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At the thought of the a up a rancid trickle of bile What she could do with that money! The divorce settleh to buy a twenty-carat diagest pink dia to have to pay Jonny to be rid of him at last

Pandy grimaced Best not to think about it

She strolled to the newsstand, where Kenny, the proprietor, was counting rinned, exp

osing a gold tooth “You’re back,” he said

“Oh I’ve been—” Pandy broke off, not sure how to explain the

“I got the brand-new ”

Pandy nodded auto why she was at the newsstand in the first place—Jonny, his check, aup to stress—she hts”

“You sain?” Kenny exclaimed

“Only today”

“One of those days, huh?” he asked

Pandy nodded again, feeling an ache from the nasty buet the cigarettes, she glanced down at the ue and Elle, SondraBeth Schnowzer hadshe’d been duain, this time by her latest love interest, a handsoressions were listed in bullet points on the side of her head: Spends all her ti; obsessed with her strict schedule; and worst of all: Has no friends “Here you go,” Kenny said, beaarettes

Pandy walked half a block before she stopped to light one She looked up to find that she was standing smack in front of the former entrance to Joules There was the ba; behind it, the long and treacherous walk down the narrow alley and then down dahtclub in the world

For a moment, Pandy could literally smell it

That smell It hit you as soon as you entered Joules Place The odor of s The harsh metallic scent of a rams of cocaine The sweet-sour stink of tobacco and marijuana smoke absorbed into the walls and the carpets The aroht back a million memories, a million conversations, a million hopes and desires; the belief thatof life would be found at the end of a straw

And flash: There was Joules himself to welcome you in his navy-blue blazer and cravat Genuine Eurotrash, a true aristocrat whose father had left Joules his title and his pile of debts