by Aviva Gat
Madeline nodded. “We were young,” she commented. It seemed like the only logical explanation for everything.
“Yup,” he responded. “What do you think of the coffee?” He motioned to her untouched mug in front of her. Madeline smiled and lifted the mug to take a sip. It was…coffee, completely average in every way.
“It’s delicious,” she said with a big smile.
“So, tell me what else is going on,” Hunter said. “As long as you’re here. How’s life? It’s been a while.”
Madeline looked at her watch. She still had about 30 minutes until she had to leave to meet her driver who would be picking her up outside Columbia’s campus to take her to her DAR luncheon. She had planned to spend any extra time she had wandering around the old library where she used to study, but talking to Hunter seemed like a viable alternative, even with the average coffee that she would have happily replaced from one of the stands on campus. The rhythm of conversation began, Madeline began telling Hunter about the boys, how Noah had been suspended for bullying, when it turned out he was being bullied. Hunter commiserated, telling her about his daughter Felicia who was in the middle of hitting phase that had started a couple years ago and they hadn’t figured out how to end it. Madeline talked about the SAVER Bill she was working on and Hunter responded that he had heard about it on the news.
“It’s a very long term solution,” he commented. “If it lasts long enough, it may have an effect on our grandchildren’s generation, but we need a more immediate solution.” She asked if he had any ideas and he promised he would think about it. She wanted to ask about Rhonda, about the divorce he mentioned, but she figured it was better not to bring it up. Time was running out anyway and she needed to wrap things up.
Madeline finished her mug of coffee and stood up. “It’s been wonderful catching up, but I have to go,” she said. She lifted her hand to shake Hunter’s, but her move felt unnatural and foreign. She had never shaken Hunter’s hand. He came around from the table and grasped her hand in both of his. The touch of his fingers sent electricity through her, travelling from her hand, up her arm and down her torso where the electricity sparked. She gently pulled her hand away. “It was good to see you,” she said.
“And you,” he responded. “Enjoy the rest of your trip in New York and I hope everything turns out OK. Keep me posted.”
She nodded and then left his office, walking as fast as she could back to Columbia to meet the driver. She didn’t want him seeing her walking from Harlem. She wanted him to see her coming out of the university, as though that had been where she had spent her time. To her dismay, the driver was already waiting for her when she arrived. Damn him for always being early, she thought. She got in the car and sat quietly as they returned to the Langham to pick up Jane. Then they headed to lunch at the DAR where Madeline shook hands, smiled and listened to all the women’s concerns. From there, she attended a happy hour event with women from The WISH List and commiserated with all of them about how difficult it was being a woman. Then she was whisked away between several charity events where she shook more hands, gave speeches about how important each charity was, swapping in their different names, and when the day and night were almost over, Madeline and Jane sat quietly as a car took them back to the Langham.
When the car dropped them off, Madeline and Jane went inside past the hotel bar where Madeline noticed a dark figure sitting with a beer in front of him. Their eyes caught quickly, but Madeline shifted hers away, careful not to let them stick. Madeline and Jane continued to the elevator, still conducting small talk about the day they just finished. Jane was commenting on the shrimp cocktail at the last charity event when the doors of the elevator were about to close. A hand stopped them and they swung back open, letting Hunter walk in. He was in the same suit he was wearing earlier in the day, although the shirt was a little wrinkled and the tie had been loosened. He pressed the button for the top floor and stood quietly facing the doors, letting them close in front of him. Silence held the elevator as it traveled up, first stopping on Jane’s floor. When the doors opened, Jane hesitated before getting out. She looked at Madeline for direction with fear in her eyes. “Goodnight Jane,” Madeline said, freeing her from the elevator. Her chief of staff looked weary as she left her boss alone in the elevator with an African American man. No one wants to admit they are racist, but Jane’s hesitation showed just how deeply racism was rooted inside everyone.
When the doors shut and the elevator began to move again, Hunter turned around. “Why did you come see me?” he asked.
“To tell you,” she responded as the doors opened to her floor. “I have to go.” She pushed past him out of the elevator but he followed her out. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”
“I’m doing what I should have done years ago,” he said. “I should never have let you get away with everything. I should have made you answer me. Now tell me, why did you come see me? You didn’t need to fly to New York to tell me that someone is blackmailing you.”
“I didn’t fly here to tell you,” she responded as he followed her toward her room. “I was here anyway and I didn’t want to talk about it on the phone. My phone could be bugged!”
“You didn’t want to see me?” he asked when Madeline stopped in front of her room’s door.
She stood in front of him, their faces just inches apart. It was close enough for her to feel his heat, to get caught in the electricity that radiated from him. “No,” she responded. “It was purely out of consideration. I have to go. Good night.” She turned around to open her door, just as Hunter grabbed her wrist and turned her back around. He pushed his lips on hers, pushing her back into the still closed door. His lips were heavy on hers, forcing hers slightly open to lock into his. She fought herself from getting caught in his kiss and found the strength to push him back. “Please, Hunter, I can’t.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t miss me,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “That’s why you came to see me. There’s still something there. I miss you. I’ve missed you every day.” He turned his head to kiss her cheeks as she stood pinned against the door.
“Hunter, please,” she said. She wanted to tell him to stop, she wanted to tell him to leave her alone, but her body felt like it was giving in. Her body had missed him, even if her brain had tried to shut that feeling out.
“Maddy,” he said airily, his lips moving from her cheeks down to her neck. With one hand he took the room key from her and slipped it into the door, opening it behind her while still kissing her. He gently pushed her inside and continued kissing her neck, her chest and her cheeks. He was still pushing her backwards toward the bed when the hotel room’s phone rang. The ring immediately snapped Madeline awake and she regained composure, pushing Hunter back far enough to put inches of distance between them.
“Just let it go,” Hunter pleaded, but for Madeline that was impossible. An unanswered phone could lead to more than just voicemails. Her job was to be available, as a senator, a mother, or whatever else she needed to be. She could not let the call go unanswered. She stepped back from Hunter to grab the phone and picked it up as Hunter sat down patiently on the king-size bed.
“Madeline? Turn on your TV!” Jane screamed through the line. “I can’t believe this. It’s totally out of left field! We were definitely not prepared for this, I can’t believe I missed it. I’m so sorry, I feel like I failed.” Jane continued to ramble through the line as Madeline looked for the remote. “Should I come up? We can talk about this. I’ll get the team on it, right away.”
Madeline saw the remote on the other side of the bed and motioned to Hunter to grab it. He tossed it to her and she pressed the red button, immediately searching through the channels for the news. What she saw made her heart pound. “Jane, I’ll call you back.”
Chapter 21
“Madeline Thomas is not who you think she is,” said the man on the TV. The man was wearing a blue suit and tie and standing in front of a wooden podium with a sign on fro
nt: Austin for Senate. Behind him stood a crowd of indistinguishable faces all carrying the same blue and red sign. It took Madeline a moment to recognize the man, he looked so different out of his uniform and with his face clean shaven. It was Officer Austin, head of the Fraternal Order of Police, who Madeline had met with weeks ago regarding the SAVER Bill. Madeline remembered how hostile he had been during that meeting. How he had even stood her up during their originally planned meeting when her office building received a bomb threat.
“Madeline Thomas is part of the system she pretends to be fighting against. She’s been a part of it for twenty years, planning and conniving with the system’s leaders and then turning around and lying to the voters about how she isn’t in their pockets. I’m so sick and tired of her lying, which is why I decided to run for her senate seat,” Officer Austin said on TV. Behind him the crowd roared. “I know I’m not well known and I am definitely the underdog here, but I think that if you really want truth and change, you’ll vote for me. I’ve been a police officer for the last forty years, serving and protecting my country by interacting with the people. Unlike Madeline Thomas, I don’t sit in some fancy office and pretend I know what’s best. I’m on the ground level, talking to constituents every day. I’m the guy that comes to your house when you need help, and the guy who stops criminals from hurting you.” Again the crowd roared behind him.
“For the last ten years, I’ve been leading the Fraternal Order of Police, working hard to improve our forces so that the police who are protecting your streets have the best opportunities and are best situated to take care of you. And I want to tell you a story. In the last ten years, Madeline Thomas never talked to us. She never cared about how hard we work to keep you safe. But suddenly, she decided she needs my help. She invited me to her office, and of course, I went, because my job is to respond to every call. She wanted to know how we can align our interests and how she could convince me to support her.” The officer made quotations with his hands and exaggerated the words align and convince to emphasis that they had a somewhat different meaning when Madeline had said them. He looked back at the crowd behind him, which was now booing in response to what the officer had said about her. “Yeah, that’s right,” the officer continued speaking. “And that’s just the beginning of the stories I can tell you about Madeline. If you knew what I knew, you wouldn’t want her representing you in Washington. You wouldn’t even want her mowing your lawn. So I’m here to restore integrity for California. The same integrity that I’ve had in my longstanding career, I’ll bring to Washington and continue looking out for you just as I’ve done my whole life. Austin for Senate!”
The crowd behind him again roared, this time even louder than before. Officer Austin turned around and started shaking hands as the picture faded to a news anchor who started reporting on the announcement.
Madeline turned around to Hunter, who was sitting on the hotel bed, his back leaning against the wooden headboard. He didn’t look troubled by what they watched on TV. To Madeline, he looked rather bored, maybe annoyed even. He didn’t look like he understood what Madeline believed she understood.
“Well?” She said to him.
“Looks like you have a big fight coming up to keep your seat,” he responded as he stood up. “I guess I should go.”
“That’s all you have to say?” Madeline wasn’t sure what she wanted him to say, but that was definitely not it. Maybe he could have said that she would win, or that she shouldn’t worry. Or he could have said the one thing that Madeline had on her mind right then.
“I shouldn’t have come up here,” he said. “Have a good night, Maddy.” He left the hotel room, leaving behind a hurricane of anger that began swirling around Madeline. She was angry at Hunter for what he did and what he didn’t do, she was angry at herself for the same reasons and for not seeing Officer Austin as such a threat. She wasn’t angry at Officer Austin though. No, for him, she felt spite, malice, disgust even.
At a time like this, there was only one person Madeline could count on, one person she needed to speak with who she knew would be thinking the same thing she was. Things had been strange with Brandon for the last few days. The uneasiness in their talks, and her feeling of being caught wrapped around her. She picked up her cell phone and called him. “Hey,” he answered. “It’s late. I was starting to wonder what happened to you.”
“We had a lot of events this evening,” she responded automatically. “Have you been watching the news?”
“I saw,” he responded. “Officer Austin for Senate. It’s got a nice ring to it.”
“Do you think…?” Madeline asked without really asking. The truth was that the FBI had already investigated Officer Austin. He was on top of her list of adversaries, people who disagreed with her beliefs and spoke openly about it in the news. The FBI had investigated him after he didn’t show up to their first meeting the day of the bomb threat. They investigated further after she did meet with him in her office. The only conclusion the FBI developed was that no further investigation was needed. But, Madeline now began thinking, Officer Austin was a police officer after all. He had all sorts of resources at his fingertips. Maybe he even had connections at the FBI protecting him.
Madeline started to feel something she had never felt before. A small tick that came from outside her, making her feel like she was being watched. She turned around and scanned the hotel room, which appeared empty, save for the feeling of paranoia that was growing larger, like a weed taking over the room.
“I don’t know, Madeline. Your guess is as good as mine,” Brandon responded. “No, your guess is probably better than mine.” Madeline thought she heard a tinge of hostility in Brandon’s voice. It was so small, she couldn’t be sure it was there, but something—maybe the paranoia—was making her feel attacked by Brandon.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, just that something isn’t adding up here,” Brandon responded. “Come home, we’ll talk about it. No use trying to solve everything over the phone like this.”
Madeline said good night and hung up. A moment later her phone rang again. She hesitated to answer, afraid of what news it could bring, but she knew she could not let it go. When she lifted the receiver, Jane immediately started talking. “I think we should try to schedule a debate with Austin. You would obviously win and it would be great television. I know it isn’t standard in Senate races, but why not? I’m trying to reach his campaign team. My friend who works in Sacramento is checking at the State House who filed Austin’s candidacy. I’ll contact them immediately…”
“Jane, I am going to hang up now,” Madeline said. “Talk to our staff and tomorrow we’ll go over the next steps.” When she placed the receiver back down, she felt suddenly alone. She wished Hunter hadn’t left, but she knew his presence only made her more isolated.
She washed her face, scrubbing the grease and makeup off her skin. Clean, she didn’t look so fierce. She didn’t look like the force of nature she felt like when all made up. So she closed her eyes and lay down in bed. She wouldn’t sleep, but with the covers pulled up around her neck she could let herself crack open. A tear escaped her eye and she let more follow. Sometimes no matter how strong a woman is, she still just needs to cry.
Chapter 22
Madeline arrived home the next day after her early morning flight. She looked senatorial as always in her skirt suit and perfectly made-up face as her car dropped her off in front of her driveway. She thanked the driver and walked into the house, noticing that Brandon’s car was in the driveway. Inside, Brandon was sitting on the couch with his computer on his lap and headphones on his head. His socked feet were up on the coffee table and his glasses reflected the screen. “NO! How many times do we have to go over this?” He yelled into the headphones. “These bugs are unacceptable at this stage. I shouldn’t be hearing about these things. The product team should be taking care of them before bringing it to the CEO. Please fix and get back to me.” Brandon looked up to see Madeline i
n the doorway with her small carryon luggage. He immediately straightened up and pulled his headphones off his head.
“What are you doing here?” She asked. His presence made it seem like something was wrong. He should be at the office, going through his normal routine. He never waited for her at home when she came back from a trip. There was no need.
“I wanted to see you,” he replied. “I thought we could get the kids together from school. They have a lot of questions.”
Madeline nodded and took her suitcase upstairs to unpack. She switched out of her suit and put on jeans and a blouse, making herself look more like a mom than a senator. She needed the afternoon off. Jane would handle the staff and update her in the evening. While it may seem contrary to take time off when things were becoming so heated with her campaign, it was actually the smart thing for Madeline to do. Time off gave her time to think. It gave her staff time to rethink before they gave her any rash recommendations. It was a move that had served her well through other stressful times in her career—when she had seen negative press against her for the first time, when she had been forced to support something her constituents would not understand. Time off always gave the right answers. Madeline hoped this time it would too.
When she walked back downstairs, Brandon was no longer sitting on the couch. The smell of coffee led her to the kitchen where he was pouring himself a mug. She grabbed her own mug and prepared a cup. The two stood quietly in the kitchen, the only sounds the slurping of coffee. Madeline averted her eyes. She felt full of things she should say, but none that she would allow to be released from her lips. They continued to stand together, quietly, in the kitchen, drinking their coffee. Then, with a thud, Brandon placed his mug in the sink. “I have to get back to work,” he said and he left the kitchen and Madeline with her coffee that was no longer warm.