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his former dormmate. "How are you? How is everything at Yale?" Thank God Dominic knew him. If I had been forced to speak first,
I might have thrown up on Dash's extremely buffed shoes. As the two of them briefly caught up, I stared at the underside of Dash's
chiseled chin, a thousand questions flooding my mind. Why haven't you called? What the hell happened that night? Why did you get
back together with Noelle ? When ? And why do you have to be So. Effing. Hot?
Not that I could have said any of those things with Dominic there and Noelle looking on. Not that I could have said any of those
things without dying of mortification even if Dash and I had been alone. "Reed," Dash said finally, turning toward me. I looked up at
him. My many queries must have been blatantly readable in my eyes, because I stopped him cold. "I..." His jaw worked. "You look... I
mean, it's been a while." "Not that long," I heard myself say. A pang of something crossed his fa
ce. Regret? Annoyance? It was im-
possible to tell. And then Noelle swooped in. Her coat had been removed, but she wore the light, open-weave cardigan over her dress,
camouflaging her butt crack, apparently, until she could get Dash alone. "Hundreds of restaurants in Manhattan and here you are!" she
said gaily, taking Dash's hand. "What are the chances?" "I'm glad you decided on this one," Dominic said politely. "You're in for a
wonderful meal." "Well. Let's get to it then," Noelle said. "You two have fun!" She practically dragged Dash away, but not before he
was able to say one last thing over his shoulder. "See you guys at the fund-raiser." And that was that.
Noelle and Dash joined his parents at their table in the opposite corner. Mercifully, the two of them sat with their backs to us or I
would have never made it through the meal. Still, I couldn't help glancing over every now and then and noticing how comfortable
Noelle looked with his parents. Touching his dad's arm, making jokes with his mom. As if she was already part of the family. Seeing
Noelle and Dash together, I couldn't help but imagine what the rest of my night would be like. Best-case scenario? I returned to the
suite and Noelle came back alone to gush about her dinner with the McCaffertys. Worst-case scenario? Tomorrow at brunch I'd hear
about the hours Noelle and Dash had spent in their suite, sharing their mutual admiration for the female backside. Ew. "You know
what, Dominic? I'm in," I said. His eyebrows shot up. "For what?" "The clubs," I said, reaching for my wine. "I'd love to check out
your usual places."
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Dominic danced with a champagne bottle gripped in one hand and the other hand locked around my waist. From the moment we
stepped through the doors of Platinum--a place where nothing related to the name aside from the fact that everyone there was con-
stantly whipping out their platinum credit cards to pay for insanely overpriced bottles of alcohol--he had not been without a bottle.
Had he been working on the same one all night, or was this his second? It couldn't be his third. No one could consume that much with-
out regurging. Although from the way his brown eyes swam in their sockets, I wouldn't have been totally shocked if that was the case.
"Having fun?" he asked, his face looming ever so close to mine. Even with that proximity, it was difficult to hear him over the
deafening music. "Absolutely!" The DJ was amazing, after all. And the dancing was a release, as long as Dominic wasn't breathing in
