We chose a random black ring set, and one more because they never said we had a limit. All we had to do was touch the item we wanted on the screen, and it would arrive tonight.

Lorcan threw the electronic catalog back in the pink box, and we went back to lounging in the sun. Lorcan read as I sunbathed, enjoying the harmful rays of radiation. As I lay on my back and fanned myself with the card from the pink box, I remembered the other half of the congratulations.

“Oh yeah, what are we gonna do for our romantic night, dear?”

“We can have a candlelight dinner under the stars.”

“I like the sound of that, plus we have a hot tub. We haven’t tried it out yet.”

“I forgot about the hot tub.”

“I’m surprised this house is filled to the brim with things. Just yesterday, I found out we have a massage chair in the library.”

“We do?”

“Yeah, the big brown leather one in the corner by the stairs that goes to the second level.”

“Huh, gotta try it out then.”

“It got fifteen different levels, but importantly, what should we have for dinner?”

“I was thinking about this recipe I saw while browsing the internet.”

“What is it?”

“Not telling you it’s going to be a secret,” Lorcan said with a sly smile on his face.

Fine, then you handle dinner and drinks. I will handle dessert.”

“I can’t wait to see what you make then,” Lorcan said with a cheeky grin on his lips.

“Whatever.”

He held out his hand. I took it and he helped me up. I smiled while we headed to the kitchen. Lorcan put the recipe on the TV screen. I sat down and scrolled through dessert recipes on the graphic tablet. Then I saw a cake recipe called “Better than Sex.” I couldn’t help myself, so I chose that as the dessert. All it was a chocolate box cake, sweetened condensed milk, caramel sauce, Cool Whip, and four toffee bars. I ordered the ingredients, and in two minutes everything arrived in the fridge, but the box cake mix. After I put my things away, I watched Lorcan cook. He seemed very skilled with a knife. He moved very quickly. With every movement, he made the muscles in his back flex with his broad shoulders.

Shameless thoughts filled my head as I watched him move around while cooking. He reminded me of the predator in my dreams, and the hallucinations I’ve been having lately. They almost had the same aura. But Lorcan’s aura was a little more subdued compared to the predator in my dreams. I don’t know if Lorcan has been suppressing himself. He had this aura of a sweet guy, but knowing what he had done, I knew that was just one side of him. He felt like silence, which to me was more dangerous than anything. I don’t know what that means, it just weirdly fits him.

I had this undying urge to bite him, then I came back from my thoughts. I got up and went to the bathroom. I ran cold water in the sink before putting my head in the water. I stayed like that for three minutes before coming back up. I pushed my hair away from my face and stared at myself in the mirror. The light color that appeared on my skin disappeared, and I felt better. But the urge to bite him was still there, so I bit my hand. I bite until I draw blood; I felt a wonderful release after biting myself. I left teeth indents on my hand, so I grabbed a random healing cream from the mirror cabinet. I rubbed it over the marks, and it slowly healed, leaving no trace of my teeth.

I went back to the kitchen to see Lorcan standing over a pot stirring something. The house was filled with the smell of red wine and garlic. It smelled wonderful I got hungry just from the smell.

“It smells good in here, Lorcan.”

“I know, come here and try this.”

I walked over as Lorcan held a spoon filled with something. He blew on it before it went into my mouth. The taste of thyme, garlic, and tomato spread throughout my mouth. I usually hated tomatoes, but this didn’t taste too much like tomatoes.

“What is this, Lorcan? It’s so good.”

“It is tomato mushroom ragu, and on this side a creamy parmesan polenta. It’s good, and I haven’t added the mushrooms and kale yet.” He said as he pointed to the side of him.

“Really, I can’t wait to eat, I usually hate tomatoes, but I can eat this.”

“That’s good then, but shouldn’t you start making your dessert now?”

“Yes, thank you for reminding me.”

I grabbed a glass bowl and then grabbed the ingredients. The first thing to do was make the box cake, which was the easiest thing to do, and to spice it up a little, I added a half cup of whiskey. I then poured the mixture into a rectangle pan, I put it in the oven at 350 degrees. The cake didn’t take long to bake. I got it out, letting it set for two minutes. Then, with the back of the spoon, poked holes in the cake to let the sweetened condensed milk soak into the cake. I then spread the caramel onto the cake afterward I let it sit in the fridge until ready to serve. I only had to top it off with whipped cream and toffee crumbles.

Lorcan went and got ready while I was baking, so when I walked into the bedroom to change to get ready for our date. He was struggling with his hair, with a smile on my face I went over and helped him.

“Don’t put any styling cream in your hair unless you’re washing it tonight.”

“You sure?”

“Of course, I like your fluffy, curly hair. It lets you look a little innocent even though you’re not.” I smiled, ruffled his hair, then went to choose my outfit.

I had many extravagant outfits I made, but today I wanted something simple. I to the back of the closet and found a simple T-shirt dress. At first, it was just a white and black dress shirt. It was oversized on me. So I took my measurements, pulled it in at the waist, and sewed some straps onto it. Then let it hang off my shoulders with the left side a little more down. The fabric was like a thick men’s dress shirt, so it was stiff, which made it easier to cut and sew. I chose some plain black heels out of habit, I then looked down at the long faint scars on my legs from falling in heels and being dragged in them. I stared at my legs through the mirror, looking at the faint scars that covered them. I know they were barely there, but I could see them like they were fresh. Unknowingly, my grip on the heels tightened, and I then looked at the heels in my hands with hatred.

I stared at the long sharp heel, then remembered the wonderful lesson I learned: they make wonderful weapons. As I stared at them, the sound of the man’s screams came back to me, while my hands were covered in his blood. I could smell the thick irony smell in the air, slowly my face twisted into a smile. I came out of my dark thoughts, with a laugh, as I went to put my dress on. With my dress on, I did a twirl in the mirror and felt wonderful. I completely forgot the breakdown I almost had, and how I was reminiscing about stabbing someone.

I walked out of the bedroom to see Lorcan platting the food and carrying it to the table he had set up outside. He looked rather dashing. He just had on a casual navy suit with a white button-down with his signature two buttons undone.

“While hello handsome, you come here often?” I gave him a check smile.

“Haha, very funny Veda sit down.” He pulled the chair out for me, and I sat down with a hand on my chest acting surprised he was being a gentleman. The food looked beyond delicious.

“This is tomato, and mushroom ragu with a creamy parmesan polenta.”

“Seems like I chose the right husband.”

“Just eat Veda,” Lorcan said like he wasn’t happy with the compliment, but the corner of his mouth was raised just a tad.

I smiled and dug in. The polenta was creamy, and the tomato ragu balanced out the creamy polenta. The tomatoes were delicious this way. I hated tomatoes, they just tasted like nasty water, and the texture felt too slimy. The ragu was filled with flavor, the mushrooms, kale, and small chunks of sausages mixed so well. With a mixture of Italian-like seasoning. Everything blended together nicely, nothing was overpowering anything.

“This is really good, and it fits my taste buds.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“I like simple things. I was always forced to eat so much rich-tasting food. It was good the first two times, but eating that for every meal, it felt like death.”

“I understand, when I went to office dinners, they always chose the most extravagant restaurants. Just because you pay an arm and a leg for it doesn’t mean it’s good.”

I smiled happily. Knowing we had more things in common than I thought.

“Well cheers, to the last night of freedom,” I said, holding up my glass.

“Cheers.” Lorcan hit my glass, and we both took a sip of wine.

“What do you think we’re going to do tomorrow?”Lorcan asked.

“Who knows, but one thing for sure they’re going to record everything from the time we wake up.”

“Don’t remind me, Veda.”

“I have been thinking about it all day. What little game they’re going to make us play.”

“They won’t kill us for sure, but might gravely injure us.”

“I don’t know, I think they’re going to start it off with a bang.”

“They might, since it’s a new program,” Lorcan said. I sighed, feeling tired already.

I looked at Lorcan’s plate to see it was clean and it seemed like the perfect time to want dessert.

“Want dessert?”

“You actually made something?” Lorcan asked with a questioning tone.

“Of course, what did you expect?”

“You to warp yourself in a ribbon, and say you’re the dessert.” He said deadpan.

I laughed, brought out the royal blue ribbon, and tied it around my neck.

“I was going to do that, but that was too cliche. But since you thought about it I wouldn’t mind, Love.”

I leaned onto the table with a smile on my face, with my head resting on my propped-up hands. He laughed at me before calming down. It surprised me he was advancing. It has mostly been me this whole week flirting, but a beautiful idea popped into my head.

As he reached for the ribbon, to undo it. I got closer, and right as he took off the ribbon around my neck I stood up. And walked past him patting him on his shoulder.

“Sorry, I actually made something, Love.”

“Haha, really?”

“What I told you, I’m a really patient boy.”

I glide into the kitchen, open the fridge, and got the cake out. I put whipped cream on top, then crumbled up the toffee bars, and sprinkled it all over the cake. I cut one slice and put the rest in the fridge again. I walked back and placed the cake in front of Lorcan. I then handed him a fork to eat with.