Marcus crouched and reached beneath the chair for her phone.
The screen remained black.
“Battery?”
Eleanor pressed the side button several times.
“Dead.”
“You have someone who can pick you up?”
She laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful question.”
“Family?”
“My sister is in Boston.”
“Friend?”
“No one nearby.”
“Your driver?”
“I don’t have a driver, Marcus.”
He ignored the sarcasm.
“What about a rideshare?”
She looked around the floor.
“My new address is in the phone.”
“You don’t remember it?”
“I moved eight days ago.”
She pressed her fingers against her forehead.
“Something on Morrison Avenue.”
“House? Apartment?”
“Condo.”
“Building name?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus looked toward the keys lying on the floor.
One keyring held a car fob.
“Where’s your car?”
She stared at the fob.
“I think I came with Diane.”
“Diane Cole?”
Eleanor nodded.
Marcus looked around.
Diane, the firm’s head of marketing, was nowhere in the room.
He asked one of the event staff.
She had left twenty minutes earlier.
Marcus pulled out his phone.
6:52.
Zoe would probably be backstage by now.
Her babysitter and longtime family friend, Ms. Loretta Green, had promised to drive her to school if Marcus got delayed. He had told Loretta that would not happen.
Marcus looked at Eleanor.
Then toward the executives pretending not to notice.
One of them, Todd Baxter, caught his eye.
Marcus lifted his chin toward Eleanor.
Todd immediately shook his head.
“I’ve had drinks.”
Marcus stared.
Todd was holding a ginger ale.
Then Todd looked away.
That tiny lie made the decision for him.
Marcus walked toward Eleanor.
“I’m going to get you somewhere safe.”
She laughed.
“Very heroic.”
“It isn’t heroic.”
“Where?”
He did not know yet.
He first called three hotels near the restaurant.
The first refused to check Eleanor in without her active participation and identification because she was visibly intoxicated.
The second had no rooms.
The third could provide a room, but Marcus imagined leaving a woman barely able to stand alone behind a locked door where nobody knew to check on her.
He considered the emergency room.
Eleanor became surprisingly clear when he suggested it.
“I am drunk, not dying.”
“Those things overlap more often than people think.”
“I’m not going to the hospital.”
Marcus knew he could not force her unless the situation became medically dangerous.
Then he considered taking her to his house.
Every alarm in his head went off at once.
Black male subordinate.
White female boss.
Severely intoxicated.
Private residence.
No witnesses.
Marcus had spent his adult life avoiding situations that could be misunderstood even when misunderstanding required bad faith.
This one did not require bad faith.
It required one confused morning.
He looked at the restaurant staff.
“Could somebody stay with her while I call another person?”
The manager hesitated.
“We can keep her seated for a while, sir, but we’re not equipped to supervise someone in this condition.”
Marcus nodded.
He understood.
His watch read 6:58.
Then Zoe’s face came into his mind.
Not because she would be disappointed.