Chapter 57 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Nothing. Just curious,” she said, flashing him a smile. It wouldn’t be a very wise idea to tell her supposed ex that she wanted to meet the CEO and seduce him. At least not yet.

She looked at Benne with pursed lips as she tried to decide whether to stick to him until she found out all she could about the CEO from him, or offer to pay him a huge sum of money for him to help her meet the CEO.

“Is the CEO’s personal assistant a male or female?” She asked in a casual tone.

“A lady. A very beautiful young lady,” Benne added as he watched her. Anita seemed like a pretty ambitious person, so he could guess that she was probably nursing ideas of meeting the CEO and getting involved with him. Well, if that was what she was thinking, he hoped she wouldn’t waste too much time on her pipe dream.

Anita smiled at him. She had no problem with his personal assistant being beautiful or young. She was just as beautiful and young too, and as such couldn’t be intimidated by that. If the CEO’s personal assistant was anything like her, by now their marriage would have made the first page of the tabloids, but it seemed like the CEO’s personal assistant wasn’t interested in him, or she probably just wasn’t his type.

Anita decided she was just going to become best friends with the CEO’s personal assistant, since all she wanted was an opportunity to meet the CEO. Hopefully, the lady would be her ticket to meeting Benedict Delgados.

“How is Snow?” Benne asked for lack of anything else to say.

Anita smiled at the mention of her pet, “He is very fine.”

“That’s good to know. It’s nice seeing you again,” Benne said as he started to pull back his seat from the table.

“Don’t tell me you are leaving already?” Anita asked with a frown.

“I am. Have a nice day,” Benne said as politely as he could muster before standing up and walking away from the table without giving Anita the chance to say anything else.

Once Celsie saw Benne getting out of his seat, she quickly hurried away so he wouldn’t see her, and hid in a corner until he left.

Judging by the way the lady had been smiling while talking to Benne, Celsie couldn’t tell if this was the lady he liked, or perhaps she was one of those ladies who wanted him, and he was using to mislead the lady he liked, as she had advised.

Whoever the lady was, she was going to become friends with her and every other lady she sees around Benne. That way he would think twice before trying to initiate anything amorous between them.

Once she was certain he had left for real, Celsie returned to the cafeteria. She was glad when she saw Anita heading for her seat with a tray of food.. She took a moment to think about the best way to approach Anita, and then decided to just do the natural thing since she was carrying her lunch pack. She took in a deep breath before approaching Anita’s table, “Hi!”

Once Benne returned to his office he dialed Harry’s line and asked him to meet him in his office at once.

The first thing Harry noticed when he walked into the office was Celsie’s absence, and the next was the frown on Benne’s face, “Did you send your assistant out?”

The crease on Benne’s brow deepened, “Celsie? No. Why?” Benne asked curiously.

“I’m just surprised that she isn’t on her seat. You know she hardly leaves her office, so I was just wondering where she went to. Anyway, why did you send for me?” Harry asked, changing the subject.

“Call her and find out where she went to,” Benne instructed. Or did her secretary fail to deliver the lunch as he instructed, and she went to get her meal? Benne wondered.

“Okay,” Harry said and dialed Celsie’s line.

Celsie who was just about to introduce herself to Anita, paused when her phone started ringing and she noticed the call was from Harry, “Excuse me,” she said to Anita as she turned away from her.

“Hello, sir,”

Harry placed the call on loudspeaker, “Miss Miller, the CEO would like to know why you’re not on your seat,” He said, making Celsie’s heart skip a beat.

Was it just her, or did everyone else feel this way each time the CEO’s name was mentioned? Celsie wondered. Maybe it was because of how harsh he had been the first time they had spoken.

“I only stepped out to have lunch at the cafeteria,” Celsie explained, trying hard not to stutter as she spoke.

“Hold on,” Harry said before placing the call on mute and looking at Benne, “She said she is having lunch at the cafeteria,” Harry explained.

“I’m not deaf. Didn’t her secretary deliver the lunch I sent to her?” Benne asked Harry with a frown, and Harry rolled his eyes before unmuting the call.

“I thought I saw your secretary taking a lunch pack to your office?” Harry asked, and Celsie winced.

“Yes, she did. I wasn’t sure the CEO would appreciate me eating in the office so I decided to eat at the cafeteria,” Celsie lied, and Harry nodded.

“Okay then, you should hurry up and get back to your office. In case of next time, you can eat in your office, I’m sure the CEO prefers that to you being so far away from him,” Harry said before hanging up.

“Now that we’ve cleared that up, why did you call me?” Harry asked curiously.

“I ran into Anita at the cafeteria a moment ago,” Benne said, making Harry frown.

“Anita? What was she doing here? Don’t tell me she found out about you?” Harry asked with round eyes. Harry had only heard of Anita but he had never met her since Benne felt it would be suspicious for a handyman like him to present someone like Harry as his friend.

“She didn’t find out about me, but according to her she came here to have a meeting with Mr. Harry,” Benne said, and it finally clicked in Harry’s head.

“Don’t tell me Miss Miller from Oceans airline is your Anita?” Harry asked in surprise.

“First of all, she isn’t MY Anita. To answer your question, yes. Her name is Anita Miller. What is her role in Ocean Airlines? Is she someone we can relieve of her duties?” Benne asked, making Harry raise a brow.

“You’re not someone to mix business with pleasure, apart from your recent craziness, though. So why are you thinking of doing that?” Harry asked.

“I’m not mixing business with pleasure. I’m only trying to avoid the kind of trouble I think someone like her might bring with her. So answer my question,” Benne repeated.

“Unfortunately, you can’t avoid this trouble. If you remember correctly, Mr. Wyatt gave you some conditions before agreeing to sell Ocean Airlines to you, and one of them includes the names of some staff you have to retain. She is on the top of the list, and that is why I decided to meet with them to know them personally,” Harry explained.

“I suppose you’ve found out what her relationship is with Mr. Wyatt?” Benne asked, knowing that Harry would have done all of that before inviting her over.

Harry gave him a nod of agreement, “Sure. She is his niece, so you can see that you can’t fire her… At least not yet, and not without a very good reason,” Harry added.

“I see. And what do you think about her? I mean professionally.”

“I think she is very intelligent and ambitious, although she kept asking about the CEO,” Harry said with a grin.

“Yeah, she asked me too,” Benne said with a sigh, making Harry chuckle.

“Now I know why you’re worried. Anyway, I will keep my eyes on her, don’t worry too much, and just focus on goofing around, since that seems to be your specialty this period,” Harry said with a chuckle as he headed for the door.

“You’re lucky you’re my best friend, else you’d be out of the job by now,” Benne muttered under his breath, making Harry turn to look at him.

“No. I think you are the lucky one. Who else would be able to have your back as I do? Huh?” Harry asked with a cocky smile.

“Just get out of my sight before I fire you,” Benne threatened.

“Please do. That way I can finally tell Miss Miller all that my mouth has been itching to tell her before I retire. I will also sing to Anita all that she needs to know about the CEO. That would surely keep you busy,” Harry said with a wink before walking away.

Meanwhile, at the cafeteria, both ladies were staring at each other, and Anita had a big smile on her face as she wondered what luck had dragged her newest bestie to her table. She had been surprised when Celsie had asked if she could join her table because she didn’t like to eat alone. But she had been even more surprised when Celsie introduced herself.

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