Page 28 of The Thorne at My Side
"I'll pull the team together today." I mentally prepare the war cry I’ll use for the team. I’m going to need their best ideas. I need them to understand the importance of solving this and protecting our work. When AIM is successful, I will be too.Finally proving to Dad I’m ready to take over the company.
???
"Ok, let's try another," Maggie is paging through a legal pad looking for her next debate question. "Ah yes, here we are," she clears her throat. "The cost of childcare is rising faster than any other family expense across the country. In fact, in most states it exceeds the median cost of housing. How do you plan to address this crisis American families face every day?"
Maggie looks at me and cocks an eyebrow. She thinks she's got us stumped. That our software won't come up with the perfect answer to this question. I just smile at her and place a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. I know we've got this. The team and I met before coming over, we talked through the lawsuit solutions and then we ran through a few practice questions. If the answers didn’t impress me we went back and improved the prompt.
"There isn't a clear answer to this issue," I start to read when Ty tilts the screen towards me.
"Ha!" Maggie scoffs as she leans back in her chair and crosses her arms.
"But I understand how important solving it is to every family. I propose a multi-faceted approach that includes paid leave for parents, preschool for every four year old,and the development of publicly subsidized early childhood centers for infants and toddlers."
"And how are you going to pay for all that?" Maggie asks as Tyler types her question into the computer.
"I'll work alongside the brilliant minds in the senate, the house, and in local government across the country. I'll work with nonprofits, schools, and houses of worship to brainstorm solutions. I won't pretend to have the answer tonight but I can't pretend there isn't a problem to solve."
The room goes quiet and I can see Maggie fighting with herself. It's the perfect political non-answer answer. The crowd will eat it up and only later will they realize she never said exactly how she'd do it.
We all know the answer is that she'd have to raise taxes but a political candidate would be finished if they said that out loud.
"Fine, let's try another one," Maggie says with a sigh.
???
When I get back upstairs to the conference room I can feel the tension rolling off the shoulders of everyone there.
"What's going on?" I ask and Maggie looks up in my direction with an angry heat in her eyes.
"Senator Quinn came out against the bill that would have supported the expansion of tech company data rights."
"Just now?" I ask, because it seems like a pretty big thing to do out of the blue.
"No, eighteen months ago," Maggie sneers.
"So, what's the problem?"
"Well now she’s hired one of those tech companies to use all her data and the data of unsuspecting individuals to write hercampaign messages!" Maggie gets more and more angry as she continues. Halfway through it she stands and her shoulders nearly touch her ears as she starts to pace.
"And?" I ask with a smirk on my face, I know where she's going, she's going to say it's a conflict of interest.
"How is this not a conflict of interest?! How are we supposed to answer the questions that will come our way when this comes out?!" she basically screams at me.
"They're not sleeping together," I tell her. "She's making a smart decision to use the best technology available to her."
"Of course they're notsleeping together,” she scoffs.“Is that really-“She stops abruptly and looks at me. I can see questions rolling through her head.
"Austin, will you join me in my office for a moment?" Maggie says through gritted teeth and a less than friendly smile.
"Of course," I cheer and watch the rest of the people in the room look at each other with confusion. When I reach the door, I turn back, "Javé, why don't you work on a response to this perceived issue so when Maggie's eye stops twitching we can share it with her."
I find Maggie in her office. She is pacing three steps in one direction, pivoting, and pacing back.
"Maggie?"
She stops and turns to me. “Close the door.”
I like where this is going.
