Joel and Kitty - 7:45PM
Mariah was doing what she was good at, networking around the room, making their guests feel welcome in their space, the perfect picture of a hostess. Unfortunately (or not) Joel was less than the perfect host. Sure, he liked a party, but he couldn’t turn on the charm the same way his wife could, he disliked networking in any form unless it was directly work related, and truth to be told she didn’t need his help or presence at her side all that much.
Which left him aimless while people streamed in. He had conversations with a handful of people, but mostly let them come to him and not the other way around. His dear wife would probably have a word or two to say about that tomorrow.
Old habits had him scanning the faces in the room, stopping just shy of profiling because these were (mostly) friends. It was easy to recognize the youngest woman in the room also, Kitty Gilmore, daughter to one of the Capitol’s council members. Apparently also partially responsible for Kaisha’s childcare for the evening. A point of contention between Mariah and Joel, but only because Mariah had told him it wasn’t necessary to run a background check on Zach Montgomery.
“Miss Gilmore,” Joel greeted, waving her over. “Having a good time?” It was hard to know how long she’d actually been in the apartment, and also a better opener than ‘So this Zach Montgomery, he going to make sure my baby girl is okay?’, even if that was what Joel wanted to open with.