Are we still on for dinner tonight?

I smiled as I read the text. Are you still cooking for me?

Didn’t I satisfy all your appetites already?

I snorted out a laugh, then was immediately relieved Adam wasn’t here to hear that sound. *Some* of them, I texted back.

You are insatiable, woman.

I rolled over in bed, where I had gone immediately after getting home from Adam’s this morning. Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. And poor Adam hadn’t slept much in two nights, not just one.

No I’m not! Just hungry!

I’ll feed you, baby. LoL.

I sighed. He was so cute. And my body was still sore and felt pleasantly, ecstatically used.

I knew he’d be too busy to talk much today, especially if he was going to avoid that bitch Bianca. A small amount of Facebook stalking had revealed that she was a lot more gorgeous than I was comfortable with. She had this crazy curly hair and looked like a gypsy or something exotic. I’ve been pretty confident in my looks since I was about 14, but looking at her pictures I felt…boring, I guess.

But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Adam didn’t think I was boring. So even though it stung that she got to see him all day and I didn’t, I knew who Adam was focusing all that hot sexual energy on. Not her, that was for sure.

I was supposed to meet Adam at 6 at his condo, so at 5:30 I headed downstairs. I wore a cute pair of pink Capris and an off-the-shoulder white t-shirt. I wanted to look good, but we were going to be casual at his house, and I also wanted to be comfortable.

“Bye, Mom,” I shouted on my way out the door. “I might be late.”

“Keep me informed!” my mom shouted as I closed the door. My mom was so cute—I was 21 but she still worried about me.

Friday traffic was a bitch, but I got to the condo in pretty good time. I knocked on the door, and Adam met me, dressed in jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt. Damn, he had a fine upper body. He reached inside the door and pulled out a basket.

“I thought we could go on a picnic.”

I stood on my toes to kiss him. Could anything be more romantic? I sighed against his lips. “Sounds amazing.”

We got in his car and just chatted, about our days and our memories, as he drove out of town. I didn’t know where he was taking us, but it didn’t matter. It was so…nice. I was content, and low-key buzzing with anticipation. I hadn’t forgotten a moment of the night before.

He finally drove up an incline and stopped us at an overlook. LA was far in the distance, and in the other direction, desert as far as we could see. It was still light out, but the light had that end-of-the-day quality, and it wasn’t as brutally hot as it often gets in the city. In fact, there was a warm breeze blowing that kept things from being uncomfortable.

Adam spread out a blanket—which looked so new it still had creases in it from the package—and gestured me onto it. I sat down, and he sat next to me, but he didn’t immediately unpack the basket. He reached out and held my hand for a few minutes. I rested my head on his shoulder and we both looked out over the desert together for a little while.

“This is nice,” I said after a few minutes. “But I’m starving. What did you bring us?”

“You’ll love this,” he said, reaching for the basket. “We are extremely fancy this evening.”

He pulled out a bottle of wine and a few plastic wine glasses. “That is fancy!” I laughed at his serious expression. “Did you do all this yourself?”

“Um…” He looked at me sheepishly from under his lashes. “I know I said I’d cook for you—and I will, I swear—but I got done at the worksite a lot later than I’d hoped, so I stopped and got this stuff. Are you mad?”

“Mad?” I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yes, furious. Enraged. Don’t I look it?” I kissed him on the cheek. “So what did you get?”

He pulled out some gourmet sandwiches and fancy chips—much fancier than anything I could afford on a college student’s budget. There was some kind of veggie salad and these layered pink pastries for dessert. There was way too much food here for just two people, though.

“I didn’t know what you liked,” he said apologetically. “I didn’t think you were a vegetarian, but this is LA, so if you are, here’s some of the salad and—” He had to stop talking while I kissed him on the mouth. “What was that for?”

“You got all this extra food just in case I might be a vegetarian? You seriously have to be the best boyfriend in the world.” I gasped and clapped a hand over my mouth. “Not that you’re….I mean…I’m not assuming—”

“Hush.” He kissed me. “It’s okay. It’s more than okay. I want to be your boyfriend, Chrissy. I don’t want to be with anyone else, okay?”

I looked up into those gorgeous eyes. He held my gaze steadily, letting me read whatever I needed to there.

“Really?” I whispered. “I’m not very good at this. I usually get tired of people after a few dates, but I’m not tired of you. I really like being with you.”

“Really.” He laughed softly. “I’m not tired of you, either. So, let’s eat.”

I ignored the tears that came to my eyes. I didn’t know why “I’m not tired of you” should make me so emotional, but it did. “I’m not a vegetarian,” I said, grabbing a sandwich that obviously had meat hanging out of it. “But I do like grass-fed and organic food when I can get it. So, you get the sprouts, Gardner.”

“Not me,” he said, pulling out another sandwich. “I held this one back. Chicken bacon ranch, baby. Chicken. Bacon. Ranch.”

“Ooh, that sounds good!” I said. “Get me that next time.”

“No problem.” He pulled half of his chicken bacon ranch sandwich off and put it on my plate, then took half of my sandwich onto his. I was so touched I got weepy again.

We ate in silence, enjoying the view of the dessert in the approaching twilight. After he’d downed half his sandwich, Adam asked, “So, if you’re my girlfriend, what about your parents?”

“What about them?”

“Shouldn’t they know about us?”

I hesitated. “For the most part, I keep my private life away from my parents. They like to pretend that I’m still the innocent little girl that I was ten years ago. But I don’t think that’s our biggest problem. Do you?”

“No, I guess not.” He sighed and tossed down his sandwich. “What do you think your dad would do if he found out I’m dating you?”

“Well…he’ll try yelling at me first,” I said. “When that doesn’t work, he’ll threaten you, but he’s all bluster. I mean, can he really fire you? Don’t you have a contract or something?”

He thought about it for a second, “Yeah, but he can still make it hard for me. I don’t want to end my career before it’s even begun.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“I want to take out a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard saying that Chrissy Monroe agreed to be my girlfriend.” He laughed and kissed me. “But maybe we should wait a little while so I can figure it out.”

I shrugged. “I’m okay with that. I don’t want you to lose your job. I mean, who would buy me gourmet sandwiches?”

But while I was touched by his billboard comment, I was a little hurt that he wasn’t willing to brave my father’s wrath and let him know I was dating him. I mean, it had been a long time since I had asked my father’s permission to date anyone. And I wasn’t sure I believed that my dad could really run him out for such a personal reason. Besides, what could my dad have against Adam, anyway? He was basically my dad’s heir apparent, since Jack and I weren’t interested in the business. Really, what could be better than him dating me?

On the bright side, he brought me wine and pastries, so there was that.