The dance team shows up around midnight and immediately takes over the couches. They have a physical intimacy with one another that reminds me of the drama kids from my high school, who were always draped all over one another, giving each other back rubs in the hallways, holding hands, and hugging. But that group felt like a union of outcasts whereas this one feels like something else, like a group anyone would want to be a part of. Or perhaps it’s just me who wants to be one of them. And in the center of it all is Gianluca, like a sultan in the midst of his harem.

I watch out of the corner of my eye as he extricates himself from one of the girls—it’s Sandra from Shanghai—and goes to speak to Edward. The two of them go out onto the empty patio where it’s drizzling softly, and I watch their faces become strangely serious in the eerie glow of the pool lights.

Gemma catches me spying and leans her head on my shoulder.

“What do you suppose they’re talking about?” I ask.

“Oh, probably just discussing some studio business.”

I look at her confused.

“I thought Edward wasn’t on the team.”

Gemma smiles. “Edward’s an investor. As I said, he likes to buy art.”

“Oh.” Gianluca’s owned by a rich man, just like I once was.

As we watch them, the mood appears to lighten and Gianluca pulls Edward into a handshake that becomes a hug.

“I reckon he’s got what he wanted,” Gemma says. “He usually does.”

“How did Edward come to be a part of his studio?”

Gemma gives me a little sideways smile, as though gauging how much she should tell me. “I told you about that summer in Saint-Tropez—gosh, it must have been a decade ago now—how Gianluca ended up on the yacht with all of them?”

“Sure, the Italian countess, right?”

“Exactly! Oh, I was so blotto on New Year’s I couldn’t remember what all I’d said. But we’re friends now, so I can tell you. So Edward, his girlfriend, her aunt, and Gianluca, they spend this whole summer on the Riviera, having a grand old time. The count himself isn’t around much, has a mistress stashed elsewhere, you know the drill; lets his wife have the run of the boat. But he comes back at the end of the summer and discovers that Gianluca is perhaps not . . . inclined the way his wife led him to believe.”

“They’re having an affair?”