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“Which club is the Brownes members of?”
“Grandview,” I say. It’s a famous country club with a location on the Upper East Side and one in the Hamptons. It has a waiting list that I’d only been able to bypass because of Percy, who’d had membership since birth.
Isaac takes a sip of his brandy. “You moved to New York a few years ago,” he says.
It’s a statement, but I nod regardless. “Yes. Marhill is a tiny place, and I always wanted to leave. New York was the dream. After college, I moved to the city, and despite all the things that are frustrating about it, I love it.” I shrug. “I met Percy at a bar during my first year in the city. I guess I was… never mind. Let’s talk about you instead of my ex-husband.”
Isaac’s eyebrows rise, and I want to take the words back. I’m talking to him like he’s a friend.
“Me?” he asks.
“Yes. Do you have an ex-wife we can talk about, to make things more even? Or was that a terribly inappropriate question?”
The hint of a smile curves his lips. When you get past the first impression, which is intimidating and distinguished, he’s handsome. Never approachable, I think. But handsome.
“I’m sure it was,” he says, “but I don’t mind.”
“Phew.”
“I don’t have an ex-wife,” he says, “and I’m not dating anyone at the moment.”
“That was fast. I figured you’d deflect on that one.”
“It was an easy question.” He raises an eyebrow. “I know the first answer for you, but what about the second?”
“If I’m dating anyone? No, I’m not. I mean, my divorce went through only a few months ago, even if we’ve been separated for almost a year.”
I’ve turned toward him, almost without realizing it, and my knee brushes his.
“I see,” he says, his eyes dark on mine. “Let me guess. You work too much. You mainly eat takeout in your apartment… your new apartment, right? You moved out of Percy’s but you haven’t fully decorated your new place yet.”
My mouth opens softly. “I haven’t had the time.”
“Right.” He nods, and twist the glass of brandy around. “No, you threw yourself into work instead, and it’s become your life. Dating again scares you, because it means trying at something again. Something that you might fail at, as opposed to work, where you know you can always perform.”
I stare at him.
His lips curve again, into that half-smile. “I shouldn’t have said any of that.”
“It’s all true. But how… Oh,” I say. “That’s you too. Isn’t it?”
His eyes sharpen, and the moment stretches into an eternity-long silence. But then he gives a single nod. “Yes.”
“That makes sense,” I breathe. “Who hurt you?”
Isaac takes a long sip of his brandy. I watch his throat shift and in the silence I realize what I’ve just asked him.
“God, I shouldn’t have asked that. I’m sorry.”
“Perhaps not,” he says. But then something softens around his mouth. “But after our meeting in the lobby, maybe we’re past things like shallow niceties.”
“I’ve never liked them much anyway,” I say.
“You don’t? You surprise me, Sophia.”
“I do? In what way?”
He lifts a shoulder in a half-shrug. “You’re not who I expected you to be, after the first evening.”
