Ben: Look who’s talking . . . you were trying to feel me up in the car earlier!
“What?” I only realized I’d said it out loud after a few seconds, when Raymond stopped talking and everyone in the room looked at me again. “Sorry, nothing.” I gave them all a smile and went straight back down to my phone.
Sera: I did NO such thing. You’re imagining things.
Ben: Nope. I definitely didn’t imagine your hand on my arm and your fingers running their way up and down my neck.
I read the message and looked up at him, attempting my best incredulous look, but no doubt failing at it.
Ben: Were you going to kiss me, Sera?
Sera: No!
Ben: Are you sure? Because it kind of looked like you were about to before the phone rang?
My stomach knotted with excitement and I tried to stop the smile that was clearly giving my feelings away.Why did he always have the ability to drag me into these moments, despite my resolve not to get swept away?I looked around, no one had noticed what we were doing, and this only added to my now growing excitement.
Sera: Ben, you have a very overactive imagination.
Ben: Oh yes I do. ;) Would you like to know what I’m imagining . . . right now?
Sera: No.
I quickly replied and then looked back up at him. His smile had changed. From flirtatious and playful, to that filthy, dangerous one that made you lose your wits. I crossed my legs tightly and clutched the jacket, in case both suddenly fell open.
Ben: Liar. Of course you do.
I shook my head at him and folded my arms.
Ben: Stop pretending, you’re dying to know . . .
The butterflies in my stomach started beating their wings and my heart quickened. I knew that if I continued this conversation, there was a very strong possibility that it might lead to more clothes coming off tonight.
Sera: Okay, fine. Tell me then.
I pressed send and braced myself for what was coming next. No doubt it would be a barrage of wildly inappropriate sexual innuendos, only it wasn’t. I sat up, caught off guard by his response when it finally came through.
Ben: I was imagining what sleeping next to you would feel like?
25. A Pristine Clean Sheen
I slowly looked up from my phone. Ben had put his phone down on the room table, and was leaning back in his chair looking at me. He smiled, as if he knew he’d gotten me with that message. As if he knew that he had successfully just reeled me in. As if he knew a comment like that, one that was so intimate, was far harder to resist than the ones laced with sex. Our eyes locked and my stomach tightened.
And then, as if Ben had reached across the table with invisible hands and grabbed hold of me, I felt myself being pulled towards him. It was a physical feeling, and it was so incredibly intense. In that moment, every part of my body wanted to be on the other side of that table with him, it was almost too much to bear. I felt my body begin to lean slightly, and saw Ben lean too.
“Okay! I’ll now open it up to the floor, does anyone have anything they’d like to add?” Suddenly, Raymond’s voice snapped me back to reality. I looked away from Ben, towards the yawning, shaking heads of the other tenants.
“If no one has anything to add, I’d like to raise an issue.” Raymond paused for a moment, as if trying to create a moment of gravitas, a dramatic beat before something explosive. “Something very,verydisturbing has been brought to my attention.” His voice lowered and his demeanor changed to something ominous. “And this is not the first time it’s happened either. But it has to be the last.”
I could see he had people’s attention now.
“Someone, possibly in this room even, has been deliberately breaking the rules, over and over again, with potentially catastrophic consequences.” His voice took on a sinister quality now and everyone was transfixed.
“And I have the evidence to prove it.” He stood up, marched across the room and began digging in a bag. I felt my phone vibrate and looked down.
Ben: What do you think it is?
Sera: ??
