Three whole days in which he seemed increasingly unable to go for any considerable period of time without thinking about her. As the hours had worn on, and he had still not run into her, he had begun to grow increasingly frustrated.
In a town the size of Hope Falls, for God's sake...what were the chances that you could go for three whole days and not run into someone?
Pretty slim.
Did it mean she was avoiding him?
Quite possible. She certainly didn't seem fond of him. However, Ben suspected that underneath the layers of her tightly-wound exterior, she enjoyed their verbal sparring as much as he did.
Ben smiled inwardly. It was pretty adorable the way he was able to get her back up so easily. Honestly, it was getting to the point where he wanted to see her so badly that he didn't even care if he had an unpleasant interaction with her, as long as he was able to have some sort of interaction.
He didn't stop to analyze what this sudden and unexpected addiction to the company of Lauren Harrison might mean. After all, in less than two weeks he would be gone from Hope Falls forever, and would probably never lay eyes on her again. This was an aberration, an anomaly. He had never reacted this way to another woman before, he doubted he ever would again. So why not just enjoy it while it lasted? That was his philosophy.
As the shoot was wrapping, Ben was starting to reconcile himself to the idea that he might not encounter Lauren that day at all. As luck would have it, though, that was the exact moment that she stepped out of her office door, accompanied by the well-dressed couple that Ben had seen entering Lauren's office an hour ago.
She was speaking animatedly, her hands gesturing engagingly to make her point. It was clear that whatever her subject, she was very enthusiastic about it. Ben stood, mesmerized by the sight, realizing that this was something that he had not actually seen before: Lauren, completely carefree and unruffled. It was something that she had never been in his presence. He realized with awe that, as adorable as he found her when her ire was raised, she was even more attractive when she was happy and excited.
This wasn't an effect that she was only having on Ben. The husband and wife couple who were accompanying Lauren seemed equally taken with her passion for whatever she was talking about. They were completely engrossed in what she was saying.
As the three of them turned, though, clearly headed for Lauren's car, they caught sight of Ben and the cameras across the street. The woman's face lit up at the exact same instant that Lauren's did the opposite, and she turned and began excitedly speaking to Lauren.
Lauren's tight expression lasted only an instant, and was replaced with a countenance of benign professionalism the instant that the woman began speaking with her. One would have to work very hard to be able to tell that Lauren's placid exterior was completely false, but Ben knew. He had seen that expression enough times by now. It was the same cold, tight, carefully professional smile that she wore pretty much any time he was around.
Ben smiled to himself. He couldn't make himself care that she didn't light up with genuine happiness whenever he was around. Rather, just like a mischievous elementary school boy who had just pulled the pigtails of a pretty classmate on whom he had a crush, he could only take delight in the fact that she had noticed him.
Lauren and the couple began to make their way across the street toward him, and he smiled magnanimously, raising his hand in greeting.
As they reached him, Lauren said, with a warmth that – again – you would have to work very hard to be able to see was false, “Ben! So nice to see you again. I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Carter. They're big fans of Home Sweet Home.”
Ben glowed from within. This was his element. Fans. He could charm the socks off of them. And maybe, he mused, this would even be a chance for him to ingratiate himself with Lauren. After all, if he could make her look good in front of her clients, then she would have to be a little grateful, right?
I mean, sure, she may be a slightly annoyed that her clients wanted to come meet him, but if he was able to make a good impression, raise her in their estimation, hell... she couldn't be mad at that, could she?
Ben shook hands with the couple, wearing his highest wattage smile, chatting with them as if he were the one who was lucky to be meeting them, rather than the other way around. That was the key to charming fans, he had found – always turn the tables, always make them feel like they are the ones who are the most important part of the interaction.
The Carters then asked, almost shyly, if he would mind taking a picture with them. Again, just like that mischievous schoolboy, Ben felt a little thrill of perverse glee at the hard glint of annoyance that he saw spark in Lauren's eyes when they made this request.
Ben stood in between Mr. and Mrs. Carter, an arm slung companionably over each of their shoulders, smiling widely as Lauren snapped the picture and held the camera out so they could survey the results, with which they were quite pleased.
Then, just to stir things up, Ben decided to kick the situation up a notch and make things memorable. He smiled and said, “Lauren, would you like to take a picture with me?”
Lauren gave her best imitation of a gracious smile and, with faux warmth said, “No, thank you Ben, that's so generous but I wouldn't want to take any more of your time.”
“Oh nonsense,” he said cheerfully, gesturing expansively for her to come stand next to him, “It will take two seconds.”
Her calm exterior was not ruffled – it never was – but in her eyes he could see that she was quickly growing livid. God, he just couldn't help it, he found her so cute when she got mad!
“Here,” he said, pulling his smart phone from his back pocket, “we can even take it with my phone.”
Ben tapped a few buttons on the screen of his phone, bringing up the camera application. He handed the phone to Mr. Carter, saying, “Do you mind sir? Just press this button here.”
“Oh no, not at all,” boomed Mr. Carter gregariously, “Happy to, happy to. Isn't that nice of Mr. Stevens, Lauren?”
Lauren smiled tightly, “Oh yes, so nice,” she agreed.
Lauren crossed to him in two steps, and turned to face the couple, standing next to Ben. As Mr. Carter held the phone up in front of him, his face crinkled in concentration, Ben slid his hand intimately around Lauren's waist and leaned his mouth down close to her ear, inhaling the intoxicating scent of her, and whispered intensely, just low enough so that Mr. and Mrs. Carter could not hear him, “Damn, you smell good enough to eat.”
He heard the phone's camera click as it took the photo at the exact instant that Lauren pulled away and turned a shocked expression toward him.
Stepping quickly back over to her clients, Lauren did not respond to his remark. Mr. Carter handed the phone back to him and Ben glanced down at it, looking at the photo. Yup, just as he had suspected, he was looking down at her with a wide grin spread across his face and she was looking up at him in shock.
He chuckled, “It's perfect,” and then winked at Lauren.
Her only response was her trademark tight smile.
Ben nodded at her and said, “I'll e-mail you a copy of this, Lauren.”
Lauren said, a warm tone in her voice for the benefit of her clients, “I'll look forward to that, thank you.”
Ben knew how much it must be costing her to maintain that calm and pleasant tone. As he watched her walk back across the street with her clients, the three of them climbing into her Mercedes and zooming off, he shook his head.
Damn! What was it about this woman that made it so much fun to get her goat?
He stopped short, realizing that he could have actually cut off that sentence right in the middle, and it would have been an equally valid inquiry.
Just plain... damn, what was it about this woman?
--- ~ ---
After two weeks of walking around town constantly on edge, wondering if she was going to have a run-in with Ben – a fear which was not unfounded as she had had several extremely uncomforta
ble encounters with him – Lauren could not have been happier that production was at an end and the entire crew, including their infuriating host, was getting ready to pack up and leave town.
She was so happy in fact, that she felt she could be magnanimous and attended the wrap party at Sue Ann's Café that evening. Every instinct inside her screamed that she didn't want to go, as she would surely see Ben there, and he was the most frustrating person she had ever met.
But, as Hope Falls' premium real estate agent, the one who had in fact found the home that the episode was centering on, it would look conspicuous if she didn't attend the wrap party.
Besides, she told herself, everyone in Hope Falls is going to be there. It won't be difficult to keep my distance.
And keeping her distance was precisely what she planned to do. She planned to stay far, far away from Mr. Ben Stevens. She couldn't believe how brazen he was. ‘Smells good enough to eat.' The nerve of him!
She was by no means a prude, but my Lord! What on earth had made him think that that was even in the neighborhood of an appropriate thing to say to her? And, a question that was even more frustrating for her to try to answer, why – for the love of God – were those words playing on a constant loop in her head since he had practically growled them into her ear? And why, did they inspire a visual every time she heard them echo in her mind, of him doing precisely that – eating her up? And why did her panties get wet just thinking about it?
STOP! She had to stop this line of thinking right now. It was ludicrous. It was never going to happen. She was so glad that Ben would be out of her life – and hopefully out of her head – after tonight. She could not be more thrilled to see him go.
Lauren pushed open the front door to Sue Ann's Café, immediately spotting Sam Karina and Amanda seated at a four top across the room, with one empty chair. She crossed quickly to them, seeking the comfort of friends, not wanting to be caught out alone if she were to see Ben right away. The three girls looked up at her as she arrived at the table.
“There she is, the woman of the hour,” Karina exclaimed, “We've been saving a seat for you, girl!”
They all picked up their purses from the empty chair and Lauren settled herself into it. “Hi girls,” she greeted them, “am I happy to see you!”
Sam smiled a little mischievously. “Really?” She asked with a false innocence in her voice, “I wouldn't have thought that we were the ones that you would be looking forward to seeing here.”
Amanda and Karina cracked up. Lauren arched her eyebrows.
“I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about,” she said airily.
Amanda snorted, “You, my friend, are the Worst. Liar. Ever.” she said, but with a healthy dose of affection in her voice.
Just then, Bernie, Karina's agent, walked up to their table.
“There she is!” he exclaimed, “just the tall leggy blonde I was looking for. I have good news for you, Bubeleh. The producers have decided to go forward with the spinoff. They're looking for a female co-host.”
Lauren grimaced, “What does that have to do with me?”
Bernie sighed, “Again. What would any of you do without me? I'm still saying, you would be perfect for the job. There will be travel involved but it will be based in Hope Falls. Ben and his co-host will record the intro and exit from every show in Hope Falls. They want the town to give the show its personality.”
Lauren swallowed audibly, loudly even. In fact, she realized in chagrin that what she had just done could be most accurately described as a gulp.
She said to Bernie, trying to keep her voice as even as possible, “So this means that Ben won't be leaving Hope Falls?”
“Not for quite a while anyway. Of course there will still be the original version of Home Sweet Home that will need to be produced, and that tapes out of Los Angeles, so he will definitely be splitting his time. But yes, now that you ask, he will be around for the foreseeable future.”
Lauren refused to look over at the three girls, but she could feel the laser heat of their knowing smiles burning into the back of her head as she continued to look directly at Bernie.
“If the spinoff gets picked up that is,” he continued, “Which, bubeleh, you had better hope it does, because that would be very good for you.”
“In what way exactly would that be very good for me?” Lauren asked in genuine puzzlement.
“So, listen,” Bernie said, “And try to pay attention, will you? I pulled some strings, bubeleh, and I managed to get you a screen test with Ben tomorrow.”
“Screen test?” Lauren asked, dismayed.
“Right, right, it's when they film you and Ben, doing some lines of dialogue from the show...see what your chemistry's like, see how you come across on camera, et cetera, et cetera.”
“I'm not a television personality, I'm a real estate agent,” Lauren protested.
Bernie threw up his hands, “Does no one listen to me when I tell them that that's where I come in?” he lamented, “Bubeleh, listen...that's where I come in.”
Before Lauren could even process all of the information that was being thrown at her, the woman from the production team who had handled the original lease agreements came up to the group and grabbed her arm urgently.
“So, production's going to be extending its stay for a while longer,” she said, “Can we get the leases extended on the properties that we've been renting?”
Lauren opened her mouth to answer, but Ben suddenly appeared just behind Bernie's shoulder, laughing and asking her, “So, have you heard the good news, Lauren? I'm gonna be staying in town a while longer.”
He followed this up with a teasing wink.
Lauren's head was spinning. She didn't know who or what to address first. The noise of the crowd seemed overwhelming. She needed to get some semblance of control back.
Since her first instinct was always to take care of business straightaway, she chose to deal with the production assistant before all else.
“I'll get in touch with the owners,” she said, “I don't foresee there being a problem. I'll finalize the details and get in touch with you tomorrow.”
She then turned her attention to Bernie, saying, “Thank you so much for your efforts, and the opportunity, Bernie. But, I am not interested in taking any kind of test, and I have no desire to be on any kind of show.”
Then, turning quickly to Ben, she said, “And I assume that what you asked me was a rhetorical question, since that seems to be all anyone can talk about.”
Then, with all of the poise and grace that she was able to muster under the circumstances, she pulled on her coat, grabbed her purse, and strode purposefully out the door.
Chapter Four
Lauren still could not believe she was doing this. A screen test. Good Lord! Thinking that she could be on a television show? Double good Lord.
But The Fabulous Four had staged a late-night intervention. They reminded her how capable she was. They reminded her how professional she was. They reminded her of what an amazing opportunity this was. Most of all? They reminded her that if she didn't score this gig, some other real estate agent was going to swoop in and become Hope Falls' top dog realtor. They would take all the glory, and - what really mattered to Lauren - all the commissions.
No. Not going to happen. Not without a fight.
That was the problem with this reality TV show, as the Fab Four had reminded her. They actually used real agents, not actors, so anyone that was cast would be here in Hope Falls, running their own competing real estate agency, and they would be high profile. A celebrity, even.
And since the majority of Lauren’s clientele was not from Hope Falls, but rather out of towners looking for high end vacation property, Lauren could not risk another agent coming in and stealing the spotlight.
That had been her take on it last night, at any rate. Oh, man. Last night, everything had seemed so clear. There was an obstacle, she was going to overcome it. Simple!
But now that she was here,
she was seriously reconsidering. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous. She always excelled at tests, any kind of test. And, let's be serious, how hard could this really be? It’s not like it was brain surgery.
She had memorized the several lines of dialogue they had given her when she had arrived. All she had to do was say them. She could talk, she'd been doing it all her life. She did it for a living, and quite successfully.
So why the nerves?
She looked around the room. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but she was surprised to see several other candidates there.
They were all very attractive and dressed similarly to Lauren. One of them was doing ‘facial exercises’ and another other was repeating the short script over and over. All of the others were touching up their caked on make-up.
Lauren shook her head. Good lord, were these real estate agents or debutantes? She, for one, had work to do if there was going to be downtime. Deciding she would use this time to go over her e-mails, she pulled out her blackberry and began typing away.
Suddenly, she felt a shift in the room and the noisy chatter grew louder by a factor of several degrees.
She glanced up to see that Ben had strolled in and was now surrounded by admirers.
Of course he was.
She could not honestly believe how these seemingly normal women were behaving! It was a disgrace. They were professionals, for Pete’s sake. Did they have no pride? And if not, did they have no concern for personal branding?
Did they honestly think, furthermore, that if they threw themselves at Ben they would somehow get a leg-up (pun intended) on the competition?
These girls had zero self-respect. She was appalled.
Ben made his way over to Lauren, who, for her part, was doing her best to ignore him.
“I didn’t think you were coming,” he said smugly.
Well, Lauren conceded, at least it sounded smug to her ears. But maybe she was just nervous.
“I’m guess I’m just full of surprises,” Lauren said dryly.
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