LOVE TO HATE YOU

(NEW) THE MAFIA OR SOMETHING....

The week was awful.

I had to stare across at Ben all day while listening to how every woman in the office wanted to 'F' the living daylights out of him, although Vampira was the only one who came straight out and said it.

On top of that, it seemed like all of our clients had gotten together behind our backs and conspired to brief us all in the same week for their massive campaigns. We had print, radio, and TV ads coming out of our ears, and this meant many meetings. Many meetings with Ben. Many meetings where Ben walked around the room—he never sat in meetings—being ridiculously brilliant, coming up with one amazing creative idea after another while everyone just sat and gawked in awe.

I hated that. I hated having to sit there taking notes pretending I wasn't hating him or pining for him.

Ben wasn't helping the situation either. On Tuesday, I caught him looking at me longingly from his office like he was a dog that had been left out in the rain, and, for a moment, I totally forgot myself and stared back. When I realized that the look had actually encouraged him and saw him get up and start walking towards me, I quickly looked away. It was incredibly awkward when he got to my desk.

"Sera."

"Ben."

Ness was leaning in by this stage. She had been acting strangely that week too. So had Samantha, in fact, since coming back from the shoot, everyone had been out of sorts. There was a strange silence for a few moments, which I feared might arouse Ness' suspicious. Ben eventually broke it. "Did you speak to the client about when we can present the radio options?"

"Yes. Yes, I did." I forced myself to look up at him like anyone else would do if their boss were talking to them. "On Friday morning, at ten. I'm sure traffic will put it in your diary," I said and smiled up at him like a good hard-working employee.

"Thanks," he said and started walking away. But then he suddenly turned, "You're very efficient, Sera. I appreciate it immensely. I really value you." I saw Ness look up with wide eyes and I was sure Vampira would fly in at any moment. Unfortunately, Samantha too happened to be hanging around. I glanced around and could see the eyes looking at me with confusion.

His eyes flicked around and then he quickly corrected, "And Ness, you too are highly efficient. Samantha, also. Very hard working and all that.... Um... In fact..." He looked around, seeming a little strange now. He was using words I'd never heard him use before. "Everyone is doing a superb job. Really impressive stuff. Keep it up." Weird pep talk completed, he gave everyone a two-thumbs up—which looked odd—and then disappeared back into his office and closed the door. I watched for a moment and saw him curse himself as he sat down and put his head in his hands.

On Wednesday morning, when I arrived at work, I found a bag of M&M's in my drawer. They had been opened and the blue ones had been removed. There was a little drawing of a sad face inside.

My heart did a few summersaults as I power walked as fast as I could to the bathroom to splash water on my face and take a moment to regroup. After that I went back to my desk, picked up a file and walked to his office.

"Hi."

"Sera?" He sounded excited. "Come in?"

I shook my head. "Please don't give me chocolates again," I said without making eye contact.

"There's no rule that says I can't give something to my staff."

"There is if it's only one staff member. Please, if anyone finds out, they'll assume..." I trailed off. "Just please don't. Don't make this any worse than it needs to be. Please."