“Take things slowly? The casanovess Sonia Smith wants to take this slowly? I never thought the day would come when I will hear you say something like that,” Celsie said amidst her laughter and Sonia joined in her laughter.
“There’s no word like casanovess,” Sonia countered with a giggle.
“Well, for you I had to come up with something. I can’t exactly call you a Casanova after all. But seriously, So? You’re taking things slowly with Bryan? Wow!”
“What can I say? People change. Look at you in a relationship. I’m so proud of you, Celsie. And I’m super happy that you have finally decided to let go of the past and be happy! We should go out and celebrate this when I visit you!” Sonia said with a smile and Celsie could hear the joy in her tone.
“Sure. Let’s do that. Bills on my super-rich boyfriend,” Celsie added, making Sonia burst into a peal of laughter.
“Please take it easy on Benne’s wallet so he doesn’t end up becoming a broke driver for real,” Sonia advised.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t forget that you can’t tell Bryan I’ve made up with Benne, okay?” Celsie warned.
“Sure. But why are you keeping it from him? How is that going to help you achieve anything?” Sonia asked in confusion.
“Seeing how Bryan encouraged his brother’s lies, isn’t this the least I can do to make him feel guilty?” Celsie asked, and Sonia rolled her eyes since she knew that guilt was the last thing Bryan was feeling. Bryan was so not his brother’s keeper.
“Right. He should suffer for joining his brother to deceive my best friend!” Sonia said with enthusiasm.
“Yeah! So back to you again, have you told Bryan how you feel about him yet? The feeling is mutual, right?” Celsie asked hopefully.
“Our relationship is still a work in progress. We both know we like each other, but we don’t know how much yet. Uhm… I need to join Bryan now before he comes to search for me. I’m going to call you back when I’m with him and pretend like we haven’t spoken yet. The phone will be on speaker, so you can just pretend that you’re still mad at Benne, okay?” Sonia said, making Celsie giggle.
“Sure. Let’s do that!”
“It feels so good chatting with you this way, Celsie. Don’t grow distant from me, okay? We shouldn’t let the brothers come between us. Got to go now, Bryan just came into the bedroom,” Sonia whispered to Celsie and quickly disconnected the call when she heard the sound of Bryan’s wheelchair.
Celsie was about to get out of the car after the phone call when her phone started ringing again.. She sighed when she saw that it was a call from Anita.
After watching Benne and Celsie walk hand in hand into the barbing salon, Anita had driven off as she had better things to do with her time than stay outside there waiting for them to finish with whatever they had gone there for.
Initially, she had wanted to call Celsie but had decided to wait until she got home, so she would have enough time to clear her head.
Now seated in her car which was parked outside her apartment, she tried to come up with the perfect way to execute her plan. Once she was sure of the first line of action to take, she dialed Celsie’s line.
“Hey, girl! Can we meet?” Anita asked immediately Celsie received her call, and she placed the call on recorder.
“Uhm, not exactly. I’m hanging out with my boyfriend, why?” Celsie asked, wondering why Anita wanted to meet with her again when they had met just the previous evening.
Even though Celsie knew that she could easily choose to ignore Anita’s call or cut her off to save herself from a lot of stress and drama, she preferred to play Anita’s game. She knew that Anita just wanted to use her, and she wanted to see just how far Anita was willing to go to do that. Besides, it was better to keep her close this way. That was the only way she could know what Anita was up to.
Boyfriend? That confirmed that she had not just been seeing things earlier. Benne… No, her CEO was really Celsie’s boyfriend.
“You are always hanging out with this boyfriend of yours. You make single people like me feel lonely,” Anita said in an easy tone that belied the anger she felt. The only visible sign of her anger was the white knuckles of her right hand which was holding on tightly to the steering wheel.
“Well, I have some years’ worth of catching up to do in the relationship department, so don’t blame me,” Celsie said, imitating Anita’s easy tone.
If only Celsie had chosen to remain single and not get involved with Benne, she wouldn’t have resorted to doing any of the things she was planning, Anita thought with a sigh.
“I suppose we can’t meet. I was really hoping we could hang out. I wanted to talk to you about something that has been bothering me all day. I would have stopped at your office earlier in the day, but after the CEO’s warning yesterday, I didn’t want to risk it,” Anita said in a distressed tone.
Celsie’s brows pulled together in a slight frown when she heard Anita’s distress. Although Anita was her enemy and she was wary of her, she couldn’t stop herself from being concerned. That was what made her human, wasn’t it?
“Is something wrong? Is it very urgent?”
“I guess it has to wait. I don’t want to cut short your time with your man. I was just worried and needed someone to talk to, and I figured you’re the best person to talk to since you might be able to help me,” Anita said sadly.
She needed her help? Celsie pursed her lips as she tried to figure out what Anita was up to this time, “Uhm, is it something you can talk about over the phone? Or can it wait till I’m able to see you” Celsie asked, trying not to sound too cautious.
“Maybe. The thing is, after our conversation last night, I’ve been thinking a lot about all we said…” Anita started.
“All we said about what?” Celsie asked with a confused frown.
“You know, I mean what we spoke about concerning Benne and the CEO,” Anita started, and Celsie’s heart skipped a beat when she heard Benne’s name on Anita’s lips.
Before now Anita barely mentioned Benne’s name, as she always just referred to him as her driver, and tried not to give any hint that she was ever involved with Benne, so hearing her talk about him now made Celsie more than a little uncomfortable.
“Are you there?” Anita asked when Celsie didn’t say anything.
“Yeah. Sure. Go on. What about him and the CEO?” Celsie asked, trying to sound normal.
Anita sighed, “I lied to you. I’m sorry I haven’t been entirely honest with you considering the fact that we are friends,” Anita confessed, making Celsie feel even more uncomfortable.
What was going on? Why was Anita suddenly sounding this way? “You lied to me? About what?”
Anita cleared her throat. She knew she had to play this card very well, “I don’t know if your driver told you this yet, but we used to be in love with each other. We were in a relationship,” Anita confessed, making Celsie’s heart skip a beat. Why was she telling her this now? What did Anita want?
“Oh! Really?” Celsie asked, sounding genuinely surprised since she hadn’t expected Anita to bring it up.
Hearing the surprise in Celsie’s voice, Anita concluded that Benne had probably not told Celsie about their past according to their agreement so she quickly continued, “You can’t tell him I told you this. I just feel very sad and guilty that I’m keeping something like this away from you. I’ve not been myself since he broke up with me,” Anita said with a sigh. She needed to tell Celsie her own version of the story and get Celsie’s pity before Benne does that.
“I don’t understand,” Celsie said in confusion since just the previous day Anita had told her that she couldn’t be with someone like Benne who had nothing to offer to her. Where was this coming from now?
“To be honest with you, I’m still very much in love with Benne. Things were going so well between us until I told my mom about him. She was against our relationship because Benne was a blue-collar worker, and every time I was to go out on a date with him she would do everything within her means to stop me. She even threatened to ruin Benne’s life if I didn’t stop seeing him. I couldn’t tell Benne about it because I didn’t want him to feel bad. Eventually, he got tired of all the flimsy excuses I kept making each time I stood him up,” Anita concluded on a small sob which left Celsie feeling completely confused.
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.