“English is my native, I learned French in school and then Spanish from the Reyes family that lives a few acres that way.” He angled his head to the left.
“Wow, that’s so cool—”
“And then I thought it would of course be useful to study Latin so I can read that, and German scientists have been doing fantastic things in recent years so I started studying German.”
Katie’s mouth dropped open. She’d known that he was smart. Obviously, she thought looking around at the lab. But it was more than a little intimidating when he spouted off thing like speaking multiple languages as if it was no big deal.
“That’s so cool. Most people struggle to even learn one other language. The boys have a choice between French and Spanish at school but they don’t offer anything else. I’m sure if Don were around he’d want them to learn French.”
Bennett suddenly stiffened. “Yes, your husband, right?”
“Ex-husband. Extremely ex.”
“Sorry. I thought I’d heard that but I didn’t want to assume. That must be difficult. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories."
Katie shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s been more than a year now so I’m mainly adjusted to being alone. It’s not like he was around much before anyway.”
Bennett looked shocked. “He left you alone? Well, all facts pointed to him being an idiot before but that confirms it.”
Katie laughed. She hadn’t expected Bennett to stick up for her but it felt good to have someone in her corner. Even though a lot of people said the right things when they found out, there was always an undercurrent of judgment, like they thought she must have done something wrong for her husband to leave.
“He’s not a total idiot. He’s a doctor so he’s pretty smart actually.”
Bennett snorted. “I’ve met many idiot doctors. It’s entirely possible to have high aptitude in one area and be completely deficient in others.”
Katie could definitely agree with that. Don had always looked down on her for her limited education but the man could barely balance a checkbook and had often overdrawn his checking account until she took over handling the money.
“I’m mainly worried about my boys. I guess I always thought Don would be around to teach them the things I can't.”
“There will be others who can do that. You’re a great mom. I’ve seen that.”
“Well, thank you. Coming from someone who was raised by Julia Alexander that actually means a lot.”
Suddenly, Katie realized what was happening. Bennett was talking to her, easily and naturally, without any prompting. When she’d given him conversation topics, he’d faltered but when she asked about his educational background, he’d been fine. Could that be the key?
Communicate in the way he's comfortable with.
She started asking about his research and Bennett immediately launched into a detailed explanation of his latest batch of testing. She observed him while he talked, noticing that all the nervous tics he displayed when talking about anything other than science disappeared. He was completely comfortable talking about his work. He was in familiar territory.
Maybe that's all he needs, Katie thought. If he got some familiarity with popular culture then he should be able to talk about it just as easily as science.
“Bennett,” she interrupted, “have you noticed anything interesting about the past ten minutes?”
He looked around, alarmed. “No, what’s happened?”
She smothered a laugh at the suspicious look on his face. For such a smart man, he had very little faith in the world around him.
“You’ve been talking to me. We’ve had a very nice conversation.”
Bennett just blinked at her and then slowly, a smile spread across his face. “Yes, we have. I didn’t even realize.”
“That’s the way it should be. Making conversation isn’t supposed to be hard. In fact, this has given me a totally new approach on how to help you.”
He pushed up his glasses nervously. “It has? More practice drills?”
She shook her head. “Nope. No more drills. What you need is fun.”
“Fun,” he repeated blankly.