“

I told Ronna I liked Jordan. “He’s very young,” she said. “He’s earnest,” I said. “Arrogant,” she countered. “Hey, Ronna,” I said, “it’s obvious you’re crazy about him.” “I know, isn’t it awful?” “No, it’s not awful, it’s very nice.”

“

Just getting older seems to help. I am still insecure, but I no longer worry so much about things which used to bother the hell out of me. I don’t much care if people don’t like me. I’m not as afraid to express my opinion. I don’t worry as much about making a good impression.

“

I agreed that we are not very compatible. Yet by now each of us is so much a part of the other’s life that neither wants to give up our friendship. We got out of bed, Ronna in her pink bathrobe, and talked as friends till 4 AM.

“

The five of us had dinner in Chuan Yuan, a Szechuan place upstairs on the corner of Montague and Henry. While Libby was in the ladies’ room, Thomas confided that he planned to surprise her on Saturday night with tickets to the Judy Collins concert in Central Park.

“

I had occasion to watch Hilary make her move on Cliff during an otherwise apparently pointless conversation recounting an argument she’d had last week with Reggie Jackson in a Fort Lauderdale restaurant.

“

The party was a New York Magazine cliché. A legwoman for a gossip columnist started a conversation and then abruptly stopped talking to me when she discovered, “You aren’t anyone, are you?”