The food coma was real! I didn’t wake up until around eleven the next morning, still wearing the cerulean dress and my makeup, Kris asleep still beside me. Letting her continue to sleep off last night’s feast, I dragged myself to the kitchen to make up for missing breakfast. I might have been full last night, but I was hungry as hell this morning.

“You’re awake.” Vlad was in the kitchen already, cooking.

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I can.” His brow quirked up as he folded an omelette over in the pan.

I saw groceries on the counter. “Wait, I thought my mom brought in some food yesterday.”

“There weren’t any eggs, so I went to get them this morning.” He pointed at the grocery bags. “And I bought you something.”

“Really?” I climbed up on one of the kitchen stools and began ransacking the groceries. Aside from the usual ingredients for cooking, there were cheesecakes, bags of potato chips, some fruit, and then my hands stopped. “You bought Twinkies!”

“I did.” He paused cutting the onions. “It’s still your favorite snack, right?”

Even though it was embarrassing, Twinkies had been my favorite food since childhood. Whenever I was in a bad mood or feeling down, Twinkies provided a healing balm to my troubled heart. I would instantly feel better after I had one.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“How did you know about Twinkies?”

“Oh.” He scratched the side of his head and ducked his face, but I could still see that he was blushing. “I don’t think you remember this, but when we were kids—you were about six or seven—some kid named Axel tackled me in soccer. Our team ended up losing, and I had a sprained ankle.” He shrugged, shaking his head. “Anyway, you gave me a Twinkie.”

“I gave you a Twinkie?”

“And you said it was your favorite food in the world. You said you always ate them whenever you were sad because they made you feel better. Actually, I found your chatter rather annoying, but I knew you were just trying to cheer me up—to make me feel better the only way you knew how to.”

How on earth had Vlad remembered that?

As Vlad transferred the omelette to a plate, I pulled my hair back in a ponytail. “It smells so good.” I rested my hands on the counter.

His hand covered one of mine, and warmth spread through my whole body. There was a part of me that wanted to pull my hand away. A part that wanted me to run, to remove myself from this situation. But before I could do anything, I suddenly felt his arms wrap around me.