There was plenty of life left and if he had to he would use it all to get her back. The time had passed for making promises to her-all that was left for him was to act.

He turned his dark eyes on the girl whom he had dreamed of so often over the previous months. Beside him, at that very moment of existence, at the heart of torrential downpour, she was exquisitely real, and she, too, seemed content to go on sitting there forever.

Life was a short window and there was no sense in doing the wrong thing over and over even if it was so difficult to stop.

She was trying to sound tough and impatient, but she knew that vulnerable desire to be wooed was still brimming in her tone.

THE LUXE IS . . . Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn. Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions. White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups. This is Manhattan in 1899.

Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery.

It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer.