“Naturally. Anyway, there’s some kind of confrontation on one of the upper decks involving the three of them. No one knows for sure what happened but the count ends up plummeting over the railing to his death four flights below. Of course, Gianluca is completely innocent in the version the countess tells, he’s only protecting her, and she’s backed up by the staff, who adored her and loathed the count. I don’t think her niece, Edward’s ex, ever believed the story, but it’s so like Edward to fall for someone like G. My darling Edward, he grew up everywhere and nowhere, so he always feels a kinship for wanderers. Wouldn’t be the first time it’s gotten him into trouble.”

“And has it? Gotten him into trouble, I mean.”

“Depends on what you believe, I suppose. All I know is Edward came back here with a new ‘investment,’ a new friend, and a rather unbelievable story about Gianluca’s heroics on the high seas. In their version, Gianluca stepped in to protect the countess when her husband tried to attack her.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “You don’t believe it?”

“I’ve been here for a few months. He’s not the only one with a conveniently heroic origin myth. Come on,” she says, taking my arm, “let’s go in.”

I squeeze in on the couch next to Cali and she kisses me hello, lets her long leg drape over mine. “Where’s Angelina tonight?” I ask.

“Oh god,” she says. “Those two are a hot mess. Don’t get G started. He’ll either be ranting or crying.”

“Crying?” I’m surprised.

“Oh, you don’t know the half.”

When Gianluca comes back in, it quickly becomes his party again. He commandeers the music and asks me to dance a tango with him.

I can’t help the hope from burbling up through the cracks of my heart. Angelina gone, and I’m his first dance of the night. Tonight, I feel more perfectly in sync with him than I ever have; I’m dropped into my body in a way that’s so sharp it’s almost painful, in that it reminds me how numb I’ve otherwise become. When the song ends and Gianluca steps away, it feels like someone has shoved me out into the cold.

I’m not alone for long though. Everyone asks me to dance after that. No one is exactly like him, but his team members are created in his image. He taught them to dance, certainly, but it’s also as though he taught them how to feel and touch, as though they’ve all become his proxies. Cali’s partner, the Norwegian whose name eludes me at the moment, even teaches me some zouk.