From Part One… ‘Adam. Adam Lyons. I work on The Hill.’ ‘Mark Cullen. Me too.’ Title: Caffeine clumsiness Part Two Mark lengthened his stride. Adam was struggling to balance brown bags, overfilled with shopping, while tapping in the door code and in danger of dropping all three bags. ‘Need a hand?’ ‘Oh, hi. Yeah, thanks. Hey, you free tonight?’ Mark considered the loaded question. ‘Why?’ ‘We’re having a thing. We’re inviting everyone so no-one’ll complain about the noise.’ ‘Smart move.’ Adam smiled. ‘We thought so. Well?’ ‘Everyone’ would probably include some people his own age. Mark nodded. ‘Okay.’ Adam grinned. ‘Great. Um, bring something.’ ‘Something?’ Mark frowned. ‘Spaghetti.’ Adam teased. ************ The party was apparently in full-swing by the time Mark climbed the stairs and worked out exactly which apartment the music was coming from. When he walked through the open door, he was surprised to see only Adam and three other people in the room, with enough food and drink for at least a dozen more. ‘Hey.’ Adam turned from the CD player. ‘Hi. Everyone this is Mark. Mark this is…well, everyone. So far.’ Mark smiled politely at the two young men and the young woman who were ranged round the room on the various bits of ill-matched furniture. ‘Oh, I bought chips.’ Mark held out the two large bags of tortilla chips and Adam smiled. ‘Thanks. You’re gonna bring the spaghetti later?’ Uncomfortable at being the butt of a joke in front of Adam’s room-mates, Mark forced a smile. Adam realised he’d made a mistake, and covered it with: ‘Drink?’ ‘White wine?’ Adam nodded, then began to hunt through the tightly-packed bottles on the small table. ‘Yeah. Somewhere in here…got it.’ Mark accepted the poor-quality room-temperature ‘white wine’ – he wasn’t sure what the grape was, but it definitely wasn’t made clear on the label he was now looking at – and immediately set the glass down on the table next to where he was standing. *********** As soon as a few more guests arrived, Mark lost the awkwardness of being the only person not to know anyone and began to relax. He was talking to a woman who was evidently assistant to someone in the White House when Adam came up. ‘Sorry Ellie, I need Mark.’ Ellie laughed. ‘You need someone sweetie. You’re way too pale for someone of your age.’ Adam didn’t understand, and Mark was just glad to have an excuse to get away, so they both laughed politely and walked away. Adam swallowed hard. ‘Um…there’s a problem.’ ‘Which is?’ ‘We didn’t think this many people would come. We’re out of…everything.’ Mark scanned the room. Most people had a full or half-full glass of something, and there were plenty of half-full bowls of food dotted around. He looked at his watch. ‘In about ten minutes, people will start to leave. Don’t worry about it.’ ‘How do you know that?’ ‘I’ve been to a few parties.’ Mark said, smiling reassuringly. ‘Me too, but I never organised one.’ Mark put a reassuring hand on Adam’s shoulder. ‘Next time, I’ll help you organise it. How much did you allow per person?’ ‘We had twelve bottles.’ ‘Bottle per person, rule of thumb.’ Mark said. ‘In this case, around forty bottles would have been about right.’ Adam sighed. ‘I knew it would go wrong.’ Mark laughed. ‘Look around. Everyone’s having a great time. Relax.’ Adam half-smiled. ‘Thanks. You want some more? There’s a whole bottle of the white left.’ ‘White wine should be chilled. Next time, either get an ice bucket, or just a bucket with some ice in it.’ Adam’s slight smile faded. ‘Next time, you’re in charge of the drinks.’ Mark nodded. ‘Okay.’ Continued in part three… Send me feedback on this fic Return to the X-Files Fic Index Return to the West Wing Fic Index

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