Alfred had been more or less expecting that, since the moment that he'd walked in to the crowded dining room but even more so with every passing second that Zelda had spent with her father behind closed doors. He couldn't imagine how that conversation would have gone, but it was at least a little gratifying that she'd tried to have it at all. Presumably, she had been trying to convince him to say yes. He had been quite obviously on the verge of saying no before she'd intervened, so if she hadn't wanted Alfred to ask, if she had no desire to be courted, she could have just sat back and watched the whole embarrassing scene play out.

It had been a losing battle from the start, though, of course. What could she even have said to try and convince him? Alfred had nothing that someone like Brannon Fisk would care about, and everyone in the room knew that.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your evening," he blurted out, and headed for the exit without waiting for someone to show him out. He remembered his way down the short hallway, and the last thing he wanted was Ari Fisk waving him off from the doorway.