Page 37 (1/2)

“Only two thousand people read that book,” Mindy countered

“I loved it American history is one of my obsessions Your husband is a wonderful writer”

Mindy took a step back She wasn’t sure whether to believe Annalisa, but she liked the fact that Annalisa wasJa about his fiction abilities It was true that James had once been a wonderful writer; it was one of the reasons she’d married hiain “My husband has a new book cooing to be bigger than Dan Brown If you can believe that”

Having said the words aloud, and having liked how they sounded, Mindy now began to believe James’s success was a distinct possibility That would really show Philip Oakland, she thought And if the Rices took the apartment, it would be a blow to both Enid and Philip

“I’ve got to get back toout her hand to Annalisa “But I hope we’ll be seeing each other soon”

“I’m impressed,” Billy said to Annalisa, when they were on the sidewalk in front of One Fifth “Mindy Gooch liked you, and she doesn’t like anyone”

Annalisa sed down a taxi

“Have you really read The Lonesoes and dry as toast”

“I have,” Annalisa said

“So you knew James Gooch was her husband?”

“No I Googled her on our way out of the church There was an item that mentioned James Gooch was her husband”

“Clever,” Billy said A taxi pulled up, and he held open the door

Annalisa slid onto the backseat “I always do my homework,” she said

As predicted, the job as Philip’s researcher was easy Three afternoons a week—on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—Lolaat a tiny desk in his large, sun-filled living roo; for the first few days, anyway Philip worked in his office with the door open Every now and then, he would poke his head out and ask her to find so for him, like the exact address of sohties Lola couldn’t understand why he needed this infor a screenplay, so why couldn’t he just make it up the way he had the characters?

When she questioned him about it, he took a seat near her on the arave her a lecture about the importance of authenticity in fiction At first Lola was mystified, then bored, and finally fascinated Not by what Philip was saying but by the fact that he was speaking to her as if she, too, possessed the sae This happened a few times, and when he went back to his office abruptly, as if he’d just thought of soers on his keyboard, Lola would tuck her hair behind her ears and, frowning in concentration, attele the information he’d requested But she had a short attention span, and withinPerez Hilton, or checking her Facebook page, or watching episodes of The Hills, or scrolling through videos on YouTube If she’d had a regular job in an office, Lola knew, these activities would have been frowned upon—indeed, one of her college friends had recently been fired froal for this particular infraction—but Philip didn’t seem to mind Indeed, it was the opposite: He appeared to consider it part of her job