They hugged each other backstage in a full embrace like old friends.

She grabbed his arm and whispered in his left ear.

She kept talking as he bent to listen, and he kept saying "Uh, huh. Uh, huh."

Huh?

"I don't know if what she was giving him was a sucker punch, but he didn't put his arm down while she was talking to him," said the Sneed source.

The "he"... is GOP presidential contender Herman Cain, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women.

The "she"... is Chicagoan Sharon Bialek, who held a news conference Tuesday as the only woman to PUBLICLY accuse Cain of sexual harassment.