The Perfect Candidate

by Sterling, Stephanie

  “Come on,” Ashley giggled, gently prodding Michael to his feet, when he started to fall asleep in his chair. “Let’s get you upstairs.”

  Michael obeyed, but the effort of just putting one foot in front of the other was huge all of a sudden. “I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered, pausing to yawn. Ashley wrapped an arm around his waist and urged him on.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said dismissively. “You’ll feel like a new man after a good night’s rest.”

  “I hope so,” Michael groaned, having to take the lead when they got upstairs, because obviously Ashley didn’t know her way around. “This way,” he murmured, leading her towards the master suite.

  “Do you want me to go?” Ashley asked, rather stupidly Michael thought. He turned and stared down at her, his answer clear on his face. She flushed and shrugged. “I was only asking,” she muttered, and then fell silent as they continued walking.

  18

  Michael sighed with relief when they finally reached his bedroom. He made a beeline for the bed, and fairly collapsed upon it. He heard Ashley laugh behind him, and then listened to the soft pad of her feet on the carpet as she nearer the bed.

  “Let’s get you undressed shall we?” she asked, sounding highly amused. “Here, roll over onto your back.”

  Michael obeyed, although he was sure it had just taken up his last quota of strength and energy, even the gentle flutter of Ashley fingers plucking away his clothes wasn’t enough to keep Michael awake. His eyelids were dipping closed before she even finished unbuttoning his shirt.

  “Goodnight,” Ashley whispered, tucking the blanket around his shoulders. She stood to go, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I can’t stay here,” she argued weakly.

  “Of course you can,” Michael told her simply, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace. He wasn’t ready to get up either; he wasn’t ready to sacrifice this intimacy yet. He nuzzled against her neck, breathing in the sent of her skin as he curled himself around her body. “We can stay here for a little while longer at any rate,” he whispered thickly.

  ‘A little while’ actually turned into a couple of hours, and the second time Michael woke up wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the first. He grumbled and trying to bury himself more deeply under the blankets as the sound of a vacuum cleaner buzzed through the house.

  19

  When the noise woke Ashley, she didn’t react in quite the same manner. She sat up bolt right, looking panicked. “Someone’s here?” she squeaked, staring at Michael in horror.

  “It’s just Mrs. Martin,” he shrugged, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

  “Just Mrs. Martin?” she scoffed. “Michael! She can’t know that I slept here last night! No one can know!”

  Michael pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was frowning, as he watched Ashley scurry out of bed and start to pull her clothes on. “I’m sure we can trust her not to run immediately to the papers,” he said mildly.

  Ashley glared at him, but in the end it wasn’t Michael’s housekeeper who they had to worry about.

  The telephone started to ring, and so Michael dragged his attention away from Ashley. He leant across the bed to pick the receiver up off the bedside table. He hadn’t even put it to his ear before he heard Norman’s irate voice bellowing down the line. From the panicked look on her face, Ashley had also managed to hear some of what Norm was shouting. Michael watched her sink down onto the edge of the bed. She had turned an absolutely ghostly shade of white.

  Michael cleared his throat, and hoped that he sounded calm and innocent when he spoke. “I’m sorry, Norm, I didn’t quite catch that, do you think you could lower your voice a few decibels and repeat what you just said?”

  “Are you trying to ruin this campaign?” Norman barked savagely. “What were you thinking letting Miss Kendall stay the night at your house?” he demanded, injecting each word with a burst of incredulous anger.

  “Should I assume that one of the tabloids found out?” Michael sighed, running a hand through his hair.

  “Assume that they all did, Michael,” Norm spat. “And not just the newspapers either. You and Miss Kendall made one of the top stories on a number of TV stations this morning too.”

  “Fuck,” Michael swore, cursing under his breath. He glanced at Ashley, who, if it was possible, seemed to have grown even paler.

  “Quite,” Norm said dryly, dragging Michael’s attention away from his lover. “I took the liberty of making a statement on your behalf. I know you dislike my inference, but I thought-”

  “Norm, just tell me what you said!” Michael snapped, losing a little of that hard won composure that he had been struggling so hard to hang onto since picking up the phone.

  “I said that you and Miss Kendall slept in separate rooms, naturally. I also said that she had stayed for purely practical reasons- her house being so much further away, and you being exhausted after your trip.”

  “And did anyone buy that?” Michael asked doubtfully.

  “I think we need to push the wedding forward,” Norm replied, which told Michael everything he needed to know.

  “Norm… I think you’re forgetting that there isn’t meant to be a wedding,” Michael pointed out, a little desperately.

  He was prepared to do anything it took to win the election… but… marry Ashley to gain a few more votes? He didn’t want to think about why that idea didn’t have him running for the hills.

  “Obviously I’m aware of that, Michael,” Norm sighed. “But we have to seem as though we are preparing for your wedding.”

  “All right,” he said doubtfully, “but-”

  “We’ll have Ashley jilt you just before the big day. Hrm, perhaps she could leave you standing at the altar? I wonder how that would affect approval ratings?” he murmured thoughtfully. “I might go and draw up some charts.”

  “Ugh-” Michael scratched his head. “Okay… Norm?” he said, but the other man was already gone, so Michael hung up, and turned back to Ashley.

  “Is it terrible?” she demanded.

  Michael was still digesting everything that Norman had told him, but he managed to give his head a wary shake. “I think we’ll be able to get ourselves out of trouble,” he murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

  “You- you do?” Ashley asked, looking very hopeful and relieved. “How?” she asked desperately.

  Michael told her Norman’s plan. “See, so all you need to do is jilt me at the altar and everything will be back to normal,” he said wryly.

  Ashley’s eyes had grown steadily wider as she listened to Michael tell his story. “You want me to jilt you at the altar?” she choked, looking decidedly unimpressed with the idea.

  Michael allowed himself a cheeky grin. “Why not? You’d rather go ahead and marry me?” he teased.

  “Michael!” Ashley hissed, but a curious blush colored her cheeks. “That’s not what I meant!” she declared quickly. “If I leave you standing at the altar, you might come away from everything smelling of sympathetic roses, but what about me?” she demanded.

  Michael had to admit that she had a valid point there. He shrugged his shoulders weakly. “I’m sure people will forget about it pretty quickly,” he murmured feebly.

  Ashley snorted. “I’m sure they won’t!”

  “Well what do you suggest we do?” Michael asked, rather harshly. “Because I don’t see that we have too many options to choose from.”

  Ashley placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Don’t talk to me like that, Michael! This isn’t my fault you know! I-!” but she stopped when she realized that her purse was ringing.

  “You going to get that?” Michael muttered, getting out of bed while Ashley searched for her cell phone.

  “It’s my mom,” she squeaked, staring at the calling display for a minute before plucking up the courage to answer.

  Michael paused on his way to the bathroom to liste
n to Ashley’s half of the conversation, although she didn’t actually seem to be getting many word in- for most of the time she was silent, looking like she was getting the lecture of her life.

  “No… no! I- yes… yes, Mom. No! He- yes, I know that, but-” she sighed heavily. “No, Mom, okay… yeah, I love you too, bye, Mom.”

  “Problems?” Michael asked, standing in the doorway to the en suite bathroom, completely unconcerned by his nakedness.

  Ashley shrugged helplessly. “Mom wants me to go home,” she said weakly.

  Michael couldn’t account for the clutch of panic that he felt squeeze his heart. “You’re not going, are you?” he demanded.

  Ashley frowned up at him. “No, of course I’m not, I know I can’t go anywhere,” she snapped.

  “But you want to go?” Michael asked, looking troubled. It was selfish of him, but he had never really stopped to consider what an impact Ashley’s relationship with him was having on her life.

  “No… I don’t want to go,” she said slowly. “I just-” she paused. “I just didn’t think things would turn out like this when we started this lie,” she mumbled.

  “That makes two of us, sweetheart,” Michael smiled sadly. “Look, I’m going to have a quick shower, and then we’ll go down to breakfast together?”

  Ashley nodded her head unhappily. “I don’t think I want to venture out and meet your housekeeper on my own,” she muttered.

  “Ash, it’s going to be okay,” Michael promised, casting a reassuring smile in her direction, before disappearing off into the bathroom.

  Easy for him to say, Ashley thought gloomily. He wasn’t the one that the country was going to hate once all of this was over with and finished. It was going to be hard afterwards, but maybe not as hard as actually jilting Michael… already Ashley wondered if she was strong enough to do it, and it was bound to get worse as time passed by and she let herself get even closer to Michael!

  20

  “Can’t you leave me?” Ashley asked, the second that Michael emerged from the bathroom. He had a towel knotted casually around his waist, and little rivulets of water were trickling through the hair on his chest. It was an effort for Ashley to rip her gaze away. Once she had managed it, she started studying her fingernails.

  “Pardon?” Michael blinked.

  Ashley knew it was a futile question, but she asked again anyway. “Can’t you leave me?” she said weakly. “You could jilt me?”

  “Sweetheart, I think that would defeat the purpose of the exercise,” Michael said gently. “Besides, you might like to jilt me,” he grinned. “Especially after everything I’ve put you through! Think of it as revenge,” he joked, but Ashley found it a struggle to muster a smile.

  Michael dressed quickly, while Ashley set about trying to fix her hair. There wasn’t much she could do to straighten it, and she hated that she had no choice but to wear her clothes from the night before. She followed Michael downstairs to breakfast when he was ready, walking behind him uncertainly, not particularly wanting to meet his housekeeper like this.

  If Mrs. Martin thought anything was strange about seeing her employer walk into the kitchen followed by a slightly disheveled young women then she kept all such thoughts to herself. Breakfast was already laid out on the table- two places were set- Mrs. Martin exchanged a few words with Michael as he and Ashley sat down, and then bustled off into one of the other rooms to clean.

  “So, I’ve be thinking,” said Michael, helping himself to a strong cup of coffee. Ashley looked up from the piece of toast that she was nibbling. “We should go out this morning and buy you your engagement ring.”

  Ashley’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Do you think we should?” she asked, setting down her toast. She really wasn’t feeling hungry, but she had thought that she better try something to please Michael.

  He nodded. “I don’t have anything planned this morning. I was going to give myself a day off to rest after the campaign, but I want to get a ring on your finger as soon as possible,” he said simply.

  Ashley told herself that she was imagining the possessive edge to his voice. He just needed a visible sign of his intentions toward her to calm the press down. It wouldn’t mean anything… not to Michael anyway… She had to remember that, because it was all starting to seem so real to her! Even her mother was fooled! Well… fooled into thinking she was in trouble, which is was… just not in the way that everyone imagined.

  They stopped off at Ashley’s home for a little while before driving on to the jewelers, so that she could change and (on her instance, although Michael assured her that she looked stunning) put on a little makeup.

  Michael’s chauffeur drove them on to Cartier, and his bodyguards walked them to the door of the store to save them from being mobbed. Ashley felt horribly self-conscious. This really wasn’t how any woman dreamed about getting an engagement ring.

  The shop manager rushed over to help them as soon as he saw them. Michael smiled at the man and said they were fine just having a browse on their own for the minute.

  “Well?” he turned to Ashley. He looked awfully pleased with himself. She couldn’t work out why. “Do you see anything you like?” he asked, looking at the glittering rings in the display cabinets.

  She gave her shoulders a helpless shrug; she just wanted to get something and go. “That one’s fine,” she said, waving her hand in the direction of one of the simplest, most inexpensive rings in the store.

  Michael frowned, and wrinkled his nose. “You can hardly even see the stone!” he snored. “There’s no way my fiancé is going to settle for that ring!” he declared, steering her towards the more dazzling choices.

  “What about that one?” Michael asked, pointing out one diamond encrusted ring that had caught his eye.

  Ashley looked to see what he was showing her, and promptly choked in her surprise. “Michael that ring costs-” but she couldn’t bring herself to say the price out loud. “I really don’t need anything so big,” she said weakly.

  Instead of being pleased by her reluctance to spend his money, Michael looked disappointed. “But I want you to have something nice,” he insisted, almost pouting at her.

  “All of these rings are nice,” she lied, in truth nothing had jumped out at her as being ‘quiet right’ yet, not even any of the more expensive pieces. “There. That one’s fine,” she said, picking out another band with a single stone, only slightly bigger that the first one she had chosen.

  Michael stared at her incredulously. “Excuse me,” he called out, surprising Ashley by beckoning the manager over. The man appeared almost instantly at Michael’s side. “I was wondering if you had a selection of engagement rings that you could show my fiancé. We seem to be having a difficulty selecting a ring.”

  “Oh yes, of course!” gushed the manager. “Why don’t the two of you take a seat other there and I’ll bring over a tray of our best rings?” he enthused.

  “Michael!” Ashley whispered urgently,” I don’t think-!”

  “That would be wonderful,” Michael said, speaking to the salesman and ignoring Ashley’s objection completely. He wrapped an arm around her waist and swept her towards the chairs that the manager had directed them towards.

  “What are you doing?” Ashley squeaked.

  “Forcing you to chose a half decent ring,” Michael murmured smugly. Ashley couldn’t stop herself from glaring at him. “I told you. I want you to have something nice, besides,” he added, almost as an afterthought, but not quite. “If you don’t have a stunning ring everyone’s going to be calling me a cheapskate.”

  “Oh, I see,” Ashley sniffed, hating the crushing weight of disappointment that she felt. She did determine to pick out the most expensive ring she was offered for her trouble though!

  “Now, perhaps the lady would like one of these rings?” said the store manager, coming over and presenting Ashley with a truly dazzling array of choice. She didn’t have to fake her gasp of delight; she had just spotted her perfect ring!r />
  “Which one?” Michael smiled. He had been watching closely for her reaction.

  Ashley pointed to a platinum ring with a diamond cluster and a jewel encrusted band. “That one,” she breathed reverently.

  “Oh! An excellent choice!” gushed the manager.

  “Do you want to try it on?” Michael asked, grinning broadly. Ashley nodded her head eagerly, and the manager helped slip it onto her finger.

  “It fits perfectly!” Ashley gasped, moving her hand from side to side so that she could admire how the diamonds sparkled in the light.

  “Must be fate,” Michael chuckled. He popped a gentle kiss on Ashley’s lips, catching her by surprise, before turning back the manager. “We’ll take it,” he nodded. The other man looked like Michael had just made his day, as he bustled off to get some paper work Ashley whispered to Michael.