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“Great,” Klaus said. “I hear Paradiso is a good one. Or Escape?”
“Escape sounds pretty good to me,” I muttered, but Annalie was shaking her head.
“Escape is always too crowded,” she said. “I read that on Yelp.”
“YouYelpeda nightclub?” I asked, suppressing a smile.
“You don’t?”
I laughed while Klaus clapped his hands together.
“Paradiso it is.”
If Paradiso was less crowded than Escape, no one put it on Yelp. The club was packed with wall-to-wall bodies dancing under strobe lights and pounding music.
“Shots!” Jason said as soon as we entered the madness. “Ladies, shots?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
Annalie gave me a look. “We have a performance tomorrow.”
“I know, but I’m not a soloist tomorrow and I need this. I need to just stopthinkingso much.”
She studied me for a moment more, then nodded. “Very well. But I’ll be watching you.”
I smiled gratefully. “That is why I love you.”
She rolled her eyes and hmphed which only made me love her more, but I kept it to myself.
Jason, being Jason, ordered four shots of Jägermeister.
“Ugh, this tastes as if someone mixed gasoline and cough syrup,” Klaus said, choking around a laugh.
I agreed, but the liquor burned warmly in my stomach. After a few seconds, it started to take effect.
“It’s perfect,” I said and slammed down my empty shot glass. “One more and then let’s dance.”
The rest of the evening was sort of a blur after that. I lost myself in the crowd, dancing with everyone and no one in particular, only stopping when Annalie dragged me to the bar for a glass of water. Jason slipped me another shot with a wink.
“My hero,” I said and clinked my glass to his.
Annalie narrowed her eyes. “Last one.”
I was going to make a crack about her being my jailer, but I appreciated her too much. And besides, I was definitely done. That last shot seemed to go to the center of the earth, tipping it on its axis. The floor canted under my feet, but I went back into the crowd, determined to dance, sweat, cry, or puke out my fears about Noah. I scanned the faces in the strobing lights, always with that same impossible hope that he would be among them. Of course, he wasn’t.
“He’s not here,” I said under the music where no one could hear me. Then louder. “He’s nothere.”
“I am here,” said a friendly voice in my ear. A tall man, sweet face with large brown eyes, smiled down at me. “Want to dance?”
I was already dancing like a maniac, but the sudden recklessness took over.
“I sure do,” I said, and so me and the tall stranger danced.
The man bent to put his mouth near my ear. “What is your name?”
“Charlotte,” I said.
“I’m Henry,” he said.
