“Is that what you’re doing with me right now?” Emmett asked, flashing me a teasing smirk that almost stopped my heart. But before I could consider just letting it all out and saying something crazy, he moved mercifully on. “You need cream for you coffee, right? Half-and-half?”
“Yes. I can get it – ”
“No, I’ll get it. Start eating. You only have a little more than ten minutes.”
I didn’t argue because honestly, the food was calling to me and within the first bite, I had a moment and shoveled in two more before I once again cast my twinkly wonder-eyes at Emmett.
“Emmett. This is delicious. This is better than stuff I’ve had at restaurants,” I said seriously as he poured a bit of cream in my coffee. “When the hell did you learn to cook like this?” I asked. “When we were in high school, you used to set off the fire alarm while using the microwave.”
He laughed. “Yeah. I think it was actually a talent how bad I was at cooking then.”
“You messed up instant ramen once.”
“Sure did.”
“So… explanations? Please?” I asked, watching Emmett’s shoulders widen as he leaned across the counter from me, digging in to the plate he made for himself – which I noted was plated much less nicely than mine.
“When I was in college, my other roommate Lukas taught me the basics. Mostly how to cook eggs.”
“Where’d you learn the rest of it then?” I asked. “How’d you learn to prep and time and plate so perfectly? Because I’m kind of amazed right now.”
Emmett blinked, like he thought his answer before had been sufficient enough explanation.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “I just had to learn. I needed to feed myself. The cafeteria food at college wasn’t the best.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You used to eat plain cold cuts in high school because you were too lazy to get bread from the pantry. I also recall the fact that you were happy to eat multiple bowls of cereal for dinner, because ‘cereal’s already here and ordering out takes time.’”
Emmett squinted as he recalled those memories with me.
“That’s… yep. That’s completely accurate,” he laughed, wrinkling his nose at his former self. “Speaking of dinner though, one of my friends opened a restaurant in Montauk. Can I take you tonight?” he asked, making my heart flutter. God, was I ever going to get used to him asking me out on dates? Because so far, I was actually getting increasingly giddy with each invitation.
“Of course,” I replied. “Is it a super fancy place that requires me dressing nicely?”
“No, but if you want some new dresses, I’m more than happy to go shopping again,” Emmett grinned, making me giggle.
“You better not talk about that because we don’t have the time to get all turned on right now.”
“Fuck. True,” Emmett said, reaching down to presumably adjust his junk as he eyed the clock. “You got two minutes to finish eating.”
“No way am I gonna finish all this, but I’m already very full and content,” I said, dunking a bit of toast in my broken egg yolk. “But you should definitely finish it.”
“I’ll save the hash for later.”
“Why? Going right back to bed once I leave?” I smirked.
“You bet your sexy ass I am,” he yawned, stretching across the counter and flexing every stone-carved muscle on his naked torso. Good Lord. And after that, he hit me with that sleepy grin that was so damned cute I almost fell out of my chair.
Seriously. How was I supposed to leave this?
As the last few minutes of our surprise breakfast wound down, I went back to chanting Evie’s mantra.
You’re a fucking lucky girl.
And this is a good problem to have.
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