Page 77 of Dignity

Chapter Twenty-One

ShaeLynn Samuels lives in a townhouse in a better neighborhood than Lauren and I live. When we pull up in front of her place, I tell the driver to stay there, and I go up personally to fetch her.

This is due to my instructions from Chris. He said the senator has already been briefed by him, so I’m going to go with what I’ve been told.

I ring the bell andshe answers the door herself a moment later. She’s already wearing a sweeping overcoat that hits her mid-calf over an ankle-length royal blue dress and matching heels. Tonight, her hair is swept up into a chic twist, and she’s wearing contacts.

“You’re right on time,” she says with a smile.

“Thank the driver,” I say.

She sets her alarm and locks the door, and I offer her my arm for the walkdown to the car, holding the door open for her. Once we’re on our way, she gives me another smile. “Ready for your big debut, Mr. Markos?”

“That’s Kevin, Senator.”

“You can call me Shae.”

“Maybe in private, but not in public, ma’am. We’re going to control the optics from this moment on.”

“Ah.”

“Remember, this is a senate race on steroids with a double heaping of adrenaline rush and a splashof batshit insane. Assume everything is an open mic, assume people can hear your every word, assume you’re always being filmed on a cell phone.Always. One careless sentence can sink a campaign, especially if it’s pulled out of context and retweeted as a sound bite.”

“Duly noted, Kevin.”

“People are going to come gunning for you and try to knock you out before Iowa,” I tell her. “You and I needto sit down this coming week and go through the dark and dirty stuff.”

One eyebrow elegantly arches.

I know what she’s thinking. “The stuff Idon’tknow about,” I clarify.

“Ah.”

“I need to know everything I might get blindsided with. Because I hate surprises.”

“I think pretty much everything’s been aired out during my previous senate races.”

“Good, but we need to go over it formysake.I haven’t been an expert on you, but I need to be. I’m also going to need your voting record since your first term. Because I need to know that inside and out.”

“Do you have hiring ideas? This is your show. I’m not going to assume it’s okay to just bring the same people back.”

“That’s a conversation for this week, Senator.” I turn to face her as much as my seat belt will allow. “I want to knowwho’s worked for you in the past. We may be using some of them, we might not want others. Until I see them, I won’t know. And I have some thoughts on pollsters and IT. We’re going to need a headquarters, and an IT department. Please tell me you already have the website URL?”

“I’ve had that for years.”

“Excellent.” I tick those points off in my head on my rapidly exploding to-do list. Just becauseI resent the fact that I’m sharing my boyfriend with her doesn’t mean I won’t give my best effort to getting her elected.

In fact, I’m guessing if I can get her elected, that might actually give me more time with my boyfriend, because she’ll be too damn busy running the country to be sneaking around getting some from him.

Of course, I’ll be pretty damned busy helping her run the freaking country,so that could backfire on me, I suppose.

* * * *

Tonight’s event isn’t a political fundraiser, it’s more a see-and-be-seen kind of DC political high-society event. Itisa fundraiser for a children’s athletic league organization I’ve heard of but know little about, the kind of feel-good charity that only assholes like my father would have a problem with, so people from both sides of the politicalspectrum will be in attendance.

Shae told me my father will not be present.

He wasn’t invited.