Ben frowned. A single question was hardly forcing his involvement, but the truth was that he did feel involved now. He could not have heard that Elliott had been sick without asking for details, and could not have failed to be concerned with what he heard. If he'd had anything useful to offer her he would have, but the only thing that came to mind when he tried to think of allergies was Desdemona can't eat strawberries, and obviously hereditary did not extend to the wives of Ben's friends. Had either of his parents been allergic to anything? They could have been, because it wasn't as though Ben would have known or cared why any particular ingredient was excluded from the household's regular menus, and it wasn't as though he could ask them now.

"Yes," he acknowledged, because he did have a family to consider and it was, in some ways, a breach of their unspoken agreement to be bringing anything like this up in a relatively public place. "But," he said, and hesitated. But he would have wanted to know if anything had been seriously the matter with Elliott; but he would have wanted to do anything he could to help, if there had been anything; but he wasn't sure how much he cared about preserving the illusion that his family life was happy anymore, anyway. None of which he could have said here.

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