“I want to apologize to Mr. Barrington, too. I’d like to take both of you to lunch at the Bel-Air.”

“Boris, that’s crazy. Why would Stone want to have lunch with you?”

“I’ve been seeing a therapist,” Tirov said, “and she says it’s very important to my recovery that I personally apologize to everyone I’ve offended.”

“Then either your therapist is insane, or she has no idea how many people you’ve offended. It would take years for you to personally apologize to all of them.”

“I’ve got to start somewhere, haven’t I? Please do this for me. Ask Mr. Barrington if he will bring you to lunch at the Bel-Air. After all, I have to apologize to you, too.”

“All right, I’ll ask him, but I won’t recommend it.”

“That’s all I ask. I suggest tomorrow at one o’clock, in the Bel-Air garden restaurant. Later tomorrow afternoon, I have to leave for a location shoot. I’m starting a big Western, and I won’t be back for weeks.”

“I’ll ask him. Goodbye.” She hung up. He had broken her concentration; now she had to get her head back into the scene she was working on.

—

Stone stopped in. “Can you break for a bite?”

She closed the laptop. “Sure, I can use a break.”

“I’ll have lunch sent to the pool.”

They settled down at a table there, and the food arrived.

“Stone,” she said reluctantly, “I have to ask you a favor.”

“Sure, how can I help?”

“I had a call from Boris this morning.”

“Oh, no,” Stone groaned.

“It’s all right, it’s nothing bad.”

“What did he have to say?”

“He’s begun to see a therapist, and as part of his treatment she has insisted that he see the people he’s offended and apologize to them personally.”

“That sounds like a twelve-step program.”

“Maybe it is, I don’t know, but he’s begged me to bring you to lunch at the Bel-Air tomorrow, so that he can apologize to you.”

“I don’t want his apology,” Stone said. “I just want him to be absent from our lives.”

“I want that, too, and this may be the best way to accomplish it.”

“I’m not sure I could have lunch with him without stabbing him with a fork.”

“He was really very pathetic on the phone. I believe he’s sincere. And I know him well enough that he won’t let up until he’s seen us.”

“How about later in the week?”

“He’s leaving tomorrow afternoon to go on location for several weeks.”

Stone sighed. “I don’t want to see him—not yet, anyway. I’m still too angry with him. Next time we’re in L.A., maybe. When is he coming back from his location shoot?”

“He said several weeks.”