Chapter 54 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Great that you finally decided to give me a call. I was just about to send out a search party for you,” Benne muttered irritably once he received the call.

“You seem to be in a foul mood, did something happen?” Bryan asked curiously since Benne was hardly the sort to lose his temper.

Benne took in a deep breath to calm himself, “You’re not going to believe this. Even I find it difficult to believe, but it’s true. Your fiancee just happens to be my girl’s best friend,” Benne said, sounding very anxious.

“What? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Bryan muttered in disbelief. How was that possible? It didn’t even make sense.

“I wish I was. You know what this means, right? You have to get rid of my pictures or anything you have of me that could expose my identity,” Benne said urgently.

“Hold on a minute, how is this possible? It doesn’t even make any sense. Of all the girls in the world, that…” Bryan took in a deep breath to calm himself so as not to give himself away, “You mean Sonia is your girl’s best friend?”

“Yeah. I’m just as surprised as you are,” Benne said with a sigh, “I hope you haven’t told her anything about me yet?” Benne asked hopefully.

“No, I haven’t. But how did you find out?” Bryan asked curiously.

“I overheard them both talking over the phone, and Celsie asked her to find out what she could from you,” Benne explained.

Bryan’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he recalled snippets of Sonia’s conversation with Celsie that first day he had met her. Sonia had mentioned the name, Benne. And he grinned when he remembered that she had said something about a neighbor with benefits, and he also remembered hearing her ask her friend to have sex with the handyman. So that handyman he had been feeling sorry for was his own brother? What a lovely twist.

“Hm. Small world, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I will do my best to keep your identity from her,” Bryan promised.

“So I suppose you know Celsie?” Benne asked, making Bryan raise a brow.

“I’m hearing the name for the first time today,” Bryan said without thinking.

“How come you don’t know the name of your fiancee’s best friend? I found out about Sonia the first night I spoke to Celsie. What do you spend time talking about if you don’t even know the people who are close to her?” Benne asked with disapproval, and Bryan realized his error.

Being the smart actor he was, he quickly came up with an answer, “Maybe I spend my time doing other fun things, rather than talking and that’s why we are engaged now,” Bryan said jocularly making Benne chuckle.

He knew he was going to have to tell Benne the truth about his false engagement to Sonia soon, else Sonia’s bestie was going to beat him to it, and then Benne would likely get mad. But he couldn’t tell Benne about it at the moment. The timing was wrong, and he needed to get back to Sonia with her luggage so she could find something to change into.

“Well, just make sure you get to know her unless of course, you’d like to get divorced as other celebrities do,” Benne said, and he added, “Also, I’ll like you to find out more about Celsie from her if you don’t mind.”

“Hmm. I will see what I can do. What about Celsie? How did it go with the assignment yesterday?” Bryan asked, and listened attentively as Benne told him all that happened the previous day, only leaving out their discussion in her apartment since he hadn’t told her about their night together. He could only hope that she hadn’t told Sonia about it, which he highly doubted. He prayed that Sonia wouldn’t mention anything regarding that to Bryan.

“Brilliant! So I suppose you’re going to be dressing up today as the boss?” Bryan asked thoughtfully.

“That was what I was doing before you called,” Benne said, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He had attached the fake beards and mustache already, and the wig was also positioned on his head.

“Good. Your assignment today… Have someone else deliver her lunch. Don’t show up for it. If she calls don’t respond either. Make sure whoever delivers her lunch tells her you are having lunch with someone else.”

Benne smiled, knowing that was the one step forward and two steps backward strategy which Celsie had talked about, “I will do just that,” He said with a nod.. He had been trying to figure out the best way to apply her lesson, but now that Bryan had given him the idea, it was simple.

As soon as Bryan was done returning all his missed phone calls, he picked up Sonia’s luggage and returned to the house. Once he walked through the door he was welcomed by the aroma of scrambled eggs with bacon and an underlying aroma of coffee. The aroma was so pleasant and homely that it made him nostalgic.

He left the luggage by the living room and followed the aroma to the kitchen. He stopped by the doorway when he saw Sonia dressed in one of his t-shirts. She had her back to the door as she prepared breakfast, while she rapped alongside Cardi B’s song which was playing from her phone.

He couldn’t tell what she was wearing underneath the t-shirt, but her legs were endlessly long, smooth, and very attractive. His eyes lingered on her legs for a moment before he slowly lifted his gaze. Because she had her back to him his eyes fell on her long curly hair which was resting on her back. He could tell she had used his hairdryer since her hair which had been wet earlier, was dry now.

As if he was being controlled by a remote, his eyes returned to her legs, and he imagined running his hands over it to see if they would feel as smooth as they looked. He looked up when he heard her clear her throat, and realized much to his embarrassment that she had turned around while he was staring at her legs and he hadn’t even noticed.

Sonia’s eyes gleamed with amusement as he met her gaze, “I take it you are a leg man?”

Bryan wore an aloof expression on his face, “Your luggage is in the living room,” he said in an indifferent tone. He had no intention of letting her believe he was sexually attracted to her. He wasn’t. It had just been a while since he last had a woman with him, and he was certain he wouldn’t give her legs a second glance once he satisfied himself.

So he wanted to pretend like she hadn’t just caught him checking her out? Cool. “For a moment there, I thought you got into your car and ran away,” Sonia said in an easy voice.

“I can’t say the thought didn’t exactly cross my mind. But I couldn’t just run away dressed like this. Won’t be good for my reputation,” Bryan responded flashing her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Sonia threw back her head and laughed gaily, making him think that she seemed to laugh a lot. He made a mental note to search Google for mental disorders that made people laugh a lot. That could be a lead. Maybe she was a psychopath like joker.

“You see that? That right there is the reason I’m so drawn to you. You are so hilariously funny, my love,” Sonia said before returning her attention to what she was doing.

Bryan had a smirk on his face as he walked over to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup of coffee. She was drawn to him because he was funny, huh? He couldn’t wait to see what she would think about Matt. The guy was the real comedian and charmer between them.

Bryan sat on one of the seats in the kitchen and sipped his coffee very slowly as he watched her move around his kitchen as if she owned the place. Seeing how she ignored his presence, he assumed she probably thought he had left, but she proved him wrong when she turned to look at him, “I suppose your cook and cleaners will be resuming today, right?” She asked curiously.

“Why? Don’t tell me you are already tired of strutting around my home like you own the place?” Bryan drawled as he nursed the cup of coffee on his hands.

“Trust me, I’m not. At least, not yet. I will be using one of your spare rooms as my workroom for the duration of my stay here. So I just need to know which of the bedrooms is available,” Sonia said, looking at him expectantly.

“You can have the room at the end of the hall. How long do you intend to stay for?” He asked the question that had been on his mind since he saw her luggage. Although he didn’t like her very much, it felt good to have someone with him in the house that he could talk to.

“I don’t know yet. I guess we will both have to wait and see,” she said with a sweet smile, and Bryan nodded.

“That best friend you talked about yesterday, what is her name?” Bryan asked, trying to subtly extract information from her.

“Celsie? Why do you ask?” Sonia asked curiously. Perhaps his brother had found out about his employee being besties with his future sister-in-law? She wouldn’t put it past these wealthy people to dig around other people’s lives.

“Nothing really serious. I’m just wondering if she is anything like you. I wonder how she puts up with a… A person like you,” Bryan said, making Sonia giggle.

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