Because Anna knew I wouldn’t go after her. Anna knew I would sit on my unicorn and get higher and higher and higher. Anna knew who I was, after all.
“Dear members of the board,” I sighed. “I am terribly sorry, but the devil ate my homework.”
Ronan
It was either later that evening or three weeks down the line. I either crawled up to my bedroom myself or the “whores” Anna accused me of cavorting with dragged me up there to have their fiendish ways with my godlike body. I either just woke up from a comatose nap or I just sobered up enough to have conscious thought again.
It was a confusing time.
But either way I was in my bed and there was golden light that brought back painful memories in the room when Benson knocked. He poked his head in and I waved him over. He came with a tray of tea, a couple of my favourite biscuits, and a shite ton of aspirin.
Good man.
I expected him to leave it on the side table and slip out as always, but he surprised me by sitting down at the edge of my bed. I raised an eyebrow up at him as I plopped several aspirin into my mouth.
“I normally only let pretty girls sit there like that,” I said, swallowing down some water. “And I usually prefer them to be naked.”
Benson smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “We should talk,” he said.
“You’re breaking up with me?” I asked as he pulled off his thin wire-frame glasses and set them next to my tea. “You are breaking up with me.”
“Ronan, your father was many things, but father was not one of them.”
I sighed and sank deeper into the array of pillows. “Benson, did you finally finish making that margarita or what?”
“Hush.”
I laughed. “Hush? Some butler you are.”
Benson’s eyes were fixed on mine when he said to me, “We both know I’m more than that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, yes, I suppose you’re also my driver.”
“Ronan.”
“Benson.”
Benson reached for the teapot and poured a cup for me. He guided it into my hands, probably to shut me up. “Drink,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you poison it?”
He chuckled and shook his head, saying, “I think you’ve managed that just fine on your own recently.”
I shrugged and sipped at the tea which was heavy with lemon, just the way I liked it.
“Ronan, I want to tell you that I’ve never been disappointed in you.”
I nearly choked on my tea. “No?”
“No.”
“Well, I have been a model employer, a selfless friend, and a respectable young man,” I said frowning down into my tea.
Benson grabbed one of my biscuits, which earned him a betrayed scowl from me.
“What I mean is that I love you, Ronan. I love you like the son I never had. I love you like the father you never had.”
“We really should have done this over shots of whiskey, my friend,” I said, feeling awkward as I tapped my finger against the lip of the teacup. “That way neither of us would remember this tomorrow.”
“I’ve seen you struggling over these past few months,” Benson said, rightly ignoring me, “and I’ve been trying all this time to figure out what I needed to say, what you needed to hear. I’ve gone over a million different things. ‘Get your ass up and do something, son. That’ll make you feel better.’”
I tilted my head this way and that and commented, “Not bad.”
“‘You’ll find another one out there.’”
“Perhaps a little cliche, don’t you think?”
Benson nodded. “Yes, that’s what I figured as well.”
“Then we’re on the same page.”
“Yes, sir.”
I held out my cup for more tea and said, “Very well.”
“There was, ‘She didn’t deserve you’,” Benson continued as he poured my tea.
“Why didn’t you go with that one?” I asked.
“Because it was a lie.”
I clutched at my own chest. “Ouch, Benson. Damn, I won’t take that one personally.”
“You should,” he replied, but when I looked over at him, he was smiling.
I drummed my fingers against the sides of the teacup. I felt like a teenager again, trying to ask a question in a way that sounded like I didn’t care about the answer when in fact I very much did.
“So,” I started, giving a little bored huff and staring past Benson’s shoulder at the window practically bursting with gold, like it’d been filled to the brim, “why did go with… what was it you said? Some nonsense about me not disappointing you?”
At the risk of seeming like