Free After Ben by Con Riley Page B

contribute to the conversation.
    Theo guessed they would never get along.
    He was correct.
    There had been so much more than an age gap dividing Ben and his mom.
    He thought back to that time when his back went out again in the office. Maggie drove him home from urgent care, then helped him into his apartment. She suggested calling his parents, but Theo declined. He knew he was going to have a miserable few days, and there was no point adding his parents into the mix, especially as they’d parted on relatively good terms after his recent visit. All it would take, Theo knew, was his mother moving something of Ben’s for him to lose his shit.
    Pain, and fifteen years of sadness at the way she couldn’t see the good in his partner, would make him lose his temper far too easily. So Theo declined, then let Maggie support him as he made his way into his bedroom, where he sat on the bed and tried, unsuccessfully, to take off his shoes.
    “This wasn’t in my job description, you know.” Maggie knelt between his legs, tugging at his laces. “I’m sure I would have remembered.” She smiled up at him, then said, “You know this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, right?” Theo tried really hard to smile, but the pain wouldn’t let him.
    Maggie helped him to the bathroom, then left him while she got his prescription filled. When she returned, letting herself in with the spare key, she fixed him up for the night.
    “You’ll call if you need me, won’t you?” He agreed that he would. “Okay, I’ll be back in the morning. I’ll bring Mike.” Her husband was a huge man, who’d be more useful, Theo guessed, if he needed help getting up. He did his best to smile as the drugs slowly began to relax his tortured muscles.
    “Do that, Maggie,” Theo agreed. “I could do with someone pretty to distract me.” She laughed, then left when her husband arrived to take her home. Theo could hear her kids running up and down the hallway, asking where Uncle Theo was. Maggie hushed them.
    Sleep came slowly.
     
     
    T HE following two days passed in a blur of pain medication, Maggie bringing him food that he couldn’t face, and her husband’s easy humor as he helped Theo between the bathroom and the bed.
    He could barely walk, but appreciated the support. On the third day, he started looking through the intern paperwork—anything to escape the boredom of staring at the ceiling. The applications were quite diverse. Many different college courses had a work-experience requirement these days so they were always swamped with hopeful students looking for intern placements. As the morning passed he made two piles, then started making a short list. Theo thought longingly of his laptop, perched on his office desk, then picked up the phone and started making calls.
    After leaving several messages, he got his first callback just after lunchtime.
    Theo asked the standard questions—why would they like to intern for the company, what skills would they bring—only to be met with ridiculous answers. He passed on those applicants, thinking that maybe he didn’t have the patience for this today. Reminding himself that for many undergraduates, internships were their first experience of the adult work environment, he lowered his expectations. The young woman he spoke to next sounded pleased and hopeful. She was sure she could be helpful around the office, just as long as no one minded if she asked a lot of questions. Theo thought she would do just fine.
    He made and received calls well into the evening, grateful when Maggie took the phone away for a while. When he asked for his laptop, she narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you want to go on the net, Theo? You don’t want to put your back out even more.” She gave him a knowing look.
    “Contrary to your filthy mind, there is more to the Internet than porn,” Theo replied, affecting disgust, then winking at her. Cruising gay porn sites was something he and Ben used to do together. He hadn’t had