Chapter 173 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Hello!” Celsie said in an equally pleasant voice, ignoring the obvious lie Anita had just told.

“I guess you’re done for the day? Do you have time this evening? I’d love us to hang out together,” Anita said hopefully.

“Uhmm… I’m not sure. I have plans,” Celsie said, thinking that Benne might decide to drop by later, and she wanted to be at home when he did. Even though she had so many doubts concerning him at the moment, she still wanted to see him. That wasn’t strange, was it?

“What about tomorrow then?” Anita asked, tapping her pen against her desk impatiently.

Although Celsie wanted to ask her about Benne, she wasn’t very sure hanging out with Anita was a good idea, “I will have to…” The rest of her words trailed off when a cab came to a stop some feet away from where she was standing, and Benne stepped out of it.

“I have to go now. I will give you a call tomorrow to let you know if I can meet you,” Celsie said as she quickly hung up the call.

Seeing her standing there, in front of his apartment as though she had been waiting for him to get back, Benne’s heart skipped a beat as he approached her. How was he going to tell her the truth? Now that he wanted to open up to her, he didn’t know how to go about it, “Hey, babe!” He greeted with a smile that let her know that he really had not been avoiding her, and neither was he scared of her.

Seeing the smile on his face, Celsie’s heart fluttered in her chest, and her lips curved of their own volition. What could this handsome man possibly be lying to her about? She wondered as she watched him approach her, his earrings glittering in the sunlight.

Benne stopped in front of her, “I missed you so much, Celsie,” he said as he spread his arms for her to embrace him.

Celsie was very tempted to ask him about his lies, as she wanted to clear off all her doubts. But at the same time, she didn’t want to bring it up. Maybe not at that moment. Nothing else seemed to matter to her now, more than the man who was standing in front of her. She felt so relieved merely by seeing him. Although it had been only some hours since she last saw him, it felt like it had been such a long time.

“I missed you too,” Celsie said with a bright smile as she walked into his open arms and embraced him tightly, surprising them both.

Deep down, she knew that going forward she was going to watch him more closely, and would definitely find out the truth eventually. She only prayed that he would tell her whatever it was before she finds it out on her own.. And more than that she prayed it wouldn’t be an unforgivable lie.

Jade felt a sense of pride and satisfaction in herself when she saw the surprise which briefly flickered on Harry’s face before it was replaced by something else. Primeval male appreciation.

Although she had felt very insulted by all he had said earlier, she had also admitted to herself that she looked a mess, and needed to clean up. Hence, she had taken her time to wash her hair and thoroughly look through her closet for something nice to wear before having her bath. After dressing up she had taken her time to apply make-up on her face, covering up all the blemish, and giving her face the color she had lacked earlier. Seeing his reaction now, she felt like gloating.

How dare he look at her like she was undesirable and ask her not to worry about him touching her? How dare he try to hurt her feminine pride? Well, seeing the way he was staring now, she felt triumphant.

“Are you going to just stand there and stare?” Jade asked with a smirk when Harry remained by the door staring at her.

Realizing that he had just been caught staring, and seeing the smirk on her face, Harry raised a brow, “I guess make-up can cover up just about anything,” he said in an easy voice as he walked in and dropped his suitcase beside the couch.

Jade who had been expecting at least a compliment, and not such a subtle insult narrowed her eyes, “The wonders of makeup,” she said with a saccharine smile as she crossed one leg over the other and watched him. If he was trying to get on her nerves, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her mad.

“Isn’t that the dress you wore that night?” Harry asked thoughtfully as he eyed her short zip-up floral outfit which looked very familiar to him.

On hearing that, the side of Jade’s lip pulled up. So he still remembered what she had worn the first night they met? Impressive.

“It’s called a romper, Harry. And yes, you are right. You must have a really good memory,” she said, standing up and swirling around so that he would have a proper look at her.

“So what do you think, big brother?” She added the last part with a trace of sarcasm in her voice as she looked at him. Who had he been kidding asking her to take him as an adopted big brother? Her brothers would never stare at her the way he had done some minutes ago.

“I think it looked better on you four years ago. Change into something else let’s go get something to eat,” Harry said with a bored expression on his face as he dropped on the couch and took out his phone.

“Do you have a problem?” Jade asked with one hand positioned on her waist, and a glare in her eyes. She knew she had told herself a moment ago that she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her riled up, but she couldn’t stop herself. Here she was trying to act nice and be accommodating considering how far he had come just to make sure she was okay, yet he was set on being rude.

“Yeah. I’m hungry,” he said without glancing up to look at her as he could guess from the tone of her voice that her hazel eyes which were very much like her brother’s own was probably blazing with anger.

Why was he being this way? Although he was usually brutally honest, he knew he was being mean, and he didn’t understand why he was being mean to her. Maybe it was because he didn’t know how else to treat her. Being nice wasn’t exactly his thing, and he felt things were going to be awkward between them if he tried acting nice. He wasn’t her brother, he wasn’t her friend, he wasn’t her colleague or anything. He was just here to make sure she was fine like a bodyguard or a babysitter, so how was he supposed to treat her? He shouldn’t have agreed to Benne’s request. This was going to be really awkward.

“I mean, do you have a problem with me?” Jade asked, wondering why he had bothered to come to stay with her if he was going to give her such attitude.

“None that I can remember. Why do you ask?” Harry asked, still pretending to be busy with his phone since he didn’t want to look at her.

“If you’re not going to be polite to me then you had better use the door! You’re not going to stay under my roof and talk to me like I’m some damned employee under your payroll,” Jade hissed at him, and Harry’s lips curved in a smile as he raised his head to look at her.

“I suppose you’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m staying under your roof, then?” Harry asked with a slightly raised brow.

“I haven’t said that,” Jade said defensively.

“You don’t have to. Get dressed, Esquire. Let’s argue about it over lunch. I’m usually very mean when I’m hungry,” Harry said as he returned his attention to his phone.

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