AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not two seconds later, Ben succumbed to his exhaustion and fell asleep with his palm keeping him upright. I opened the door slowly, not wanting to frighten him awake. Though, I had to say that he looked very adorable at that moment. The cheek his palm was touching was slightly squashed, taking away his usual professional demeanor and just making him look like a regular person. An overworked person, but a regular one nonetheless. I still felt bad, however. He had been working so hard for the past week that it was evident he wasn’t getting enough rest, not to mention his father was around the newsroom sometimes. Thankfully, Johnson DuPont didn’t make an appearance today. I couldn’t imagine the countless snarky things he would say when he saw his son passed out from exhaustion in his own newsroom.
“Mm…” Ben uttered. For a second, I thought he was awake. But his slight snoring proved me wrong. I almost cooed in adoration when I heard the tiny noise he made, but I controlled myself. “O… livia…”
Now, what was I supposed to say to that? How was I supposed to feel? Oh, who was I kidding? I knew exactly what I felt.Butterflies. An immense amount of butterflies. It wasn’t every day that I could confirm that someone had dreamed about me, and it was even more special because it was Ben. This handsome, overworked man that I was definitely catching feelings for. Unable to take much more of my emotions, I placed a firm grasp on my heart and kneeled down next to him. As I did, his eyes immediately flashed awake, and when his beautiful green eyes met mine, his face visibly blushed, making him sit upright.
Ben cleared his throat, trying to steer away from what happened, and even though he was asleep, I knew that he understood that I caught him dreaming about me.
“Olivia,” he said, trying to cover up his cute embarrassment with his usual professional facade. “Can I help you?” It was a masterful performance of pretending like nothing happened.
“Oh, we’re not going to pretend that nothing happened, Ben,” I said with a small laugh as I stood back up again.
Ben’s eyes widened for a quick second, before his expression morphed into an amused one as well, accepting that he couldn’t escape this conversation no matter how hard he tried.
“Oh, we’re not?” His eyes challenged me, but he kept a respectable distance in case someone walked in.
Belatedly, I realized that we were, in fact, still in the newsroom. Anyone could just stumble upon us getting a little too close. So I took a few steps of caution back.
“You seem a little tired,” I said, pointing to his messy collar. One side had flipped up while the other remained in place. He looked down and quickly fixed it.
“Sorry you had to see me like that,” Ben admitted, trying to smile through the amount of work that was in front of him. I could never imagine how he had the patience to go through that much paperwork every single day. “Sometimes, I wish we had more time in Norway before we were dealt with all of this,” he confessed, looking at me with sincere eyes.
I simply nodded. “
Yeah, me too. Norway was…a lot of fun,” I replied, winking at him. He chuckled and shook his head. It was then that an idea popped into my head. I knew exactly how to get him away from his usual life, even if only for a couple of hours.
“Hey, do you want to come over to my place after we’re done with work?” I asked, my thumb pointing to the door behind me.
“Toyourplace?” he countered, eyebrows raising up mischievously.
“Not like that!” I immediately explained, putting my hands up to wave the idea off. “I mean… just… you know, hang out and maybe watch a movie?”
Ben smiled. “That sounds like a great time.”
“Uh… C-Cool! I’ll uh… see you later, then?” I stammered as I slowly backed away toward the door.
Okay, his gaze was absolutely going to melt me. It was both soft and piercing at the same time, and not to mention his absolutely gorgeous smile! I had to get out of there before I became a puddle. So, without giving him another moment to respond, I rushed out the door and I could faintly hear his sweet chuckle behind the door.
When I left a few hours later, I was completely certain I had lost my damn mind.
Ihonestly swearto god I didn’t know what I was thinking when I invited the one and only Ben Oviatt over to my apartment. I wasn’t thinking of the fact that he could very much be a billionaire. Hell, I was actually confident that heindeedwas a billionaire! And he was going to be here, in my shoebox size studio apartment.
And I couldn’t even get started with how I actually let him ride in a taxi like a non-one percent person likeyours truly. His face might not have shown any form of disgust, but maybe he was just acting that way to not hurt my feelings. And a taxi was actually a luxury for me. Imagine if I’d forced him on the subway!
Great, well, this was a perfect way for him to get to know you better, Olivia. You did a great job coming up with this idea.
But he was just so tired in the meeting room, and I couldn’t ignore that. He obviously needed a breather. Well, we were already ascending to the third floor of my building by foot, so there was no turning back now. I was even surprised at how quickly we got here, and I was kind of hoping that he was going to remember that he had some place else to be. Then this night would be aborted, prompting my evasion of embarrassing myself tonight, but I wasn’t so lucky.
“Relax,” Ben said, rubbing the small of my back so temptingly as I was visibly fumbling for my keys in my purse. The heat of his hand was definitely making me heated as well, but I resisted it. I had to get through to letting him inside my five-star apartment first because, like I said, there was no turning back now.
Still, taking a deep breath, I opened the door revealing a studio apartment with kind of outdated finishes. Immediately greeting us from the door was a small kitchen, and on the right from that was my small bathroom. Everything about this place was small, but then again, there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with Ben’s lifestyle, no matter how hard I tried.
“I know it’s not much, but… it’s home for me in this crazy city,” I confessed as I placed my purse down the kitchen countertop. In front of the kitchen area was a small table with four chairs. A few steps further was my living area: a two-seater sofa on the left wall facing a tiny coffee table where I usually just put my feet down instead of anything else. Across to the right, my television was mounted on the wall. Stuffed bookshelves lined the wall under the television. Beyond the living area was the sleeping area with a bed. It was actually luxurious in that it had some columns that ever so slightly set it apart. There were a few large windows with deep sills where I had plants growing. I loved how much natural light filled the space.
Besides a few pieces of mail and a magazine on the coffee table, I kept the place pretty tidy.
“But you know, make yourself at home,” I said, trying to up my confidence a little. I was aware there was nothing to be ashamed of, and I was definitely overthinking it. I just had to relax.
Ben looked around a bit, not that there was much to look around at, but I could tell that the smile on his face was genuine.
