Ben woke up and got ready for work; it took him a while to fall asleep the night before, so he did everything in slow motion that morning. Lonnie gave him a tumbler full of coffee and offered him to drive them that morning, to which the boy agreed and told her that she could keep his car for the rest of the day. By lunch, Mal had texted him, promising to be outside his office at six, also sharing that she had made a reservation for them at a restaurant she wanted to try asking the boy if he was ok with the place. Ben smiled when she saw the text and assured the girl that he was ok with any place she wanted to go and that he would see her at six.
Andrew came to Ben's desk at five-thirty, telling the boy that he would need him to stay late that day. " Bruce called, and he needs some changes in his server by the end of the week, but I offered him to do it for tomorrow, so you will have to stay and work on that with the rest of the team. You know his account is important for us, so I want us to impress him."
"I'm sorry I can't today, but I can focus on that tomorrow and have it ready for Wednesday. It will still be before their deadline, so it should impress them enough." Ben said, and he could feel his friend's eye on him; the boy never talked back to their boss, and it was refreshing. Azis jumped into the conversation, telling Andrew that they could do it easily by Tuesday night and they would finish the testing for another client who was doing tests with them now. Andrew looked at both boys like they were insane; he wasn't a bad boss that would press them to work overtime. Well, not if he didn't find it necessary, so the fact that they were telling him that they were not willing to stay extra time was unexpected, and he was not going to let them dictate the times of presentations.
After calling the rest of the group, Andrew announced that they were, in fact, staying until they finished doing the changes in the server, and they also needed to complete the testing. "This is time to focus on work if you ever see any future in the company, so just do the work."
Azis and Ryder told Ben that he was right to say something and that if he needed to leave for a while for his date, they would cover for him. The boy had told his friends about what happened the day before, and they knew it was important for Ben to make their date. Ben shook his head; as much as he wanted to go out with Mal, he wouldn't let his friends do his work. Looking at his phone, he saw a notification from Mal; when he opened it, he saw a picture from the girl showing herself smiling outside of his office building.
Ben groaned, making the people around him look at him, he turned the phone to show Azis and Ryder the picture, and they urged him to at least go downstairs and explain the situation to Mal. The boy stood up and was making his way towards the reception when Andrew saw him and called out his name, making him stop. "Ben, where are you going? I told you already you need to stay."
Azis came behind them with Ryder and told Andrew that Ben and they were going to the corner store to buy some snacks. "We aren't taking anything with us, so don't worry about us not coming back." Andrew told them to go back to their places, and he would bring them all snacks; Ryder smiled broadly and told the man to wait so they could make a list and run looking for a notepad and pen. The other three men shook their heads, and Azis signaled Ben to go back to his place, and when they were far enough, he told him to call Mal and explain. The boy nodded and took his phone out and made the call; his heart almost broke at the excitement in Mal's voice telling him not to worry if he needed a couple of extra minutes. Ben sighed and told her what was happening; while talking, he saw Andrew coming his way with a suspicious look until Ryder almost tackled the guy on his urged to give him the list of snacks they wanted. The man took the list and looked at the boy like he was insane, which made Ben smile; knowing his friend, he asked for enough snacks to eat for a month if their boss was offering to pay.
Mal asked Ben if he wanted her to bring him something to eat, but he told her not to worry and that they would see each other the next day in the morning hopefully. They said their goodbyes, and Ben heard a male voice calling Mal's name before the line went dead. That sour Ben's mood, but the thought of finishing his work and seeing his girlfriend made the boy focus on the task at hand. He was so immersed in his work that it took him a couple of seconds to turn toward Azis, who was calling him; when he finally did, he saw Azis signaling to listen to Andrew and John's conversation. John was on Ben's development team, but everyone knew he got in because he was close friends with Andrew, and that's why he was always doing the bare minimum and having no issues.
Ben was about to ask Azis what he wanted, but he heard it. John was talking about a girl he used to date, and he ghosted, but today, she was outside their building. Seeing her again looking hot, his words not Ben's, made him rethink the ghosting, and he was planning to reach out to her to date again. "You know I'm bored, and Jenna is not exactly jealous, so maybe I can have some fun."
John said that, and to Andrew's credit, he didn't look impressed; actually, he told his friend that he needed to be careful about his relationship. "You guys been dating for five months. If you are not happy, be honest and end things." The boy rolled his eyes, ignored Andrew, and returned to his laptop.
"Before you decided to pay attention, John described this girl, and he said she has purple hair. Maybe I'm wrong, but that sounds like Mal." Ryder rolled his chair toward them and shared that John came back to the office after Ben's call, so there was a chance he was downstairs when Mal was waiting for Ben. The boy couldn't believe Mal would date someone like John, the guy wasn't ugly, but his personality sucked. That didn't help with Ben's mood as the hours passed, and he looked less annoyed and angrier; Azis and Ryder decided that they had made a mistake telling Ben what John was saying.
Maybe they were wrong, and Mal never dated John, and he was lying; Azis stood and made his way towards the reception. After saying goodbye, Andrew left the office at ten, thanked the group for staying, but aside from John, no one acknowledged his statement. Azis texted Mal hoping the girl was awake, thankfully, she was, and he went straight to the point. After sending her a picture of John, he asked her if she dated the guy and went to tell her what he said about the situation. Mal called Azis and told him that she had matched with the guy on Hinge one time, and after texting for a couple of days on the app, she agreed to go on one date; they went on a date, she found him annoying, and after the date, she unmatched him and blocked him from her IG.
"Did Ben hear him say those things?" Azis shared the rest of what happened and apologized, the girl groaned into the phone, and he felt equally bad and scared by her reaction. "I'm coming there, I'll bring you guys something to eat, and you will let me in."
Azis agreed, and close to midnight his phone beeped with a text from Mal telling him to let her in the building and the office. By this point, Ben was pressing the keyboard so frustrated that Ryder was starting to look for a replacement cause that thing was not going to make it. After a couple of minutes, Azis signaled Ryder to come to the reception area and bring Ben; it took some convincing to make it possible.
Ben stepped into the reception, ready to tell off the guys, not because they've done something, but he was at his boiling point. Then Mal waved at him, looking extremely cute in the sweatpants and crewneck she used to wear when they hung out at night. She made his way towards him with a bag in her hand and was about to talk when he leaned in and kissed her, he tried to erase the space between them, but the hand holding the bag was in the way. Ben broke the kiss with all the intention of throwing the bag away and going back to kiss her, but Mal took a step back, blushing, and told him that she had brought all of them something to eat. Ryder and Azis were smiling, looking at their friend; Ben was never one for Pda in general, and to see him being so open with Mal made them happy for the couple and a little more understanding of why their friend was in such an awful mood.
The boy smiled and thanked her, but then he realized it was late and asked Mal how she got there so late. "Lonnie, lend me your car."
The three boys smiled; they sat down in the reception area, ready to eat. Ben pushed two mini sofas together to be close to Mal, and they stayed there talking for about ten minutes before the door from the office opened, and John came out with all his things ready to leave. The boys knew they weren't close to finishing, but neither was shocked to see him leaving them with the work. John looked smug, saying goodbye until he realized Mal was there. He stopped and asked the girl what she was doing there; Mal, who had Ben's arm around her and was leaning into him, rolled her eyes at John. "I brought my boyfriend and his friends some food because they have to work late."
"Ben is your boyfriend? Ben?." Mal told him yes, and she had already mentioned that she had been in the building earlier waiting for her boyfriend. John looked confused and annoyed with the situation, and after giving all of them the evil eye, he went on his way. "He is more annoying than I remember."
Azis took this opportunity to ask the girl about it in front of Ben, and Mal told the boys about how they matched on Hinge when they were talking; she noticed he seemed self-centered but decided to go on one date. John tried to ask for her number, but Mal declined, and after the date, she was glad she did because he was worst than she expected. "After that, I unmatched on Hinge, and blocked him from my IG. I was lucky enough not to see him until today when he saw me downstairs, and he tried to make small talk, but I managed to go away."
Ben gave a kiss on her temple and apologized for putting her in an uncomfortable situation; a couple of minutes later, he walked her to the car and then went back to work. Andrew made it to the office at eight the following day and saw them still working on their laptops. At eleven, they were finally done and presented their work to Andrew, and the guy told them that they could go home and come back the next day. That's when John arrived at the office and made his way to Andrew's office; after five minutes, the guy came out and stopped Ben from getting out, which made his friends stop too. Andrew told them they could go because he needed to talk to Ben, but they didn't move, both of them noticing how pleased with himself John looked.
Andrew told Ben that it was brought to his attention that he had broken the rules and brought his girlfriend to the office. Ryder spoke up, telling him that she stayed at the reception area with the three of them because she had brought them food. The boss told him that rules were not to be broken no matter the situation, and Ben was now suspended for the rest of the week without pay. "You should know better, Ben, you are an adult, and you act like a teenager sneaking your girlfriend here. You are suspended for the entire week, and I'm talking to HR, so you don't get paid for yesterday or the extra hours."
Ryder was the first to protest; it was insane what he was doing. Ben had every right to get paid for the work hours he had already put in, and the fact that he was being suspended without pay was absurd. Andrew only said that if he was so inclined to back Ben, then he could be suspended too. Ben was about to apologize on Ryder's behind when Azis told Andrew to include him and then told the other two to follow him. The three made their way out, and in the elevator, Azis sent a text to a friend he had in HR, and when they were outside the building, he called him. It took him a couple of minutes to share their side of the story and assure his friend that they did nothing wrong because Mal stayed in the reception area.
The three put a formal complaint against Andrew, and Azis commented how John had preferential treatment. Finally, Ben thanked his friends for standing with him, and the other two just told him that they were going to sleep and maybe plan what to do on their days off. "You know the best part of this, Ben. We finish everything, but John still needs to monitor the changes alone because Andrew can't pull people from other groups to help him."
That put a smile on their faces, and Ben made his way to his house ready to sleep; once there, he saw Mal working in the dining room, and the girl smiled when he saw him. Taking her hand, he took them to his room and asked her to take a nap with him; Mal looked reluctant at first because she was supposed to finish editing a video, but Ben's pout won her over and they cuddled on his bed. Hours later, when he woke up, he was alone in his bed except for a note telling him to look for Mal downstairs when he was ready. Picking up his phone, he texted the girl to come up and join him and then sent a picture of him pouting; she sent her a voice memo calling him lazy and asking him if he wanted something from downstairs.
"Just you..and cookies" was his response, and he heard her laughing from downstairs. Mal entered his room after a couple of minutes and gave him a plate with cookies while laying on the bed. They talked for a while, and even though he was debating not telling her what happened, he felt weird not sharing what happened with her, so he did.
The girl apologized, but Ben assured her that it wasn't her fault. "Honestly, it was out of character for Andrew to act like that. The good thing is that we can spend all day tomorrow together before you leave."
"We could do that, or you could go with me. Listen, all the accommodations are paid for by the brand, and we can share a room, so the only problem is the ticket, but I already told you that the renovation videos are still gaining money, so we can use some for your ticket." Ben was shaking his head and was about to say no, but Mal straddled him while giving him kisses all over his face while telling him to join her.
It didn't take long for the conversation to be forgotten while they focused on other things, and when Lonnie came home that day, the couple announced that they were going to Boston together on Thursday. Lonnie hugged them and asked Ben if he had told Shelby that he wasn't going to be able to go to the party. That dumped the mood, and Mal looked guilty, but Lonnie said to her that this was such a great opportunity for them that it wasn't fair to not take advantage of it because of Shelby. "Hey, I can be her date, a little girls' night out; I think it will be great."
Ben nodded and was about to text Shelby, but the girls told him that it was better to ask Shelby to come so they could explain the situation. Mal went into the kitchen to cook, and Ben could sense how bad the girl felt about the problem, so he asked her if she wanted to go alone. Mal turned and apologized for making him feel like that. "It's just someone did something like what we are doing to Shelby, and I hated the guy after that."
Shelby came for dinner that night looking extra smiley, and Mal felt sick. Ben took her hand and told her that they weren't leaving Shelby hanging because Lonnie would be her date to the party. They made pleasant conversation during dinner, and in the end, Shelby started talking about what she was planning to wear to the party. Mal felt sick again; Ben held her hand and went on to tell the girl he was going out of town. Shelby looked shocked, so he explained the entire situation and even the part where Lonnie offered herself as Shelby's plus one. As on cue, Lonnie went on to tell Shelby how excited she was about the party, and they could coordinate what they were going to wear.
The girl stood up and asked Ben to talk in private, and the boy agreed; Mal and Lonnie went upstairs after saying a quick goodbye, but if looks could kill, both would be dead. "Look, Ben, I understand that you are in a relationship for now, and you want to spend time with your girlfriend. You promised to go with me; we talked on Sunday, Ben, it is Tuesday and suddenly Mal can take you on a trip with her? Don't you find this weird? I think she got jealous about the situation, and now she is .."
"She is what? Trying to spend more time with her boyfriend? Look, I understand that you are mad about the change of plans, but I didn't know I would get suspended, making it possible to go away with Mal. Now let's clarify here: Mal is not jealous of us because she trusts me, and it is obvious there is nothing to be jealous of when it comes to us, Shelby. I'd tell Lonnie that you don't need her to go with you, and I think you should leave now. " Shelby fought the urge to scream in the boy's face that Mal was trying to keep them apart, so she took a big breath and nodded.
Once at the door, she said goodbye making sure to tell Ben that he was disappointing her. Outside, Shelby made her way to her car, and once there she pulled out while making a call; she promised herself she was not going to do it when she realized who Ben was related to after they met.
