She gives him a look that would stop most men. He holds it pleasantly and refills her water and returns to his food, and after a moment she picks up the pill and takes it and he says nothing about it because he doesn't need to.
"Sorry about that, guys, I am just recovering from the flu," Annika explains.
"You still look at each other like you met last week," I say.
Kirill glances at her. She smiles.
"Some days it feels like that," he says.
Annika smiles at her plate and then looks up at me. "And you, Luca," she says pleasantly. "Have you thought about it? Marriage?"
"Annika," Kirill says.
"I'm asking him a question."
I open my mouth.
"I am curious," Renzo says, from across the table. "He has a woman pining with considerable dedication. Another one—" a brief pause, "—staying as a guest."
I set down my fork. I guess I am letting him handle a few more deals alone.
Renzo cuts his food.
"Renzo means," I tell Annika, "I?—"
"Luca." Annika waves her hand. "I'm not easily shocked. You know that." She tilts her head. "I just hope you give one of them a proper chance. Kirill tells me you're cold with women."
Cold.
The garden yesterday, it was cold too and dark.
A garden. She was humming against my shoulder, her feet following mine across the stone, the smell of her hair when I pressed my lips to the top of her head.
"It's work," I say, and pick up my fork.
Kirill says nothing. He reaches across and straightens Annika's water glass that doesn't need straightening and she covers hishand with hers without looking at him and I look at the painting on the wall that the children made and think about something else.
Annika steers Renzo into the garden after the meal. I watch through the window as she hands him a watering can and gestures at a row of herbs.
Kirill and I take our coffee to the sitting room.
I tell him about Phillip. The arrangement, the favor, the eight months of deliberate silence. I tell him about the daughter walking into my meeting room and I tell him about the anonymous police report.
Kirill listens with a frown on his face. It is one of his better qualities.
When I finish he is quiet for a moment.
"It's unlike you to hesitate," he says. "You know exactly how to handle Phillip Keller."
"I know."
"So why are you here?"
I look at my coffee.
"I don't want to damage her permanently for something she has no part in."
Kirill studies me. "How is her relationship with her father?"
