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crafts. I forgot to give it to her. Call for a messenger. We’ll messenger it over.”
    Heath had left his portfolio at home so he took the subway from David’s to Brooklyn. Gerard, his roommate, had returned from tour and was lying on the couch watching “Jeopardy,” drinking a Diet Cherry Coke, and smoking. Like most dancers, he had a very strong love-hate relationship with his body. He was always either admiring or poisoning himself.
    “Hi,” said Heath. “When did you get home?”
    Gerard just smiled cryptically. He seldom spoke before dusk.
    “I’m going out to lunch with a gallery owner,” said Heath. He couldn’t help boasting. He and Gerard had always been competitive.
    “Is it a boy gallery owner?” asked Gerard.
    “Yes,” said Heath.
    “He probably just wants to fuck you.”
    “I don’t think so,” said Heath.
    “Of course you don’t think so,” said Gerard. “You’re Mr. Naivete 1988. Where were you last night?”
    “Out,” said Heath, who hadn’t yet told Gerard about David. For some reason he was embarrassed about his relationship with David. It was just a little weird to be dating an older, divorced, short in-flight magazine editor. It was certainly a change from Gerard.
    “I haven’t heard of Club Out before,” said Gerard. “Is it for people who are out of it?”
    “I’m going to take a shower,” said Heath, ignoring Gerard’s remark. He had gotten sweaty on the subway.
    “What’s the Yukon Time Zone,” Gerard said to the TV.
    Heath went into the bathroom and took his second shower of the morning, shaved the patches under his jaw he had missed earlier, and put aftershave on his face and chest. He thought he smelled too strongly of Aramis so he got back in the shower. Then he dressed as groovily as he knew how.
    Gerard had moved from the couch to the floor. He was still smoking, but he had begun stretching. “Jeopardy” had been replaced by “Charlie’s Angels.” Kate Jackson was holding a gun on a fat man in a walk-in freezer. “Your lunch date called,” he said.
    “She did?” asked Heath. “Amanda Paine?”
    “That’s the one,” said Gerard.
    “What did she say?”
    “She said it was an April Fool’s joke and that you should give it up and move back to Charlottesville.”
    For a second Heath believed him. He sat down because he felt faint. He could feel the life drop out of his head, swoosh. For a second he hated Gerard with a pureness that amazed him, and this hatred help bring him back to his senses.
    “I’m kidding,” said Gerard. “Talk about Mr. Gullible. She just changed the place. You’re supposed to meet her at Shawangunk’s apartment. Seven twenty-one Fifth Avenue.”
    “Where’s that?” asked Heath.
    “It’s the Trump Tower, baby,” said Gerard. “The big TT.”

CHAPTER 4
    S INCE IT WAS SUCH A gorgeous spring day Judith decided to sit in the park for a while. She wasn’t due at the clinic until one o’clock. She found a sunny bench and sat reading The Odd Women by George Gissing. Presently she looked up to find a man sitting on the opposite bench, gazing at her through binoculars. She gave him what she hoped was a discouraging frown and returned to her book.
    But the man persisted. She looked up again. He was slight, middle-aged, and Asian. This time she scowled in a way that could not be misinterpreted, but of course it was. It seemed to attract rather than repel him, for suddenly he was sitting beside her on the bench.
    “I am sorry,” he said. “I see I have annoyed you. But it was the birds, not you, at which I was looking.”
    Judith nodded and continued reading.
    “And now I have insulted you, I fear,” he continued. “I did not wish to imply that you are less attractive than the birds.”
    Judith gave him a weak smile.
    “It is a beautiful day,” he said.
    She knew better than to respond.
    “Would you like to see?” he asked, offering his binoculars.
    “No thank you,” Judith said. She stood up, with the purpose