Chapter 3: Oversharing

After we were finished the pizza and cleaned up, we sat on the sofa facing his flat-screen TV.

“OK, Ben, it’s showtime. Give me the remote and unlock your phone for me.”

After some fiddling, I had the TV submitting to the phone.

“We’re ready. I want to see your pictures, but we’ll stop if you start to lose it.”

He cycled through a few shots of Eddie being playful and puppy-like, then a shot came up of Ben and Eddie together.

“Oh, adorable! Look at that beautiful face, showing so much intelligence and sweetness. The dog is cute, too.”

Ben laughed, just as I hoped. I did, however, wonder: who was holding the camera? The answer came quickly.

Ben swiped the screen, and the next image came up.

“Oh, shit!” He tried to delete the photo, but I snatched the phone out of his hand.

“It’s all right. Tell me about her.”

“It’s a long and terrible story. Iris, I just met you a few hours ago. It would be foolish for me to talk about a bad relationship in my past, especially today. I wish you hadn’t seen that picture.”

“What was her name?”

“Anna. Why do you ask?”

“I want to know if you are still involved with Anna. Is she still important to you?”

“Absolutely 100% not. Please, Iris, the very last thing I want to do this evening is explain Anna to you.”

“I understand, just one more question.”

He sighed really heavily and squinted his eyes, as if in pain.

“Go ahead.”

“Ben, is Anna buried in your backyard?”

He seemed to consider the possibility with a small smile. Then he shook his head.

“No, Eddie would have dug her up. Sorry, I’m kidding. She’s alive, as far as I know, and far away from me, which is for the best. Can I just say it ended badly and stop there?”

“Of course. Let’s see some more puppy pictures.”

About an hour later, we reached the end of his photo library.

“Thank you for linking my TV to my phone, Iris. Do you want to show me your pictures of Ellie?”

“Maybe next time.”

“I guess we should go get my car, then.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not? Iris, I’m confused.”

“We’ll go get it in the morning.”

“What?”

“You will sit in my passenger seat, I will drive to your car and let you out, and we will go to our jobs.”

I looked him in the eye and waited for the bulb to go on over his head.

“You want to stay here? Overnight?”

I waited.

“But why?”

Still waiting.

“You like me?”

I smiled.

“Oh. Oh!”

“Perhaps I should clarify,” I said.

I put my arms around his shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss. A good, strong, sincere kiss.

“Ben, let’s go see your bedroom. You can help me out of all these unnecessary clothes.”