A Casual, Casual Easy Thing (Ben Rhodes)

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

Terrence stretched his feet out under the table, occasionally nibbling on the pastry before him. His coffee had long since grown cold, but he hadn't bothered to ask for a refill. Not yet. Not when the other half of his party had yet to show.

He hadn't checked his watch once since sitting down, a testament to the fact he would wait forever (or at least until Kali's closed) for his friend to show. He was off work, he had nowhere to be. There weren't many othery places open at this time of evening, not in Pilot Ridge. A sleepy little town, unless one included the series of accidents that had plagued the staff of the local boarding school. Strange coincidence, but none of his business. Ella, the receptionist, had known nothing about it. It probably wasn't anything exciting.

In the corner a young girl with asymmetrical hair obscuring her face strummed a guitar, rasping out a love song. Love was one of those experiences Terrence hadn't yet had; between fighting against an oppressive government and then striving for education in a difficult field he hadn't found time. It didn't help that all the women he met were either too young or married.

Maybe he should have asked that Ella woman for her number. But then again, did he really want to date a woman who was willing to fight him over pie? Probably not.

A shadow fell across his cup of coffee and he glanced up, smiling when he realized it was his friend.

"Ben!" He stood, one hand on the back of his chair, the other reaching out to grasp the other man's wrist. "So good of you to meet me. How's life been treating you?"

He and Ben were acquaintances, maybe even friends, though not close ones. Ben was someone to go out for a pint with (in moderation, of course; he saw too much liver damage on a daily basis to be interested in pickling his own) or to have a cup of coffee with. They hadn't made it beyond those stages, but then, Terrence had very little time to devote to pursuing friendships.

"I trust your day's been a good one?"

[Benjamin Rhodes]

His day had been uneventful. A few clients here and there and then tea with his house mates. Ben had arranged for a meeting with Terrence, a mutual friend he had gotten to know and was now at the stage where they could have a perfectly inane conversation with each other and not get uncomfortable. It was nice to have those kinds of friends to hang out with. Last week, meeting Cobalt's childhood friend, had been too much for the psychologist to handle so having an evening out to unwind was called for.

Arriving at their meeting point at Kali's Cafe, he ordered a tall glass of their hazelnut coffee blend to send over to where he saw Terrence was sitting. He waved at the man but the hepatologist seemed deep in thought so Ben walked over and greeted the man amicably. "Terrence." He nodded, grabbing the man's hand in a shake before sitting down. "Life's life. Not really much to complain about I suppose." He grinned before sliding his chair further under the table.

"It had, it had. I'm glad you could make it. Though I apologise if I don't seem too chatty today. Still a bit under the weather." Which was a lie. It was a little lie but a lie nonetheless. That had been his excuse to anyone who asked if anything was wrong with him. Ben was usually very good at hiding his emotions but meeting Danny had rattled him a little, seeing how Cobalt could be so happy with other people but when it came to him, it was just...different.

Shaking those thought out of his head, Ben gave Terrence a well-crafted smile. "And what have you been up to today?"

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

Terrence nodded sympathetically. He knew neither Cobalt nor Danny, and as such hadn't the slightest inclination to suspect Ben might be lying. In his limited experience, Ben was quite honest and had no reason to lie about such matters as his health.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He clucked mildly, shaking his head slowly. "This bugs really hanging on, isn't it?" How long had this been? A week? Two? "Are you sure you aren't running yourself into the ground? Perhaps you should look at getting an assistant." If he recalled correctly, Ben's former receptionist had quit when she'd had her baby. He had thought there was mention of another young girl, but he couldn't remember if she'd worked out or not. "Or do you still have, ahhhhh...." He squinted up at the ceiling, trying to recall her name, "Alicia?" He guessed uncertainly. "Is she still working for you?"

He shook his head again at Ben's polite inquiry into his day. "Ah, you know," He shrugged, "Work and more work. I managed to read another chapter of The Brothers Karamazov during lunch. I wish I had more free time, it's quite compelling reading."

A drink was clinked down before him and he glanced up at the waiter in surprise. "Ah, I did not order this..." He glanced over at Ben curiously. "Yours?"

[Benjamin Rhodes]

"Apparently. Two of my friends got it twice." Ben shrugged and shook his head in reassurance. "Oh I am not. And Sayesha is working out perfectly. I don't know if she would want to be with me permanently because she came in looking for a part-time job." And Casey was welcome back at any point of time. Though she did say she wanted better pay, Ben thought in amusement.

"I don't believe I've heard of that book before. I'll look it up." Ben offered the man a strained smile.

When his drink arrived, Ben stood up to take his wallet from his back pocket and smiled at Terrence. "Yeah. I ordered that. Would you like to refill your cup?" Ben asked, taking out a few dollar bills for the waiter who sent it over.

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

"That's not possible." Terrence pointed out automatically. "There must be two different strains of the same thing going around, or else they never properly shook it off the first time." As he didn't know the details, he couldn't say which was more likely. With the way it was lingering with Ben he'd say they'd never quite gotten rid of it.

"Ahh. Sayesha, that was the name." He nodded solemnly. "Glad to hear she's doing well." He offered before returning to the topic of literature. "You haven't?" Terrence squinted at Ben, trying to decide whether that was a joke or not. "Fyodor Dostoyevsky? It was his last novel. It's rather....long. And depressing. But it's very interesting."

He glanced into his mug of coffee, as if only just remembering it was there. "I suppose I could use a warm up." He decided, pushing it in the direction of their waiter. "When you have time, no hurry."

He returned his attention to Ben. "So how's ahhh....his name was also Ben, was it not?"

[Benjamin Rhodes]

"Probably," talk about laying it in thick. He wasn't even sick and he was talking to Terrence as though he was. He was feeling a little guilty about lying to the man. He was prety decent so it didn't feel right, lying to him like this. So he let it slide.

"Thanks, she's pretty well organised for a young woman that age." Once again, Ben felt older than he really was, which was a tad amusing, making him smile a little. The return to literature had Ben shaking his head in slight embarrassment. He hadn't been much of a reader unless it was class material and so far, Dostoyevsky had not been class material so Ben didn't bother much about it. "I'm actually not an avid reader, to be honest."

When the waiter walked off with Terrence's mug, Ben sipped a little from his. It wasn't too sweet, just the way he liked it. The mention of Ben's young companion made the child psychologist take on a slight blush. It was all still weird for Ben. Oberon was a nice guy. He was smart, funny, easy on the eyes...the only glitch was the age gap. Sure Ben didn't quite mind that they had that age gap but he found it weird that he was essentially dating Leila.

"Yeah, Ben." He nodded and took another sip of his coffee. "He's fine. We suddenly got busy recently so we haven't seen much of each other." Ben shrugged with a sheepish grin. "But we call each other on occasion." Wanting to get off the topic of his current love life, Ben cocked his head to the left and grinned at Terrence. "You ought to get out more if you're actually interested in my love life, Terrence."

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

"Is it that unusual?" Terrence had always found he was happier with organization than chaos; life was already chaotic, no need to add stress to it by poor filing habits. "Good for her. She'll do well with such skills."

The admission that Ben didn't read drew a small frown from Terrence. How disappointing; he had yet to meet anyone else as fond of Dostoyevsky as he was, but that didn't stop him from hoping. Reading was an essential tool for success, one he'd struggled to acquire. His schooling in South Africa had taught him to read only in the most basic sense; he'd had to hone his reading comprehension skills in college.

Still, Ben had a busy life -- he worked, he was a stalwart volunteer at some local youth group or other as well as Church, he had a boyfriend. It was probably difficult to work reading into his schedule.

"Get out more," He scoffed at that idea. "I am out now. But if your boyfriend is not interesting to you, we can talk of something else. You were planning a dance for the youth, yes? How is that going?"

[Benjamin Rhodes]

"To me it is." Ben huffed a small laugh, playing with the spoon that came with his coffee. His eyes rose to meet Terrence's when he complimented Ben's new assistant. "She's doing well with it now. I'm glad because while I have the patience to do it myself, I just don't have the time, I guess."

Terrence's frown was understandable. He was sure a man his age should have had the time to read more books than he had but truth be told, he did not read not because he lacked the passion for it but every time he sat down with a book, he would be too consumed in it that he forgot everything else. So really, he had great passion for it. He just didn't want to risk forgetting himself.

"I'm not saying my boyfriend isn't interesting!" Ben gave out a laugh, waving his hand in denial. "I just don't think anyone should be interested in my relationship with him." Ben liked the young man he was with for sure, but he just felt very uncomfortable talking about his love life at all. Ben wasn't a sharer of things that personal.

"Prom. Yes. Dr. Neville and I are in the planning committee and it's doing fine. We're meeting this weekend hopefully to finalise everything. Would you like to join us? We'd appreciate the extra hand."

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

Terrence smirked slightly at Ben's flustered response. Maybe it was a bit mean, teasing him like that, but it was rather amusing, really. "I'm always interested in my friends' lives." He informed the older man loftily. "It is important to you, then it is important to me."

He raised an eyebrow at the offer to help plan a prom. "I did not realize you could have prom outside of school." He commented. He didn't know this Dr. Neville person; he must have been a colleague of Ben's, as he certainly didn't work at Maddock. He mentally ran through his schedule. He could probably help out.

"I would be glad to help." He decided after a moment, pulling his coffee closer -- when had the waiter returned with that? He hadn't even noticed. "Where are you meeting at?" He didn't ask when; he would show up after he got off work and assume that they didn't mind.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben just gave Terrence a smile, equally amused at the teasing even though he knew it was at his expense. "Well, Ben's a great guy. We don't actually have much in common but there's the old saying: opposites attract right?" Ben tilted his head slightly before sipping his coffee.

"Well, seeing that most of the people who will be attending are students and young people, I figured prom would be appropriate and besides, prom is basically just an event where dancing occurs so really, you can have prom anywhere."

"Excellent." Ben gave a relieved smile. After the intervention, as much as he would like to say he was getting over the embarrassment, he wasn't. Maybe having a buffer would make it less awkward. And Sean and Terrence would have a new friend. Win win for everybody.

"Well, the event is the Sunday after this weekend and we're having it at the center itself. Unless you want to drop in the next meeting and throw some ideas around with us? It's at Dr. Neville's house. I can give you the address if you'd like to join us."

[Dr. Terrence Jordan]

"I have heard this," Terrence agreed. "I assume since I am still single that I am not opposite anyone." When he was a child he'd thought that thirtyfive was quite old; anyone who wasn't married by that time was doomed to eternal bachelorhood. But since coming to America he'd realized that this wasn't actually uncommon. Ben was older than he was, and he still hadn't settled down -- and wasn't in any hurry to do so, if his attitude toward his boyfriend was any indication.

"Aaah," He nodded at Ben's explanation, taking a sip of coffee -- now gloriously hot once again. "Then I shall gladly help you with this dance. Give me the directions and I'll meet you and your friend and help out."

He flagged down the waiter for a pen, then poised it over his napkin. "So is it just the two of you holding this?"

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben chuckled lightly at Terrence's response before shaking his head. "Of course not. You just haven't met the right opposite." He shrugged. To say Ben was a closet romantic would be overstating things but he did understand the value of spending a long time with just one person. Ben might be that person for him or maybe he was for someone else, he didn't know but surely he knew it meant something important.

"Oh good, we always welcome an extra hand." Ben nodded before taking Terrence's pen and jotting down the directions. Terrence's question was responded with a nod. "Well, not really." He paused to consider the directions he was jotting down before being satisfied with the end result. "We're organising it but the center is the one that deals with everything else. Sean's been at it longer than I have. He'll fill you in on it." He grinned and slid the napkin over to Terrence.

"So we'll be meeting this weekend. Feel free to join." Ben nodded and leaned back on his chair, sipping his beverage.

And if he had known what could happen the next few weeks, he really wouldn't have asked Terrence to join...

[OOC: SORRY OMG >_< But I hope this was a good wrapper]