36 – Soul Searching

"Ben."

"What?"

Kurt cuffed him in the shoulder. "Is it cool with us?"

Surprised that he cared enough to ask, Ben said, "Sure, whatever."

"Good, 'cause I've got a girl for you to meet."

Ben shook his head as he and Kurt trailed behind Jason and Eric, walking toward the movie theater. "Not now, man."

"You still pining for Felicity?"

Ben glared at him, readying himself for another battle with Kurt over his dating decisions.

Kurt grinned and held up his hands. "Easy, pal, I'm just trying to get you to think about your other options."

"Options. Options you decide will work for me," Ben spat.

Kurt laughed. "Come on. She's cool. You'll like her."

Ben looked around the table. Jason shrugged. Eric nodded, smiling.

Defeated, Ben gave a long sigh. "All right, whatever. Who is she?"

"Jeez, don't make it sound like a death sentence." Kurt waved to the left, where two young women sat at a table in the food court sipping slushies. He beckoned them closer.

The women stood up and came toward them. They were leggy, blond, curvy…and identical. Ben looked askance at Kurt.

With a self-satisfied smile, Kurt put his arm around the waist of one of the girls. "Ben Covington, meet Robin and Jennifer Emerson." He gave the girl beside him a playful squeeze. "Uh, this one's Jennifer."

Ben held out his hand to shake each of theirs. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

"Robin's into swimming, by the way. You being a fan of it, yourself, I thought you'd have a couple things to talk about. See you in the movie." Kurt and Jennifer sauntered away arm in arm.

Robin gave a nervous laugh. "Uh…sorry. I mean…this wasn't my idea. I'm not usually…" She trailed off and pushed a lock of her long blond hair behind one ear.

The gesture reminded him forcibly of Felicity, and he couldn't help but smile. "Don't sweat it."

She looked up at him through long eyelashes and gave a shrug. "So, do you want to go see this movie, anyway?"

- - - - -

Robin was decent company. They laughed at the same things in the movie, and compared notes on the best and worst movie junk food. Afterward, Ben offered to drive her home. On the way, they talked over the movie, and what they liked and hated about swimming. Ben found he had a lot in common with her.

He put the car into park in her driveway while she gathered up her purse. She looked up at him again. "I, um… I just want to say thanks for the movie, and all. It was really nice of you to drive me home, too."

"No problem." He grinned. "I think it was one of Kurt's better ideas. I had a good time."

Robin dimpled, a quick flash of a smile that piqued Ben's interest. He was struck by how pretty she was. "Me, too." She tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear again. "If you ever want to be on the awkward end of a double date again, you're welcome to call me." She hesitated, seemed to think something over, then leaned across the seat and kissed him.

Ben kissed her back, passively at first, but when she slid toward him across the seat, he took her face in his hands and kissed her more thoroughly. The feeling of a woman's soft hair and soft skin under his hands swept any other thoughts out of his head.

For a while, anyway. Robin sat back with a look of embarrassment. "I—I'm sorry. I'm just…" She shook her head apologetically. "I'm not exactly in the dating arena."

"What, you've got a boyfriend, or something?"

She sighed. "Well…sort of. Not really. No, I don't."

Her answer surprised Ben into laughing. "What do you mean?"

"There's this guy I like back at college, but I don't think… I'm not sure it's ever going to go anywhere."

"Why not?"

She shrugged. "He has no idea I like him. And I don't think he'll ever know."

Ben couldn't help a confused smile. "Why don't you tell him?"

"We never talk. I was in, like, one of his classes this year. He's in computer programming, and I'm taking cosmetology. I don't think it would ever occur to him to try and talk to me, but he's really sweet."

Opposites attract, he thought suddenly. Ben pursed his lips in contemplation. "You should tell him."

"You think so?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah, tell him. If he never knows you like him, you'll never get together."

Robin burst into a bright smile and kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Ben. I'm going to go find his number right now."

When she got out of the car, Ben waved goodbye and backed out of the driveway. Rather than go home after that, he went to the beach to do some running. He'd stashed a spare pair of shorts and a T-shirt in the trunk of his mother's car for that reason, and he decided they'd come in handy that evening. Running always cleared his head.

Although it was late night, the beach was dotted here and there with the bonfires of early-summer partygoers. Ben ignored them all and went down to the water where the sand was firmest. Once there, he let the fluid motion of running overtake him. The sound of music and conversation from people around the bonfires faded out, and there was only the sound of the water and his even breathing.

He'd run about a half mile when a female voice called out from close at hand. "Well, if it isn't Joe Cool."

Ben slowed, and then stopped. A few yards away, three girls stood beside a bonfire with a round of sodas. Ben recognized the closest one as the same girl that had given Kurt the evil eye the first day he'd been home. Felicity's friend. Ben braced his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

The brunette stormed down the beach and planted her hands on her hips. "I've been looking to give you a piece of my mind, Mr. Popular. The big news is, we're not in high school anymore. Now, I don't have any problems telling you exactly what I think of guys like you. You hurt her, you big jerk."

Taken by surprise at the girl's outburst, Ben drew up to his full height. "Look, this isn't any of your business."

"It's exactly my business," the brunette snarled in a tone that reminded Ben of Elena back at UNY. "People who care about each other do that. Stick around when it's not so pretty."

Ben opened his mouth to say something back, but shut it when he saw Felicity coming down the beach with a cooler in hand. She set the cooler down in the sand beside the two other girls and kept coming.

Shelly looked over her shoulder. Seeing that Felicity intended to join them, she arched back around. "If you say one thing to set her off, I'll put vital parts of you in that bonfire." With that, the brunette stalked back to the other girls.

Felicity came to a stop before him, silhouetted in the firelight. She was wearing a low-cut bathing suit and a pair of denim shorts. Ben felt his mouth go dry as he remembered the nights at the cabin.

She cleared her throat. "What are you doing here?"

He realized he should say something. "Some running. You?"

"Just hanging out."

"Yeah." He shuffled a sneakered foot in the sand. "So I found a job. This thing in Mexico. It should pretty much pay off most of what I need this summer, and I'll still have enough for fall. I leave in a little over a week."

"That's good."

Ben tried not to flinch, wondering if she meant it was good that he'd found a job, or that he was leaving. Well, he deserved that.

"I should go," she said, rubbing her arms as if she were cold. She turned to leave.

"Felicity."

She paused, looking back over her shoulder with a question in her eyes.

Ben opened his mouth, but whatever he meant to say stuck in his throat. "Never mind," he said instead, and watched her walk away again.