“Not necessarily,” she began, an uncomfortable smile on her face.
“Don’t make this like pulling teeth, Rachel. Just tell me what you’re thinking,” Ben shrugged, hoping to ease her worries. She was tiptoeing around whatever issue she had and he wanted to just get it over with.
“You don’t have any personal life!” She yelled the response so loudly, Ben flinched.
“First of all, I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I do have a personal life. You should know, you keep the schedule,” he joked.
Ben knew he didn’t make much time for anything outside of work. It was his way of closing off the world, focusing on the one constant in his life. Every couple of months, Rachel would voice her concerns about his lack of friends or female companions, and he would entertain her for the sake of their friendship.
“You’re right. I do keep the schedule, and that’s how I know you don’t do anything unless it has to do with this company,” Rachel continued, uncrossing her ankles so she could lean closer to Ben’s desk. “You haven’t been in a relationship for four years.”
Rachel had said much more than the words that left her lips. Ben knew what she really wanted to discuss—the elephant in the room that was his last relationship. He’d discussed marriage and buying a house with his ex-girlfriend before she blindsided him, leaving without so much as an explanation.
When she first left, he was devastated, trying to figure out what he could have done differently. In the end, Ben had come to the conclusion that they just weren’t meant to be. She had done him a favor, because it would have been much more difficult to walk away if they had legally tied themselves to each other.
“I’ve gone on plenty of dates since then, Rachel,” Ben argued.
“Yeah, but none of them have led to anything serious,” she shot back.
He knew it was the truth, but what he didn’t want to say was that he didn’t want them to lead to anything serious. Ben was over his ex, but he didn’t care to replace her. Truth be told, he didn’t want anyone interrupting his work schedule.
But now, with the business taking off in such a major way, he knew there would be another opportunity to take a step back and allow his team to do what he paid them so much for.
“I don’t need anything serious, Rach,” Ben reasoned, stepping around his desk on his way to the dry bar at the back corner of his office.
Lifting the bottle of whiskey in the air, he silently asked if she would like a glass, to which Rachel bashfully nodded. Ben poured the amber liquid into two glass tumblers before walking back to Rachel, handing her a glass, and settling into the leather loveseat across from her.
“You can’t become one of those business tycoons who does nothing but work,” she rolled her eyes before taking a swig from her glass.
“Is that what you’re worried about?” Ben laughed, taking a gulp of whiskey.
“Yes. I’m determined to keep you from dying alone, so please accept my help,” she jokingly pleaded.
“And exactly what help would that be?” Ben asked sarcastically, already sure of what his oldest friend wanted from him.
“Let me set you up,” she smiled, finally to her selling point.
Rachel loved setting Ben up, and her failure to find someone he was compatible with never seemed to dampen her enthusiasm. Some people had the skill to play match maker, but Rachel wasn’t one of them.
“Don’t you remember the last person you hooked me up with?” Benjamin laughed, recalling the disastrous date he’d had a few months back.
Determined to get him out of the house, or the office, actually, Rachel had set him up with a model she met at one of the product shoots. The woman was drop dead gorgeous, so he couldn’t be upset with Rachel for the introduction, but in the end, there were just no sparks between the two. None whatsoever.
At one point, the woman literally asked him how much he was worth, and he knew things between them would never amount to anything. Their date was torturous, and Ben had promised himself he wouldn’t go on another one of Rachel’s forced interactions again.
“Okay, so she was a bad choice,” Rachel conceded, wincing as she recalled how badly the date had gone.
“Ya think?”
“All I'm saying is be open to the idea of meeting someone,” she argued, taking the last sip of her drink as she stood from her chair.
“Will do,” Ben smiled in response.
“Is there anything else you need? I’m about to head out,” she announced.
“I don’t think you’ll be of too much use anyway, considering how quickly you’ve downed that whiskey,” Ben smirked.
“Oh please. You’re looking at the Foreman Hall drinking champ. One glass of whiskey barely registers with me,” Rachel proclaimed, pushing her shoulders back proudly as she reminded Ben of her title from their college dorm room years.