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She headed for the wall of bookcases Three entire shelves were taken up with Philip’s first book, Sues Another shelf consisted of hardcover first editions of the classics; Philip had told her that he collected them and had paid as much as five thousand dollars for a first edition of The Great Gatsby, which Lola thought was crazy On the bottoazines Lola picked up a copy of The New York Review of Books dated February 1992 She flipped through the pages until she caht, and put it back On the bottoazine She pulled it out and looked at the cover September 1989 One of the headlines read: THE NEW POWER COUPLES What was Philip doing with an old copy of Vogue? she wondered, and opened it up to find

out

Turning to the azine, she found the answer There was a ten-page spread of aSchiffer Dia each other croissants at a sidewalk café, strolling down a Paris street in a ballgown and a tux The headline read: LOVE IN THE SPRINGTIME: OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS SCHIFFER DIAMOND AND PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING AUTHOR PHILIP OAKLAND SHOW OFF THE NEW PARIS COLLECTIONS

Lola took the azine to the couch and studied the pictures more carefully She’d had no idea Philip Oakland and Schiffer Diaether, and she was filled with jealousy In the past week, she’d felt moments of attraction to Philip but had always hesitated because of his age He enty years older And while he looked younger and was in good shape—he went to the gy women who married older celebrities—look at Billy Joel’s wife—Lola still worried that if she “went there” with Philip, she e spots? Or couldn’t get it up?

But as she flipped through the photo spread in Vogue, her esti how to seduce him

At five P M, Philip left the library and walked back to One Fifth Lola should be gone, he figured, and another day would have passed during which he had irl He was attracted to her, which he couldn’t help, being aby the way she looked at hi in front of her face, as if she were shy But she was a little young even for hi celebrity and Internet, not very worldly So far, nothing much had happened to her in life, and she was a bit immature

Riding the elevator to his floor, he had an inspiration and hit the button for nine There were six apartments on this floor, and Schiffer’s was at the end He walked down the hallway, reminded of the ht He rang her bell and then rattled the door handle Nothing She wasn’t home, of course She was never home

He went upstairs to his own apart the key in the lock, was startled to hear Lola call out, “Philip?”

Inside the door was a sht case Lola was in the living room on the couch She peeked over the back

“You’re still here,” Philip said He was surprised but not, he realized, unhappy to see her

“So really, really terrible has happened,” she said “I hope you won’t be angry”

“What?” he asked in alar to do with his screenplay Had he gotten another call from the head of the studio?

“There’s no hot water in ”

“Oh,” he said Guessing at the ht case, he said, “Do you need to take a shower here?”

“It’s not just that Soht When I went ho”