A girl in a black bra, see-through top, and pink skirt blocked my way and grabbed my face. She had dreamy dark eyes that were high on something. “Buy me a drink?” she shouted.

“Sorry.”

“Hey, come on. One martini.”

“I can’t.”

I tried to squeeze around her, but she pressed her body hard against me and stuck out her tongue between her teeth. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

I made up an excuse. “I’m with someone.”

“Yeah, so? She can join the party, too. I saw her. She’s hot.”

It took a second for my distracted mind to catch up to what she’d said. Then I took hold of her shoulders with both hands. “You saw me tonight? You saw a woman with me?”

“Sure. Blond, classy.”

“Where?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Where did you see her? Where in the club? Show me!”

She wriggled in my grasp. “Let go of me, you freak!”

“Tell me! Where did you see the woman I was with?”

“Get off!”

She twisted away from me and shoved a middle finger in my face. With an irritated toss of her hair, she swayed on high heels toward the bar. I saw others watching me curiously. Two men who were probably bouncers started my way. I melted into the crowd, losing myself among the seething bodies. I couldn’t afford to be tossed out, not when I knew Karly was here.

The relentless pulse of the music thudded in my brain. The swirling lights dizzied me. I pushed through the club, bouncing off people like a bumper car. No one knew what was happening; no one understood my panic. They laughed. They screamed. Drunk girls did shots and kissed each other on the lips. All I could see around me was a kaleidoscope of skin and sweat, in which faces appeared and disappeared in a fraction of a second.

Blink on. A face. Blink off. The face was gone.

Hundreds of them pressed in around me, constantly moving, constantly changing places. I tried to isolate them in my head one at a time. Men. Women. All strangers.

Then I saw him.

Blink, blink, blink, went the multicolored lights.

His face flashed on and off under the strobe, but it was him. My double, my alter ego, my doppelgänger. He balanced a drink in one hand and danced with a slow, sinuous energy, as if riding some kind of adrenaline high. His head undulated like a snake while the beat taunted me: find her, find her, find her. But Karly wasn’t with him. I looked among the nearby faces and didn’t see her. I tried to shove my way toward him, so I could wrap my hands around his throat, but the dancers made an unbreakable chain. I was trapped where I was. The beat grew louder, like a boxer punching me in the chest.

Find her!