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Chapters (45)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. Permissions Acknowledgments
  44. Also by Wendy Wasserstein
  45. Copyright Page

Barry went to the desk and got a key. During his marriage to Clarice, he had gotten blow jobs from extras and P.A.s looking to better their careers. But he never endangered his marriage by taking anyone somewhere specific to do it. The back of a limo or a bathroom at a gala was fine. That way, it really didn’t mean anything.

Barry opened the door to the room. There was a plywood bed with a mattress and matching dresser with an orange lamp. The bedspread was also orange and the room smelled of pine-scented Mr. Clean.

“I like it.” Samantha smiled warmly and laughed.

“Good, ’cause I like you. I like you a whole lot.” He pressed his face up to hers and kissed her lips. Then he ran his fingers up to the V-neck of her sweater.

“I like you, too,” she whispered.

“You know, we can go somewhere else,” he said.

“No. Not even Claridge’s has a bed that looks as inviting as this.”

He put his hand on her breast and took off her bra.

Samantha held her head against his. “Barry,” she laughed, “I’m calling Manhattan magazine to say this is my favorite hotel.”

Barry looked up at her. “Wait till you try the room service.”

Once, an interviewer asked Barry what was the key to his success and he answered, “I’m always fuckin’ hungry.” Later that afternoon, Barry stood with Samantha Acton at the window of their room at the Lincoln Tunnel Motor Lodge completely naked. Their bodies intertwined, they watched the rush-hour traffic crawling in and out of the tunnel.

For the first time in his life, Barry felt satiated.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

·CHAPTER SIXTEEN·

Samantha

The night after the Lincoln Tunnel Motor Lodge, Barry sent Samantha a $40,000 bracelet from Bulgari with a note: “From all your fans in the Lincoln Tunnel.”

Samantha kept replaying in her mind why she accepted Barry’s invitation when he called. “I have to go to a set in Leonia, New Jersey. I’ll send a car for you in an hour” was all he had said, and without hesitation, without a thought of any consequences to Charlie, to her marriage, or to herself, she had said yes.

“Have you ever seen Barry Santorini?” Samantha asked her therapist.

“What does he look like?” the therapist asked.

Samantha couldn’t tell if her therapist genuinely didn’t know or she was just being discreet.

“He’s skinny, his face is pockmarked. He wears dirty sweatshirts and sneakers to dinner parties.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I think he’s throwing himself in the face of the world and saying, ‘Fuck you! Deal with me!’”

“And would you like to do that?” The therapist leaned forward.

“No. But I’m smart enough to know that people like Charlie and me, who still believe in social protocol, are slipping downward. But someone like Barry, unabashed, impolite, irreverent, is the future.”