Chapter 70 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“You are welcome. Enjoy your meal,” Benne said, looking at her and observing how she kept looking at the laptop in front of her instead of looking at him, “I will be heading out now,” Benne said, and Celsie gave him a nod as he left the office.

Once he had left she let out the breath she had been holding. Maybe it was best she asked her secretary to get her lunch going forward instead of having Benne bring it. She wasn’t sure seeing him three times a day, in the morning when coming to work, during lunchtime, and in the evening that after the close of work, like a medication prescription was good for her heart and mental wellbeing.

She raised a hand to her chest and tried to calm her heart. When she moved to Serenopolis, she hadn’t planned on getting caught up in such a drama. How could everything change because of just one night? How long would she be able to keep up with this?

Celsie tried to push the thoughts out of her mind as she ate. She focused on her lunch and when she was done, she tried to return her complete attention to the work on her desk. She wasn’t the type to be distracted from work or have divided attention when working because of personal issues, but since Benne came into her life, concentrating on her job was becoming more difficult by the day, and she feared that if she didn’t do something about it soon, she would make a mistake that might cost her her job.

Celsie’s eyes flew to the door and her heart missed a beat when her office door opened again. She tensed thinking it was Benne but relaxed a bit when she realized it was Harry. Thinking he was there to meet the boss in his office since she knew whether the CEO was in only when Harry was going into the office, Celsie returned her attention to her laptop.

She tensed and raised her head when she noticed he had stopped in front of her desk. What did he want? She asked herself as she looked at him in confusion.

“When are you getting married, Miss Miller?” Harry asked, looking at her with a very strange expression in his eyes.

“I beg your pardon?” Celsie asked in confusion, wondering where the question was coming from.

“You are engaged, are you not?” Harry asked, his eyes falling on her ringless finger.

Engaged? What made him think that? Why was he asking her such a personal question all of a sudden? Celsie wondered.

Seeing the confusion on her face, Harry decided to follow a different approach, “I suppose you’re traveling for the weekend? Would you need Monday off? Or perhaps you’d be coming in late?” Harry asked, watching her closely.

Celsie’s brow was creased in a deep frown as she tried to figure out what he was driving at, “No, I’m not,” Celsie said politely, and it was all Harry could do to keep himself from lying. She was a good actress but not a very good liar after all.

“Sorry. My bad. I assumed you would be eager to travel over the weekend to spend some time with your fiance who was fighting for his life just last weekend,” Harry said, making Celsie’s mouth drop open in surprise, and then she quickly snapped her mouth shut.

How could she have forgotten such an important detail? “We broke up,” she blurted out before she could think things through, and Harry’s right eyebrow shot up.

“You broke up with your wounded fiance?” He asked in disbelief, and Celsie shook her head.

“He broke up with me rather,” Celsie said with a sad sigh, “He wasn’t happy that I left him on his hospital bed to resume work. He said I loved my job more than I loved him, so he called off our engagement,” Celsie said, making a sniffling sound which left Harry in awe of her.

Wow! Seeing how she was, he could almost understand why Benne was acting crazy now. He hoped she would remember this lie in the coming week. She seemed to have the ability to come up with lies on the spot, without needing to think it through, or had she thought this one through before today? Harry wondered, “I’m sorry about that,” Harry said, and she nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Alright then, I just came in to see if you would be traveling so I can relate the information to the CEO. Have a lovely weekend then,” Harry said with a wave as he walked out of the office.

Celsie raised a hand to her chest. This office was going to be the death of her. Why was it always from on problem to the other? Why did she have to keep looking over her shoulder? She feared if she had to keep looking over her shoulders like this, she might trip in the process and make a mess of things.

If only Benne hadn’t been nosy enough to read her journal, he wouldn’t have even talked to her in the first place. And if only she had known he was her neighbor beforehand, she wouldn’t have taken Benne up on his offer at the club to be her one-night stand. If she had rejected his offer, she wouldn’t have been in all this mess. She was the primary cause of all her problems, and Benne was the secondary cause.

Thinking about everything now she did a mental reverse on how her life here would have been like had she not even gone to the club in the first place. Placing both hands under her chin, with her elbow resting on the desk, she traveled down her imagination lane.

She would have moved into her apartment, spent her time arranging her stuff, and resting. She would have woken up early and refreshed and resumed at the office earlier before the normal time on her first day at work. She would have met Mr. Harry who would have been very impressed by her punctuality and her devotion to her job, and she wouldn’t have had to lie about a fiance who had been involved in an accident.

She would have been pleasantly surprised later that evening to see her next-door neighbor, Benne at her door with a tray of apple cobbler, welcoming her to the neighborhood. She would have gladly accepted his offer to help her move and arrange her stuff.

Then they would have had a normal conversation like neighbors, and maybe eat the apple cobbler together while he told her all about the city and neighborhood.

The next day at work she would have laughed at the coincidence of having Benne, her next-door neighbor as her driver. It wouldn’t have been a big deal because he hadn’t seen her naked or done unholy things to her body! And then she wouldn’t have had to go and complain to Mr. Harry that she wanted her driver to be changed. That way she wouldn’t be working in the CEO’s office as his personal assistant when she had her own office.

Now everyone was a problem to her, Benne, the CEO, and now Mr. Harry who she suspected was suspecting her of lying to him. All of this was Benne’s fault!

“Okay, enough of the blame game, Celsie, snap out of it. Now that you know the cause of your problems, what is the solution?” Celsie asked herself out loud as she took out her journal.

Of course, she couldn’t go back in time to change anything or undo what had been done with Benne, but going forward she could try to resolve things to the best of her ability.

It was clear that she wouldn’t be able to get rid of Benne, since he was not just her driver but also her neighbor. Although quitting her job and leaving here would have solved all her problems, but it wasn’t reasonable. She loved her job, and the salary was very attractive.

She needed to find an easy way to solve her problems. Maybe if she could find out why the CEO was the way he was, she would know the best way to approach him and be friendly towards him? She winced at the thought. The CEO was a weirdo.

Although the CEO was a weirdo, she knew that if she was able to befriend the CEO and serve him to the best of her ability, she would eventually be able to have him transfer Benne to another department, without losing her job. She would ask him to promote Benne to a different department, not fire him.

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