He couldn't tell if she'd realized he was joking or not. He decided to assume she had, because this whole ordeal was already awkward enough without him having to back out of an attempt to lighten the mood and over-explain everything.

"You did a bit," he contended, and then ducked back towards the party before she could protest again. Would she be there when he got back? He half expected her to flee farther into the hotel, but the odds of her freezing in the hallway and hyperventilating weren't bad either. Was it responsible to be getting her another glass of champagne? Maybe she needed water... but waiters weren't floating through the crowd helpfully passing out glasses of water, so champagne would have to do.

He poked his head into the hallway before he went back out, to gage what he was walking in to first. He wasn't sure he had the emotional bandwidth to walk a stranger through a panic attack.

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