Ben's friends were hilarious on the live, and Mal smiled, thinking how great the videos with them were going to be, and wondered if maybe they could do some Q&As between projects with little extra tips. That night after the live, they decided to order some food and all sat down to get to know each other the boys shared their plan for the living room with Mal.
"A geometric wall?" Mal asked Ryder when the boy told her the idea he had for Ben's living room after seeing a post on IG and how they decided to go with it even though it meant more work. Mal thought back to Ben's Pinterest and tried to remember the wall, but in the end, Ryder showed her the post he took the inspiration from, and the girl was impressed. Mal had enough material for two more videos for her channel, so she announced the renovation series would start in a week to be sure to have time to get everything ready. The boy shared with her that they were planning to finish cutting the trims and start putting them the next day, and she asked them to let her put a camera filming them.
Mal pulled an all-nighter to edit her videos and make a more detailed plan of the renovation videos. When Ben went downstairs the next morning to find Mal surrounded by papers, cameras, and thermos that he assumed had coffee at some point. As politely as he could, he woke Mal up, telling her that his friends were coming and she should go upstairs and sleep on her bed. Mal tried to argue that she needed to import her video and schedule it for tomorrow morning, and set the cameras on the island so she could film the guys working in the living room. The doorbell rang, and Mal stood but almost felt so Ben had to help her steady herself and once again told her that she needed to sleep. After making sure she was not going to fall, Ben opened the door, and Azis and Ryder came in talking about a show they were watching.
They said hello to Mal and asked her if she was feeling ok, just for the girl to roll her eyes and tell them that she just didn't sleep much, but she was going to take a quick nap and come back to film them. Once again, the girl overslept and only woke up hours later disoriented and hungry, it took her a couple of minutes to remember what happened, and groaned knowing she'd miss hours of the boys working in the living room. She was about to make her way downstairs when her phone rang, and the face of Evie appeared on Mal's phone screen making the girl smile. Soon they were talking and the work being done downstairs was out of her mind; Mal shared with her friends what had happened since she came back to Seattle.
By the end of the call, Evie asked Mal to please show her a little of the house, but the girl felt awkward just walking around invading the other's activities of the day. However, Evie told her that she could end the call whenever she saw necessary, so Mal went out of her room and did a little tour of the upstairs rooms without entering Lonnie's or Ben's, but as she was about to make her way downstairs, Mal bumped into the Lonnie. Evie screamed hello to the girl from the phone, and Mal introduced them and then explained went on to explain that she was showing her friend the layout of the house.
Evie nodded and then noticed for the first time that Lonnie had a plate with food in her hands and commented how good it looked. Lonnie thanked her and told Mal that she was bringing her food because she missed lunch, and gave her the plate waving goodbye to Evie and making her way back down again. Mal decided to go back to her room and eat while talking to her friend a little more and then after they ended the call, Mal went downstairs.
When she saw that the living room walls were completely done and not with the design they had told her they were going to do. All the walls in the living room had a picture frame moulding; they had a couple of long horizontal ones in the middle they made a design with tiny pieces of trim and then other verticals on the top, and even though they needed to paint it looked great. At that moment, Mal turned and noticed four little squares of colors that she assumed were the ones they were looking to paint the room in, and she was glad to see that they were precisely the pallet of colors Ben had on his Pinterest.
Mal stood in front of them, trying to see which she liked more; voices coming from behind alerted her that she was no longer alone, and soon Ryder's voice asking her what she thought made her turn. Mal found herself looking at her camera pointed at her and smiling at the boys, obviously vlogging for her series. The girl shared her opinion, and Azis stood next to her, showing her a little of the details and sharing how they made them and from where they took inspiration. Finally, Ben appeared and asked her which color she preferred; they wanted to have this room ready before the end of the weekend, but they would need to make some decisions about the colors for them to do that.
"We already did the primer so, we are ready for the paint. Do you think we will need to follow the design on the dining area too? I wanted that area to be simple, but part of me thinks it will look weird if we have this design here but not on the other walls?." Mal shook her head and assured him that the slight separation both rooms had would make it perfectly fine for the walls not to have the same design. Still, she suggested maybe continuing it only to the lower half of the wall so they could have the option of having some art of floating shelves on the upper half of the wall or maybe some art.
The boys agreed and then went on to show Mal the footage they had for her, and the girl started planning the first video of the series. After watching everything, Mal told the boys if they didn't mind leaving things like that for the weekend, giving her the chance to start filming her planning so she could have some before footage with her explaining the plan, and then she working on the space too. Ryder reminded her that they had taken before footage for her b-roll but that they didn't mind stopping for the weekend if it was ok with Ben.
Ben didn't look happy but agreed and asked his friends if they wanted to go out and do something fun for a change. Azis suggested a Hockey exhibition, and the three were soon out of the house after asking the girls if they wanted to join; Mal declined the invitation and wasn't sure if she was wrong to ask them to change their plans to accommodate her. Lonnie wasn't eager to go to the exhibition but didn't want to stay home, so she joined them with the promise that they would go out to a bar after that.
Mal went on with her day, editing the footage and reworking her plan; after that, she decided to warm up some leftovers and watch a movie before bed. By the time she fell asleep, Mal was still alone at the house, wondering once again if she shouldn't have said anything to them ruining their plans. Close to three in the morning, Mal woke up to laughter and the sound of the door closing. Curiosity won her, and she made her way downstairs as quickly as possible; the refrigerator light showed Ben standing with a glass she assumed was water talking to Lonnie.
The girl noticed her, made her way to her, and hugged her, telling her that she should have joined them because they had a great time. Then she gasped and apologized for waking her up and turned to tell Ben that he needed to apologize because they were too loud, and now Mal was awake. Ben came to stand in front of Mal and apologized; that's when she realized that both of them were a little tipsy, so she assured them that she was just coming down for water, and they didn't wake her up.
Lonnie clapped, filled with glee that they didn't disturb Mal, and went on to tell her the most confusing story about their night and ended it by saying she was going to call Jay to share her night with him. Mal said to her that he was probably asleep, so maybe she should tell him everything in the morning so he would be able to be awake to understand the fantastic time she had; Lonnie ended up agreeing and said her goodbyes and went upstairs.
Mal turned and found herself closer to Ben than she thought and couldn't help the blush his closeness made her feel. She saw him smiling at her and wondered if he was more than tipsy; without realizing it, she breathed deeply to see if he smelled of alcohol. The boy laughed and asked Mal if she was trying to smell him, making her blush deepen. Ben took another step making the space between almost disappear, asking Mal if she thought he smelled bad, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
She took another deep breath, and his smell surrounded her, a little alcohol, a slight wood scent, and mint. It was a weird combination, but everything about it made her wish she could stay there, surrounded by the smell. Ben asked her again what she thought, and she raised her eyes to meet his, and for a second, she felt like all the air had left her lungs. Mal wished Ben didn't have anything to drink so she could be sure that the way he was looking at her had nothing to do with alcohol because the look in his eyes made her swoon.
The moment was broken, and Ben took a step back and rubbed his neck, announcing that he would take a shower and go to bed. Mal wanted to tell him that he didn't need it, that she loved his smell but decided against it and only nodded, saying that she was going to drink some water and make her way back to bed. Ben walked to the stairs and then turned, calling her name, making the girl opening the fridge stop and look at him.
"You look really pretty in those pj's. They are cute." He blushed and practically ran upstairs, leaving Mal blushing in her Mickey Mouse oversized t-shirt and shorts with a big smile on her face.
The following day Mal made her way to the kitchen and noticed that she was the first there and decided to prepare breakfast for all of them. She decided on eggs and pancakes, and when she was about down, Ben made his way downstairs and was surprised to see everything Mal made for them. She thanked the girl, and Mal noticed how excited he was when he realized pancakes were an option and the girl made a mental note to make some during the week for him to take to work.
The couple talked and ate together, and Mal couldn't help but remember the night before and wondered if Ben was flirting with her. Mal decided to see if he would do it again, so she started telling him a story about her last trip to Disneyland and how she loved buying Minnie ears even though she knew it made her look funny. Ben smiled at her and told her that he was sure she didn't look silly but cute. They stayed looking at each other for a minute; however, her hope to see if the boy was going to flirt with her again was cut short when the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of a visitor