Work Text:
"I never did thank you for the card."
Edith looks up from the cutting board. "Card?"
"Yeah, the card you sent me." Ben leans in the doorway, arms crossed. "Figured you must've slipped it into the office while I was out. I never got the chance to thank you for—"
"Wait, wait—" Setting down the knife she's been using to dice vegetables, Edith motions for a time out. "I never snuck any cards into your office?" She morphs it into a question at the end, like she's suddenly beginning to doubt herself.
Ben arches an eyebrow. "You don't remember?" Straightening his posture. "The little pink heart? You asked me out with it." His hands gesture in the vague shape of a heart.
"Little pink hear—" Edith casts her eyes down to of tiled floor in remembrance, before her head comes snapping back up with the memory, cobalt eyes wide. "You mean the card you sent me?"
Now it's Ben's turn to stare at her, boggled. He brings a hand up to even out his toupee. "Okay, I definitely never sent you any card." He frowns. "Especially not any hearts…." Under his breath.
Previous task abandoned, Edith ambles up to the doorway and recounts, "I found a pink heart-shaped card asking me out on a date, signed in your name, snuck in the cafeteria kitchen between my two best drying racks." A point of her thumb back towards the general direction of where the school would be if it were standing just across the street. Brow furrowing. "Wasn't that you?"
Ben reaches out to take her hand in his; pats it reassuringly. In a tone that's as sincere as Benjamin Krupp is ever able to get, he says, "Honey, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Now the both of them are irrevocably confused. Edith shakes her head. "Well, I never snuck you any mystery love notes, either!" She cocks her head. "Ya sure it was from me?"
"It said 'Love, Edith' on it!" He'd be insulted at the suggestion if it were anybody else asking. Instead he simply takes the lunch lady's remaining hand, runs his thumb over her knuckles. "I didn't….I honestly didn't think it was out of character for you to ask through a note." He flicks his eyes up towards hers, briefly, shyly. Back to her hands. "Is that rude?"
To be one-hundred percent honest, Edith didn't think it was unusual for Ben to ask via note, either. She tells him as much.
He chuckles softly. "That makes two disasters, then."
A quiet exchange of smiles. A squeezing of hands.
Then: "So, wait." Edith's frown is less concerned now, more curious than anything. "If you didn't send me that card, and I didn't send the one you got….then…." It's almost amusing to see the same careful curiosity echoed in his eyes.
"Then who did?"
The two of them contemplate, principal and cafeteria aide, trying to rack their brains for any potential clues and/or candidates. Trying not to get spooked by the implications.
At long last it's Ben who once again breaks the silence. "Actually, now that I think about it, the handwriting in that card did look a bit familiar…."
-
The quiet atmosphere in the treehouse is suddenly broken by the jarring sound of George and Harold both sneezing in perfect unison.
The two boys lean back in their chairs, simultaneously impressed and unnerved. "Whoah-ho, what was that all about?" asks George, punctuating the query with a small laugh.
Harold sniffles. "I have no idea!" He runs his hand over his nose. "It's not allergy season, is it?"
"Dunno. When was the last time we dusted in here?"
"We dust?"
George shrugs his shoulders in a huh, I guess not kind of gesture. Picking up his pencil once again, he opts to bring the conversation back to what they were discussing before the sudden interruption. "So, anyway, what were we saying? Yay or nay on the superpowered robot meter maids?"
"Oh, definitely yay!" Harold enthusiastically nods his approval.
George touches pencil to paper. "'Kay then, I'll add it to the script…."