After four hours of discussion, complaining, and yelling about being empathetic, responsive, and having open dialogs with one's administrative and regional districts, even Germany felt relieved when Spain called for lunch.
They'd had only a short break earlier for a proper Spanish breakfast - and even it ended up being a "working" meal taken in the conference room.
"Mexico, let Boss take you out to lunch!" Spain enthused as everyone began packing up their briefcases. "I want to hear all about this secret admirer!" The Spaniard wore his typical smile but even Mexico had to admit his eyes seemed more enthused than they had been of late.
"Someone's leaving me flowers," she quickly replied. "There really nothing more to say."
"Do you have any guesses who your admirer may be?" Spain asked, leaning over the arm of his chair. He glanced at the two flowers sitting in their glass vase. "It's a rather large vase for just two flowers. Perhaps more are coming," he teased.
Mexico could feel heat creeping up her face again.
"Idiot bastard, she doesn't want to talk about it," Romano cut in. He seized the back of Spain's shirt and started dragging him, chair and all, away from the North American nation.
Mexico cast him a grateful look. He winked in response and kept up a vocal tirade as he wheeled Spain out of the room.
She'd always liked Romano. He had always a pleasant, sympathetic presence throughout her colony days and she'd always enjoyed their conversations when she visited Spain or on the rare occasion he came to Mexico with Spain.
(She really didn't understand why others thought him abrasive - she thought he was hilarious.)
When she finally rose from her seat and turned to circle the table, she discovered Hungary and Malta standing behind her.
"We promise not to be quite so irritating," Malta proclaimed, a delighted grin on her face.
"But we won't be gotten rid of so easily," Hungary continued. The two women exchanged grins and linked their arms through Mexico's. "We do promise to feed you. And I have fun stories of my own to share once we're away from the boys."
Once the female nations were seated in a boisterous restaurant, Hungary and Malta leaned in gave Mexico expectant looks.
"Like I said," Mexico stated, voice echoing her determination, "there really isn't a lot more to say. Thanks to France's big mouth, you've already heard about everything that's happened."
"But you know, don't you," Malta insisted, folding her arms and leaning in close. "Or at least you have suspicions about the identity of your mystery man."
"And there's been no new gossip about North America, so this must be a new relationship!" Hungary exclaimed. Her eyes glowed with an eager light while her fingers tapped a light rhythm on the table. "Really, Mexico, this will stay between us, I promise!"
Mexico gave her a sardonic look. She'd sooner believe pigs could fly then Hungary keep gossip quiet - especially romantic gossip.
"There's nothing new going on." She kept her gaze level, hoping the determined women would believe her so they could move on to a new topic. 'This,' she thought, 'is none of your business and never has been.' Although, if anyone were to understand . . .
Hungary's eyes narrowed. There was more to this than Mexico was admitting.
"Well, I hope you won't mind if we try to sleuth out the answer," Malta asked, voice taking on a sly tone.
"Ooh, that will be fun!" With a grin, Hungary began listing off the conference attendees, mentally vowing to pursue Mexico's unspoken words at a later time.
"It's certainly not Austria, Denmark, Finland or Sweden, Germany or Veneziano, Romano or Spain, or Lithuania or Poland. They're all in a relationship already or in denial."
Malta picked up the thread.
"It probably isn't anyone from outside the EU, either," she added. "Inviting North America was a last minute decision, I think." She frowned. "Erm, who did invite you?" she asked, turning to Mexico.
The North American shrugged.
"America, Canada, and I all got the email blast from Spain about the meeting, so here we are." She considered the matter for a moment. "He may have been piggybacking on an old email thread and just forgot to delete us."
"Huh. Well," she continued in a brighter voice, "I doubt anyone else realizes you're here to that does limit us to the attendees." She ran her mind through the faces at the morning session. "That leaves us with Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Britain, and America."
"So anyone interesting left?" Hungary gave Mexico an expectant look. "Luxembourg is quite handsome."
"They're all obnoxious to one degree or another," Mexico replied, wrinkling her nose. She let out an aggravated huff. "Look, I just . . . this is personal. And I want to keep it that way. My life is not a source of amusement for other people!"
Hungary and Malta exchanged slightly guilty looks.
"Sorry," Malta sheepishly replied. "It just that . . . oh, this is so sweet and romantic and exciting!" She let out a happy sigh.
"And takes more of an effort than you'd expect from any of the men," Hungary noted. "It so rare for any of our kind to go to such lengths - at any time!"
"So I guess you could say that we're vicariously living through you," Malta added. A wistful smile crossed her face. "I'm so jealous . . ."
Mexico sighed as the women's faces turned dreamy as they imagined receiving such attention from their own significant others.
"I guess we could talk about this a little more," she grudgingly admitted.
The other women squealed with delight and the conversation resumed.
Mexico slumped up against the door to her hotel with a relieved sigh, enjoying the silence and dark of her empty room after the loud, long, and speculation filled lunch. The conversation and meal had ended with just enough time to get back to the hotel, take a few minutes to refresh herself, and retrieve her briefcase before heading back to the conference room.
She usually enjoyed visiting with Hungary and Malta and hearing about all the nonsense and shenanigans their got up to. North America was a calmer place all in all, even with all the squabbles and fights the three countries' states, provinces, and territories got up to. Hearing about Europe's constant dysfunction was a delightful source of schadenfreude - a private soap opera with daily dramatic reveals and schemes.
Being the center of that attention, however, was proving to be . . . a bit stressful.
'Still,' she thought as she straightened up and started walking towards the bed. She smiled when she discovered two new sets of pink blooms resting on her suitcase. 'All in all, I'd say it's worth it.'