Work In Progress | Ben Wyatt/OC

Emails I Can't Send

And thanks to you I, I can't love right
I get nice guys and villainize them

Ember stood in the center of their office, to the left side of Ron, listening as Leslie talked about their slashed budget and how they absolutely had to make life in town fun for the people who lived there. She hadn't even told Leslie her plan yet - and somehow, they were still generally synchronized. Their principles of what their job must require had always been the same. As Leslie and Tom started to bicker and Leslie started to walk towards their offices, the doors opened and two figures that she knew the rest of her team would absolutely dread walked in. Ember froze. She could feel her entire body stiffen, and she knew that Ron would notice her too.

Chris and Ben. Ben who had left flowers on her desk. Ben who was staring at her now clearly wondering if she was going to acknowledge the gesture. With his stare and the cameras and the lights overhead, Ember thought she might black out. And then Leslie walked back into the room.

"Ember! Where did you get these flowers? They're gorgeous they just light up the whole room just like you!" She started gushing, gesturing back towards her partner's office.

Ember saw Ben start to open his mouth, but she wasn't sure she could have that. Not right now. Not in front of everyone. "I brought them in!" She blurted suddenly, cutting off anyone else from speaking. "For myself. I...bought myself flowers to celebrate being back," she looked away from Ben, not wanting to see his face in that moment. Yea, sure, she probably looked like a giant bitch in his eyes right now, but...fight or flight right?

"Wow! That is such a beautiful sentiment, Ember!" Chris chimed in enthusiastically. "I love it. I support it. Wow. Look at all of you here, back in the office," he gestured around to all of them. "It is so wonderful to see you all back here! Wow. Just wow. Well, I've got to run. Ben!" He gave Ben finger guns and then was gone just as quickly as he had came.

Ben sighed, looking at his shoes, then back up at the rest of them. He was wearing a light blue and white striped shirt and a thin blue tie, and held a binder in front of him. "So, there's bad news. Which I have luckily been left to share with you all alone. So, here it goes." He opened the binder and started handing out sheets to them individually. "Your only work as of this moment is going to be existing park maintenance," he said to them all as he handed Ember her sheet. Their eyes met for a moment, a moment that felt like eternity, and then he was stepping back again. "So that just means we're in maintenance mode!" He said it with mock enthusiasm, but Jerry cheered all the same.

"What do you mean, 'maintenance mode?'" Ember asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "We have things to do. My job is literally recreation, but you want me on parks?" Sure, he didn't know her big plan either, but it was still like a stab to the gut. Leave her flowers and then wreck her life? What a great move.

"Okay, well, I do have one other thing I guess, now that you've brought it up. I've reinstated the youth basketball league because apparently people in Indiana riot if there's not an opportunity to play basketball." He clapped his hands together in front of him. "So there you go. Recreation."

Ember flipped through the papers he had given her. "A league with...two teams. You want a league of just two teams and you want me to pitch that to the town?" The conversation had somehow taken a quick, downward spiral into Ember vs Ben with little to no involvement from anyone else.

"Yep, you get two teams Ember. Be happy it's not zero. They'll have a wonderful rivalry to develop." Ben turned, storming out of the room. Ember clenched her fists, feeling the eyes of the team all on her. She turned and stomped away, slamming her office door behind her.

That was how Leslie came up with her master plan. Her master plan for Ann to ask Chris out on a date. And then she and Ember would go observe and make sure everything was going accordingly. Ember was mostly planning on having a drink and letting the other two do whatever they pleased.