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thank God for that!

Chapter Four
    When Mannon Cable got up to go to the john, Howard Soloman leaned anxiously towards Jack Python and said, ‘You’re never gonna believe this, but I ran into Whitney at a party last night, and I swear she’s got the hots for me.’
    Jack started to laugh. Whitney Valentine Cable was Mannon’s ex-wife, a stunning-looking actress for whom Mannon still carried a torch. ‘Whitney,’ Jack said slowly, ‘has the hots? For you?’ He continued laughing.
    ‘For crissakes,’ Howard said irritably. ‘What’s so funny about that? ’
    ‘Because you and Whitney hated each other when you were Mannon’s agent. Christ! If I had a nickel for all the times you bitched about her, and likewise she about you.’
    ‘A hard dick an’ a soft pussy creep up on people in a variety of ways,’ Howard said wisely.
    Jack almost choked. ‘I love it when you wax poetic.’
    ‘Fuck you.’
    ‘When I’m at a loose end I’ll think of you first.’
    Howard belched, not so discreetly. ‘I’m tellin’ you, she came on to me . The next move is mine an’ I’m gonna make it.’
    ‘You’ll make it when Mannon’s six feet under,’ Jack warned. ‘You move on Whitney and he’ll have your balls for breakfast.’
    ‘What’s the big friggin’ deal?’ Howard waved his arms excitedly in the air. ‘They’ve been divorced for nearly two years. Mannon’s married to Melanie what’s-her-name. And Whitney hasn’t exactly acted like a virgin since they split.’
    ‘You’re talking like a dumb asshole,’ Jack said, bored with the conversation. ‘Has it ever occurred to you that Whitney suddenly getting the hots for your body coincides very nicely with your primo position at Orpheus?’
    ‘Are you saying—’ Howard began indignantly. He stopped abruptly as Mannon slid back into the booth.
    ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Mannon said expansively. ‘Somebody should do a movie about middle-aged broads who follow movie stars into the can. I just got trailed by a real prize. She bird-dogged me into the goddamn john and asked for my autograph while I’m in the middle of taking a leak! Can you believe it?’
    Jack could easily believe it. The same thing had happened to him a week before at a fashionable restaurant. Fame. It was the one part of his life he did not enjoy. Sister Silver revelled in it. You couldn’t pick up a magazine without seeing her face staring at you. Her comeback was phenomenal, and yet fortunately it hadn’t affected him. In the public’s mind they had two very separate identities. Like Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine, the fact that they were brother and sister rarely came up.
    Today was Silver’s birthday. He hadn’t spoken to her in months. The only conversations they did have concerned Heaven, who was now sixteen years old. When Silver first came back to America, the expectation was that the child would leave her grandfather’s house and return to live with her mother. However, one week in Silver’s company put paid to that plan, and Heaven returned to her grandfather, who had continued to bring her up ever since. It pissed Jack off. George was getting older and needed a little peace and quiet in his life. Heaven was turning into a wild child and Silver was the last one to care. She wouldn’t even reveal who Heaven’s father was.
    ‘What d’you think, Howard?’ Mannon demanded. ‘How about doing a movie called Old Groupies or How I Learned to Take a Piss in Public ? Is the idea grabbing you?’
    ‘I think you should do a film for Orpheus,’ Howard said seriously. ‘Name the deal and it’s yours.’
    ‘C’mon. You know better than anyone that I don’t even have a minute to scratch my ass.’
    Swooping on another roll, Howard said, ‘Let’s get something in the works. When you’re free we want you. Remember, Orpheus is first in line.’
    ‘What is this, calling-in-favour time?’
    Howard nodded vigorously. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘In that case,’ Jack joined in, ‘when