoring the feeling. Between kisses, he stroked her hair and whispered in a tear-choked voice, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you at last.”
Rey and Kate never used their return tickets. Ben hired someone in Rey’s town to pack up and deliver the things they wanted, and dispose of those they didn’t. There wasn’t a lot they sent for. Ben had gone a little overboard buying toys for Kate’s birthday, and had set up a bedroom and crib for Kate in anticipation of their visit. Rey had balked at his getting a crib, since Kate would inevitably be moving to a big girl bed in not too long, but Ben had insisted that she feel comfortable and safe.
Selfishly, he also appreciated that it helped her go to bed easier, leaving the night free to enjoy the company of her gorgeous mother.
Time passed, in which “doggy” became “Ky-wo,” and “Ky-wo” became “Kylo.”
And, eventually, “Ben” became “Daddy.”