“And up next at the mic, we have Preeti and Bri!”

Preeti squealed and raised her hands in the air.

“Dammit, Preeti, what did you put my name on?” Bri slammed down the last of her beer as she stood. “I am not nearly drunk enough for this shit yet.”

“You’ll like it. Come on.” Preeti dragged her by the arm over to Kiki.

I was close enough—Lily and her friends’ table was the one closest to the dance floor—to hear Bri mutter “motherfucker” when the song came up on the screen. But she lifted the mic to her mouth to say, “You better fucking let me do the Monica part.”

Preeti only had time to roll her eyes, as if this was clearly already established, and then they were launching into “The Boy is Mine.”

Lily was leaning forward to support her friends, elbows on the table, but her shoulders immediately began to bounce to the beat. Her hair, dyed platinum blonde, was up in two tight knots on either side of her head. Up close, I could see how neat the part was, her dark roots exposed at the perfectly symmetrical line. I pictured her getting ready for tonight in whatever her apartment—house?—looked like, sitting in front of a mirror, running a comb expertly down her scalp. It made a shiver run all the way down to my toes.

I took another sip of gin & tonic.

And even though the night still felt early, apparently two Rainiers and a G&T were enough to loosen me up. Because when Lily looked over her shoulder at me, her chair dancing having gotten even more pronounced as the song progressed, I somehow found it in me to lip sync at her, with a bit of flair, “I know it’s killing you inside,” and she smiled.

Not a secret smile like before. A thrilled, mouth cracked wide open, I approve smile.

Against all odds, it was possible this night out at Moonie’s wasn’t going to be a total failure after all.

3

Lily & Sam

Shortly after Bri and Preeti sat back down, and Jonny’s new boyfriend showed up—his name was Pablo and he kissed Jonny on the cheek when he walked in—I spotted that the table next to us finally seemed to have abandoned The Binder. And before they could protest, I darted over and grabbed it.

Moonie’s karaoke system had nearly every song you could think of, but even though we’d been doing this for years, I still liked a good perusal through The Binder for inspiration. They also had a database of songs you could search through on this ancient laptop in the corner, but it was like, dude you got a Dell old. The Binder was the best.