Ben took out his pipe and a pack of tobacco from his pocket, and held the pack out to Anthony. "Help yerself."

Would it be rude for him to say 'no'? Because he really did not care for smoking right now. "Uh. No, thank you," Anthony came to a conclusion that no, it wasn't rude, and refused the pipe and tobacco.

Ben started filling his own pipe. "How do you know Elijah?"

A boy ran in, looked at Anthony, and ran back out. Anthony might recognize him as the instigator of the whole kids beating up Anthony thing, when he had told his sister he was being kidnapped.

Ben looked confused, but then shook his head.

Anthony was just about to answer Ben's question, had there been no interruption and no random kid running in, taking one look at him, and then running back out. What? Nevermind. Anthony chose to just ignore that.

He turned back to the question. "Um. We just...kinda met by pure chance, one day," he shrugged, unsure about whether he should elaborate.

Ben nodded, and then started pressing the tobacco in his pipe. Awkward silence again.

Anthony genuinely had not the slightest idea about what to say or do, now. "...Yeah." What an amazing conversation. Though he had finished his tea already, Anthony still absent-mindedly kept putting the cup to his lips as if to drink from it, out of habit.

The awkwardness was finally broken when the girl who had given Anthony that look, earlier, walked in reluctantly, carrying a basket.

"Oh, Anne, this is..." But Ben came to the uncomfortable realization that he didn't even know the man's name. "A friend of Elijah's..." he finished, and turning to Anthony, he added: "I'm sorry. I suppose we were never properly introduced. Benjamin Ward. And this is me daughter, Anne. Me son Bram just popped in, but I suppose he decided to be shy all of a sudden."

"Nice to meet you, ser." said Anne, as if she met Anthony for the first time. She looked at him intently.

Most of the awkwardness was now gone, replaced with uncomfortableness. For Anthony, at least. He bit the inside of his cheek as he glanced from Ben to Anne, trying to piece together all of this. That turned out to be in vain, though, as the answers to the questions he had were just straight up given to him.

Anthony sat there for a brief moment in silence, before finally becoming stable enough to take part in the conversation again. "Anthony Rowe," he said as an aside to Ben. He glanced towards Anne, choosing to be merciful and not mention their previous encounters, and just pretend that they've never met eachother before. "good to meet you as well, miss."

Anne looked relieved and gave him a small smile. She then picked a knife and the basket with fish and moved outside.

"So what do you do for a living?" Ben asked, not at all like a father who was trying to figure out whether his adopted son's boyfriend was acceptable.

Anthony turned his attention back to Ben as soon as Anne had left. He bit the inside of his lip, averting his gaze for a moment, and then looking back ar him. "Well, uh, I don't...have a job, right now," he admittted.