Stalemate // The Queens Gambit //Benny Watts x OC

Nineteen: Fate Has a Cruel Way of Playing With Hope

    I wake up late the next day, still on the couch. I'm surprisingly comfortable for being upright on the couch, but once I open my eyes I realize it's probably because my head was resting on Benny's shoulder.

I quickly sit up and because Benny had been resting his head on mine, he jolts awake. "Hey," he groggily rubs his eyes and stretches. "Morning."

I stand and look at the clock.

Shit. It's already 12.

"Good afternoon mor like. It's twelve I have to go in less than an hour." I start to rush around the apartment, panicking. Benny stands and grabs my arms, forcing me to stop and look at him.

"Calm down, okay? What do you need to do before you go?" His voice was low and soothing. I take a minute to think of everything.

"I have to get ready which will take at least fifteen minutes, then I wanted to go over everything for the funeral and plan out what I was going to say and how I was going to present everything to him, then I was going to walk you back home, but I only have time to get ready and walk there. I am such a fucking mess." I hold my hand to my forehead, forcing my mind to stop racing.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. You go get ready, I'll go over everything for the funeral, I remember everything you said last night. Then we'll plan what you're gonna say together over a quick breakfast, and get a taxi to the diner." His voice stays even and calm the whole time, calming me down a bit.

"But..who's gonna make breakfast?"

"I will. I can do it while I review everything, easy."

"What about walking you home?"

"I'm a big boy, Adelaide, I've been walking myself home since middle school."

I pause for a minute and nod, going to my room. I change into a dark blue knee-length skirt and dark purple subtly frilled blouse. I then rush to the bathroom, doing simple makeup and quickly brushing my hair, the curls from yesterday now barely waves. When I come out, Benny has two small berry covered pancakes and some juice on the table. He sits with the binder in front of him, snacking on a strawberry from his plate. I sit next to him and start eating. I glance at the clock nervously. 12:34. I take a bite of pancake and tilt my head to see what Benny's working on and see that it's the picture I chose to display. She looked so beautiful in it, and happy, too. After another minute he slides the binder between us and takes a bite of pancake.

"So I figured I'd first talk about which funeral home I've chosen, then the casket I picked out, then I'm not sure.."

Benny takes a drink of apple juice and thinks for a second. "Well, then I would just go straight into the rest of the details, then how you'd like the funeral to play out, music, where the wake will be held, all that. Then just.. get to know him."

I nod and look through the binder a bit. After we're done eating we set the dishes in the sink and leave quickly. Once we're on the sidewalk, Benny calls us a taxi and we get inside, telling the driver where to take us. I fidget nervously the whole time, I must have adjusted my top a hundred times.

When we got to the diner it was already 1:06 and I was nervous he had been waiting long. Benny offered but I insisted on paying the driver and when he left, I knew it was time to go inside.

"I'm so nervous," I whisper. Benny glances at me and smirks.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. It's not a business meeting, your just talking to someone who also cares about your mother and wants to make sure she gets the celebration she deserved." I look up at him, his words were comforting but I still wanted to do anything else but walk into that door and face this. I guess I'm not as okay with this as I thought. He sensed my apprehension and placed his hands on my shoulders, squeezing softly. "You can do this, Adelaide. And you look great, so stop fidgeting." This gave me a greater surge of confidence and I smiled, then furrowed my brow slightly.