Page 50 of November

“Thanks for coming in. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Sarah replied.

Maisie walked to the table in the back and opened her laptop, needing to make more calls to raise money. She had a commercial made and had paid for the creation of it already, but paying for airtime was a different story. Yes, this election was important, but she didn’t want to use all of her savings on one commercial in an election she might not even come close to winning.

???

“Hi.”

Maisie looked up after dropping one of the phones on the table and saw two things: one was India standing in front of her, and the other was the darkness outside the front window.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Just after six,” India replied. “You’re still open up front. Did you know that? Sarah’s there.”

“It’s after six? Jesus. I feel like I just sat down.”

“You didn’t. You sat down a long time ago,” Sarah said, walking back with her drawer. “I checked on you once, but you were on the phone. I locked up. I hope that’s okay. Only two customers came in while you were busy.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Maisie said and rubbed her eyes.

“Are you okay?” India asked.

“I’ve been on the phone for a while now, I guess.”

“And?”

“I managed to get a few people to commit to donations.”

“That’s good,” India said.

“It won’t make much of a difference, but I saw the polls. Iamup a couple of points. I feel like I have a chance.”

“Hey, that’s good news.”

“I’m here. Sorry, I’m late,” Lainey said, jogging in from the back. “Paige is parking.”

“Oh, hey,” Maisie said, surprised, until she remembered that her friends had offered to come in to help with the campaign.

“Hey, India,” Lainey said.

“Hi. Did I come at a bad time?” India asked, looking at Maisie.

“No,” she replied. “Sorry, I just have to work on this, and Paige and Lainey are going to help with calls and my speech.”

“A speech?”

“For the election night. I need an acceptance speech and a concession speech.”

“Isn’t that bad luck?” India asked.

“Probably. And I know it’s just city council, but it’ll be printed somewhere, whatever I say, so I want it to be good.”

“Can I help with anything?”

Maisie looked India up and down. She was dressed to the nines, as always, and didn’t look at all like she’d put in a whole day of work.

“You worked all day. Thank you, though. Can I call you later?”