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He twirls us around to the song. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I was in a tailspin about my future, and suddenly Dean’s challenging people to a dance-off, which is really just a bunch of us dancing and having fun and me spinning around in a way that makes it impossible for me to fret about med school, impossible for me not to have fun.
“You’re trying to distract me,” I state, my tone anything but accusing.
“Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He grabs my hand and throws me away from him only to spin me back, catching me so my back is pressed right against his front, my arms wrapped across my body as our hips sway together to the music, which I just realized isn’t even Maluma anymore. “But is it working?” he breathes in my ear, and I shiver at his closeness, wishing he would hold me here forever, then immediately hope he didn’t notice because that’s so embarrassing.
“Maybe,” I whisper.
He moves us so I’m facing him again, but it must be the adrenaline or the moment or the realization of what he did for me, because this timeI’mthe one pulling him closer to me. The space between us disappears until I’m plastered against him, my hands linked around his neck. His hands slide around my back and hold me to him, and it takes everything in me not to shiver again, not to acknowledge how good he feels against me, not to show him how much his touch affects me, how muchheaffects me.
My breath hitches when my eyes connect with his, and like the last time I was this close to him, I’m struck by all the different shades of blue in his eyes, by the tiny ring of hazel surrounding each pupil.
Loud cheers go off around us and break me out of my little Dean bubble. I had completely forgotten we were in a dance-off. It was just me and Dean having fun and not caring about everyone else around us. But to be fair, it wasn’t like dance-offs in the movies. No one’s that serious when we’re all just having fun. Either way, I’m glad I did it, and I’m even happier that it was with Dean.
Naomi’s arms come around me, pulling me away from Dean.
“Girl, that washot!” she exclaims, thankfully out of Dean’s earshot.
As she dances me to the edge of the makeshift dance floor, I catch Dean’s eye. He winks at me from where he’s chatting with Naomi’s friends until I lose sight of him in the crowd. Naomi stops at a table.
“You keep telling me you’re not confident, but I saw you pulling the moves on that dance floor.” She picks up a marker from the table. “Hell,Iwas getting turned on near the end there, so I can only imagine how that poor boy feels.”
My face heats as she puts her hands on my shoulders and spins me around so my back is to her. I hear her uncap the marker and draw on my shirt.
“You haven’t done any of these yet?”
“I . . . um . . . I did the shot with no hands,” I tell her, still reeling from what she said about Dean and me dancing. Did he like it as much as I did?
She checks something else off on my shirt, then turns me to face her. “You planning on laying one on Dean to cross off the kissing task?”
I almost choke. “What? No!”
She doesn’t laugh at me, but I can tell she wants to. Instead, she hands me the marker and turns around, holding her braids out of the way. “You should. I doubt Deany-boy over there would mind. Check offdance-offfor me.”
The only tasks she has left now arebody shotanddo a dare.
“Who did you kiss?” I ask as I recap the marker.
“Oh, just one of the guys,” she says like it’s not a big deal.
“Now come on, let’s go dance!”
I follow her back onto the dance floor and meet her friends.
She introduces me to them, but the music is so loud I can’t even make out their names, except for Thomas. It doesn’t matter though, because Naomi grabs my hand right after introductions and pulls me to dance. I’m sweaty and laughing in no time, and when I catch Dean’s eye, he gestures with his hand like he’s holding an imaginary drink and lifts an eyebrow in question.
He’s asking me if I want a drink, and my stomach squeezes at his thoughtfulness. I nod and smile in thanks before Naomi spins me around and I lose Dean to the crowd.
“He totally wants you.” Naomi grins as Thomas and another guy come over.
“Hey, Naomi, want to cross the last two things off your task list?” Thomas asks, balancing shots on a paper plate like a makeshift tray.
Challenge sparks in her eyes. “You know it.”
He holds out a shot glass to her. “I dare you to do a body shot off Lori.”
Naomi laughs triumphantly, like the dare is too easy, while I stare at him like he’s lost his mind.
