"Why is it that all these unattractive guys have all these ideas about what they're going to do for you?" asked Teesie.
"Most men come across as very arrogant," said Shiloh. She had skin the color of toasted almonds and long, straight black hair and huge black eyes. She was wearing a tank top and a long swirling skirt. "It's just too much for me. I finally found one guy who wasn't, but he's in India right now. I didn't feel intimidated by him. He didn't try to touch or feel me."
"There are two types of guys," said Camilla. "They're either slimeballs who are just out to get laid, or else they're in love with you instantly. It's pathetic."
"What kind of guys fall in love instantly?" Kitty wondered.
"Oh, you know," said Camilla. "Scotty. Capote Duncan. Dash Peters." Capote Duncan was the thirtysomething Southern writer
who was always out with beautiful young girls. Dash Peters was a well-known Hollywood agent who was frequently in New York, also a squire of P.Y.T.'s. Both had also dated and broken the hearts of women who were in their thirties and usually pretty accomplished at something besides looking good.
"I dated Dash Peters, too," Teesie said. She touched the back of her short, dark hair. "He kept trying to get me to spend the night with him at the Mark Hotel. He sent me baskets of flowers, all white ones. He was begging me to come over and take a sauna with him. Then he wanted me to go with him to some stupid party in the Hamptons, but I wouldn't."
"I met him in the South of France," said Camilla. Sometimes Camilla spoke in a weird, fake European accent, and she was using it now.
"Did he buy you anything?" Teesie asked, trying to be casual.
"Not really," Camilla said. She motioned to the waiter. "Can you please bring me another frozen margarita?" she asked. "This one isn't cold enough." She looked back at TPA C'O "w* c-™— rA i—1.
"Clothing, or accessories?"
"Clothing," Camilla said. "I already have too many Chanel bags. They bore me."
There was silence for a moment, and then Shiloh spoke up.
"I hardly ever go out anymore. I can't take it. I've become very spiritual." A thin piece of rawhide hung from her neck, twisted around a small crystal. What had finally done her in was an encounter with a famous movie actor in his early thirties who had seen her photo in a magazine and tracked down her agency. They passed on his number, and because she had just seen him in a movie and thought he was cute, she called him. He invited her to spend two weeks with him at his house in Los Angeles. Then he came to New York, and he started to get weird. He refused to go out, except to strip clubs, where he tried to get girls to do special things to him for free, "because he was famous," Shiloh said.
Kitty put her elbows on the table. "A couple of years ago, I said, T've been screwed over too many times. So I decided to take a guy's virginity and then leave him. I was bad, but on the other hand, he was twenty-one, which is probably too old to be a virgin, so he deserved it. I was as sweet as could be, and then I never talked to him again. It doesn't matter how pretty you are. If you can create who the guy wants you to be, you can get him."
"If a guy says to me, T hke fishnets and red lipstick, I see it as accessorizing," said Teesie.
"If Hubert was a girl, he'd be the trashiest girl you've ever seen," said Kitty. "I said, 'Yes, I'll wear short skirts, but I'm going to wear underwear underneath. One time, I had to totally get him back. He kept harassing me and harassing me to sleep with him and another woman. Finally, I have this friend who's gay? George? And we kiss sometimes, but it's like kids? So I said, 'Honey, George is coming over and he's going to spend the night. Hubert was like, 'Where is he going to sleep? I said, 'Oh, I thought he'd sleep in the bed with us. And you're going to play receiver. He totally freaked out. I
because it's what I want. Well," she said, ordering another margarita. "It had to be done. Now we're on a level that's equal."