I couldn’t either. But something about the way he’d said that, out loud, rattled me a little. I stared at the dance floor lights above us, blinking up at them like it would shake some sense into my brain. Then his hips moved against mine, a one-degree turn, and I was kissing him again. I couldn’t stop.

“Hey now,” Jules said from behind me. “Having fun?”

I startled alert and turned back, arms still laced around Oscar’s neck.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” She pulled my shirt so I would follow.

I winced at Oscar as I pulled away. He seemed too dazed to take it in.

The bathroom was packed with girls. Jules leaned against a stall door, fixing her hair in the square inch of mirror her reflection could squeeze into.

“So,” she said. “You work fast.”

“I did not expect that to happen.”

Jules arched her eyebrows, not buying it. Of course I’d expected this. From the moment I saw him standing in my living room playing my piano, some part of me was waiting for it—and the other part was still shocked that he would want to. I wasn’t that girl. I was . . .

“So is this a controlling-the-situation type deal?” Jules asked, sliding into a vacant stall and shutting the door.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s this genius, taking all your dad’s attention, you know, all the shit you told me the other day, so you’re going to get the upper hand by seducing him. That old song and dance.”

I stumbled into the dryer. “No! That . . . that’s, no. What—do you mean, like, I’m sabotaging him?”

“Ooh, I like that word.” She flushed the toilet and came out, squeezing past the line to wash her hands. “If not that, then what?”

“I . . . I have no idea.” I like him, he’s everything I’m not and I should resent the very fact of him, but I like him so much. “I have no idea why I’m doing this.” He’s brilliant and hot and vivid and funny and . . . “It’s stupid and reckless and not me at all. I just can’t seem to help myself.”

The strangers at the sinks turned to look at me. Something like respect bloomed in Jules’s expression.

“Makes sense,” she said. “Sounds like me and Ty. Lord knows why I even return his calls. ‘I can’t seem to help myself.’ I like it.”

Tyler was waiting outside the door. Apparently he couldn’t help himself either. She beamed at him, slinking under his outstretched arm, then turned to wink at me.

“Have fun, use protection.”

My cheeks prickled. I glanced at my shirt, tugging the neckline up. It was too crowded. Too many older guys staring at me. Too loud, too sticky, too chaotic.