Page 90 of The Blind Date

“Nothing.” His jaw clenched and he lifted his eyes, refusing to look at me.

Nothing, my ass!

"Cedric," I sighed. "I can tell that something is wrong." When he still refused to meet my eyes, I cupped his face and brought it down to mine, pressing his forehead against mine. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

"Nothing is wrong," he continued to deny, but the tick in his jaw was a dead giveaway.

"I can tell something is wrong."

"My girlfriend went on a date with another guy. There's nothing wrong with that,” he chuckled bitterly, and my lips tugged further down.

“I can’t believe you’re jealous. I told you it wasn’t my idea. There’s nothing to be jealous about.”

"I'm not jealous,” he lied.

"You are jealous."

“No. What do I have to be jealous about?”

“Nothing.”

“That settles it then,” he said dryly. “I’m not jealous. There’s nothing to be jealous about, right?”

"Cedric. Please, let's talk about this," I insisted, but he didn't pay heed to me. Instead, he trained his eyes on the TV, refusing to look at me. Being ignored by Cedric hurt. It was worse because I knew he was mad at me for something that was out of my control. "Can we please talk about this?”

“I can’t imagine what we have to talk about.” He pursed his lips and looked away, refusing to meet my eyes again.

“You’re upset with me,” I pointed out the obvious.

“You think?” He scoffed.

"There's no need for that tone. I'm trying to talk to you," I huffed and pushed myself away from him. With the obnoxious way he was speaking to me, I needed to put some distance between us. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt when he didn't try to stop me.

“I apologise for being rude,” Cedric said, his apology curt and far from genuine.

"Apology accepted. Now, can we talk?" I asked, but this time, I was met with radio silence–not counting the blaring from the TV. I attempted several times to get Cedric's attention, even going as far as to snap my fingers in his face, but when he made no move to acknowledge me, I snatched the remote from him and turned off the TV. Before he could snatch it back, I dropped and kicked it under the sofa. There was no way either of us could retrieve it without physically moving the sofa.

“Why did you do that?” Cedric asked rather forcefully.

“You’re clearly angry about this, so let’s talk about it,” I tried to convince him, determined to clear up the miscommunication sooner rather than later.

“I’d rather talk about it once I’ve had some time to cool off,” he murmured, not meeting my eyes. I wasn't sure what hurt more. His words, or the fact that he still wouldn't look at me.

“So, it is bothering you?”

“Of course, it’s bothering me,” Cedric huffed. “My girlfriend is going on dates with other guys. How could that not bother me?”

"It wasn't a real date. It was a blind date," I reminded him, but it was no use. He had already made his mind up.

“That doesn’t change anything,” he denied. “We met on a blind date, remember?”

“Come on, Cedric. Think about this,” I urged him. “We’ve already made things official between us. Why would I want to date someone else when I’m dating you?”

“No one knows things are official between us.”

I watched him for a while, studying him. “I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t tell our parents for a while.”

"I know we agreed,” he groaned and buried his face in his hands.

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