Spy School: We Meet Again

Chapter 23: Better

An extra long chapter today!!! Hope you like it :P

Ben's POV

I was in the kitchen, cooking some dinner while Erica was by the computer trying to find any new information about SPYDER. I could see how she is furiously typing on the keyboard, probably trying to hack something.

"Erica dinner will be ready in 10 minutes, so start wrapping up on what you are doing." I told her. But she just looked up, gave me a small nod and continued to furiously type.

"Nice talking to you as always." I said that under my breath as quietly as I could, but Erica heard it.

"I heard you, just so you know." I looked at her only to see her eyes looking over the monitor in my direction. "What do you want me to say to you? Thank you for letting me know that dinner will be ready soon chef. Is that what you wanted?"

"Yeah, that actually would be nice." I thought that I finally got her attention, but she just looked at the screen in front of her again and didn't say a word.

Understanding that having a conversation with her would be pointless and impossible right now, I put the food on the plates and brought it to her.

"Here you go." I handed the plate to her.

"We are not eating by the table?" She asked.

"Well it doesn't look like I will be able to get you away from the computer, so I think it is just better this way." I walked to the sofa and turned on the TV, not waiting for her to continue our conversation. Both of us were in completely different places in the room, eating the dinner I just made. It was a new recipe that I decided to try, and I was actually enjoying the meal.

I was going thru the channels on the TV, but could not find anything interesting to watch, so I just quickly finished my serving and went to clean up the kitchen.

The room was quiet except for the sound of running water and the furious typing, so I decided to put on some music on the speaker. When the music started playing, Erica looked up again.

"No, I'm not going to turn it down. It's depressing of how boring and quiet it is in here." I told her, already knowing what she wants to say. Erica just rolled her eyes and resumed her attention to the computer.

Music filled the room and I started cleaning the dishes. When I left spy school, music was one of the things that helped me get thru the sudden change and it has stayed that way ever since. With each year, by listening to the music and later also singing, I was able to discover the brave and bold side of myself. Now singing is like second nature to me and I'm not as shy about it as I was when I was in school. So without even realizing, soon I started humming to the melody and taping my foot to the ground.

"Ben, can you at least stop tapping your foot. I can't concentrate." Erica spoke to me after a few minutes.

"No."

"Ben, please!"

"Ok, ok. But I think that you should do something else. You have been sitting by that computer for 6 hours now."

"You can't tell me what I should or shouldn't do." She raised her eyebrow.

"Well, then I will keep tapping my foot. If you say that I can't tell you anything, then you can't tell anything to me either."

"Why is it so important to you that I need to do something else?"

"Have you seen yourself? You look clearly tired, you are typing fast because you are tired of the lack of new information and you are still not completely back on your feet after the explosion. Do I need to go on?" She looked at me and I could see that she was trying to figure out a good comeback, but was lost. I knew that she knows that I'm right.