Chapter 97 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

An awkward silence ensued between them, and the only sound in the room was that of the ticking clock, “I… will do the dishes,” Celsie offered in a slightly cracked voice, breaking the silence between them as she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up.

“You don’t have to do that. I will take care of it myself,” Benne offered, standing up to pack the dishes himself.

As Celsie reached out to pick up the plate she had used, Benne reached for the plate at the same time and touched her hand in the process. The sudden contact startled Celsie and she quickly snatched her hand from the plate as though she had been burned, making Benne look at her with interest.

“I will just go now. Thanks for dinner,” she said and before he could say anything, she quickly picked up her handbag from the table and headed for the door. Before she could reach the door, Benne followed in quick steps and grabbed her arm, gently pulling her back to stand in front of him, making her heart beat wildly against her chest.

“You can’t leave. We haven’t had dessert yet,” Benne said as, placing both hands on her shoulder to keep her in place.

“I’m full,” she said without meeting his gaze, and Benne chuckled.

“I noticed that you seemed to enjoy the meal. I’m going to pack some for you when we are done. For now, just sit in the living room and pick out any movie of your choice while I clear the table and do the dishes, okay?” He asked as he reached out with his thumb to brush it against her chin.

Celsie shivered involuntarily when felt his touch on her skin, and sucked in a breath as butterflies began to flutter in her belly. She swallowed hard before taking a step away from him, letting his other hand fall from her shoulder.

“Relax, Celsie. I’m not sure any of my ex-girlfriends were this jumpy around me,” Benne murmured, “You are not forgetting that you are now my girlfriend, are you?” He asked, making her lift her head to look at him.

“Fake girlfriend,” Celsie reminded him.

“Not a fake girlfriend. It’s a relationship… Just a temporary relationship in which the both of us can learn from each other. That means we have to do everything a real couple would do. I will do with you everything I did with my ex-girlfriends. That is the only way you can be able to spot my flaws,” Benne said, making Celsie’s brows pull together thoughtfully.

By everything did he mean sex too? She wondered but chose not to ask him since she didn’t want to embarrass herself again any more than she had done already, as he might be forced to think that having sex with him was the only thing on her mind.

“Remember what I said before? Once you stop being comfortable with the relationship, you can call it off. Or are you going to dump me before we even start?” He asked with a teasing smile when he saw the frown on her face.

Celsie sighed, “After this is over, and you start dating her, you won’t bring up our history anymore, right? Everything will be behind us?” Celsie asked hopefully.

“There will be no need to,” Benne assured her with a smile. Of course, there would be no need to bring it up when she would be the person he was dating.

Celsie closed her eyes for a moment and tried to think as Sonia would think in this situation. Everyone knew Sonia was the crazy and wild one between them. Sonia would likely have asked her to be more daring. To just go with the flow and have fun, since it wasn’t a real relationship.

She could also just decide to look at it as a part-time training or course with many perks. She needed both the experience and the invisible certificate she would get from this to finally get Sonia and her family off her back. This would also give her the chance to bring Anita and Benne closer to each other. And finally, Benne would also let her be once he got the woman he wanted. She was using one stone to kill many birds.

Once she reminded herself of all these, she opened her eyes, “Okay. I will pick out a movie,” she said with a determined nod before walking away from him.

Benne had a grin on his face as he walked into the kitchen to do the dishes. Even though it wasn’t exactly the kind of relationship he wanted from her, this was a good start. It would give him the opportunity to be closer to her, and get to know her better.

Less than thirty minutes later Benne joined her in the living room, “Picked any yet?” He asked as he sat down on the couch beside her.

“I’m surprised that people still use DVD players, but I’m even more surprised that all the movies you have in here are old,” Celsie said with a yawn as she handed him the one she had chosen.

“Are you sure you want to see a movie with me? I could doze off in the middle of the movie,” Celsie said as she tried to cross her legs. Now that Benne was seated very close to her, and she knew they weren’t going to be having sex, she no longer felt comfortable in her dress.

“You want to change into something more comfortable?” Benne asked when he noticed how she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“What about we call it a night and see the movie some other time? Where are you going to?” She asked when Benne stood up and walked away while she was still speaking.

“Be right back,” he said as he walked into his bedroom, and came out with a t-shirt, and a jogger, “You can just change into this,” Benne said, handing them to her.

Celsie looked at him incredulously, “I live next door… I could just go home and change into something else,” Celsie pointed out.

“Don’t you think it’s probably best if we forget the proximity of our houses? I don’t think people go home in the middle of a date to change their outfits. So why don’t you change into your boyfriend’s clothes as every normal girlfriend would do? I’m sure you will feel more comfortable in them,” Benne said with a smile, and Celsie rolled her eyes before taking the clothes from him.

He led her to the guestroom where she could change out of her clothes and returned to the living room to see the movie she had picked. His lips curved in a smile when he saw the title of the movie, “What Women Want” she had obviously picked the movie with him in mind. Good thing was that he has never seen the movie, so he was just going to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, just as Celsie started taking off her clothes in the bedroom, her cell phone started ringing. She opened her handbag and took out the phone. Once she saw that the call was from Anita, she was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of guilt, but she quickly shook it off, reminding herself that nothing was going on between Anita and Benne yet, so she wasn’t doing anything wrong.

“Hey!” She greeted immediately she accepted the call.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier to find out if you had gotten home,” Anita said apologetically.

“It’s okay. I’m fine,” Celsie rushed to assure her.

“Thanks for coming over. I enjoyed your company,” Anita said with a small smile.

“Same here,” Celsie said even though she didn’t exactly believe what Anita had just said.

“By the way, I was wondering if you had any serious plans for tomorrow?” Anita asked curiously, wanting to set her plans in motion as quickly as possible.

Celsie winced, not knowing how to respond to the question as she wasn’t very keen to visit Anita’s house again, “Uhm, I…”

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