"How... gentrifying of you, McDermott," I tell him.
Daisy is leaning against a white Mercedes parked next to the curb. Another Mercedes, this one a limo, black, is double-parked next to the white one. There's more lightning. An ambulance screams down Fourteenth Street. McDermott walks by Daisy and kisses her hand before hopping in the second cab.
I'm left standing in front of the crying black woman, Daisy staring.
"Jesus," I mutter, then, "Here..." I hand the black woman a book of matches from Lutece before realizing the mistake, then find a book of matches from Tavern on the Green and toss them at the kid and pluck the other matchbook from her dirty, scabbed fingers.
"Jesus," I mutter again, walking over to Daisy.
"There are no more cabs," she says, hands on hips. Another flash of lightning causes her to jerk her head around, whining, "Where's the photo graphers? Who's taking the pic tures?"
"Taxi!" I whistle, trying to wave down a passing cab.
Another bolt of lighting rips across the sky above Zeckendorf Towers and Daisy squeals, "Where is the photographer? Patrick. Tell them to stop." She's confused, her head moving left, right, behind, left, right She lowers her sunglasses.
"Oh my god," I mutter, my voice building to a shout. "It's light ning. Not a photographer. Lightning!"
"Oh right, I'm supposed to believe you. You said Gorbachev was downstairs," she says accusingly. "I don't believe you. I think the press is here."
"Jesus, here's a cab. Hey, taxi." I whistle at an oncoming cab that has just turned off Eighth Avenue, but someone taps my shoulder and when I turn around, Bethany, a girl I dated at Harvard and who I was subsequently dumped by, is standing in front of me wearing a lace-embroidered sweater and viscose-crepe trousers by Christian Lacroix, an open white umbrella in one hand. The cab I was trying to hail whizzes by.
"Bethany," I say, stunned.
"Patrick." She smiles.
"Bethany," I say again.
"How are you, Patrick?" she asks.
"Um, well, um, I'm fine," I stutter, after an awkward byte of silence. "And you?"