The Prince and His Involuntary Bride

11. Flirtatious Coach

“Okay! So, who were you protecting this time?” Officer Chad inquired from Celeste, who simply shrugged her shoulders, pointing out towards the old woman in Hijab and the man who helped her previously, nodded his head in agreement.

“That man...” the old woman pointed out towards her assaulter, who sat back in front of the small lock up, right outside from it, holding a pack of ice to his face with his one hand, whilst her other hand, held his broken teeth right in his hands.

“You f*****g b***h!” she spat, cold thick blood out his mouth, as his gums had finally stopped seeping blood with high speed out of his mouth and he finally felt much more conscious of his environment.

“I need medical attention.” He told Chad, who held his hand in the air and stopped his from speaking any further.

“You don’t. Our dispensary officer has checked you and she told us that you are fine.”

“She wouldn’t know anything.” He spat at Chad, making Chad look at him with crony look covering his face.

“And why would she know anything?”

“Because she is a woman!” Celeste blurted out, making Chad look at her and then back at the spikey bloodied man.

“Just shut up for now, okay? This woman can report you for assault and this can... maybe she can too.” He pointed out at Celeste, feeling annoyed by her presence.

“Why do you... why do you have to hit people left and right?” he whispered in aggression, taking his seat from in front of Celeste and looking at her with a highly irritated tone.

“Okay! First off all, I didn’t hit him left and right! I hit him right in the middle of his face.” She pointed out, “It was just one punch and I simply did it in utter and pure self defense.”

Celeste made a pure innocent face, looking at Chad, who knew that she wasn’t lying as well.

It wasn’t the first time, that she had taken a stand for someone who was being harassed or bullied by anyone.

The first time, she checked in to his station, while he was positioned in Hackney was almost three years ago, where she had saved a teenager girl from being r***d.

The second time, when he changed his post to Bond Street, Celeste helped some old millionaire lady from getting robed, by taking down her robbers and given to that old lady’s words put in, Celeste was given a clean chit.

The third time, Chad was positioned in Scotland, where he had thought that there can be no way for Celeste to create a scene in Glasgow, a thousand miles away from London but given to his either his bad luck or Celeste’s fate of always crashing in to him, she once again, created trouble by protecting a small girl from getting kidn*pped and beating the kidnappers down to a pulp, while she was on a university visit for her little brother.

This made Chad, give up on his determination to move away from Celeste and come back to London, where it had almost been six months and he was living in peace, without any crime reported in his neighborhood but the first complaint that was reported on his block, he already could feel it that it was related to the same brunette woman that was unfortunately sitting right in front of him.

“Why... why do you have to always jump in to a scene and worsen it?” he complained to Celeste, throwing his hands in the air and the old woman looked at Celeste with confusion, who only held her hand at her and closed her eyes and smiled gently, assuring her that it was nothing out of the usual.

“Why... why are there chauvinistic assholes like him?” she pointed towards the spikey man, who had his eyes bulged out of his sockets.

“What... she assaulted me, how can she call me asshole?”

“You assaulted her first!” Celeste pointed out towards the woman in hijab and the man shrunk in to his seat.

“Do you know how scared she was? She is old and fragile and now she might have to visit her doctor, who will pay her bills?” she asked the man, who decided to take his usual racist way out of the entire scene.

“The government will, these people are making the government feed them our tax money.” He pointed out towards the old lady and Celeste immediately looked up at Chad.

“Do you need more confirmation over what the man did to this poor lady?” she pointed out the most obvious fact in the entire conversation that the spikey man had definitely assaulted the woman given that she was an immigrant and Celeste as per usual, thought of it to be her responsibility to save the old one.

He groaned in annoyance, “Fine! I get it, you were only trying to protect her, but why don’t you call the cops and...”

“Do you think I have the brains to do that? If I had, we wouldn’t have met the first four times, had we?” she winked at Chad, who stood up from his seat, slamming the report files on his table, making Celeste shriek back on her spot.

“Because of you, I have to write these extensive reports.” He told Celeste, expressing his true solitude towards her.

He was always the one left to pick up the mess hat Celeste created and write extensive reports on her actions.

“Why don’t you join the force? So that at least you write your own reports.” He asked Celeste, in an exasperated tone and she only threw a small smile at him,

“I am sorry?”

Chad shook his head, knowing well that staying mad at Celeste was of no use and hence, he turned towards the old woman.

“Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt did you?”

The woman shook her head at Chad, “Thank to her, he couldn’t hurt me.”

“What?” the spikey white supremacist, stood up at his spot, “How can you f*****g say that?” he yelled at the woman and another officer, stepped ahead, holding out his baton in his hands firmly and showing it quite clearly to the man that if he didn’t shut up and didn’t stop acting in a police station, he will definitely be dealt in a way worse manner than Celeste dealt with him.

“Do you want to press any charges?” he inquired from the old woman, who only shook her head at Chad.

“No! I am alright, thank you.” She smiled at Celeste, who felt satisfied that she was able to keep someone safe.

“Okay! So you guys can go then.”

As everyone got up to leave, the spikey guy stood up in offense.

“This is absurd, she hit me in the face and...”

“You should be glad that the woman is not pressing any charges or you would on the other side of the lock up!” he warned the man, making him shut up in the middle of his sentence and perch back down on his seat, where he began throwing his hands in the air like a defeated little kid.

Celeste only shook her head at him and looked up at Chad, who held a begrudging look on his face.

“Do you know any ATM nearby that would work?”

Chad nodded his head at her and told her the location, which was inside a mall nearby the police station.

Standing in front of the money machine, Celeste looked at the last eight hundred sterling in her account and sighed in a bit of a worry, not knowing how she will be able to get a job, now with the new façade of her face, apparently matching with the girl who roasted Prince Charlie, in an utterly manic satirical skit.

Somehow, she did regret her decision of picking up on small acting and stunt scenes in college, in order to pay for her tuition fee and get through college.

She was in a bit of stray and had no other option but to make money for herself in college, when she broke ties with her mother and she pulled her money back on Celeste, leaving her stranded, wanting Celeste to come to her and apologize for breaking ties but Celeste was more than stubborn and instead, made some use of her martial arts and acted as a stunt man in many dramas and movies, moving forward to picking up on little skits as well, from big time to small time TV shows and movies.

If she were to have a Wikipedia page on her filmography, then she were to be credited as a small skit actor in at least fifty movies and over a hundred dramas.

She was flying in ropes, day in and night out, making it through college in every shape.

But all of that was worth it for her, when she got her degree in hospitality from University of Southern California in Los Angeles and took her chances and ran away with Hugh, protecting him from the world in which her mother had pushed her into and was forcing her to be in.

Taking out five hundred pounds and withdrawing it from her account, she made her way towards Hugh’s school, getting on a bus and changing two stops to finally reach back the Hackney City Academy, walking around the campus to reach the football ground where she knew that Hugh would be practicing.

And much to her anticipation, a small smile settled on her lips, as she saw Hugh running around with a football along with his team and practicing late hours.

Celeste walked up towards the bleachers and settled down, picking out her phone and going through different job listings on LinkedIn to see if any of them matched her experience and she began applying to them as many as possible, hoping to get a call from some.

She had been dropping her resume and CV to many restaurants, coffee shops and even at many hotels, where she hoped that she would be able to fit in the category of hospitality, which was her field of education.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned out, only to be startled by a young blond, who smiled and waved her hands at Celeste, reminding her of the horrible sounds of moaning she heard coming out from Hugh’s room.

She jumped up in her seat, dropping down her phone.

“f**k!” she yelled, immediately bending down on the bench and picking up her phone, only to see the screen protector to be cracked in to long lines, distorting the entire screen, making Celeste groan in agitation and realize that it had become another impending expense.

She straightened up and felt once again startled by Hugh’s girlfriend, who held an apologetic smile on her face.

“I am sorry!” she signed at Celeste, who nodded back at her.

“It is alright.” She signed back at the girl.

“I think, I broke your phone?” she said, as Celeste slipped her mobile back in to her hoodie.

“No it is alright.” She told her back.

“Hugh told a lot about you.” She signed at Celeste, who felt permeated about the fact that Hugh talked about with his girl friend at the same time she felt embarrassed of the fact that she didn’t even know the girl’s name.

Asking the name, had just slipped off Celeste’s mind and she simply smiled at the girl.

“Oh! Really... that is great. He also talks about you... all the time.” She shrugged at the girl, who held a mischievous smile over her face.

“It is fine! He has told me that he didn’t talk about me with you. He actually wanted to introduce me to you, after he got an admission in an university and would consider himself to be responsible enough in your eyes for a relationship.”

She stated with a small covering her face and at the same time looked ahead at the boy she was completely in love with, clapping in appreciation for him, as he scored a goal.

While Celeste only felt her heart pierced to look ahead at her brother, who was the best brother, she could wish for.

“He knows that you work so hard for him, that’s why he wants to make you proud of himself.” She told Celeste, who felt her eyes filled with tears.

She immediately looked away, swiping the tears off her face and trying her best to not to cry out loud.

He was hard working and trying his best to make Celeste feel proud of him and what he didn’t know was the fact that Celeste already felt extremely proud of herself, for having such a graceful and honest brother like him.

“By the way, I am Lily.” She extended her hand forward for Celeste and she took her hand in.

“That’s a very pretty name.” Celeste told Lily, amazed by the fact that her brother found such a beautiful girl.

“You should come over when you want to.” She told Lily, who nodded at her and at the same time a whistle blew out, halting out the football practice.

Hugh waved his hand at Celeste and rushed inside his locker room to change, getting a pat on his shoulder by his coach, on his way inside.

Celeste squinted her eyes in cringe, as the coach then turned towards Celeste and threw a smile her way.

His shiny blue eyes, sparkling immaculately under the grey cloudy sky, while his blond hair sat back on his head, as his tightly grey hoodie and sweat pants, sticked tightly over his entire body.

He was a man in his mid thirties, a divorcee, a gym buff and a fitness enthusiastic, who lifted weights, drank protein shakes and was an i********: body influencer with around sixty thousand followers but his true passion was to guide young lads like Hugh to success and fitness, because of which, being a former national athlete, he was a coach at the school.

Celeste tried to look away and smiled at Lily, who smirked mischievously, immediately getting up from the benches.

“I know he likes you! Best of luck.” She signed at her and immediately picked her bag, running away from Celeste and leaving her stranded.

“What does everyone know?” Celeste hissed at Lily, who only giggled lowly, running away.

“Hey there, stranger!”

Celeste shrieked in her spot, turning around towards the source of the voice that startled her and saw that the coach was standing by the very beginning of the benches and looking at Celeste with his usual sparkling smile.

“Oh Hi, Coach Glen!” Celeste waved her hands at him with an awkward smile and he shrugged back.

“Please, how many times, do I have to tell you, you should call me Chris.”

“Christian... I am sorry, I am used to of calling you Coach Glen, because Hugh keeps calling you that.” She laughed back, still not willing to use that man’s acronym / nick name, which Celeste found to be extra cringey.

“Chris!” he reprimanded Celeste, earning a small awkward laugh from him. “Anyways, waiting for Hugh?” he asked and she nodded back at him.

He walked up towards the bench and took the seat right next to Celeste.

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you from the last month, when you volunteered to be a chaperon at the kid’s dance.” He asked, reminding Celeste about the last time she interacted with the man.

Before that she never found his extra nice behavior towards her romantic at all.

She only thought that he was a gentleman, who respected her because of her brother’s good football skills.

She knew that he was highly impressed by Hugh and always said that he had a bright future in football but what she didn’t know was the fact that he wasn’t just socially but also physically, sexually and romantically attracted towards her.

During the school dance, where Celeste had volunteered to be a chaperon, he asked her to dance and considering it to be a friendly gesture, she agreed to dance with him only to have him kiss her right in the middle of the dance floor, in front of Hugh and his other classmates.

Whilst, Hugh didn’t mind his sister dating his coach, knowing that it will only benefit him, not that he needed to have any extra edge in his game and had complete confidence on his skills, he still thought that it would be great for his sister to date someone as sweet as Chris, who was also single ever since he got a divorce but Celeste was not looking to date someone. Not back then, now or ever in the near or farther future.

She had too many skeletons in closet. She had too much baggage that she was forced to not to share with anyone.

She couldn’t be even honest about her identity with anyone, therefore she felt that she couldn’t give anyone the honest side of her, which made her feel unworthy of being in a relationship and keeping the other person in the other relationship unable to love her entirely.

“Well, you know work and stuff...”

“Oh, yeah, I remember seeing you almost two weeks ago at that club, you waitress at.”

“Well, not anymore.” Celeste shrugged back at him.

“What? Why, what happened?”

“Well... I have this toxic habit of helping those in need and when I saw a guest trying to assault a waitress, I just stepped in and hit him back and didn’t apologize, which was apparently enough to have me kicked out.”

Christian laughed out slightly at Celeste’s words.

“That’s cute!”

“I just hit someone, two days back, how is that cute?” She pointed out and Chris’s eyes went towards Celeste’s knuckles.

“And I am guessing you did it again.” he pointed out towards her hands and she immediately hit it under her hoodie.

“See, I told you, I am a bad girl.” She tried to laugh off the situation but Chris grabbed her hand and slightly ran his fingers over his black and blued knuckles.

“Put some ice and apply some pain reliefer.” He told her, bending down and pulling out his bag from underneath the benches, taking Celeste by surprise, who also tried to bend and see what exactly was there underneath the bench, over which she had taken a seat.

“Here!” he passed down a small tube out of his bag and gave it to Celeste.

She was hesitant to take it from him but he grabbed her hand and opened up the small tube, applying the ointment on to Celeste’s knuckles.

“You should be careful, or else that will make you a bad girl.” He winked at her, making her cheeks run crimson red.

“Umm... it is fine.” She pulled her hand back, as Chris began blowing on to the ointment, finding the entire situation to be extremely yet warily romantic.

Christian felt unable to reach out Celeste entirely, as he pulled his empty and cold hands back to himself.

“Well, my cousin owns this restaurant at Bond Street, if you want, I can put in a good word for you and pass on your resume to him, to hire or not to hire you would be her decision.”

Celeste looked up at Chris in a completely bewildered expression.

A restaurant on Bond Street, meant that it was one of the highest rated, probably a Michelin star restaurant and to Celeste, it meant that the pay would be just as good as it was at Brighton club because of the extra tips that came in perhaps maybe even better than Brighton club and getting a job at that restaurant to Celeste meant that she would be taking a huge favor from Chris, which immediately lifted a red flag up her head.

“Oh! I mean, you already do a lot for my brother and I don’t think that it would be sensible of me to take another favor and...”

“I said that I will ask my cousin to hire you, not force her to, you would get selected only based on your qualifications, so relax. I would not be doing you any favor and besides, I don’t treat Hugh specially, he has made a space for himself on the football team because of his excellent skills and he would also probably get selected on the basis of his skills as well, so don’t fret much upon it and simply let me help you.”

His eyes gleamed with a hint of likeability as he looked at Celeste, who immediately wanted to turn his offer down but looking at her brother’s future, a secured position at a good restaurant, she knew that she would only be able to help her brother if she were to take the favor from Chris.

Having contemplated her choices, she immediately agreed.

“Okay! Thank you.”

“Give me your number?” Chris asked, making Celeste’s eyes go wide that the man had become direct and was immediately right away asking for her number.

“For the resume? So you would w******p me your CV!” he pointed out, leaving Celeste feeling embarrassed.

“Oh, of course.” She took out her phone and passed it to Chris, who typed in his number, looking past her broken screen and then sent a missed call from Celeste’s phone to his, making sure to get her number as well.

“There you go.” He passed her phone back to her and she smiled back at him and at the same time Hugh came in running back towards his sister.

He clapped his hands at Celeste, a gesture he always did to grab her attention, something she had told him to do when they were young and she couldn’t hear him right away, so she had asked him to clap in order to get her attention.

“Oh! You came back.” She got up from the bench and smiled at Chris.

“I guess, I will get going then.” She told him and turned to leave but Chris grabbed her hand right in front of Hugh, making him look away from the two.

He wanted his sister to date someone, encouraging her to engage with Chris as much as she could.

Sensing Chris’s touch on her, Celeste looked at Hugh and found him already turned away.

Chris got up still holding Celeste’s hand.

“Hugh will soon graduate from school.” He Celeste, making her eyes go wide.

She realized that the last time when she couldn’t give Chris a sensible reason to not to date him, despite everyone’s urge and pressure, she told him that she didn’t want to be the reason why everyone doubted Hugh’s capability of making it to a good football team as people may assume that Hugh got in to a good team because Chris gave him an edge as he dated his sister, but listening to Chris still holding on to a hope of having something with Celeste, didn’t sit right with the lady.

“Oh! Yes... but...”

“I will wait for you.” He winked at her, letting go off her hand and she almost protesting against him but Chris didn’t bother listening to her answer and immediately sped away from her making his way towards the field and patting Hugh’s shoulders as he made his way outside.

“Good practice.” He signed in to Hugh’s direction, who signed back to say thank you.

Celeste’s heart melted right away.

A huge part of her was impressed with Chris.

He was a sweet and a nice guy, who definitely showed her signs of care and affection and even cared for her brother, highly and respecting and understanding her choices of looking after her brother and even motivating her to be a better sister but what she couldn’t understand was why was he so attracted towards her.

Celeste considered herself to be an only an average looking girl and Chris was definitely a stud, whom she knew was definitely hit on by many women, from his work place, to gym to even his i********: DMs. She couldn’t tell why was he so in to her.

Hearing Hugh’s double clap, she felt taken aback and drawn out of her hallucinations of her thoughts about Chris.

“Huh?” she looked at Hugh, who signed at her.

“he’s gone now! We should go too!”

She nodded her head at him and walked with him, back towards their apartment, that was at a walking distance from the school.

“You know, you should definitely let him take you out.” Hugh signed at Celeste, as the two sat in Poly’s grandma’s restaurant, where Poly had began working as a cashier and a server after quitting her job at the club, sensing that it was about time she lowered her old lady’s burden.

Celeste only shook her head at Hugh and passed him down five hundred pounds that she had earlier taken out of the ATM.

“Stop trying to pry in to people’s dating life and focus on your education and career.” Isabella scolded her brother, who looked at the money placed in front of him, hesitating to take it for a minute.

“Take it!” she urged Hugh, who grabbed the money and placed it inside his pocket.

“Thank you!” he lamely signed back at her and Celeste poked him with her fork.

“It wouldn’t kill you if you would say it more brightly.”

Even though Hugh was too smart for his own good, she still didn’t want Hugh to feel bad as Celeste helped to uplift him.

“I don’t like it, when I burden you.”

Celeste had her mouth hung open, as she looked at Hugh.

“Who told you, you burden me? you annoy me.” she joked off the entire situation, just like always, rendered Hugh enlightened that Celeste wasn’t someone, trying to persuade him that he wasn’t a burden with him by sweet talking him instead, she was someone who showed pure love in the form of a true bond, that a brother and a sister should share.

She didn’t over work their relationship and bond.

“And also annoy me when you don’t go out on dates.”

“How is that annoying?” Celeste blurted out.

“You could be normal for a moment by going out with guys like other girls do but no, you are boring.”

“He is right though!”

A voice blurted out loud making Celeste look up at Poly, who kept their order on their table and sat down with Hugh, teasing Celeste along with him.

Celeste left stranded and gang up on by the two of them.

The three sat at the small diner, arguing and fighting amongst one another and at the same time, someone stood in the shades of the trees, right outside the diner, holding their phone up to their face and clicking Celeste’s pictures, along with Hugh.

The person stood in a black coat, hiding their identity by wearing a black surgical mask and a hat over their head, making sure that no one caught on to their identity and clicked as many pictures as they could.

Finally feeling satisfied and walking out of the street.

Turning on the VPN on their phone, the person opened its email and made sure to keep their identity as incognito as possible, sending Celeste and Hugh’s pictures, on to an email address that was located on the GPS of the man’s phone, somewhere in the New York state of America.

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Well, now there is someone else behind Celeste?

Who do you think it is?

Also what do you think about Chris?            

 Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3