Chapter 120 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“You are not…” Celsie’s words trailed off, and her heart skipped a beat when he suddenly pulled her into his house. What was he doing?

“I am not what?” Benne asked curiously as he held on to her arm while looking at her face with interest and waiting for her to finish what she had to say.

Celsie shook her head as if to clear it from whatever thoughts were entering it, “You are not free to touch me.”

“I’m not? Are you sure about that?” Benne asked as he pulled her closer to himself with force such that she had to place her hand on his chest for support, “You just touched me, didn’t you?” Benne asked with a wicked glint in his eyes as both their eyes fell on her hand which was now resting on his chest.

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Celsie said as she snatched her hand away from him quickly, and took a step backward.

“Are you sure it wasn’t on purpose?” Benne asked with a smirk.

Celsie cleared her throat and lifted her chin defensively, “I only came to ask you what you are wearing to the dinner as I didn’t want to look out of place,” Celsie said, wanting to clear whatever doubt he was having that she had deliberately come to him because she wanted to touch him.

“Have you showered yet?” He asked as he looked her over.

“Not yet. I was going to pick out my clothes before stepping into the shower,” Celsie said without meeting his gaze or looking directly at him. She seemed to be looking over his shoulder as though he was Medusa, Benne thought with satisfaction.

“Want to share the shower with me then?” He asked, wiggling his brows suggestively, and then chuckled when her eyes flickered to his face and she blushed a deep shade of red, “Relax. I’m just pulling your legs,” he said in amusement before turning serious.

“You could wear something simple since it is just dinner with the neighbors,” he said making her focus on him now, since she believed he had stopped teasing her, until he said, “You don’t have to wear something sexy like you did last night unless it’s just dinner between us both,” He added with a wink.

Was he ever serious? “What exactly are you wearing?” Celsie asked with a sigh.

“Ah! You want us to wear matching outfits? That’s definitely a perfect way to announce to the neighbors that we are an item now, and maybe they would stop ogling me. Why didn’t I think about that?” Benne asked humorously and Celsie laughed despite the awkwardness she had been feeling only a minute ago.

“Don’t be silly.”

“Celsie, stop trying to be a perfectionist else you might end up being exactly like Anita, no offense,” Benne said, making her brows crease.

“What do you mean by that? Why would you compare me to your ex-girlfriend?” She asked with displeasure.

“That wasn’t a comparison. You implied that she paid too much attention to details, in an extreme manner. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but you do that too. It’s just a dinner, put on a pair of jeans trousers or a simple gown. You don’t have to overthink it. And I’m sure regardless of what you wear, you will look better than anyone else in there,” Benne assured her with a wink as he rubbed her arms affectionately.

“You sure are a good boyfriend,” Celsie murmured as she turned to leave his house.

An hour later Benne and Celsie exchanged a look as they sat on the couch in Jasmine’s living room. Benne gave her an apologetic smile since it seemed she was actually underdressed in her casual jeans outfit, whereas both Jasmine and Alicia were dressed in lovely evening gowns.

“I thought it was supposed to be a simple dinner?” Benne asked as he looked from Alicia to Jasmine.

“It is a simple dinner. Why do you ask?” Alicia asked with a curious smile as she looked at Benne with her shiny eyes.

“You are both dressed up, whereas we are…” Benne let the rest of his words trail off as he shrugged.

“Oh! It isn’t a big deal, trust me. We both always look for every opportunity to dress up whether or not it’s a family dinner,” Jasmine assured them, but Celsie remained quiet as she listened to the conversations going on around her.

“It just feels good to have new neighbors around and…”

New neighbors? Someone else was joining them for dinner, or was Benne the other neighbor? Celsie wondered, and then frowned when something occurred to her and she looked around the living room. Initially, when Jasmine had walked up to Benne the first time to introduce herself, she had assumed it was because Jasmine was new to the area, but seeing how homely the place looked, and the paint didn’t look fresh either, it didn’t seem like they had moved in recently. If that was the case how come they didn’t know Benne? Was this one of the lies Benne had talked about?

“I guess you’ve been living here for a long time?” Celsie asked, looking at Alicia since she looked more innocent and charming than Jasmine.

“Depends on how you define long. We have been here for about two years now,” Alicia said, looking at Jasmine with a soft smile since the question reminded them of how they had moved in together despite her family’s objection.

“That’s nice. What about you, Benne? How long have you been in this neighborhood? I just realized I never asked,” Celsie said, turning her attention to Benne, who tried not to look alarmed by her question as he wondered what was going on in her head and why she was suddenly asking him that.

Jasmine and Alicia exchanged a look before turning to look at Benne since they remembered that he had asked them not to mention to Celsie that he was new to the neighborhood.

Although Benne had seen this coming since he receive the dinner invitation, and that was the reason he had asked both Jasmine and Alicia to not tell Celsie that he was new to the neighborhood, but he hadn’t imagined Celsie would as the question so soon. He tried to think of the conversation from the start to figure out what could have prompted her to ask such a question, but he couldn’t come up with anything.

Seeing how he remained silent, Alicia stepped in to save her potential sperm donor, “We should head to the dining since I served dinner already, and we don’t want it to get cold,” Alicia suggested with an awkward smile, wanting to give Benne enough time to come up with an appropriate response.

“Yes. We should,” Jasmine said, motioning for Benne and Celsie to follow them to the dining.

Although Celsie was gullible and naive, she wasn’t stupid enough to not realize what was going on. Benne was yet to answer her question, and both ladies were trying to distract her, leaving her to wonder what was going on. If they thought she was going to let the question slide, then they had another thought coming.

Once Benne pulled out a seat for her, and they were all seated around the dining table, Alicia busied herself with dishing out the meal.

Celsie turned to Benne, “I suppose I have given you enough time to come up with a response, haven’t I?” She asked with a sweet smile, surprising all three of them who had thought they were done with the subject.

Thankfully Benne had been able to come up with a response, so he didn’t hesitate to respond this time.

“I’ve been here for about a year if I’m not mistaken. Why do you ask?” Benne asked innocently when Celsie kept staring at him like she was suspecting him of something.

“How long have you all known each other?” Celsie asked, looking from Benne to Alicia to Jasmine, and then to Benne curiously.

Benne suddenly realized what was going on in her head. If he had been living in the neighborhood for as long as he claimed, and both Jasmine and Alicia has also been in the neighborhood for two years, then it wouldn’t make sense that Jasmine had chosen to introduce herself to him just the other day in front of her. How was he going to fix this?

At that same moment, Jasmine and Alicia realized their error. Jasmine had mentioned to Celsie just some days ago that they had only just met Benne, hence they were trying to get to know him before asking him to be their sperm donor. How were they going to fix this?

Celsie waited patiently to hear what they would say. She half expected them to try to lie to her by claiming to have known each other for a long time. That way she could remind them of the conversation Benne and Jasmine had in front of her, and also remind Jasmine of the discussion they had both had in her apartment concerning Benne.

Benne cleared his throat so that neither Jasmine nor Alicia would blurt out any wrong response while he was talking at the same time, “Actually, I’m barely ever around because of the nature of my job, so I’ve never really met them until recently, and that is only because I got a new job and my boss happens to live in the same building too,” Benne explained, making Alicia and Jasmine stifle the urge to sigh in relief. His explanation made lots of sense.

“That’s true! Remember how surprised we were the other night when he told us that he has been living here for some time?” Jasmine asked Alicia who quickly nodded.

“Yeah! You are right,” Alicia said with a burst of awkward laughter, which made Celsie’s brow arch slightly.

Were they all telling her the truth or was this a lie? Sonia had said she was too naive and gullible, and right now she wasn’t sure she believed what they were telling her. Something about their initial silence told her that they weren’t exactly being straight with her.

Deciding to act like she bought their explanation, Celsie flashed them a smile, “Ah! I see. I’m like that too…I mean, I could stay indoors without people knowing about my existence,” she said with a peal of small laughter, meant to diffuse the tension her question had caused, and as expected the others laughed with her.

“I guess we are all like that sometimes,” Alicia said, feeling relieved that all was well again, “Let’s eat please, I didn’t cook just so we can talk over the food,” she said as she picked up her cutlery and started eating.

Going forward she was just going to pay more attention to everything going on around her. She was going to question everything she saw and heard, Celsie thought as she ate.

“Hm, this is delicious,” Benne said giving Alicia a polite smile, and she preened with pleasure at his compliment.

“I’ve been very curious about something. If you don’t mind me asking, how come he is your driver?” Jasmine asked, directing her question to Celsie instead of Benne since she had just witnessed firsthand how Benne could make a lie sound like it was the truth.

“Coincidence. It just happened,” Celsie said with an indifferent shrug.

“You mean he just happened to be your next-door neighbor and driver?” Alicia asked curiously as she exchanged a look with Jasmine.

Before Benne and Celsie arrived earlier, they had both been discussing what the relationship was between Benne and Celsie, since it seemed to them like there was something more going on between the two. Hearing Celsie say it was a coincidence now, they confirmed one of their suspicions, and that was the fact that Benne liked Celsie and had moved into the next flat because he wanted to live closer to her. The only reasonable explanation was that he was her driver, but was in love with her, hence he had moved to where she lived so that he could monitor her. Although Jasmine liked Benne, she wasn’t very comfortable with the idea that Benne was stalking a lady who wasn’t interested in him… Or maybe she was? Whether she was interested in him or not, there was a thin line between love and obsession, and Benne was dancing near that line. Was that the kind of person whose sperm they needed?

“It’s funny, isn’t it? I moved here and he was the first person that came to greet me, and then the next day I’m at work and my boss introduces my official driver who just happens to be him too,” Celsie said with a small smile while she tried to read the expression on Alicia and Jasmine’s face.

“Oh! You found out he was your neighbor before he became your driver?” Jasmine asked with a confused frown. What was going on? None of it made sense. She would easily have believed it was a coincidence had Benne not asked them not to let Celsie know that he had only just recently moved in. What was Benne hiding?

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