Tea and a smile in distress (7)
I believe the answer is:
chagrin
'distress' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tea and a smile' is the wordplay.
'tea' becomes 'cha' (cha is a type of tea).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a smile' becomes 'grin' ('grin' can be a synonym of 'smile').
'cha'+'grin'='CHAGRIN'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for chagrin that I've seen before include "Embarrassment - rich nag (anag)" , "Strong feeling of embarrassment" , "Humiliation, mortification" , "Annoy" , "Shame at one's failure" .)