The Reality of Life - Ben Fankhauser

12

Sunday January 22nd 2017
"Ben's coming today right?" Corey said as he made the coffee like most mornings.

"Yeah. I assume that's okay with you guys."

"Of course. I think the two of you will be perfect together."

"Meg told me." I said softly. "I'm so glad I can finally be open about it with you. Keeping it a secret was so hard, but I knew I was doing it for a reason. I had to wait until the divorce was settled before telling people."

"You did the right thing. And I'm happy for you. Ben is a great guy, and he's going to make you and Katherine very happy." I nodded as Katherine came downstairs all dressed for the day. A bow in her hand.

"Mommy. Can you do my hair?"

"Sure princess." She came over and I brushed it. "Your hair is getting so long Katherine. It's beautiful." I pulled the front half back into a ponytail and added the bow to it. "There. Now you're all ready." She smiled and sat in her seat. "So the new place is officially going to be ours. It's going to need. A lot of work with regards to furniture and making it suitable to live in so while I get the keys next week I think I'm going to start looking for furniture to add to it and start getting the apartment ready, but still living here for probably just under a month."

"That's great news." Meghan said smiling at us. I got up to make breakfast and then we all sat and ate. At 10:30 right on time the doorbell went. I went to answer it and as expected Ben was waiting on the other side.

"Hi Ben." I smiled. "Come on in." He walked in and pulled me into a kiss. I smiled against his lips and kissed him back for a moment before pulling away. "We just finished breakfast, but come on though and you can meet Katherine." We walked into the living room where Katherine was on the floor with Corey. As usual she was giggling and I smiled widely. "Katherine, do you want to meet Ben. He's a friend of Auntie Meg, Uncle Corey and I."

"Okay." She said softly walking over to me. "Hello, I'm Katherine."

"Hi Katherine, it nice to finally meet you little one. I've heard so much about you from your mommy. I heard that you like to pull silly faces with your Uncle Corey and laugh."

"Yeah. Uncle Corey is the best! He's so funny." She giggled. "I also like learning with Auntie Meghan. She's a really good teacher and she makes it FUN!"

"Aww you're the sweetest Kath." Meg said from beside us, rubbing her belly.

"Auntie Meg is going to have a little baby boy soon. And I can't wait. Also Uncle Corey's been playing the piano with me a lot, and he said one day he will teach me so I can be as good as him."

"Did he now?" I said kissing her cheek.

"Yeah. I wanna be like him when I grow up. I want to sing and dance."

"So just like me too." Ben smiled. "I also sing and dance, I actually did a lot of shows with your Uncle Corey when I was a teenager. And then I got to be on Broadway with him. Your uncle Corey is one of my best friends."

"He's one of my bests friends too." Katherine smiled. "Him, Auntie Meghan, and mommy are my best friends."

"Well once you start preschool you'll meet lots of new people, and make loads of friends your own age." I smiled and Katherine went to play on the floor with Corey and Ben joined them.

"She seems to like Ben, getting on well with him. And he seems to really like her as well."

"Yeah. I can really see him being a father figure to her. I mean Corey is a father figure to her too but he's her uncle, and always will be. Where as if things work well with Ben, he could one day become her stepfather."