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.“I can’t see a thing in here.Did you see him?” Tony asked as they came up to him.“No.Listen, Tony, we got to get out of here.They’re probably calling the cops right now,” Michael said.“Yeah, yeah.Jeez, this dump looks like a horror show, huh, Mikey?” Tony said, grimacing at the furniture.“I mean, you gotta be some kinda midget or something to sit on this crap.”“I think it’s perfect,” Lisa chimed in.“It’s atmosphere that they’re going for.And look at all these people.I can’t figure out their names, but I know they’re famous.Just look at…” her voice trailed off and she froze where she was.She blinked and stared again at a man and a woman in the corner.The woman was sitting on the man’s lap, and they were laughing and sharing a glass of champagne.“Come on, let’s go.There’s gotta be a better way,” Tony announced, and began to walk off.Michael followed, felt around for Lisa, then turned around and went back over to her.Lisa was beginning to have trouble breathing as she watched the man begin to rub the woman’s fishnetted leg up and down, pushing her short black skirt even higher up on her thigh.The woman laughed and craned her head around and they went into a long, passionate kiss.“Come on, we’ve got to—” Michael began, and then looked at her.“What’s wrong?”Tears were running down Lisa’s face as she stood staring at Andrew and the woman he’d brought over for dinner several times in the last two years.Michael’s eyes scanned the room and followed her stare to a man and woman across the floor.He watched them for a moment, then looked down at her.“Who is that?”She opened her mouth slightly, though no sound came out.She couldn’t take her eyes off of them.“That’s Andrew,” she said mechanically, not even looking up at him.“He’s the guy I live with.”FIVELisa slid down in the backseat of the car.All right, she was admitting it—she’d been playing this game of “see no evil” with Andrew for years.As long as it wasn’t smacking her in the face, she didn’t feel she had to do anything.Well, she’d just gotten slapped.She stared out the window at Michael, talking to Tony Mac, arguing with him.She didn’t care.She didn’t care about anyone or anything.She shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning.What had she done wrong? She paid half the rent; she kept the place clean; she did his laundry; she cooked—used to—for him.Maybe that was it, maybe if she had cooked more, maybe if she’d been more like …Her breathing became shallow and tears spilled down her face.She felt stupid and foolish.Tony and Michael got into the car silently.Tony started it up and drove over to Tenth Avenue.In the rearview mirror was the flashing reflection of police lights, stopping in front of the club.“Where you live at?” Tony said quietly.“Why?” she whispered.“You’re goin’ home.”“Seventy-second.”* * *“I couldn’t believe it when I heard.Someone actually was so desperate to get in here, they pulled a gun on Rodney?” Henry was asking as he leaned against the sink in the bathroom.“That’s right,” Morris said, sifting through a Baggie of gram and half-gram packets of coke.He dug in and handed Henry three.He pocketed them immediately.“Good God, you mean this place has been infected with the tread of a nobody?”“And there were some other guys with him, huge guys, Rodney said.”“And Rodney couldn’t take care of him?” Henry said, and began to back toward the door.“I heard the guy was about seven feet tall and—don’t you owe me something, Henry?” he asked, holding out his hand.“Really, Morris, how droll—” Henry began.“No, no more of this shit.You’re into me for fourteen hundred, and I want it.”“The whole thing?”“That’s right.And I want it tonight, Henry.”“Are you threatening me?” Henry asked, standing up as straight as he could.“Yup,” Morris said, walking over near him and staring him in the face.“I don’t do this out of the goodness of my heart.”“You know I’m good for it.”“Uh-huh.That why you stopped going to the Palladium?”Henry stood still and watched Morris begin to circle him.“Oh, I got a real rundown on you, Henry.There are beginning to be lots and lots of places you can’t go back to, aren’t there?”“I don’t know what—”“There are a lot of people in New York who can tell me things.”“What’s the matter, Morris, have a bad week on the Street?” Henry said as Morris backed him into a sink.“Naw, we’re not going to play this game.You get me my money—tonight,” he said, and Henry made a move toward the door.Morris pulled a stiletto out of his pocket and clicked it open under Henry’s jaw.He held it there while he dug the three gram packets out of Henry’s coat pocket.“Now, you go get me that money, or you won’t be able to come back here to cover the ‘scene’ for that sucky little magazine you pretend to publish.”“But—”“And if per chance you don’t make it back here, or I wind up in a story? You’re a dead man,” he said.“Now you have an hour.”* * *Tony pulled the car up in front of Lisa’s building and Michael helped her out.“I pick youse up around ten,” Tony said, and took off.Lisa stared up at Michael.“What?” she asked, tensely.“I’m … supposed to keep an eye on you tonight, and then tomorrow we’re going to his apartment,” Michael stammered.“I don’t need this,” she said, and walked into the building.She opened the door to the apartment and turned on the lights.She walked away, into the bedroom, without even looking at Michael.It was as if he didn’t even exist right now.He felt uncomfortable as hell here.He looked around the room.It was a pretty one, very neat, he thought.He dropped his raincoat on the gray couch and loosened his tie.His eyes landed on a lace-covered side table.Under a Tiffany-type lamp were a phone and picture frames.His eyes darted back to the bedroom.It was shut.He walked over to the table, picked up the phone, and got a dial tone.He placed it silently back on the cradle.He turned on the lamp and picked up an oval silver frame.The sandy-haired man he’d seen with the girl on his lap at the club was standing with his arm around Michigan—Lisa, he corrected himself.She was smiling; he had this odd expression on his face.Michael couldn’t quite make it out.It wasn’t exactly a smile.He was good-looking … if you went in for that sort of Robert Redford thing.“What are you doing?” Lisa’s voice was choked, and he looked up in time to see her rush across the floor.She grabbed the picture out of his hand and stared at it, red-eyed.“My boyfriend,” she said tartly, and looked back up at Michael.She began to move toward him, waving the frame at him.“The man I moved to New York to be with.The man I left my family for, because I knew deep down that he loved me and was going to marry me
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