In all honesty, I couldn’t be angry at Ben for being a jerk. As soon as I got in the car to take his daughter home, my heart melted. Meredith was just the sweetest girl ever, and she made me laugh every time she opened her mouth. She had the most contagious giggle, so every time she laughed, I laughed along with her. As soon as we got home, she toddled around, checking the place out, then collapsed onto the couch and fell asleep. Seeing nothing better to do, I lay down next to her and fell asleep too.
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Spending three months with a five year-old seemed to be easy at first, but then proved to be slightly difficult. Mera had preschool in the morning, and she was finished at noon, and had to be picked up. Ben didn’t have a full-time job, so he could easily save and go to pick his daughter up, but my full-timer prevented that from happening. I finally figured out that I could pick her up at 12:45, when I had my lunch break, and bring her back to the office with me. The preschool ladies didn’t mind a bit that Mera had to be picked up late, so I stuck with it. The little girl was quiet when I was working, she sat and played on Ben’s tablet that he had left for her and didn’t make a sound. I was thankful that Ben had raised such a quiet and sweet little girl that didn’t cause trouble wherever she stepped. She especially took a liking to my cat, Severus Snape, despite his futile protests.
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The nine weeks went by very quickly, and before I knew it, I was driving Mera to the airport to go pick up her dad. The terminal was buzzing with people, so we had a hard time pushing through the throng to find Ben. I hoisted Meredith up onto my shoulders so that she could look around and find her father. After a few minutes of searching, the little girl cried out happily.
“Daddy!!!” She screamed, scrambling to climb off of me, and nearly knocking me down.
“Mera,” I said frantically, “Mera, calm down please.”
I pulled her off of me and set her down on the floor. She ran through the crowd of people, ducking under legs and pushing past annoyed travelers. When I finally caught up to her, she was in Ben’s arms, talking a mile a minute. I ran up to him and stood there, trying not to get pulled away by the constant pull of people.
“Ben,” I interrupted, “Sorry to interrupt but shouldn’t we move somewhere not so, crowded?”
Ben looked around into the never-ending heap of people. He grabbed my hand and his suitcase and dragged us outside and into the parking garage.
“C’mon,” he said, “Let’s all go somewhere.”
We drove around Atlanta looking for a place to eat and finally decided on the Willy’s on Howell Mill Road. Mera ate her lunch and watched the football game absentmindedly while Ben and I talked. There wasn’t much to catch up on, since we had unknowingly kept in touch the entire time he was gone. But I did have one question to ask him, one question that I was hesitant to ask.
“Ben,” I finally said, “I’m wondering—“
“—Why I left?” he interrupted, “I figured”
I stared at him. He stared back.
“To tell you the truth I don’t even know why I left.”
I gave him a skeptical look.
“What?” he defended, “I just…just needed some time away from home, away from life.”
“There are a lot better ways to deal with things like this,” I chastised
“I know, I know” he waved me off, “But I’m back, it’s over. So we can but our behinds in the past.”
I laughed
“No, no,” I said, “Lie down before you hurt yourself.”
We both laughed, and Mera looked up.
“What is funny?” she asked, “Am I funny?”
Ben chuckled, I giggled.
“No sweetie,” he said, “We’re not laughing at you.”
The five year old shrugged her shoulders and looked back up at the TV.
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It seemed that those few weeks were enough to rekindle the relationship between Ben and me. Not as much the romantic relationship, but we were definitely friends again. The four of us, (Ben, Vic, Ron and I), had always hung out together constantly, and nothing was stopping us now. We were all friends again, but it was different, the friendship was more grown-up, more mature. We didn’t goof off and play around as much, there was more hanging around someone's house and talking, or going to dinner together, things were different. Maybe it was because Ben had a kid, maybe it was because Ron and Vic were married. But the one thing I knew for sure was that our friendship would never be the same that it was six years prior.
But that was okay.
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