Don Draper leaned against the outdoor bar sipping an Old Fashioned and watching the becrowned and bejeweled crowd mingle. He was on his fifth and already calculating a strategic exit. The garden party was the first donor event of the Folk Life Museum's first fundraising campaign and Don was thoroughly bored. The curtain had been drawn back only to reveal an endless series of hard handshakes and polite inquires into his profession, his non-existent pedigree, his broken family life. He had done his time chatting up the other board members, swatting off attempts to commandeer his time for various committee work, and had finally retreated to the bar on the far side of the garden, the one less trafficked. He stared out at the mass of smartly dressed men and chiffon-draped women and felt only dread.
Dread for what he would have to endure as a newly anointed member of this crowd. Dread of going home to his new wife. Dread of acknowledging that he had once again made a mess of his life. If anyone knew how to go through the expected motions of life it was Don Draper, but as he took another sip of his Old Fashioned and stared out at the crowd in a general, unfocused way, he sensed that he might not have the stomach for it anymore, and so he dreaded the awful unraveling of a life he was still just starting to ravel.
If he left the party early, he would be obviously missed. And then where would he go? Home to Megan? She would be thrilled to have the unexpected time with him, would likely even initiate sexβshe had lately made it a habit to drop to her knees in front of him and take his cock in her mouth as a way of welcoming him home from workβand yet, Don had grown increasingly bored with her youthful enthusiasm. Of course, she had stopped working once they were married. Of course, she had taken up her duties as his wife with the seriousness that only a young bride can. Of course, she was accomplished and well-educated, and had she come along to the party with him, she would have fit right in and elevated him in the eyes of donor and board members alike with her breathless charm and finishing school wit. And yet. If he had to admit anything, he would have to acknowledge that his boredom with her had begun even on the honeymoon.
Don ordered another Old Fashioned with the dreadful thought that he was going to ruin another beautifully young and hopeful girl.
Alone at the bar, how unlike you.
A voice he knew well. A voice he knew so well he didn't need to look to know who it was. Betty. He turned and took in the sudden appearance of her. Had he not seen her in the crowd?
What? All the interesting woman are taken?
It took him a few moments to compute what she had said, but once he did, he simply said, Apparently not.
She almost rolled her eyes, as if she couldn't even be bothered to go that far. She took a sip of her drink. Something clear. Probably vodka.
You're here because why? Don wanted to know.
Betty tossed her head. Henry. Donors.
And yet Henry isn't here? There was something different about her that piqued Don's curiosity.
He saw that he had affected her, that she was the one computing unexpected information now. He took the moment to take her in, to observe the changes in her. He couldn't help but look her up and down and when his eyes returned to her face, he saw that this too affected her.
But then she shrugged. She scanned the room, disinterested, and said, Neither is Megan.