His eyes fell on his briefs and he shook his head. What had she been thinking wanting to go through his closet? Maybe he also needed to teach her a thing or two about the opposite sex so that she wouldn’t act this recklessly around just any man.. He was a gentleman, but he doubted that the next man she meets might be able to exercise his level of self-control.
“So, is she the one?” The barber asked Benne in a whisper as he washed the dye off Benne’s hair.
“If she wasn’t, I wouldn’t bring her here with me and introduce her as my girlfriend to you, now would I?” Benne asked dryly.
“I guess not. She’s real pretty, and worth the stress. You’ve got good eyes on your head,” the barber said with a grin, and Benne chuckled.
Celsie who was seated some feet away from them, glanced at her phone when it started ringing, and she stood up when she saw that it was a call from Sonia, “I’ll be in the car. I need to take Sonia’s call,” Celsie called out to Benne before walking away to receive the call.
“How is my baby doing?” Sonia asked in her usual cheerful tone, which made Celsie smile as always.
“She’s fine. How is my celebrity best girl doing? I guess you’re done with the show for today,” Celsie asked, and this time Sonia smiled.
“Yeah. So we were talking yesterday before you left to attend to work. I thought you were going to return the call, but I guess now that your driver boyfriend has turned out to be the wealthy CEO, you no longer have time for your poor little best friend,” Sonia complained, hoping that Celsie would take the hint and open to her about the state of things between her and Benne.
She had excused herself from Bryan, claiming she needed to use the bathroom, just so that she could hear from Celsie privately before speaking with her in the presence of Bryan. She really didn’t want Celsie to lie to her or keep secrets from her.
“You know that is not true! I was just very busy handling things,” Celsie said apologetically as she got into the car and sat down on the driver’s seat.
“Things you can’t tell me about? I’m beginning to feel like you have replaced me with someone else. You barely call me anymore to tell me what’s going on with you. You used to tell me everything, but now I barely know anything about you,” Sonia complained.
“I’m sorry, but that is because you’re no longer alone. You have Bryan now, and I don’t want to be a bother. Besides, I don’t know how far your relationship with him might have gone…”
“Are you implying that you think I’ll choose Bryan over you? I love Bryan and all but you will Al..”
“Wait, did you just say you love Bryan?” Celsie asked in surprise.
“What?” Sonia asked in confusion.
“You just said you love Bryan!” Celsie screeched excitedly, with a wide smile on her face.
Sonia paused for only a moment, and looked at her reflection in the mirror, grateful that Bryan wasn’t anywhere around to hear this or see the flush on her face, “I did? I guess I did. So as I was saying…”
“You just admitted that you are in love with Bryan and you’re going to sweep it under the rug like it isn’t a big deal? In case you don’t know, this is the first time you’re using the love word for a guy,” Celsie pointed out.
“Fine. Can we just talk about me after we are done talking about you? Celsie, is there something I need to know? How are things going with Benne? Are you still fighting with him?” Sonia asked, returning Celsie’s attention to the subject.
Celsie sighed, “This has to stay between us, okay? I don’t care if you’re now sharing your secrets with Bryan, but this has to remain just between us,” Celsie warned, and Sonia smiled, feeling thankful that Celsie wasn’t going to lie to her. She had no idea how she would have felt had Celsie lied to her.
“Sure. You didn’t notice that I’m in the bathroom? Whatever we discuss stays between us, trust me.” Sonia promised as she tried to ignore the feeling of guilt that rose within her at the thought of keeping this from Bryan. She tried to assure herself that he had also kept his brother’s secret and had called it ‘protecting his brother’s interest’ so she was just going to do the same.
“I trust you,” Celsie assured her.
“Good. Now go on and tell me how you really feel about all this, and about the situation of things with Benne.”
Celsie took in a deep breath, “To be honest with you, I don’t know how I feel, and I’m not even sure I know what I’m doing either. I don’t even know if I’ve forgiven Benne for all those lies or not…”
“At least you know how he feels about you?”
“Yes, I know how he feels about me. And that is probably the only thing that makes all of this bearable. After speaking with Anita last night, I think I better understand the reason why he did what he did. So it’s like my head understands, but my feelings are still very hurt no matter how much I try to rationalize the whole thing,” Celsie paused to catch her breath.
“You met with Anita? Why?” Sonia asked with a slight frown.
“We had some sort of misunderstanding at work yesterday during a meeting, and she wanted to apologize…”
“At work? What happened? Was Benne there? You know what? Just give me a breakdown of everything that has happened following Benne’s confession,” Sonia urged her.
“…. So I just know that although I still harbor some resentment towards him, Benne is someone I always want to have around me. He is like the male version of you to me,” Celsie explained.
“I thought Lucas was your male best friend?” Sonia asked easily.
“He was until he decided to marry Rachel. We both know that if she gets her way once they get married Lucas and I would drift further apart,” Celsie said wistfully.
“I wonder what he sees in that controlling and manipulative girl,” Sonia hissed as she got off the toilet seat and flushed the toilet.
“Let’s forget about her. So like I was saying, I’m braving it out like nothing happened while trying to accept this new version of Benne. I’m just going to focus on the positive aspects,” Celsie concluded.
Sonia sighed after listening to everything, “I’m so glad that you are trying to work things out with Benne, even though I’m also worried that things might get really messy when Anita finds out that Benne is the CEO,” Sonia said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, I know. Although Benne says I shouldn’t worry about it, I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for it because I don’t think Anita is going to be as easy to handle as he thinks. Trust me I’m not being paranoid, she has this really evil and dangerous aura radiating from her,” Celsie said with a shake of her head.
“You’re not being paranoid. You have every reason to be worried and careful. You can trust Benne to handle her but don’t just leave it to him. I will try and think of something we can do just in case she tries anything. In the meantime, you should focus on your beautiful relationship with Benne.”
“Yeah. Their mother sounds like a really nice person, doesn’t she?” Celsie asked with a small smile.
“Yeah, she does. Who would have thought we both would be in a relationship with two brothers?” Sonia asked with a slight giggle.
“Speaking of relationships, so back to you and Bryan. Things are going really well, huh? I suppose the sex must have been really mind-blowing seeing how easily you’ve fallen for him,” Celsie said in a teasing tone.
“We actually haven’t done it yet,” Sonia confessed in a low tone.
“Am I supposed to believe that? You mean you haven’t even had sex with him yet?” Celsie asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. I know I’m all for the sex and fun, but with Bryan, I’m not exactly in a hurry. I think I’m just going to take things slowly,” Sonia said, and Celsie burst into a peal of laughter.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.