They had coffee at a café a block away from the studio. Instead of asking Taylor about his life, Dan had lamented how many men in the past had broken his heart. Dan could not figure out why the lavish lifestyle that he afforded each of his conquests was not enough to make them stay. In his mind, they had all taken the expensive gifts and Broadway musical shows and trips to Venice for as long as they wanted to milk him for it until they ran away with other, younger men. He could not see that by sitting down with Taylor at the coffee shop, he was marching to the heavy beats of the exact same drum.

When Taylor divulged that he had slept with Dan after just having coffee, Aria couldn’t help but tell him a joke. “You want to know why gay men have sex so much faster and so much more often than straight men?” Not pausing for him to answer, she went on. “Because the only thing standing between a man and sex is a woman.” She laughed out loud.

Taylor’s laughter rose up to meet hers. “That’s a good one,” he said.

Dan had driven Taylor to his house in upper Laurel Canyon in his powder blue, convertible Bentley. Taylor had never seen a place like it in all his life. He tried to act unimpressed so as to not give Dan the upper hand. But underneath the impression he was trying to give, it took his breath away. The modern design of the house opened up on an infinity pool with an uninhibited jetliner view. A metal spiral staircase swirled up through the air. When Taylor walked into the kitchen, he stood in disbelief that it boasted two ovens instead of one. The countertops were made of glittering white quartz. And all through the house were relics from old movie sets. Many of them related to Audrey Hepburn.