Adrian grabbed us a table while I headed straight to the buffet to fill a bowl with cereal. As I settled into my seat, a waiter came up immediately to offer me a drink. “A glass of mango juice and a cup of steamed milk, please. Thanks.”

“Odd choice,” commented Adrian.

Scenes of the dream came flooding back, and I wondered if I should ask him about those doors. He would never let me hear the end of it if I told him I’d been dreaming about him, so I broke the connection. “It’s not that odd.”

“Nothing but cereal for you?”

“Nope. I plan to have cheesecake, brownies, and cupcakes too.”

“Ah, a sweet tooth.”

The waiter came with my drink order and I thanked him. “Why, what’s your choice of breakfast food?”

“Steak.”

“Steak is hardly an ordinary breakfast food, Adrian.”

“When will you learn that I’m not just ordinary?”

“I don’t know. Maybe when you run naked down the hall screaming.” I ate a spoonful of Corn Flakes.

“Whoa. Do you want to see me naked that badly, Montgomery?” He pretended to look surprised. “You sure aren’t wasting your time.” Adrian leaned forward and the intense way he watched me sent a shiver up my spine.

“Not as badly as I want to punch your face,” I replied, causing him to laugh.

Get a grip, Avery. Adrian flirts with every female breathing. He doesn’t mean it, and it doesn’t mean anything to you either. Yet somehow, that no longer felt true.

“I need to borrow your phone,” I said, desperate to end this weird tension. To my surprise, he reached into his pocket and handed it over without saying anything.

“Hey, it’s locked.”

Adrian told me the passcode, and I repeated it out loud as I typed. The phone was unlocked, and a black wallpaper filled the screen. Why were those numbers so familiar? I gaped at him in disbelief. “Hey, that’s my birth date! Why is it your passcode?”

“Because you own me—body, heart, and soul,” he answered dramatically, putting one hand on the left side of his chest.

“Dude, I think you missed your calling. You should be in a soap opera. Such cheese!” I quickly texted Kris, letting her know what was up, and passed him back his phone.

A waiter approached our table and offered to clear our used plates and utensils. Once he was done, he looked at me and Adrian. “Anything for dessert?”

I took my last spoonful of the chocolate mousse, savoring every last taste. We’d spent the last twenty minutes talking about food—to be more accurate, I’d been talking about my top ten favorite desserts while Adrian had been telling me about all kinds of aphrodisiacs.

Adrian’s phone buzzed with a text. He scanned the message, sipped his coffee, and then fixed his gaze on me. “Kristen’s at the knucklebones game. Shall we go save her?”

“She doesn’t need saving.” I finished my mango juice. “She loves this kind of stuff.”