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A woman in a bright pink dress appeared, smiling apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Sophia, but I was wondering if you had seen Shane?”
“My son is surely wherever you’ll find the most laughter and drinks,” Sophia told her.
“Ah, I haven’t spotted him yet. But I wanted to thank him for his help and generous donations,” the woman said, smiling politely at me.
“Wait another hour. You’ll find him surrounded by women in no time, I’m sure.”
“Right. Well, thank you, sorry for interrupting.”
I waited until she was gone before frowning. “Donations?”
“Shane amuses himself by donating to charities, causes, and scholarships based upon his own whims,” she said.
“Huh, not what I would have imagined.”
“Should you find him properly loosened up from the vast quantities of alcohol he’s bound to consume, you might just pull it out of him. Then again, you might not.”
“I’m curious what he considers a worthy cause, but I’m not that interested,” I said hastily.
She eyed me. “If you do get him to tell you the truth, I would be interested to know. My son is not the quickest to share.”
“Ah, I see,” I said, not really sure what I was supposed to say.
“Don’t call on me if you need to be bailed out of trouble. I’m trusting you to maintain the bare minimum,” she said, leaving me with that phenomenal belief in my capabilities and a similar disquiet to earlier.
Now I was no longer bound to her side, however, I quietly slipped away from the busy entryway and avoided the main ballroom where people had begun grouping in tight clusters. I was still interested enough to want to keep an eye on the party and had earlier made note of the empty balconies lining the upper portion of the ballroom.
Not one person paid much attention to me as I slipped away and made my way up the stairs. A few on the second floor recognized me and greeted me silently but let me pass without conversation. I was glad whoever had designed the house had gone for the parallel path design for the hallways rather than the labyrinthian model they could have gone for. It made it so much easier for me to find the ballroom again and gaze down upon the clusters of people.
From up high and unobserved, I found the people far less intimidating than they’d seemed up close. I smiled as I watched a group of richly dressed girls talk and softly chuckle as a well-dressed man passed. Only then could I see past their expensive clothes and hair to the teenage girls they clearly were. I watched a man’s eyes linger a little too long on a woman nearby, and his wife made a subtle but clear indication that he needed to avert his eyes. I saw a married couple with a few, probably significant, issues. I even watched an older couple, not as richly dressed as others but always close to one another, and I saw the wife beam whenever her husband turned his attention to her.
“Gazing upon the zoo?” a voice asked softly from behind me.
“Christ,” I groaned, slumping into a nearby chair. “How do you always manage to show up when I’m just starting to relax?”
“You’re not supposed to relax at a party,” Shane told me, taking the seat next to me without hesitation. He held out a glass of something bubbling and golden. “Here, you haven’t touched anything tonight.”
“I’m not drinking while I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on your mother’s health and treatment,” I told him stubbornly.
“It’s non-alcoholic. Which makes it boring, but it tastes good all the same.”
“Fine,” I sighed, taking it and sipping, only to be annoyed that he was right. The fruity crispness was made all the more apparent by the bubbles on my tongue. If the non-alcoholic drinks were this delicious, I could only imagine how dangerous the booze was.
“I told you,” he said with a chuckle, settling back and taking a sip from another glass I was pretty sure was not virgin.
“That you did,” I said grumpily and then straightened slightly. “Wait, how did you know I haven’t drunk anything tonight?”
“Believe it or not,” he said, his eyes on the ballroom. “I’ve kept tabs on you throughout the night.”
“Because that isn’t slightly stalkerish at all,” I said with a scowl.
He shrugged, completely unabashed. “I wanted to see how you’d respond to all this, especially while you were practically chained to my mother’s side. But as I said before, I find you interesting enough to keep an eye on.”
“And in a completely uncharacteristic fashion, you offered me something non-alcoholic.”
“Is that uncharacteristic? I have enough sense to know you wouldn’t drink anything alcoholic on duty. You’re a man of principle and stubborn.”
I rolled my eyes, taking another drink. “You really know how to make someone feel good.”
