Friends in High Places (locked to Alex Cabot)

Fundraiser dinners were an unfortunate necessary evil, Maxwell honestly didn't much care about putting on a black tie and mingling but his PR department demanded it more often than not. After dinner, but well before the barrage of self effacing speeches he picked up another scotch at the bar and stepped out on the ballroom's balcony.

Without much notice of anyone else, he slipped a silver case and lighter from his black suit jacket and pressed a pastel blue cigarette to his lips. It was already looking like a hell of a night and he was beginning to regret giving his PA the evening off and coming stag.