Just past Columbus Circle, the doorman welcomed them into The Tower. They took the lift to the penultimate floor.
‘Not the top floor? You disappoint me, Mr Eastman.’
‘The top floor is still owned by the developer. He’s a former slum landlord from Queen’s. Ivan Kashlow. He was convicted of incest. Get this, with his daughter, Donna. That’s why they had to change the name. It was formerly Donna’s Tower. New York, the best of the best and the worst of the worst. They say she’s still in there, a recluse, spends all her time buying online tat. Everything is gold, they say. Quiet neighbour though, so that’s the important thing.’
He opened the door to a spacious, open-plan apartment with views over the park.
‘Here we are,’ he said. ‘This is what I call home.’
‘O-M-Gee,’ exclaimed Dixie, her hands over her mouth. ‘This is… The views are amazing.’
‘That’s why we bought it,’ he said. ‘I knew I wanted a view, and I didn’t want a house with a garden. I don’t have kids, and a garden seems to me like it’s just a waste of time. Besides this is Manhattan, not Battersea. This was the perfect compromise.’
Dixie looked around. Enormous glass windows with far-reaching views across the greenery to brownstones doubled as sliding doors. It was more masculine in feel than she’d expected, which made her think that a lot of his wife’s stuff had been removed. There were a few girly touches around, loads of cushions on the sofas, and everyone knows the only people who buy mountains of cushions are girls! But the style was sterile, quite corporate. There were no photos and that both pleased and intrigued her.
‘So,’ he said as he handed her a glass of chilled white wine and led her through the doors onto a terrace with a large rattan sofa and two armchairs, an electric barbecue and a large parasol.
‘This is the perfect place to entertain. Oh my god, Stells and Ana would go mad for this. Chardonnay on the terrace over Central Park. Can we?’ She waved the phone.
‘Sure. Here, let me.’
‘No, I mean the two of us, with this once-in-a-lifetime backdrop.’
‘No, just let me take one of you.’
There was a little wrestle over her phone, but Dixie could feel he was not going to concede and let it go.
‘That is a great photo,’ she said examining his work. ‘Seriously the only thing that could improve it is you.’
‘I’m not really at the couple-y social media selfie stage. Perhaps it’s my advanced age.’
‘Just for the girls?’ she tried, convinced that some firm charm would bring him around.
‘Another time,’ he said dismissively, surprising her. ‘So how are the girls? What’s the latest gossip?’
‘I don’t think we’re really at the sharing secrets stage yet,’ said Dixie coquettishly, as she curled up on one of the outdoor sofas.
‘Touché!’ He toasted her. ‘Everyone knows the true measure of a woman is her friends. No man is a woman’s soul mate, that’s her closest friends.’
Dixie smiled and nodded.
‘Wow, Fred, that might be the smartest thing any man has said to me. I’ve never thought about it that way. You might be right… so far.’
‘I know I am right – men come and go, but women are always there. I mean you might be a complicated species, but you are loyal and when push comes to shove, you are always there for each other. Women need one another; men can often take it or leave it.’
‘So who are your best friends then?’ asked Dixie. ‘Is there anyone I should meet?’
‘Not really. I have a brother, Charlie. He is a legend and has been there for me through everything. He is married with two kids so leads a pretty different life to me. We only get time for the occasional pint. Weddings. Funerals… We both love to motorbike, so when we have the time, that’s what we always do.’
‘You’re a biker?’ asked Dixie, although to be honest she really wasn’t that surprised. It suited his personality, or what she knew thus far.
‘Yup, my only vice. I even buy the magazines and pile them up. It’s therapeutic, and I think the thing I love about it the most is that it completely clears your head. You are so caught up in staying alive that you don’t have time to think about anything else!’ Yes, issues of independence and control, she thought ruefully.
Freddie refilled their glasses and brought out a light blanket for her.
‘So come on, there must be some gossip from home on the girls?’
‘Ana’s on a back-breaking sex marathon with a man firing blanks, while obsessing over some ex. Stella is angry and mean and she’ll be absolutely fine. She’s the strongest of us all.’
‘Stronger than you?’
‘Nothing shakes Stella. She wants something. She goes for it. She gets it. No prisoners. No procrastination. If she wasn’t my best friend, I’d be terrified of her.’
‘So, is Ana gonna cheat?’
‘Huh?’
‘With the ex?’
‘God knows! Ana’s a kind of weird sex nun. Well, mostly. A sex-mad nun. She has sex more often than nuns pray, but she’s a rule-based monogamist. Stella’s more likely to go wild than Ana. She used to be a high-flying fashion editor and now she spends her days making dinner for an absent husband, and single-handedly raising two kids. Besides, Ana’s ex is Joel Abelard.’
Freddie looked blank.
She tried to sing a few lines from ‘Brown eyed girl’.
‘Sorry, nothing.’
‘Check him out. It’s better than it sounds, I promise.’
‘And what’s happened to Stella’s husband?’
‘Oh god, nothing like that, no, he’s a partner in a law firm. They’ve been together for nearly twenty years. Things just, you know, lose their magic.’
‘It’s not magic, it’s oxytocin. It’s a hormone. The love hormone. A temporary chemical bond. It gets us together and then we have to find a why or how to stay together.’
She laughed. ‘Yes, Professor Scientist.’
‘Have you ever wanted kids?’ he asked.
She was taken aback, so her first answer was, as always, ‘No. Never,’ but now she found herself smiling into Freddie’s eyes and continuing, ‘I don’t think I have ever met the right person.’ Seeing a shadow cross his eyes, she stumbled on, ‘But right now I have made peace with the fact I will probably never be a mother.’
The shadow was gone. ‘Well, never say never, Dixie, you never know what the future holds.’
‘No, I do know I am nearly 40 and my eggs are nearly all fried! How about you? Ever seen yourself as a dad? Someone to pass those cynical professor genes on to?’
‘I don’t know. I mean I guess I thought I would have kids, but since… I haven’t really thought about it. It’s been more about survival than anything else, but now I have seen how fragile life is, I suppose it scares me even more.’
‘Wow, we seem to be getting very serious,’ said Dixie as she curled her legs up under her.
‘You’re right, enough talking.’
He undressed her on the sofa. They battled for control, for the right to give pleasure. She held him down and took him in her mouth, determined to have the last word. He fought back, whipped her beneath him and they came together.