Elaine/TJ
Elaine had sighed when she'd read the email. She didn't like these soirees, but she understood the importance of them. She also understood the importance of their presence here. There was plenty of information that one could get simply by looking at who spoke with whom.
Tonight, she was one of those who wanted to talk to someone, two someones to be precise. Doug was being impeccably polite since his return. Too polite. It was a sign that something was wrong when he was utterly nice to Bud. TJ was being TJ, hiding his head in the sand. They hadn't discussed anything since that dinner, but the comments about love and other people made more sense after learning that he and Marks were involved, and by learning she meant having eyes.
She wasn't sure what her son was expecting from them. If anything, she and Bud agreed that Marks was a smart as a lover, something unusual for TJ. He could protect TJ, provide in a way that others couldn't. Anthropologically it was natural to look for something who could help and logically it made plenty of sense, too. Of course, she wasn't about to say any of that to TJ.
Finding TJ alone would be more difficult than finding Doug alone, and when Marks finally left his side, Elaine approached her son. She was careful with what she said, because everything that came out of her mouth seemed to annoy TJ. "You look happy with him," she said, hoping that she wasn't committing some pas faux.