Chapter 4

The next morning…

I opened my eyes and found the big cerulean eyes of this cute lady staring at me, I raised my head and kissed her on the forehead.

“Why did you sleep before I came back last night?” I asked as I brushed her hair with the palm of my hand.

“I was tired and I figured out that you’re going to come back late” she explained with her cute sincere smile.

“You can’t believe what I got myself into yesterday” I said with a laughter.

She sat up on the bed and gave me an interested glance, which had that tell me more gesture. I also sat up and folded my legs.

“So next to the book store there’s a coffee shop right” I started, as Charlotte stared at me with a face which was ready to laugh “I walked into that coffee shop thinking that it was a coffee shop, guess what I found” my words were followed by a laughter.

“What?” Charlotte giggled.

“The coffee shop is actually a whorehouse” I said with a gentle tone.

 Charlotte opened her eyes wide and later followed by a loud laughter. I was clouded with confusion asking myself why she was finding it funny, I thought it was women’s job to get angry at every small thing like this one?

“Did you find any girl that’s better than me?” she joked as she continued to giggle.

“Nope, there can never be any woman better than you baby” I said as I pulled her and threw her to the bed and then we began to kiss.

She stopped me as I was about to get deep in the moment.

“You are going to get late for work, go take a shower” she said as she got off the bed. As she was about to leave our bedroom she stopped by the door “and uhm, your driving lessons will start today after work” she said.

“Okay babe” I said as I got off the bed. Charlotte went downstairs while I headed to the shower.

I took a shower, then found my clothes on the bed like yesterday and my name was still Steve the book store manager even today. A few minutes later, I joined Charlotte downstairs. Both my breakfast and lunch box were ready. I pulled the chair as Charlotte fixed a tie; I was pretty bad at tying a tie. She then sat on the chair besides me. I took a bite on the mouthwatering bacon that Charlotte prepared for me once again. The name that I saw in her laptop hit my mind at that moment.

“Babe, do you have an ex-boyfriend called Kat?” I asked. To my surprise, Charlotte’s eyes got big but this time in was fear that consumed her face.

She did not answer the question but opened her mouth in shock without saying a word, I was surprised why she would be shocked because I was just asking a question. Before I could say another word, my phone rang. It was Abigail calling.

“Hello” I answered, as I watched Charlotte’s face get clouded with fear.

“Hey, am I disturbing you?” she asked.

I got off the chair “No what’s up?” I replied, I grabbed my briefcase and kissed Charlotte. She pointed at the breakfast that I didn’t finish but I just gave her a thumbs up as sign to show that I was full.

“You need to come to the store right now” she exclaimed, she sounded like something was going on at the store.

“I’m already on my way, what’s going on?” I said as I opened the door of the Rolls Royce.

“There two police officers here and they want to speak to you” said Abigail with a worried tone.

I got into the car “Okay I will be right there” I said, Abigail hung up as I settled at the back of a Rolls Royce.

The driver started the car and drove off, as I sat at the back asking myself why would police officers look for me. Another thought hit my head, why was Charlotte shocked when I mentioned the name “Kat” but I did not dwell much on it. In no time, we arrived at the bookstore, I rushed into the book store and was welcomed by Abigail and two gentlemen wearing a suit and a time. They looked serious and whatever this was, I assumed that it was a serious matter.

“Hello sir, I am detective Smith and this is detective Jones” one of the gentlemen introduced himself and his partner.

I shook both their hands “greetings gentlemen. We can go to my office; Abigail please make some tea for these two gentlemen” I ordered as I led the detectives to my office.

We entered my office “You can take a sit gentleman” I said as they looked around as I did the first time, I entered in to this expensive looking office. But finally, they sat down as I did too.

“It’s a pretty office you have hear Mr. Steve” detective Jones said with a quiet astonished look on his face.

“Well yeah, I was amused when I entered this office the first time, but anyway why are you here officers” I replied, being interested and trying to know why they were in my workplace.

“Well sir, there’s a case of a new drug operation which we are investigating at the moment and our investigation leads us to this book store and that coffee shop across the street” detective Smith explained as he sat up straight on his chair.

For a moment I realized that whatever detective Smith said was true because of the office I was placed in. I mean, no amount of money made by books could build such a luxurious office.

I cleared my throat “to my surprise detective, I only started working here as a manager yesterday, so unfortunately I cannot be of any help” I confidently said.

“Can we at least see the books? Or ask your staff some questions?” detective Jones suggested.

“I am afraid you can’t check the books yet; I still have to check them. Do you mind if I bring them to the station tomorrow?” I replied, as they glared at me without blinking.

“Okay, can we at least interview your staff?” detective Smith asked.

“No problem sir” I replied as I showed them the door.

Abigail met them at the door as she was bringing the tea but unfortunately, they were leaving my office to the store to interview the staff. Abigail stared at me and stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Abigail can you please bring me the books?” I asked as she followed the detectives to the store.

She nodded and went to the stored. After a few seconds she returned holding three books in her hands.

She handed them to me “what’s going on?” she asked.

“You can go, I will let you know if there’s something I need” I replied without answering her question.

Abigail left my office while I opened the first book and went through it, word for word and digit for digit. In the first book there were no mistakes or anything but the money written there wouldn’t afford to build such an expensive office. I also went through the other two books that were left and I still couldn’t find anything suspicious. But of course, a drug dealer would never expose their monies if they used a book store and a coffee shop to launder it, with the coffee shop it made sense because it was a whorehouse. My phone buzzed and it was Charlotte sending me her own selfies as she always does when she feels pretty. I locked my phone and went to the store, everybody gathered around me as Abigail told them to.

“I am sure you guys are wondering why we had the police here asking questions this morning” everybody nodded “they suspect that there are drug operations running in this store, now I haven’t seen anything suspicious and if any of you knows that these allegations are true, this is the right time to come forward and be clean. If you don’t, there will be consequences and I will make sure that I become the one who takes you to the police station. Thank you, get back to work” I said, after that everyone dispersed and carried on with their duties of the day while I went back to my office and settled on my chair as I got deep into my thinking.

My phone buzzed again and Charlotte had sent another selfie, I decided to send one too. I sat in my office until it was time to knock off, I started packing my stuff then my phone buzzed again. I checked to see who it was, it was my Charlotte again reminding me about the driving lessons. I took my belongings, switched off the lights in my office and then walked out to the main store. The staff had already began to disperse, but Cindy and Abigail were left behind as they were still trying to make sure that everything was left in order before they left the store.

“Bye ladies” I said as I walked towards the main door.

“Bye Steve” Abigail said but Cindy never responded.

My driver was already outside waiting for me, Cindy and Abigail took their bags and followed me as I got out of the door. A few seconds after I got outside of the store, they were also outside walking away from the store. Cindy and Abigail parted ways, I stopped and stared at Cindy.

“Hey Cindy” I yelled for her to stop as she was a distance away from me.

She did not bother to look back but instead she kept on walking. I tossed my bag in to the Rolls Royce through the window and ran after her. I held her by hand and stopped her, she stopped and gave me a very annoyed glare.

“I am calling you, why are you ignoring me” I said as I was breathing heavily.

“What do you want?” she sighed.

“Let me take you home” I offered.

“No, I can walk home on my own” she replied with a very uninterested look on her face.

“I insist, let me take you home” I persisted as if she never said no.

“Okay then, under one condition” she said with a smiley face on.

“What?” I asked, this time I was in relief because I could see that she was no longer playing hard to get.

“You don’t say a word to me throughout the way, unless I gave you the permission to speak” she commanded.

“Fine by me” I said while I waved my hand to the driver telling him to come closer.

She laughed, while I opened the door for her, she got into the car and I used the other door to get into the car then my driver drove off. After a distance of silence, Cindy kept on glancing at me like she wanted to say something, my phone has been buzzing for a while now and it gave annoying vibrations.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” she asked.

“I thought you said I should not say a word” I said as I looked out the window.

“Now you can speak, aren’t you going to answer that?” she asked again, as she pointed where the driver should turn.

I just laughed without saying a word back to her and looked out the window, the sight of her town astonished me. There were so many shacks and I wondered what they’d do if one shack was to catch fire, I mean they’d all go up in flames.

“Yeah you can stop here, I’ll walk” she said to the driver.

“So, this is where you live?” I asked.

“Well, it’s not like all of us can afford to come to work in a Rolls Royce with our own personal drivers” she said as she opened the door and got out.

I also got out of the car, I pulled out my phone.

“Can I at least get your numbers?” I asked as I handed her my phone.

She took it and saved her phone numbers then handed my phone back to me, before I could even say another word, she started walking away from me. I stared at her and shook my head in amusement, girls this hard never existed in my world. The car would make them to give me all their attention. I got back into the car, I checked her numbers and then I realized that she saved her name as Kate. My driver shook his head in disbelief, I pulled out my wallet and took out $4 000.

“Charlotte does not have to know anything about this” I commanded as I handed him the money from the back of his sit.

“Yes, boss” he said as he stretched one hand to take the money while he kept another hand and his eyes on the road.

I checked my phone and Charlotte left a thousand texts as I was late for the driving lessons. My driver stepped on the gas while I settled on my seat at the back of a Rolls Royce going to the driving school, I could only imagine how furious Charlotte would be. When we arrived at the driving school, Charlotte was standing at the gate looking so impatient. I got out of the car and prepared lies that I was going to tell her at the moment. I approached her, and to my surprise she kissed me before I could even say a word.

“You’re 30 minutes late babe” she said with a very calm voice, she was acting strange to me but at that moment I did not want to ruin anything.

“I know babe, I…” I said but she interrupted me by pulling me into the building.

“There’s no time for explanations, let’s go” she said as she handed me forms to fill I my information.

We sat on the benches in a room which looked like an office then I went through the details on the form and then wrote STEVE where the form said name. I filled I all the required information then later on I sat next to Charlotte thinking about why Cindy saved her numbers as Kate in my phone. The following day I was never going to ask her because it was a public holiday, nobody goes to work on a holiday. Being Steve was interesting but complicated, imagine getting to encounter police officers just on your second day at work. I was in deep and my beautiful Charlotte was on her phone, she talks too much but this time she was so quiet but I did not bother to ask her why. Finally, the instructor came into the room.

“Hello, I’m John and I am going to be the one taking you through the driving lessons” he introduced himself.

I nodded as we shook hands, he shook hand with Charlotte too.

“Please follow me sir” she said as he led the way out of the room, we were in.

I kissed Charlotte, took the form I was given and followed John as he walked out through a passage. My life was perfect at that moment, I loved Charlotte but Cindy was starting to become a distraction. I looked around as walked into the driving school and I felt that I was the luckiest man alive.