They first slept together a mere one week after Abnormal Psychology was officially over, at a house party his roommates threw. She attended it even though she didn’t know anybody else there, but then it turned out that all his friends were just so goddamn sweet and smart, a succession of witty science-filled conversations, and she had been wondering where these kinds of people were her entire time in New York; everything just felt perfectly natural as they played drinking games and Carmen helped Josh make cocktails in the kitchen and then the party dwindled and Josh and she each met the dark form of the other in the corridor and an arm met another arm and a hand a hand and lips, lips. The first time that night she had been at her normal level of nervousness, but then the second, no, third time in the morning it had gone from the usual—am I going to or not, is it now, no not yet he knows I’m not going to god what is he thinking why can’t I—to a revelation, that with humor and no pressure, orgasms followed. And the more she had with Josh the easier they became—Carmen couldn’t help but think of it like a railroad town being wired up for electricity, everything becoming more and more connected, more and more lights flickering on in surges—oh such surges!