Like David, like Leon, I just couldn't quit him. Florian persisted from Chicago--he sent me a rubber ear scrawled with the message "I'd love to hear from you"--and eventually I relented. He flew back to the Pines for one of the early Ascension parties.
Chris and I had taken the plunge and signed the lease on our most expensive house ever, three times as much as we had paid our first summer. It was almost as far east from the ferry as you could get, on the ocean.
Many but not all of our housemates had returned from the previous season. We also had to recruit some new ones, including Varick (front), who commuted from Holyoke, MA. Victor resurfaced with Tommy, a new boyfriend. Dan continued to exercise reluctant guest privileges.
Joe made a rare appearance, too. I can't remember if this photo was taken before or after Vita chewed up Steven's pricey sunglasses.
Nearly everyone in the house but me continues to insist it was the most beautiful we ever shared. Of course they mostly had oceanfront bedrooms. I slept in a cabana by the pool, just a few steps away from the hot tub where I puked after an appletini overdose, not quite as bad as the fate of this splayed frog who imbibed too much chlorine.
We seemed to be directly beneath the monarch butterfly superhighway. Birds occasionally flew into our windows.
Barnet made his annual pilgrimage the same rainy weekend that Tom, Audrey, Magda and Zoltan visited.
As a result, Zoltan eventually became one of the few lieutenants in the U.S. Army who could instantly identify the opening notes of Company!
Although my passion for Florian had cooled into friendship, I still loved taking his photo as much as he loved posing.
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