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shock of pride how genuinely beautiful she was: the amused, innocent green eyes, the flawless skin with the faintest gilding of tiny freckles, the mane of auburn hair glinting with gold lights. She was her mother’s daughter all right, with her mother’s spirit too. “I’ve been making everybody I work for give me a letter of recommendation after each job,” Emma said. “And I always make friends with the cameraman and everybody else I can on the set to learn things. My day will come.”
    “Soon, I hope,” Annabel said.
    “Not too soon to suit me,” Emma said. Sweet Pea jumped into her lap again, and Emma fed her bits of turkey. “So how was Europe, anyway?”
    “Hectic. Fun. Some of the clothes were really ugly. But by the time they get popular, in a year or two, people won’t be able to imagine how they lived without them.”
    “Did you meet anybody?”
    “Any men?”
    “Yeah … any men?”
    “Well …” Annabel said, and they both laughed.
    “Was he cute?”
    “I would say he was cute, yes.”
    “And …?”
    “It was just a date,” Annabel said.
    “Like me when I’m working on a movie,” Emma said. “I get a big crush, and then when the movie’s over, it’s over too. We’re still friends, and we run into each other sometimes, but we’re both on to different things.”
    “It wasn’t even a crush. It was attraction.” For an instant Annabel felt again that little touch of sadness she had felt after sex with him.
    “That’s not so bad,” Emma said consolingly.
    “No … but I dread to think how many dates I’ve had in my time. I think in the natural order of things one gets to a saturation point.”
    “And then?”
    “And then one becomes a serious person,” Annabel said. “One looks seriously for another serious person.”
    “You mean you’d go looking for a man who’s straight, single, unattached, terrific, and good enough for you? Oh, my God! There’s nothing like that out there.”
    Annabel laughed. “Oh, Emma—do you realize a personality change like that could blight my whole life?”

Chapter Three
    Chris’s office was a hermetically sealed place of peace and luxury in the middle of Manhattan, so high up she could see for miles. When she had first come to work there she had been a little squeamish about those enormous windows with their low sills, no curtains, and a view—if one wished—of cars the size of gnats. She’d particularly disliked the fact that her eminent position of Managing Editor, putting the magazine together, bore with it a corner office, so she was almost surrounded by air. Once she saw a plane that seemed to be on the same level as her window, and she was not happy about it. But she soon adjusted, and after a while even got to appreciate how pretty it was; the other office buildings all different colors, their windows glittering as they caught the light.
    This good job had been an accident. When she’d still been working as a copy editor she had gone to a publishing party and met Bill Cameron, the financier who owned a lot of magazines, one of which was the new one he was going to start, Fashion and Entertainment . They were both quick-witted, and liked each other immediately. She knew he was about fifty, that he was married to his second wife, who was much younger, and that they had two small children. She thought he was very attractive; burly and dynamic, with bright blue eyes that missed nothing, thick gray hair, and, despite his expensively tailored suit, the manner of an old street fighter. She also knew right away he was very intelligent, even an intellectual, which she appreciated. He brought her another glass of wine, although people were trying to get his attention and talk to him, and then he asked her why she was wasting her time when she could be working for him.
    The second glass of wine had made her brave, so she laughed merrily and said she didn’t know. The next thing she knew she was working for him, in a difficult job that she