Mal went straight into Ryder's room and told the guy that letting Ben moving in with them was a big mistake. "We need to do something. He can't stay here; I need him to move out."
"Mal, his being here less than an hour. What exactly happened?" Mal told him how she felt herself tingle from head to toe when Ben whispered how glad he was to be there with her. Ryder managed to not rolled his eyes, the moment the girl told him about Ben moving in with them, he knew that things were going to get complicated for her, but he honestly hoped that she would use this opportunity to be open about her feelings. The boy went on to tell her that they talked about this scenario, and Mal agreed to make an effort. "You need to either tell him that you like him or get it together. Ben is your friend, your very single and available friend, who asked you to stay here for a week. As his friend, you should try to think about that and be as welcoming to him as you would usually be."
Mal wanted to argue; still, she knew that Ryder had a point. They continued to talk until Ben knocked on Ryder's door, asking if he could join them. Mal eyes almost popped out of her face making Ryder laughed; walking to his door, the boy opened it and told Ben to please come in, leaving the door open because there was no point of having it close now that the three of them were there. Ben looked around the room quickly and stood awkwardly, not sure what to do; the only reason he knocked on the door was that he was feeling uneasy alone in the living room while Mal was in the room with Ryder. Sure, he knew that they were friends, but his mind started to create scenarios of Ryder and Mal being closer than he hoped they were, and he didn't like it.
Ryder noticing how tense the atmosphere decided that it was a good time for the three of them to prepared dinner, so asking them to join him in the kitchen, he walked out of the room. Mal went to follow him, but Ben stopped her, asking her if he interrupted something. She noticed how the boy looked worried, so smiling at him, Mal assured him that they were just talking and grabbing his hand, pulled him towards the kitchen, telling him how it was time to cook. Ben felt a little better after she did that, and when they started cooking, he was happy to see that he fit right into Mal's and Ryder's dynamic. By the end of the night, Ben was feeling very at home there, and he told that to Mal, making her smile.
The three of them, watch a movie, and then Ryder said his goodbyes and went into his room; Mal, who was falling asleep on the couch, tried to get up and walked to her room, but she was so sleepy that she almost fall back into the sofa. Ben picked her up, and after helping her to bed, he asked her if he could stay there with her, the girl nodded barely awake. The next morning when Mal woke up, she noticed Ben's arm around her waist and felt his chest on her back; she closed her eyes, slowly enjoying the feeling of being embraced by him. Memories of the night before and the reason why he was in her bed came, and Mal chuckled at how ridiculous her life was, one moment she was freaking out asking Ryder to help her get Ben out of their apartment and the next she agreed to sleep in the same bed.
Scenarios, where they were lying together in bed for a different reason, started to invade her mind, and Mal found herself getting up fast, trying to put some distance between her and the boy. The moment she jumped out of bed, startling Ben Mal knew that she needed to get out of there before the boy asked her what was going on. She decided that taking a shower would be the perfect excuse, so without looking back, Mal made her way to the bathroom.
When she came out, she heard both boys talking in the kitchen and feeling a sense of peace; she went into her room and change getting ready for the day. Walking out of her room, she went into the kitchen and said hello to both boys and was surprised to see her breakfast served and a little to-go bag with her name next to it. Ben smiled at her telling her that he prepared breakfast for everyone that morning as a thank you. "I also packed you some snacks, so you can have something to eat between meetings. I know you have a busy week ahead, and I don't want you to forget to eat."
Mal smiled and thanked the boy, eating her breakfast while talking to the boys about their plans for their day. The same scene repeated itself for the entire week, the three of them would eat breakfast together, and in the nights that Ben didn't have to stay late at work, they would eat dinner and talk about their day. On the weekend, Mal and Ryder were going to a workout class they sign off while Ben was going to move into his new place, a little studio apartment close to where he was working. Mal felt a bit sad because she could sense Ben wanting to ask them to stay, but as much as she was enjoying having him at her place, there were moments that she could feel herself falling more for him, and she couldn't handle it.
So after the week ended, Ben moved away, and with the amount of work, they had Mal only got to see him on the weekends. On his last weekend there Ben asked the friends to stay with them so they could have a weekend-long goodbye celebration. After Ryder checked in with Mal, they both agree that it would be a nice way to say goodbye to Ben, and they prepared some activities for the weekend. However, Ben had to work unexpectantly on Saturday, so they canceled their plans for the most part. That night though, Ben came carrying three bottles of wine that the client had gifted him, and the three friends started to drink. Ryder, after a couple of glasses of wine, decided that it was time for him to go to bed giving Mal and Ben a chance to talk, telling the friends that he was tired and needed to rest so he could be ready for the next day when they were supposed to go out before the airport. Mal seeing her friend go was tempted to go too, not sure if it was a good idea to stay drinking with Ben; however, when she tried to go away, the boy pouted, asking her to please stay with him. They ended up drinking the rest of the wine, getting completely drunk while talking about their lives until Ben started ranting about his relationships.
At some point, he was saying how he was tired of trying to build a relationship and be disappointed. Mal tried to comfort Ben, assuring him that he just needed to find a girl that could see how amazing he was. The boy turned, and the way that he looked at Mal made the girl stop breathing for a few seconds; getting close to her, Ben told her that he wished he could find someone like her. "Every time I'm in a relationship, they get mad when I share with them how amazing you are. They are always saying that I should put them before you, but I can't. You are always going to be number one; I'm only with them because you don't want me."
The confession slipped out shocking Mal, but the girl didn't lose a moment before answering. "I do want you. I know I said I didn't, but that's because I was dumb." Ben's face lit up for a second before he got annoyed, telling Mal that it wasn't nice of her to make fun of him like that. For years she said to everyone how she would never want to be more than friends with him, and now Mal suddenly was changing her mind because she was feeling pity for him. Mal went on to tell him that it wasn't true; her feelings for him were real, and she was tired of fighting them, especially now that she knew that he was feeling the same way towards her.
Ben shook his head, starting to get mad and told Mal not to play with his feelings. The girl began to get annoyed too and assuring him that she was telling the truth; after he told her to stop saying things that she didn't mean, Mal asked him what he wanted her to do to prove it. Without hesitating, Ben told Mal to kiss him.
One second they were in opposites sides of the living room screaming at each other and the next they were making out in the middle of the room. Ben stopped the kiss, asking her if she was sure just for Mal to kiss him again; they move to the sofa and continue to make out for several minutes. The kiss was sobering them up to the point that they felt completely sober after a while; that's when Ben once again stopped kissing Mal. He took her hands in his and started giving her little kisses in her fingers and then her palms smiling at how red she was getting with every kiss. Then he looked at her and started asking her when exactly did she change her mind; that was the beginning of a long conversation where Mal decided to be completely honest about her feelings and to her shocked Ben opened up to her about his feelings for her too. In his case, it started when they were kids, and came back in force when they were in college. "I always thought that I had zero chance with you, so I just told myself to forget it. Then you started dating Harry, and the opportunity for me to move to Seattle appeared, and I took it. It was getting harder to be there, seeing you two being so into each other."
Mal didn't know what to say to that; she tried to think back to when Ben told her that he was moving to Seattle and think if there was any signal that she missed. Ben noticed her lost in thought and gently took his chin in his hand, making him looked at him. "Hey, don't worry about what happened before, ok? We should talk about how we are going to make things work now."
Nodding Mal smiled at him, and as Ben leaned in to kiss her again, Ryder's door open and the couple could hear the boy apologizing for interrupting them. Both of them turned and saw Ryder smiling at them, completely dress ready to go out. Mal noticed that and went on to asked him where he was going just for Ryder to tell her that they were supposed to leave for the airport in half an hour. The moment Ryder said that he noticed how the couple looked sad, part of him wished he could take it back. However, it was the truth, he had hoped for them to figure things out earlier, but it was good to see that they finally made a move to take to their relationship in another direction. Mal stood up, saying that she was going to take a shower and change so they would get to the airport in time; she could feel Ben behind her as she made her way into her room to pick up her towel. Once she was inside, he came in behind her and closed the door, asking her to please stop because they needed to talk.
Mal turned confused by the slight panic in his voice; when she looked at him, the sentiment was there, and she wondered what exactly was he thinking about that was causing him to feel like that.
Before Mal could ask Ben if he was ok, the boy was pleading with her not to change her mind about them. "I can change my flight, or I'll come back this weekend and the next. Please just don't start pulling away from me."
"Ben, I don't want you to change your flight. I understand that you need to go back and I know for a fact that you have a lot of work and it would be insane for you to come back this weekend or the next. I'm not changing my mind, don't worry. However, we still need to get ready because you can't lose your flight." Ben seemed hesitant, but Mal picked her towel and some clothes and went on her way after she finished getting ready she walked into the living room and saw Ryder and Ben talking. The moment they realized she was there, they stopped, and Ben stood up and seemed hesitant to walked towards Mal, so she made her way towards him and asked if they were ready to go. Ryder nodded and told her that there Uber was on the way, so they should go down; Mal nodded and went into her room to pick up her phone. Once again, Ben followed her, and when she turned to face him, he leaned in and kissed her. "I asked Ryder if he could stay behind so we can have some alone time, but he wanted to know if you would be ok with coming back from the airport alone."
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine with that." Ben smiled at that and kissed her again, then taking her hand they walked together into the living room and said their goodbyes to Ryder. The way to the airport was made in silence, the couple holding hands and seating as close as possible with Mal leaning her head on Ben's shoulder, wondering what the future will bring them. Sure, now both of them knew about their feelings but the reality of their lives being in different cities started to hit her.