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“Barely,” Valeria answers. “Hence the desperate cry for help.”

I look at Valeria, about to say, Your hair looks great, when Romy climbs over me to get to Valeria’s other side. “Luckily, I’m the gayest and most prepared bitch in this room.”

So someone’s getting a little tipsy already. Noted.

But to Romy’s credit, she does pull out a bottle of mousse. She winks at me. I don’t know why.

“You have mousse in your purse?” Wyatt asks.

“Judging by your flat hair, you don’t,” Romy replies.

I chuckle and look back at the songs as Romy does her quick hair fix. I can’t help but notice she’s getting more intimate with my date than I am, and she’s not even flirting. Cool.

I turn to Wyatt. “Wanna do a song while they do salon?”

Wyatt grins. “Billy Joel?”

Inside joke between us. Another nice memory from our time together.

“If you two do ‘Uptown Girl’ I’ll murder you both and pin it on Valeria,” Romy says.

“Rude,” Valeria retorts. “I’ve known you for like a week.”

“Think of it as an opportunity. You could be Hollywood famous, or you could be that-bitch-might’ve-murdered-someone-but-got-away-with-it Hollywood famous.”

Valeria takes the Romy Humor™ in stride. “True.”

I’m still not sure what Romy’s doing.

But Wyatt and I pick our song. I’m not too embarrassed to sing. When we’re through with it, Valeria’s right back next to me, and Romy returns to her spot on my other side.

“Do you wanna see the book?” I ask Valeria. “I was thinking some Britney.”

She was playing it on the car ride to Sunken City. “Yeah, sure.”

I scoot in close enough for our thighs to touch, dropping the book over our knees. Valeria doesn’t react, just starts flipping.

Which I think is good. She didn’t flinch or pull away or anything.

Like this position has become natural.

“I feel like I know ‘Circus’ better than ‘Baby One More Time.’ ”

Valeria smiles. “Yeah, because you didn’t come of age in the peak Britney era.”

I give her a look. “You didn’t either. Since when does anyone exaggerate how old they are?”

“Fine. The best years of my life were during the peak Britney era. We peaked together. You, on the other hand, were in kindergarten, so it better not have been the best years of your life.”

“Were we in elementary school at the same time?”

“One year, probably.”

I don’t know why that’s reassuring.

“How about ‘Gimme More’?” I ask, hovering my hand over the song on the right edge of the book before letting it rest, my pinkie just barely touching her thigh. Just enough to feel the fine hairs prickling up.

She turns to me head-on, full eye contact. Her eyes seem to glisten. Her lips, those perfect lips, pull up into a smirk. “Sounds great.”