Leslie finishes the last of the plates she was wiping dry and carefully places them in the cupboard. She looks over to Julia and sees Ben's mother staring at her with a smile and the most endearing look. A wave guilt washes over Leslie. Ben's sweet mother thinks Leslie is in love with her son. Knots form in Leslie's stomach, she hated lying to this sweet old lady.

"Thank you, sweetheart. You should head on up, Ben's probably wondering why I'm keeping you here so long." Julia gives her a quick hug. Leslie does not want to go up to Ben's room. But she was running out of reasons to stall. She volunteered to clean out their fridge except that Julia said it wasn't necessary.

Leslie shifts her feet as she stares at Ben's door. She had been standing in front of it for almost ten minutes now. Trying to talk herself into getting the night over with. She wasn't entirely sure why she was hesitating. She thought it was because she was afraid to face Ben's anger, but her mind kept going back to the bed they had to share that night. And if she was being honest with herself, images of lying in bed next to him was really what's occupying her thoughts.

He was her mortal enemy. She found herself repeating that notion in her head. And most of the time he annoyed her when he kept shooting down her ideas. But she was also a human being and Ben wasn't bad looking. It had been so long since she last slept with anyone. That came out wrong and she meant like literally sleep next to someone in bed but her mind had already pictured her body entangled with Ben's in a naked embrace and she had to suck in a deep breath to shake the image out of her head. This was not a good time to imagine these things.

Ben was her mortal enemy. This line was now becoming a mantra. Leslie needed to remind herself over and over that she could not under any circumstance let Ben think she liked him. She had to keep a strong front to save her department. Any sign of weakness would mean losing the people she cherished the most, and Jerry. And that was saying something.

Leslie finally decided that she was being unreasonable. She wasn't ten years old and standing outside a door for so long doesn't solve her problems. She knocks lightly and opens the door slowly. She sees Ben sitting in his desk all hunched up over the table, typing away on his laptop. He was already in his pajamas and he looked like he was doing some serious work with his brows furrowed. Leslie couldn't help noticing that his pajama had the words Star Wars plastered all over. She wondered if he's had that since he was in high school. It looked new though and she suddenly imagined Ben in a department store choosing between a normal pajama and the one he was wearing now.

"Hey." Leslie clears her throat; Ben didn't seem to notice that she had entered the room. He looks up a little startled like he'd forgotten that he was going to be spending the night with her.

"Oh, hey." He pauses as if thinking of something to say and then just decides to point to the bathroom, "um, you can use it to change for, uh, bed." Ben stumbled a bit when he said the last word. His mouth had gone dry and he was having a hard time continuing. "I could, uh, step outside, um, if you want some privacy."

"No, no. It's fine. You look like you're busy, so I'll just quickly change and then, um, get to the, um, the, you know," Leslie points to the object she was struggling to say, "Bed." She says, a little forcefully. Leslie wonders if she'll ever be able to say the term again without hyperventilating.

Ben nods and quickly changes the subject. "Yeah, I had to update the spreadsheets, since I'd promised you all those stuff that you brought up during dinner."

"Well, I couldn't wait to start getting back some of the important events that you had decided to cut." She says defensively.

"That wasn't really what we had agreed on though…" Ben mumbles to himself as Leslie rummages through her bag for her pajamas.

"I don't see why you're so mad about this. You promised that you would consider all my ideas if I did this one favor." Leslie reminds him.

Ben sighs, "Yes, I know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I sound ungrateful, it's just that we were supposed to discuss how to rework the master plan. You were supposed to propose a new plan that wouldn't affect another department's budget. We would go through the numbers and debate on which one was agreeable."

Leslie doesn't pay attention to what Ben had just said. She was having a little panic attack as she realized she had left her safe and unflattering pajamas back in Pawnee. Instead, she had packed her favorite silk nightgown thinking she'd have a room to herself. This particular nightgown hardly provided her any covering. And she wanted to be fully covered if she was going to share the bed with Ben. She continues to dig into her bag until she found a pair of clothes that she thought would be a better alternative than wearing a baby pink next-to-nothing nightgown.

She came out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later and found Ben on the bed reading a magazine. There were two pillows lined in the middle that would protect them against each other while they slept. At least that was the plan.

Ben looks up and almost chokes on his laughter. Leslie was wearing a black long-sleeved hoodie and black yoga pants. "Are you planning on robbing a liquor store tonight?" Ben jokes, taking a stab at her all black sports attire.

Leslie sticks her tongue out at him, "ha-ha, very funny." She says sarcastically. "It was either this or a sexy nightgown that would probably drive you wild." She slaps her mouth shut. She was so startled by what just came out of her mouth. Ben looked taken aback too.

Ben clears his throat, "Right. Um, yeah, this one is preferable." He pretends to read his magazine again and act like whatever happened didn't happen. Which was a really huge effort because now all he could think about was Leslie in the supposedly sexy nightgown that was allegedly going to drive him wild.

After going through a list of curse words in her mind, she makes her way to her side of the bed and slips inside the covers. Even with the pillows in between them, Leslie very much feels Ben's presence beside her. She turns to her side with her back towards Ben and turns off the room light with a flick of the switch.

"Uh, seriously? I was still reading…" Ben complains.

"Well, I can't sleep with the lights on."

Ben sighs and places the magazine on the table beside him. He twists and turns in his spot as he tries to get comfortable.

"Quit moving around, Wyatt." Leslie sounds annoyed. She was trying to forget that Ben was next to her, but his constant movement was making that hard.

"I'm sorry. I'm not used to sleeping on this side of the bed. This side doesn't have an imprint of my body yet."

Leslie snorts at this piece of information. "That is the dorkiest thing I've ever heard."

"Oh yeah? And paper boat racing at the lake in Ramsett Park is not?"

"Excuse me. Paper boat racing happens to be a well-loved family tradition among the citizens of Pawnee." She scoffs at him. "What do you know anyway? You live in a city that's too busy to care about family traditions."

Ben mumbles something that Leslie couldn't make out. Whatever it was, it was probably just him trying to contradict her, as usual. She closes her eyes and tries to get some sleep. She still had six days to go of this torture. She really hopes she'll survive this week without any incident.

Ben wakes up in the middle of the night with a start when Leslie's arm slams into his chest. It took the breath out of him and he tries to recover for a few seconds. He noticed that the pillow between them had somehow disappeared and that Leslie was now completely cuddling him. Her head was tucked in between his arm and side and one of her legs was sprawled over his hips. He tried to slide her leg off him, but that just made her tighten her hold.

He decided to let it be. Plus, he was starting to enjoy the feeling of Leslie clinging to him like this. He really shouldn't enjoy it. But he did and that was his dilemma because he knew she hated him. He was quite aware that she wished he had never set foot in Pawnee. But right now, Leslie didn't seem to hate him as she slept peacefully. And he could forget about their budget wars. And just appreciate that this passionate, hard-working, sneaky, overachiever was stirring something inside of him. He hugged her back and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.