Inwardly he sighed. Hell, he was tired already, worn out by his hour-long show during which it was smile, smile, smile. “I’m on my way to Switzerland for the rest of tonight,” he said firmly, as if speaking to a hysterical child. Usually, when Marilyn was in one of her accusatory, quasi-paranoid moods it worked. But not this time, naturally.

“It’ll take you five minutes to get over here in that million dollar Rolls skyfly of yours,” Marilyn dinned in his ear. “I just want to talk to you for five seconds. I have something very important to tell you.”

She’s probably pregnant, Jason said to himself. Somewhere along the line she intentionally—or maybe unintentionally—forgot to take her pill.

“What can you tell me in five seconds that I don’t already know?” he said sharply. “Tell me now.”

“I want you here with me,” Marilyn said, with her customary total lack of consideration. “You must come. I haven’t seen you in six months and during that time I’ve done a lot of thinking about us. And in particular about that last audition.”

“Okay,” he said, feeling bitter and resentful. This was what he got for trying to manufacture for her—a no-talent—a career. He hung up the phone noisily, turned to Heather and said, “I’m glad you never ran into her; she’s really a—”

“Bullshit,” Heather said. “I didn’t ‘run into her’ because you made damn sure you saw to that.”

“Anyhow,” he said, as he made a right turn for the skyfly, “I got her not one but two auditions, and she snurfled them both. And to keep her self-respect she’s got to blame it on me. I somehow herded her into failing. You see the picture.”

“Does she have nice boobs?” Heather said.

“Actually, yes.” He grinned and Heather laughed. “You know my weakness. But I did my part of the bargain; I got her an audition—two auditions. The last one was six months ago and I know goddamn well she’s still smoldering and brooding over it. I wonder what she wants to tell me.”