Ben held the phone in his hand staring at it endlessly. He wasn't able to make himself move or speak; his body trembled with fear and sadness. It might really be over for them.
Monica had dropped her cordless but she hadn't ended the call. The line stayed open and Ben could her crying on the other end. Suddenly he realized it was like he had a bug in Miss Young's apartment thirteen hundred miles away. Shortly after she started crying there was knock at Monica's door. "Are you okay neighbor," the voice asked through the door? Ben put his phone back to his ear and listened intently.
"Jane, come in it's open." Monica was trying desperately to get control of herself.
"What's the problem hun?" Jane's voice was gravelly and surprisingly deep for a woman.
"Just got a call from an old boyfriend." Miss Young was still crying.
"Not the boyfriend. The guy from Washington. The one you flew out of town to see."
"One and the same," Monica replied.
"Alright who is this guy? You've mentioned him to me about forty-five thousand times now, but you've never told me anything about him. Who in the world is so special that they can reduce a beautiful woman like you to this?"
"He's the love of my life. Every since we met I, I can't remember a time I didn't love him. Seeing him yesterday brought it all back." From Monica's muffled tone Ben guessed she was crying on Jane's shoulder.
"Then what happened yesterday and today? He's not ready to return your love?" Ben was starting to think Jane was a pretty good counselor.
"I told him to go away and live his own life."
"Why would you tell him that, it's obviously not what you want?" They were moving farther from the cordless. Ben cranked the volume on his phone as high as it would go trying to hear.
"Its not so simple, he, he's younger than me. Jane you wouldn't believe how much we connect, the intimacy we share. But he's just not ready to handle it. So I lied, flat out lied and told him to go on without me." Teacher Miss was slowly gaining control again.
"So you think he wants you, or wants you back, but he's not ready? Do you think he'll ever be ready?"
A long pause came before the answer, "I don't know, my head was so filled with the drama of our past. He's grown since I last saw him, physically at least. I guess I didn't really give him a chance to say how he felt." Monica went into a slight panic, realizing she'd just dropped the smallest hint about Ben's age.
"Look I'm not telling you what to do, but if it were me, I'd want to give him a chance. Men in my experience rarely grow up. However, living with all these intense feelings, you can't keep this up can you? Call him back, or drive up to Washington and see him. Your free until the fall semester starts, right?" Thirteen hundred miles apart Ben and Monica let out simultaneous sighs. Jane hadn't picked up on Monica's slip of the tongue.
"My car would never make it." Monica laughed; it was the first time in a very long time Ben got to hear her laugh.
"So call him," Jane repeated.
"But, but, we've tried to make this work before and we couldn't. Aren't I just setting myself up again?" On the other end of the phone Monica braced herself, not wanting to hear Jane's answer.
"Possibly, but which is worse resolved or unresolved? Anyways you might find that he's grown up and changed some. Like I said, it isn't likely but it's possible." Jane was definitely a good counselor Ben thought.
"And if he hasn't," Monica asked somewhat rhetorically?
"Then at least you'll know you did everything you could. If it still doesn't work then you'll be grieving something that is well and truly gone. Maybe then at least some of this misery would be well spent." Jane extended her arms and hugged Monica before picking up the cordless and handing it to her. "Call him back," she reassured and left the room. Miss Young set the phone down on the bed beside her; she needed to work up some courage. She decided to raid her refrigerator. 'A couple of beers should do the trick.' She returned to her bedroom sometime later to find her cordless phone had a dead battery.
Thousands of miles apart, Ben and Monica were both in the same place at the same time. The trouble was neither one knew it. Ben eventually got a dial tone after Miss Young's phone battery went dead. He threw himself on his bed and began sifting through the conversation he'd just overheard. For the first time in months he smiled a real smile. 'It makes things so easy when you can be in the other team's huddle and hear the play call.'
Monica Young threw herself onto her bed as well. She grabbed a pen and paper, deciding to write down what she wanted to say. Since her cordless was completely dead it would take eight to twelve hours to charge up fully. She concluded she wasn't going to be able to call Ben until tomorrow. 'You call yourself an English Teacher Monica Young, time to prove it. Write the words that will make you and Ben last forever.' Miss Young spent all night sitting up in her bed, tapping her pen against the tablet. She never wrote a single sentence.