The chaos of the club encircled Max in blaring lights and thumping music, vying loudly for his attention, but his entire world was centered on the girl in his arms. He barely registered the room full of gyrating, thrashing strangers. Everything faded into the background.

Only Nina mattered.

The two of them rocked and swayed and writhed to the mesmerizing melody of the song. Max's heart hammered as Nina's closeness wreaked havoc on his senses. With the added height from her heels, she was now tall enough to tuck her head right into the crook of his neck. As the firm swells of her breasts continually grazed his chest, Max pulled her even closer, wanting to remove every inch of space between them.

Max's fingers wandered freely down her back, along the curve of her waist. Nina responded to his caresses right away. Her palms started gliding across his neck and shoulders and biceps, squeezing and exploring his solid maleness very deliberately. For once, she couldn't seem to keep her hands to herself, either. Max willed his muscles to relax even though all he wanted to do was to grind his hardon against her softness.

The cloying chorus of "Naughty Girl" began to play, and Nina flipped herself around seductively. Her ass now cradled his crotch as she pressed her back against his chest. They continued to move in sync with each other, not so much dancing as using the moment to toy with the physical boundaries between them that would've been completely off-limits under regular circumstances.

Nina clasped onto Max's hands and guided him over her rounded hips and flat stomach, stopping just below her boobs. He dug his fingers into her flesh, dragging his fingertips across the fabric of her skintight dress. Touching her like this was driving him insane. Out of desperation, Max burrowed his face into the side of her neck and discreetly brushed his lips against her skin. Not quite a kiss but not at all innocent. It was his attempt to ease the tension thrumming through his core. Max felt like his skin was on fire. His balls ached. His cock wept with need.

Right when Max thought he couldn't take it anymore, the song ended. A new one blared its place. Connie and Shalani reappeared on the dance floor with Shalani's boyfriend, Javier, in tow. Javiar was a tall, lanky fellow with kind eyes and a calming presence, and he looked happy to see Nina. Nina pulled away from Max to greet him with a friendly hug. Shalani and Javier started dancing together. Nina paired off with Connie. This turned Max into the fifth wheel. He stood there awkwardly, bouncing to the beat with half-hearted steps beside the two happy couples.

The spell from earlier had been broken. Max remained hot and bothered over what had just transpired between him and Nina, but there was nothing he could do about it. For the rest of the night, he noticed that Nina took care not to be left alone with him again. Wherever her friends went, she made sure to follow. Max knew they were back in the friend zone, her barriers were up again, and it left him feeling depressed as hell. He forced himself to stay upbeat, though, and smile and joke with the group as though everything was fine.

They left The Chestnut Room around midnight and proceeded to bar hop down Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, drinking, laughing, and partying until 2:00 AM. Then, Javier left to go back to his parents' house, and Max drove the girls home.

Once they got back to the apartment, Connie passed out on the couch almost instantly. Shalani and Nina showered and then went to sleep in Nina's room. Max washed up as well and fell asleep shortly after in his room.

The next morning, Max woke up to a light tapping sound on his door.

"Go away," Max mumbled as he rolled over to go back to sleep.

From the other side of the door, he heard, "It's Nina. Are you decent? Can I come in?"

Max's eyes popped open at the sound of Nina's voice. "Oh! Uh... gimme a minute!"

He scrambled to pull on a pair of gym shorts. Max usually slept naked. Technically, Nina had already seen him in the nude, but he didn't want to compromise their friendship any further, especially after what happened on the dance floor last night.

"You can come in now," he exclaimed.

The door opened slowly. Nina stepped inside. She was still in her pajamas, a large oversized tee, and she had dark circles under her eyes.

She gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry about waking you up."

"It's fine." He observed her curiously. "What's up? Is everything okay?"

Nina moved over to Max's bed and sat down beside him on the edge of the mattress. Her expression was rather strained. "I... actually wanted to talk to you about what happened... between us... in The Chestnut Room. I could barely sleep last night because I kept thinking about it."

Max's pulse picked up a little speed. "Oh, okay, sure. Um, what about it?"

Nina blushed. "First, I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For being a hypocrite."

Max blinked. "Huh?"

"Remember how I told you that I wanted us to be friends?"

He nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, apparently, I'm not very disciplined." Nina sighed. "I think... I might be attracted to you, Max."

His heart flipped with joy. "Is that, like, a bad thing?"

Nina stared at him with uncertainty as her front teeth sunk into her lower lip. "Honestly, I dunno."

"For the record, I think you're hot, too."

Max had intended to make a joke out of his comment, to lighten the mood, but his tone sounded too sincere, even to his ears, and it backfired on him.

Nina half-groaned and half-laughed in response. "We're supposed to be friends, though! And now we're also roommates! How's this even gonna work?"

Max felt somewhat speechless. "Uh..."

He didn't know what Nina wanted from him, but he was happy. So fucking happy. Nina liked him! The way he liked her!

Unfortunately, Nina didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. She frowned in distress. "We need to be smart about this. Should I move out? Should you move out?"

"Wait, what? Fuck, no!"

"I like you, Max, but I'm still not ready to date. I think I need more time to be single and process shit on my own."

Max reassured her in hurried tones, "Whoa, there! Who says we need to date? We could just admire each other... from a distance... until, you know, you feel ready... for whatever."

"But what if I take too long? That feels so unfair to you. I feel like, if we stay in this weird gray zone between being "just friends" and actually dating, it'll be a disaster waiting to happen. I love our friendship, Max. I don't wanna mess it up."

Max began to panic. It sounded like she was looking for a way out. He didn't want to lose Nina, not after she just confessed to him. Foolishly, anxiously, Max blurted out the only thing he could think of that might alleviate her worries. "Dude, I feel like you're overthinking everything. I like you, Nina, but I don't wanna date you. Not... exclusively, anyway."

Her face snapped toward him in disbelief. "What?"

"I'm totally down to do other things, though, if you know what I mean? Honestly, this shit between us isn't a big deal. We can enjoy being together without being together, you know?"

Nina's brow furrowed in confusion. "Hold up, are you saying... Oh, my God. Have I been misinterpreting everything over the past few weeks? Oh, my God. I'm such an idiot..."

As her honey-brown eyes glimmered with dejection, Max resisted the urge to take back every word that had just spilled out of his mouth, but he forced himself to finish what he started, "No, no, no! You're not an idiot at all, Nina. You're a good-looking girl. I'm a good-looking guy. It's just hormones. Please don't get so worked up about it. It's not your fault. I've probably been sending mixed signals. I'm sorry if I made things confusing between us. I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression."

Nina looked hurt and embarrassed. "I just thought, especially after we danced together last night, that, maybe, you felt something for me, too, but... Oh. my God. I'm so sorry for barging in like this on you, Max! Forget I ever said anything!"

His eyes grew round with distress. "Oh, fuck. Please don't be so hard on yourself, Nina! For the record, I really care about you!"

Nina rose from his bed. She gave him a wobbly smile. "No, it's fine, I'm glad we had this talk. I think I understand where you're coming from now. Let's pretend like this conversation never happened and just be normal around each other from now on, okay?"

She started walking toward the door, and Max started freaking out for real. He never meant to upset her. He had only hoped to stop her from distancing herself from him. Max was scared that Nina might change her mind about her feelings for him. All the bullshit he said out loud was literally the exact opposite of what he wanted from her. A million terrible, self-destructive thoughts ricocheted around his head.

Fucking hell!

Why was he such a dumbass?

He needed to fix this!

Max tried to call her back, "Wait, Nina! Don't go yet!"

By the time Max figured out what he wanted to say, however, his bedroom door had clicked shut, and Nina was already gone.