"You'll have the salad and you can wash it down with something that no one would approve of. How about a Cosmo, heavy on the liquid, not so much on the ice," Elaine said bringing out the bottles of Cointreau and vodka. "Cranberry juice is so good for women." Not that knowing her mother, there would be much cranberry juice in that Cosmo, but they deserved some normality.
She got up again to find two glasses and put some ice in them, before sitting back down. She decided that it was easier if she made the drinks. "Sorry, only the small bottle of Cointreau. We'll have to pace ourselves." She left the glasses on the coffee table, before leaning down with her container of salad, picking at it with the plastic fork that came with it.
"Do you ever regret having me?" she asked after a moment of silence. "I was never what you wanted me to be. I don't know what I am, other than a politician. My children are missing, gone who knows where, and I keep thinking that in a few weeks I would have been president. What's wrong with me?"