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spent hundreds of hours with Susie parsing Brad. She knew he had a mole on his backside and that he had once bought Susie thong underwear. She knew all about his previous girlfriends and his reasons for breaking up with them. She knew how much he made at his law firm, that he was trying to lose ten pounds, that he played squash and not tennis, that he preferred solid blue shirts to striped ones, that he didn’t like Susie’s taste in ties, and that he preferred Campari-and-soda to gin-and-tonic. Amanda was pretty sick of hearing about Brad—frankly, more sick of Brad than she was of Liz’s sofa. The sofa would be good for another ten years at least, which is more than she could say about Brad.
    “But I haven’t seen him,” Susie said, not taking Amanda’s hint. “Not since you and I last spoke anyway.”
    “Isn’t he who you wanted to talk about—the reason you came over?”
    “Brad? Oh no, not
him.”
Susie laughed. “Brad’s the same as always. I’ve got
much
better news than Brad.”
    Amanda gave Susie an imploring look. “What is it? You’ve met someone else?
Tell
me.”
    “All right. Sorry. It’s just that it hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to, and I had to tell
someone
, but keep it a secret—okay?”
    “I promise.”
    Susie leaned toward her, as if even the shrubbery had ears. “You know how Megabyte is launching a new cable channel—?”
    “Yes, of course—MBTV.”
    “Well—” Susie hesitated, then burst out, “They’re giving me my own show!”
    “Oh, Susie, that
is
great news.”
    Amanda felt a flush of jealousy.
    “Well, it’s almost my own show,” Susie corrected herself. “I’ll have a cohost. Do you know Johnnie Johns, from the music channel? He’s a veejay, but he wants to do more-serious stuff. Our show will focus mostly on political and current events—the things I’m good at.”
    “That’s wonderful.”
    “Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. The producers are trying to appeal to the younger market, you know, the twenty-somethings who are turned off by boring talking-head shows like
Live from the Hill
. They should rename that show
Dead from the Hill,
if you ask me. We’re going to be way more hip. Our set is really cool, too. It looks like a loft.”
    “Fabulous.”
    Amanda’s attention drifted briefly to a clay pot containing straggly pansies she had not yet replaced with begonias. A broken plastic rake lay next to it, alongside the deflated remains of a kiddie pool she had tried to set up earlier that afternoon. She told herself that she did not envy Susie her show—truly, she didn’t, her ambitions did not run in that direction—but it was the second time in less than twenty-four hours that she had endured the blow of someone else’s good fortune. For a few seconds she felt winded.
    “They want to launch it as soon as possible,” Susie continued. “We’re looking at next month. They haven’t nailed down the slot yet but I’m not worried. They’ve promised buckets of money to promote it. If there’s one thing MBTV doesn’t lack, it’s money.”
    “That’s for sure. Mike Frith and his billions. Funny.”
    “What’s funny?”
    “It just occurred to me—you know Bob is—” Amanda thought better of what she was going to say. “Well, Justice and the whole antitrust thing. Bob’s involved in that.”
    “Separate branch. Doesn’t affect cable.”
    “I guess that’s right.”
    “Anyway, it’s great—great for me,” Susie said. “Because you know if you’re not on TV, you don’t exist in this town.”
    Amanda brushed away a wasp from her slice of lemon. She ignored Susie’s little jab, convincing herself, as she always did, that Susie was unaware of it. Beauty reduces everyone else to a supporting role. Amanda, Bob, Brad, the whole dancing circle—in Susie’s eyes, they were all just extras in her ongoing drama. Like many supporting actresses, Amanda reconciled herself to her role by telling herself that hers was the more