Spiralling

"And...cut!"

"Phew, glad that's over." Ben heaved a sigh of relief.

The whole shopping TV idea was Duffy's, and they had just wrapped up the first show. Ben and Duffy have been good friends for years, and that was the primary reason why he agreed to help out and become a presenter on the show, for he wasn't much of a salesman. Besides, they were roommates, and Duffy wouldnag at Ben constantly until he agreed. Duffy would be the director, basically the brains behind it all.

To be fair, Ben didn't have to do it alone. He had a co-presenter, a lovely brunette called Jessica (who preferred to be called Jess for short). She was also a good friend of Duffy's, although not really of Ben's.

The final castmember was Erica, a non-speaking, Japanese model hired specially to hold up whatever product was being featured, and look pretty. She seemd to take her job quite seriously, not talking even when the cameras stopped rolling, and disappearing off the set almost immediately. Intruiging, thought Ben.

"Let's go out for dinner, to celebrate, shall we?" Duffy offered to Ben and Jess.

"Sure...okay..." the two of them sounded lifeless.

"C'mon, you two. Cheer up...."

Over dinner...

"Say, what do you guys have planned for Valentine's Day?" Duffy asked.

"I'm gonna stay at home and have ice cream and watch TV till the early hours! None of this commercial crap!" Jess piped up.

"Ah. How about you Ben?"

Ben had been single for like, forever. He had never even asked a girl out on a date, let alone have a girlfriend. He was partly resigned to his fate, but his friends were having none of it.

"You're going out with Mike, aren't you?" Ben tried to sidestep the question.

Mike was Duffy's boyfriend, and although Ben has known Duffy for a long time, he had only seen Mike a couple of times, as they preferred to keep it private.

"Yeah, but come on, have you had any luck this year?" Duffy nudged Ben.

"What do you think?" Ben was getting a bit impatient.

"Again, huh" alluding to his single status.

"Hey, how about this? Jess, you know plenty of girls right? How about you set Ben up on a date with one of them?" Duffy suggested.

Before the two of them could react...

"OK, so it's set then. Set him up with a good one ya?"

The both of them showed a face of disgust. But knowing Duffy's persuasion powers, they would probably have to do it.