20
Ben
The rest of the day turned out to be more fun than Ben had imagined it would be. After Louise came and found Karrigan, things really got started. Hearing that Ben didn’t know how to fish, Sam and Richmond forced him to learn, and by the afternoon, he had caught the biggest striped bass between the three of them. Matías grilled them up for lunch, and after, Sam made good on his promise to take Ben jet skiing, though Ben had protested at first that it was horrible for the environment.
By the time they pulled back up to the dock, the sun had started to set and they were all pleasantly tired and mildly sunburned. The only regret Ben had about the day was that he hadn’t had a moment alone with Sam to continue their conversation. That was okay. He had every intention of asking about it tonight, after everyone else had gone to bed.
They walked inside, Ben holding a sleeping Karrigan. He was really starting to get attached to her. Once they were in, he handed her off to Louise, who excused herself along with Richmond and their older daughter, Trinity. Harper took her own kids, and Hattie quickly bid them goodnight, leaving only Ben, Sam, and Sam’s immediate family.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not really that ready for bed,” Bradley said. “What do you say we break out the board games?”
Sam shrugged. “I’m up for it. Ben?”
Ben nodded. He had always liked playing board games when he was younger, but the ones he played weren’t exactly normal. Where most people played classics like Life and Monopoly, Ben was playing nerdy board games Eldritch Horror, Small World, and more than one table top game that involved twenty-sided dice.
“Yeah, might as well,” he said. “It could be fun.”
Ambra and Matías agreed.
“Okay. Let’s get changed and meet back here in fifteen?” Bradley said.
They all nodded, and fifteen minutes later, they were gathered in the living room. Ben took his spot on the love seat beside Sam, their legs brushing together.
“I’m going to go grab some drinks,” Rosalind said. “Who wants one?”
They all placed their orders while Bradley dug through the games. He walked back over to the group holding a black box with bright pink lips on it.
“Really, Dad?” Ambra crossed her arms. “Read My Lips?”
“What? It’s fun!”
“It’s from the nineties,” she said.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. We still play Monopoly and it’s been around longer.”
Ambra huffed, but with no retort, Bradley won by default. While he started setting the game up, Ben looked over to Sam.
“I don’t actually know how to play,” he said, keeping his voice low. The last thing he wanted to do was complicate things.
“It’s really not that hard. You split up into teams. You’ll be my partner, and Ambra will be with Matías, and Mom and Dad will be a team. You spin the spinner and move the number of spaces on the board. The color of the space you land on is the color of card you get. And then you’ll try to guess what the card says by reading my lips.”
Well this certainly held the potential for disaster. A game where he had to stare intently at Sam’s lips? What could go wrong?
Rosalind returned with a tray full of drinks, and a few minutes later, they were ready to play. Bradley and Rosalind went first. Ben had a suspicion that Bradley had overheard him asking how to play, so he was letting Ben see how it was done.
Once he read the card, Bradley flipped over the hour glass and mouthed the word.
“Um…limp shit?”
Ben laughed, then caught himself, but he wasn’t the only one. Bradley soon composed himself and tried again.
“Lamb shed?”
Bradley shook his head frantically.
“L…la…oh! Lamp shade!”
“Yes!”
That seemed easy enough. Bradley put the card in the discard pile and marked it off on his score card.
“So how do we know when a team wins?” he asked.
“The first team to get all six categories wins,” Sam explained. “That’s why there’s no end on the board.”
That made sense. It was their turn, so Ben spun the dial. It landed on the number two, under Lightning Lips.
“What does this mean?” he asked.
“It means I have to try and guess as many of the phrases on the card as I can in forty seconds. But one of those has to be a pink one, since we landed on pink.”
No pressure then. He looked down at the card in front of him. Will Smith. London. Titanic. Radio. Livin’ on a Prayer. Hot Potato. They were fucked.
“Go!”
Ben started with the easiest one, Will Smith, and Sam guessed it on the first try. He had to get London in there, since it was the pink phrase, so he went with that next. The timer ticked slowly down, but Sam couldn’t figure it out. Ben gritted his teeth and tried again. Lon-don.
“Oh! London!”
Finally. He let out a deep breath and nodded as the last few grains passed through the hour glass. “Okay, so we got the green one and the pink one.”
He marked those on their score cards. This was actually kind of fun. Maybe it wouldn’t turn out to be so bad after all.