**Part 2: Ben’s house**
**
“You want a drink or something?” Ben asks, fumbling with his keys as he locks his front door behind us. I start walking up the stairs without asking for directions.
“Or something,” I say, turning halfway up the stairs and leaning against the bannister. I let a dress strap fall down on one shoulder and watch his eyes follow it. “You coming?” I ask, grinning and biting on the end of my thumb.
“Sorry–” Ben says, laughing and rubbing his hands dramatically over his face. “You want to go to my bedroom? With me? Right now? Alone?”
I shrug the shoulder he’d been looking at and continue walking upstairs. “Not if you keep dawdling.”
Immediately, Ben runs up the stairs behind me and swoops me off the floor on the upstairs hallway. My stomach balancing on his shoulder, I let out a small shriek and giggle.
“I think I could have found it without the lift,” I say as he carries me into his large bedroom. A brown leather sofa sits in front of a wall mounted TV. When he places me on my feet, I go and perch on it, kicking my heels onto the floor. Ben sits beside me, his head resting against the armrest so that he faces me. He watches me with a small smile. “What?” I ask.