Can we talk about Love Yourself: Tear for a moment? Never heard of it? Go stream it on Spotify!! Love it? Buy the album!! Need suggestions? Stream Fake Love and my current second favorite, Anpanman!! Want your eyes to explode? Google Kim Seokjin.

Now, happy reading!!

While Sebastian and Lee dug for dirt on Mrs. Calloway, Bennett and I had to lay low. This usually meant Bennett coming to my house and us not doing much. It was nice to spend time with him, but it almost felt like we were in prison. As if there were eyes on us and if we made the wrong move we'd be locked up. It was especially crappy since he got to go out with Cara once a week.

"Isn't your date tonight?" I asked Bennett, who was in the middle of searching for a Netflix movie. It was only two o'clock. Was he really planning on watching a movie this early?

"No, she canceled. I'm staying here."

"Are we just going to be watching movies all night?"

Bennett sighed. "There's not much else we can do. My mother is still suspicious. In fact, I'm surprised she hasn't tried to see you so she could check on things with her own eyes."

"She's probably scared of running into Brandon again."

"Soon that will be inevitable though."

"Why?"

"Lee didn't tell you? He's keeping his promise to Brandon. Brandon will start working at our hotel next week. Lee even took his training upon himself."

I shook my head. "No, Brandon didn't tell me, either. Do you think your mom is going to notice right away?"

"No, there's too many employees. Maybe if he was being hired as a manager, or higher, but not at an entry level."

"That makes sense. But don't you think that when your mother catches on to Brandon she'll know something is going on?"

"Perhaps, but I don't think she would make a move against Brandon. Even if she wanted to fire him, she wouldn't take the chance. Brandon could easily sue her and she I don't think she'd be taking Richard to court with her again. That would just incriminate her more."

I hummed, nodding my head. "Makes sense. Although part of me wishes she would just so we can put this all behind us. And not have to feel so trapped because of our relationship."

Bennett smiled softly at me. "Me too."

"But you know the saying— good things come to those who wait. Let's wait it out."

Bennett shot up from the couch, making me jump. He grinned a little and offered me his hand, pulling me up from my seat. "I have an idea," he said.

"What?"

"Let's go."

"Go where?" I asked as he tugged me to the front door.

He paused, slipping on his shoes and waiting for me to put mine on. "We're going to go on a real date."

"Where?"

"Where we can be hidden in plain sight. The city."

"Right now though?"

"If it gets too late we can just stay at a hotel," he responded casually. "Let's go."

The idea of getting out of the house outweighed the cons of having to maybe call out of work the next day, so we quickly ducked out of the house and hurried to his car. Instead of getting into the driver's side, Bennett followed me to the passenger's side. "You can drive."

I took the keys from him, my mouth almost falling open. "What?"

"Well, we're not going that far. It's fine."

My heart fluttered in my chest and I turned away from Bennett, sure my face had tinged with pink. How could such a simple gesture affect me this way? He'd never offered to let me drive before. It felt like we reached a new level of trust, or something. Maybe I was silly for feeling excited about it. Still, I felt excited as I climbed into the driver's seat.

True to his words though, he had instructed me to the Metro North station, which wasn't very far away. "What are we doing?"

"Taking the train in."

"We are? I thought you didn't like public transport."

"I'm going to give it a try," he said, glancing around the parking lot. "Although I'm a bit worried to leave my car here."

"Let's just drive in then—"

"No, no... let's just hurry before I change my mind."

Eyeing him suspiciously, I followed him into the high-ceilinged train station. It wasn't that busy and Bennett didn't have to wait in line to get tickets. Fortunately for us, the next train was leaving in five minutes so we didn't have to wait long. We went out to the platform where a few others were waiting. Bennett kept fidgeting and I reached for his hand, holding it tightly.

"You really don't use public transport, huh?"

"Never. I feel a little sick," he admitted.

"It's fine. I've been on this many times. You'll feel better once we get on and sit down."

Bennett pulled at his collar even as we climbed onto the train and took our seats. I couldn't help but smile, even though I felt a little bad. It didn't take a genius to realize he was trying this for me. "Want to watch a movie to make time pass?"

"On your phone?"

"Yep. I have headphones in my purse. What do you want to watch?"

He thought about it for a moment. "There is a movie I've been meaning to watch. 50 Shades of Grey? Should we watch that?"

"Bennett... don't you know what that movie is about? You made a joke about it before."

"Yes. But I haven't seen it yet. It's popular though, isn't it? It might not be bad."

"Here. Have you seen the trailer? Or do you just know some of the plot? Why don't you watch the trailer first?" I suggested when he shook his head. I handed him my phone and the headphones.

Within minutes a blush had spread across his face and he took the headphones out, handing the phone back to me. "I see now."

"Still want to watch?"

"Not in public."

"Wait, you want to watch it at home or something? This?" I asked.

He nodded. "That guy... he reminds me of someone."

"Gross, Bennett, no. If you're trying to say he reminds you of yourself—"

"Ah, that's what it is."

"Not happening. At least not with me. Watch it on your own time. I'm going to pick the movie. How about Jurassic World? You've seen the Jurassic Park movies, right?"

His blank look told me all I needed to know.

"How much have you missed out on in your life?"

"Quite a bit it would seem."

"It's fine. You don't need to watch the originals. There are dinosaurs in this movie. And Chris Pratt. And Morgana from Merlin."

All my words went over Bennett's head. The poor boy. I really needed to get him updated on pop culture. I offered him one of the headphones and put the other in my ear, pulling up the movie. Bennett took an immediate interest in it and I swear even shed a tear when a dinosaur died. When the movie was over, we were nearly in NYC, and Bennett seemed a lot more at ease.

"Will there be another movie?" he asked as the credits finished rolling.

"I think so. This one did well. I can't image there wouldn't be another."

"When it comes out, let's go see it in the theaters together."

"Sounds good to me. We can watch the originals too. I'm sure they're online somewhere. Or we can buy them off Amazon or something."

Bennett nodded. "I'd like that."

Grand Central was swarming with people when we arrived and Bennett and I struggled to make it out onto 42nd street. The crowds made me second guess going to New York City in the middle of summer on a Saturday. I didn't know how we didn't think this through. The city was always busy sure, but summer meant family vacations, so it was even worse.

"We need to get to 34th street," Bennett told me. "Can you figure out how to get there on the subway?"

"We can probably just walk," I said. "Where do you want to go?"

"You'll see when we get there. Maybe I should just call my driver."

"No, if you don't want to walk, we can take the subway. Let me download Citymapper really quick," I told him, pulling out my phone. After typing in the address, the subway station popped up. "This way, we need B, D, F, or M. I still have money on my metro card so we can share it."

Bennett followed me obediently as I found the subway station. I easily passed the turnstile, but Bennett couldn't get the card to swipe, and looked embarrassed as others passed him easily. I tried not to laugh as he finally got it and looked reluctant to touch the bar to move it.

"You could've just walked through it. You don't need to push it," I informed him.

He looked down at his open palms. "You don't happen to have hand sanitizer?"

"I don't. And you still need to get on the subway so there's no point in cleaning your hands anyway. Let's go."

It was stifling hot as we walked down to the platform. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead. I'd been planning on staying inside Bennett's air-conditioned house, so I was currently wearing a sweater and jeans while it felt like it was about ninety degrees out. Bennett looked just as uncomfortable. Or maybe it was just the fact we were in the subway station, I wasn't sure. He stumbled back as the train approached swiftly, blowing his shirt back. Once again, I held my laughter.

"In, in," I ushered as throngs of people stepped onto the subway.

All the seats were taken and I practically had to force Bennett to hold onto a pole. I managed to get him to hold my hand as I held the pole, which earned an eye roll from me. But I still had to compliment him, he was doing surprisingly well. Until he almost fell over as the train lurched forward. I managed to steady him and finally laughed. "You're hopeless."

"I didn't expect it to be this rough."

"We're going to be at the stop in like two minutes. It's worth it."

True to my word, we reached our stop momentarily, and I ushered Bennett off the train. This time he didn't have much difficulty going through the turnstile because he didn't have to swipe. Once we were on the street again, I looked around to figure out which way we should walk, but Bennett took off, leaving me to jog after him. He must've found the place.

When we stopped in front of Target, I frowned.

"What are we doing here?"

"Shopping," he told me.

"What?"

"You're going to dress me. Choose whatever you'd like me to wear and I'll wear it."

I stared at him. "Are you serious?"

He nodded. "I want to do this date as you would."

The giant Target towered above me, a bright Sephora sign right next door. We'd really came all the way here for this? "I wouldn't dress you up... but actually, this is fine. I think it'll be fun. Are you sure? I could make you wear a tank top and swim shorts."

"I'm prepared," Bennett answered.

"I'll make you look good," I promised, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him into the Target. "You'll realize the charm of retail store brands."

Bennett stood by idly as I dug through the men's section, trying to decide what Bennett should wear. I could punish him and choose something outrageous, or try a style he might like. The choices were difficult. A brightly colored Hawaiian shirt was calling my name, but so was the idea of just a plain black t-shirt. Or maybe...

An idea hit me. It was cheesy...but who didn't like cheesy? And what person wouldn't want to do it at some point in their life?

"Stay here for a moment," I told Bennett and I headed off to the women's department.

It only took a minute to decide what I was going to do. I grabbed a shirt and a pair of jeans and headed back to the men's section to choose Bennett's outfit. I bit my lip to keep from smiling as I handed him the clothing. "Make sure it fits."

I followed Bennett to the dressing rooms, getting my own so I could try on the clothing I chose for myself as well. It fit great and I stepped out, wondering back to the men's section, seeing Bennett pulling at the sleeves of his black and white striped shirt. He looked up at me and I laughed, letting him take in my decision.

Matching outfits.

"You look good," he told me, grinning.

"You do too. What do you think? Do you regret letting me choose? I've always wanted to wear a matching outfit with someone."

"It's a little... well it's fine. Although don't you think we look a bit like bank robbers?" He gestured to the black jeans I'd chosen. Admittedly, with the black and white shirt, we did kind of look like that.

"New generation Bonnie and Clyde?" I offered.

"Are you sure this is the outfit you want?"

I felt my smile drop a little. "You don't like it?"

"No, it's fine. I just thought you'd want to dress me a more foolishly since I made you wear something you were uncomfortable in once."

"Don't worry about that," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "This totally makes up for it. You look cute. And hilarious. But very cute. I like to see you dressed down."

Bennett cocked his head to the side. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. But I'm sure you feel that way about me when I dress up. It's just something different. But are we going to wear this now? What about our other clothing?"

Bennett scratched his neck. "We can drop it off to my driver... I called him because I wasn't sure how well I'd fare on the subway. But it's not so bad. We can just give it to him and pick it up later."

I tried to change back into my old clothing, but Bennett insisted on just keeping the new clothing on, and took of the tags so the cashier could ring us out. It made me wonder if people would think we were stealing. Especially considering we already looked like robbers. But it worked out fine, the cashier didn't even give us a second chance. Maybe people did this often. It was New York City.

Stepping back out onto the streets in our new clothing, Bennett managed to locate his driver, and we stuck our old clothes into the backseat. I convinced him to let the driver drive us back to Times Square so we could decide what to do next from somewhere more central.

"Why don't you decide on a place for us to eat?" Bennett asked as we nestled ourselves to the side of the Uniqlo store. "Or is there anything you want to do first?"

"Since we're here let's go to the M&M store," I asked, feeling myself getting excited by the hubbub of the city. Even though it was crowded, the city gave you a certain feeling. Like adrenaline. It was fun.

I led Bennett to the store and we entered, the air conditioning a sweet relief from the heat. Bennett was immediately taken by the giant M&M character that rotated in front of the store.

"Do you want a picture?" I asked.

"No. It's impressive though."

"Do you want to make a model of yourself and put it in the lobby of your hotel?"

He glanced back at me, a smirk on his face. "No. I wouldn't want to intimidate our guests."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, let's go up. I haven't been here in a long time. I have to buy some M&Ms."

"There's interesting merchandise here," Bennett commented as we went up the escalators. He pointed out some beach towels and then men's boxers.

"I once bought my ex boxers from here," I commented.

Bennett frowned. "Will you buy me boxers from here?"

"Nah," I answered, nudging him in the side. "You deserve something better."

A contented expression crossed his face and he turned away from the boxers, following me around as I inspected the different boxes that held special occasion M&Ms. I just wanted plain ones, but the ones that said New York City were cool. Bennett wandered away from me and I picked up a tube shaped like a heart with red, pink, and white M&Ms inside. There was too much to choose from.

A bunch of little kids surrounded me and I decided to leave the area so I wouldn't block the view. I came across some M&M character themed t-shirts and regretted choosing what Bennett should wear at Target. It would be hilarious to see him in these. There were character aprons and oven mitts and it took everything I had not to buy one. No way would Bennett wear that.

But speaking of Bennett, I looked around, unable to locate him with all the people around. I went back downstairs, but couldn't find him there either. Had he gone outside? Was the crowd too much? I peeked outside and couldn't find him either. Maybe he'd gone to the top floors? I headed back inside and went up the escalator to the second floor and then the third, seeing him just step onto the down escalator, a bag in his hand.

"Bennett!" I called.

He looked up at me and waved.

"Wait for me," I said, hurrying around and catching up to him on the down escalator. "What did you buy?"

"A gift for you," he said, handing me the bag.

I picked it up and found a cup of M&Ms colored like the sea. "Oh, did you fill this up yourself? The color scheme is nice. Thank you."

"I customized them. There's an option up there."

Once we reached the bottom floor, I stepped to the side, and opened up the bag. I picked out a couple of the M&Ms and saw that there were a few with hearts on them, and a few with Bennett and Henley. I'm sure a stupid smile crossed my face as I looked at Bennett and he blushed a little. "I got the idea from the couple next to me."

"They're so cute. I love them. So cheesy."

"It's too much, isn't it?"

"No way. But I don't want to eat them. They're too cute. The hearts were a nice touch."

"I got an extra-large so you could eat some and save some."

I tied the bag shut again. "Smart. Now I have to find something just as cheesy for you."

Bennett shook his head. "No. You don't need to buy me anything."

"Too late," I said as an idea hit me. "Let's go outside. I want to take a picture of us."

We exited the store and I guided Bennett back into the heart of Times Square so we could get a picture with the tall advertisement towers behind us— the most touristy picture I could think of. Bennett seemed unsettled when I handed my phone to a stranger to take pictures of us, but managed to smile properly. With the photo in hand, I dragged him back to where M&M World was and entered the Hershey store, leaving him to browse by himself as I headed to the back of the shop to buy my present for him.

I uploaded the picture of us to customizable chocolate bar kiosk and made the wrapper all cutesy with hearts and a silhouette of the city, our picture smack in the middle. I wasn't sure what kind of chocolate Bennett liked, so I settled with milk chocolate. It was ready within minutes and I took it from the worker excitedly. It was just as cheesy. Our picture came out perfectly on the oversized chocolate bar.

I came back to Bennett in full conversation with the employee handing out samples.

"So, do you think handing out samples hinders or escalates sales?" I heard him asking the poor girl who probably had no idea why he was asking that.

"Ready Bennett?" I asked and the worker looked at me gratefully.

"You're done?"

I handed him the chocolate bar. "Ta-da!"

He stared down at it, expressionless.

I bit my lip. "You don't like it?" Did Bennett even like chocolate? How did I not know this fact? He didn't have to eat it though.

"You look too good in this picture," he finally said, grinning. "You're so pretty."

This time a blush made it across my face. "Shut up."

"I mean it Henley. I want to frame this."

"It's a chocolate bar, you're supposed to eat it."

"I'll never eat this," he promised me. "Thank you."

His sincerity made me feel a little shy. "Then don't be mad if I don't eat those M&Ms."