Love at your service

Chapter 8

After Todd and Jess had said their goodbyes, Todd decided that maybe he just would have that little talk with his boss after all. Even though Jess had asked him not too, he felt that he owed both his friends to try and sort out this misunderstanding. Jess deserved better than to have Ben think that she was some sort of maneater sleeping her way to the top and Ben needed to know that he wasn’t taken for a fool again.

After he quickly checked with his assistant that he didn’t have any urgent business to attend to, he took the elevator up to Ben’s floor and knocked on his door.

He heard some mumbling on the other side before the door was opened by a very dishevelled looking Ben. When Ben saw the other man standing in front of him, he ran his hand through his hair and his eyes were dark with anger when he spat out:
“What do you want?”.

To say that Todd was surprised at Ben’s rough question was to say the least. If he didn’t know any better, Todd pondered, it was HIM that Ben was mad at.
“Hey Ben, I was just coming by to see how you are. I mean, we didn’t really get to speak to each other after today’s meeting?”

Ben looked at him inquisitively, wondering what Todd was up to. Did he want to rub his relationship with Jess in his face? Or was he really concerned, or maybe SHE asked him to come up here in her defence. Neither of the possibilities sounded good to him. He looked at his friend and the thought that Jess and Todd might be together made him feel sick to his stomach. When he first heard Todd speak of Jess, he had thought that he sounded a bit infatuated with her. That was before he knew that they were talking about “HIS” Jess. Now he could understand why Todd would be attracted to her, God only knew HE was.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t feel much like talking”. As he said this, Ben turned around and walked back into his suite. He crossed the living-room to the bar and poured himself a glass of whisky and then downed it in one.
“Do you want one as well?”, Ben asked as he poured himself another one.

“Uh, no thanks, I am working late today, so I’ll pass. Are you okay, Ben? You seem a bit uptight about something. Does this have anything to do with Jess storming out of the meeting today?”.

When he saw Ben’s head snap up, Todd knew he had hit the right button. Ben’s glare could easily be described as “heated” or maybe “lethal” was a better word for it.

“What about her? She was the one that left in a hurry! I hadn’t even properly closed the meeting yet! I guess she had better things to do than listen to her boss? After her behavior in there today I am seriously doubting your decision to hire her Todd! Is she capable of doing her job and taking a little professional criticism or did you just think that she would look good behind that Front Desk!”. By now, Ben’s face had turned bright red and the words left his mouth rapidly, accusingly.

“Ben, for chrissake, you know me better than that! Or are you now doubting MY professionalism as well? What did she ever do to you anyway that you treated her the way you did in that meeting? It was an introductory meeting to begin with and not an opportunity to slag off my team. You know damn well that her occupancy rates are good, but you still had to give her an impossibly high target! If I didn’t know any better I would think that you yourself are the one with the hots for her!”. When he had uttered his last words, Todd realised that he went too far. One look at Ben’s stiff posture told him that.

“I saw you two in the Lobby just this afternoon. You looked very comfortable together”. Ben wanted to take the words back as soon as he had spoken them. Damn! He didn’t want Todd to know that it mattered to him. That maybe even SHE mattered to him.

Finally, Todd was relieved that Ben unknowingly admitted that the idea of Jess with anybody but him, disturbed him.

“Look, Ben, we go back a long way and I know you well enough to see that you are upset about something regarding Jess. I am very pleased to have her on my team, because she is one of the most dedicated, hard-working and knowledgeable FD managers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. That’s all there is to it though, she’s my co-worker and I think I can consider her to be a friend. I would have given anything for her to feel more than that for me, but she doesn’t. She just wants me as a friend. I am not the one she has feelings for by any chance”.

After hearing Todd’s last words, Ben looked up.
“You know about us don’t you?”.

“Yeah, she told me. Look Ben, she was really upset this afternoon with the way you treated her. She was just as shocked as you when she found out that YOU were Mr. Carter and that it was her boss that she spent a night with not long ago. If you think Jess is anything like Faith than you couldn’t be more wrong. Jess has integrity, besides she would never ever sleep with her boss, trust me!”

“You seem to know a lot about her for somebody who has only known her for, say what, 4 months?”, Ben couldn’t help feeling jealous even of the friendship Todd shared with Jess. Hell, he obviously knew a lot more about her than he himself did. And he had only spent the best night of his life with her and hadn’t been able to put her out his head ever since. Every single night it was sweet torture when he would dream about her beautiful soft body in his arms, the soft moans that had elicited from her throat when he had kissed her, caressed her. He could remember it all so vividly, that when he had seen her again unexpectedly this afternoon, as a member of his management team, it had felt like a slap in the face. Todd was right, he had immediately compared her with Faith and had failed to give her a chance to explain. Damn it, all he had really done was alienate her, then kiss her senseless and alienate her a little more. When he had left her in that hallway, she had looked almost physically ill at his behaviour. Great, now he felt even more guilty.

“Hmm, I guess we just like each other and as such we have had some good talks. Besides, my intuition tells me that she’s genuine, Ben, and I trust my intuition. Just like it told me that you would be a good boss and friend when we first met. Sometimes you have to go with what you feel and not always with what your brain tells you. So, what do you feel about her, Ben? You seem awfully upset with her, for somebody who doesn’t care?”

“Enough with the psych evaluation already, Todd! I guess I overreacted to her this afternoon and I will talk to her about it. Maybe even apologize to her, but that’s about as good as it gets, right? We decided then and there that we were just going to spend that one evening together and nothing more. Besides, I don’t have the time for a relationship, nor the energy, nor the will. So stop hassling me about it. After my meeting with Mr. Tremont tomorrow, I will fly back to New York and that’ll be it! Now, how about you leave me to get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow morning!”

With that said, Ben walked Todd over to the door and before he closed it behind his back, he muttered to him: “And uh, thanks for telling me about you and Jess, I might have gotten the wrong idea there otherwise”.

“Well, Ben, you just make it up to her ok? She deserves a second chance, after all”. Todd nodded once more and then turned around and headed over to the elevators, his mind a little more assured about the whole “Jess and Ben thing”.