Three hours had passed, and there were still no signs of Cree.
Qiao Ruo bit on the edge of her straw, trying to ease her nervousness. She stared at her smartphone screen while thinking of hundreds of possibilities of where he could have gone. A glass of the anti-anxiety smoothie she had prepared from a recipe scoured from the internet sat innocently on the coffee table. The recipe suggested using avocado, some dates, bananas, almond butter and cacao powder and claimed that drinking a glass of such a drink could alleviate stress.
Everything was just too overwhelming, and her insecurities were starting to hound her as Cree did not return as promised. She found herself dialling Cree's number, and before she could terminate the call, it had connected to his voicemail. She was dismayed that he had switched off his smartphone as if he was hiding something from her.
She reminded herself that she had performed the same to him earlier, and his words rung in her ears.
