Chapter 356 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

Celsie forced a smile, “I don’t. And yes, I’m Celestia Miller. Have we met before?” She asked as she looked at the young lady who seemed like a teenager, not sure she knew her from anywhere.

“Oh, not at all! I’m Sidney. My twin sister and I watched your interview over the weekend, and it was really touching. She bawled her eyes out,” the girl said, and Celsie smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to response to give.

Was she supposed to say, ‘Oh, yes, it touched me too’? Or ‘Thanks. I’m glad you both were touched’? Or Just ask if she belonged to the category of people who had judged her before hearing her side of the story? Celsie wondered as she just stood there staring at the young girl and waiting for her to either leave or say what else she wanted.

“If it’s not too much to ask, can I get an ulsie?” She asked, and then laughed when Celsie blinked at her in confusion, “Sorry. I mean like a selfie. I’d like to take a photo with you. My twin sister will go crazy with envy if I show her the picture,” she explained excitedly, and Celsie looked around cautiously.

“Sure,” Celsie said with a forced smile and stood still as the girl took out her phone from her purse. The girl stood beside her and captured several photos of them before stepping away from her.

“Thank you very much. We are rooting for you and your relationship with the wealthy CEO. You look way more beautiful and classy in person, by the way,” the young girl said with a wave as she walked away with a wide smile while looking at the photo she had captured.

Celsie’s brows were pulled together as she watched the young girl round the corner and disappear. This was weird. Although she knew that a lot of people had seen the interview, did that make her a celebrity? Was she going to now be faced with having people walk up to her this way? This wasn’t the kind of lifestyle she liked or wanted. She preferred to live low-key, not like Sonia, who loved to get lots of attention.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when her phone started ringing, and she quickly received the call from Benne, “You are taking longer than expected. Do you need help?” Benne offered, already tired of the attention he was receiving from people around.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be out soon,” Celsie said apologetically as she quickly grabbed two boxes of tampons and dropped them into her shopping basket, and then she hurried to the section where shower gels were displayed.

She picked up two bottles of shower gels and added them to her basket, and as she headed for the counter, she stopped when she walked past the section where some male items were displayed, and her eyes caught on a pair of memory foam slippers.

She contemplated whether or not it would fit him before picking it up and dropping it into her basket. She looked around to be sure she had gotten all she wanted before going to join the little queue by the counter.

As she stood there waiting for her turn, she noticed several eyes were on her, but as uncomfortable as it made her feel, she tried not to let it bother her too much and just looked ahead of her.

Once it was her turn, the cashier gave her a polite smile as she placed the basket on the countertop.

“What is the cost of the items?” Celsie asked as she extended her debit card to the cashier when she finished scanning the items.

“Your husband left his card. He said you should bring it with you when you’re done,” she said with a polite smile as she returned Benne’s debit card to her along with the bag containing her purchase.

Husband? Celsie opened her mouth to tell her that Benne wasn’t her husband but snapped it shut and just smiled at her instead before walking away with her purchase. There was no need to make a big deal out of it. She could understand that Benne’s action could have prompted the lady to make such an assumption. Besides, she didn’t know what Benne could have said, and she didn’t want to embarrass him.

As she walked out of the store, she looked around for Benne, and when she didn’t find him, she dialed his line to find out if he was waiting in the car.

“Where are you?” She asked immediately after he received the call.

“Inside the jewelry shop beside the department store. Are you done? Where are you?”

“I’m done. I will just meet you there,” Celsie said as she returned to the jewelry shop she had just walked past. Her heart skipped a beat when she looked through the glass door of the jewelry shop in time to see Benne dipping a tiny jewel box into his pocket, and she quickly moved away from there.

“I’m coming out now,” Benne said as he hung up and walked out of the jewelry store.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting?” Benne asked when he saw her standing between the jewelry store and the department store.

Celsie shook her head, “No, you didn’t.”

“Let me carry that,” Benne offered as he reached for the shopping bag, but Celsie shook her head.

“Don’t worry. I got it,” Celsie said, holding on to the bag tightly, and Benne raised a brow in amusement.

“I know you well enough to guess what you went to get. Relax, I’m not going to look into the bag. Just let me carry it to the car,” Benne offered, and Celsie reluctantly let go of the bag, and he took it from her.

“You didn’t have to leave your card,” Celsie said as she returned his card to him.

“I know I didn’t have to. I wanted to. You can hold on to the card,” Benne said as he walked ahead of her, and Celsie watched him for a moment before following.

Noticing that she was walking behind him, without turning to look at her, he extended his right hand to her, and Celsie grabbed his hand as she walked beside him.

As they walked hand in hand, they both noticed that a lot of people were staring at them, and Benne noticed one or two persons taking snapshots of them, but neither of them said anything until they got to the car.

The only thing on Celsie’s mind was what she had seen earlier. What did he go into the jewelry shop to purchase? What was in that box? She really hoped that it wasn’t what she was thinking. She would really hate to disappoint him.

“Jewel? Are you okay?” Benne asked, turning to spare her a glance as he drove when the silence between them had dragged on for a while.

Celsie cleared her throat, “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Benne asked, unconvinced.

“Yes,” Celsie said with a forced smile.

“I know when your smile isn’t real. Did I do something wrong? Is this about what we discussed earlier?” Benne asked, concerned that maybe she had recalled some other lies he had told her or stupid stuff he had done in the past and was upset.

“No. It’s not that. I’m fine,” Celsie said, and Benne sighed.

Sensing that he was worried about her, Celsie turned to look at him after a minute, “A young girl approached me while I was shopping earlier. She wanted to take photos with me,” Celsie said, and Benne looked at her.

He didn’t need to ask if she had accepted since he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t say no to such a harmless request. “Is that what is bothering you?”

“That is part of it. Different people were staring at me, and did you notice the looks we received?” Celsie asked with a slight frown, thinking that it was probably better to focus on this than on the other stuff that was bothering her.

“Yeah, I noticed. Don’t worry too much about it. Hopefully, things will settle back to normal soon, and everyone will forget about our existence,” Benne said, even though he highly doubted that things would go back to normal.

He had received his fair share of attention earlier as some ladies who had recognized him had tried to flirt with him until he had no other choice than to go into the jewelry shop.

He hated the attention just as much as she did since he also preferred a low-key life. And he knew that he wouldn’t have been in a hurry to reveal his identity had it not been for the nonsense stunt that Anita had pulled. Now he had to deal with a lot of unnecessary attention.

“You are Benedict Delgado. I don’t think anyone will forget about your existence,” Celsie said, and Benne sighed.

“Since you know that, can you try to adjust to the attention for my sake?” Benne asked, and this time Celsie sighed.

“I will try.”

“Good. So what is the other thing?” Benne asked, and Celsie looked at him in confusion.

“What other thing?”

“You said this was part of what was bothering you. What’s the other thing? Or is it more than one?” Benne asked, and Celsie bit her lower lip as she tried to think of how to address the subject.

For both their sake, it would be best if she told her thoughts on marriage before he thought of proposing to her. She would love to save them both the embarrassment and misunderstanding.

“I don’t want to get married to you.”

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