"Nadine."
She turned and lifted an eyebrow expectantly. "Yes?"
Mike stared. "Wow. You... you look fantastic."
"Thank you." Absently, she smoothed away a wrinkle from the bodice of her gown. "Did you need something?"
"Um." His eyes trailed after her hand and lingered. He hadn't seen her in a few days, and though they both knew they were coming to the same event tonight, they'd gotten ready at their own homes.
"Mike?"
"Yes." He stared some more.
"Mike."
He snapped back to attention. "Yes. Walk over here with me?" He steered her toward the edge of the room with a hand on her elbow and then turned to face her again. "Before I tell you this, I would just like to point out that there are two hundred people in this room right now, which makes two hundred potential witnesses when and if—"
"What did you do?"
"Please keep smiling at me like nothing's wrong."
"Tell me nothing is wrong," she said, though she did smile as she said it. Mike thought it looked a touch too menacing for his taste, but didn't feel he was in a position to bring that up.
"I can't do that, and you have to promise me that once I tell you what's happening, you won't kill me. Because, as I've said, there are two hundred witnesses in this room—"
"Sure. I'll take you outside and shoot you there, no problem. What happened?"
He pasted on a nervous smile. "Seriously Nadine, we're in the vicinity of thirty heads of state, their senior aides, and all of their plus-ones, and we're all about to eat fifty-dollar lobster tails off of fine china plates—"
"And seeing as I signed off on both the menu and the guest list, I think I knew this already—"
"I'm just saying, if you kill me in front of all those people and my lobster, you absolutely will not get away with it," he expressed.
"And not for the first time, you underestimate both my creativity and my influence. I could," she said resolutely. She waved her champagne flute. "Now what's the problem?"
"Nadine, seriously—"
"Mike," she snapped, "if you don't get to the point and fast, I will kill you on your way to finding it. And then you won't have to worry about if I'll kill you after you tell me. Spit it out."
He swallowed. He'd normally never be this nervous around Nadine, not when it came to work, anyway. She had no control over his job or how he did it, and even if she did, he never screwed up in a way that would have him fearing her reprimand or anyone else's. But this time...
"I fucked up," he blurted.
"Believe it or not, I figured out that much on my own."
"Please understand how very difficult it is for me to admit that I'm wrong—"
She cut him off. "What did you do and how are you fixing it?"
"Elizabeth is drunk."
She blinked. "The Secretary is... drunk."
"Yes. My fault. I— I might've been topping off her drink with... extreme attentiveness."
"You—" Nadine closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath through her nose. "Where is she now?"
"I had Blake take her away."
"You knew how important this dinner was—"
"I know! Nadine, I'm sorry—"
"—and how important it was for the Secretary to be in the room, working the diplomats—"
"It was an accident. I forgot how drunk she can get how fast, and then Blake told me that she hadn't eaten all day except by that point it was already too late..."
"Now I have to pull double duty glad-handing," she hissed. To her credit, she was still smiling. "As if I didn't already have enough to do right now."
"I'll make it up to you," he promised.
She shoved her champagne glass into his chest. It was half-empty, but he knew she'd no longer feel comfortable drinking the rest of it now that she had to be at the very top of her game. "Start working the room. If anyone asks you about the Secretary's whereabouts, keep your answers vague and for God's sake don't say anything about her being drunk."
He scoffed. "Duh. Do you think I was born yesterday?"
She narrowed her eyes and dropped her smile. "After the amateur mistake you've already made tonight? Possibly. Don't get cute with me."
"Right. Sorry."
"You'd better charm their pants off or I swear I'll kill you at the table with your own dinner fork. And I don't care which head of state sees me do it."
Not very diplomatic of her, but he knew better than to challenge her when she was this pissed. "Got it." As she walked away though, he dared to speak up again. "Nadine."
She turned.
He offered her a real smile. "You really do look incredible in that dress."
"Thanks. You should see what's under it."
His mouth went dry.
"Too bad you're going home alone tonight." She gave him a sweet little smile in return and then continued to walk away.
...Yeah. He fucked up.