Ten minutes later, I was back in my room where Cedric was already waiting for me.
"Please tell me you had better luck than I did," I groaned, immediately walking into his outstretched arms, and pressing my face into his chest, releasing a frustrated sigh.
"Your parents just as stubborn as mine?"
"Yes," I groaned again. "They ripped up the note and threw away the chocolate."
"Mine did the same," he sighed. "It's a shame. They weren't cheap."
"I was thinking the same thing!”
"My parents seemed to get even more annoyed when they saw the note."
"Why?"
"They said it sounded ungenuine.”
"What was ungenuine about my note?” I asked, sounding more offended than I intended.
"I don't know." Cedric shrugged, looking just as frustrated as I felt. "Perhaps if your parents weren't so difficult to put up with, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."
"My parents are difficult to put up with?" I scoffed, staring up at him with disbelief shining in my eyes. "Hello? Have you met your parents?"
"I know my parents can be a little difficult at times, but they're nothing compared to your parents."
"What about your mum? She's just as persistent and annoying as mine."
Cedric groaned, squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What are we doing? Why are we arguing like our parents?"
"Let's just agree that both our mums are annoying and move on."
"Done," he was quick to agree, sealing it with a quick kiss. "But as annoying as they are, we still need them to make up in time for the competition tomorrow.”
My lips tugged down in a small frown as I rested my forehead against his chest, trying to come up with a Plan B. Manipulation hadn't worked, so we would have to try something different. But what?
And then it hit me.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Cedric asked, all but reading my mind.
"Yes.” I nodded my head frantically.
We should have listened to Cillian earlier. At the very least, it would have saved us two expensive boxes of chocolate.
ChapterThirty-Four
Thankfully, due to a network problem, no trains were going to London today. Dad had asked me to order a cab, but I didn't. Instead, I pretended to order one and had been claiming for the past hour that it was simply late due to the same network issues the trains were having. Somehow, Mum and Dad believed me. Of course, that didn't stop them from asking for an update every five minutes. If they asked one more time, I planned to pretend to cancel this one and order a new one.
If my parents actually left today, it would be nearly impossible to fix things between them and the Barlowes. Possibly forever.
"I don't understand what’s so important that you have to drag us like this,” Mum whined. "Why couldn't this wait until the morning?"
“We won’t be here in the morning, remember?” I said, tugging on their hands as I continued dragging them behind me.
"Could you at least give us a hint as to what it is?" She asked, forever impatient.
"And why couldn't you bring it out to show us?" Dad groaned, no doubt thinking of the football match he was missing watching in the room.
"Why? Have you got something better to do than spend time with your family?" I shot him a smirk from over my shoulder.