Dustin had thought about whether he should text Kimmie and let her know he’d left, but ultimately decided against it. She was a smart girl who must have known what she was doing, and she had dashed all his hopes. Dustin knew he had to let his dream go now, because he was smart, too and knew when to cut his losses. The only problem he had now was how he could turn off his feelings with the flip of a switch. He wondered how long it would take to get over something that never really began. He hoped Nicholas might have the answer.

XXIV

Anna hadn’t spent much time in nightclubs because they were not her boyfriend’s scene. Sure, she had been to a few over-the-top bar mitzvahs and sweet sixteens like this one, but she normally stayed in the VIP area at such soirees where she sat and watched. She was astonished by how much fun she was having dancing with Beatrice and her friends. She liked being a part of something larger than herself, as if the thump of the music was the heartbeat of a bigger organism, and she was just one of the cells. She was getting sweaty and was certain her hair was now atrociously unkempt, but it felt so good not to care.

When Anna felt someone come up behind her and start dancing a little too close she let it go on for a few seconds before she turned and confirmed what she already knew. It was Alexia. A smile escaped before she could stop it and without a word Vronsky put his hand on her lower back and pulled her close. She let him. He smelled incredible, like the time she walked through Muir Woods on a trip to San Francisco with her parents and declared she had never smelled air so clean and piney pure. “Is this what the air is supposed to smell like?” she had asked. Her parents laughed in response. She echoed the same statement in her head now. Is this what boys are supposed to smell like? She closed her eyes and kept dancing, because it was as if she had no other choice but to do so.