Rian chuckled, and looked at Jade. Fabienne regarded her more neutrally now, after she saw how affectionate Dan was towards Rian, at one point kissing her absentmindedly on her hair, and then holding her hand.

Rian gave Jade a small, rueful smile. Her friend was uncomfortable, that was plain to see. Or at least plain for Rian to see. Fabienne’s PDA was getting to Jade.

Finally, when Jade attempted to brush off Fabienne’s arm from around her shoulders, Fabienne accidentally tipped the glass of red win she’d been holding in her other hand down Jade’s pristine white shirt. Jade stood hurriedly while Fabienne tried to blot the spreading red stain with a napkin, murmuring her apologies.

“I’ll just see what I can clean up in the rest room,” Jade said in an irritated voice.

As she started to walk away, Rian jumped up, calling after Jade, “Can I help?”

Jade spun, and paused as she looked at Rian, and then nodded her head.

Fabienne plopped down on her chair while Rian quick-stepped after the retreating figure.

As they were making their way to the ladies room, they ran into Dan.

“Jade!” he exclaimed. “Are you alright?!” as he pointed at the red stain on Jade’s shirt. “Did you hurt yourself?”

Jade chuckled, and waved off his concern, “Yeah, I’m alright. Just had a run in with Fabienne’s wine glass.”

“Oh , sorry to hear that!” Dan answered, and then turned to Rian.

“I’m glad you’re here, actually. There’s an emergency in DC. Turns out we may not have all the votes we need for a really important vote that the senator had called for. And the senator wants me to get back to DC right away, and work with Sean, the chief aide of a key ally … the one who called me … to see how many of the votes we can secure.”

“But it’s Christmas Eve!” Rian exclaimed.

“Sorry, honey,” Dan said with a small smile, and then kissed her hair quickly. “But we need to tie down as many of those votes as we can, before everyone leaves DC tonight. There’s a plane waiting for me in Teterboro …”

“But,” he continued with a small smile, “if you’d like, you can stay. Enjoy the rest of the party with Jade and Fabienne, and maybe spend Christmas here with them? I’ll be really busy tomorrow, also, and I know it would just make you pissed if you spent Christmas all alone.”