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shrugged, unconcerned. “Exactly that. Love is the goal that we have been sold all our lives. Of course the ideal is to find your Prince Charming, to have the connection that is shared by Apolo and Trinity here. But you have eyes and you are a fairly intelligent woman, Anastasia. How many true connections of this sort have you ever seen? If you are honest with yourself, you know that the number is something that can easily be counted on one hand.”
    Anastasia swallowed hard, aware that Apolo and Trinity were watching her for her response. She felt a high blush burning on her cheeks, but she refused to back down.
    “I have known lots of people with lots of different kinds of relationships,” she said, but he cut her off.
    “Of course. There are many different types of relationships. Some of them are parasitic, with one partner feeding off the other. Others are simply relationships of convenience. Still others exist because people hate the idea of being alone. What I am getting at, Anastasia, is that you can hope all you want for a relationship that will stand the test of time, but for the most part, you might as well hope for stones that fly. I am only telling you the truth as I know it to be.”
    There was a slight smile on his face as he said this last, and it occurred to Anastasia that this topic meant very little to him. In his mind, he was merely correcting the errant waywardness of a young woman. Still, she couldn’t help but feel it was cruel of him.
    “I don’t care if it is a fairytale,” she said, standing up from the table. “I don’t care. What I do know is that I am going to wait for it, and that I am going to know it when I see it. Anything else…would be a lie.”
    For some reason, she felt as if there were tears lodged in the back of her throat. It was pure foolishness, of course. She didn’t know Augustine well enough for him to offend her or to make her cry. She didn’t care a single bit for his opinion. That’s what she told herself anyway.
    “Excuse me,” she said. “I…I think I am going to make my way to the ship.”
    Feeling as fragile as a newborn fawn, she picked her way to the door. She didn’t know what she might do all alone on the yacht, but she knew that she couldn’t stand to be there any longer.
    For a moment, the table was utterly silent in the wake of her absence. Finally, Trinity turned to Augustine with a look of fury on her fine-featured face.
    “What the hell was that?” she asked, glaring. “Did she irritate you by stating something that she wanted? What brought that on?”
    “I was only being honest,” Augustine said, but there was less conviction in his tone than there might have been. He gazed out the swinging door where she had gone, feeling just a little stunned.
    Apolo snorted. “You love the truth when it serves some purpose, brother, but I cannot see what purpose it has served here. She wasn’t someone who was pestering you or trying to push you into something that you did not want to do.”
    Augustine looked like he was going to respond to that, but then he glanced down to see that she had left the weavings and the honey that she had purchased next to her seat.
    “It doesn’t matter,” he said, feeling oddly hollow. “Someone should bring her her things. She will be missing them. Trinity, could you…?”
    That was apparently the last straw for the actress. She stood from the table, fiery as a goddess of justice. If she had had supernatural powers, Augustine thought that she would have roasted him where he sat.
    “No,” she said. “I’m sure that someone who is so concerned with the truth can see that he should be the one to take those things to her, and ideally with an apology as well.”
    She turned on her heel and followed her friend out of the door.
    Apolo shook his head, setting his napkin aside and rising to follow his wife. He turned back to Augustine with a grim look.
    “I don’t know exactly what your game is, brother, but I might