With Emerson off to school now Jack had little to do with his evenings. It was... surreal to say the least. It also gave his housekeeper an unequivocal reason to shove him out the door to any event she caught wind of that she thought he should attend. Tonight's fundraiser was for the orphanage and it was a worthy cause, but was still so out of his depth at these things that he would have just preferred to donate directly to the cause than suffer through the awkward stilted conversations he wasn't used to having.

He was nursing a drink near the refreshments table, knowing it was approaching a reasonable amount of time for him to leave, but he still had a few minutes to go yet. The flippant comment caught him off guard, so much so that he actually started. The woman attached to it was not what he was expecting, and he found himself smiling at her slowly, if uncertainly. "Would liven things up a bit," he agreed, nodding. It probably would have been a nice treat for them as well.