“Well, even though I was born in DC, my dad worked for the government and we traveled quite a bit when I was growing up. My mom is English; we lived in both London and Madrid and spent a little bit of time in France, too. I picked up Spanish pretty easily and can get by in French as well.”
“I’ve lived in Massachusetts my whole life. My mom was from Canada, so we did visit relatives there when I was growing up. When Alan and I started seeing each other, we both decided we wanted to travel more, so we took a lot of trips around the US. Once we discovered cruising, we sailed in the Caribbean then expanded our travels to Europe. We did a few land-based trips overseas, but we learned early on that we liked cruising a lot.” Rob rubbed a hand over his chest absentmindedly. The ache he felt every time he spoke of Alan was still present but somehow, sitting there with Ben, the pain wasn’t quite as sharp as usual.
Antonio delivered more plates of food to them and they continued to chat about all sorts of things. Rob told Ben that he and Alan had been together for twenty years and married for ten of those years. And Rob learned that Ben had been married many years ago but was now divorced and had a twenty-seven-year-old son named Kyle.
“Are you and Kyle close?” Rob asked.
“I think we are. We talk pretty regularly, usually twice a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on our schedules. He lives in the DC area, but he has been out to LA to visit and he and I have been on vacation together at the house in England. I think he turned out pretty well.”
Rob was curious to know more. “What does he do?”
“He works in finance. He was always interested in math and numbers—God knows he didn’t get that from me—and he landed a job at a fairly-large bank when he finished college. He’s planning on going on for his masters, but the bank will help him continue his education.”
“That’s great! Alan was a finance guy, too. He worked for a financial planning firm for a number of years. I, on the other hand, can barely manage to balance my checkbook.”
“What do you do, Rob?” he asked.
“I’m a graphic designer. I was working for a major toy and game company that’s based in Rhode Island. I was doing mostly package design for them, but now I’m actually retired.”
“Retired?” Ben said, surprised. “You don’t look old enough to be retired.”
“Technically, I’m not. I turned fifty-eight in July, but about five years ago, Alan and I hit the lottery—literally. We won a jackpot in a multi-state lottery. After taxes, we still ended up with several million dollars.”
“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who hit the lottery for a major prize like that. It must have been a crazy time for you when it happened.”
“Yeah, it was mind-boggling and quite overwhelming. The weird thing is, we weren’t even regular players. Every once in a while, one of us—frankly it was usually me— would buy a ticket, typically when the jackpot was getting quite large. That particular week, we were dining out at a local favorite restaurant and I noticed that the jackpot was huge, so I impulsively bought five quick-pick tickets.”
Rob stopped for a moment, shaking his head, “I still can’t believe we won. It was Sunday morning and Alan had to remind me to check my ticket. I opened the lottery app on my phone and I couldn’t stop shaking when I realized we had the winning numbers.”
“That’s amazing!” Ben declared. “What did you do next?”
“After triple-checking that we did, in fact, have the winning numbers, we signed the back of the ticket and put it in our safe so that nothing would happen to it. We talked about some things we wanted to do, like give some of the money to charity and also help out some family and friends. Alan did some research about how much we should donate, how we could best invest some of the money, and we talked to our lawyer about it so that everything was handled correctly. We also waited to see if there were any other winners. I wanted to go to the lottery office right away, but Alan explained waiting would give us time to make some decisions plus we’d know exactly how much we’d won. It took about a month before we had worked out all the details of what we wanted to do. At that point, we knew there were no other jackpot winners, so we went to the lottery office and turned in our ticket.”
“Did you both retire right away?”
“Yeah, we did. We figured we were young enough to enjoy ourselves and travel like we wanted. With Alan’s knowledge of the financial world, he was able to make some wise investments so we wouldn’t have to worry about money ever again. We did donate to the local food bank and to the Trevor Project, and as I mentioned, we did help out a few people in our lives who had been struggling a bit. Even though I officially retired, I still dabble in design a bit. I have some friends who have small businesses, so I’ve helped them with packaging, logos, menu designs, and all sorts of other things. I really enjoy design, so I want to keep doing what I can. Plus, I think I’d go stir-crazy if I didn’t have something to do most days. But I make sure my schedule is flexible enough that I can travel when I want.”
He paused briefly, then added, “Even if I haven’t been doing a lot of that lately. It’s just been so difficult for me to even think about traveling alone. I’m not convinced that I’m cut out for it. But I promised Sam that I’d try, so here I am.”
Ben beamed at him and nodded approvingly. “What you’ve been able to do because of winning the lottery is fantastic. It’s good that you have things to keep you busy and hopefully now that you’ve started traveling again, as difficult as that might seem now, you’ll do more; I’m sure of it since you seem to enjoy it so much.”
Rob smiled. “Yes, I do love visiting new places. This trip really is a test—can I travel on my own and have a good time? Am I willing to put myself out there and meet new people and experience new things? Sure, I built in a little cushion by having Sam join me in a week so that if I don’t fare so well, she’ll be there to catch me and convince me I’m not broken. But so far, it’s been a lot better than I had hoped.”
Ben grinned again. “I’m glad things are going well for you so far; I hope that continues. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re broken. You’re dealing with some new challenges, but you seem to be coping well.”
“Thanks for saying that, Ben. I know we just met, but you’re very easy to talk to and you’ve helped keep my mind on other things. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. And just so you understand, it goes both ways. As much as I was looking forward to having some quiet time to relax, I didn’t want to isolate myself completely. I’m glad we’re able to spend some time together.”
They continued to chat about various topics, but all too soon their plates of food and bottle of wine were empty. Rob tried to object when Ben insisted on paying for the meal, but he was quickly silenced, “I invited you to join me, so that’s that,” Ben said with a cheeky grin.
Once again, the wheels in Rob’s brain started turning. Was this a date? It partly felt like one, but on the other hand, nothing Ben did or said seemed at all like he was trying to flirt. It was all so confusing to Rob. He felt like a fish out of water, since he’d been out of the dating pool for so long. He decided he wasn’t going to dwell on it anymore as they got up and headed back toward the hotel.
“Do you have anything special planned for tomorrow, Rob?”
“Not really. I’ll probably just wander the neighborhood again and maybe do a bit of window-shopping. What are you doing?”
Sidestepping a couple walking in the opposite direction, Ben said, “I’ve actually booked an appointment at a spa for a good part of the day. It’s a place I’ve been to before. They have a series of mineral pools you can soak in plus massages, facials, sauna. It’s a really great place and they have a special package for a full treatment.”
