Crazy little thing called love - Hardzello

- Forty-one . Kiss -

Joes PoV

It all basically happened in slow-motion.

He took a step closer, brought his hand up to my cheek and pulled me a little closer to him, his face only inches apart. I finally stopped talking when I recognized what he was doing.

My heartbeat was so fast I thought it would burst. Ben closed his eyes, I decided to do the same because kissing with open eyes would be awkward.

And then our lips connected. It was like a firework, I felt this touch in my whole body. After what felt like an eternity, I put my hand onto his hips and fell into the kiss. The one arm bandaged against my chest was very annoying right now, I would rather wrap my arms around him and hold him as close as I could, but no, my stupidity was the reason I would have to wait a few more days with that.

Bens lips were so soft, I could slightly taste that he had a smoke a few hours ago, but I couldn't care less.

When we parted, a big goofy smile was spread on Bens face, and I knew I possibly looked the same. I took his hand and went a few steps backwards, so that I could close the door again and we didn't have to stand there in the hallway.

He pushed the door close with his foot, not taking his eyes off me. We sat down on the couch, still looking at each other, but none of us has said a word.

"Okay...", I started and cleared my throat. "So you changed your mind? I need more context, please." Ben laughed and broke our eye contact, running his hand through his hair.

"Well.. I don't want to be just friends, I don't wanna do that." Now I let out a laugh and shook my head. "Yeah, I know what you meant, but I really wanna know why, what happened in these 30 minutes since you went out of that door?"

Bens smile was kind of shy, when he looked at me again. "Look, Joe, in this half an hour didn't happen much, it happened the second I met you, you idiot." He said that in the most adorable way ever, so I accepted that he called me that.

"You are the most amazing guy I ever met, so it should be no surprise that I was attracted to you from the very beginning. But you were straight... at least you told us so."

I punched him playfully. "Hey!" Ben smiled and tapped a finger on the tip of my nose. "Anyway... I got my crush under control, started to date Gwil and I don't know... You know, I really meant what I said before, I don't want another strange tension at work. But I know now that it's possible to stay friends, no weird tensions anymore... And god damn it, Joe, I wanted to give it a go so much, but I didn't want to risk anything."

"You talked to Gwil?"

Ben let out a laugh and ruffled through my hair. "That's the only thing you got out of my monologue? But yeah, I called him before, after I talked to Allen - turned out you already talked to him, so it wasn't as awkward as I expected and he pushed me to come here, he wished me luck and well... here I am."

That was really not what I expected, in these 30 minutes I really tried to come along with the fact that this would never work out in any good way, and now Ben sits in front of me, telling me that he liked me for what? Nearly ever since we met?

He opened his mouth to talk again, but this time I was faster, I moved forward and connected our lips again. He seemed to be caught off guard at first, but soon his lips moved against mine and the fireworks shot through my body again, before we parted due to loss of breath.

"One more question: what's the new plan now?"

Ben took my hand and intertwined our fingers. "We will see where this is going, no rush, we have all the time in the world. And, the most important, complete honesty - we need to communicate, no hidden feelings or untold stories. If we are gonna make this work, we need to tell each other everything. When you feel uncomfortable in any situation, I need to know that and we will work things out - I'm sure we will always find a way to deal with things."

"Will we tell the others?" - "Well... probably Gwil and Allen already know, since we talked to both of them. But I don't want to rush anything, let's just-"

I nodded and interrupted him. "Keep it professional at work for a while and then tell Rami and Lucy when we know how things are working out?" Ben nodded, but when I thought more about it, I started laughing. "What is it?" Ben had quite a confused look on his face.

"Rami will be so mad at me - do you remember when I got really angry with him because he said that I like you and that we were meant for each other? Oh he's gonna kill me. 'I knew it! I told you so! You were mad at me for no reason!' This is going to be torture."

Ben started laughing as well. "Sorry, honey, but you'll be fine."

He got up and offered me a hand. "But first - how about I'll take you on a date tonight, before we both have to go to work again tomorrow?"

"I would love that."

I took his hand, he pulled me up, directly into his arms, placing a peck on  my cheek before he moved on to my lips. But I pulled away and laughed, handing him his jacket.

"No kisses before our first date, Benjamin, you'll have to wait."