"Maybe it's the way you say my name

Maybe it's the way you play your game

But it's so good, I've never known anybody like you

But it's so good, I've never dreamed of nobody like you "

~"Dandelions", Ruth B.

~~

 “My mother would reprimand me if I didn’t offer you anything.”

Ben came to stand over by the counter that divided the kitchen from the dining area.

She filled up a pot with water and set it to boil. “I hope you like pasta, because that’s what I’m limited to right now.” She added as she threw some ground beef she’d pulled from the fridge into a heated pan. He watched as she threw in some onions, some tomatoes, added spices he hadn’t used before, and soon the meat was cooking, the delicious fragrance filling the kitchen.

He took in the smell gleefully and couldn’t help thinking of his Nana—who wasn’t really his grandmother but he considered her family, more than his own real family—as she created meals in her own home. He remembered the Summers in his childhood that he would spend with her because his father didn’t care for him and his mother was too scared to think that something could happen to her baby.

“Doctor…Ben?”

He looked up to see Elena observing him. Her head was slightly tilted as she studied him.

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

“Oh. Yeah. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. You just had this faraway look on your face.” He finally noticed that she was holding a spatula a can of something white. “Would you like some garlic bread?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” He took a seat at one of tall counter chairs. “You look like you know what you’re doing. You seem to have a lot of hidden talents, Miss Elena.”

She shook her head, smiling, but said nothing as she continued to spread the bread.

“Between nursing, drawing, and cooking, what can’t you do?” He joked.

“Deal with own self.” She answered and stopped for a second when she realized what she’d said. She shook her head and went back to the bread. “It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“Having you in my house on a Friday night.” She pulled the pasta off the fire, dumping the water into the sink and rinsing them off under cool water. She turned off the meat sauce and turned to look at him.

“What do you normally do on Fridays?”

“Either stay up watching Netflix movies, YouTube surf, or head straight to bed as soon as I get home.” With a sigh, she leaned against one of the counters. “It sounds sad, doesn’t it?”

“Nah. Sounds like my Fridays.” Ben grinned to himself as he thought about how he’d actually be on the internet playing whatever interactive team game was popular. For some time, he was into Fortnite. He missed the look on Elena’s face. She didn’t believe that for a bit and doubted that he would be lonely on Friday nights. It was Friday and he was supposed to be seeing Sherry until he fucked up his plans himself.

“Uh huh. Anyways, let me get this food out.”

“Want some help?” Nana ran a tight ship, and he was raised on the idea that there would be no overbearing machismo in the house if she could prevent it. Elena waved him off.

“Take a seat, I can do it. You’re my guest.”

“I insist. Don’t make me feel useless.”

“It’s fine.”

“Elena.”

“Dr. Ross.”

“Elena. And I said it’s Ben.”

“Fine. Ben. Take a seat. Let me.” He raised an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes. “Fine. You can help and pull two plates from the top shelf.”

She moved aside while he got the plates and she took the pots off the stove. She missed the wide smirk on his face because he’d won this round.

..

As he laid in bed awake later that night, Ben couldn't help but think about Elena. He'd learned a lot about her today, some things of which he wasn't sure that he was happy about.

He had always taken her to be quiet because she was more of a serious person, but her panic attack earlier made him think that she was perhaps quiet for a reason. She seemed to be scared of touch, of any kind of nearness, and confrontation. She didn't like people watching her and she didn't like being the center of attention. He felt like a jerk thinking about all the times he'd teased her to make her angry. Now he wished he hadn't done that.

She was an enigma. She was incredibly smart, there was no doubt about that, but restrained in her talents and he wanted to know why. Her drawings were amazing, landscapes and some animals. He had seen a couple face drawings, but they tended to lean more towards the cartoon-style.

And on top of all of that, she could cook. He smiled as he recalled the delicious odors in that kitchen. He suddenly had the need to go visit his Nana in southern California. He bet she'd love that.

As intrigued as he was with Elena, he knew that he couldn't do anything about it. She was clearly not interested in him. Besides the fact that he had offended her many times

already with his comments. Also, he couldn't help but feel like there was something going on with her. Something deeper beyond her just being a reserved person.

He was almost falling asleep when he remembered that they had actually met about a year ago at his best friend's wedding. Even then, she had dismissed him, but he'd figured it was because they were still strangers, hadn't even worked together at all.

He would ask her about it Monday.

..

Elena groaned.

She cracked an eye open and tried to figure out where the buzzing was coming from. It took her a moment to realize it was her phone buzzing from an incoming call.

She leaned over the side of her bed to pick it up from the floor.

“ ‘Lo?"

"Elena, were you asleep?"

"Ruby?" She pulled the phone back to check what time it was. Ten in the morning. "What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to check in with you. See what you were up to." Elena could hear people talking in the background. Elena loved her friend, but she was confused as to why she was calling her instead of hanging out with her boyfriend.

"Sounds like you're outdoors."

"Yeah. Max brought me out to see the Zoo." Ruby was talking about Max, the guy she had been seeing for almost a year now. They had met at Melanie's (Max's sister) wedding. Melanie had met Ruby at the hospital, and Ruby had introduced her to Elena.

Soon they had all become good friends. Melanie was the Motherly part of their group, with Ruby being the extravagant one, Elena the quiet, and Mary Anne the panicky part of the group. "Have you spoken to Mary Anne today?"

"No, I'm just waking up. Is something wrong with her?" Elena sat up and stretched, yawning widely as she felt her back pop in several places.

"I was just wondering what she'd be up to. I haven't spoken to her in a couple days since she's been busy with the holiday party coming up and she's been pulled to several meetings." Ruby thought about the last time she had visited Mary Anne's house she had run into Max's brother, Jason, cooking breakfast in her kitchen. Obviously, he had spent the night there, but that wasn't her business. She just hoped that her friend knew what she was doing.

"Okay. I can give her a call and see what she's up," Elena offered, climbing out of bed. "I might get her to go out with me for dinner or something."

"Yeah, give her a call. She needs to do something else besides work all the time."

"Also, if you're with Max, why are you calling me right now instead of paying attention to him?" Elena asked with a grin and she heard the other girl chuckle through the speaker.

"He went to get something warm to drink. It's cold as balls here, but it's very nice. I'm saving our spot on this bench. You'd be surprised at how many people actually show up here." Ruby explained.

"Alright, well in that case, I'll let you go, so you can enjoy your quality time. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Elena joked as an afterthought. Ruby was younger, barely twenty-two. While her boyfriend was older than her by about ten years and obviously more experienced, Ruby was more on the... not experienced side of the spectrum. Elena was actually quite surprised at how well things had worked out between the two of them. He wasn't pushy or overbearing and took her youthful exuberance in stride. Ruby was all brains, no filter, and a little ADHD. Max had hit the jackpot with her, in Elena's opinion.

"Ha. I know." There was a pause, and Elena knew there was a 'but' coming. "But since I'm here and it's the two of us...I think I want to take the next step in our relationship..." She hesitated, probably trying to see what Elena would say regarding her decision.

"It's your decision to make honestly," Elena started as she stared at herself in her bathroom mirror. "I just... I can only tell you that you're an adult, it's your body. Take care of yourself if you do, okay? And..." Elena sighed. "I'm just glad that it's your decision. Whatever your decision, I'm happy for you, truly. Max seems like a great guy."

"He is." Ruby said softly from the other end. "Thank you for listening, Elena. I felt like that I couldn't keep that inside me any longer. I needed to tell someone!"

Elena smiled. "I'm honored. Haha. Okay. Enough sentimental crap jack. Go and enjoy yourself. Stay safe, don't do anything too crazy. And come back to me in one piece."

"Alright, alright." Ruby laughed, "Oh! Here he comes! I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Bye."

"Bye!" Ruby hung up with a click.

Elena continued to stare at herself in the mirror. Pale faced, freckly, wild red hair. Today she felt like the cartoon girl, Pepper Ann. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt like herself.

...

Because the weather was actually nice that day, sunny even though it was chilly, Elena decided to walk down to the little cafe by the dog park. She was actually hungry this morning and craving some good breakfast.

She opted to sit in the patio outside instead of being surrounded by people. It was fine, since the patio area was surrounded by a good sized glass fence to protect the patrons from the cold, yet left it transparent so they could enjoy the sunshine. It worked out fine for Elena since she could observe people for drawing inspiration.

She gave the server her order and sipped her coffee while she waited. She'd forgotten her sketchbook, but she could always do a quick doodle on her phone.

As she was staring off into space thinking about what her mother could be up to, she didn't notice Benjamin and Sherry enter the cafe. They were seated on the enclosed patio across from hers. He didn't notice her until he was giving the server his drink order and Sherry leaned down to pick something that she had dropped and he saw a copper head behind her. He would know that hair anywhere.

"So, are we good for tonight? We can go to that new club bar, whatever the heck it is, that just opened downtown?"

Ben wasn't really paying attention to what Sherry was telling him, he was too busy trying to see over her shoulder at Elena who was engrossed in something she was reading. Her hair was down, falling around her shoulders in well controlled waves unlike yesterday's poof. She was still wearing her glasses. Even though she wasn't dressed for running today, she was still dressed in baggy clothes—a baggy green crotchet cardigan and white shirt, and from what he could see of her legs under the table, black leggings. That and some fuzzy boots.

Boots with the fur, he thought and grinned despite himself.

"Ben?"

"Huh?"

"What are you smirking at?" Sherry asked with a confused look on her face.

"Just something I remembered that was funny." He said as he looked at her. She frowned, slightly taken aback at the fact that he wasn't really paying attention to her. He had already cut her off last night and when she'd called him, he never picked up his phone. He'd finally answered her text around one in the morning saying that he'd had something come up, but he could do breakfast.

"Okay." She wanted to be nice, she was trying hard. But no matter what she did, it seemed like he always had something going on. Was he seeing someone else now? She glanced down at her drink, eyebrows furrowed as she pondered at the possibility that someone else had already caught his eye. She glanced up at him through her lashes, he was staring off into space at something. The man was handsome, so damn beautiful, it hurt her to see him. His blond hair, green sparkling eyes, and just overall...Gah.

She looked over to where he was seeing and saw nothing. Not even anyone passing by at the moment. He just didn't care...

"You didn't have to invite me to breakfast if you didn't want to," she grumbled with a frown. She was really trying hard not to pout. Her mother had called her a brat the other day when she'd pouted at something she had disagreed with...

"Well, I felt bad about last night." He finally took his eyes off Elena and looked at Sherry. She wasn't wearing as much make-up as she usually did for work, just some mascara and some gloss over her lips. She had some of that... foundation, was it? And nothing else. She was actually quite pretty without all the make-up she seemed to prefer... and looked way younger than she usually did. "You got upset yesterday."

"I...I was thrown off a bit." Because you went after that redheaded nurse and chewed me out. "It was a weird day yesterday."

"Yeah. We can hang out tonight if you want?" He offered because he figured that's what she wanted. She had called him a couple times during the time he was at Elena's house and he felt bad. After the conversation he'd had with Elena he felt even worst thinking about what an asshole he was. Nana would smack him across the head if he knew that he was only using this girl for sex. Sure, he was a grown ass man, but he'd been even less attentive with Sherry than with the previous women. Not that there'd been a lot of them. People just assumed he was sleeping with all the ones that seemed to flock around him for some reason. "What were you saying about a club?"

Sherry smiled warmly. "There's a new club in town. We can check it out if you want. If not, we can ditch it and go do something else."

"Sounds good. I--"

"Hi, are you guys ready to order?" the server smiled as they turned to him instead.

"Yeah, I think we're ready..."

.

Elena was leaving the cafe when her phone started ringing. She smiled when she saw it was mother. It was Saturday after all, and Elliot made sure to never skip a Saturday without calling her.

"Good morning, Elliot. How are you, love?" She answered warmly when she heard her baby brother on the other end. She was still smiling widely and warmly when she walked past the other enclosed area and didn't notice Benjamin with Sherry. "...Of course, I missed you... Because I love you, duh."

Benjamin's ears perked up at that, immediately zoning out what Sherry was telling him. He had been about to say good morning to her when he caught the words "love", "missed you" and "I love you"... 

Who was Elliot? Was that a boyfriend?

She didn't even notice him as she passed by, phone at her ear. She was smiling fondly at whatever Elliot she speaking with.

He knew that he shouldn't care, but her words just left him even more confused about what he had pondered last night before he fell asleep...