Gretchen popped up and went to Ben for a kiss. He gave her one and she smiled happily as she moved around him to get her own coat and boots.
Tina followed them to the door to the garage where Ben helped her with her boots and Trish helped her with her jacket. They got into Ben’s truck and headed off to the doctor.
Ben glanced over at Trish who somehow got the shotgun position. “I’ve been thinking of getting a truck or a car for the girls to use. Do you know if Rain has a driver’s license?”
Trish looked over at Ben in surprise. “You’re going to get them a car?”
He glanced at her. “Yes. I can’t drive them all the time. I’m sure they need a vehicle to get groceries and such.”
“Karen and Penny like Ashley’s van,” Tina offered from the back seat. “It is a very safe vehicle and has all-wheel drive for winter driving.”
Ben sighed. Another family van.
“Rain would probably like that too,” Trish supplied with a grin seeing Ben’s lack of enthusiasm for vans.
“Fine,” he surrendered. He would call Gwen and order one when he asked Rain and the girls what color they wanted.
They got to the doctor’s office and only had to wait thirty minutes past Tina’s scheduled appointment for her to get in. They stayed in the waiting room until Tina walked out with only a cane. She looked so happy!
“My bones have mended well so I only have to use the cane for two weeks,” she said with a big grin.
Ben gave her a hug and a kiss and led the group back out to the truck. Trish gave Ben the address to the computer shop she used and he pointed the truck in that direction.
They went inside when they got there and Tina found a seat in front of a computer with Gretchen while Ben and Trish checked out the offerings. Trish hummed and hawed over the specs on a few all in one machines but Ben was drawn to a powerful workstation. It looked like a black cylinder but the specs were so much better than the all in ones.
“Trish, what about this machine? It’s far faster than those and you can configure this one to be really powerful!” he said pointing to the spec sheet.
Trish came over and the first thing she saw was the price. “Geezus Ben! Are you not looking at the price tag at all?”
He looked at her. “Of course I see it. It’s what I would expect to pay for this kind of power. You like this brand of computer. It comes with a premium price tag. Going for extra power is necessarily going to mean a higher premium price tag. Ignore that for now. Look at how much more powerful this machine is and how much more configurable it is!”
She looked at the spec sheet slightly dazed.
“Can you imagine how much faster this would be to create your work on? Especially since you could pair it with multiple screens! More screen real estate means less flipping between apps and more efficiency!” Ben enthused.
“Yes… that all sounds amazing but you’re talkin-”
Ben turned away to gesture for the salesman to come over. “I’d like the twelve core model of this, 64GB of RAM, 1TB of flash storage, and the two higher end video cards. Additionally we’ll need two of those 4K displays,” he said pointing to the large flat panel monitors they had on display. “I think we’ll also need at least two of the larger uninterrupted power supplies.”
The salesman nodded and rushed off to get started on his order.
Ben turned back to Trish who was staring at him with her mouth hanging open.
“What?” he asked.
“You shouldn’t be spending that kind of money on me!” she blurted.
“Really? So you don’t like that ring?” he said gesturing to the deep red ruby ring on her finger he’d given her when he returned from France.
She looked at her ring in confusion. “The computer stuff is going to be well over $10, 000! This couldn’t have…” she began, staring at Ben and stopped when she saw his amused expression.
“I’m not telling you how much more I spent on the ring but my point is made. I spend my money on a select group of special people who I believe are worthy. You have to know by now that includes you.”
When he saw her eyes begin to tear up he pulled her into a hug.
“Hey! There’s no crying in the computer store!” he exclaimed with a grin.
She swatted his chest weakly. “Don’t laugh at me!”
Ben held her tighter and kissed her forehead. “I’m not! I just don’t want to be the cause of your tears.”
She pouted as she clung to him. “They’re tears of love, you big jerk.”
He chuckled, holding her close.
The salesman was returning and eyed her pout.
“Tears of love,” Ben told him and got another swat.
“Will there be anything else?” he asked.
Ben saw Trish’s eyes looking around so he nodded to the salesman. “I think we’ll need a little more time to browse.”
“No problem. Your other items are behind the counter when you are ready,” he said and walked back to the cashier station.
Trish looked up at Ben timidly.
“Go! Shop! Get everything else you need! Software is on that wall,” he said shooing her away.
She grinned and rushed off to look at storage drives. And software!
Ben wandered back to find Tina watching Gretchen use a drawing app on one of the large screen all-in-one computers. She was moving the mouse here and there to draw. It was crude but he already recognized it was a picture of his house. She’d drawn some boxes matching the shape of his house then put in the windows and was drawing in the trees on the front lawn. Again, crude and maybe a little abstract but immediately recognizable.
“Wow! That’s really good!” Ben said with a smile.
Gretchen beamed a happy smile at him. He supposed she never really heard much encouragement since she’d been married.
“This is fun!” she said gleefully.
“And you’re good at it!” he replied and wondered at that. “Have you ever used a computer like this before?”
She shook her head with a big grin and Ben saw she was trembling. His heart ached for the opportunities she’d lost due to the bastard she’d married.
Ben waved the salesman over and quietly asked him to include one of these computers, with the software she was using, and the CPU and RAM maxed out, in his order. The man grinned and left with a nod.
Trish came over after dropping off the extra items she needed at the cashier’s desk.
“Did you do that?” she asked Gretchen in surprise. “It’s your place!”
Gretchen turned her smile on the redhead and nodded happily.
“Have you done this before?” Trish asked and Gretchen just shook her head.
“Fuck! The girl’s got skills, Ben!” Trish grinned at him.
“I just bought one of these for her to develop those skills at home,” Ben replied and Gretchen’s head whipped around in surprise. She leapt up and hugged him as she squealed excitedly. He grinned and hugged her tight. She was purring with happiness.
Ben looked at Tina’s happy smile. She nodded to him and he felt a rush of love go through him.
When he disengaged the lovely brunette from his chest he went over to purchase the items. The salesman, Trish, and Gretchen (small items only with her good arm) helped carry most of the gear out to the truck though Ben, Trish, and the salesman had to make a second trip to get the rest while Tina and Gretchen waited in the truck.
They squeezed themselves into the full vehicle and Ben carefully drove them back to Trish’s place where most of the purchases were unloaded and carried up to her office. She’d have to back-up her current work files and get them ready for transferring to the new machine. She gave Ben several passionate kisses then he was able to get back outside to the truck. He drove home and carried the box for Gretchen’s new computer into the bedroom she used. He’d set it up later. She clung to his chest and shivered as her emotions surged.
When she calmed down Ben kissed her tenderly and she melted against his chest. She followed him out to the living room and saw Tina rubbing her cast free leg. He immediately knelt before her to look at her leg in concern.
“Are you ok? Any pain?” he said anxiously.
She smiled at him. “No, it’s just a little itchy.”
Ben popped up to his feet. “I’ll get the cream!” He hustled away to get it and Tina shared a happy look with Gretchen as they sat on the couch.
When he returned he rubbed the cream into Tina’s leg and she sighed in contentment as she leaned back against the cushions of the sofa.
When he was done she was sound asleep and Gretchen was grinning at her. Ben covered her with a blanket and they went back to Gretchen’s room.
Ben unpacked the machine and set it up on the desk in the room where Karen used to do her homework. Ben had a brief flashback to a time not so long ago when this was his daughter’s room. He missed having the girls living with him.
He’d wired the bedrooms for his home network so he used the supplied patch cable to connect the computer to the wall and set up her Internet connection.
Gretchen gasped when she saw the browser open on the large screen, “It’s connected to the Internet too?!?” she said excitedly.
Ben looked back at her as she sat on the end of her bed with her hands clasped together. Her smile of delight was priceless.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you stay up all night prowling the Internet. Bedtime is still bedtime,” he said sternly and she nodded quickly with wide eyes.
He realized that because he was still thinking of his daughters he’d slipped into ‘parent’ mode but she’d just accepted his command as his Sub. He’d have to be more careful.
He finished setting it up and when he was satisfied it was ready he turned his chair to face her. “I got this machine for you because you looked like you were really enjoying it and I wasn’t the only one who noticed you seem to have some unexplored and undeveloped talent for it. I’m hoping you not only continue to enjoy using it but you find some skills you might want to further develop. I’m fully open to you taking courses whether they be at the college Tina will be attending next fall or online. It’s up to you,” he explained.
Gretchen was blinking at him in shock. “I- I could go to college with Tina?”
“Sure, if you find something you want to do. Of course, if you want to have a baby right away, and more importantly we’re able to, you’d probably want to begin with an online course and take a college course after the birth.”
She dropped to her knees before him, sat on her feet and rested her head on his knee.
“I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am that you rescued me. I’m… beginning to see… how bad Rainor was to me.” She looked up at him with dark eyes. “I thought- I thought I deserved it. But I didn’t… did I?”