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-It’s time to move on Ben, said Chris, to a new city. Pawnee’s is gonna do superb without us there. They have wonderful, wonderful people taking care of them.
The trees were now familiar sight for Benjamin Wyatt and Chris Traeger. They knew the best place in town to eat (JJ’s Diner), to drive. They had discovered the sight around Pawnee, the pink sunset and the wind fluttering the leaf everywhere. In only eight weeks, Pawnee managed to creep its way in Ben’s heart. A pretty bubbly force of a woman was no stranger to the familiarity he now felt toward the town that loathed him, at first. He tried to distance himself from the dysfunctional team, a routine he does on every assignments. The end is always inevitably near and forming link and memories with the people he was tasked to oversee is always tricky and happy memories always ended up corrupting themselves. They were populated with forgotten names and faces. The humiliation of his short term as mayor was the only driving his career. No matter how many cities he helps, he knew deep down that it would never be enough. And frankly, his feet and his brain were exhausted from running around everywhere.
At first, he didn’t care for the relentless deputy director of Parks and Recreation. She truly loves her city and was logically doing everything to save her job and the city. That included hating the two strangers shutting down her government and putting her out of a job. Chris and Ben did not know how people put up with that steamroller because, much to their surprise, they all loved her, even April (she wouldn’t admit hit but when Chris had ask her to nominate one person to stay, she had crack a smile and answer Leslie.).
After Freddy Spaghetti, they finally saw the dedication and motivation behind the phenomenon that was Leslie Knope. The Harvest Festival was her idea and since she had helped all of those Pawnee people one day or another, they were eager to help her save their beloved town from the evilness of capitalism and Eagleton. Ben fell unknowingly in love with her watching her conquer the flu.
“Leaving Pawnee. Come back soon!”
Next stop: 1902312. Two hours away from Pawnee, a small village on the verge of bankruptcy because of the greedy needs of a long-time mayor. It was one thing he noticed, that people were content with what they had, even if they saw it clearly was bad for them. Humans don’t like things to change. Their routine was sacred to them. Inevitably, people always hated the two of them.
He never stayed still at one place long enough and he frankly doesn’t care for the opinions of other. He had learnt that lesson the hard way.
-Ben, Benjamin Wyatt?, calmly said Chris, you have to try this food. It is literally an explosion of salad in your mouth.
He must have look out of it Chris never, ever, shares his food. A kind gift from his bacteria’s phobia. It had gotten worse since the flu episode. Which, in retrospective, was a funny one. He still didn’t know how he escaped the epidemic after spending so much time with Leslie, preparing their speech for the Chamber of commerce, or as Leslie liked to call it, The Chamber of secrets. Her hair did also kind of look cute that day, in that hospital bed. All flowery, blond and perfectly curled. She was given a one-bedroom due to some sort of “precedent” in her file. Ben knew how disgusting the food the hospital gave to patient was. She had eaten the waffles like a five years old and in a record time. Five waffles in five minutes. Completed with whipped cream.. How the hell she has still never manage to get diabetes was a complete mystery to stranger’s eye. The answer was a simple, albeit not healthy, one: she simply didn’t take the time to eat and thus compensated with eating everything sugary she could get her hands on.
Ben had known that he did not want Leslie to forget him. He couldn’t talk for her (especially since she made a point to not let emotions and feelings get in the way of her job. Nobody, except sometimes Ron, was able to read anything off of her. ) The goodbyes were a particularly awkward example of that. He tried to get her alone. On that subject, a small mental note, mentioning Game of Thrones when you try to get a woman alone is never a good idea. She’ll have no idea what you are talking about and will want to seek other companionship. But Leslie being as curious as she is, came back and asked why the hell he called her Khaleesi and did he meant it as an insult? Not a smart move for someone trying to stay cool and composed. He had mumbled something about dragon and gave her his email “to keep him updated about the finances of Pawnee”. He had then proceeded to promptly leave the room.
His thoughts were lingering on that last goodbye since he had left Pawnee an hour ago. He had thought about those last few weeks they spent. About those stolen glances in meeting and the awkward excuses they had made up to spend more time together in the office. The races they did under the judgmental and potentially motherly eyes of Ann. He had wanted to ask her if he should stay, after all, accounting was a possibility everywhere but he wasn’t done paying his due and he frankly still don’t know when he’ll get that feeling of closure over that part of his life. It wouldn’t fair of him to lead on Leslie by asking her to basically plead him to stay.
Ben had been back in Indiana for no more than two days when he heard about a meeting (not in his department but news got around everywhere) in the Parks State department about the future emplacement of the Little League's state tournament. Not long after this unnoticeable announcement, a communique stating that represent for the city of Indiana, Muncie and, last but not least, Pawnee, were to come to Indiana the next Thursday to pitch their city. Ben knew that Leslie would be the one to come in behalf of Pawnee. It had to since the city manager would never send Larry, Tom or Donna. April was still only an intern and Ron never would agree to help add a load of things to the government. The less the government get involve, the better. Leslie would definitely be the one to pitch Pawnee. Also, anyone would be a fool to not let the most passionate, dedicated and loyal person he has on hands. Surely, they'll be a binder involve and color-coding.
Ben's face took a pink colored tint and a stupid grin was plastered all over his face, just thinking about meeting "accidentally" Leslie in the hall of the city government. It was a no-brainer and since he wasn't her superior in any way possible, nothing was in their way. Except for the fact that he didn't know for sure whether of not Leslie's face was still turning red-lobster and dimples were making their home in her adorable cheeks. He had thought about emailing her but every time he tried to concretize his thinking, his hands were sweaty and thoughts were spinning faster than an hamster wheel in his head. He eventually always gave up and said to himself: "Maybe another time." He also wasn't stupid and knew Facebook existed especially for situations like this one but Leslie was way too busy to keep up with her online self. According to her profile, she was still a student at the University of Indiana and her hair had a weird red tint, a remnant of her experience phase if she was to be believe.
It was Monday and he had exactly three days to craft the perfect situation to find out whether he was the only one blushing and sweating like an idiot teenager. All his year reading comics and watching television will pay off.
Those three days went by so fast, it was already Thursday. Ben had to take a personal day to make sure everything would be ready by the time Leslie set foot in Indiana. He knew her meeting was at eleven o'clock. That information cost him three grande frappuccino well worth it.
As for the security guard, he didn't have to do anything. Thank God, because Ben was pretty sure it was a federal offense to bribe a security guard. He also had to run a couple of errands during his free hour.
D-Day was there and it was already raining. What a great way to start things. When puts under the spotlight, Ben tends to be a complete human disaster. But he was also confident in his feelings for Leslie and was pretty sure that she felt the same thing. Or as Ann puts it: "Just rent a limo, ask her to the prom and she'll say yes." He had felt pretty stupid to have to call Ann but he wanted to be sure that nobody had made the stupid decision to send someone other than Leslie to Indianapolis. It had taken a lot of work and talking people into his plan but it all worked out in the end.
It would start with her opening the door, unaware of what was going to happen. Then the receptionist will guide her to the elevator, toward the second floor of the building. As soon as the door open, she'll see letters and envelop on the floor. Not only that but the entire hall was now decorated with strings of small white light. The letters were not hard to write because he had written them over and over again in its head, trying to muster up the courage to take up the phone and call her but he had kept being a stupid human disaster. She will read them and hopefully go on. The first part of the corridor was a small one and as soon as she takes the first turn, she will see him, at the end of the corridor, holding red roses and wallflower, stupidly hoping that all of that wasn't in vain and that she really was feeling the same way as him. He knew that she would get nervous about that meeting but he had already made the head of the comity write a letter saying that they changed the time of her meeting to put it at one o'clock. After that, uncertainty would disappear and leave its place to, hopefully, happiness.
It was ten minutes to eleven and hiding in his corner of the corridor, he heard the distinct ring of the elevator.
"Second Floor"