She seemed less irritated now, so Oz felt he could negotiate. "A hospital fundraiser or a pointless event in a function hall," he offered. He was going to spend enough time on empty pageantry without adding something to the calendar that Sina had gone out of her way to make ostentatiously purposeless. "Whose country house?" he asked. Technically they lived in a country house, and every time they invited someone to dinner was a country party with drinks, but the way she'd phrased it made it seem as though she wanted a different country house. That meant leaning on a friend to host one for him — not out of the realm of possibility, but it was a bit annoying that he'd been on the campaign trail for less than twelve hours and he was already having to call in favors.

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