She turned on her phone. When it was ready, she scrolled through her contacts to find Andy’s number.

She stopped, her finger trembling over his number.

“No, Mittens,” she told the cat. “I’ve got to have it out with Oscar before I can be clear about Andy.”

Mittens yawned.

Christina stood up. “I have an idea,” she told Mittens. “A really good idea. I’m going to go see Oscar. I’m going to challenge the man.”

Once again she dressed in her power outfit, the pantsuit and gold charm and Hermès scarf. She rolled her hair up into a messy bun like Meghan Markle’s, and took time carefully and skillfully applying eyeliner and red lipstick. She carried her briefcase with her, even though only her wallet and a sandwich were in it. She had to wear her lumpy down coat because her wool coat had to go to the cleaners before she could wear it again. She pulled on a pair of red mittens, added a red wool cloche hat, and went out to her car.

She shook with nerves as she drove around the streets and up the brick road to the house on the cliff. She checked her lipstick in the visor mirror, picked up her briefcase, and strode to the door.

She knocked firmly on the door of Oscar Bittlesman’s house.

“Christina!” Janice’s eyes went wide with surprise. “What are you doing here? Everyone else has left—”

“Is Oscar here? He’s the one I want to see.”

“Well, yes, he’s here, he’s finishing his breakfast…”

Christina stepped over the threshold, making Janice back up in the process. Christina had a moment of guilty exhilaration. She felt kind of like a gangster.

“I won’t take more than a moment,” she told Janice.

“He’s on the sunporch. Down the hall and to the right.”

Christina strode down the hall, her boots making satisfactory stamping noises, as if she were an entire herd of people. The sunporch was small and lovely, papered in a beautiful yellow silk fabric printed with birds and flowers, with sun streaming in through the triple-glazed windows.

Oscar looked completely out of place in this pretty room. He had a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of him. Another place was set across from him, a plate half-full of eggs and toast. A cup of coffee with lipstick on the rim. Christina tucked this information in the back of her mind to be reviewed later.

Oscar stared at Christina, scowling.

“Don’t get up,” Christina said, even though—or maybe because—she knew the older man had no intention of politely rising at her entrance.

“To what do I owe this surprise?” Oscar asked.

She pulled out a chair next to him and seated herself. “I’m throwing down a challenge.”

Oscar leaned back in his chair and smiled. “You are, are you?”