"Fuck," I sighed, "just pick it up!"
Miles's phone had been ringing for five minutes straight. Its vibrations under my thigh had been making me crazy. I got off his lap, struggling with the thin blanket he had wrapped around us earlier.
"What?" He answered his phone.
"I'm not his keeper!" He said after a couple of seconds, "fine! Just stop... just stop crying."
He stood up.
"Where are you goin'?" I mouthed when he turned to look at me.
"Just gonna find Al real quick," he said.
"Okay..." My face fell.
He leaned into me and whispered, "this ain't anywhere near over, angel."
He left before I could reply. Not that I could actually form coherent words at that moment. I followed him with my eyes until he disappeared into the crowd.
Five minutes later, my knees were still weak. I had never been so affected by a kiss.
Miles made me feel the way I did when I found one of my forgotten favorite childhood films, as if in watching him, in being with him I was finding myself again, and that was dangerously addictive.
Once I could get up, I went to the bathroom to redo my makeup and ran into Kiara.
"Whatever happened to your hair!" She chuckled. She smelled like weed. How she could always find this side of the party was still a mystery to me.
"Something I can't stop thinking about."
"Here!" She pulled a half-smocked joint out of thin air. I took it.
Through the colored-glass window we were standing by, the crowd outside looked lively and drunk. The dancefloor was particularly interesting. I thought I spotted a pair looking a lot like Dahlia and Alex but the silly way they moved to the beat and the weed kicking in made me doubt their identities. Everyone else seemed equally carefree while dancing and I thought 'I need that.'
"Wanna dance?" I asked Kiara and let out the smock.
"Always," she replied.
Dancing was supposed to keep my mind off Miles and the earth-shattering kiss we have had. It was working but then Kiara pulled me closer and shouted in my ear, "Miles is watching!"
Instinctively I turned my head to look but she kept me from that by unexpectedly swaying closer to the center of the dancefloor, dragging me with her.
"Do you wanna put on a show for him?"
"Yes," I nodded excitedly. My intoxicated brain barely registered what Kiara meant but I felt like saying yes even if she had asked if I wanted to rob a bank.
"Cha-Cha!" I could see the light bulb illuminating above her head when she said the word.
It was so perfect for the situation, not only because it was a descendent of Rumba, the dance of love, but also because my dress and Kiara's casual suit were made for the quick seductive moves of Cha-Cha.
It took all my strength not to look back at where Kiara had seen Miles when we went back to our previous spot but then I really got into dancing with her and all I could think of was how lucky Lenny was for being her girlfriend. Kiara was beautiful, confident, and always there when one needed her. But the most charming thing about her was the glimpsing treasure hidden under her casually put-together outfits and short replies. The mystery had always been intriguing to me. I could stand this close to her, fold and unfold my body around hers, see her every day for six years, be the first one to hear the songs she composed, and still, she was a riddle to me. Whenever I tried to get closer to her, there seemed to be a glass wall separating us, and I could feel all these thoughts bleeding into our steps as she determinedly spun me around and away every time I got close enough to feel the fabric of her pale blue band t-shirt on my barely covered chest. I almost gave up in the middle of the second song but in an unexpected moment, she got distracted by something behind me. Something that got her eyes narrowed and her smile widened and when I took her hands and pulled her to me she just threw her head back and let me press my chest to hers but before I could register my triumph, a hand locked around my upper arm and harshly pulled me away.
