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“Even for Paul,” Billy said “It’s only for theyour way into the ory Cubist art isn’t chic, anyway Not for a young couple But feminist art—that’s the future It’s just about to break, and reat work is still available Today we’re going to look at a photograph A self-portrait of the artist nursing her child Wonderful shock value And striking colors And there’s no waiting list”
“I thought a waiting list was good,” Annalisa said cautiously
“The waiting list is excellent,” Billy said “Especially if it’s a particularly difficult list to get on And you do have to pay cash up front for a painting you’ve never seen But we’ll get to that in time In the meantime, we need one or two spectacular pieces that will increase in value”
“Billy?” Annalisa asked “What do you get out of this?”
“Pleasure,” Billy said He looked at her and patted her hand “You mustn’t worry about me, my dear I’ at art, I’d be happy Every piece of art is unique, made by one person, one mind, one point of view In this manufactured world, I suppose I take solace in it”
“That’s not what I et paid?”
Billy smiled “You know I don’t talk about my finances”
Annalisa nodded She’d tried to bring up the topic several tied the subject “I need to know, Billy Otherwise, it’s not right, your spending so ht to be paid for their work”
“On art, I take a two percent coether
Annalisa was relieved Billy occasionally mentioned a million-dollar sale in which he’d been involved, and after doing the math, she came up with twenty thousand dollars as his fee “You
“My dear,” Billy said, “I can barely afford to live in Manhattan”
Now, in the gallery, Billy took a step back and, folding his arraph as if he approved “It’s very modern, but the coraph was a hundred thousand dollars Annalisa, feeling the sharp pang of guilt that was always under the surface due to her own good fortune, bought it She paid with a MasterCard, which Billy said everyone used for large purchases in order to get extra airline miles Not that any of these people needed airline miles, asthe gallery with the bubble-wrapped photograph in the trunk of the car, Annalisa reminded herself that it o thousand dollars in Billy’s pocket It was the least she could do
Lol
a sat at the long counter in theof Starbucks, reading through a printout of an article she’d found on the Internet She hadn’t been able to work herself up for a trip to the library after all As she’d suspected, it would have been a waste of time anyway There was plenty of inforlasses and prepared to read On the way to Starbucks, she’d purchased a pair of black fralasses orking As she was reading about Queen Mary’s obsession with Catholicishis head above it to stare at her Lola did her best to ignore hi to be absorbed in the text Froather, Queen Mary, as described as “sickley and fraile,” which Lola interpreted as anorexic, was some kind of sixteenth-century fashionista who never appeared in public without wearing millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry in order to remind the masses of the power and wealth of the Catholic Church Lola looked up fro at her She looked down at the pages, and when she looked up, he was still staring He had reddish-blond hair and freckles but was better-looking than her first assessment Finally, he spoke
“Did you know those are men’s?” he asked