Page 72 of Beautifully Ruined

“Did you say something?” the receptionist says as she puts a call on hold and finishes making a note. She glances at me, a harried air about her.

“I asked where the bathroom is.” I don’t know where the words come from, but I need to say something, and they’re the first words that leap into my head.

She hits another button on her phone, putting another call on hold, as she takes me in, clearly putting my outfit together. “Are you the intern?”

“Yes. Violet.”

She nods, pointing to the doors just to her left.. “Allie. It’s through there to the right. You’re early. You have time. Good luck.” Then she dismisses me and hits answer on her phone. “Congressman Walsh’s office, sorry for making you wait. We have Wednesday at five…”

I stop listening and go through, making a beeline for the bathrooms. I need to gather myself. This is important, and I don’t want to make my first day my last.

I use the facilities and then take my time after washing my hands to splash a little water on my face and then pat it dry.

The door to the other cubicle opens, and I silently thank the bathroom gods I didn’t decide to just talk to myself in here and really get a reputation going as the crazy one.

The girl joins me at the sink and offers me a sympathetic smile as she dries her hands and adjusts her striking red hair in the mirror.

I’m not sure why she feels the need. Every strand is in place and behaving.

“You’re new, right? First day?”

I smile. “Yep.”

She turns to face me completely. “First day jitters?”

“Something like that. I’m interning.”

“With Walsh?”

My eyes widen.

She shrugs at my surprised looks. “We sometimes have interns for other jobs. You’d be surprised. This is congress, so while there’s Walsh, he has speech writers, social media designers, analysts who work for the senior analysts, and so on. It’s a machine.”

I suck in a breath.

I’m definitely working for Walsh, and stupid me, I was thinking it’d be a larger scale version of Isaac’s office, but this is the real deal. Here we have designated people for designated jobs, whereas back with Isaac, we had to do a bit of everything.

This is the big league. What actual strings did Cade pull?

“I’m Macy. I work for the press secretary, in PR, which can be a slog. There are always spins. Sometimes, I dream of taking a break and working PR for a celebrity, something nice and easy.”

I laugh. “I’m Violet. And that would be easy?”

“Compared to a politician? It doesn’t matter how clean or how saintly they are. There will be always an angle, something to be spun, damage control, instant playbooks against dirty moves from the opposition. With a celebrity, they’re their own worst enemy. Piece of cake.”

I nod, laughing. “Well, you make a good point.”

“So, are you interning to be Chief of Staff?” She shudders. “I’d hate that job. You have the congress members’ ear. You’re their favorite limb and most hated one, and you need a background in a variety of things. What’s yours?”

“Political analysis.” I suddenly see how good Isaac’s place was for me, if you took the man out of the equation. It gave me the opportunity to learn in all arenas, and I think that I’d like to be a chief of staff one day. It slides into ultimate goal spot in my dream list.

“Well, you’ll love it here, and there’s nothing to be scared about. Walsh is great and everyone else is too.” Then she looks at her watch. “Gotta go. Talk soon.”

When I go out, I look around the big open plan office, and almost bump into Congressman Walsh himself.

He chuckles. “Oops. Almost bowled you over.”

He holds out a hand in the air as if ready to steady me if needed, but he doesn’t touch.