Page 94 of The Blind Date

“That would explain it.” Dad shrugged and sat down on the sofa in front of the TV, chuckling when he turned it on to find Pride and Prejudice paused.

“Really?” Mum asked, narrowing her eyes at me in suspicion. “It sounded like you were talking to a man.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Alina that next time I talk to her,” I laughed and grabbed two beers from the fridge, one for myself and one for Mum.

“For a moment there, I thought that you had brought Richard back home,” Mum sighed, looking just as disappointed as she always did when I told her yet another one of the blind dates was unsuccessful.

“Mum!” I groaned and sat next to Dad on the sofa. I laughed at the way his nose scrunched up at what Mum had just said.

“Clarke, honey, how about we tell Saffron what we talked about earlier?” Dad called out to Mum, beckoning her to join us.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my curiosity more than piqued as I glanced between them.

“Your mum and I felt bad about leaving you with Richard earlier. We saw how much you didn't want to be there," he started, sending Mum pointed looks the whole time. All of this was no doubt his doing because as far as Mum was concerned, the only thing she felt bad about was the fact that I was still single.

“What makes you think that?” I snorted, rhetoric.

Mum gave me the stink-eye and moved to sit next to me on the sofa. “Richard can’t have been that bad,” she whined. “I spoke to him at the golf club. He’s a lovely man. You would have liked him if only you gave him a chance.”

"I'm sure he is, but admittedly, I didn't stick around long to find out."

“What does that mean?”

“It means I bought him dinner, we talked a little and I hightailed the hell out of there as soon as I could.”

"Saffron!"

“You seriously couldn’t have expected me to stick around.” I sent Mum a pointed look. “Seriously, what else did you expect after springing him on me like that and then making a whole show of leaving?”

“We didn’t make a show of leaving,” she denied even though that was exactly what they had done. “We just wanted to give you and Richard space to get to know each other better. To give you a real opportunity to bond.”

“I don’t even know Richard,” I groaned in frustration.

“And that’s why we wanted you to get to know each other better.”

“Clarke, honey,” Dad chuckled, no doubt finding great amusement in the heated back and forth between the two spitfire women in his life. “Remember what we discussed in the car?”

“Yes, unfortunately,” she answered dryly.

“What did you two talk about?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion as I glanced between them both, waiting for an explanation.

"We were discussing that we've probably been pushing you too hard, Saff." Dad placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I don't know what it was about today, but after seeing the look on your face when we got up to leave, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all evening. Honestly, I’ve been feeling kind of guilty.”

“You don’t need to feel bad or guilty, Dad,” I tried to assure him, but he shook his head.

“No, Saff, it was not okay.” He sent me a firm, pointed look before directing the same expression to Mum. “Clarke, don’t you have something you’d like to say to Saff?”

"I'm sorry, honey,” Mum sighed and reached out to take one of my hands in both of hers. "After speaking with your dad, I see that I've been pushing you too hard. I've been desperate to set you up on all these dates because I don't want you to grow old alone, but in the process, I've made you very unhappy." She gave me a watery smile which had me feeling emotional as well. Unable to resist, I pulled her in for a hug as she finished speaking. "That’s why we’ve decided on no more blind dates.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What? Really? No more blind dates?"

"No." She shook her head and squeezed me tighter. "The last thing I want to do is make you unhappy, and I've realised that's all I've been doing this past month. Probably even longer with all the nagging."

“I know you meant well, Mum.”

“Well, sometimes that’s not enough,” she smiled softly.

“Now that we’ve got that over with, it looks like our apology dessert is less than five minutes away,” Dad told us, staring at his phone.

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