(NEW) ELEVEN O CLOCK GIRL...

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We'd gotten back to our new hotel a few hours ago already and Ness hadn't left my side. She was currently sitting on my bed babbling about her ex boyfriend and a whole bunch of shit I wasn't even vaguely interested in. I sipped my second glass of wine trying to act like I was listening while all I could think about was Ben. My phone beeped just as she had started telling me about a guy in college that she still had feelings for.

Ben: Is she still there?

Sera: Are you spying on me?

Ben: Yes.

Sera: Well then you know she's still here.

Ben: When is she going to leave?

Sera: Doesn't look like any time soon.

Ben: Come round to my place tomorrow night after you've finished your shift.

Sera: Ok.

Ben: So it's a date?

I tried not to smile.

Sera: Fine. You win. It's a date.

Ben: About time. P.s  If Ness hadn't walked into that tent earlier, I would have made love to you right there and then.

I half chocked slash spat out my wine.

"What?" Ness asked looking curious. "Bad news?"

I shook my head. "Nooo. Just, just... you know?"

"Men?" She asked pointedly and then looked me up and down.

I nodded and 'uummed' at her, as if we were sharing some girl bonding thing. Something very unfamiliar to me. I'd missed out on the whole teen girl late night gossip thing years ago while I was fishing my drunken father up off the floor and working so that the family could eat. Another message pinged on my phone.

Ben: You could always come over later? Maybe I could still do that?

This time I tried not to splutter and show the redness that I'm sure had just flushed across my cheeks. I put my phone away and wished that was the case. The last thing I wanted was to be sitting here having small chat.

Sera: I'll see you tomorrow night after work.

Ben: I'll be waiting up for you

**

The next day passed in such an exhausted haze. We all woke up early and headed out to the desert again where we watched Giovanni taking pictures of various car parts. Then we caught that same tin can to the international airport, then flew all the way back to Johannesburg and said our goodbyes at the airport. It was Sunday, so at least we'd all get a bit of rest before work in the morning. I landed up catching a taxi back home, I'd secretly been hoping that Ben could take me, but he had a family thing this afternoon.

When I arrived home I had the house to myself, JJ and Bruce were doing stock take and I was only to happy to wiggle out of that one. I was also feeling rather anxious about seeing Ben later, and it would be sooner than he'd expected. He'd forgotten that I didn't have work on a Sunday so he'd been seeing me a whole lot earlier than planned. Not that he would mind. I sat and watched the clock until it finally hit 6 pm. I hadn't heard or seen him come back, but since it was early evening- technically- his afternoon family thing should be over and I was eager to rush over there and surprise him. I did one last obsessive hair and face check, before rushing out the door to his house.

But the second he came to the door and saw me, I knew something was wrong.

I should have turned away and walked back home, but I didn't.

"Hi."

"Hey." He seemed totally distracted and glanced behind himself nervously, as if someone was in his house. "I thought you were going to work tonight." His tone was strange, I'd never heard his voice like that before, nor had I ever seen the strange, almost unreadable look that played on his face.

"I don't have work tonight." I studied his face in silence and it was very obvious that something was up.

"Ben?" There was a desperation in my voice that I couldn't hide.

He said nothing. An invisible force punched me in the stomach and I knew something was very wrong. My suspicions were confirmed when Ben crept out and closed the door behind him quietly—What was he hiding?

"Now is not really the best time," he said. "I've kind of got..." He paused and looked guilty as hell. "...company."

"Company? Oh." Images of Samantha and Cindy and gold condom wrappers flashed through my mind as I looked at him and tried not to show the utter hurt on my face. Meanwhile, my insides turned to mush.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching out towards me as if he was trying to apologize—Apologize for what exactly? I'm sorry I fucked you, told you I loved you then flirted with you relentlessly, lead you on and kissed you and perused you, almost beat a guy up for you and now had been caught with someone else. I didn't think there was a Hallmark card for that.

I stepped back and held up my hands. "No need. It's okay. I totally understand."

He nodded at me and gave a kind of half-hearted smile that looked like it took absolutely no effort whatsoever. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to take from that.

"Come back later." He said—Seriously? Now he wanted me to come back later after he'd sexed-up-a-storm with six -o -clock girl. Maybe I was eleven-o- clock girl. Perhaps there was a girl for every hour of the day and damn week.

"Maybe not," I said, walking away, feeling more hurt than I knew I should have been feeling. I felt like a complete idiot for thinking that all the flirting might have meant that he actually wanted me, or wanted only me. But now I knew. I couldn't blame him really. It was pretty obvious what kind of guy he was right from the start, from the very moment we met. Ben was a hot, dangerous man-whore who kept emergency condoms in his travel bag. It was who he was. I couldn't be angry with him for that—could I? And it's not like he'd kept it from me, I knew what kind of man he was the second he'd put his hands up my skirt on that dance floor and then fucked me in his car.

But that didn't stop me from being furious with myself for having let my guard down with him. I hated myself for it. He was dangerous. A mere warning may not be sufficient in his case; perhaps a worldwide broadcasted announcement might be enough. The kind of urgent announcement that interrupts your usual viewing. The kind they might do if the planet was suddenly under attack by an alien species.

And what made him so dangerous...was everything!

I hated him. And I hated the fact that I would have to see him everyday at work too. I was dreading Monday morning, and when it finally cane around I had a pit in my stomach.

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