One Fifth Avenue - Candace Bushnell [0]
One Fifth Avenue
FOR HEATHER SCHRODER
Contents
Prologue
It was only a part in a TV series, and…
Act One
1
Billy Litchfield strolled by One Fifth at least twice a…
2
There were times now when Mindy Gooch wasn’t sure what…
3
“It is I, the prodigal nephew,” Philip said the next…
4
Billy Litchfield arrived back in the city at six o’clock…
5
Lately, sex was weighing heavily on Mindy’s mind. She and…
6
“Why are you going to a funeral for a woman…
7
“James, what is wrong with you?” Mindy asked the next…
Act Two
8
Enid Merle liked to say she could never stay angry…
9
A few weeks later, James Gooch sat in the office…
10
“Look,” Enid Merle said the next afternoon. “Schiffer Diamond’s new…
11
The drilling had begun again in the Rices’ apartment. Enid…
12
Billy Litchfield was on the train to Springfield, Massachusetts, when…
Act Three
13
“Listen to this,” Mindy said, coming into the bedroom. “‘Is…
14
As if he weren’t neurotic enough to begin with, in…
15
Connie Brewer promised Billy never to wear the Cross of…
16
Under regular circumstances, Paul Rice, the early riser, would have…
17
For Billy Litchfield, April brought not only spring showers but…
Act Four
18
That evening, Schiffer Diamond ran into Paul and Annalisa Rice…
19
A couple of hours later, Schiffer Diamond, made up and…
20
Early that evening, on her way to Thayer Core’s place,…
Act Five
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Candace Bushnell
Copyright
Prologue
It was only a part in a TV series, and only a one-bedroom apartment in New York. But parts of any kind, much less decent ones, were hard to come by, and even in Los Angeles, everyone knew the value of a pied-à-terre in Manhattan. And the script arrived on the same day as the final divorce papers.
If real life were a script, a movie executive would have stricken this fact as “too coincidental.” But Schiffer Diamond loved coincidences and signs. Loved the childlike magic of believing all things happened for a reason. She was an actress and had lived on magic nearly all her life. And so she took the part, which required moving back to New York City for six months, where she would stay in the one-bedroom apartment she owned on Fifth Avenue. Her initial plan was to stay in New York for the duration of the shoot and then return to L.A. and her house in Los Feliz.
Two days after she took the part, she went to the Ivy and ran into her most recent ex-husband, lunching with a young woman. He was seated at a table in the center of the room, reveling in his new status as the president of a network, and given the deference the staff showed the young woman, Schiffer understood the young woman to be his new girlfriend. She was rumored to be a concert pianist from a renowned family, but had the glossy appearance of an expensive prostitute. The relationship was a cliché, but twenty-five years in Hollywood had taught Schiffer that men never minded clichés, especially when the cliché concerned the penis. Shortly thereafter, when she handed her ticket to the valet and stood outside the restaurant in her sunglasses, she decided to sell the house in Los Feliz, make a clean break of it, and move back to One Fifth.
“Schiffer Diamond has taken a part in a TV series,” Enid Merle said to her nephew, Philip Oakland.
“She must be desperate,” Philip said, half-jokingly.
Enid and Philip occupied two of the second best apartments in One Fifth, located on the thirteenth floor with adjoining terraces, separated by a charming white picket fence. It was across this fence that Enid now spoke to her nephew. “It may be a very good part,” Enid countered, consulting the piece of paper she held in her hand. “She’s going to play a mother superior who leaves the church to become the editor in chief of a magazine for teenagers.”
“Now, there’s a believable concept,” Philip said, with the sarcasm he reserved for most matters Hollywood.
“About as believable as a giant reptile that terrorizes New York. I