"Life is not useless Louise. If anything it is far from it." he continued, taking a deliberate pause to contemplate on what to say next.
He knew that Lulu was in a very delicate state right now. He did not want his words to hurt her, far from it, he wanted his words to bring her comfort, to cheer her up.
"You're right that life is so short, that you can never know what will happen next, and that is all so very true." he said as Lulu looked at him.
"But that's not what life is about. Life's not about dwelling on all the bad things, it's not about continually contemplating menial, mortal lives, but it's about enjoying it." he said.
"It's about making the best of the time we have left here." said Benjamin as Lulu let out a soft scoff.
"That sounds really cliché don't you think?" she asked as she licked her melting ice cream. She had forgotten that she was even holding an ice cream.
Lulu sighed internally, not even ice cream could cheer her up, usually, it would be enough to soothe any form of depression that she had had in the past, but this time, it did not seem to work at all.
She hated feeling like this, she hated feeling so sad, so tired, so worthless, and worst of all, she hated feeling so scared. She had never felt any emotion as strong as this in her entire life. She was most of all scared of feeling this way.
What if she wouldn't stop feeling this way? What if the aching, painful, worried feeling in her chest never went away? What if she was unable to feel happy again? That was what scared her most.
It was not like she was not trying to show any emotion other than this hopelessness, but she was just unable to.
"Yes, it may sound cliché, but sometimes, the things that sound most cliché are often the most true." Benjamin said.
"Yes, life is as simple as that, we're here to enjoy our lives to the best of our abilities." said Benjamin.
"And that doesn't only mean that we become greedy and selfish like you said, but it means that we try our best to live at peace with the people around us." he said as Lulu looked at him, not saying anything.
"There's no point holding grudges with anyone, there's no point being mean, or unreasonable, because if you think about it in retrospect, the short amount of time we spend on this earth should be used wisely on important things." he said, he was not sure if he was making enough sense as he wanted to, but he could tell that Lulu was listening.
"If those who had gone before us could come back and tell us only one thing, it would be to live in peace with yourself and everyone else, because once you're gone, you can't come back." he said.
"It's impossible to come back once you're gone... so why wait till then to regret and reflect on how worthless your life was when you can make some meaningful memories and impact right now." he said as Lulu sighed.
"I know that what you're saying is absolutely right, but I just can't seem to understand clearly." said Lulu.
"It will be clear soon." he said.
"But what if it isn't?" she asked.
"I just can't shake off this empty feeling inside... what if I never stop feeling like this? What if I never stop feeling sad?" she asked as Benjamin felt like she needed a hug, but he did not want to cause her any more discomfort than she already had.
"You don't need to worry about the things you can't feel now, maybe all you need is some rest, you need to rest and you need to come to terms with what happened, it's perfectly normal for you to feel the way you feel right now, but it will get better." Benjamin said in an assuring tone, as if he had felt the way she was feeling right now before.
"It will get better, before you know it, you won't remember how bad you felt." he said as Lulu looking at him, her expression doubtful.
"But for now, do whatever you need to do to make you feel better, laugh if you want to laugh, cry if you want to cry." he said.
"No... I don't need to cry, I'm fine." said Lulu as she proceeded to eat her cone, reminding Benjamin that he also still had an ice cream in his hand that was close to melting completely.
He quickly finished his ice cream and he turned to look at Lulu. He wondered if he should have said something else, but he decided not to, she seemed to have gotten his point, and at least he knew what was making her scared, so at least he could find out more ways to cheer her up.
"You know, I haven't been to the beach in a long while... it feels so nice and peaceful here." she suddenly said as Benjamin nodded.
"Me too..." he said.
"I used to come here with my uncle...I used to love watching him surf, it was his favourite pastime." he said as Lulu looked at him taking hint of the word 'used' but she did not try to find out more.
"Thank you...for bringing me here." she said, an hour ago, she was not in the right headspace, she did not know what she wanted or what she felt, but Benjamin had bee right, she was not in any way ready to go home yet, but now she was.
"Don't thank me." he replied as he sighed, this was the least he could do.
"Are you ready to go now?" he asked after a few minutes and Lulu responded with a nod of her head.
"Let's go." he said as he stood up and stretched out a hand to help her up, but she got up herself as they walked off the beach.
...
Dom sighed, he had made up his mind to focus on everything he had on his schedule to do today and luckily, he had been successful.
Dom rubbed his eyes as he closed his laptop, he was done for the day, and it was just five p.m.
He was in a rush to get back home quickly, he wanted to check on Lulu, he just did not feel that it was right for him to leave her all alone at that time. She looked very shaken up.
As Dom was about to leave his office, Michael suddenly came in with a rush.
"Sorry I didn't knock Dom, I wanted to see you before you left." he said.
"It's fine Michael, what's up?" asked Dom as he sat back down at his desk.
"Well I found out why the elevator crashed." he said.
"You did? So quickly?" asked Dom in surprise as Michael nodded.
"I did say that I would do it." said Michael.
"Anyway, searched through the rubble and I found out the main cause of the malfunction." said Michael as Dom listened intently.
"It turns out that the elevator fell mainly because the cable snapped." said Michael as Dom frowned.
"But how is that possible? Things like that rarely happen, especially not with a brand new elevator." said Dom in disbelief.
"That's the thing Dom, I agree with you completely, but the manner in which the cable snapped was too suspicious to me, a brand new elevator shouldn't have snapped like that, especially not after a few months of use." said Michael as he frowned.
"So I did some digging, I went through the purchasing files for the elevators." said Michael.
"And it turns out that we were duped by the manufacturer." said Michael as Dom narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"The elevator that crashed isn't brand new, if anything, from the information I uncovered, it was first used in a mall that was later abandoned and closed down." said Michael.
"Looks to me like the company decided to reuse the elevator." he said.
"And they sold it to us as brand new!" said Dom in anger as Michael nodded.
"How could we have been scammed like this? Who was the contractor in charge of the building?!" asked Dom as he stood up in anger.
"I think that he was probably in on this, who knows, they might have even given him a cut of the profit from lying." said Michael as Dom sighed and shook his head.
"This is unbelievable, how can they scam us like this?" asked Dom as he was vividly upset.
"Calm down Dom." said Michael in a worried tone.
"No I can't calm down, how can I calm down, who knows how many other things in this building are either fake or reused, what about the other elevator?" asked Dom.
"That one is new Dom, you need to relax, I made sure to check the information of the other elevators, they are completely fine." said Michael as Dom sighed.
"You know what Dom, go home right now, go check on Lulu, we will talk about this when you are calm in the morning." said Michael.
"Alright, fine you're right, I'll see you at home." said Dom as Michael gave him a pat on the back as he left his office.