"I still can't believe you didn't tell me you were coming to this party, man!" Percy said, laughing, as he turned his chair around to face Grover and Juniper's table instead of his own.

"I'm a California environmentalist married to a lawyer. You thought we'd miss the chance to raise some money for the Democratic Party?" Grover asked, lifting his glass of wine to clink it against Percy's whiskey-and-coke.

"Honestly, I kind of thought that you'd call it a capitalist nightmare inversion of politics and refuse to attend on principle," Percy admitted, taking a sip of his drink.

Grover shook his head, springy curls shifting over the shoulders of his clean-cut tux. "No, I respect the practical, money-driven underpinnings of our current democracy."

"No, Percy's right. I had to talk you into coming here tonight at all." Juniper rolled her eyes. "It's nice to see you though, Percy. You haven't been out West in… how long?"

"Probably since the Olympics," Percy sighed. "Sorry, I know it's been ages."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing, man, I'm in D.C. enough for work, I should have come up to New York to at least say hello more often." Grover drained the last of his glass. "Hey, when this shindig is over tonight, wanna hang out? I don't have much else booked this weekend except for some emails, and Junie took the whole weekend off, too…"

"I'd love to, but I tend to work Saturdays…" Percy pulled out his phone and scrolled through his calendar. "I don't have to be in until noon tomorrow for a meeting, though. Think we'll still be awake when this thing ends?"

Juniper glanced down at her watch, which glimmered gold on her slender pale wrist. "If we leave early-but-not-too-early, no one will say anything, and I think I saw a taco place that's open late on our way into the city."

Percy immediately perked up. "The one over in Georgetown? By the waterfront?"

Grover grinned. "It's even vegan, according to their signs! And they have enchiladas!"

Percy laughed. "So long as there are margaritas there, too, all right?"

Juniper looked between the two of them. "Oh, no. Remember that time Grover drove down from CalTech to UCLA and you came to visit, Percy?"

Percy nodded. "Man, we got so drunk that night… I didn't know margaritas came in blue."

"It was UCLA, everything comes in blue," Juniper said matter-of-fact-ly. "But my point is, no to more margaritas, especially blue ones."

"But enchiladas?" Grover asked hopefully.

Juniper smacked her husband's hand, but she was laughing. "Yes, enchiladas. All the enchiladas you want."

"YES!" Grover threw both arms up into the air. "Percy, you've gotta come out tonight. We'll give you a ride home and everything, you won't have to deal with the Metro…"

Percy grinned and threw an arm around his friend, finally letting some of the responsibilities of his position slide away, just for a moment. "Fine, fine, I'll go!"

"Yay!" Juniper was the one who cheered this time. "I'm going to go mingle with the women's caucus over there, but let's all meet up by the north exit in an hour?"

Juniper got up and wandered over to a small group of women in floor-length gowns gathered over at a small nearby table, and Percy was left to shake his head at his longtime friend. "Who would've ever thought it, Grove?"

"What, that I'd end up with my dream girl?" The environmentalist asked.

Percy reached over to smack Grover on the back of the head, laughing as Grover dodged. "No, come on. That we'd be here. Doing this, in this building. With, me doing policy and you being all superstar-ish, and… I don't know, the tuxes and the gowns and the…"

"And the law school crushes who turned you down five years ago?" Grover asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not the point," Percy groused. "I'm trying to be enthusiastic about us living our literal middle school debate team dreams."

"And I'm very, very proud of us," Grover conceded. "But come on. Really, nothing? Annabeth is..."

"Very good at her job, and I work with her," Percy said firmly.

"Fine, whatever," Grover shrugged. "Hey, new subject. Clarisse LaRue for HUD?"

Percy frowned. "We haven't officially announced that."

"Nah, I know," Grover said. "But if you're going to appoint her, there are some people that she'll play nicer with than others, if you want to talk about it…"

"I'm not getting enchiladas with you if you make me talk about HUD all night," Percy snorted.

"What about green policy language?" Grover suggested, dodging yet another head slap from Percy. "Hey, I was kidding! Kidding, I tell you!"

"Book an actual appointment with me if you want to talk about green policy language," Percy told him.

"Or the other kind of green policy…" Grover winked, and then laughed at the face Percy immediately made. "No, I know, pot's going to come down to the FDA and the surgeon general. I know. I'm just saying…"

"Oh my god, you are so California," Percy tipped his head back. "When did you get to be this California? You had all of middle school and most of high school to become a jaded, pizza-loving New Yorker. Where did I go wrong?"

"Probably when you didn't stop me from growing a roof garden on the middle school windowsills and my apartment's fire escape," Grover pointed out.

Percy paused for a moment, thinking. "Oh, huh, yeah, that'd do it."

Grover reached over to thump him on the shoulder. "I know, right? C'mon, let's go get another drink, it's not like either of us has to drive anywhere tonight."

The girl behind the bar snapped her fingers when she saw them coming. "Jim and Coke for the gentleman with the broad shoulders, and a chilled rosé for my friend the defender of solar panels, right?"

Percy couldn't stop himself from looking her up and down, taking her in. She was either tall or wearing heels, he couldn't tell from the other side of the bar. The top two buttons of her uniform were undone, leaving him with a very good view of her ample cleavage, but his eyes fixed mostly on her long, loosely curled ringlets of fiery red hair, tucked up into a haphazard knot on top of her head, held back with little silver pins.

"That's… how did you remember…" Percy gestured to the ballroom around them, filled with people. "There must be two hundred people here."

"Five hundred, but most of them aren't the patron saints of greenhouses or Olympic gold medalists." She winked, flashing a slightly lopsided grin Percy's way. "I pay attention."

"Huh." Percy blinked.

"So… do you want the Jim and Coke or not?" She held the bottle of coke aloft. "I make a mean Dark and Stormy, too, if you're feeling something with a little more ginger."

Grover, already holding his glass of rose, choked.

Percy felt his ears burning furiously. "No, I'm… I'll stick with the whiskey and Coke, thanks. I mean, I'm. Um."

"Mhm." The bartender shook her head and let out a little laugh, neither the airy, polite giggles nor the sarcastic barks of the laughs Percy was used to hearing at work. The redhead laughed like a person— not practiced, not sharp, just… real, in a way Percy had forgotten people could be.

She slid a glass across the counter. "Enjoy it."

"Right, thanks." Percy turned to Grover, cheeks still flaming hot. "Um. So should we…"

"Yeah, I suppose we should." Grover took another sip of his wine. "I wanted to make sure I got a chance to talk to the GreenCorps money guys before I left."

Percy glanced back over his shoulder at the redhead behind the bar. "Um, thank you. Hey, uh, I didn't catch your name…"

She grinned again, a tiny dimple appearing in her left cheek. "Don't worry about it. I'll be seeing you around."

The plot thickens!

As always, I'm thrilled to hear from y'all in the reviews- sending lots of love and appreciation your way!

~GT