I.Table nine is taken.
Lucien has managed the dining room for years. He has accommodated birthdays, broken engagements and a woman who travelled with her own pepper mill. Dante's jacket remains his most demanding regular. It comes off after the entrance, receives a chair at table nine and stays there while its owner circles the dance floor. Once, a new waiter offered to take it to the cloakroom. Dante looked at the empty seat, then at Lucien, with the restrained disappointment of a man whose oldest friend had been insulted. The jacket received a fresh napkin. Nobody has offered again.
II.The entrance has a reprise.
There is a short pause before Dante appears at the top of the stairs. Nico knows it. The photographer knows it. Even the man collecting glasses has learned to turn his trolley the other way. Dante checks one cuff, lets the room notice the other, and descends as though the staircase was a recent commission. On one memorable evening, a guest asked whether he had just arrived. He considered the question, returned upstairs and did the whole thing again. Nico found the exact part of the record. The guest apologized for interrupting the first performance.
III.Mirella knows the measurements.
Every tailor in the district has an opinion about Dante's collar. Mirella has a pattern. She keeps it in a drawer marked with his initials, alongside a photograph of him demonstrating what he calls a modest turn. There is nothing modest about the turn. It requires room through the shoulder, conviction through the waist and a lining that can survive applause. When she delivers a new suit, Dante sends a handwritten note describing how it behaved under the lights. He once enclosed a floor plan. Mirella framed the note and charged for the extra fabric.
