High Society

In a city built on networking, there is one relationship in your 20s and 30s that is particularly important to cultivate, one contact that can help create the definitive summer experience of snatches of sun and weekends of nothingness that nevertheless feel smugly accomplished.

You need a friend who has a rooftop pool.

"Remember, Chrissie used to have one?" says Frederick Oldfield, drinking a beer at a sports bar in the District. "She'd be downstairs cleaning or something and I'd be up there laying out?"

His friend Craig Collins nods. Sigh.

Chrissie drifted away, but now they have Frank Garcia, and though Garcia does not have a rooftop pool, he has something equally good. He has a rooftop deck.

He has a beautiful deck atop one of those newish complexes by Meridian Hill Park, with views that "panoramic" was invented to describe. All the way to Rosslyn and the Capitol.

"I can text these guys all week and get no reply," says Garcia, a manager at a software company. " 'Can you drive me to the dentist?' Nothing." But as soon as he uses the magic word rooftop?"They're over by 10 a.m."

God but it's nice to know someone like Garcia in the summer. So nice when you live in a basement efficiency and realize that the only way to experience that gorgeous weather is by sticking your head out the window like some kind of dog.

Oldfield and Collins like Garcia for reasons beyond his outdoor amenities. But actually enjoying someone's company is merely a bonus where rooftop property in D.C. is concerned.

"I was friends with this girl for two months" whose most positive quality was her rooftop pool, Lauren Posten admits.

Rachel Houge recently met a guy at a party who said he had a rooftop -- are you ready for this? -- hot tub. She's not going to lie. That didn't hurt his friendship potential.

"I once thought about placing a Craigslist ad," Beth McClimens says, "just to find someone with a rooftop deck."