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Theo follows us to the door with his hands out, like he isn’t sure whether to intervene physically. “Kylie, do you want me to—”

“Ask her out!” I yell as Nash turns me around to shut the door behind us.

“Nash, are you fucking insane? Put me down!”

He doesn’t. He carries me down every flight without a word, and I’m laughing so hard by the bottom that I can’t breathe, my ribs aching from his shoulder. When we get out the side door of Halloran into the cold, he sets me on my feet on the grass. I shove him in the chest with both hands. He doesn’t move. It’s like shoving a door.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“That guy was all over you.”

“He was not all over me!”

“He was sitting—”

“He was sitting on his couch, where he lives.” I shove him again, with the same result. “I was giving him advice.”

His eyes narrow. “About what?”

“About a girl he likes and is too scared to ask out.”

He goes quiet. I push my hair out of my face and try to get my breathing back, and it’s freezing out here. My jacket is still upstairs on Theo’s couch.

“What did you tell him?” Nash says.

“What?”

“The advice. What did you tell him?”

“Are you serious?”

“What did you tell him, Kylie?”

I try to step around him, because my jacket is up there and because something in his voice is making the back of my neck go hot, and he steps in front of me.

“I’m serious,” he says when I look up. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him to just go for it.” I throw my hands up. “He was overanalyzing everything she did, so I told him to ask her. The worst that can happen is she says no, but at least he’ll know.”

“Just go for it,” he repeats.

“Yeah.” My voice comes out wrong. “Simple.”

He takes my face in his hands.

Everything in me stops. His palms are warm on my cheeks, his fingers are in my hair behind my ears, and he’s looking down at me, and I genuinely cannot form a thought.

“Nash,” I say. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what?”

My heart is going so hard I’m sure he can feel it through my face. He looks at my mouth. “Like I’m fucking crazy.”

“You just barged in and carried me out of somebody’s apartment. I think that’s pretty fucking crazy. Why would you do that?”

“I wanted you.”