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Simple as that, I left the Park Avenue penthouse Jordan and I had been sharing, and ht there, it was as if Lucy and I had never lived anywhere else

Of course, the work isn’t exactly easy Coop had said he thought it would total maybe ten hours a week, but it’s more like twenty I usually spend all day Sunday and several nights a week trying to make sense out of the piles of scrap paper, notes scribbled on matchbooks, and cruoes, twenty hours a week of data entry is nothing We’re talking a West Village floor-through that would easily go for three thousand a month on the open market

And yeah, I knohy he did it And it’s not because deep down inside he has a secret penchant for size 12 ex–pop stars In fact--like Jordan’s pounding on the door just now--it’s got nothing to do withthe hell out of his fa Jordan, and Jordan, in return, hates Cooper He says it’s because Coop is irresponsible and immature

But I think it’s really because Jordan’s jealous of the fact that Cooper, when his parents tried to pressure hi hi poor in the least, and had in fact found his oay in the world without the help of Cartwright Records I’ve always suspected that Jordan----wishes he’d told his parents where to go, the way Cooper--and eventually

"Well," he says, as in the background, we hear Jordan shout, "Co sitting here listening to Jordan have a et to work"

I can’t help staring at him as he puts down his beer bottle and stands up Cooper really is a choice speciht, he looks particularly tanned But it isn’t, I know, a tan fro for hours behind some bushes with a telephoto lens pointed at a motel room doorway…

Not that Cooper has ever told ?" I ask, squinting up at hi what?"

He chuckles It’s like a little ga slip what kind of case he’s working on, and he refuses to take the bait Cooper takes his clients’ rights to privacy seriously

Also, he thinks his cases are way too kinky for his kid brother’s ex-girlfriend to hear about To Cooper, I think I’ll always be a fifteen-year-old in a halter top and ponytail, proclaiar rush

"Nice try," Cooper says "What are you going to do?"

I think about it Magda is pulling a double at the cash register in the caf, and would want to go straight home afterward to wash the smell of Tater Tots out of her hair I could call ar Rush tour, and one of the few friends I have left from back when I’d been in the music business

But she’s married noith a baby, and doesn’t have le friends anyht as I spendCooper’s data entry or twiddling around withto coar Rush," doesn’t make me want to puke every ti"

"Well, don’t stay up too late doing nothing," Cooper says "If Jordan’s still out there when I leave, I’ll call the cops and have that Beemer of his towed"