Celsie had a distant look in her eyes as she continued her story. She sat with her legs drawn up on the couch in a way that the soles of her feet were balanced on the couch while both knees were drawn up to almost her chin level as she wrapped both arms around her legs in a protective gesture.
“At first I wanted to confront him immediately I heard from the guys, but Sonia stopped me. She thought there was more to it all, and that something wasn’t right about the whole story. So she tried to calm me, and insisted that we give it some more thought before taking any action.”
“Sonia must be a very smart lady,” Benne observed, and Celsie’s lips curved in a smile as she thought of her best friend.
“She actually is very wise,” Celsie said with a nod.
“So what happened?” Benne asked, urging her to go on with the story.
“So we started trying to figure out how he could have known about all the guys who had shown any interest in me. It took us a couple of days, and during that time we stayed at my house so that I wouldn’t be tempted to confront him if I run into him at their home,” Celsie explained.
Benne said nothing as he waited for her to go on with her story. Even though the more she spoke, the more he realized that this wasn’t going to look good for him at the end of the day. He knew without a doubt that she was going to freak out when she eventually finds out the truth about how he ended up becoming her next-door neighbor and driver.
Although he hated to admit it, he could imagine that she was going to think that he was no different from Jamie. Like Jamie, he was pretending like he didn’t have feelings for her when he knew he had approached her a second time because he was interested in her. And like Jamie who had been observing her from the room next door, he had moved into her neighborhood and had even become her driver just to be closer to her.
Shit! How was he going to fix this mess? He feared that he was going to end up scaring her and pushing her away with the lies, instead of getting her to love him and be with him, and it was all because of that dumb psycho.
“Are you okay?” Celsie asked with a concerned frown when she noticed the scowl on Benne’s face, and how his fists were clenched.
“Yeah. Nevermind me. Go on with the story,” Benne said with a forced smile.
Celsie looked at him as though she didn’t believe him, but let out a sigh before continuing with her story, “So after a couple of days we put two and two together, and concluded that he had likely been eavesdropping on our conversations. Thinking about how that was possible, we figured that since he was tech-savvy he probably had something set up in Sonia’s bedroom, so we decided to check his bedroom to find out what he was doing.” Celsie paused and drew in a deep breath, and Benne picked up the wineglass and poured some more wine into it before handing it to her, but Celsie shook her head.
“If I keep drinking, I’m going to get drunk before dawn, and we both know I have to be at the office,” Celsie said as she stretched out her legs, before reaching out to pick up her glasses from the spot on the table where Benne had dropped it earlier before they started their romance earlier.
“Well, you could call in sick,” Benne suggested.
“I have never called in sick,” Celsie said with a yawn as she checked the time on her wall clock. She couldn’t believe that it was almost six already.
“Then I will call in sick on your behalf. Don’t worry. I could just tell Mr. Harry that I came over to pick you up but you were too sick to leave your bed,” Benne assured her, making Celsie narrow her eyes at him.
“Why do I feel like you don’t want to go to work today?” She asked suspiciously, making Benne grin as he raised both hands in mock surrender.
“You caught me. I just want to remain here with you like this,” Benne said with a grin, making Celsie sigh.
“I prefer to go to work. It helps me keep my mind occupied,” Celsie said, and Benne felt a tug in his heart.
So this was the reason she was always working?
“Okay, go on with the story. Maybe talking about it will help you clear your head,” Benne said, taking a sip from the wineglass instead, and Celsie gave him a nod.
“One day, we waited until we were sure he must have left for school and both their parents must have left for work too, and then we skipped school and went to Sonia’s house. We went into his bedroom and at first glance, it looked like the bedroom of a normal college student, until Sonia managed to get access into his computer and then we saw a file containing different pictures and videos of both me and Sonia, but mostly pictures of me,” Celsie closed her eyes and shuddered at the awful memory.
“How could he leave such sensitive files where anyone could easily find them?” Benne asked in confusion.
“I guess he wasn’t expecting anyone to snoop around his bedroom or his system. Or perhaps he just wasn’t scared and didn’t care as his parents always let him have his way, so he could get away with anything,” Celsie said with a shrug.
“There were several nude pictures of me dressing up in Sonia’s bedroom after having my shower, there were some of me sleeping on the bed with Sonia, but with the focus on me. There were even pictures of me going about my normal daily activities outside the house. He had been watching me for God knows how long, and I didn’t even know it.” Celsie looked at Benne when she felt his hand behind her back, and only then did she realize that her entire body was trembling.
“I can’t imagine how you must have felt,” Benne said sympathetically.
“We were both stunned. Neither of us could believe what we were seeing. I could barely move from where I was standing. Somehow, Sonia managed to turn off the system and return everything to how it was before dragging me out of the house. I felt so violated,” Celsie said, hugging herself with both hands.
“Sonia kept apologizing to me over and over again on our way to my house, and although I was not exactly mad at her, I just couldn’t bring myself to look her in the face either. I was in shock for days, and Sonia remained by my side. Neither of us knew what to do about it. I couldn’t even bring myself to confront him as I had initially planned because I felt creeped out by all I had seen in his computer. I couldn’t stand to look him in the face as I didn’t even know the extent of his madness, and I honestly didn’t want to find out. I was scared to my bones,” Celsie confessed, and somehow Benne could understand what she meant.
At seventeen, something like that would definitely scare her, as it would scare any adult, “So what did you do?”
Celsie drew in a shaky breath, “I tried not to leave my house except it was absolutely necessary, like going to school. I avoided Sonia’s house or anywhere else I might easily run into him…”
“You didn’t tell your parents about it?” Benne asked with a frown.
“I wanted to, but what was I supposed to tell them? I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them about it,” Celsie said with a shake of her head.
“And they didn’t notice the changes in you? Like you not wanting to go out and stuff?” Benne asked since he knew changes like that would never go unnoticed by his parents.
“Sonia was almost always in my bedroom with me, so it wasn’t a big deal since I’ve been spending most of my time at her home,” Celsie explained with a shrug, and Benne nodded in understanding.
“You are doing that deliberately, aren’t you?” Celsie asked curiously as she looked into Benne’s face.
“Doing what?” Benne asked innocently.
“Interrupting me at intervals,” Celsie pointed out, and Benne’s lips twitched in a smile.
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.