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But since it’s actually part of Cooper’s job to be unobtrusive when he needs to be, he can sneak up on people, which is what he’s done now, startling all three of us

"Dick," he says again, and points to the name on the drink menu in front of us His dark eyebrows are raised skeptically "Really? A gay bar na a little les across the table, but Steven is clutching theat the tiny line beneath the word "Dick"

"Moby-Dick," Steven says "As in Heruns and fishing nets on the walls This is a Her any of it

"Sure it is," he says He glances at the bored-looking waiter who’s wandered toward our table "I’ll take a--Christ, look at these prices Whatever you have on draft And a shot of Glenfiddich" Cooper turns to uess who I spentto share so about his work?

"The fact that you just ordered a shot tells ," I say "You’re not much of a drinker, except under certain conditions Were you with your family?"

His frown is all the answer I need

"But," I say in surprise, "you said you had aThe woman who ave an address I didn’t realize until I got there was the new office for Cartwright Records Television Obviously I was suspicious at that point, but it wasn’t until I walked in and saw Grant Cartwright standing behind the desk that I kneas going on"

I wince, picturing it "That must have beenunpleasant"

"It was" He looks across the table at To theh they’d already had the conversation about the na?"

"Better than you, evidently," Toht," Steven says, apparently atteht Records, andyour father?"

"Correct," Cooper says, the word alrowl

"What did he want?" I ask curiously Cooper dislikes his family so much and speaks to them so rarely, I’et him to have a conversation with him

"To offer me a job," Cooper says

I aht offered Cooper a job, it was to sing in Easy Street The offer had gone so poorly that the rift that started then had continued to this day

"What kind of job?" I ask hi, however, that I know

Cooper’s drinks arrive, and the way he downs most of the whiskey, then half the beer, as Tom and Steven and I watch, confir that never fails to discos, but those are private, between him and me, and I’m pretty sure he enjoys them

"Feel better?" Tolass

"Not really," Cooper says, and signals the waiter for another shot

"A full-time job?" I ask him "Like with his company? Or a private inquiry?"

"Oh," he says "It’ll be full-ti to do with Tania Trace Rock Ca the answer but at the same time almost certain I knohat it is

"As a matter of fact," Cooper says, "it does My dad wants h I don’t knohy It’s so absurd Not the idea of Cooper being souard--I’m positive he’d be superb in that capacity Just the idea of hiuard, because Tania Trace is married to ed to that boyfriend’s brother

I look at To at the idea of Cooper being Tania Trace’s bodyguard

But when I glance at Cooper, I see that he’s frowning He doesn’t seehter dying in my throat "You didn’t say yes, did you?"

"Actually," Cooper says as his second whiskey arrives, "I did"