The Pull

Chapter 15

Ben was right. All I got was hugs, and people concerned with my wellbeing, and a 'what a dick, that guy. Glad he got what's coming for him' here and there. No judgement. No stares. By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but relieved. This would be ok. No one at work was going to treat me different. I didn't need to run. I could go back to fantasising about Ben-with-the-sexy-everything from a distance and I would crush it with that campaign.

Two weeks later I was standing by the large sketch board with Will. I looked up and noticed Simon and Ben, in his and my office. Door closed. There was nothing strange about that. Or, it shouldn't have been. But something caught my eye. Ben. He had a look on his face that gave me chills. Not angry. Not frustrated. Concerned. That was the look. Worried. In a way I'd never seen him before.

Was that big client of ours unhappy? Did I do something wrong?

Typical me, always thinking it was about me. Such the narcissist. I scoffed at my own thoughts.  Ben suddenly met my gaze through the window glass. He had a slight frown on his face, his brows closer together. He looked at me for a bit, and then turned away, sliding his hand across his face.

Clearly trouble.

I realised Will was talking to me and shifted my focus.

"Sorry what? I drifted there for a bit." Will looked cheeky.

"Yeah, I noticed where you drifted to."

"What – no. I was just worried something was up with the big account." I was such a liar.

"Of course you were. Wait, what? What do you mean?" Will came over to my side to get a look through the same window I'd been staring shamelessly at.

"They've been in there for quite some time and Ben hasn't stopped pacing once. You may be right."

Will and I were standing like two idiots ogling the closed door to the office when it suddenly opened, and Ben met our stupid glares. We flinched at the exact same time and almost managed to perform a double headbutt trying to look busy and casual. Totally professional.

"Puck. Will you assemble the team and take them to Simon's office, please? As soon as possible."

I turned to face Ben again.

"Sure. Give me a few minutes and we'll meet you there." His look was stern and slightly cold and for some reason it made my heart ache. He was being the boss, that was all. Like he was supposed to. We weren't friends. Nor lovers. He was my superior and that was it. He could, no – he should act stern and businessy around me, and I should act with the same professionalism. But I had to be honest with myself here. I wanted him to look at me like he had done that first time on the dancefloor at the afterparty. Like he wanted to lick me from head to toe. I had it bad for the man, there was no getting around it. Thankfully he seemed to be in no such dilemma, as he, at best, acted frosty with me. Mostly he kind of ignored me. It was like the night at my place never happened. Actually, that really hurt. But at least it gave me no illusions. And it kept me from wanting a something with him that I already knew I couldn't handle.

Five minutes later we were crowding Simon's office. Simon and Ben were standing by the window. The air was filled with nervousness and anticipation. "Guys, I have a big request. I need us all to go to London. Tonight. For at least three weeks." Ben looked straight at me when he spoke.

What the hell was going on??

I think we all inhaled collectively. It was like a schaaaah-sound roaming the room for a whole second. Lane spoke first.

"What's going on, Ben? What's the emergency?"

We all knew it could only be one client, as we only had one British account at the moment. And it was worth millions. And I was in charge of it.

Not good.

"The client is requesting us to be present there, on sight, as they predict this campaign we built for them is going to hit big. And hard. We are targeting some extremely powerful forces here, I'm sure you all know. Well, apparently word got out and this is turning in to a shitstorm of sorts. There's talk of lawsuits. Press. And worse. There's a lot of very angry, very powerful men who threatens to do very bad things should we put the spotlight on them." I squinted my eyes. This wasn't all. I could feel it. Why would they even go through with the campaign if it worried them this much?

"Tonight? Wow, that's... soon." Will whistled.

"I know," Ben sighed. "But I need you. Is this not doable for anyone? You won't be in trouble for saying no, I need to be clear here. I'm asking, not demanding."

The room fell quiet. Like anyone of us would pass up the opportunity to go to England. Yeah, right.

Shiloh spoke first.

"I've got a lot of questions about this. But essentially, you're telling me the firm will pay for my trip to Europe. I can't speak for the whole team of course but I'd be surprised if you get a different answer than mine from any of us: I'll go. I say yes to this." He smiled at Ben with his amazing white teeth shining. Ben, however, mostly seemed relieved.

"Good. Obviously, take the rest of the day to organize this, and we'll met by the international gates at SFO at nine p.m. We're taking a night flight to Britain. Oh, and I did get the client to pay for first class."  A shadow of a smile washed over his face, hiding those troubled lines in his appearance for a second. I was absolutely certain he paid for that himself, but I said nothing. The whole thing was odd, and the fact that he seemed to have some guilty feelings about it making him bribe us with first class, really got my head in a spin.