Playing House

An hour or so after Ben had stormed out, there was a soft knock on my door.

“Come in,” I called out. Leah opened the door slowly, carrying a tray of food.

Damn. I like her.

“I wasn’t sure what to make you, but Ben said you weren’t a picky eater. That’s when I informed him it doesn’t matter what you’re normally like, once you’re pregnant, you’re a picky eater,” she smiled. I laughed with her, and she set the tray down. “But I hope this is okay.” I looked down at the grilled cheese and tomato soup, grinning.

“It’s perfect, Leah. Thank you,” I told her.

“Your twins are here. Duncan and Lyss dropped them off about twenty minutes ago. I didn’t want to let them up just yet in case you were tired or already sleeping,” she explained.

I stared up at her, dumbstruck.

“You are like, the most thoughtful person ever. Seriously,” I stated. She smiled at me and turned to leave.

“I’ll send them in when you’re done?” She asked. I nodded, sipping my soup.

“Are they downstairs with Ben?”

“No, Ben left with Duncan to go work out. They’re watching television in their room with the dogs. Am I the only one the dogs don’t like?” She joked.

“It took them a while to get used to me too,” I half lied. It took them a while, but definitely not this long.

“Can I ask you something?” She suddenly blurted.

“Sure,” I nodded.

“The father of you children…where is he?”

Well if that wasn’t a fucking complicated question to answer.

“The twins, their dad has never really been around. He fought me for custody a few months ago, but it was only for monetary gain. Kind of to boost his image to get a better promotion, type of thing,” I told her. “And the triplets, um. Their dad is…he’s…well, their father is-”

“It’s Ben, isn’t it?” She half smiled. I opened my mouth to protest, to lie, to do whatever. But I couldn’t.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “He’s adopted Beau and Maddie too, so technically he’s their other legal guardian.”

I saw her try and soak everything in, and I couldn’t tell if she was okay or not.

“I was wondering what was going on,” she finally laughed.

“It’s not that he didn’t trust you with the information,” I assured. “He was just kind of…you know…interested in you, and he didn’t want you to think lowly of him for everything that has happened.”

“Lowly?” She asked, confused.

“It’s a long story,” I laughed. She nodded, her brow still knit in confusion.

The doorbell suddenly rang, and Leah excused herself to go answer it. A few moments later, Leah came back in the room.

“Was it anyone important?” I questioned.

“Some lady named Eleanor,” she informed. I choked on my soup.

“What? What did she want?” I asked frantically. Leah looked at me bewildered, wondering why I seemed so antsy.

“Um, I don’t know, I just answered the door and she asked to see Ben so I told her he wasn’t home but she insisted on waiting for him,” she said.

“She’s still here?” I lowered my voice. Leah nodded. “Oh God. Oh God…Okay, I’m going to call Ben and try and get him back here. Please try and keep her occupied. I don’t want her to know me and the kids are here. She’s kind of the reason Ben and I aren’t together anymore. ”

“Ohhh,” she nodded, seeming to understand. “Okay, I’ll do my best,” she said, leaving the room. I grabbed my cell phone off the bedside table and quickly found Ben’s name in my contacts.

“Hello?” He answered breathlessly.

“Ben, you need to get home now,” I blurted.

“Why? What’s wrong? What happened? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No, it’s not me,” I assured.

“Mal, I’m in the middle of a workout, so if this isn’t important-”

“Eleanor is here,” I whispered.

“You’ve got to be joking,” he groaned.

“No. She doesn’t know the kids and I are here, and she’s waiting for you to get home. Please come and get rid of her,” I begged. I heard him sigh, frustrated.

“Yeah, I’ll be home soon,” he said, hanging up. I sat in bed after that, feeling bad, but not sure what I was feeling bad about. I knew Ben was still a little angry with me, but with the way he was still acting you’d think I had asked him to drive to the nearest Jack In The Box restaurant over four hours away.

Now that I’ve mentioned it, A Jumbo Jack burger sounded really good…

“Mommy!” Beau exclaimed, coming into my room. I motioned for him to be quiet and I saw Maddie come in with the dogs just after. They both noticed I was serious about them not making any noise and they crawled onto the bed with me, the dogs hopping up as well.

“Jesus,” I muttered at the dogs who had caused the bed to shake.

“Mommy why we hushing?” Beau asked.

“The mean old witch is downstairs, and I don’t want her to know we’re here,” I told them. They knew Eleanor by ‘the mean old witch,’ because I had accidentally called her an old bitch one time in front of them and needed to cover my tracks.

Not that mean old witch doesn’t suit her.

They both made faces of disgust and I almost wanted to laugh at their reaction. I heard some noise downstairs about ten minutes later, and I knew it meant Ben had gotten home. Moments later I heard him yelling, which shocked me.

Ben had been nothing but obedient and polite to Eleanor, so his outburst was quite surprising. I couldn’t hear anything that was being said however, so all I could do was wait.

A door suddenly slammed, followed by heavy and loud footsteps coming up the stairs. I knew it was Ben, and I knew he was angry.

He burst through the slightly open door, seething, and Beau and Maddie jumped. His expression softened when he saw them, and he called out to Leah. She entered the room soon after, her expression dumbstruck as she saw the dogs sitting in bed with me.

“Can you take them downstairs please?” Ben asked her.

“Sure,” she smiled. She ushered them out of the room, quickly moving out of the way of the dogs who immediately followed Beau and Maddie. She shut the door, leaving Ben and I in silence.

“What did I do now?” I asked him.

“What?”

“You huffed on in here like you were about to yell at me, so I was wondering what I did,” I mused.

“I’m not angry at you,” Ben said, shaking his head. “I was frustrated with Eleanor.”

“What happened? What did she want?”

“She wanted to know where you were,” Ben replied. “I told her you were up here.”

“But-”

“Just let me talk, Mal,” Ben interrupted. I nodded, letting him continue. “I got your phone call and came home, and she was sitting on the couch waiting for me. She didn’t even let me talk before she started spouting off all these questions about where you were, so I told her you were upstairs. She got up and started to walk towards the stairs, and that’s when I told her to stay away from you and the kids. We argued a bit, but she eventually left. I’m pretty sure she won’t bother you or me for a while.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? Do you really think I want to talk to her either?” Ben pointed out.

“Touché,” I sighed, collapsing against my pillows. Ben laughed, and I lifted my head up to look at him. We shared a small smile, and I patted the bed for him to come sit by me.

He sauntered over and sat down next to me, grabbing my hand and playing with my fingers.

“Leah knows,” I informed him.

“About what?”

“You know what,” I asserted. “She asked me where the kids’ father was, and I think she already thought you had something to do with it. I explained to her about Jake and the custody thing, and she guessed that you were the father of the triplets.”

Ben nodded, not saying anything.

“I explained that you hid it so she wouldn’t think lowly of you, which I don’t think she understood, but that’s when Eleanor came. I tried to make you not sound like a deadbeat dad, I promise,” I said softly.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? Because you like her,” I pointed out. He looked away from me and back at my hand, where he was still toying with my fingers. He laughed, almost scoffing, and stood up without letting go of my hand.

“I don’t want her, Amalia. You don’t have to sugarcoat anything about me for her,” he said.

“I didn’t. I just told her the truth. Although, I think you should go explain everything about Eleanor. She missed that bit,” I smiled.

“I don’t have to tell her jack shit,” Ben said, suddenly getting defensive. “She’s got nothing to do with anything, and it’s not her business.”

“I’d like her to know, so if you don’t want to tell her, I will. I just thought that-”

“Forget it, I don’t want to argue with you,” Ben mumbled. “I’ll talk to her later.”

“Thank you.” I tugged his hand toward me so he'd be closer as well. He kissed the top of my head, telling me to get some rest.

I nodded and he walked out, mumbling to himself. I fell asleep a few minutes later with a smile on my face. Things seemed to be looking up, and that was an uplifting feeling.

I don’t know how much time had passed, but when I woke up again Leah was in my room putting things in drawers.

“Hey,” I called out. She turned around with folded shirts in her hand.

“Did I wake you?”

“No, it wasn’t you,” I smiled. “Are those my shirts?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “The boys just finished bringing everything of yours back over, and I was just unpacking it for you.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” I said. Secretly, I was grinning. I guess this bed rest thing wasn’t so bad after all.

“It’s no trouble at all,” she assured.

“Did Ben talk to you? About Eleanor?”

“Did he ever,” she laughed. “He told me everything, start to finish.”

“Oh God,” I sighed. Leah laughed again, coming over to the side of the bed. “I’m not a floozy, I swear. Ben just had this effect on me, and I couldn’t help myself. I mean, you’ve seen him without a shirt, right?”

“Amalia,” she smiled. “I’m not judging you in the least.”

“You’re the only one,” I muttered.

“I think you and Ben have a great love story,” she shrugged. “You’ll have quite the tale to tell your children and grandchildren.”

I blinked at her, wondering where the fuck she came from. She was so…optimistic. I sighed heavily, throwing a hand over my eyes.

“I wish things were so much less complicated,” I groaned.

“I’m pretty sure you’re not the only one,” Leah stated.

“I messed things up so bad.”

“Ben didn’t leave anything out,” Leah told me. I was wondering where she was going with that statement. “At least, I don’t think he did. If he told me everything, then you weren’t the only one who made some mistakes. But that’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody’s perfect.”

I held back the ‘Except for you,’ that I wanted to blurt out at her, and instead kept quiet and let her continue.

“Amalia, I want you to know that Ben really, really loves you,” she said. “I think that given some time, you guys could really-”

“He likes you, you know,” I interrupted.

“I like him too,” she smiled. “But not like that. I mean, it might have been like that, if we had had more time, but I think the two of you should be together. Everything points to the two of you being a couple.”

I let her words sink in for a bit, and I thought about the entire situation.

Of course I hadn’t thought about being with anyone but Ben, and the truth was I was afraid to. He had plenty of other options, whereas if I didn’t have Ben, I was pretty sure I would be single for like, ever.

Lucky bastard.