“Yep.” I meet his gaze in the mirror as I place my mostly empty champagne glass on the edge of the sink.

“Shit,” he mumbles, scrubbing his fingers through his hair, and I start to laugh as I grab a hand towel and wet it.

“Please don’t get weird now.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah, like you suddenly have no personality except for the one that is an exact replica of everyone else’s here tonight.”

“You noticed that too?”

“It’s hard not to notice when you’ve been around it as long as I have.” I start to wipe myself off, and thankfully, the color and material of my dress hides the champagne stain. “Do you work for my dad?”

“No, I work for the district attorney.”

“Are you a lawyer?”

“I am.”

“Oh.” I feel my nose scrunch involuntarily.

“What’s that ‘oh’ mean?” he asks, and I meet his gaze once more in the mirror.

“Nothing. I just know a lot of lawyers.” One of them being my ex-husband—not that I tell him that. I finish cleaning myself up, then turn toward the door he’s blocking with his wide shoulders. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

“Sure.” He steps to the side, allowing me space to scoot past him.

As he’s closing the door, I walk down the hall a little way and lean back against the wall across from one of the pictures we took as a family for my father’s social media platforms during his campaign. Between the photo editing and our plastic smiles, you’d never know that my mom and I had spent the morning crying after getting the news that her grandmother—my great-grandma—had passed away. Or that my brother Jacob was high as a kite, and he and Dad had just gotten into a blow-out fight that ended with Jacob having his car taken away from him for a month.

Coming out of my thoughts, when my cell phone begins to ring, I pull it out of my clutch and smile when I see it’s my best friend Molly calling.

I answer, putting my cell to my ear. “Hey, are you here?”

“No, and please don’t hate me.”

“You’re not coming.” My shoulders slump forward.

Molly has been my saving grace at these functions since we were kids, and both were forced by our parents to attend these parties. Early on, we figured out ways to make it fun for ourselves.