Page 96 of The Blind Date

No texts. No calls. Nothing.

Every time I came home from work, I half-expected him to be waiting outside my apartment, playing Among Us on his phone, but I was left sourly disappointed every time.

How had we managed to ruin things so quickly?

Cedric had been too into his head about things, and perhaps I could have broken the news better to him. Maybe calling it a date wasn’t the smartest thing to do. And I certainly shouldn’t have pried into his past like that, especially when it was obvious that he was uncomfortable discussing it.

Who was I to judge? I had never been married before, nor had I ever gone through a divorce. There was no way of me knowing just how long it took to get over someone you were so deeply connected to. One thing I did know, however, was that I would be stupid to let Cedric go. We had been official for about three weeks–I chose to include this week even though we weren’t on speaking terms–and this past week without him, knowing he was angry and upset with me, killed me.

Cedric and I had started as more enemies than lovers. Before, I would have loved having him ignore me, but now, I missed all the small, petty arguments and the heated back and forth.

I knew I needed to fix things with Cedric, but that was virtually impossible with him all but ignoring my existence. If I knew where Cedric lived, I would have shown up outside his apartment like he often did mine.

More than once I had concluded that Alina probably knew where Cedric lived, but asking her would raise too many unwanted questions. The thought played on my mind as I stared at the dark screen, highlighted by multicoloured words yet to be transformed into a working piece of code.

“I hope you don’t make a habit of working late on Fridays,” Owen said, perching himself on the corner of my desk. “All work and no play makes Saffron a dull woman.”

"I could say the same thing about you,” I chuckled, sending Owen a pointed look. "I'm going to log off now though. I usually refuse to work late on Fridays, but this was an exception."

“Has Derek been rushing you as well?” He asked, referring to our manager who had forgotten what coding was like and had a habit of subscribing us to unrealistic deadlines.

I nodded and sighed, pushing back my chair as I stood up. “I don’t want to think about Derek or work until Monday.”

We engaged in light conversation as we took the lifts to the ground floor together, wishing the security guard a good weekend when leaving the building.

"I don't mean to pry and feel free to shut me up if you think I'm overstepping, but you've looked sad all week,” Owen noted aloud in a cautious voice. “Is everything okay with you, Saff?”

"I have been sad all week," I admitted, surprising myself. "Trouble in paradise, I guess you could say."

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he apologised, slipping his hands into his pockets.

“Yeah, me too,” I pursed my lips, trying not to look too pathetic.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head. “There’s only one person I want to speak about this with, but he’s ignoring me. I kind of fucked up.”

“Have you spoken to your friends about it?” Owen asked. “It might help to get it off your chest.”

“I haven’t spoken to anyone about this.”

“Why not?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure.” I shrugged and gnawed on my bottom lip.

“You could talk to me about it if you want,” Owen suggested, but honestly, I'd much rather talk to my mum about this–even if it meant that she ignored everything I said and started planning the wedding in her head.

“I’m not sure about that,” I murmured, trying to let him down lightly.

“Why don’t you give it a try? What’s the worst that could happen?”

I gnawed on my bottom lip as I mulled over his offer. On one hand, I couldn't talk to any of my friends about this because they were in the same boat as my parents–unaware that Cedric and I were an item. On the other hand, talking to Owen about Cedric would be awkward because I had an inkling he had somewhat romantic feelings for me. The last thing I wanted to do was make my work life uncomfortable and awkward by blurring lines.

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Saff,” he assured me. “I’m actually seeing someone.”

“You are?” I asked, surprised.

"We've only been on a few dates, and things are still somewhat new, but I have a very good feeling about her. I don't know if you believe in love at first sight, but that's what it felt like when I first saw her."

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