There was a strange manic energy in the office when I arrived at work on Monday morning. I walked past the boardroom on my way to my desk to discover it was overflowing with yawning, defeated, tired- looking people. Ben was standing in front of everyone talking loudly and passionately. He was waving his arms in the air and still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He looked like he'd been up all night.
"He's been making teams present ideas to him all night and hates every single one of them.." Ness said coming up behind me. "No one has slept." She yawned in my ear.
"Really." I glanced over at Ben and it was the first time I'd seen him looking anything but cool and calm. Dare I say it, but he looked rattled. As I studied him through the glass he caught my eye and gestured for me to come over. A ball of nervous energy bubbled up inside me and I walked over to the boardroom apprehensively. As soon as I was there he popped his head out the door.
"Hey." He looked tired but managed a small smile.
"Hi."
"I have no right to ask you this and if you don't want to do it, I'll completely understand."
"What?" the nervous ball grew.
He dug in his pocket, pulled out a key and passed it over to me sneakily. "Please could you go to my place and get me some fresh clothes, I have to go to the client this afternoon and I have coffee on this shirt and quite frankly, I think I stink." He whispered.
I took the key between my fingers, "Sure."
"And a tooth brush and toothpaste."
I nodded.
"And deodorant. Some cologne, anything to help me look and feel a bit better." He smiled again and in that moment I think I would have probably done anything he asked me to. The thought worried me. A lot.
I turned to leave but he quickly whispered.
"And don't go stealing my underwear." He winked and disappeared back into the boardroom.
I arrived at Ben's apartment about half an hour later and it felt odd letting myself in. It was so relationship-y. I went straight to his bedroom and was surprised to find it looking neat and spotless. For some reason I had it in my head that men, particularly bachelors, were messy beer-can crushing, TV remote hogging slouches that left their smelly socks on the floor. But Ben was none of these things.
I walked over to his cupboard, opened it and gasped. There, row upon row upon row, where suits. The inside of his cupboard looked like one of those suit hire places where grooms go to get themselves kitted out for their weddings. I'd never seen so many suits in one place before, and I'd also never chosen one for anyone either. What was I meant to look for? Color? Cut? Shape...
Instead of that, I tried to imagine him in each one, until I came to a very smart black pinstripe one. I ran my hand over the fabric and imagined his body inside it- Oh God I was turning into a total perv. I took the suit out, grabbed a black shirt and black tie, I liked him in black, and then paused when I saw his underwear. Was I meant to bring him underwear too?
I reached out and picked one up. Yup, I remembered these guys. I remember these ones well! I grabbed some socks and looked around. Next to his bed were two bedside tables and my curiosity started getting the better of me. Suddenly I wanted to throw myself at the drawers, rummage through them and uncover all of Ben's secrets. I bet Ben had many.
I paused. I really shouldn't, right? But I did. I pulled one of the drawers open and looked inside. Nothing. Totally empty. I sighed and closed it feeling disappointed. Ben was still such a mysterious creature to me and a small clue would have gone a long way in helping me unravel that mystery.
I went into his bathroom and smiled. It looked like a women's bathroom. Facial products, colognes and even a blackhead-removing mask sat on a shelf. No wonder he was so fucking good looking. I grabbed his toothbrush, toothpaste and a roll on deodorant.
I looked down at the six bottles of cologne and was stumped, so I picked each one up and smelt it until I recognized that familiar scent. The one that had mingled with sex and vodka and sweaty leather that night. I bit my lip and wondered if it would be totally stalker-ish of me to take it home and spray my pillow so I could smell him every night...Yes! Totally psycho stalker.
I was just about to put all his things into a bag that I'd pulled out of the bottom of his closet when I saw it... unopened gold condom wrapper. Suddenly, the idea that Ben kept emergency condoms in the bottom of a travel bag made me feel a little queasy. What, in case he bumped into a hot airhostess on a plane that he needed to haul into the bathroom and earn his membership to the mile high club. In case he needed to quickly explore some additional creative options with the client while away on a shoot, or in case he bumped into a girl at a nightclub and needed to throw her over the backseat of his car..." I cringed just thinking about it.
But, Ben was a grown man. A very hot, virile, grown man, of course he would carry condoms with him. It's not like I thought he was a virgin and it wasn't against the law... then why did it bother me so much? If he wanted to bone all the women in the office, in the greater Johannesburg area, the province, fucking South Africa, he could. Why the hell did I care?
I didn't want anyone to see me return with his clothes, so I carefully slipped the bag into his office when no one was looking. Everyone was still in the boardroom and I made my way back to my desk.
"Sera," I looked up and Ben gestured for me once more. Gold wrapper, gold wrapper, gold wrapper. God, I needed to stop thinking about that. I walked over to the boardroom and he opened the door. "Have a seat." He pointed into the room.
"Um... me? But I'm not a..."
"Everyone is here. We're all having this conversation together."
I looked around and, yes, everyone was there, not just the creatives. Almost everyone in the company, including the tea lady, was seated around the massive boardroom table. I walked over and sat down.
"I've called you all in here to discuss some changes that I'll be making around the office. I know I've only been here a short time but I can already see that this place is very stuck in it's ways. Comfortable ways."
I raised my eyes and looked around the room.
"I'm going to be pushing you all very hard from now on. We all need to step up our game and start thinking outside the box if we're ever going to make truly exceptional work. Or, we can stay still and make perfectly mediocre work?"
There were some confused nods, which made me think they already thought they were producing exceptional work.
"So with that, is there anyone who thinks they have an idea for this calendar. And I don't want another boring idea that involves glitzy Monte Carlo like backdrops and clichéd glamorous women standing next to the car looking pleased with themselves and holding expensive handbags. We can do better than that? We can do something far more interesting. Anyone?"
He looked around the room. "Now I have an idea, but I still think we can do better, so if there's anyone in this room who wants to throw something out, free of judgment, then go for it."
I glanced around; people were looking at each other with blank expressions and then looking back at Ben. Suddenly things in the room got very uncomfortable. And just then, at the worst imaginable time ever, my phone beeped loudly.
"Sorry," I rummaged in my jacket pocket, pulled it and saw JJ's message plastered across the screen.
JJ: I need you to tell me what you think of this since you didn't stay to watch the whole thing.
I tried to close the message, but in my panic must have pressed play on the video I just realized he'd sent me.
JJ's voice rang out. "At first I was afraid, I was petrified"
"Sorry, sorry." I scrambled to turn it off and in my hast, dropped it to the floor and under the table.
"Shit!" I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled under the table. The bastard device had cruelly made its way to the other side of the table. God this was embarrassing, but it got just worse.
"Liar," I heard JJ shout from the phone, "you're going home to have wild sex with you hot neighbor."
"That's right," My voice rang out in response and my stomach plummeted. I knew what was coming next, and there was no way I was going to make it to the phone in time to switch it off. "And I'm ovulating too so I can fall pregnant with his illegitimate baby."
Oh. My. God.