The driving techno of Orbital gently wafted through Lyle’s Hollywood Hills home as Meredith entered the party. For Lyle, every party could be summed up in the phrase “What magic may come?”.  Parties were typically seen as their own purpose, but Lyle saw them as catalysts for new relationships and bifurcation points where life could take unexpected directions.  Mood was everything.

            “Hey doll, so glad you could come.” Lyle said taking Merediths hand and kissing her cheek like a heterosexual brother. “The bar is near the pools and I’ve told them you’re coming.”

            They laughed like uneasy new friends. Meredith strolled out to the pool and surveyed the little groups clustered around the pool and the grassy knoll that led to the willow trees. A lot of celebs seemed very comfortable here.  Lyle was right, his parties attracted a grab bag of personalities and their cliques. She recognized a local female newscaster drunk off her ass and hitting on somebody’s girlfriend.

“Three way time.” Meredith uttered to herself as she ushered to her appointment at the bar.

            “A cosmopolitan” Meredith ordered at the bar. The bartender was the kind of dark Hispanic handsome that she imagined Madonna would suck into her limo and screw off the street.

            “You an actor?” Meredith polled.

            “Sure, I’m whatever you want me to be.” he hit back with a line from some film he had seen.

            “No, seriously.”

            “Actually I’m in law school at UCLA”

            Meredith took her cosmo and had a sip. She spied her new best friend Margo monopolizing a group of skinny but talented programmers with her endless chatter. Margo was a graphic artist who conceptualized some of the scenery in their games, often lending it an understylized Peter Max interpretation. Meredith and she had struck up a rather breezy friendship, going to lunch together and sharing repartee. Neither was really into office gossip, which had helped to cement Meredith’s friendship with her. Being a techhead girl-nerd, Meredith was more prone to be seduced by the world of ideas than office affairs and politics.