How May I Help You - 10 and 11
Rita had a healthy concern for DMs. Even in the workplace, the people who wanted to DM you often wanted to do or talk about things they wouldn't do on main and so any time that indicator lit up on the work chat she cringed a little.
But she didn't have Ben's number and she wanted to hang out with him, virtually, but off work. If he wanted, obviously.
Oh wait, technically Rita did have his number, because she had covered for him one day when he had a dentist appointment, but that also seemed like leveling up inappropriately so the DM seemed the least awful.
Rita: Hey, Ben. If you're up for some sort of virtual coffee chat, sometime let me know. No worries if not.
Hitting send felt like the message was being pulled letter by letter from her stomach.
She immediately closed the chat window so she didn't have to look.
The chat chimed and she wished she could disable the alerts. But she opened it back up. But it was the main chat.
Eden: The puppy ate something it wasn't supposed to so I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.
Ben: I slept like a toddler.
Eden: Isn't the phrase slept like a baby. And don't think I didn't notice you bragging.
Ben: Babies wake up every few hours. Toddlers crash. Toddler sleep is sleep goals.
Eden: This is very wise. You seem to have a lot of experience with tiny people and their sleep habits. Do you have a secret baby?
Ben: If I do it's still secret. But I have a lot of cousins.
Eden: Ah! Your kid insight is revealed. I’m texting this to my sister. Yep, she says you are wise.
Ben: Thanks, Eden’s sister.
Eden: About this one thing, you are wise.
Rita: He knows a lot about fictional starfighters too.
Eden: Rita...why would you bring that up now?
Rita smiled. Sometimes it was kind of fun watching Ben rant about the ships.
***
"Rita is such a pretty name," the caller said
"Thanks," Rita said. "Okay well, what can I help you with today?"
"So, I have sort of a weird scenario," the caller said. "My spouse has disappeared. The police have looked into it. Reporters have looked into it. Private investigators have looked into it."
"Oh gosh," Rita said trying to maintain a neutral tone. The caller didn't sound very broken up, but Rita knew sometimes people were putting on a front and too much or too little sympathy was the thing that cracked them.
"Yeah," the caller said with many mixed emotions packed into that word. "So here's the thing, if she's gone, then I really don't need to be paying for health insurance for her, but also, if it turns out she's like injured somewhere, and some lost hiker finally discovers her, I don't want to have to worry about if her health insurance was set up. So basically, I guess I need to leave her on there until we know for sure."
Rita thought quickly, but yeah, like disappeared wasn't technically covered as a life event, and so, found wasn't either, so if it wasn't going to kill his pocketbook, paying for spousal coverage just in case probably was smart. If the spouse was defaulted dead, or he could remover her for open enrollment. But well, Rita tried to think if there was a gentle but professional way to say that.
"If you don't mind my asking," Rita said, "how long ago did she disappear?"
"It's been six weeks," the caller said and Rita was pretty sure she could hear exhaustion of the bone deep kind that time.
"Oh wow," Rita said. Though given he mentioned the police, PI, and news, well, it would probably have to be at least that long.
"Yeah," the caller said. "Okay, I'll just keep her on there. I'm hoping she won't need health coverage wherever she is, but..." He trailed off as if completing the thought was too horrible.
"Thanks for your help," and the line disconnected.
Rita hadn't really helped and was really unsure how to document this, but added the note.
And then because she was nosy, she googled the name listed on his file. Oh wow. He wasn't kidding when he said reporters, there were a ton of stories.
And now that she read some of them she vaguely remembered hearing something about it. Sometimes it got too easy to be like, oh, another disappeared lady, have we looked at the husband.
But maybe this guy really didn't know where his spouse was. Of course, Rita had talked to him for like two minutes. Maybe he didn't deserve to know where his spouse was.
This was why Rita liked books. Better closure.
Note: If you missed the prior installments, you can start at the beginning here.