Wow! This is so lovely, and packs an amazing amount of story into 2306 words. I got all sniffly at the end. And I really love this:

Benny smiled. "But then I thought of you, and it helped. I thought of all the wonderful memories we have, and all the memories we're going to make in the future, and I just thought about you. I could feel you here with me, and I clung to that."

Thank you for posting and I'm looking forward to reading your 'The Items Challenge' story.