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“Your omelet.”
A white plate with a checkerboard rim appeared in front of me, snapping me back to the present. Next was Avery’s short stack of pancakes. She must have given Emerson and Jana theirs first, because he was already scooping up a forkful of breakfast potatoes.
“That smells so good.” Avery tipped closer to me, her shoulder brushing mine, and sniffed my plate.
Normally, I liked to keep more space between people and my food, but I didn’t want to sound like a dick and tell her to back up, so I inhaled deeply, grasped for patience, and waited.
“I’ve never had the omelet here. Can I try it?”
Splitting meals wasnotmy thing. In fact, I never let anyone eat off my plate. Not even my dad or my sister.
Emerson chuckled across from me. “Dragon doesn’t share well.”
I glared at him. Did hehaveto make me sound like a total asshole?
“Oh.” Her face fell, and she sat up straight again, taking her warmth with her.
My heart sank. Now I didn’t only sound like an asshole. Ifeltlike one too.
“You can try it.” I used my knife to cut a small piece, figuring I could slide it onto her plate.
But suddenly, she was clutching my fork, stabbing the omelet with it, and stealing the bite. She wrapped her lips around the metal in what felt like slow motion. For some, that might be a turn-on or whatever, but for me, the slow-mo move had my mind instantly racing with the knowledge that the human mouth was home to over seven hundred species of germs.
It was irrational, yes, because if she leaned over and kissed me right now, I wouldn’t hesitate to explore every inch of her mouth. But this anxiety had latched on to me years ago, and there was no escaping it in this moment.
She hummed as she chewed, and once she’d swallowed, she said, “Wow, yum.” Then she went in for another bite.
Now the germs were on my fork, my plate, and my food.
After she swallowed the second bite, she laughed and set the fork back on my plate. “I might need to order that next time.” She looked at her short stack of pancakes with the bananas and whipped cream and tiny chocolate chips and grinned. “Probably not. I love these pancakes.”
Heart racing, I stared at my plate.
“Need me to get you a new fork?” Emerson rested his forearms on the table and leaned in, smirking. Over the years, he’d made it very clear that he thought my germ thing was too much.
Was it? Maybe. But after my mother died of a staph infection that went septic, my father made sure we were conscious of germs. Naturally, I took it to the extreme, because I did nothing halfway.
I glared at my teammate, who was now grinning and seconds away from giving me shit.
“Why would he need a new one?” Avery frowned at Emerson, then turned her attention to me.
Before my roommate could make me sound ridiculous. I picked up my fork and scooped another piece from my omelet. “I don’t.” I popped the bite into my mouth and decided right then that Avery was like Puff. Neither of them had germs, and I wouldn’t stress over it.
Emerson sat back, smirking once again, watching me eat. He hadhis chin lifted and his chest puffed out, as if he was proud of his status as the keeper of my secrets.
“Just finish your damn eggs.” I glared at him.
“You two have such an unusual vibe.” Jana pointed her egg and cheese bagel at us.
Avery scooped a bite of nothing but whipped cream. In fact, other than my eggs, she’d only eaten the whipped cream and chocolate chips so far. She licked the white fluff off her fork in a move that was far sexier than she intended, eyeing me. “Yeah, I swear you don’t like that you like each other.”
Emerson laughed silently, his shoulders shaking. “Spot on. It drives him insane that I’m his best friend.”
“Puff’s gonna be jealous. He thought the bracelet meant he was your best friend.” Avery tapped the blue beads on my wrist.
Now the asshole across from me snorted. Karma intervened, and he choked on his eggs. Thank fuck he clamped a hand over his mouth while he pulled himself together.
When Emerson had found his composure, I dropped my fork and sat back, crossing my arms. “To think I was going to buy breakfast for all of you.”
