Page 7 of The Blind Date

“Is that your way of telling me that he’s super old?”

“Cedric isn’t super old,” she tutted again, sounding as if she was reprimanding a young child for naughty behaviour. “But he is a bit more…experiencedthan us.”

“Is that your way of calling him a player?” I frowned, not sure why she was suddenly beating around the bush. What could she possibly be hiding about Cedric? “Why am I being set up with a player? Isn’t that a sure way of guaranteeing that things end badly? I thought my parents wanted me to get married, not heartbroken.”

"He's not a player," Alina denied. “He’s just…a little moreexperiencedthan us.” There was more emphasis on the wordexperiencedthis time. Not that it made any difference.

“You’ve already said that.” My frown deepened. “I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

“I’ll let him explain that to you when he’s ready.”

“Your riddles aren’t making it any easier to warm up to this guy.”

“Oh, stop being impatient and get to The Ivy,” Alina chuckled, dismissing my complaints. “It’s a nice place, so even if you don't like Cedric, at least you can have a nice meal."

"That's the only thing I'm looking forward to,” I replied dryly. I spoke to Alina for a little longer before she needed to hang up to get ready for a little date night of her own. Except, hers was with her new husband and mine was with someone I had never met before but I already didn’t like the sound of.

Before we turned into the street that The Ivy was located, I asked the Uber driver to let me out. He was a little confused, but I didn’t stick around to explain. The last thing I wanted was to be was early and appear desperate, especially for a blind date I had been dreading all day.

If this date was anything like the nine before it, I would soon find myself making up an excuse to leave early and grab a McDonald’s for dinner.

“Thank you,” I beamed at the Uber driver before closing the door.

With a few excuses running through my mind, a text sent off to Victor in case I needed him to call and bail me out with a phone emergency, I began walking toward the entrance of The Ivy.

Usually, when I knew I would be dining at The Ivy, I skipped lunch as the food was amazing and I wanted to be able to eat as much as I could, but not today. It wasn't like people went on blind dates for the food. No, it was usually for those people set up by a family member or friend who thought the person needed a push to get off their ass and meet someone. In my case, everyone thought I was lonely–and I was–but I couldn't help but wonder why my date for the evening had agreed to this. Especially if he was soexperienced.

There was so much pressure on me to like this man. Not only had my parents already met him and his parents, but my best friend also approved of him and thought we would be great together. If that was truly the case, then I had to like him, right? I mean, what could go wrong? It wasn't like I hadn't–

“Hey!” I screeched loudly when I felt someone ram into me from behind, knocking me off my feet.

If a large, firm hand hadn't wrapped around my upper arm, I would have landed flat on my face.

“Sorry. I didn’t see you there.” The stranger was quick to apologise, letting go of my arm once he was sure I was stable on my feet.

“Can’t you watch where you’re going?” I couldn’t help but snap at my attacker, aggravated and far more short-tempered than I usually was. In my defence, it had been a long, difficult week. And all these blind dates hadn’t helped.

“Did you not hear the part where I said I was sorry?" The man snapped back at me, and that's when I lifted my head to glare at him. Or rather, I tried to.

The man towered over me by several inches–a whole head, neck and then some taller than me. His brown hair was tousled and windswept from when he was running, a few strands dipping over his dark and defined eyebrows. His lips were plump and coloured a deep rose, his nose bridge thin and perfectly rounded at the tip–something which many people, both men and women, paid good money for–and his jaw sharp, but not as sharp as his striking forest green eyes. It was almost like he was staring into my soul, and with the way he glared at me, it took everything I had to stand my ground even though every essence in my being was telling me to apologise for my rude behaviour and cower away.

Instead of his gaze radiating menace and all things bad, it was more filled with annoyance. Like I was wasting his time which surprisingly, made me feel worse.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” The handsome but irritable stranger sneered at me, and instead of verbally firing back at him like I was very tempted to, I chose the mature route.

That’s right. I lifted my left hand and shot him the bird, smirking when a cloud of surprise took over his face.

“Very mature,” he scoffed, but I merely rolled my eyes and pushed past him.

Well, I tried to until he made a point of pushing past me and taking off running once again. That’s the reason he ran into people. Because he was literally running around like he was the only one on the pavement!

If we were in a bar or club somewhere and I had a drink in me, I probably would have asked for his number, but no way was that happening now after our not-so-friendly exchange. I knew that I was being harsher than I needed to be, especially after he apologised for running into me, but after shooting him the bird, there really was no going back.

Exhaling deeply, I forced all thoughts of the rude stranger from my mind and continued to The Ivy with nothing but the promise of good food stopping me from turning around and standing this Cedric guy up.

All I had to do was get through this date, and then I would be free for the next twenty-five days.

ChapterTwo

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