“What item in the New York Post? ” Charlie was confused.

“It’s really nothing. You know, they make things up. Plus nobody’s going to read it ’cause it’s Saturday.”

“Today? It’s in today’s?” Charlie looked at her.

“Honey, I would never have seen it but my daughter found it. She was out all night with an ex-boyfriend of Paris Hilton and ended up in there last week. She loves being in the Post. Well, I better get back to Grey. Who would have ever thought we’d all run into each other on Tenth and Twenty-fourth? Don’t you just love New York?” She kissed Charlie again and walked away.

Jil pushed his chair back. “I’m completely exhausted from her. I don’t need lunch. I need a beer.”

“I don’t think I can stay here.” Charlie suddenly got up.

“Oh come on, Charlie. She’s a forty-year-old woman in head-to-toe leather talking about a gossip item in the New York Post. They once published that the local weatherman was my secret boyfriend.” Jil laughed. “I should only be so lucky. I’d love to have that warm front coming in.”

“Thank you for a wonderful day, Jil. Let’s do it again.” Charlie began to walk out of the restaurant.

“Is anything wrong?” the hostess asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. I just need some air. Thank you for all your kindnesses.” Charlie reached into his wallet and gave her sixty dollars.

While Charlie hailed a cab on Tenth Avenue, Jil ran out of the restaurant. “Charlie, you left your catalogue of the complete career of Chris Ofili.”

“I’m sorry to have ruined your day.” Charlie embraced Jil.

“Careful, darling, or now you’ll end up in the columns for breaking up my affair with the weatherman.”

Charlie thought very carefully about which newsstand to buy the paper from. He had a favorite place on Seventieth and Lexington where from time to time he bought lotto tickets and gave them to his nurses. But there was a chance he could run into a client rushing out for the latest issue of W or the same issue of the Post.

He decided to ask the cabbie to drop him at the Hilton hotel on Fifty-fourth and Sixth. Chances were he wouldn’t know a single conventioneer, businessman, or tourist there.

Charlie walked to the newsstand and bought a copy of the Post and sat down at the anonymous bar. He methodically ordered a martini, put his cell phone on the table, and ate a bowl of cashews before opening the paper to a large photo of Samantha and Barry under a banner headline, “So Happy Together.”