Anti Social Drinking Game

”Dr. Andrews.” A man in a black suit politely greeted as they encountered at the reception. She nodded bluntly as a reply and gave her coat to a man who collected them from the guests. Jessica Andrews had arrived to the fund raising party that she had tried to get out of. They were raising money to get new equipment for the hospitals, especially for the children’s ward. Jessica’s heels sunk into the red carpet of the luxurious hotel lobby. The man who had greeted her was one of her colleagues. Actually, he was her boss, the man who had made her come here tonight. And she would recent him for that for the rest of her life. It was like an operation “socialize the anti-social” for them. And by them she meant her boss and rest of the higher staff. Well, the truth was they just wanted the best of staff to represent them there that night. They had sure collected a good party for themselves: there were people from chief of surgery to the owners of the hospital building. Jessica looked around. In her party there were strangely only men, she was the only one possessing breasts (unless you count the obese investor, Mr Bernard). One of the party members seemed to know this very well since he couldn’t stop staring at her breasts. She rolled her eyes. Another thing she noticed was that the press was buzzing around. Camera lights were flashing spontaneously. It wasn’t really a surprise. Many of the guests were high profile. Reporters were asking questions from the guests. She even spotted someone reporting for New York Times.

Jessica sighed and straightened her elegant black dress that she usually wore to any party. It highlighted her feminine form and was quite open from the back. She remembered the day she had bought it. Shopping for dresses wasn’t her thought of having fun time and she had pretty much allowed the sales woman to decide what she should take. Now she would wear it as long as she could so she didn’t have to experience shopping in expensive boutiques again for a long time. The rest of her party started to move towards the hall where the fund raising took place, and she followed like a graceful shadow. The hall was filled with round tables that all had an elegant setting. The stage was cleared; there were only three chairs and a microphone on it. It was calmer in there than in the reception. Only few camera lights were flashing anymore and reporters who were there as guests while working, were calmly asking questions, without shouting. Jessica glanced around at the hall and then she finally spotted something that didn’t make her want to die. It was the bar. The promised land of proper booze. She made a mental note to hit it as soon as possible.

“Hello Dr. Callahan, Dr. Andrews.” Suddenly Jessica heard a man greet. She shifted her eyes from the bar to a man who was now standing in front of her and her colleague. The rest of the party had seemed to take a seat at the table reserved to them already. “Mr. White.” Jessica greeted dryly shaking his hand and then watched Callahan do the same. Jessica stared down at Mr. White. He was short and bald, not to mention he was almost as wide as he was tall. They had encountered at several parties and she had pretty much been forced to talk to him because he happened to be one of the filthy rich people who sponsored the hospital Jessica worked for. She really despised that man. Not that she would like anyone else there but he really was somewhat a pain in the ass for her. The way he looked at her with his tiny, beady eyes from under his thick, black eyebrows that were already turning grey, made her very uncomfortable. He looked like he would have wanted to eat her like he gobbled those crab cakes the waiters were offering all around. White was talking to Callahan, he said a few words to Jessica too but she wasn’t listening. She saw his lips move but she couldn’t hear the empty words he spat out. She glanced at his greasy lips. He sure had had more than one crab cake. A couple walked to them now and joined the conversation taking sips from their champagne glasses. All the empty pleasantries were exchanged.

Jessica silently slipped away from the crowd and walked away. There would still be time before the fund raising would really start. She made her way towards the bar avoiding hitting the fancy guests or waiters who were running around like ants. Jessica took a seat at the bar feeling relief to get away from people. People usually stayed away from bars since they were served on the floor. Jessica let out a sigh of relief and fixed her hair slightly. It was up on an elegant, wavy pony tail, only few wavy locks of auburn hair were left to frame her face. “Whiskey. Double.” She ordered, laying her hands on the counter, figuring she really needed at least some alcohol in her blood to survive through the party that was filled with snooty, pretentious people. The bartender hit the first shot in front of her and she gulped it down immediately. The second shot was already in front of her but she didn’t drink that one right away. Jessica threw a glance at the table area where she saw her party having a pleasant conversation with some other people. She shook her head. And to imagine they had tried to get her to go up on the stage to make a speech. She was the last person fitting to do that. She was not a people person. “Idiots.” She muttered turning back to face the bar. The second shot of whiskey was starting to look really good.