27-year-old Lisa sighed, and put her head in her hands, as she wondered again why she had come. She was still wearing the prim, smart, dark-blue suit that she had worn to work that day, she was wearing little makeup, and her long, dark-red hair was up, in a professional looking hairstyle. All around her, her work colleagues were dancing and just generally having a good time, at their annual party, while she, the workaholic ice-queen of the office, was dying to go home and get on with her work. But she had come, and had promised herself that she would stay an hour, no matter what, and Lisa Merrick wasn't exactly the kind of girl to go back on a promise, even one she'd only made to herself. She glanced at her watch - 9:07 - she'd been there less than 10 minutes. A work colleague, called Jack, came stumbling by happily, and shouted to her, "Hey, Lisa. Good to see you. Why you just sitting there? Go and get a drink and stop being such a boring cow." Lisa glared at him, and he slunk off, to be drunk somewhere with people that would be pleased to see him. 'But,' she reasoned with herself, 'it might make the hour go quicker.' So she reluctantly walked over to the table of alcohol, and poured herself a glass of a very little vodka and a lot of orange juice.
"Hey, who's that cute little red-head dancing with Marc?" Chris, another worker, had just arrived a the party, and it was around 11pm.
Jack grinned. "That cute little red-head is apparently a drunk version of Lisa Merrick."
"No way!" Lisa's hair had tumbled down, and was loose about her shoulders, her skirt had ridden up to show that she was wearing stockings, and the buttons on her blouse were not done up quite as far as they had been originally. Her jacket had been long-ago discarded, and she looked exactly like the way she was acting - a free and easy young woman, out for a good time, as opposed to the smart and cold woman she usually was. As the song ended, she walked over to Chris and Jack, laughing.
"Hey there you too. Chris! How are you doing?" She hugged him, and he smiled, amused at her drunkeness.
"Hi Lisa. I'm good thanks. And yourself?"