If Rory was trying to convince Ben that he wasn’t in love with Eisen, his actions after the musician’s name passed through Ben’s lips completely smashed the chances of that. He watched as Rory froze, then looked at him as if that moment had been his Superman-phone-booth moment. He was guarded now. He still looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights, but it was buried under whatever defenses Rory always seemed to put up.
And then he spoke. Under normal circumstances, it should have convinced Ben. The flat, serious tone in his voice should have done it. But there it was again. That feeling in the very pit of Ben’s stomach that told him when he was being lied to. Rory was lying to him. It wouldn’t be denied. He listened to the rest of what Rory had to say, then nodded his head once. “I can do that, I can let you tell Fiona first. But on two conditions,” he said, his voice steady and just as businesslike as Rory’s. If he wanted things to happen this way, Ben was perfectly capable of playing the game, too. “You have to stop lying to me, and tell me if it actually is Eisen. Because you are lying to me. I can tell,” he said calmly, “And you have to tell her that you’re in love with someone else. Not that it’s Eisen. I won’t make you do that. But that you are. She deserves the truth, Rory. Maybe that will help her move past this easier.”
Really, his ‘conditions’ weren’t hard to meet. Tell the truth and then tell Fiona the truth. “You’re not a liar. At least you try not to be. So stop lying.”