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I feel terrible about being the reason that poor guy will get fired, but Ianyway After all, if ere sent here to kill him it can only le with Vince for a short while, but ne and listen to the two of thethelance at his watch once

"Mr Hauests in no tine and hors d'oeuvres Ah, there she is!" He waves a hand toward us and we turn around "I would like for you to meet Lucinda Graham-Spencer" He s wolass curves approaches with a man in a suit

"Yes, I have heard her play," Victor says "At a concert in London last year She is brilliant"

"Darrrling, how are you?" the wo out her arms dramatically to Vince Victor and I step aside and she flits between us to plant two almost-kisses on each of Vince’s cheeks

I roll my eyes Not just in character, either

"Lucinda," Vince says, turning to Victor, "estures to "

Lucinda leans in to Victor the same way she did with Vince and they kiss each cheek Then she turns to h of a hint and I sure as hell can’t read his ut tells me to

"A pleasure tomy air of self-importance diently around her arms as hers are onof my choice and probably relieved by it Apparently, this woher stature than I could ever be, and although I have no idea what kind of musician she is or why she is so iht and I would only make myself look like an idiot if I shunned soet kicked out on our asses if I did

Vince leaves Victor and h the roouests I listen to hi to everyone that he said to us and that everyone here is introduced as ‘guests of Mr Haet Mr Ha’s sole attention with so many other people in here, couples included, to compete with

Victor drapes his free hand around the back ofto talk about the paintings and the statues He’ll point subtly to this and that and comment on the detail or the color or the e observations that really don’t warrant verbal recognition inanyway Soon, I see that he was using that tih we needed the company of someone else to make us feel more welco his glass of chane down on a table at the hallway entrance "Will you be alright on your own?"

"Of course," I say with an air of annoyance "I’ by myself"

He kisses my lips and then walks down the hallway I watch until he turns the corner at the end I know he’s not looking for the ‘facilities’ and I start to get nervous when he’s gone forhere alone I hope I don’t look in need of social rescue

I get it anyway

"I’ up to er man "I’ve never seen you here before"

"Izabel Seyfried," I say and sipher know it has more of my attention than she does "And I suppose you wouldn’t since I’ve never been here before"

She slass to her rose-colored lips She has long jet-black hair cascading over both shoulders that ends just below her pluray dress she wears The wolances at her once, probably wondering if she’s going to let ave her I s man who can’t be much older than me

I offer him a faint, seductive saze strays submissively when she looks over

"Where does it come from?" she asks lance at each other with soft grins, obviously sharing an opinion of o

She sips her chah no one needs to knohere your rin "Only someone who feels threatened ever asks that kind of question," I say and glance at the other two briefly to quietly flaunt my win of the control It’s apparent toon whose hand offers the better scraps, they’re not ies frohts up when she sees hi hi to do with custoe Victor accoazes into her dark eyes as he coer than I like But Muriel is pleased and she ht in the eyes to let me know just how ling conversation all over again But instead of showing an ounce of jealousy, because I know nothing would satisfy Muriel more, I walk away from the four of them with roup of le with I’m not sure if this is an act that Victor approves of, but I don’t look back at them once to find out If I do that, it would passit would And Izabel Seyfried doesn’t get jealous easy She gets even