The mayor’s mansion was bursting with excitement as the new inductees were mingling with the past inductees, and the mayor was mingling with them all.

Tommy stood back in a crowd of his own, enjoying the evening.  But as his crowd laughed and talked, Tommy also kept taking peeps at Grace.  She was the only female inductee this time round, and the mayor was parading her around like a loving cup.  Some citizens groups were voicing concern over the lack of diversity in his administration, and he wanted to prove that, by Grace’s induction alone, that he was making strides in that direction. But as far as Tommy was concerned, that honor was long overdue.  Grace, with his help early on, and all her own doing later, turned Trammel Trucking from a failing shipping company into the premier company it was today.  She deserved every ounce of recognition.

“What are your thoughts, Tommy?” one of the men in his group asked.

Tommy looked at him.  “Excuse me?”

“What are your thoughts about getting on the board of the Hall this year?”

“If we select you,” added another, “would you serve?”

“Not on your life,” Tommy said with a smile, and the members of his group laughed.

But as soon as Tommy saw that Grace had a moment alone, he left his group to go over to her side.  One of the men shook his head.  “He only has eyes for Grace Gabrini,” he said.

“I wonder why,” said the man’s wife.

But Tommy wasn’t thinking about any of them.  He wanted to make sure Grace was okay.  He knew she’d mentioned nervousness.  He knew she didn’t feel she was worthy.  He wanted to make sure those agitators in the house didn’t make her feel that way, too.

He walked over to one of the refreshment carts and retrieved two glasses of wine.  The cart worker, a beautiful woman, smiled at him as he picked up the glasses.  “Anything else I can get for you, sir?” she asked.

“No, but thank you,” Tommy replied with a smile of his own, and headed for Grace.  As soon as he walked away, the woman gave him a nasty look as if she’d just been rebuffed.

“Hey,” Tommy said to Grace, and handed her a glass of wine.

“Thanks.”

“I saw the mayor passing you around as if he wanted as many selfies of himself with you as humanly possible.”

“You saw it too?” Grace asked.  “I thought I was the only inductee the way he was behaving.  I wanted to remind him that there were other honorees he should be showing off, but he eventually got the message.”

“After he got the selfies,” Tommy said.  “It’s all politics anyway.”

“Yeah, it is.  You know what he asked me?”

“What?”

“He had the nerve to ask me if I was available.”

Tommy looked at her.  “He hit on you?”

“No!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Tommy!  He was talking about if I was available to work in his administration.  He’s been getting so much flack because of the lack of diversity in his cabinet.”

“You don’t want to work for him.  Do you?”

“Hell no,” Grace replied.  “I’ll be friendly with him at this party, but I’m not about to give up my career to advance his.”

“I know that’s right,” Tommy said.

“But that’s what he meant,” said Grace.

“It had better be what he meant,” Tommy replied, and Grace laughed.  Nobody but Tommy, she felt, was going around believing that all of these men wanted her like that.  Because he loved her, he assumed they would too.  But Grace had been Grace long enough to know just how untrue that hypothesis really was.

“Hey, Tommy!”  It was the mayor again.

“Hello, sir.”

“How have you been, old man?  I haven’t seen you in a month of Sundays.”

“I’ve been well,” Tommy responded.  “And you?”

“Fantastic!  Just want to borrow your wife again, if you don’t mind?  She’s a hit with my critics.  She may be able to talk them into passing my road improvement bill.”

Grace smiled.

“May I?” the mayor asked Grace, offering his arm.

“You may,” Grace replied, placing her arm on his, and they were off again.

Tommy smiled, too.  Their mayor had no shame!  But before Tommy could fully process it, another group surrounded him, and he was group-trapped again.

But as they talked and laughed and asked various opinions about various topics, Tommy noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and turned in that direction.  He noticed where one of the wait staff, the young lady still manning the refreshments cart, reached down on a shelf beneath the cart, pulled out what appeared to Tommy to be some sort of shiny object, and then made her way down the hall that led to the restrooms.

Tommy suddenly glanced over at Grace to make sure she was still okay.  He didn’t know why Grace suddenly came to his mind, but she did.  And he needed to make sure she was okay.  It was just his way.

But she and the mayor weren’t where they had been the last time he looked.  He searched from one end of the room to the other end.  No Grace.  Then he saw the mayor, but he was running his mouth nonstop in yet another group of people, and Grace was not with him.  Then he thought about that helper.  He thought about his wife.  He panicked!

He broke away from the group he was in and hurried down the hall where that helper had disappeared to.

“Tommy?” yelled his group mate as he broke away.  “Tommy?  Tommy?”  Then the group mate hunched his shoulders and looked at the group.  “What’s with that guy?” he asked.