Mr. Big was away for the whole month of October, and everything was just a little bit off. On the streets on the Upper East Side, people were walking around in their fall clothing, but the weather was too warm and sunny. At first, Carrie stayed home nights, not drinking and reading Jane Austen's Persuasion instead of seeing the movie. She'd read it twice before, but this time the book was boring, the characters going on in long speeches, and Carrie was depressed from a lack of alcohol and parties. Then she tried going out, but no one had changed or was doing anything new.
One night, Stanford Blatch came late to Wax, the new nightclub in SoHo, with a man's handkerchief tied around his neck.
"What's up?" Carrie asked, and Stanford said, "Oh, you mean with this? It's the Goose Guy's fault." The Goose Guy was a man who liked to have his neck wrung during sex. "Which was fine," Stanford said, "until he tried it on me.
The next night, she had dinner with Rock McQuire, a TV actor. "I really want a boyfriend," he said. "I think I'm finally ready for a relationship."
"You're such a great guy," Carrie said. "You're smart, cute, really successful. You shouldn't have a problem."
"But it's not that easy," Rock said. "I don't want to go out with a twenty-two-year-old pretty boy. But if I go out with someone in
their thirties, they have to be really successful, too. And how many guys are there around like that? So instead, I end up going to a sex club and having an encounter and going home. At least it's not, you know, emotionally messy."
The next morning, Miranda called up. "You'll never believe what I did," she said, and Carrie said, "What, sweetie?" while her right hand curled into a fist, a gesture she's been repeating a lot lately.
"Got a second? You're gonna love this."
"I don't, but I'm dying to hear it."
"I went to a party with my friend Josephine. You know Josephine, right?" "No, but. ."
"I introduced you. At that party that my friend Sallie had. You remember Sallie, don't you? Motorcycle Sallie?" "Motorcycle Sallie."
"Right. There were all these baseball players there. And guess what? I made out with one of them, and then I went into a bedroom with another and we did it, right at the party."
"That's incredible," Carrie said. "Was it great?"
"Awesome," Miranda said.
Something's gotta give, Carrie thought.