Second Bloom
She waits another ten seconds, registers the quality of the stillness beside her — attentive, not restless, someone actually listening to the panel — and then looks.
He is taller than she remembered. Or maybe she remembered him at thirty-four when she was already tired, and tired people don't fully register height. Dark hair, good suit — charcoal, not black, which is a choice that suggests he knows the difference — and the quality of someone who does not need to be seen to feel comfortable in a room.
His badge reads: ETHAN COLE — COLE FAMILY PARTNERS, Washington D.C.
Valentina looks back at the panel.
Her heart is doing something she does not give it permission to do. She files this under no
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