Work In Progress | Ben Wyatt/OC

Love and Other Lies

Love and other lies
I tell myself to sleep at night
Love and other lies
They sing to me like lullabies
Don't know the music but I'm playing along
We're only human we're all singing the same song
love and other lies

Ember sat on her patio, as she had every day that summer, staring out at her backyard with a book and a mug of coffee in her hands. The government had been shut down all summer, which meant essentially she didn't have a job she was allowed to work at, despite her best trying. She had attempted to sneak into the office on several occasions, only to be stopped by Ben, hands on his hips and pointing her back to her car. But that didn't stop her from ideas, didn't stop her from thinking of all the things which would be waiting for her when she got back. Back. All she wanted to do was get back to work. Sitting here and reading all day wasn't good for her mental health.

The summer was nearly over, though. If she closed her mind, she could see the date on her calendar circled three times. She had received the memo from Ben directly when it was sent out. Come end of summer, they would be back in business. She wondered what Leslie would think, when she found out. Noticeably, she hadn't been on the memo from Ben. That had been to her, and her alone. She had considered forwarding it to Leslie, but also didn't want to deal with the questions that would come up when Leslie noticed who she had received the original email from. She didn't want to deal with that. At all.

And when it got down to it, she didn't really have to think about how Leslie would react. She could already picture it. She would go find the team and get them all back in the office, asap. Ember would just have to be there already, waiting. She had seen Leslie try and pack everyone into her car before. It didn't work. Tom had ended up in the trunk. It hadn't been pretty.

So she would find her way in to work on her own terms. She would get there before anyone, before her team, certainly before any of the budget guys were there, and just have some time to sit in her office by herself. She had long since become friends with the janitorial staff - they would get her in the emergency exit door without anyone knowing any better. She just wanted some time alone. It was funny, after the whole summer of nothing but time alone, she still sought it out. There was something different about being alone in her own office that made things different. She wanted to run her hands over the familiar spines of the books she had left behind. She wanted to look out her window at the familiar view. She wanted to sit in her chair with her headphones in and listen to her favorite songs as she planned out how she was going to fix everything.

And she did have a plan for that. A plan to make things in this town happy again. It was a good one, if they could pull it off. She smiled to herself at the thought of it. Only a couple days to go. She took a sip of her coffee and turned back to look at her book. She could do this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ember gave the janitor a small bag of chocolate and a conspiratorial wink as he let her in a side door to the Pawnee City Hall. It was still early enough that they were the only ones to arrive and she would have time for herself, just as she liked it. Before heading straight into her office, she made her way towards the break room as she always did. It was time to brew a cup of coffee.

Every morning she did the safe thing - brew a fresh pot of strong, black coffee. She had a small, white coffee cup that she always hid tucked in a back cabinet so no one would ever use it but her. She pulled out her iPhone while the dark roast was brewing and thumbed over to her music app, turning on something soft she could hum along with as her coffee brewed, that sweet, sweet scent filling the air around her. After it was done, she poured herself a cup, then took a sticky note and wrote "Drink me!" on it, sticking it to the side of the pot.

Now, it was time to go to her office. The thing she had been putting off. She was simultaneously excited and nervous to get back in there. Her safe space. Or at least, what was her safe space. Who knew what it would feel like going back in there after being banished so long. And yet, nothing could make her stay away from her work.

She sipped from her coffee, the hot liquid coating her tongue, then made her way out of the breakroom and towards the Parks and Rec department, still humming a small tune to herself. Today was the day after all. The day she was able to put her big plans into place and fix everything.

And they were big plans. She was going to revive an event that the town hadn't seen in years and it was going to be amazing. Perfect even. She smiled in spite of herself, since there was no one around to see it. That had been the other nice thing about this summer - no camera people. That was her most enjoyed part, if she was being honest.

She stepped through the familiar arch into their office space, all the lights still down except for the emergency ones. She savored flicking the switch on, watching the lights slowly come on and bathe their empty room in light. It looked exactly as they had left it -papers still on desks, coffee mugs still tucked in corners. It was all so familiar and so...dusty. Her nose wrinkled slightly. Someone would have to take care of all that, but it wasn't about to be her.

She smiled all the same though, glad to be back, the familiarity flooding her senses. It was good to be home. And that's what coming back to the office was like. Home. She paused as she walked, brushing her fingertips along desks, chairs, the familiar textures making her feel all the better. Texture had always been something very vital to her, something that grounded her, helped her take mental pictures in her mind.

And then she stepped towards the most important door. The door to her office. She paused outside, feeling the doorknob beneath her grasp, the cool metal still bringing a warmth to her heart. She smiled, nodded, and pushed open the door. She stepped into her office, turning on the warm lighting and looking around her space. Immediately, she noticed something unfamiliar and froze.

Flowers. There were flowers on her desk. She hadn't left those there - they would be dead if she had. Orange and red in color, lilies like little flames in a vase, right in the center of her desk where she couldn't possibly miss them. Looking around, she tried to gauge if she was being pranked or something. If Leslie had set this up to surprise her and welcome her back. There was a card attached to a little plastic fork sticking out of the vase. Cautiously, she stepped forward and plucked it from between the stems, stepping back to read it.

To Ember, it read.

For the girl named after fire, here's some flowers that burn just as bright. Congrats on your first day back!

-Ben

Ember blinked a few times, staring at the messy male penmanship. Ben. Ben who she told her worst secret to. Ben who had effectively kicked her out of the very office he referenced. He had come into her office before she or anyone else had gotten here and he had left her flowers. What the hell did that mean?

Maybe she couldn't explain what this meant or why he had done this, but she knew she couldn't let anyone else find out. She had to keep these flowers and any note that came along with it a secret. She darted around her desk and pulled out a book on the history of practiced religions in the town of Pawnee and tucked the note randomly inside, looking at it one more time before she shut the cover and slammed it back into the shelf.

She didn't even see the camera crew already outside her office filming.