Ben’s outlook on New Years parties wasn’t much different than Charlie’s, which was all together unsurprising if you took into account that it was Ben. Large groups weren’t really his thing, unless, of course, they were large groups of people he felt comfortable around. As it was, he too was contented to just relax like this, ring in the new year with Charlie and BBC TV. Seemed more sensible than spending time around people he didn’t like, or people who would tease him and actually mean it.
It hadn’t escaped Ben’s attention – few things generally did – that there was a bottle of champagne protruding from Charlie’s mini-fridge. Of the many things Ben could say he’d never done, drinking alcohol wasn’t one of them. Curiosity and a companion’s slightly careless parents had seen to that. He hadn’t taken in enough to get drunk, per se, but he could actually say that he’d done something most boys his age had done, for once. That was a start, and a reasonably decent start, as far as Ben could see. Of course, he was relatively certain that most would disagree.
The situation he’d managed to find himself in was rather interesting. Some might consider it funny, but to Ben, it was in the ‘top ten things that make Ben crazy.’ Understanding things, knowing them, that was what Ben did. The fact that he didn’t know what to do, or if he should really do anything, was driving him crazy.
And the fact that Charlie was laying against his thigh like she was wasn’t helping to clear matters up much. Of course, he’d long ago come to realize that the only women who made even a remote amount of sense to him were his mother, Mia and Fiona. Grace would, of course, join them someday.
His thought process, his attempt to rationalize what he was supposed to do, was so intense that he nearly missed Charlie’s question. It snapped him out of his self-induced haze of thoughts and grasped on to her explanation of the question, pondering his answer for a second. “I think sometimes, in cases like that, it’s better if you don’t know, you know?” He raised a single shoulder in a shrug, turning his head a little and looking down at her. “You put more heart into it when you don’t know if you’re going to be the next smash hit; when you think it’s something you’re just doing for you. Musicians are the same way, I believe.”