Delicate Love

59

Just then as Rose was about to pick up her cutlery, her phone dinged, indicating a notification. She opened it and saw a message from her sister, Diamond.

'I saw these and decided to send them to you to confirm, this isn't you, right?' Then there was a link,  she clicked it, and it read;

'HOTTEST NIGERIAN BACHELOR FOUND ON A DATE WITH HIS EX-LOVER IN CALIFORNIA!'

Rose became shocked and alert. She looked at Charles who was staring at her, oblivious to what was happening. There was a picture, she zoomed in and saw that it was truly Charles on a date with a lady, in an open restaurant and the lady was definitely not her.

"What are you looking at?" Charles asked her.

Rose didn't know what to answer, she didn't know whether she should tell Charles about it and let him explain, but she knew that she had to show Charles and listen to his explanation. She should at least give him a chance to explain whatever this was.

"Nothing," she answered instead, not wanting to put her mind to it, later she would talk about it, "Let's dig in."

She picked up her cutlery and started eating. Her mind was in jeopardy, she didn't want to come to a conclusion without hearing from him yet.

Charles stared at Rose as he saw she was absentminded. He noticed that after she saw whatever she saw on her phone, she had been moody. Her fork tapped noisily on the ceramic plate as she played with her food.

"Rose, what's the matter?" He asked again.

"Nothing." She replied.

"You can't tell me there's nothing when you're busy tapping on your plate instead of eating this delicacy before you."

"Hmmm... Okay." She passed him the phone and showed him what had been bothering her.

Charles read it and smiled, "Is this what you're bothered about?" He asked her.

"Yes... Care to explain?"

"Okay, she isn't my lover. She was my best friend while in California and still is."

"Your best friend?"

"Yes, when I went on a business trip, she called me and we met since we haven't seen other for long, that's all. Nothing more."

"Was she just your best friend?" Rose asked suspiciously because she can't believe that a boy and a girl would be friends, without anything happening.

"As in?"

"Have you slept with her before?" Rose asked.

Charles didn't know how he should answer the question, truth be told, he had slept with Audrey, but just once and that was before they became best of friends. Heck, he had slept with series of girls in California, so why was Rose extremely curious about her?

"Yes, I've slept with her before. It was a one-night stand I had with her before knowing her fully. Then when we became close, nothing ever happened between us." He explained truthfully.

Rose knew she shouldn't blame Charles, she knew that he would have slept with series of girls while in California, but she knew that as he came back, he had been faithful to both her and their son.

"Okay." She said shortly.

"Just okay?"

"Yes, just okay."

"Are you still angry?" Charles asked her, not sure because Rose was putting on a poker face.

"No... I'm not."