Close Calls

When I was just a few months sober, over twenty-eight years ago, my boss had a big Christmas party at his large lovely home. I had the presence of mind to take a date who was also in AA. One of the sales managers saw that my glass was almost empty and offered to bring me a new drink. "What would you like?" he asked. Since we worked for a soft drink company, I named our flagship brand. "Of course," he responded, "but what do you want in it?" I paused. "Ice," I finally said. He paused, and as luck would have it, it was one of those moments when the whole crowd suddenly stopped talking. Into the silence, he joked, "What everybody doesn't know is that Sue's an alcoholic!" I was mortified. My usual defense in tough spots is to wisecrack. "What everybody doesn't know," I shot back, "is that Bob is right!" The hubbub resumed, and as far as I know, nobody even noticed. But I avoided cocktail parties for a long time after that. I remember wishing my date had been more attentive, but he may have been following advice to not get emotionally involved with me in my first year of sobriety.