Chapter 12
12
Lauren was jerked from the depths of a sound sleep by the simultaneous and discordant clanging blares of both their cell phone alarm clocks.
Her head snapped up, and she was, for a moment, disoriented. Her first thought to herself was, Oh my Lord, I had the strangest dream last ... But that train of thought was interrupted by a quick glance around the room, which brought the realization that it wasn’t a dream after all. Her gaze almost immediately alighted on Ben sharing the bed with her.
Oooohhhhh, yeah, she remembered, coming fully awake. So, yeah. That happened.
She did a quick mental inventory of her body under the covers. Yep. Naked. So...absolutely, one hundred percent certain. Not a dream.
Lauren, still fuzzy-headed enough with sleep that she couldn't think of exactly what the right words to greet Ben with this morning might be, raised a hand and waved to him uncertainly. Then, feeling like an idiot, snatched it back down almost immediately.
She was happy, at least, to see that Ben seemed equally uncertain—although his unsure state of mind expressed itself by being overly cheerful, overly bright; acting as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
He sprang out of bed, sheet wrapped around his waist, and exclaimed, "Morning. We should probably be getting ready, because we're going to need to be at the airport to catch that connector flight in about an hour."
This is good , Lauren thought. He’s giving us a path to take . Overly bright. I can do that. I can do overly bright in my sleep.
She smiled cheerfully. "Good plan," she enthused supportively. "Would you like to use the bathroom first?"
"No,” he said graciously. "Why don't you take the bathroom first? I mean, you have the whole makeup thing to do. Guys lucked out, missing out on that. That takes time."
"That's really thoughtful of you," Lauren replied. "I believe I will take you up on that."
Then, with the other sheet wrapped firmly around her body, she made a quick exit to the bathroom, grabbing her overnight bag on the way in. She turned the shower on and got in, gratefully escaping to the oblivion provided by hot water and steam.
They went through their morning routines, packed up their suitcases, left the room, and took a taxi back to the airport, each still maintaining their overly solicitous manner towards each other.
While waiting at the gate, Ben was kind enough to buy her coffee, for which she profusely thanked him and he insisted was nothing. She replied by saying that it was such a thoughtful gesture. The polite exchange left her with a miserably sinking feeling that this could actually go on and on for an eternity; both of them being exceedingly polite and amiable with each other and never really acting naturally ever again.
She felt like, in many ways, she would prefer their old bickering dynamic. At least there was some passion there, some blood, some heat. At least it was real .
The short flight passed quickly and in silence, both of them completely focused on their laptops in front of them. The instant they got off the plane, they were whisked to the location and immediately put into wardrobe and makeup.
Before Lauren knew it, they were standing in place for the first setup. Paul, the director, came in and began to walk them through it. Lauren was extremely nervous and fidgety, fearing a replay of the disaster that was her screen test before Ben came to her aid.
"You doing okay?" Ben asked as he pulled her aside.
She nodded fleetingly, but he was clearly not convinced.
"Are you nervous about this or..." He eyed her meaningfully.
The last thing Lauren wanted was to get into a conversation with Ben about their late-night escapades in a place where they could possibly be overheard by the director and entire crew, so she quickly assured him, "This, this! I'm nervous about this. You know, it's just first-day jitters, the camera, all that."
Ben smiled, looking relieved. "Well, try not to be," he said. "I know that's easier said than done, but really just try to remember what I told you about picturing a friend inside the lens of the camera. Every single person out there watching the show, Lauren—they're rooting for you. They want to connect with you. They want to be your friend. It's just up to you to let them. Use that. Picture Sam in there, or Karina, or Amanda. Talk the way you talked to Karina when you were showing her the house she ended up buying. You're really good at this, Lauren. You're gonna be fantastic."
He smiled at her, and she thought that it was probably the first truly genuine smile he’d given her all morning. That alone made her feel better than the entire pep talk—and it was a pretty damn good pep talk, too.
She took a deep breath and felt herself relax a bit. Although her jitters weren’t entirely gone, at least she wasn't wound up as tight as a coiled jack-in-the-box anymore, ready to spring out of her skin at the slightest provocation.
Just a few moments after their exchange, the director yelled, “Action!” for the first time, and Ben and Lauren launched into their introductory remarks about the property. Lauren was extremely prepared. The cue cards were hardly a necessity because she’d done all of her research and knew the facts of the home well.
After three takes, though, she didn't need Paul to tell her that she was being stiff. Even she could hear the wooden quality in her own voice—the simple, bare recitation of facts with no passion, warmth, or engagement behind it.
She shook her hands to try to release some tension and rolled her head back and forth to stretch out her neck. She knew that this was just nerves. God, she hoped it was just nerves. She really needed to break past this tension that was holding her so stiff.
Not knowing what to do to accomplish that, she turned to Ben, her eyes a bit wide. She recognized that she was sinking and didn't know how to pull herself back up.
"This is not going well," she whispered tensely. "Any other suggestions?"
Ben glanced over at Paul and then back at Lauren, a sly smile slowly growing on his face. He leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"Well, if none of my previous suggestions work, then maybe I can find a little hidden corner of this house and use my other special techniques to loosen you up."
Lauren couldn't help it. The shock of hearing him whisper that to her in front of all those people, with cameras trained on them, had a powerful two-pronged effect on her.
First of all, she thought it was hilarious and started to laugh. Second, she felt a rush of primal heat power through her, which had the unexpected side effect of completely loosening up her tense neck and shoulder muscles, relaxing her immediately.
Ben stood up straight, smiling at her, clearly delighted at hearing her laugh. "See? That wasn't so hard. Come on, Lauren. I know you can do it. You're one of the most capable people I’ve ever met. You’ve got this," he said supportively.
She smiled, actually believing him, feeling her confidence surge.
Paul, fresh from a conversation with one of the PAs, walked over just at that moment and said, "All right! This is great. I already like it better. Just the energy and the dynamic of how you two are standing. Very good. Much more relaxed, much more comfortable with one another. Let's go again, and let's try to keep that energy."
Lauren and Ben nodded, and Lauren smiled up at Ben, realizing that not only had he saved her ass, but he had done it by merely bringing out a side of her that had already existed. She took a deep breath and felt not nervous this time, but excited. Pumped up. Ready to take on this challenge.
She was shocked at the way that moment with Ben seemed to be a magic switch. She and Ben were in the zone, joking around, doing perfect takes on the first try, interacting with the crew, laughing—basically kicking their job's ass.
Lauren couldn't remember the last time she had felt so confident, so powerful, so on top of her game as she did during the shoot.
Even the crew members were continually coming up and telling them that it was the best shoot they'd been on. When Lauren asked Ben if they were just kissing butt and it was the kind of thing they said all the time or if it was actually true, Ben shook his head.
"No, they're not like that," he said before letting out a short bark of laughter. "Trust me. They don't care enough about what we think to make stuff up or be that interested in stroking our egos. We're not that famous."
She smiled, again recognizing the ring of truth in what he said and feeling gratified that she could take the crew's flattering words at face value.
When the day was done and she and Ben were waiting in the town car for the ride back to the airport and their flight back to Hope Falls; Ben looked at her, eager anticipation in his face.
"So, what did you think?" he asked.
She smiled broadly and then reached up and stroked the side of his face.
"I think," she said happily, "that I've found a second career."
--- ~ ---
Lauren's high lasted about as long as the flight did. And when the plane descended from the clouds, so did Lauren's heady emotions. As their hired town car drove them back up the mountain to Hope Falls, Lauren found herself drawing more and more inside herself, putting up her old walls, wondering why she’d felt so free with Ben during the past couple of days.
It wasn't that she didn't like him. She realized now that she did, quite a lot, and that’s exactly what scared her. Things with Ben were moving too fast. She couldn't let herself develop feelings for him. There was no guarantee that the show was going to go forward, after all. As far as she knew, they were going to see each other for the very last time in two weeks. What kind of condition would her heart be in the day after he left if she let herself fall head over heels for this guy?
She studied him surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye. I mean, look at him , she told herself miserably. He's ridiculously handsome, chiseled in a Greek god sort of way. He's on a television show, and he lives in LA, where he's probably surrounded by starlets—the guy's gotta be a player.
She figured she was probably just his latest weekend conquest, except that this particular 'weekend' happened to last several weeks.
Do not, Lauren, she cautioned herself. Do not get caught up in his web of charm.
When she was growing up, her dad, who was a ‘businessman’ was also a charmer. To this day, Lauren didn’t know what his ‘business’ was. Only that he was always out of town because of it and always working an angle. In both his personal and professional life. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d watched women fall all over themselves around her too-good-looking-for-his-own-good father. Then she watched as he’d chew them up and spit them out.
Her mother had never seemed to notice or care. She was more interested in what was at the bottom of a bottle. She confronted her mother once about her father’s behavior when she was a teenager, and she would never forget the dead look in her mother’s eyes as she said, “I’m a forty-year-old ex-model. I have no work skills, and no other man would want me now.”
It still made Lauren sick to her stomach when she thought about it. Lauren promised herself that day that she would never be that woman. She would never depend on a man. Never .
Lauren sighed and settled back in the seat, pulling out her laptop so she could work for the rest of the drive back to Hope Falls.
Yes, she realized, their little out-of-town jaunt had been the equivalent of a vacation—a vacation from herself—and now it was time to come back home and settle into her normal routine.
She had a long list of things to take care of, and she figured it would be best for the both of them if, rather than having some big blowout or confrontation where they talk about the state of their non-relationship, she would, instead, simply use non-verbal cues to put some subtle distance between them.
She decided that would be less hurtful all the way around.
As she tried to concentrate on her work, she could feel Ben’s eyes on her. When she looked up, she saw Ben smiling at her sweetly and she had to remind herself not to cave. Be strong , she told herself. No matter what sexy words come after that sexy smile, be strong. Remember what you have to do here.
Ben reached over and brushed her blonde hair away from her face—or rather, since Lauren always had every single strand of her hair perfectly in place at all times, it was more like his fingertips traced the line of where her hair swept back from her forehead into a perfect chignon.
Nevertheless, the tingles it sent skittering across her scalp and down her spine made it very difficult to hold her resolve. Her eyes immediately flew back to her computer screen.
"Penny for your thoughts, beautiful," he said softly.
Without even looking up from her laptop, she said in a clipped tone, "Just working."
Ben's hand froze at the nape of her neck, and she realized that he was taking note of her chilly demeanor. Apparently deciding to move on as if nothing had changed, he said in a flirty tone, "So, you happy to be home, gorgeous?"
Again, not looking up or making eye contact with him, she said distractedly, "Mmmm...yeah. Lots of work."
Ben sighed.
She felt horrible doing this to him but again reminded herself that, in the long run, it would be much less painful for everyone.
Evidently determined that he wasn't going to give up without a fight, he gave it one last try. "So, I got asked to host a charity event in Hope Falls this weekend. The Hometown Heroes Ball, I think?"
At this, Lauren couldn't stop herself from looking up, her eyes widening.
"That's this weekend?" she said in surprise.
His face had a puzzled expression. "Um, let me check my schedule," he said, pulling out his phone. He paged through a few screens on his calendar and said, "Yep. This weekend, Hometown Heroes Ball, Hope Falls. Next weekend, children's wing dedication at Grace Memorial in Sacramento. Following weekend, bachelor auction, San Francisco."
Lauren crinkled her forehead. "You have a charity event every weekend?"
Ben laughed and said, "Oh, the first season of the show? Absolutely. I had more than one every weekend. But now I have it written into my contract that I have one weekend per month off completely. And any weekend I am working, I get either Saturday or Sunday to myself. No working all week and then working all weekend as well."
Lauren leaned back in the seat, flabbergasted. "How on earth do you manage to show houses?" she asked. "Weekends are my busiest time. They are for any real estate agent."
Ben laughed again, shaking his head. "Oh, Lauren. You're about to enter a world of everybody wanting to be close to you. You're never going to have to prospect for clients again. People are going to come to you, wanting to use you simply because they've seen you on the show, and either they trust you based on what they've seen there or they feel like, by using you as their agent, they're actually purchasing up a little bit of your time. Paying, if you will, to become a small part of a famous person's life. Believe me, you are never going to have to worry about showing another house yourself ever again."
Lauren was rendered nearly speechless. "You mean, you don't actually conduct showings and close deals yourself?"
"Oh, I absolutely handle the final negotiations. I wouldn't trust anyone else to do that. However, most of the legwork is done by two people I have working in my office. Two amazing people I would trust with my life. I mean, I kind of do, in a way, by trusting them with my business."
"I don't know if I could have an assistant," Lauren said dubiously.
"You're probably going to have to," Ben replied. "As difficult as I know that is to imagine, considering how much you like to be in control."
As he said the last part, his voice lowered and vivid memories of their night together flashed through her head, and she could tell by his voice, it was happening to him too.
Her breathing became shallow and she had to exercise every bit of iron will she possessed not to snap her laptop shut, shove it back into her bag, and straddle him right there in the limo.
Ben smiled seductively, obviously reading in her face the effect he was having on her. Never one to miss an opportunity to close a deal, he followed up this small success by saying jauntily, "So, what do you say, Lauren? Would you like to be my date to the Hometown Heroes Ball?"
She shook her head, breaking the spell he was weaving over her.
"I can't," she said with genuine regret. "I have plans to go with a friend. I just forgot it was this weekend."
At that exact moment, the town car was pulling up in front of her house, saving her from the further embarrassment or discomfort of having to explain who that friend might be. She grabbed her bags—without waiting for either Ben or the driver to open the door for her—and scampered out as quickly as she could.
Ben leaned out of the car, obviously wanting to have one more exchange with her, one more chance to solidify the realness of what they shared during the past forty-eight hours.
"Lauren," he called as she was halfway up her walk.
She turned reluctantly.
"I had a really good time," he said.
"So did I," she replied with a slight smile, "but you know what they say. What happens in Aspen stays in Aspen."
Ben looked confused as he pulled his head back in the window. "I've never actually heard that version." He looked at her like he wasn’t quite sure why she was acting the way she was.
As the town car drove away and Lauren turned back to continue her way up to her front door, she said under her breath, "That's probably because it might not actually be true."