Page 44 of The Thorne at My Side
"Wait," Sam pivots towards me in her seat. "Did you do the dirty again?"
I cough on a piece of kale.
"Wow, nice job." Sam turns back to her sandwich and nods like she's impressed with me. "I honestly didn't expect you to take my advice seriously but I'm so glad you did. You're a new woman."
"Well, I don't know about that but some of the stress certainly has lifted."
Not having to worry about Austin’s feelings or what his expectations are is freeing. For the first time I’m enjoying myself with a man and not worrying about the future or if he’s as invested in the relationship as I am. Eventually, the man at my side will need to be a teammate. Almost like a coworker. So it might be best if we're not madly in love.
Love can lead to mistakes. It's a distraction. And I'm sensible enough to know that the partner I need might not come with passion. That's fine. I’ll need someone attractive, at a minimum without visible nostril hair, since I'm learning how good sex is for my stress levels. And I think I do want kids someday. Although there are ways to have kids without the sex part. But I was able to get off just from DCFox’s words so unless he has a 152mm goiter coming off of his neck I think we’re good.
"Maggie, can we look at the remarks for the game tonight?" The senator calls from her cluster of seats a few rows behind Sam and me.
"Of course, be right there," I call over my shoulder and I busy myself putting my salad away. Once it's cleaned up I pick up my notebook and walk to her seat.
"You're actually not going to have to say anything during the puck drop, you’re just shaking hands with the charity recipient, Alice, and the team captain. Felix, I believe is his name. His foundation provides housing for the family members of patients and your research legislation helped with the treatment for thecancer Alice just beat. You'll be interviewed during the first period by the TV announcers and that's where our remarks are going to come into play."
"Makes sense, what is it, a three minute interview?"
"That sounds about right," I reply as I flip around the various topics in my notebook. "This could be a good opportunity to talk about your healthcare work since you’re next to a cancer survivor."
"Okay, let's ask AIM for something." The senator says casually like she isn't insulting my intelligence.
"We can have their team put something together," I say hesitantly. "You sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. And we can use the stump speech lines too, I know those by heart, but it could be good to have a fresh perspective."
"Okay, will do. Is there anything else?"
"No, I'll see you when we land."
With that I close my notebook and move back to the seat by Sam. Thankfully she’s got her nose in a pile of briefing memos that I asked her to summarize. I give her a quick smile when she looks up to tell her that I'm good, but in reality I'm spiraling.
For the last six months I have been the person to write all of the senator's blurbs and talking points. Every time she was on TV or speaking in front of a crowd it was my words coming out of her mouth. Now? Now she wants to use AIM. I guess since we loaded her speeches into their database it will still be her words, my words, but it feels wrong.
Like we're cheating.
Any sense of relaxation or calm that I felt earlier was just erased. All it took was one sentence to remind me how Austin'sproduct could put me out of a job.
I sit down and write my points for her on-air comments tonight and then send an email to Tyler on Austin's team with the prompt. I figured I'd add in that it is a hockey game since the demographics of the audience tend to be of the famed white male variety. Let's see what his computer comes up with.
???
"And that is why I fought so hard for this research legislation. Access to cures shouldn't rely on your connections or status, it is a right."
"Thank you Senator Quinn, well said." The announcer wraps up before going back to game analysis.
The senator walks off camera to the small group of us who came with her tonight. We're going up to the owners suite now to watch the rest of the game. I thought the senator would want to leave after her appearance but she told us in the car on the way over from the airport that after talking to the team owner, Tom O’Callahan, she wanted to stay for the whole game.
Jorge even secured her a DC Renegades jersey to wear.
"Did you see the puppies?" Sam asks as we start walking down the concourse.
"Puppies? No."
"Oh that's too bad, they were really cute. I guess they do an adoption night with a local shelter and they just got a litter of pit bull puppies. I might go back and adopt one," she looks longingly over her shoulder and steps sideways into me. "Oh sorry, yeah, do you need me? If not, I'm going to go check things out."
"You're just going to adopt a puppy on a whim? Isn't that a big decision?" I ask before she walks away.
