She was right, they were going to be late, Benne thought when he checked the time on the car’s dashboard and saw that it was almost 8 AM. He still needed to get to the office and go through the email which Harry had sent him, before attending the series of meetings that were already lined up for him.
Regardless of the constraint of time, he wanted to talk to her, but seeing that she wasn’t willing to talk to him yet, he gave her a nod and turned on the car’s ignition before driving off.
Celsie reached for her cellphone in her handbag when she heard it beep with a message notification. She eyed the text warily when she clicked on it and saw that it was a text message from Anita reminding her to let her know when she would be free for them to hang out later in the day.
For a moment there, she had almost forgotten about Anita, and now that she was reminded, she became worried. Getting involved with Benne now that she knew that he was the CEO who Anita wanted, was going to be trouble for her. Anita wasn’t the type of person that she wanted to go against.
She had always thought that what she wanted was to be single and not get involved with men. She couldn’t believe that just when she had finally met someone she was interested in and had realized that she liked him enough to want to get involved with him, it was going to be a very complicated relationship.
Celsie glanced at Benne’s reflection in the rearview mirror and she sighed inwardly. Why couldn’t he just be a driver? Why did he have to be a wealthy CEO? She didn’t know what she was going to do about any of this, especially about Anita. This was going to be a very stressful relationship for her.
Once Benne drove the car into the company’s parking lot and turned off the ignition after parking the car he turned to look at Celsie, “Can we at least talk about it?” He pleaded even though he knew he was going to be late for his meeting.
“What do you want us to talk about?” Celsie asked innocently without looking directly into his face. She feared that if she did, her resolve to stay mad at him might weaken, and she didn’t want to give in so easily.
“Maybe you could tell me how you feel? What you are thinking?” Benne asked hopefully.
“Which is your true personality? The cold Benedict Delgado? Or the easygoing Benne Handy?” Celsie asked curiously.
“Both. I am both depending on who and what I’m dealing with. I didn’t get to where I am by being easygoing,” Benne explained, and Celsie gave him a nod.
She took in a deep breath, “I can’t say I’m not mad at you. I’m very mad at you, but I’m even more disappointed and hurt that you lied to me and broke my trust…” Celsie started, and Benne nodded in understanding.
“Although trusting you might not come easy to me again. However, you’re the only friend I have here, and I don’t think I want to lose our friendship over this.”
“I want you to trust me, Celsie. I know I might have lied to you in the past, but you shouldn’t also forget that I told you the truth myself, didn’t I?”
“And that singular act of honesty is the only reason I’m still willing to be friends with you, trust me,” Celsie said, and Benne’s brows pulled together in a frown.
What did she mean by friends? “I don’t want to be just friends with you, Celsie. I didn’t do all of this just to end up becoming friends with you,” Benne said with a mildly annoyed expression, and Celsie had to hold back her smile.
“Well, I guess we will have to see how it goes from here,” Celsie said with a shrug, and Benne looked at her with a confused frown.
“What do you mean?”
“Seeing all the stress you must have gone through just to deceive me, I guess this must be very important to you. So the only condition in which I can forgive you is that you have to remain my driver and neighbor,” Celsie said and waited for it to sink in.
“You want me to keep being your driver?” Benne asked in confusion.
“Yes. I’m in a temporary relationship with Benne, my driver. Not the CEO. I want it to remain that way. You can maintain your two personalities. You haven’t told Mr. Harry about this, have you?” Celsie asked curiously.
“Not yet…”
“Good. You can’t tell him I know the truth now. I have to pay him back for toying with me,” Celsie said, and Benne shrugged. Harry deserved that.
“So? Am I to assume that you have forgiven me?” Benne asked hopefully.
“We will see about that. See you in the office,” Celsie said with a wave as she opened the door and quickly got out of the car before Benne could ask her any other question.
Celsie had a small smile on her face as she headed for her office. With Benne still pretending to be her driver, she could date him comfortably while also buying herself enough time to find out exactly what it was Anita wanted from her this time. She would use this opportunity to also find out the best way to make sure Anita doesn’t become a problem for her.. If she was going to date someone like Benne, then she needed to be a step ahead of people like Anita.
Jade raised her head from her laptop when she heard the knock on her bedroom door, “Yeah? You can come in,” she said, and returned her attention to her laptop since she could tell that it was Harry knocking on her door.
Harry who was still dressed in his blue flannel pajamas opened the door and walked into the bedroom. He did a double-take when he saw Jade seated in the center of her bed with documents sprawled all over the bed, and her laptop in front of her.
“Did you even sleep a wink last night?” Harry asked with a frown. He knew that he was a workaholic, but this? This was just too much, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“I tried,” Jade said with a yawn as she raised her head to meet his gaze.
When he saw her for the first time yesterday he had thought that she looked like a hybrid panda, but today she looked more like a zombie, “You slept for how many hours?” Harry asked as he made his way to her bed with a displeased frown.
“I don’t know. Maybe an hour or less. Why do you ask?” Jade asked as she set aside some of the documents so that she could get off the bed. Once she stood up, she groaned loudly as she stretched out her body, and it made cracking sounds.
Harry noticed the way her black silk satin nightdress which stopped on her mid-thigh, rode up her smooth thighs as she stretched, and he looked away from her, “You need a break. You have to take a break from all of this. You are overworking yourself and at this rate, you’re not going to be conscious or sane enough to make an appearance in court,” Harry said in a stern tone as he shut her laptop and started packing the documents which were scattered on the bed.
“I need to be prepared to appear in court in the first place,” Jade protested as she tried to take the documents from him, but Harry stepped away from her.
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.