"I wish I knew what that meant, Victor."
"Three words, my friend: Prada, Prada, Prada."
26
On a small soon-to-be-hip block in TriBeCa and up a flight of not-too-steep stairs and through a dark corridor: a long bar made of granite, walls lined with distressed-metal sconces, a medium-sized dance floor, a dozen video monitors, a small alcove that can easily convert into a DJ booth, a room off to the side cries out for VIPs, mirror balls hang from a high ceiling. In other words: The Fundamentals. You see a flashing light and you think you are that flashing light.
"Ah," I sigh, looking around the room. "The club scene."
"Yes." JD nervously follows me around, both of us guzzling bottles of Diet Melonberry Snapple he bought us.
"There's something beautiful about it, JD," I say. "Admit it, you little mo. Admit it."
"Victor, I-"
"I know just inhaling my manly scent must make you want to faint."
"Victor, don't get too attached," JD warns. "I don't need to tell you that this club's going to have a short life span, that this is all a short-term business."
"You're a short-term business." I run my hands along the smooth granite bar: chills.
"And you put a lot of energy into it, and all the people who made it beautiful and interesting-hey, don't snicker-in the first place go somewhere else."
I yawn. "That sounds like a homosexual relationship."
"Sorry, darling, we got lost." Waverly Spear-our interior designer, dead ringer for Parker Posey-sweeps in wearing sunglasses, a clingy catsuit, a wool beret, followed by a hip-hop slut from hell and this dreadfully gorgeous mope-rocker wearing an I AM THE GOD OF FUCK T-shirt.
"Why so late, baby?"
"I got lost in the lobby of the Paramount," Waverly says. "I went up the stairs instead of going down the stairs."
"Ooh."
"Plus, well..." She rummages through her black-bowed rhinestone -dotted Todd Oldham purse. "Hurley Thompson's in town."
"Continue."
"Hurley Thompson is in town."
"But isn't Hurley Thompson supposed to be shooting the sequel to Sun City 2? Sun City 3?" I ask, vaguely outraged. "In Phoenix?"