I made Sam sing one more song with me, Dolly’s “Jolene,” which made them laugh even harder than when I had suggested “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” But like the first time, they were a good sport about it, giving it their all, grinning at me over the microphone. Which, by “Jolene,” was almost too much for me. No, their scratchy, off-tune voice wasn’t made for Dolly—or anything with a melody, maybe—but as I suspected, as they had proven with every other song I ever saw them open their mouth to sing, they knew every single word. Were on beat, line for line. Barely had to glance at the screen for the lyrics. And I had never wanted to fuck anyone harder. When we handed Kiki back our mics, it took everything in me not to grab their hand and stick all of those knobby knuckles into my mouth.

I settled for landing heavily into my chair as we sat back down for a breather, egregiously pressing my thigh into theirs. Their hand reached up and scraped across the back of my neck, brief but burning, making every nerve on my scalp tingle.

“God, you’re beautiful,” they said, and I wanted to take them then and there. Instead I curled my fingernails into the palm of my hands, dug them in until the pain reminded me that this was temporary, that Moonie’s Me was just that. That the more carried away I got, the more I was letting Sam fall for a Lily that wasn’t fully real.

It was well past midnight by then, and soon Jonny and Pablo took off, hand in hand. I felt tired but happy, a little loopy, my throat sore from hours of singing. Like always after a night at Moonie’s, my voice would be a dry husk for the next twenty-four hours.

It felt like a blink, but soon Kiki was announcing last call, the bar slowly but surely emptying out. I was leaning against Sam, my head on their shoulder, their hand making absentminded circles on my knee. It had just sort of seemed to happen, our bodies drifting closer and closer together throughout the night. My eyes drifted closed, the lights of the dance floor hazy flashes of warmth against my eyelids, and it felt remarkably natural, falling asleep against Sam. The only other people left at our table were Preeti and Bri, and I was sure they were making faces at us, like they’d probably been making faces all night. They were going to give me hell on Monday morning at the clinic.