With maximum effort I light a cigarette. Exhaling, I make a face and hand the cigarette to Chloe.
"No, I'm not smoking anymore," she says, smiling, taking the cigarette from me and dropping it into a nearby beer bottle. "I shouldn't even be chewing this stuff," she says, making a face.
Bobby and Bentley get closer, casually determined. "We can't talk here," I'm saying. "I can't talk here." "It's really loud," she says, nodding.
"Listen." I breathe in. "Where are you staying?"
"At Costes," she says. "Where are you staying?"
"I'm just, um, just staying with some people."
"Who?"
"Bobby Hughes," I say because I can't get away with a lie.
"Oh really?" she says. "I didn't know you knew him."
"And Jamie Fields. I went to Camden with her. But they're a couple. Bobby and Jamie are a couple."
"You don't need to explain, Victor."
"No, no, no, it's not like that," I keep insisting. "They're together. I'm just staying at their place."
A careful pause. "But didn't you use to date her?" Chloe asks.
"Yeah, yeah, but she's with Bobby Hughes now," I say.
"What's he like?" Chloe asks, and then, "Victor, you've got to calm down, you're freaking me out."
"I'm not seeing Jamie Fields," I say. "I have no interest whatsoever in Jamie Fields anymore."
"Victor, you don't need to explain," Chloe says. "I said it's okay."
"I know, I know." My eyes are wet and blinking.
"So what's the address?" she asks. "Where you are?"
I'm too afraid to give it out so I just tell her the name of a street in the 8th.
"Posh," she says, and then, uneasily, "People live there?"
"So I'll call you, okay?"
Suddenly Chloe looks up at someone behind me and, smiling widely, jumps off the bench and shouts,
"Oh my god-Bentley!"
"Chloe baby," Bentley cries out, swingerish, as he grabs her in a giant hug.
She's squealing happily, spinning around, Bobby silently waiting on the sidelines, listening patiently to their requisite small talk. I force myself to acknowledge Bobby's presence as he continues to stare at Chloe, his eyes black and waxy, but then Chloe's smiling at him and suddenly cameras are flashing all around us and as the four of us stand together, pretending we're not posing casually for the paparazzi, Bobby lifts Chloe's hand up.
"How gallant," Chloe whispers mock-seriously as Bobby kisses her hand and when he lifts that hand to kiss it the urge to knock his face away almost destroys me and I fall back on the bench, defeated.
Bobby's saying, "We're sorry we have to take him away from you." He gestures vaguely at me.
This moves me to say, "I think I'm being accosted."
"It's okay," Chloe says. "I have a show tomorrow morning."
"Let's leave, Victor," Bentley says. "Come on, guy."
"Leave for what?" I ask, refusing to get up from the bench. "It's midnight."
"No it's not," Bobby says, checking his watch.
"Leave for what?" I ask again.
"We have a dinner party we're late for," Bobby explains to Chloe. "Plus a really shitty band's about to play. It's a good opportunity to split."
"Baby." Bentley's kissing Chloe again. "We are definitely partying while you're here. That is a promise."
"It's great to see you again, Bentley," Chloe says, and then to Bobby, "And it's nice to finally meet you."
Bobby blushes on cue. "And you," is all he says but it's so loaded with references that I start shaking uncontrollably.
"Let's go," Bentley's saying to me. "Get up."
"Maybe you should just leave without me," I tell him. "It's too late to eat."
"I have a remarkable metabolism," Bobby says. "It'll be okay."
"Chloe," I say. "Do you want to have a drink with me?"
"Victor," Bobby says, hurt.
Chloe gauges Bobby's reaction. "Listen, I have to unpack. I'm jetlagged," Chloe says. "We have a press conference tomorrow morning. I have a photo shoot with Gilles Bensimon at twelve, so... not tonight, sorry.
"Let's cancel," I tell Bobby.
