It was amazing how well the match making worked. Lilly was standing close to the salad buffet (the biggest and most diverse she had ever seen) and was nibbling on a carrot stick. Not far off, the barbeque was sizzling and men with beers in their hands had gathered around to take their pick when the meat was to their liking. A group of ladies was throwing covered looks over to them and the men grinned and puffed up under the admiration of the secretaries. They probably were planning on who to get laid by tonight. Little did they know they had no say in this.

With glasses full of ice-cooled (and heavily spiked) fruit punch in their hands, the first ladies set out to collect their price for the night. Who starts early has more time to enjoy.

In the meantime, Lilly had decided which salad to try and shoveled some of this and some of that onto her plate and started to pick at it with a fork. It all went a bit unstable at that and she rescued her full plate onto one of the bar tables to eat more comfortably.

"Hey pretty lady. I haven't seen you around here!" a soft voice greeted her.

Lilly swallowed hard and checked her teeth with her tongue for salad leftovers before she turned sideways and smiled.

"Hi. I am not from here. I am from the LA branch." She answered politely.

"Ah, a newcomer. Welcome then." The blond man in a legere baby blue polo shirt and dark slacks flashed her a smile.

Lilly's mind went into overdrive. Who was he? SHIELD agent, obviously. Had the ladies set her up with someone? Was he breaking out of the plan? He didn't know the plan. Who to ask? Lilly's eyes went over his shoulder and looked for help.

"Are you waiting for someone?" he inquired a bit set back by her lack of response.

Her eyes snapped back to him. "Uh, no. I … I haven't seen you around here either." Of course not, silly. He is a field agent.

"Maxwell Howard. My pleasure, Miss …" he stretched out his hand.

"Rosewood. Lillian Rosewood." She took his hand and to her surprise he turned hers and placed a soft kiss on the back.

Oh oh.

She had to stop this. She was not on the list and he was for sure earmarked for someone else. Maxwell Howard. Maxwell Howard. Had she heard that name before? She had to find Rita. Now.

"Maxwell!" a cheery greeting was called their way.

Rita, thank god. And in her tow was one of the young travel agents from the asia devision. Her blue eyes were already glued to the presentable blond man at the table and she was subconsciously straightening out her ruffled yellow sun dress. Ah, his date for this evening. Not that he knew that. But he will. Soon.

How Rita managed it, Lilly had no idea but not two eye blinks later she was walking away with her arm casually hooked into Rita's. They left the pretty travel agent with the blond man, who had not even had the decency to look after Lilly. So much for his attention span.

"Thank you, Rita. I really did nothing and suddenly he was …" Lilly started to justify herself.

"No need to apologize, darling. I know Maxwell. He is always looking for new faces."

Puh, Rita was not mad at her for almost spoiling the plan. She took a look back at the couple.

"No need to worry either. He will be pretty content with Ally. You are safe from him." Rita patted her hand.

"Good." Lilly's reply sounded not as relived as it should have.

Rita spared her a knowing glance. "You are a bit disappointed, hu?"

Lilly said nothing. It was her own fault after all. She had decided not to take part in the game.

Rita patted her shoulder. "There is always a second chance, darling. Come to the ladies room upstairs in 30min. Until then, take a good look around." With that, Rita headed towards an unhappy looking girl from the archive. One more thing to fix to uphold the schedule.

And there she was again, standing alone under one of the huge willows. Her plate with food was back at the bar table with Maxwell. No chance to get that back. She would have to take a new one and pick new salad. Good, because that pasta pineapple curry mix had not been the best choice and its dressing was leaking onto all the other nice salads on the plate.

Settling back under the willow with her new salad plate on her lap she munched away on refreshing green with tomatoes and pepper while observing the bustling on the meadow between the buffet tables. It was amazing how the more experienced women drew in the attention of their unsuspecting target. One might think an agent would be aware of being tricked into something but they seemed to be totally oblivious. What was even more amazing was that the female field agents were just as oblivious. There are also male colleagues in the office, you know. And the plan worked just the same for them.

Lilly had scanned carefully but she hadn't seen a black leather coat yet. Mindy from Operation Supervision had informed her, that the master-spy-boss was busy in New York. Avengers Business. So she would probably never see the boss in person, except when aliens attack the SHIELD travel devision in LA. Not likely. And not desirable. Lilly really valued her life, quiet and uninteresting as it might be.

She checked the little golden clock that was hanging as a pendant around her neck. Ten more minutes to decide if she wanted to get on that list or not. She might not even have a chance by now to get anyone. Most of the agents already had a secretary on their arm. But did she really want to sit alone on a party all evening? Not really. And playing fifth wheel totally sucked. Huffing slightly, she got up and made her way to the mansion and up the creaking wooden stairs to the 1st floor bathroom.