Ben frowned faintly. He understood the feeling of wanting someone to confide in, and feeling like there wasn't anyone. He was a relatively popular person, and well connected, but even so there had always been things he didn't think he could talk to Art or Aldous or someone else about. She didn't have family, he thought he recalled, so the problem must have been compounded for her. Ben's siblings may not have seen eye to eye with him on a lot of things, but when he needed them they had always been there for him, no matter what the circumstances. He couldn't imagine trying to weather any of these latest developments without the lot of them.
You can always talk to me, he thought to say, but the truth was they had already reached the bounds of what could be casually mistaken for a quick greeting and exchange of pleasantries in the market. They couldn't talk much longer without making it obvious that they were having a real conversation, which would then beg the question of what the two of them had to talk about, and how they knew each other in the first place.
"Are you done with your shopping?" he asked, with a gesture towards the stall. "I was just passing through." He wasn't sure whether he was suggesting they move the conversation somewhere else or that they part ways.
You can always talk to me, he thought to say, but the truth was they had already reached the bounds of what could be casually mistaken for a quick greeting and exchange of pleasantries in the market. They couldn't talk much longer without making it obvious that they were having a real conversation, which would then beg the question of what the two of them had to talk about, and how they knew each other in the first place.
"Are you done with your shopping?" he asked, with a gesture towards the stall. "I was just passing through." He wasn't sure whether he was suggesting they move the conversation somewhere else or that they part ways.
MJ made this <3