Frankie looked at Charlie. “Absolutely.”

Charlie stretched his feet out under the table. “Do you come here a lot?”

“Bad day. I’m a little bit on overload.”

“I know what you mean. I hardly ever come here. Samantha says it isn’t either edgy or chic enough. She and Jil prefer drinks at Milk and Honey, some speakeasy on the Lower East Side. But what can I say, I’m from Omaha, right?” He ate a chip and passed the bowl to her. “Funny what kind of place you think will be anonymous enough to make you feel at home.”

The waiter brought over two martinis in their shakers.

First Charlie poured Frankie’s drink and then his own. “Cheers. What good luck for me that you were here.” Charlie clinked her glass.

“Yes, cheers.” Frankie hadn’t had a martini since she drank four her sophomore year after a Princeton-Harvard game and subsequently threw up all over her blind date.

“Perfect.” Charlie put down his drink. “Samantha will be so disappointed that she missed you. She’s getting all involved in planning a benefit in May for the independent film alliance in Bedford-Stuyvesant.”

“She has?” Frankie didn’t mean to sound quite so incredulous, but Bedford-Stuyvesant wouldn’t have been her first assumption for Samantha’s whereabouts.

“Do you know Barry Santorini? He asked her.”

“I just met him at that dinner at Judy Tremont’s.”

“You mean the night he announced that there was no such thing as a truly original artist?” Charlie sipped his drink. “I thought he was a jerk. But maybe that’s what it takes to make good movies.”

“Maybe.” Frankie wanted to get the conversation off Samantha and Barry Santorini. She’d rather talk to Charlie about whatever book he was reading.

“Anyway, Santorini hooked Samantha up with this independent film group and she thought it would be great for the city to do this benefit in Bed-Stuy. You know, she’s very civic-minded.”

Frankie sipped her drink. “Yes. She did so much for the park.”

“Well, that’s it really. She says after 9/11, it’s very important to bring filmmaking back to the city. Plus it makes a lot of sense to bring the real money out to Bedford-Stuyvesant.”

“I bet Adrienne Rodman can’t wait to get there,” Frankie blurted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Oh, I’m glad you did.” Charlie laughed openly.

The pianist began playing “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”

Charlie took a final sip of his drink. “I remember taking a girl here when I was a resident. She was a big fan of Madeline and told me all about the murals.”