Really?You look great.Like you mesh perfectly with Big Z, and he’s scary stylish.Cleo’s smile is wide and genuine, like her personality.
Champagne?A smiling server proffers a tray of elegant flutes.I take one and thank him.
Evie, you’re drinking?Viktor reappears behind me, resting a hand on my shoulder.
I like champagne,I confess.For my eighteenth birthday, my mother and I went to Paris, and I had champagne at a lovely bistro.
Yet another side of you.Do you like Paris?
It’s my favourite city in the world—so far.But there are many others I want to visit.
He smiles and lifts my hand to his lips for a brief kiss.And that touch is enough to make me giddy.I follow Viktor as he glides confidently through the room, greeting people and shaking hands with hockey fans.We stop to talk to Coach Norman.
Coach, this is Evie Smith,Viktor says.
Nice to meet you, Evie.This is my wife, Lindsay.
Viktor really respects his coach, so I already have warm feelings towards him.They start talking hockey, of course, so I listen carefully but say little.Then I notice that Lindsay Norman is staring at me.
Do you get tired of all this hockey talk?I ask her.
It’s not that bad.Arnie doesn’t discuss hockey at home.I think he needs a break.She continues,I know how happy he is to have Viktor on the team, though.I remember when he transferred here.Viktor was a huge boost to the program.
Well, he came here because of Coach Norman, so it’s a circle of goodness.I still shy away from disclosing anything that Viktor tells me privately, but surely this is something she already knows.
This is the first time Viktor has brought a girlfriend to any social event,Lindsay remarks.How did the two of you meet?
Oh goodness, how to answer this question?The ball-busting story or the drugged-at-a-frat-party story?I settle on a partial truth.
We met in the library.We share an interest in eastern European history.
Lindsay gives me a very skeptical look.When someone has as much animal magnetism as Viktor, history isn’t the first thing women want to discuss with him.Luckily, I am saved by Cleo.
Sorry to interrupt, but Marjorie Schultz wants to meet Zee,Cleo says.
Well, you better go.She’s a big donor,urges Lindsay.
Viktor takes my hand and leads me through the crowd.We find Marjorie Schultz holding court in a side room, presumably the Dean’s home office.She’s sitting in a leather armchair with the Dean on one side and Mats on the other.
Viktor extends his hand.Dean Erickson.It’s a wonderful event, as usual.
Viktor.So glad you could come.He shakes his hand and looks at me.
This is Evie Smith,Viktor announces.
You’re a student here?the Dean asks, because I’m not famous like Viktor.
Yes, I study history,I tell him.
Very good.May I introduce you both to Marjorie Schultz?She’s a big supporter of Monarch College.
I smile and reach down to shake her hand.She’s an elderly woman dressed in a bright green pantsuit with a red blouse and a ruby brooch.
I like your festive outfit,I tell her.
It was an accident.I certainly didn’t mean to look like a Christmas tree,she explains and I laugh.
Viktor shakes her hand next and she looks him up and down in such an assessing way that I’d be jealous if not for that sixty-year age gap.
