“What do you mean by that? Have you met you? You’re beautiful, smart, kind, sweet, charming, innocent, thoughtful, funny, crazy in a cute innocent way, and more. Girl, if I was a guy, I’ll marry you,” Sonia said, and Celsie laughed.
“You’re only saying that because you’re my best friend,” Celsie said, and Sonia grinned.
“So I guess I’m back to being your best friend, huh? I thought you disbestfriended me,” She said, and Celsie rolled her eyes.
“Don’t remind me of your betrayal. Else I might change my mind. And that word doesn’t even exist. Stop making up silly words.”
“Every word in the dictionary was made up by somebody. You’re just looking down on the words I form because you know me. But that isn’t the point. You’re amazing, and you deserve every bit of love you get from Benne and even more. I hope you won’t ever forget that,” Sonia said, and Celsie smiled at her.
“What will I do without you?”
“I can think of something. You’ll get into less trouble without me,” Sonia said with a wink, and Celsie giggled.
“Yes. I completely agree with that.”
“Before we digress again, that wasn’t my question,” Sonia said, returning their attention to her initial question.
“What was your question?” Celsie asked, at a loss.
“I said, ‘what about you?’ although I asked you about it yesterday, we didn’t get a chance to talk about it before meeting Candy. Why does it seem like you’re against the idea of getting married?” Sonia asked curiously.
Although Sonia was one to act impulsively and carelessly most of the time, she was also a very observant and thoughtful person. Things hardly went past her without her knowledge, especially not when it had to do with Celsie.
“I wonder how you always manage to remember stuff,” Celsie said in amusement, and Sonia shrugged.
“Some of us were born smart,” she said with a grin.
“And by implication, you mean the rest of us were born stupid, I suppose?” Celsie asked with a stiff smile, and Sonia giggled.
“Quit digressing. Is there something else that I don’t know about?” Sonia asked, looking all serious now, and Celsie sighed.
“I don’t know if this will make any sense to you, but I’ve lived most of my adult life with the conviction that I don’t need any man in my life apart from my dad and Lucas. You know better than anyone else that I was not interested in men, or relationships or marriage until somehow I fell in love with Benne. Yes, the stuff that happened in the past contributed greatly to my conviction, but even though I’m in love with Benne now, I’m still not sure I want to go all that way with him. Does it make sense?” Celsie asked once she finished, and Sonia just looked at her.
“You love him, but you don’t want to be committed to him?” Sonia asked, wanting to be sure she understood Celsie.
“I’m committed to him. I just don’t want to get married,” Celsie said without meeting Sonia’s gaze.
“You love him and will be committed to him, but you don’t want to marry him?”
“Yeah. It’s just like with you and Bryan…”
“No, Celsie. If I’m getting you right, it’s not the same thing. I love Bryan. He loves me. We both would love to get married to each other, but we don’t want to do so just yet. We will do it at a future date. Maybe some years from now, or even in a couple of months. Who knows? But what you’re saying, on the other hand, is that you don’t want to get married, am I wrong?” Sonia asked, and Celsie sighed.
“You’re not.”
“Is Benne aware? Does he know that you don’t want to marry him?” Sonia asked, and Celsie shook her head.
“No. We haven’t talked about that.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what to say or how to feel about this,” Sonia said with a slight frown. If she was being honest with herself, nothing Celsie was saying made any sense to her, “I thought your relationship with Benne would have changed that by now.”
“No, it hasn’t. I love him, but I’m not interested in getting married nor in having kids. It shouldn’t be a big deal, should it? Can’t we just be two people in love with each other without getting married? Oprah isn’t married to her man, and they’ve been together for decades. Marriage is only in papers. It’s not that big a deal…”
“Exactly! So do it! If it isn’t a big deal, do it! It’s just in papers, right? Then sign the fucking papers!” Sonia half-yelled, unable to hold back her annoyance anymore. She was scared that Celsie was going to ruin her relationship with Benne over this.
Celsie’s brows pulled together in disapproval, “Sonia,” Celsie called in a warning tone, “Barely three weeks ago, I didn’t even want a boyfriend, and you were okay with me not getting married. All you wanted was for me to be in a relationship of any kind with any man. Now I’m in love and I’m in a relationship, so what’s the problem? Asking me to be open about the whole marriage idea, isn’t that too much?” Celsie asked with a slight frown.
Sonia took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She tried to assure herself that if it was possible for her to switch from not wanting a relationship to being in a serious one because of Benne, then she could as well change her mind about marriage because of Benne. It might take some time, but it was possible. She would hold on to that.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to impose my conviction on you,” Sonia said apologetically.
“It’s fine. We both know that, unlike you, I’ve always been more career-oriented than family-oriented. I want to do something for myself. This is one of the reasons I didn’t want to get involved in any relationship. I’m not willing to change that about myself,” Celsie said, and Sonia gave her a nod. She wasn’t going to argue with her or try to convince her otherwise. All she prayed for was that Benne would be wise and patient enough to handle this when the time came.
Harry decided to first take Jade to Benne’s office with the hope that either Benne or Bryan would get their sister off him.
“Aww, look who we have here, the handsome Delgado brothers,” Jade said as she happily walked into Benne’s office to join him and Bryan.
“What are you doing here?” Bryan asked as he looked at Jade, whose arm was still linked with Harry’s, and then at Harry, who had left only a moment ago claiming he had work to attend to.
“I came to look around the company where I might be working soon,” Jade said with a smile as she stubbornly held on to Harry’s arm while he kept trying to free his arm from hers, “What are you both celebrating? And who owns this extra glass?” She asked as she picked up the glass of wine that Harry had abandoned earlier and took a sip from it.
Benne watched them both in amusement as Harry begged him with his eyes to save him from her, but he pretended not to notice.
“You will be working here soon?” Bryan asked Jade before turning to look at Benne, “You offered her a job too? Did dad and mom put you up to this?” Bryan asked, and Jade raised a brow.
“Too? You offered Bryan a job?” Jade asked Benne curiously before she turned to Harry, “Was that why you offered me that job? Benne asked you to?” Jade asked, and both Benne and Harry sighed.
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.