[Report This]Date: June 06 2025 2:40 AM Title: Chapter 25 - Tomorrow Comes
It’s hands down incredible how you are managing to be so romantic and down to earth at the same time, in the same chapter even, showing through sheer dialogue the changes, the angst, the fact that there is no easy way out/answer in a real love triangle. What a amazing mother and amazing sister Ben has, all money pales in comparison to this.
I could say Morgan is my favorite after the perfection her interaction with tiny Ben was, with hand-held scenes so full of intention and (dare I say?) lust from Morgan’s end. You were able to surprise me, defusing a situation I thought would spell disaster for their long lasting frienship and budding love in a organic, believable way exactly because of said long friendship and budding love. I could. But I still want Ben and Angie to be together. So so much that I wanted him to come and help her against Sabrina with some clever retort. For him to show Angie how much he truly appreciates her but also how much she also doesn’t know about him. For them to find in each other something that is more important than being right.
And that’s why…... Maggie the sage? Totally missed the point. The problem is not if Mr. Carter is obsessed with ms. Phillips (he clearly is), but if ms. Phillips is EVEN MORE OBSESSED in regards to Mr. Carter kkkkkkkkkkkkkk. And a lot of teasing from our local sage… Yes, I don’t think anyone believes Angie would squish Ben on porpuse, but accidents happen and more so when we are angry or having to much fun – and the worst is not she storming off: It’s she storming off with him.
As always, thanks for writing and sharing. 10 out of 10 story and characters!
Author's Response:
I'm also very fond of Morgan! There might have been points while working on this that she was my favorite of the girls, and it probably shows somewhere when I felt that way.
But then again, I have a weak spot for childhood friend characters in general, and I really wanted a character in the story that was similar to Alice. :)
[Report This]Date: June 06 2025 1:36 AM Title: Chapter 25 - Tomorrow Comes
It's almost here! The moment of truth for dear Ben! Damn, I'm actually nervous for the guy. But this last chapter before the big moment was pretty interesting in its own right.
Dustin maybe had the most straightforward advice Ben has received throughout this whole story. Ben really should just tell her what happened and why he didn't tell her about it sooner. Just be straightforward and tell the truth. The rest will take care of itself. If he tries to steer Angie's emotions or focus on justifying how things played out, he's going to get into trouble. Enough people have told him that in one way or another that I really hope he takes that advice.
Also, yeah, Dustin is right that knee-jerk reactions don't really reflect people's true feelings, at least not all the time. Angie might need time to process everything, and her emotional response before she gets the chance to might not be the best. Ben needs to be ready for that.
Of course, that's assuming Angie doesn't already know!
I really can't decide if Angie knows or if you're throwing out red herrings to make us think she knows just to fuck with us (which I would respect, honestly!). That conversation between Morgan and Angie seemed suspicious when Ben biked past them, but with Morgan informing Ben that Angie was asking questions about him and his job, not to mention that she was apparently quite interested in those answers, makes me lean even further toward her already knowing or at least being close to figuring it out. But maybe she's just trying to figure Ben out after he stopped a lot of his rivalry-type behavior around her. But even that, Ben being nicer to her right after the mysterious tiny technician advised her to do the same, might have aroused her suspicion.
I have no idea what to expect at the session, but you've done a great job of keeping me guessing!
It was also nice to see Ben's mom weigh in a bit here. Maria had an air of maturity about her (I mean, it's his mom, man), not pushing any advice but being very observant and just encouraging him to be honest. She's right that any relationship that can't survive honesty isn't real anyway. Who wants to spend all their time pretending to be somebody they're not, let alone be with somebody who spends all their time pretending to be somebody they're not!
Oh, and back to Dustin, I had a feeling there was something going on between Savannah and him. It sucks that he doesn't have the confidence to see what's probably pretty obvious if even Ben can see it! I hope Ben can help him out with that and get him to a point where he can have his own high school drama! Ben can't have all the fun, after all!
Man, this was a nice little chapter, just doing the final setup before Angie's big second session. I too really enjoy these conversations between the shrinking events. They're a lot of fun, and they tell us a lot about each character outside of those fun size-y moments!
But yeah, I'm ready to see tiny Ben in front of Angie again!
Author's Response:
I enjoyed taking some time to give Dustin and Maria their own moments! When I was working on the story, I realized at that point that I hadn't really done much with those two in particular yet since I was very focused on everyone else.
It seemed like the right time to get that done before really moving on with the story. And the Dustin subplot is also the reason why Savannah isn't really a salon option for Ben, to be honest. In earlier drafts she was actually going to be part of the fun eventually, but I wanted it to be more realistic and have at least one girl interested in someone else. So now you know, those two have their own little thing going on while Ben gets to have the love triangle, that seems pretty fair. :)
I really enjoy doing these conversations between Ben and everyone too. I actually had to restrain myself at the time to not do even more than this, but I knew that I couldn't stall out the appointment forever either!