I squinted and tried to peer through all the craziness. It was probably just me being paranoid. But I hadn’t smoked any weed, and I swore when I first walked into the party I saw a girl who looked exactly like my psycho ex talking to Ana. But now I couldn’t see either of them. I stepped down off the bar, even though that provided a better vantage point. I’d have better luck finding Ana pushing through the crowd. “There’s the man!” Some guy from my agent’s firm clapped me on the back. Gary, Gus, I couldn’t remember his name. He was one of the younger guys who Joel sent out into the fray. Joel didn’t schlep around at parties like this anymore. He liked to tell me he was done with all that. He was a family guy now. “I hear you, Joel,” I murmured, surveying the scene, searching for Ana to no avail. Here I was, the man of the hour on New Year’s fucking Eve, not exactly stone cold sober but nowhere near as crazy as I typically got on a casual Tuesday night. I didn’t want to do more shots on top of the bar with wild and crazy celebrities pulling wild and crazy stunts.
