Chapter 347 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

Once Celsie returned to her office after having lunch with Benne, she shut the door behind her and walked over to her seat. She had tried to hold in her emotions for Benne’s sake, but now that she was alone and could process all that Benne had told her, as well as Anita’s recorded conversation, she couldn’t stop herself from crying. She rested her forehead on her desk as she sobbed.

She stopped crying when a knock sounded on her door, and she cleared her throat, “Yes?”

“Can I come in?” Amy asked politely.

“Do you need something?” Celsie asked, reaching for her handkerchief to dry her tears.

“Yes, I want to see you,” Amy said, and Celsie picked a piece of tissue from her table and blew her nose before giving her the go-ahead to enter.

Once Amy entered, she looked at Celsie closely while holding her phone to her, “You were crying?” She asked with a slight frown.

“No.”

“Yes, you were. Is something wrong?” She asked with concern as she moved closer to the desk.

“No. Everything is fine,” Celsie said and forced a smile, “What did you want to see me for?” She asked, wanting to move the subject away from her.

“The CEO asked me to check on you and report to him,” Amy said, making Celsie frown.

“Benne? When?”

“Just now,” Amy said, pointing to the phone in her hand, and Celsie sighed. How did she keep forgetting that Benne always read her like a book?

“I’m fine. I wasn’t crying,” Celsie said as she reached out a hand for Amy to hand her the phone.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to be worried,” Celsie assured him.

“You were crying again, weren’t you?” Benne asked in concern.

“It’s not like I can tell my eyes not to cry when I feel like crying, can I?” Celsie asked, trying to make light of the situation.

Benne sighed, “I don’t like this.”

“You do realize that this is Amy’s phone, right?” Celsie asked since Amy was still standing there looking at her, “You could have just called me instead of disrupting her work,” Celsie scolded.

“It’s part of her job. I’ve just added it to her job description,” Benne said, and Celsie giggled.

“I’m hanging up now. Don’t worry about me,” Celsie said as she hung up the call and returned the phone to Amy.

“I’m sorry,” Celsie told Amy.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. Is everything okay?” Amy asked, and Celsie gave her a nod.

“You haven’t told us the outcome of the board meeting. Did they like the new design and your presentation?” Amy asked curiously.

Celsie almost sighed when she realized that she had almost forgotten all about the board meeting, “Yes. They all loved it and have given us the go-ahead,” Celsie said, and Amy gave her an ‘I told you so’ smile.

“That’s great news. I will relay the message to others. Call me if you need me,” Amy said as she walked away.

Celsie watched as Amy shut the door behind her, and somehow she felt like the dynamics of her relationship with Amy had changed over the weekend. Or maybe it was just Amy’s personality. She acted more like a friend than as a secretary.

Now that she was alone and was no longer crying, she tried to think about everything from a logical angle. Although she had never really been fond of Rachel, she felt deeply hurt and pained by this new revelation. If she felt this way, she could only imagine how Lucas was going to feel.

Perhaps she should tell him about it and get it over with? She didn’t like the idea of keeping away something that concerned him away from him, especially when she knew that if she were in his shoes, she would prefer that she is told about it. At the same time, he was still struggling with the break-up, and she didn’t want to add guilt to his sadness. Maybe she could tell him about it at a much later time?

Or perhaps she should talk to her parents about it, and then they can all decide whether or not they want Lucas to know about it yet. At least that way, it would be a family decision and not just hers alone.

Just as she picked up her phone to make the call, she remembered that she was yet to tell her parents about who was behind the scandal. If she told them about Rachel’s involvement, they would want to know how she found out, and then she would need to tell them about Anita, and then they would want to know who Anita is and why Benne had a bug in Anita’s office, and she didn’t want to tell them about that.

Although she knew that her parents were smart enough not to blame Benne for Anita’s mess, she just didn’t want to create a situation where her parents might begin to worry about her safety and start asking her to stay away from him so that she would be safe.

Yes, her parents were smart. But they were also very protective parents and would choose her safety over any relationship regardless of how much they liked Benne and his family.

She thought about giving Sonia a call, but once she remembered that Sonia was out with Jade and Bryan, she decided to just talk to Sonia later in the day.

Meanwhile, Jade led Sonia into a restaurant in a different part of the mall where they had been shopping.

“I thought we were going to pick a dress?” Sonia asked as Jade sat down and picked up a menu.

“I’m hungry. Let’s eat and talk before doing that,” Jade said as Sonia took the seat opposite her.

“So about Harry,” Sonia reminded her.

“Yes. About Harry…” Jade said with a wide smile as she signaled to a waiter to attend to them. Once they finished placing their order, she smiled at Sonia.

“There are no exclusive details. I kissed him last night pretending to be drunk… Okay, that’s not exactly what happened. I actually…” the rest of Jade’s words trailed off when Sonia shook her head.

“No. Not like that. I don’t want a summary. I want everything. Please give me all the details. From the first moment you set your eyes on him to the moment you realized that you were attracted to him,” Sonia said as she dug into her mini handbag and took out her phone to record the conversation.

“I hope you don’t mind if I record this? I would have preferred to jot this down, but I’m not with my journal,” Sonia said apologetically.

“As long as you’re the only one that listens to it. With the exception of Celsie, of course. Although I don’t see her sitting down idly just to listen to this,” Jade said with a grin, and Sonia giggled.

“I know, right? She is such a busy bee, whereas I’m a busy body,” Sonia said with a wide grin, and Jade couldn’t have agreed more with the description.

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