LOVE TO HATE YOU

(NEW) At first I was afraid...

There was a strange manic energy in the office when I arrived at work on Monday morning. I walked past the boardroom on my way to my desk to discover it was overflowing with yawning, defeated, tired- looking people. Ben was standing in front of everyone talking loudly and passionately. He was waving his arms in the air and still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He looked like he'd been up all night.

"He's been making teams present ideas to him all night and hates every single one of them.." Ness said coming up behind me. "No one has slept." She yawned in my ear.

"Really." I glanced over at Ben and it was the first time I'd seen him looking anything but cool and calm. Dare I say it, but he looked rattled. As I studied him through the glass he caught my eye and gestured for me to come over. A ball of nervous energy bubbled up inside me and I walked over to the boardroom apprehensively. As soon as I was there he popped his head out the door.

"Hey." He looked tired but managed a small smile.

"Hi."

"I have no right to ask you this and if you don't want to do it, I'll completely understand."

"What?" the nervous ball grew.

He dug in his pocket, pulled out a key and passed it over to me sneakily. "Please could you go to my place and get me some fresh clothes, I have to go to the client this afternoon and I have coffee on this shirt and quite frankly, I think I stink." He whispered.

I took the key between my fingers, "Sure."

"And a tooth brush and toothpaste."

I nodded.

"And deodorant. Some cologne, anything to help me look and feel a bit better." He smiled again and in that moment I think I would have probably done anything he asked me to. The thought worried me. A lot.

I turned to leave but he quickly whispered.

"And don't go stealing my underwear." He winked and disappeared back into the boardroom.

I arrived at Ben's apartment about half an hour later and it felt odd letting myself in. It was so relationship-y. I went straight to his bedroom and was surprised to find it looking neat and spotless. For some reason I had it in my head that men, particularly bachelors, were messy beer-can crushing, TV remote hogging slouches that left their smelly socks on the floor. But Ben was none of these things.

I walked over to his cupboard, opened it and gasped. There, row upon row upon row, where suits. The inside of his cupboard looked like one of those suit hire places where grooms go to get themselves kitted out for their weddings. I'd never seen so many suits in one place before, and I'd also never chosen one for anyone either. What was I meant to look for? Color? Cut? Shape...

Instead of that, I tried to imagine him in each one, until I came to a very smart black pinstripe one. I ran my hand over the fabric and imagined his body inside it- Oh God I was turning into a total perv. I took the suit out, grabbed a black shirt and black tie, I liked him in black, and then paused when I saw his underwear. Was I meant to bring him underwear too?

I reached out and picked one up. Yup, I remembered these guys. I remember these ones well! I grabbed some socks and looked around. Next to his bed were two bedside tables and my curiosity started getting the better of me. Suddenly I wanted to throw myself at the drawers, rummage through them and uncover all of Ben's secrets. I bet Ben had many.

I paused. I really shouldn't, right? But I did. I pulled one of the drawers open and looked inside. Nothing. Totally empty. I sighed and closed it feeling disappointed. Ben was still such a mysterious creature to me and a small clue would have gone a long way in helping me unravel that mystery.