This isn't weird.

Dream Job

Still reeling from her confrontation with Tess, Millie worried as she knocked on the door that she would be poor company for the evening. Maybe she would be better off holed up in her room for the night, rather than bringing his mood down with hers.

Then the door opened, and there he was in front of her.

All at once she forgot her anxiety, forgot everything but those big, brown eyes with their inviting gleam, and that crooked, carefree grin. No matter how many times she saw him, that first glimpse of his smile never failed to mesmerize her. Somehow, he was always even more beautiful that she remembered—

And then she was jolted by the change.

"Your hair!" she gasped. The unruly mop of black curls that had previously accounted for a not insubstantial portion of his height had been chopped away; the remaining inches were combed neatly back from his forehead, tamed into gentle waves.

"Oh yeah, I was pretty past due for a trim," Ben said, running a hand through his hair self-consciously. "Do you like it?"

"Hold on. Let me recalibrate." She grabbed his face in her hands and stared up at him for several seconds as he waited with bated breath for her verdict. "You look amazing."

His grin returned, twice as wide. "Thanks!" He put a hand on her shoulder to usher her inside, and closed the door. "Hey, are you okay, Mills? You sounded kind of off on the phone."

Memories of her argument with Tess suddenly returned, bursting her happy little bubble, and her shoulders slumped. "Actually... I could use a hug."

"I think I might have an extra lying around," Ben replied, and looked around the room. "Oh, here it is." He scooped her up in his arms, clean off the ground, and she giggled as he squeezed the breath right out of her.

His hugs could put Tess's to shame, Millie thought, though she would never say it outloud. "Much better," she murmured, closing her eyes and resting her head against his shoulder.

Ben lowered her back to her feet, but didn't yet let go. "What's going on?" he asked. "Anything you want to talk about?"

For a moment, Millie was quiet. All she wanted was to forget herself in the sensory experience of his embrace. The weight of his arms, the warmth of his body... Whatever product he had used to style his hair mingled well with the natural scent of his skin, like cardamom and camphor infused with a sharp but subtle note of distinctly male perspiration. It made everything else seem so far away and pointless. Still, she owed him an explanation after hanging up on him. She sighed and stepped back. "Tess just... went a little crazy at me," she said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his hand resting gently on her back as he led her toward the couch.

"It's just... she just..." Fidgeting with her hair, Millie sat down and took a moment to choose her words. She wanted to be honest, but didn't care to reveal the parts of the conversation where Tess accused her of wanting to sleep with him. "She kind of threw my phone and yelled at me for talking to you too much."

"Woah, really?"

"Tess is great. I love her. But she can get—I don't know, kind of possessive. Every time I start spending time with someone new, she gets... weird. Jealous, I guess."

"Oh," said Ben, blinking. "Have you two ever...?"

"No," Millie laughed. "No way. Tess is the straightest woman you'll ever meet. She loves dick more than I love coffee."

"Wow, that's really saying something. Millie, is this, like—a normal dynamic between the two of you? I hope I'm not too out of line, but that sounds like really controlling behavior."