“And what about our right to sleep?” I too looked around the room, “Who heard those terrible noises at two-thirty a.m. the other morning?”
A few people nodded again. “I thought I heard something,” one of the older ladies said. “Me too,” someone else echoed.
“Well, it washim.” It was my turn to point this time. “He probably wasn’t thinking about our God-given right to sleep when he was drilling into the wall and moving furniture around, was he?” I turned and looked at Ben, he wasn’t even trying to hide his smile now.
“I actually did receive a complaint about noise the other night, but they didn’t know where it was specifically coming from,” Raymond chirped up.
“Well, I know where it was coming from.” I waggled my finger at him. “Ben White!”
“Noise is nothing, Sera De La Haye, but clothes that don’t gleam, are everything.” He stuck a finger right back at me.
“What? That doesn’t even make sense, Ben.”
“Fashion is forever, Sera.”
I shook my head at him. “What are you even talking about? Besides, why are you so suddenly concerned about clothes anyway, it’s not like you go to great lengths to keep them on!” I fired back, knowing full well he’d probably have a good retort for that. And he did.
His eyes moved down to my chest and he bit his lip, “I could say the same for you, Sera!”
“Okay, okay!” Raymond held his hands up in the air. “Let’s all calm down here. I think we’ve clearly touched on some very serious matters here and obviously you two have very serious feelings about them.”
“Yes! I have very serious feelings about her.” Ben turned and looked and locked eyes with me. “Very serious,” he repeated slowly. I swallowed hard and felt the heat rising in my cheeks once more.
“Well, I don’t think this is the time or place for it, perhaps you two should meet privately to discuss this further and come to a resolution.”
“Great idea,” Ben said. “I definitely think Sera and I should meet privately to discuss this matter further.” Ben looked at me and winked. I tried to bite back a smile, but couldn’t. “In fact, how about Sera and I meet right now in private to clear this all up.”
“Uh, I suppose we’ve almost finished,” Raymond said, looking thrown.
“Excellent.” Ben shot out of his seat and then looked over at me. “Your place or mine, Sera?”
“Uh . . .” I stood up out of my chair.
“Come, we’ll decide on the way.” Ben started exiting and I followed him, excusing myself from the meeting.
“I can’t believe you did that!” I said when we were out of earshot.
“You were the one that wanted some action.” We walked down the long corridor towards the lift.
“Yes, that wasn’t really what I was imagining, though.”
“It did the trick, didn’t it?” Ben nudged me with his shoulder.
“But now everyone thinks I’m some laundry criminal who’s ruining their clothes.”
We reached the lift and I was about to reach out and press the button, when Ben stepped in front of me, blocking them. “That’s true, and the question is, how should we punish you?”
“Punish me?”
“Mmm-hmmm. It’s clear you’ve been a very naughty girl.”
I burst out laughing. “Do you honestly think that line is going to work on me?”
Ben smiled, “Not really. But it was kind of fun to say.”
I shook my head, pushed him aside and then pressed the button for the top floor. We stood in silence waiting for the lift to open. When it did, I stepped inside, but Ben didn’t.
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked.
