THE CURTSY AND THE KISS by Andy Nowicki I. THE CURTSY Something about the sight of the man caught Rayna up short from the start. His very presence presented a paradox of sorts. His lean frame and milky-pale complexion suggested a faintly supple insinuation of illness, but his ready, watchful, alert eyes struck her with such force that she had to catch her breath. As he met her helpless gaze with unsmiling, incorrigible implacability, Rayna felt racked with confusion; her pulse raced wildly, her palms moistened, and she felt she would faint. Desperate to restore equilibrium, she clutched at her chest as an inchoate spasm of intolerable expectation swept over her. Who was he? Much as she pondered this question later, Rayna could never reconcile her immediate, avidly visceral conviction of dread and anticipation with the man’s generally unprepossessing appearance. It is true enough that he was conspicuously overdressed. At a party in which most of the men wore jeans, shorts, and T-sh...