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"Yeah," Gabrielle replied without much enthusiasm She had a stack of business cards in her pocketbook - at least a year of steady work, if she wanted it - so as she tempted to open the taxiand scatter them all to the wind?

She let her gaze drift to the night outside the car, watching in queer detachhts and lives flickered past The streets teeroups of friends laughing and talking, all of thereat time They dined at café tables outside trendy bistros and paused to browse storedisplays Everywhere she looked, the city pulsed with color and life Gabrielle absorbed it all with her artist's eye and, yet, felt nothing This bustle of life - her life as well - see by without her More and ht on a wheel that wouldn't stop spinning her around, trapping her in an endless cycle of passing time and little purpose

"Is anything wrong, Gab?" Megan asked from beside her on the taxi's bench seat "You seem quiet"

Gabrielle shrugged "I'uess"

"Soet this woman a drink - stat!" Kendra, the dark-haired nurse, joked

"Nah," Jamie countered, sly and catlike "What our Gab really needs is a man You're too serious, sweetie It's not healthy to let your work consuot laid, anyway?"

Too long ago but Gabrielle wasn't really keeping track She'd never suffered froe of dates when she wanted them, and sex - on those rare occasions she had it - wasn't so she obsessed over like soht now in that depart to cure whatever was causing her current state of restlessness

"Ja "You need to loosen up, get a little wild"

"No time like the present," Jamie added

"Oh, I don't think so," Gabrielle said, shaking her head "I's always take a lot out of me and I - "

"Driver?" Ignoring her, Jalas that separated the cabbie froe of plans We decided we're in the o where all the hot people are"

"If you like dance clubs, there's a new one just opened in the north end," the cabbie said, his spear as he spoke "I been takin' fares over there all week Fact, took two already tonight - fancy after-hours place called La Notte"

"Ooh, La No-tay," Ja a playful look over his shoulder and arching an elegant brow "Sounds perfectly wicked to o!"

The club, La Notte, was housed in a High Victorian Gothic building that had long been known as St John's Trinity Parish church, until recent Archdiocese of Boston payouts on priest sex scandals forced the closings of dozens of such places around the city Now, as Gabrielle and her friends made their way inside the crowded club, synthesized trance and technoout of enormous speakers that frahts flashed against a trio of arched stained-glass s The pulsing bea in the air, pounding to the frenetic beat of a see On the dance floor - and in nearly every square foot of La Notte's ainst one another in writhing, mindless sensuality

"Holy shit," Kendra shouted over the h the thick crowd "What a place, huh? This is crazy!"