Chapter 11

At Malone’s during Fitzy’s twenty-first, Dean begins sexting Allie under the table, vividly recalling their previous hookup and escalating the explicit messages. Allie tries to focus on Megan’s frustrations with her pretentious playwright, but Dean’s steady barrage keeps pulling Allie’s attention and arousal.

Allie withdraws to the bathroom to cool off, then returns determined to ignore him. The silent standoff lasts over an hour until she taunts him about blue balls. Dean gets up to change the music, while Allie fights her attraction, noticing his obvious arousal and her own wavering resolve.

Dean cues Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me,” a blatant signal. In response, Allie loads Pink’s “U + Ur Hand,” and she and Megan lead a spirited dance that draws other women. The song’s message pointedly rebuffs Dean, yet his focused stare only intensifies the charged tension between them.

After the dance, heat between them peaks again as Dean resumes texting, ending with a promise that next time she had better be naked. The flirtation remains covert from their friends, but the public setting underscores the growing risk and the deepening hold they have on each other.