Page 12 of The Oligarch's Daughter

“Actually, how about tonight?” she asked, placing her hand on his forearm. “I know a great place.”

“Tonight? When?”

“How about now?”

“They won’t fire you?”

She laughed. “I think you have the wrong idea about me. Shall we go?”

*

It wasn’t until their second drink at the Hole in One, a dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen with a good jukebox, that Paul asked her how she liked catering, and he figured out the truth. Tatyana hadn’t beenworkingthe charity gala but, rather, attending as the guest of a friend. The white shirt he’d mistaken for cater waiter garb had been, she told him, a blouse from Nili Lotan, a designer she wore a lot.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I saw the white shirt, and I assumed . . .”

She laughed. “I guarantee you that none of the staff were wearing Nili Lotan.” She seemed charmed when he admitted he didn’t know anything about fashion.

She didn’t seem offended; she thought it was hilarious.

“So why do you speak Russian?” she asked.

“Language requirement in college.”

“But whyRussian?”

“Well, I heard it was easier than Japanese or Chinese or Arabic. Plus, one of my friends told me it would look good on my résumé.”

She looked dubious, took another sip of rosé.

Paul continued: “When you tell people in an interview you took Russian, you see, it shows you accept a challenge and you’re willing to take the unconventional path.” He smiled, acknowledging the bullshit. “Were you born in Russia?”

She nodded, her mouth full of pizza. She swallowed. “But I came here as a little kid, around six.” She shrugged, seeming to signal that she was bored with the topic, didn’t want to talk about it.

“That’s why your English is so good. Do you speak Russian with your family?”

She nodded. “So where do you work? For some hedge fund?”

“Aquinnah Capital. Bernie Kovan’s company.”

“I don’t know anything about hedge funds. Aquinnah?

“Bernie named it after his Martha’s Vineyard house.”

“You like the work?”

“I do.”

“You like the money, too,” she said with a knowing smile. “It’s how you men keep score.”

“Not me. To me, it means safety. I grew up with a lot of financial insecurity.” He was by now mildly drunk. “My dad lost job after job. We didn’t have much money.”

“So now you’re careful with money, right?”

“I make good money, but I’m pretty frugal, yeah. So I never have to worry about it.”

“Did you deliver papers as a kid? Riding around the neighborhood, tossing the paper onto the porch, all that?”

“I mowed lawns. Made a business of it. Hired my friends as subcontractors. I got the business and a piece of each job.”

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