“Not constantly weeping, you mean?”
“No, not that, for sure.” His eyes hold a challenge. Like he’s expecting me to be offended and he’s considering whether or not to say it.
“Go on,” I say.
“You were married to one of the Browne kids. I didn’t expect you to work, for one. And I didn’t expect you to be this… well. This is where I’ll insult you.”
“Please don’t censor yourself on my account, Mr. Winter. I think you’re the one who said you’ll never be offended by the truth? I won’t, either.”
He smiles. “Fine. The word I’m looking for is sharp, Sophia. I didn’t expect you to be this sharp.”
“Because I married Percy Browne?” That makes me chuckle, and I lift my glass. “You know what, I understand that. It wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made.”
A smile spreads across his features. If his good looks were austere before, this makes them come alive, and I catch my breath.
“I’ll toast to that,” he says, and our glasses touch.
Warmth spreads through my chest, and I can’t resist teasing him. “Do you often think women are less intelligent?”
He gives a surprised chuckle. “I’ve never been asked that before.”
“Because the women you surround yourself with are usually too dumb to ask it?”
“Oh, I’d love to hear you say that around my mother or my sister-in-law.”
I laugh. “So that’s a no, then.”
“Definite no. And for the record, I don’t think women are unintelligent. I didn’t think you were.” His eyes glitter with teasing. “I made a snap judgement about your character based off what I knew of Percy’s. That’s all.”
I should let it go, but I can’t. “And what did you think of Percy’s character?”
“Let’s just say,” Isaac says, “that my opinion of him has increased a lot since getting to know you.”
I take a long sip of my wine and let the words float through me, like a rock settling into a lake. The compliment makes me warm. “So you went to school together.”
“Yes. But he was a few years behind me.”
“Not that many.”
“Enough,” he says. “Still, his parents and mine occasionally meet.”
“They’re friends?” I say, frowning. My former father-in-law, in particular, would have name-dropped the Winters every moment he could.
Isaac chuckles. “Not exactly. You know how Manhattan is. Many acquaintances, very few friends.”
I nod. That’s never been clearer to me than now, after my divorce. But I didn’t think Isaac would see it that way.
He’s married to his work,I think, looking at the way he takes up space so naturally in the hotel that bears his name. He’ll never work with anything else. Won’t dedicate himself to networking and social climbing the way so many other Upper East Side families do… because he’ll never need to.
He’s already a permanent fixture in that world.
“Sophia?” he asks.
“I must have seen you,” I say. “These past years.”
“We both must have.”
“In the lobby, I thought you looked familiar, but I had… other things on my mind.”