Page 101 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“And?” I asked eagerly. I realized I was leaning forward and gripping the edge of the table.
“He thinks I’ll have regained all of my memories back within the next couple months.”
I clapped my hands together and cried out with happiness. The people sitting around us glanced over at me with judgemental eyes, but I didn’t give a damn. My father reached over and took Lina’s hand. “I’m so happy for you, Lina. This is wonderful news.”
“Yay!” Asher exclaimed, bouncing up and down in his chair. “You remember! You remember!”
Lina smiled at me. “I remember,” she whispered.
EPILOGUE
LINA
4 Months Later
I hurried up the stairs to the rented loft Cal was using as his campaign office. I was out of breath by the time I reached the top, and when I burst through the doors, everyone was facing the wall of TVs. I squeezed through the bodies and worked my way to the front of the crowd, where I found Cal standing in front of one of the desks.
I stopped and watched him for a moment.
He was wearing black dress pants and shiny black shoes. His shirt was a crisp white button-up that I’d ironed the night before. With the stress of the day, it already had wrinkles in it. He had the sleeves pushed up his arms and the buttons undone at the elbows. He had one hand on his hip and the other pressed flat to the top of the desk in front of him.
His head was lifted with his gaze fixed on the TV in front of him.
I moved around him and ran my hand along his shoulders. “Hey,” I said softly.
He looked over at me. His stern, serious expression evaporated and softened. He smiled. “Hey.”
“How are you?”
He shrugged one shoulder and let out a nervous chuckle. “Stressed.”
“Any minute now,” I whispered, rubbing his back.
We both turned our attention back to the TV. The advertisements ended. The news anchor appeared.
The votes of the election were in.
Cal straightened up and tugged anxiously at his collar. Sweat beaded on his upper lip and forehead. The room strained, and everyone grew even more silent than they were as the anchor prepared to reveal the results. They’d be posted on the screen any second.
Cal raised his voice for everyone to hear. “However this goes, people, we all did good work. I’m proud of that.”
“Hear, hear,” one of the men behind us said.
The silence thickened, and then the results were plastered on the screen.
My heart leapt into my throat. Cal’s hands went up in the air. The room exploded with shouts of joy and success as Callum Gabriel was named the new mayor of Pittsburgh.
I leapt into his arms, and he caught me before spinning me around in a circle. My yellow floral-patterned dress fanned out around us before he set me back down. I ran my fingers through my hair and pressed my hands to my very warm cheeks.
Cal was swarmed by his team, who congratulated him with hugs and pats on the back. He was swallowed up by them, and I stood back. Then I climbed up on a chair to snap a couple of pictures. I knew he would want to have them. The campaign had been a lot of work, but he’d pulled it all off.
There hadn’t been a second where I didn’t think he would. He was the right choice for the city. Everyone with half a brain knew that.
Just like I knew he was the right choice for me.
After some serious celebrating, and a bit of champagne, Cal snuck out and took my hand. He pulled me away from the crowd and out into the stairwell. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said.
I followed him down the stairs and out onto the street. The warm summer air wasn’t as refreshing as I’d hoped it would be. He pulled me down the street to a black sedan parked at the curb, and we both piled into the back. He told the driver to take us to the place he’d picked out for dinner.
