Page 95 of The Blind Date

That’s when it struck me. Cedric was still hiding out in my bedroom! And from the looks of things, my parents wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

I needed to do something to distract them so he could make a swift getaway.

"There's something I wanted to show the both of you," I announced as I jumped up to my feet, eager to clear out the living room so Cedric could leave without them knowing he was here in the first place.

“Right now?” Dad asked, his eyes glued on the TV. “The dessert will be here soon.”

I nodded eagerly. “This is important. There's some mould growing on one of the walls in the guest room that I was hoping you could take a look at."

The actual mould I was referring to was green eyeshadow I had somehow managed to smear while getting ready for a night out. I hadn't realised until several days later as I didn't go into the guest room often, and when I tried to wipe it off, it wouldn't budge. I'm sure that if I had tried to use something stronger than the dry pad of my thumb, the eyeshadow mark would have disappeared, but my parents didn't need to know that.

If I squinted my eyes, it slightly resembled mould, and right now, that was good enough of a distraction for Cedric to sneak out.

"Mould?" Dad echoed in surprise.

"You need to speak to the landlady about this. First your boiler and now mould? She needs to do something about this. It's wrong of her to expect you to live in a place where there's mould,” Mum huffed as she moved to follow Dad to the guest room. I trailed behind and held my breath as we walked past my bedroom door.

I hoped Cedric was listening because if he wasn't, he would have to spend hours camped out in my bedroom until my parents left. We would then have to face each other after the explosive argument that we had been forced to pause by the unexpected arrival of my parents.

“Where’s the mould?” Dad asked, turning his head in all directions to assess the room.

“Over here.” I pushed past them both to show them the spot behind the door. I closed the door nearly all the way for them to have a look, and they would be none the wiser about a certain Barlowe currently sneaking out of my room.

I locked eyes with Cedric, and for that brief moment, I forgot about everything. I didn’t focus on the fight that we had just had before my parents showed up. It didn’t matter that he was angry about my parents setting me up with Richard, and neither did the fact that he refused to open up to me which hurt my feelings in ways I was yet to comprehend. It didn’t matter that he was being hypocritical as he had been all for keeping our relationship a secret from our parents, and even the one to suggest it. And it didn’t matter that I was being too pushy and expecting too much instead of taking baby steps. All that mattered was that we were both hurt, but now wasn’t the time to talk or fix things. If we talked now, we would probably make things worse.

I blinked, and Cedric was gone, already halfway across the living room, inching closer and closer to the door with each passing second.

Dad frowned and crouched down, leaning in to expect what I knew to be green eyeshadow.

“This is really strange mould,” he frowned, rubbing a thumb against the green part of the wall. “I’ve never seen mould look this way before.”

“That’s because it’s not mould,” Mum laughed, amused. “That’s eyeshadow, Don.”

“Are you sure?” Dad sent a questioning look over his shoulder.

“That's eyeshadow if I've ever seen it.Greeneye shadow."

"Well, look at that." I made a show of looking relieved even though I knew it wasn't mould from the very beginning. "I’m glad it’s not mould.”

“What are we going to do with you, Saff? Mistaking eye shadow for mould?” Dad chuckled and wiped his hands on his jeans as he opened the door to let us out of the guest room.

I held my breath the entire time, and when we all walked past my bedroom door–thankfully, it was still closed–I felt like my heart would jump out of my chest with the way it was beating erratically.

A knock sounded on the door, and Dad moved to collect the delivery. I used the distraction to head to my room.

“It’s a little cold,” I called out to Mum from over my shoulder. Technically, I wasn't lying. "I'm going to grab a jumper."

Neither of them batted an eyelash as I walked toward my room, resisting the urge to take off running.

My palms were sweating, and my breathing was slightly laboured as I slowly pushed open the door. I made sure not to open it too much to prevent my parent's from seeing Cedric in case he had snuck back in here for some reason.

Before I could even close the door behind me, I knew he wasn’t in here. He had managed to sneak out of the apartment when we were all in the guest room. Just as I had hoped.

I guess our fight was no longer on pause.

ChapterTwenty-Five

This whole week had been nothing short of a nightmare. Not only had I suffered through four releases this week, two of which had ended way past dinner time, but I also hadn't heard a word from Cedric.

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