Page 87 of A Stealthy Situation

“Not sure. What’s the time?”

“My phone’s died.” Considering he only got it back from being fixed a few days ago, I’m not surprised he forgot.

“Clock’s over there.” I point toward the far wall behind me.

Benny doesn’t answer, and after a couple of moments, I glance up to find him staring toward where I pointed. He looks confused, but when I follow his gaze, the clock is right where I thought it was.

“You okay?”

He snaps out of whatever that was and grins. “Be better if we were back at your place already.”

As much as that distracts me, I also can’t shake that something … isn’t right. “What time is it?”

Benny points at the clock. “Right over there, remember?”

My gaze swings from him and over to the clock again. Is he … No. There’s no way Benny doesn’t know how to tell the time. I’m torn between pushing him to read it out for me and letting it go, but it all comes down to the fact that I don’t want to make him uncomfortable.

“Silly me,” I say, trying to shake the feeling. But the clock reminds me of the baking soda spray and the measurements for our dinner. I know Benny said he struggles with math because he’s never had to do it, but that much? Time is something you learn in, like, second grade, right?

Benny’s behind, but he’s not that behind. I can’t imagine there were a lot of opportunities to switch classes in primary school.

Most likely scenario is that he zoned out.

“Past seven,” I mutter, and Benny nods like he knew that all along. I can’t shake the feeling that I don’t believe it though. “We got here around two.”

“Cool.”

“Then we’ve been here …” I don’t know why I do it. Trail off like that. Like I can’t do a simple subtraction, but I wait for Benny to fill in the blanks.

He doesn’t.

Just gazes at me like he’s waiting.

I swallow, feeling like I’ve taken a wrong step somewhere. “Five hours. We’ve been here five hours.”

“Oh, shit.”

The genuine surprise in his tone doesn’t help things.

“I had no idea it had been that long.” He jumps off where he’s sitting on the table. “I’ve gotta study for this stupid test tomorrow.”

“The one in statistics?”

“Yep.” He doesn’t sound like he’s dreading it, so that’s promising.

“Want some help?”

“Nah, you have your own stuff to do. Em will be home, so he’ll help me go over it all.”

I hate that I took up all of his time though. “Fuck, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have been here helping me when you have your own stuff going on.”

“Yeah, no.” He steps closer, wrapping one of his hands around mine. “I like helping you.”

“That sounds like a lie.”

“Normally it would be, but if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t know about the vagina plant.”

I beg for patience. “For the last time, it’s called a Hydnora.”

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