UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

Chp 14 : Spellbound

-Adam-

"Matthew, what are we doing here exactly?" Ben asks of his friend as he looks at him suspiciously.

"I just wanted to check in and see how you're doing. That and everything else. Two weeks have passed since our last encounter. So, what's been going on with you recently?"

"So far, just been at my flat; nothing else." He replies in between sips.

"Doing what exactly?"

"Living life."

" Matthew, this is the last place you should be now that you are a married man. If you wish to check up on me, you can always swing by my apartment rather than meet here at the pub."

"True, it may not be the right place for a married man like myself, but it sure is the right place for you, rather than concealing yourself in your room doing god knows what."

"Are you planning to live a life of celibacy?"

'Nope, I don't intend to.'

Matthew responds, "I am sorry, but the way you are going about it, I am afraid you will end up that way."

Hearing himself sigh, he finally spoke up: "Listen, I'd like to take my time finding someone. There is no haste on my part."

'You mean to say find someone like Miss Dickson?' For heaven's sake, Ben, she is not giving you a minute of her time. Forget about her and move on to the next best thing. Don't get me wrong, I like her. She will be a good partner for you. It's just that I don't like how she is toying with you.

"No, I am not being toyed with by her. Simply put, she is taking extra precautions to avoid suffering any harm. Well, I get it. I need to figure out how to earn her trust."

"I guess that a lady of her character is not the type to trust readily," says Matthew.

"Nobody said anything about it being easy," Ben Snaps. "Listen, I understand and appreciate your concern for me, but really, I will be fine."

Matthew watches on as his friend throws back what's left of his drink. He arches a brow. "Surely you clearly don't see what I see."

"Which is?"

"She is a challenge you can't win."

Without thinking, he slams the drink onto the counter, then raises his eyes to his companion and asks, "Could we perhaps shift our attention to something else?"

Matthew throws his hands up in surrender. "Fine, we can leave if you want."

"No. Now that we're here, we might as well make the most of our time."

"Argh damn it! I can't seem to get Ben out of my mind." She violently pounds the pillow as she tries to find a better position to lie on the bed.

What I need is a distraction, something to get my mind off of him. I have to leave this room, but where and with whom? It's not as though I have a large number of friends with whom I could hang out over the phone.

I have lost touch with most of my friends. Mabel Owusu Benson will be the only close friend all this time.
If I wanted to know where she was, I could give her a call. My last communication with her was quite some time ago.

After getting out of bed, she plopped down on her desk and carefully retrieved a directory, hoping to find Mabel's number.

As she flipped through the pages, she thought, I seemed to recall jotting down her number here. "Yes, there it is."

she reached for her phone and dialed
her number, patiently waiting for a response. There were several rings before a beep came from the other side of the line.