One Fifth Avenue - Candace Bushnell [186]
“Not bad,” James said.
Lola’s heart sank. Had she really fallen so low in the short nine months she’d been in New York?
The landlady was a salt-of-the-earth type with a pile of bleached hair and a New York accent. Her family had owned the building for a hundred years; her biggest requirement, after an ability to pay, was “nice” people. Was Lola perhaps James’s daughter? No, James explained, she was a friend who’d had a rough time with an ex-boyfriend who’d dumped her. The perfidy of men was one of the landlady’s favorite topics; she was always happy to help out a fellow female sufferer. James proclaimed the arrangement a done deal. The apartment, he declared, reminded him of his first apartment in Manhattan and how thrilled he’d been to have his own space and to be making his way in New York. “The good old days,” he said to the landlady, peeling off three thousand dollars in hundreds. The extra two hundred would be used to cover Lola’s utilities.
“Now all you need is a bed,” James said when the deal was completed. “Why don’t we get you a foldout couch? There’s a Door Store on Sixth Avenue.” Walking east, James noticed her glum expression. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “You don’t look happy. Aren’t you relieved to have your own apartment?”
Lola was in a panic. She hadn’t planned on getting an apartment at all, and especially such a shabby, depressing little place. She’d meant to take the money from Philip and James—thirty thousand in total—and install herself in Soho House, from where she would relaunch herself into New York society in style. How had her plan gone awry so quickly? And now three thousand dollars were gone. “I didn’t expect it to happen this suddenly,” she said.
“Ah,” James said, holding up a finger. “That’s New York real estate. If we hadn’t taken the apartment, it would have been gone in an hour. You’ve got to act fast.” At the Door Store, James purchased a couch with a queen-size foldout bed in a sensible navy blue fabric that wouldn’t show stains, the feel of which made Lola shudder. It was the floor model, James exclaimed, saying it was a great deal. And another fifteen hundred dollars was gone.
James finally escorted her back to the empty apartment, where she was to wait for the bed to be delivered. “I don’t know how you managed to do all this,” Lola said weakly. “Thank you.” She kissed James on the cheek.
“I’ll come by tomorrow and see how you’re settling in,” he said.
“I can’t wait,” Lola said. There was still the remainder of the fifteen thousand dollars James might give her, but she didn’t dare ask for it now. She would have to talk to him about it tomorrow, though.
When James left, she immediately went to Thayer Core’s apartment. “I got my own place,” she said.
“How’d you manage that?” Thayer said, looking up from his computer.
“James Gooch found it,” Lola said, taking off her coat. “He paid for it, too.”
“He’s an idiot.”
“He’s in love with me.” Lola was suddenly thrilled to be getting out of Thayer and Josh’s apartment. Thayer was becoming unreasonable, asking her for oral sex and pouting when he didn’t get it, saying he had something on her and would use it if he had to. “What?” she’d scoff. “You’ll see,” he’d say vaguely.
“Shut up, Thayer. You’re a douchebag,” she reminded him now.
“I thought you were trying to get back into One Fifth. I need information.”
“I’ll get it from James.”
“What if he requires sex in exchange?”
“I have sex with you, so what’s the difference?” Lola replied. “At least he doesn’t have diseases.”
“How do you know?”
“I know,” she said. “He’s only been with one woman for the past twenty years. His wife.”
“Maybe he sleeps with hookers on the side.”
Lola rolled her eyes. “Not every man is like you, Thayer. Decent men do exist.”
“Uh-huh,” Thayer said, nodding. “Like James Gooch. A man who’s an inch away from cheating on his wife. Although if I were married to Mindy Gooch, I’d cheat, too.”
The next day, knocking on the door of her new apartment, James