“I don’t know that I have any must-haves.”

He opened the door. “Then we better find you some.”

“Get me Corn Nuts and Twix,” Bec said loudly, not seeming to realize we could hear her just fine. “And get Nate licorice.”

Hayden pulled out one of her earbuds. “I’m not your personal shopper and I thought Nate wasn’t coming.”

His comment produced a long-suffering sigh from her. “He just texted me. He’s coming now.”

I thought she’d get out of the car and follow us in but she didn’t.

“Is she coming inside?” I asked.

“No, she knows I’ll feel guilty and get them for her.”

I laughed. “She has you conditioned, huh?”

“She really does.” He opened the door for me and it announced our arrival into the store with a beep.

“So Nate’s coming?”

“Is that okay?”

“Of course. You’re the driver. I have four tickets anyway so it works out.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot we had to have tickets for this thing. I’m glad you have enough.” He led me to the candy aisle. “Okay, so something sweet is a must.” He grabbed a bag of M&M’s. “But it has to be offset by something salty.” He picked up a bag of pretzels. “And then, of course, I need some caffeine.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out a Mountain Dew. “And that’s the perfect road trip combination.”

“You go on a lot of road trips?”

“We travel a lot. One summer my mom forced us to take a three-week trip in an RV around the United States. It was sheer torture.”

“How so?”

“Did you not hear me? I said three weeks. In an RV.”

“It sounds fun to me.”

“Says the girl who has never spent three weeks in an RV. It’s like living right on top of people. I felt like I was this close to Bec at all times.” He took two steps closer to me, pressing his chest against my shoulder. I got a whiff of his body spray and nearly closed my eyes because it smelled so good.

“That doesn’t seem so bad to me,” I said, looking up at him.

He offered me a smile. “Well, it was.” Then he put one arm around my back and grabbed a bag of Cheetos off the rack behind me. He held it between us. “These should be your salty. They’re good.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Not a Cheetos fan.”

He finally took a step back, allowing me to breathe again. “Okay, what treat would inspire you to write a letter to its maker?”

I looked at all the colorful packaging filling the aisle in front of me. Either I hadn’t tried enough junk food in my life or I wasn’t easily inspired because nothing looked good.

“Nothing?” he asked. “Tough critic. Let’s do a visualization exercise. We do this in drama sometimes.”

I did visualizations before I gave speeches at school. I’d imagine exactly what I wanted to say and how I was going to say it. I wasn’t going to do that in the snack food aisle at 7-Eleven. “It’s okay, I’ll just get . . .” I reached forward and grabbed the first thing my hand touched.

Hayden raised his brows. “Dried bananas?”

“Yep.”

“Fine, what’s your sweet item, then?”

“I’m fine with the one item. Besides, it’s both sweet and salty.”

“You need two.”

“Nate gets one,” I said, pointing to the licorice Hayden had already grabbed.

“I’m not in charge of Nate.”

I raised one eyebrow. “But you’re in charge of me?”

“Today I am and I don’t think you’re grasping the importance of the road trip snack. Close your eyes.”

A couple of kids had just entered the aisle with us, laughing and searching each shelf for something specific.

“Don’t worry about them. Close your eyes.”

I sighed but closed my eyes.

“Imagine we’re driving along and we make a wrong turn and get lost in a dense forest.”

“Is there a forest on the way to UCLA?”

“Shhh . . .” He pushed a finger to my lips and I couldn’t help but laugh. “We’re visualizing, Gia, visualizing.”

“Right. Forest,” I said sloppily against his finger.

He moved his hand to my shoulder and I wasn’t sure if he leaned closer, but his voice seemed both louder and quieter at the same time. “We run out of gas in our attempt to find our way out and get trapped in the forest for three days straight. I, being fearless and strong, decide to leave the car and search out help.”

“This sounds like the beginning of every horror movie.”

“Another half a day passes and you’re famished. You reach for the 7-Eleven bag and pull out . . .”

“If it’s been three days, I’ve probably eaten all my snacks by now.”

I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “There’s one thing left.”

“Looks like it’s your bag of M&M’s. You must’ve been too busy being fearless and strong to remember to take it with you. I’m going to eat those.”

He snatched the bag of dried bananas from my hand and I opened my eyes.

“Dried bananas and an extra bag of M&M’s it is,” he said. “You will not be stealing mine.”

“Your game was fun,” I called after him as he marched to the register in a pretend huff.