The couples ate together; after that Ben put Mal's suitcase in the car and then all of them went out to enjoy the day together until it was time for Mal and Ben to make their way to the airport. Jay and Lonnie went on their way while the other couple went to the airport to pick up Evie; the way there was done in silence, both of them thinking about what the week would bring. Ben missed spending time with Mal, but he understood that Evie and Mal were close and needed some alone time.
Hand in hand, they waited near the baggage claim for Evie, and the second the girls saw each other, they ran and hugged. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes having a small conversation while Ben awkwardly stood by, looking around, waiting for Mal to remember he was there. It took the girls a while, but when they let go, Mal turned towards Ben and signaled for him to come towards them, and so he did. Ben was nervous about meeting Evie, he knew how important the girl was to Mal, and he knew that if she didn't like him, things would not develop as he wished with his girlfriend. He was about to say hi when Evie looked at him with a smirk and went to say hi in a way that made him nervous. "Hi, reason why Mal is never moving to NY or even visiting soon?"
Ben awkwardly said hi, with his voice almost breaking with the understanding that Evie already didn't like him. However, Mal took his hand and rolled her eyes at Evie. "His name is Ben; you know it because I always talk about him. I've never been even close to moving to NY, ok?. Don't listen to her Ben; she has a weird sense of humor."
Evie smiled, telling Ben that she was half-joking and that she was going to say goodbye to a girl that sat next to her and be right back. Mal took Evie's suitcase and turned to face Ben, asking him if he was ok; the boy nodded, avoiding making eye contact cause he was really confused about his interaction with Evie. Mal pulled his arm a little to force him to make eye contact, so Ben looked at her. "I'm happy you move here, and she is just trying to make you nervous cause she likes to act like my older sister."
Ben nodded smiling at her, and Mal brought her hands around his neck, making the boy lean and kiss him. They stayed like that until Evie cleared her throat, telling Mal that it was weird seeing her doing Pda; Mal stopped the kiss and whispered to Ben that she was really happy he moved there, making the boy smile. Then she turned to Evie and stuck her tongue at her friend, telling her that it was time for her to give them the address of the Airbnb. "Lonnie, help me pack so we can go straight there, and then tomorrow we can visit Ben, and you can meet his friends."
Evie agreed and while they made their way to Ben's car, the girl told him the address; Ben smiled telling them that they were staying in the same block where Azis and Ryder live. Mal smiled, knowing that Evie would have plenty of opportunities to interact with them. Since Mal started posting about the renovation, she noticed Evie would try to ask about Azis a little, and then she realized that her friend was following the boy and wondered if they had talked in the DMS. Usually, Mal would openly ask Evie, they didn't hide things from each other, but it had been a while since her friend had shown any indication of being open to having a relationship. Although the fact that they live in different cities would make it difficult, Mal dream of a reason for Evie to move to Seattle although knowing her friend Azis would be the one moving and nobody would blame him. Evie was one of a kind.
While they made their way to Ben's car, the girls talked about how they would be lazy the first week or at least the first few days, and then they would go on adventures. One of the places they planned to visit was Orcas island; Mal was looking at Airbnbs there so they could spend two days there. Mal's phone beeped, and the girl was soon texting her friend, Alex, who was helping her with the editing of her videos. Thanks to her trips, she managed to post her usual two videos a week without missing anything a day and was on time with all her sponsors. Mal was even posting pictures of her trip to Boston, and nobody online knew about her cast; she wasn't looking forward to posting a picture with it and for people to start asking what happened. The part of her that wanted to forget about the incident was trying to come up with a plan to take pics without the cast in view so that she could go on with her life without sharing the story.
On the way to Airbnb, Evie and Ben talked while Mal was on the phone talking about the changes Alex was doing. When they arrived, Ben got out of the car and took the girl's suitcases while Evie helped Mal with her laptop and backpack. The place was beautiful; it was a loft apartment with concrete floors, and the kitchen had a mix of wood and metal, which Ben fell in love with the second he saw. A black metal stair made it clear that the only bedroom was upstairs with a king bed and a perforated steel enclosure that acted like a closet. Mal, who had followed the boy upstairs, stood in awe of how the cold metal looked perfect in the room, giving it an elegant and modern look. The couple looked at each other and smiled, the vibe of the place was the opposite of the house, but they loved it; Ben put the suitcases down and started to talk to the girl about his impressions of the place.
Evie came up and looked at the couple, smiling at how they talked and getting excited about the architecture of the place. Even though sometimes she would miss being Mal's daily call, the girl was happy that her friend had found someone who shared many of her same interests and cared about her. "Hey, dorks, not to destroy your architecture lecture, but I'm kind of tired and would love to take a shower, have some food, and rest."
Ben blushed and apologized to Evie for interrupting their day, but Mal told him that it was both of them. "Evie, go on and shower. I'll walk Ben out and order some ramen; how does that sound?"
"Perfect. Ben, thanks for the ride; how about we have dinner on Wednesday. I know we said tomorrow, but I would like to relax before going out." Ben nodded, assuring her that it was understandable and she didn't need to hurry to meet the rest of the group. After that, he said goodbye and made his way downstairs and towards the door to give the girl privacy because the second floor was easy to see from the living room. Mal called his name, asking him to wait for her, making Ben stop at the door and turn to say goodbye to his girlfriend.
Ben told Mal to enjoy her time with Evie and not worry about calling him; he then leaned and kissed her. "I'll see you on Wednesday; you decide where we are going and the time, and I'll tell Jay, Lonnie, and the guys to make time."
Mal nodded, and Ben went on his way; she turned and saw Evie looking at her from the last step of the staircase, giving her a smug look. "Are you sure you want to stay here? You look like you are a second away from running away to follow him."
The girl rolled her eyes and told Evie that she wouldn't follow Ben and looked forward to spending time with her. "I just miss seeing him. Ben is sweet; you will like him once you get to know him better, you'll see."
Mal ran towards Evie and hugged her, making her friend laugh; the rest of the day was spent talking about their lives and how things were. On Tuesday, Evie went into the shower, and Mal was checking the video that would be uploaded the next day and noticed that Evie had opened her IG on her Mac. The girl tried not to snoop, but her curiosity won, and she went to see her friend DMS, and there it was a chat between Azis and Evie. Mal wanted to open the chat but decided she had already crossed the line and closed the IG before her curiosity won over her again. Part of her wondered if this was a secret between Azis and Evie, or maybe the boy did share this with his friend; Mal wanted to ask Ben but didn't want to put the boy in an awkward position.
Meanwhile, Ben had asked his friend to join him on Wednesday for their dinner, and they were all ready to meet Evie. "So, are you excited to finally see her face to face after months of talking with her on the phone?"
Ben's voice broke Azis from the usual re-read of his text with Evie; the girl had slid into his dms a week after they started the renovation looking for information on Ben. Evie tried to make casual questions, and the boy rolled his eyes at the intention. When he first saw a strange girl talking to him, Azis was flatter, and when he saw the pictures, he was shocked that such a beautiful girl would make the first move. It took Azis one conversation to realize Evie's intentions, and he went straight to Ben, telling him what happened. As usual, his friend didn't take it badly and told him to share with her whatever he wanted, and if he was feeling uncomfortable, he should be straight with her. "Look, you might like talking to her in the end, but don't do it on my behalf. I know from Mal that they are close, so Evie must be cool; maybe just be honest about why you think she is talking to you and see if you guys still want to talk."
That's exactly what Azis did, he didn't want to cause issues for the couple, so he wrote to Evie asking her if they could talk on the phone, and after a couple of days, she called him and he explained the situation. Evie acted offended at first and even went on to end the call telling Azis that he was paranoid, so the boy felt bad and once again told Ben what happened in case it would cause issues between him and Mal. Ben got a little nervous but assured Azis that he was in the right and that if Mal didn't see it that way well, they would have a serious conversation. Three days later, Evie sent Azis a text from a different number asking him to talk, and they had a long conversation where she apologized for how she reacted; from that moment on they texted every day and spoke at least three times a week. Evie also confessed that the first number wasn't her real one, but one that she generated on google, and Azis appreciated how smart she continuously proved to be.
Ben moved his hand in front of Azis's face smiling at how the boy would daydream about Evie whenever they texted during the day. Azis pushed his hand away, laughing and thanking Ben for keeping the situation from Mal. "Look, I understand why you two wanted to do your own thing, and if you didn't ask me my thoughts of her asking about me, I wouldn't know. If Mal asked me, though, I would have to tell her that I know you talk but nothing more."
Azis nodded; they had that conversation before; Ben would not lie to Mal, but he wouldn't offer information either. The boys were about to go out for lunch when Azis' phone ding with a text from Evie inviting him to eat something, just the two of them that night. Apparently, the girl didn't want the first time they saw each other to be in front of the group, which the boy appreciated. For several days now, he had told Evie that he wasn't comfortable lying to Mal about not knowing her, so they needed to either come up with a story about how they knew each other or the truth. Evie was trying to convince him that Mal was going to be mad with her about the reason she reached out to him in the first place, and it was best for them to act like they didn't know each other, but the boy made it clear that he was not going to do it. "If you want, I can just avoid you from now on. Mal is your friend, she might be annoyed about the reason you reach out at first, but in the end, she will realize that you were worried about her and let the matter drop."
Azis agreed to meet Evie at a restaurant near the office and told his friends that he wasn't going out with them and would see them later. Neither Ryder nor Ben needed to ask him where he was going; the second he read the text on his phone, Azis' eyes lit up, which could only mean he was finally going to meet Evie. Once Azis went out, Ryder turned toward Ben and asked him if he would meet Mal, and Ben said no, so the two boys went on their way to have lunch. The boys were in the middle of eating lunch with a couple of their friends that work near when Ben's phone rang and Azis' name flashed on the screen, and the boy wondered when he deleted the photo that usually appeared when his friend called. Answering, he asked Azis if he had erased the picture, but instead of answering, the boy told Ben that Mal knew about Evie and him, and she also knew that Ben knew. "She appeared out of nowhere and Evie panicked and told her that she talked to me to get information on you, and Mal seemed annoyed. Then Evie told her that you knew, and the fact that you didn't say anything was proof that you didn't trust her. I tried to tell Mal that I asked you not to say anything, but in the middle of my explanation Evie went on again to say that you should have said something. I swear it was like she was trying to get you in trouble so that Mal forgot that she tried to get dirt on you, both girls went away mad, but I wanted to tell you I'm so sorry, Ben. I'll explain everything to Mal if you need me to."
Ben interrupted Azis and asked him where he was, and after the boy told him, he told Ryder that things went badly for their friend, so he was going to talk to Azis. Ryder nodded knowing that this was something that they needed to work in private first and stay behind with their other friends while Ben went looking for Azis. Once he found his friend, they talked, and Azis shared how Evie was great at the beginning; they were having a great time until Mal appeared and he swore that the girl wasn't mad at first but got angry when Evie shared that Ben was in on the secret. "I had just told her that you knew because she was trying to convince me that Mal and you would be mad at us. So, I share that you knew but that you respected my privacy. Obviously, she was shocked, but I never thought she would use the information to try to turn the situation so that Mal was mad at you instead of annoyed at her."
"I get it, she panicked. Look, you did nothing wrong, so there is no reason to feel bad. If Mal is mad at me because I didn't tell her, then she has the right to be; I honestly wouldn't change the way I acted, but she is in her right to be mad at me; if she wants to, we can talk. Right now, is time to go back to the office, ok?" Azis nodded, and they went on their way back to work even though it proved to be difficult for both of them to concentrate.
Ben made a point to turn on silence mode and put his phone screen down on his desk, trying to finish what he needed for the day. By seven, he managed to complete the day's tasks and went on his way to find and ride to get home. Once again, he had lent Jay his car, so he made his way to the lobby and then out the door, yawning and looking at his phone for the first time. There on the screen, he could see several alerts, he went on to open Whatsapp and saw that Mal had canceled tomorrow's dinner to the shock of the entire group and then exited the chat they created to coordinate the event. The boy rolled his eyes; people asked what happened until the girl left, and then there was silence in the chat. Ben decided that he wanted to see his friends and asked the group if they wanted to go out to their favorite place, he shared that neither Mal nor Evie were going to go, but he still was up to see everyone if they were ok. It took a couple of minutes, but everyone said yes, and they decided on a time.
Jay called him asking if he was ok, and Ben told him that he was going to order a car and they could talk at the house. Then a honk made the boy jump, and turning; Ben noticed his car with Jay and Lonnie waiting for him. "We read Mal's text and decided that maybe you would need to go eat something and talk."
Ben smiled and got into the car, happy to have his support system with him, Mal hadn't texted him, and he wasn't sure if the girl was mad at him or the entire situation, but for now, he was going to let her have space.