Page 131 of The Blind Date

“Here you are, darling,” Cedric murmured lowly, his words only for my ears. “Hereweare.”

I couldn’t help but grin widely as I glanced at him sitting to my left, looking so handsome in his designer suit. The deep red of his handkerchief matched the colour of my heels and the ruby earrings he had gifted me this morning–he had been forced to wear a blindfold so he wouldn’t see me in my dress before I walked down the aisle. It was a bold choice to go for red heels with the eggshell white of my wedding dress, but I both looked and felt amazing, and they had to be one of the best decisions I had ever made.

I knew I would always look back fondly on the wedding pictures.

“I’m sure many of you know this already, but Cedric and I hated each other at first. Our parents set us up on a blind date, and we were both very unwilling. It didn’t help that we ran into each other outside the restaurant we were supposed to have our date, and Cedric was a complete dick to me.”

Before I could continue, Cedric circled his fingers around my wrist, and I laughed as he pulled the microphone toward him so he could speak.

“In my defence, I had a long day at work, and I still stand by the fact that you were the one to run into me,” Cedric grinned, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “And don’t act like you didn’t sit at the bar and badmouth me to your mum on the phone, darling.”

“I guess we agree to disagree on that for the rest of our lives.” My lips curled higher at the corners, and I had to force myself to look away from the deep forest green of his eyes that I still found myself getting lost in every day.

I turned back to the crowd. “We started off on the wrong foot. We hated each other, and it was insufferable how our parents kept pitting us together despite how much we protested.” I paused to laugh when I spotted Mum and Yasmin holding hands, whispering quietly to each other and giggling like schoolgirls–completely immune to my teasing toast.

They knew from the beginning that Cedric and I were perfect for each other, and now, they were at our wedding. They literally couldn’t ask for anything more.

“If our meddling parents didn’t set us up on that blind date and pushed us together every chance they got, none of us would be here today. Cedric and I wouldn’t be getting married, and I wouldn’t get to spend the rest of my life with the love of my life. So, Mum, Dad, Alfie, and Yasmin, thank you for being so persistent and setting us up on that blind date. We have you to thank for today and every day for the rest of our lives!”

“You’re welcome, honey!” Mum called back, and the room broke into a mix of laughter and applause.

Some of Cedric and my closest friends went next for toasts, and by the end of them all, I had laughed, cried, died inside, and done it all over again several times. By the time Cedric hauled me onto the dance floor for our first dance, I was tired and just wanted to crawl into his arms and go to sleep. Sensing my tiredness, my husband–yes, you read that right–pulled me close and had me stand on his shoes–my killer red heels were off by this point. They made a gorgeous statement, but I couldn’t possibly wear them for more than a few hours at a time.

Cedric pressed his lips to the crown of my head. Our entire guest list was watching us right now, but I didn’t care as I lifted my head from his chest and brushed my lips against the underside of his chin.

“I love you so much, and I’m so glad I can now call you my wife. You are the light of my life, Mrs Barlowe,” Cedric whispered, his hands on my hips tightening ever so slightly. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I plan of reminding you of that every single day for the rest of our lives.”

“Mrs Remington-Barlowe,” I corrected him with a sly grin as he twirled us around the dance floor.

“Is that the only thing you picked up from what I said?” He groaned low in my ear.

“No,” I giggled and rose on my tiptoes to brush my mouth against his. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me as well, Mr Remington-Barlowe. I can’t wait to spend forever with you as well. And to think, we wouldn’t be here right now if our parents didn’t set us up on that blind date.”

“I hate to admit it, but we should have listened to them from the beginning. It would have saved us a lot of time,” he murmured lowly and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth.

“But then where’s the fun in that?”

“Touché.”

Even though the hall was filled to the brim with people, and we were the centre of attention, Cedric dipped me low and devoured me in a hard, all-consuming kiss.

* * *

It had beena whole week since I had been Mrs Remington-Barlowe, but I didn’t feel any different.

Actually, that was a lie.

I didn’t feel any different on the inside, but physically, quite a few things had changed.

At first, I thought it was the stress of planning a wedding and making sure everything was perfect. I once again put it down to stress when I noticed that I had rounded around the stomach a few weeks ago. As my wedding dress still fit and it wasn’t very noticeable, I didn’t mind all that much but planned to lose the extra weight as soon as we got back from our honeymoon, but something happened at our wedding for me to realise that simply wasn’t possible.

The moment I put my wedding dress on, I rushed to the bathroom to throw up the bowl of cereal I had eaten for breakfast. I didn’t need to take a pregnancy test to figure out what was going on but was forced to anyway when Alina and Lainey took an impromptu trip to the local pharmacy.

As academically gifted as I was during school, I had never achieved one hundred percent on a test before. Well, that was before I had scored three out of three on the pregnancy tests.

That was a whole week ago and I was yet to tell Cedric–my husband–the joyous news. In my defence, we were in the middle of a remote, tropical island partaking in various activities every single day. It wasn’t like I had much time to sit Cedric down–did I mention that he was now my husband?–and break the news to him that our little family of two would be expanding to three sooner than either of us had planned.

The product of our love growing in my belly was enough to have me permanently smiling. Whenever Cedric asked about it, I just said I was happy.

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