They came to her within ten minutes.
Richard was at the bar, ordering, when the three of them crossed the room in loose formation — not together, exactly, but orbiting the same fixed point. Annie watched them approach and felt the champagne go warm in her hand.
Victor reached her first. He was taller up close, silver at the temples, a face that had decided things for a living for thirty years.
"Mrs. Hayes," he said, and took her hand, and instead of shaking it he lifted it to his mouth and pressed his lips to the back of her knuckles. And then he just held it, long past the point of politeness. His eyes came up over her hand and stayed on her face while his thumb moved slowly across her skin.
"Victor," he said. "Call me Victor."
"Annie."
"I know." A flicker of a smile. "I know rather
