Benne held her gaze for a moment before slowly giving her a nod. The blood drained from her face and a chill ran down her spine as she quickly put some distance between them and stood up.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! It’s happening again, it’s all happening again, Celsie thought in her head, as she hugged herself in a protective gesture, while he just stared at her without saying a word or making any effort to stop her.
What was he expected to say? It’s not what you think? I mean no harm? I’m not a stalker like that crazy psycho? What exactly was he supposed to say? He just wanted to believe that whatever friendship they had between them was strong enough for her to understand that he meant no harm.
Celsie looked away from him as she tried to think past the fear she was feeling. Even though she was feeling scared to her bones, the smart part of her brain reminded her that, he had told her he was scared, confused, and worried after hearing her story, and that he had decided to move away from her and had put the house up for sale after hearing her story.
She was also reminded that he had told her before now that he wasn’t being honest with her, so maybe it wasn’t exactly the same situation. The other part of her brain, however, couldn’t get past the fear.
“I could leave if you want me to,” Benne suggested when she said nothing after a while, thinking that maybe this was too much information already, considering her health and mental wellbeing.
Celsie turned to look at him, and even though he was not exactly who or what she thought he was, he was still Benne to her. Although his name wasn’t the same, and his occupation wasn’t the same, he looked just the same.
He was opening up to her by himself and that was supposed to count for something, Celsie thought, and then paused when something else hit her again.
“Wait, the driving job at the company, you got that too because of me? I’m the lady you were talking about, am I not?” She asked, recalling that she had asked him that question some time ago and he had denied it, saying she wasn’t his type. Why did he lie about that?
Benne gave her a nod, and before he could say anything, something else clicked in her head, “Oh, my God! That house… It wasn’t your friend’s house. It’s yours, isn’t it? ” She asked looking at him like he was a ghost.
If she hadn’t gone to the club on her own that first night, she would have also asked him now if he had come there because of her, “Who are you exactly?” She asked, still not able to make the most important connection.
Just how wealthy was he to get the apartment next to hers under such short notice and get the occupants to move out? How connected was he to have gotten the job of a driver in that company… Oh, no! The resemblance! Celsie thought with wide eyes as she made the final connection, and she shook her head in denial as she met his gaze.
One look at the shock on her face, and he knew that she had finally made the connection, “Yes.. I’m Benedict Delgado.”
Celsie’s brain went blank for a full minute, as she stared at him blankly. Benne waited for her to say something or react, but instead, she walked over to her refrigerator to get herself a bottle of water. She emptied it into a glass and gulped down every drop as though she was trying to calm the storm that was building inside of her.
How had she missed the resemblance between them? Yes, she had thought the body build was similar, but how could she not have guessed that both the CEO and Benne were the same person? Probably because she hadn’t been paying much attention to the CEO? Still, how did it make sense that he would drop her off at work, and then go into his office and act so cold? She should have guessed, seeing the way he had treated Anita that day at Ocean Airlines without good reason.
Celsie replaced the glass on the table, before returning to the living room to face Benne once again, “You mean you are Benedict Delgado? As in the CEO of OmniGlobal?” She asked very calmly.
Benne looked at her helplessly, “Celsie…”
“It’s a yes or no question,” Celsie snapped at him, the first visible sign that she was pissed.
“Yes,” Benne said with a weary sigh.
“You mean you’re the same person I went out with the other day, and also earlier today? The same person who…” Celsie closed her eyes, trying to calm herself as the anger inside her threatened to bubble to the surface at the thought that he had been messing with her this whole time.
“I did that because I…”
Celsie opened her gray eyes which were the color of a storm cloud now, “Get out!” Celsie said in a very quiet voice even though the blood in her veins was pumping really hard.
She wanted to ask him so many questions, yet at the same time, she was too angry to even say anything to him. She wanted to yell and cuss at him. She wanted to throw something at him and hit him. She wanted to ask him who he thought he was to have toyed with her in that manner, but at the same time she wanted to be left alone. She just wanted to shut her door and crawl on her bed with her duvet over her head. She wanted to sleep and wake up to find that all of this had been a dream.
“Celsie I wasn’t trying to mess with you…”
Benne sighed as he stood up and took a step forward, but she shook her head to stop him, “You weren’t trying to mess with me? Did you just say you weren’t trying to mess with me? You knew from the very first night we met that I was your employee, am I right?” She asked in a calm voice that belied the anger she was feeling.
“Not immediately. I only called Harry after you slept off to confirm your identity,” Benne confessed.
“Harry? Oh, yeah! Mr. Harry. Of course, he was in on all of this. Oh, great! I must have looked like a joke to both of you. You both must have made bets, right? Care to tell me who else knows about this at the company?” Celsie asked in a slightly raised voice as she took a step from where she was to where Benne was standing with clenched fists.
“Just Harry, I promise,” Benne said apologetically, wondering if she was going to hit him. It was probably going to be best if she hit him. He was willing to take her anger, but he wasn’t sure he could deal with her silence. Explosive anger for him was better. At least that way he could know what she was thinking.
“The meeting was canceled that day because you knew I was lying drunk on your bed, wasn’t it? How you both must have shared a good laugh at my expense over the silly lie I managed to come up with,” Celsie continued as she took another step towards him while remembering all the time Mr. Harry had asked about her fiance and had even offered to fire her driver.
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath when she remembered sharing a ride with both the CEO and Harry and how she had been exchanging texts with Benne without knowing he was in the car with her the whole time. ‘The damned man had been toying with me? How did I miss that?’ She asked herself angrily as she flashed back to all the first times she had met him.
First, it was at the club as a stranger, the second first time he was standing by her apartment door as her neighbor, and then the third first time he was standing in front of the company as her driver… She should have known. Her instincts had told her from the onset that it wasn’t all a coincidence, but she had allowed Sonia to convince her otherwise. She has allowed him to convince her with his lies about being interested in a strange woman.
Maybe she wouldn’t have been so angry had he not pulled that stunt he did earlier telling her how he wanted her, and asking her about her boyfriend. Or maybe she would have been equally mad, who knew?
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.