We met at a cocktail party that I didn’t want to go to. He told me about leaving home at fourteen, being in South Africa where he was a lifeguard, meeting twin girls in polka dot bikinis and waiting on tables in New York. (The Mafia and Marlene Dietrich came in for breakfast at 4 AM.) He drove me home in his British racing green Austin Healey. We ran out of gas on the Bay Bridge. As we walked across the bridge he said, “Stick with me kid and you’ll never be bored.”