Lust Or Love

Chapter Five

*Mr Gilbert*

Damn!

This woman has just succeeded in getting into my head.

“Yeah, what do you want?” I said to the lady at the door.

“I just wanted to show you the new designs for our Qatar project sir” she replied.

“You can drop them on my desk or better still hand them over to Collins. I'd review them later” I blurted out as I ran out of my office in pursuit of Celine. Luckily for me, I saw her just heading into the elevator. She waved at me in a rather suspicious and provoking way before the elevator door shut. I tried clicking the open button in desperation but it was all of no use.

Damn! She had done it again. She has successfully gotten into my head and still got away with it.

Collins walked right in on me with a look of curiosity on his face. He could see the desperation and frustration in my eyes.

“What's the problem bro?” Collins said.

“What was she doing here?” I asked after being able to catch my breath.

“Who? Ohhh, you mean Celine?”

“Yeah I invited her over,” he said.

“What?” I screamed.

“Wa -wait -hold on a sec. Before you say anything, I'd like to let you know that it was at Mr Usman’s insistence” Collins replied.

“Ohh, f**k me. I'm sorry for yelling. It's just that Celine’s words and actions earlier have been making me think quite a lot” I said feeling quite devastated.

“What did she do this time?” Collins asked.

“For starters, she accepted and came to meet Mr Usman. Doesn't that seem less of Celine to you?” I asked.

“Uhhhh, yeah it does. But it ended up being in our favour anyway right?” He replied.

“Walk with me,” I said.

We both began walking away from the elevator in a pretty slow manner.

“Celine would not help us just for the sake of helping us out. She always has a motive and a trick beneath her sleeve in such situations” I tried explaining to him.

“You may be right. But in this situation, what could she possibly stand to gain?” Collins reiterated.

“Look dude, I think you are overthinking this whole thing. For all you know, this may just be Celine trying to win you back or something” he said, answering himself with his hand now on my shoulder while we took a halt.

“Bro, I have been married to this woman for over a decade now, and you think I still do not know her by now?”

“The Celine I know would not agree to come here without a motive. She even agreed on a second meeting with My investor! Look dude, this lady is definitely up to something I tell you” I said to him.

“Hey calm down. The more I try to level with you, the more I think that this lady is just trying to get under your skin. And with the feedback you are giving her, she is totally winning” Collins said to me.

“Ok look; I would have said the exact same thing if she didn't say something stuff about becoming my business partner soon”

“She said that?” Collins roared back.

“She sure did bro…” I tried saying it when I was interrupted by an unknown female voice screaming “dad!”

I looked around to try and see where the voice was coming from and traced it back to the elevator that we had just left. For crying out loud, this is a private establishment with a bold tag on the wall warning against indiscriminate noise making and shouting. I was about to let out my heart through my mouth when I saw her once again. There she was looking as beautiful as always with a smile on her face. I felt like this was fate trying to tell me something. All these meetings couldn't have been coincidence and I was super sure of it.

She ran out of the elevator with a warm smile on her face. She ran towards my direction as though she wanted to give me a hug. I stood there dumbfounded not knowing whether to reciprocate with my arms wide open or not. The smell of her cologne filled the whole place. If anybody had really taken out time to look at me at this very moment, I feel like they would see the highly renowned businessman Kennedy Gilbert standing and staring like a fool. To my greatest surprise, she continued heading towards where we stood. And then all of a sudden she gave Collins a hug. It was at this moment that I came back to my senses and realized that she had been screaming dad all the way till she got to where we were. “Shhh,” Collins said, trying to tell her to keep quiet after they had hugged.

“Sorry,” she whispered in a rather low tone with that bright smile still on her face.

“Collins, is this…” “Lillian” we both chorused.

I had been seeing Collins' daughter all the while. So Lillian had been the lady that I couldn't go a day without thinking about since the very day I saw her.

What are the odds? This is not possible. Either Collins or fate was playing a quick one on me. I could not have possibly had a crush on my closest friend's daughter could I?

“Nah nah nah, tell me you are joking man” I said to Collins.

“Would a man joke about his own flesh and blood?” He said to me, “This right here is Lillian in flesh and blood bro” Collins added.

I could feel my heart racing. I was having a cloud of emotions. On one hand, I wanted to be angry at myself for being such a fool and on the other hand, I felt like I was in heaven after having the opportunity of being close to the girl of my dreams.

“Hi, good day sir” she said with her hand stretched forth to receive a hand shake from me. I obliged and gave her a hand shake. The feeling of holding her hand alone almost made me go astray. Her skin felt so soft and warm. Indeed this lady was beautiful in ways that I could not comprehend.