Page 14 of The Blind Date

“An apology would be nice.”

“Why should I apologise?” I turned my nose up.

“Because you were slagging me off behind my back. To your mum, no less."

“For all you know, I could have been talking about a different Cedric,” I countered with a defiant expression, refusing to back down from a challenge. Especially from this infuriating man.

“You’ve pretty much admitted already that it was me you were talking about on the phone.”

“I don’t quite remember it that way.”

“Well, what way do you remember it then?” Cedric asked, his lips turning up higher at the corners.

"I was engaged in a very important, veryprivateconversation with my mum before you rudely interrupted me. You’re the one who should apologise.”

"It's not interrupting if you’re talking about me.” He pointed out, matter-of-factly. “And it can't have been that private if you were talking at the bar for everyone to hear."

“I thought we already established that I wasn’t talking about you.”

Cedric chuckled quietly and observed me with a small smirk, not saying anything.

“What?” I snapped, hating the secretive look about him. As if he knew something that I didn’t.

“You’re quite the character.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he chuckled and shook his head. “How about we start over? I’m Cedric Barlowe, and I'm guessing you're my blind date for the evening. Saffron Remington, right?”

I wanted to deny it so I could spend the evening drinking and dancing the night away with my friends. As Liam was out with his friends, that meant I could partner up with Lottie and not have to be the eleventh wheel for once. So, when I opened my mouth to deny my identity, the betrayal of my tongue surprised me.

“I’m Saffron, yes.”

“I knew there was something desperate about you when you ran into me outside.”

"Excuse me? Desperate? Me?" My eyebrows furrowed and my jaw dropped at the audacity. "One, that's so rude of you! There's nothing desperate about me, and two, I ran into you? What are you? Stupid?Youknockedmeoff my feet! How does that make it my fault?”

“Knocked you off your feet? That’s a tad bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t think it’s dramatic at all.” I rolled my eyes but the fact that he had a small smirk on his face the entire time just riled me up all that more.

I opened my mouth to say something savage enough to wipe that horrid smirk right off his face, but before I could, one of the waiters approached us with a timid smile.

“I apologise for interrupting, but you two need to stop arguing. You’re disturbing our other customers. There have been multiple complaints already." There was an uneasy expression on his face as he spoke, no doubt finding this very awkward. "You can either take this outside or quieten down and get a table."

"What do you think we should do?" Cedric quirked a questioning, mocking brow at me. “Leave and explain to our parents what happened, or get a table and find out if we’re soulmates?”

The look on his face told me what he expected me to do. He expected me to throw him the bird again and storm out of the restaurant, but I refused to prove him right.

"We'll take that table, thank you," I smiled brightly at the server as I slid off the barstool.

"I called ahead and booked a table under Barlowe," Cedric called out from behind us, but I didn’t turn to glance at him. Instead, I followed the waiter–Logan, his name tag read–as he led us over to our table for the evening.

“I’ll give you some time to look at the menu.” Logan smiled politely and left us alone.

Suddenly, I found myself wishing that I had ordered something stronger than a single glass of red wine. I would certainly need it if I was going to be dealing with this force of a man sitting across from me all evening.

ChapterThree

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