‘You two are angels!’ she said. ‘Thanks a million.’
‘Pleasure!’ I said as we finished putting everything away. ‘And thanks for letting me use the bath yesterday. It really helped.’
‘Glad to hear it! Will you be needing to use the suite again today or tomorrow? I thought you might’ve moved your stuff up there until you felt better.’
My face crumpled.
‘Oh, no! I wouldn’t do that! You were kind enough letting me use it for a few hours. I wouldn’t want to take away paying customers’ business from you. That’d be taking liberties.’
‘But the suite’s been reserved foryouto use. Ben took care of it.’
‘Wait, what?’ I gasped. ‘What do you meanreserved?’
‘Did he pay for it?’ Jess added.
‘Yes,’ Glenda clarified. ‘I told him not to and I thought we’d reached an agreement that he wouldn’t. But when I checked my bank account, I’d received a payment.’
‘Whoa.’ Jess grinned. ‘That’s so sweet.’
‘Isn’t it just!’ Glenda said. ‘Those Eaves boys are real good ’uns. Ben’s a sweetheart just like his big brother.’
‘That’s really…’ My brain scrambled again as I searched for the words.
Ben paid for the suite upstairs just so that I had a bath available to use if the pains got too much.
And not only did he do that, he didn’t even use it as an opportunity to gloat about how nice he was. In fact, he didn’t even tell me.
‘That’s really… kind,’ I said.
‘I’ll say!’ Glenda replied. ‘That’s definitely what you call going above and beyond the call of duty. Especially for a colleague. Are you two courting?’
‘No!’ I said quickly. ‘I mean, we…’ I wasn’t sure if I should mention the whole plan to fake-date or not. Probably best if I didn’t. None of the locals needed to know. It was only something we’d be doing in Spain. Once we got back to England, it’d be business as usual. Co-workers and nothing more. ‘No,’ I said firmly.
‘Ah, shame. Give it time,’ Glenda said.
‘No, it’s not—’ I went to protest.
‘We should get back,’ Jess said.
‘Yeah,’ I replied. ‘See you later.’
‘Bye, ladies!’
I walked to the door in a trance. I was still trying to take everything in.
Ben volunteering to be my fake boyfriend at the wedding.
Ben helping me with the videos.
Ben doing all those things to help ease my pain yesterday.
Ben giving me his shirt today.
Shirtless Ben.
And now Ben paying for the suite.
If you’d asked me about Ben a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve said that he was the red flag poster boy. But now, it was like those flags had all been bathed in green paint.
