Page 28 of The Blind Date

"What is it about me that annoys you so much?” Cedric asked, ignoring me and refusing to let go. “What is it about me that gets under your skin so badly?" He bowed his head. His face was so close to mine that if I tilted my head up slightly, my lips would graze his. My body betrayed me by flushing at the mere thought of such an intimate moment, slowly spreading up to my face. Suddenly, I didn't need Mum to pinch my cheeks to get some colour on my face.

“All of you.” I pushed the words out through gritted teeth. "There are so many things about you that annoy me that if I were to list them all, our dinners would go cold, and we would be late for work tomorrow.”

“You know,” he murmured, dipping his head a little lower and closer to mine. I was tempted to pull back to put some distance between us, but the thought of that smug smirk on his face was enough to keep me there. “I've never had anyone dislike me as much as you do, Saffron. It's somewhat refreshing."

“Did you ever wonder that maybe the people that dislike you stay away from you?"

“If you dislike me so much, what are you still doing here?”

"That's a very good question." I chuckled bitterly and pushed myself off him.

Cedric dropped his arm from around me, but instead of letting me go, he circled his fingers around my wrist.

"What do you want now?" I groaned, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

“You know, I’m starting to think that you like me more than you're letting on."

"What makes you think that?"

“I just have a feeling,” he murmured, his lips curled up in a lazy smirk.

“What? After one date?” I snorted in disagreement.

"Sometimes, it only takes one date, darling.” Cedric shrugged.

“You sound like my mum.”

“Maybe she’s onto something.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” I snorted and yanked my wrist free of him. Before he could try to stop me once more, I ducked under his arm and headed toward the bathroom. "What's wrong with you, Cedric?" I glanced at him over my shoulder, looking to give him some food for thought. "My parents and Alina made you out to be such a nice guy, but in the little time we've spent together, you’ve been nothing but a jerk. You've done a great job of proving them wrong."

“You say that as if you’ve been a walk in the park yourself,” he called out after me with a chuckle, but it was too late as I had already headed into the bathroom.

“Just my luck to run into Cedric today of all days,” I grumbled under my breath as I headed into one of the stalls.

What were the chances of running into Cedric Barlowe at the same restaurant, at the same time, a mere two days after our blind date gone wrong?

Cedric hadn't been lying when he said he didn't expect to run into me today. The initial shock on his face was enough to confirm that.

Was this just a simple coincidence, or were my parents playing Cupid again?

If it turned out that Cedric's parents weren't Alfie and Yasmin, then surely my parents would invite him and his family to join us the moment they laid eyes on him.

If you asked me, Cedric was the exact opposite of the kind of man I wanted to attract and spend the rest of my life with. He was self-centred, rude, obnoxious and a borderline narcissist.

I couldn't deal with Cedric anymore. These two encounters that I had had with him were more than enough to last me a lifetime, so I needed to do something that would stop my parents from noticing him. But to do that, I needed to get out of the bathroom and back to the table.

With a frenzy of thoughts occupying my mind, I aimlessly headed back to the table but stopped dead in my tracks when I spied a familiar, infuriating brown-haired, green-eyed man sitting in the previously vacant seat next to mine.

This wasn't a simple Sunday roast with my parents like I initially thought it was. This was a set-up, and I had walked right into it.

ChapterSix

“What’s going on here?” I asked, cautiously approaching the table.

Cedric's head was the first to snap up and turn in my direction. He didn't look all that surprised–no doubt because he had recognised my parents and put two and two together–but he did look somewhat uncomfortable. I didn’t know Cedric very well, but I could tell that it took a lot to make a man like him uncomfortable.

When he dropped my gaze and turned his attention to the glass of white wine in front of him, I didn’t know where to look. Dad and Alfie were rooting for West Ham while watching the game on a phone propped up against a glass. Next to them, Mum and Yasmin–having strategically swapped seats so they were now sitting together–were chatting away like they were the best of friends. All of them, apart from Cedric, were so engrossed in what they were doing that no one even noticed me standing there for several seconds, just watching them.

---