Everyone Worth Knowing Read Online Free PDF Page A

from somewhere else
    entirely. Two hours and three cosmos later, certifiably tipsy, I was
    considering going home. Instead, I grabbed another drink and
    ducked outside.
    The line to get in had cleared up entirely; only the bouncer
    who'd held me in club purgatory for so long remained. I was
    preparing my snide remarks should he address me in any way
    whatsoever, but he just grinned and returned his attention to the
    paperback he was reading, which looked like a matchbook in his
    massive hands. Shame he was so cute—but jerks always are.
    "So, what was it about me that you didn't like?" I couldn't help
    myself. Five years in the city and I'd tried to avoid places with
    doormen or velvet ropes unless absolutely necessary; I'd inherited
    at least a bit of my parents' egalitarian self-righteousness—or intense
    insecurity, depending on how you looked at it.
    "Pardon?"
    "I mean, when you wouldn't let me in before, even though it's
    my best friend's engagement party."
    He shook his head and half-smiled to himself. "Look, it's nothing
    personal. They hand me a list and tell me to follow it and do
    crowd control. If you're not on the list or you show up when a
    hundred other people do, I have to keep you outside for a little
    while. There's really nothing more to it."
    "Sure." I'd all but missed my best friend's big night because of
    his door policy. I teetered a bit and then hissed, "Nothing personal.
    Right."
    "You think I need your attitude tonight? I've got plenty of people
    who are far more expert at giving me a really fucking hard
    time, so why don't we just stop talking and I'll put you in a cab?"
    Perhaps it was the fourth cosmo—liquid courage—but I wasn't
    in the mood to deal with his condescending attitude, so I turned
    on my too-chunky heels and yanked the door open. "I hardly need
    your charity. Thanks for nothing," I snapped and marched back inside
    the club as soberly as I could manage.
    I hugged Penelope, air-kissed Avery, and then beelined to the
    door before anyone else could initiate any more small talk. I saw a
    girl crouched in a corner, sobbing quietly but with a pleased
    awareness that others were watching, and sidestepped a strikingly
    stylish foreign couple who were making out furiously, and with
    much hip grinding. I then made a big show of ignoring the meathead
    bouncer who, incidentally, was reading from a tattered paperback
    version of Lady Chatterley's Lover (sex fiend!) and threw
    my arm in the air to hail a cab. Only the street was completely
    empty, and a cold drizzle had just begun, practically guaranteeing
    that a taxi was nowhere in my immediate future.
    "Hey, you need some help?" he asked after opening the velvet
    rope to admit three squealing, tottering girls. "This is a tough street
    for cabs when it rains."
    "No thanks, I'm just fine."
    "Suit yourself."
    Minutes were starting to feel like hours, and the warm summer
    sprinkles had rapidly become a cold, persistent rain. What, exactly,
    was I proving here? The bouncer had pressed himself against
    the door to get some protection from the overhang and was still
    reading calmly, as though unaware of the hurricane that now
    whipped around us. I continued to stare at him until he looked up,
    grinned, and said, "Yeah, you seem to be doing just fine on
    your own. You're definitely teaching me a lesson by not taking one
    of these huge umbrellas and walking a couple blocks over to
    Eighth, where you'll have no trouble getting a cab at all. Great call
    on your part."
    "You have umbrellas?" I asked before I could stop myself. The
    water had soaked entirely through my shirt and I could feel my
    blanket-thick hair sticking to my neck in wet, cold clumps.
    "Sure do. Keep 'em right here for situations just like this. But
    I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in taking one of them, right?"
    "Right. I'm just fine." To think I'd almost begun warming up to
    him. Just then a livery cab drove by, and I had the brilliant idea to
    call UBS's car service for a ride