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“This feels like a trap,” I said.

“It’s not, I promise. It’s just dessert.” I still wasn’t sure, but I closed my eyes anyway. She opened the fridge and I heard it shut.

“Okay, now open them.” I did and saw her holding a glass dish with something that definitely involved strawberries in it.

“I still don’t know,” I said, leaning down and looking through the clear pan and still at a loss.

“Strawberry pretzel salad,” she said, putting the dish down on the counter.

“That’s not dessert! Salad can’t be dessert!” I pointed at her in accusation. “Thiswasa trap!” Vegas ran into the kitchen and started barking, so I lowered my voice. I got excited sometimes and went a little overboard with my volume and I didn’t want him to think we were upset.

“It’s dessert, it is!” Emma said back, slapping my finger out of the way.

“I will have to taste it to reach my verdict,” I said. “Slice me a piece of salad.” Emma did and slid it onto a plate. It looked like strawberries on top, some sort of cream thing in the middle and then crushed pretzels on the bottom. Pretty clever.

“There was a girl at work who made this all the time and I stole her recipe. I’ve been wanting to make it for ages, but I didn’t know what to do with the rest since I was living alone.”

“You’re not living alone anymore,” I pointed out, scooping some of the “salad” up with my fork.

“Oh, shit this is good. This is really good.” Everything she made was, but this was definitely going to become a favorite that she would have to make again.

“I thought you’d like it, and we had like a million strawberries kicking around in the freezer, so here we are.” She made a plate for herself and we stood at the counter together eating. I kept catching her staring and it made me blush a few times. She still wanted to kiss me and I still wanted to let her.

I finished my plate and, instead of getting another slice, I took her not-finished plate from her and set it down.

“Hey, I wasn’t done!”

“I have something else for you to do,” I said, stroking her face to make my intentions clear.

“We shouldn’t. Not until you figure things out,” she said, her breath drenched in sweetness from the strawberries and cream.

“I can figure things outandkiss you, Em. Let’s do both.” I was a huge fan of doing a lot of things at once, especially if one of those things was kissing Emma.

“Just a little kiss,” I pleaded. “Just a tiny one. The littlest kiss. So small. Microscopic. You won’t even know it’s a kiss.” Emma laughed a little.

“You’re really selling this kiss thing hard.”

“Is it working?”

She exhaled and smiled.

“Yes,” she said before planting her lips on mine. I was supposed to be doing that, but whatever. I melted into her, pressing our bodies together and backing her up until she was against the wall.

“We’re not doing this again,” Emma said in a rush as she broke the kiss for a moment.

“Right, yeah, this is just kissing.” I nodded in agreement.

“Absolutely. Just kissing.”

“Uh huh,” I said, and then we were kissing again.

A few hours later, we were in Emma’s bed again and we were both completely naked and we’d fucked again. Oops?

“We kind of failed at that, didn’t we?” she said, looking at me. Both of us were still covered in sweat from the sex and I really needed a shower.

“Failed at what?” I still had sex brain and wasn’t thinking as quickly as I usually did.

“Just kissing.”