Season Five: French Kissing, Book 5
Page 21
As the hours on the clock ticked away, Steph had grown more and more desperate. Rivière wasn’t a rebel. She said all the right things and always voted with her party. She, very simply, was a decent and gifted politician. Why then, if she had all this going for her, would she have succumbed to Sybille’s charms? Steph could ask that same question about her own friend Juliette, of course, but at least Juliette had the excuse that she’d been retaliating against Nadia’s infidelity.
Maybe that’s what it was for Rivière as well. Maybe her husband, Edouard, had had an affair. Maybe history always kept on repeating itself and Sybille was always in the right spot to take advantage of it.
Steph still sat with her phone in her hands, although her head had dropped back against the pillow and her eyes had fallen shut, when the alarm went off.
Dominique jumped out of bed as though it was the first day of school and she’d been waiting for that special day for months.
“Christ,” Steph groaned. “Someone’s excited.”
“It’s time to put all of this behind us.” Dominique stood there smiling in the early morning light. “I’m going to crush Rivière in this debate and then I’m going to beat her rather shapely arse in the election. And then…” She crawled onto the bed on all fours. “I’m going to marry the woman I love. How about that for a near future? No wonder I’m jumping out of bed this morning.” She kissed Steph on the lips.
This was exactly what made Dominique such a wonderful president. A setback was only ever just that. She never allowed it to destroy her vision of what was to come—and what needed to be done.
“No matter what happens.” Dominique jumped off the bed again. “I know I will have done my best and, more importantly, my conscience will be clear.” She winked at Steph. “Now that Rivière has shown us her true colours, I’m more determined than ever to beat her. I can’t have this country governed by a woman who falls for someone twenty years her junior who happens to work on her election campaign.”
Steph cleared her throat.
“I know. We’ve been there, but I was well and truly divorced when I met you and I would never have let you persuade me to leak a porn video of one of Goffin’s people.” She grinned from ear to ear.
“What if that’s her final play before the election?” Steph threw the covers off her. “What if her husband is in on this and they release a different kind of video next week. A video of her and Sybille confessing to the public that they’ve fallen in love?”
“Do exactly what we did, you mean?” Dominique shifted her weight.
“I wouldn’t put it past Sybille.”
“But Rivière’s married. No matter how ‘in on it’ Monsieur Rivière might be.”
Steph held up a finger. “Which would be the perfect occasion to dig up that never-published article about me and the shady haunts I used to frequent.”
Dominique shook her head. “No way. Your imagination is running away with you, babe. Did you get any sleep?”
Steph shook her head. “I spent my night reacquainting myself with Anne Rivière.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Nothing.” Steph headed towards the bathroom. She needed to shower and share her hunch with Claire and Juliette.
“Hey.” Dominique caught her hand and pulled her to her. “You have to let this go, chérie.”
“No, I don’t. I understand that you have to let it go and focus on the debate, but that doesn’t mean I have to. I have to protect you. That’s my job.”
“It’s not.” Dominique embraced her. “Promise me.”
“I can’t do that.” Steph looked Dominique in the eye.
“Are you going to force me to make you?” She drew her finger over Steph’s naked side, then launched into a ferocious tickle attack.
“I surrender,” Steph said in between involuntary bouts of giggles. “I will do as you ask, Madam President.”
“Good.” Dominique stepped away from her. “You can join me in the shower if you like.”
Margot
“You paved the way for this,” Claire said. “If you hadn’t insisted that Juliette come to your birthday dinner, I’m not sure she would have asked for my help yesterday.”
Margot had woken with a big knot in her stomach. Claire had filled her in on all the goings-on of the campaign last night—her eyes glittering as she did—and Margot had no immediate outlet for her nerves about the big debate tonight.
“You give me too much credit.” Her voice was tense. At least Claire was feeling good. This was what she loved. Margot could so clearly see now how much Claire had missed work.
There was another tidbit that had kept her from reaching sleep. “How did you figure out that Sybille was sleeping with Rivière?”
Claire poured more coffee into their cups. “Intuition,” she said. “Plus… intimate knowledge of what it looks like when you’re sleeping with someone for all the wrong reasons.”
Margot chuckled. “Do you think she wanted you to know?” Sybille struck her as someone who always thought a few moves ahead.
“That’s the big question.” Claire sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “She might well have one last trick up her sleeve.”
“But Dominique seemed fine to you?”
“She didn’t object to me being in the room, so…” Claire smiled triumphantly. “You know what I should have done instead of taking it easy for the better part of a year? I should have infiltrated the Socialists, gotten into their good graces, become chummy with Sybille, and figured out their end game. Then handed over the whole she-bang to Dominique.”
“That would have destroyed your friendship with Juliette forever.”
“Not if she had known why I’d done it.”
“It’s a little late now, babe,” Margot said.
Claire nodded. Then her phone started ringing. “It’s Steph. I should take this.”
Margot watched as Claire shot out of her chair and, as soon as she had picked up, started pacing around the room.
As a matter of principle, Margot didn’t listen in on the conversation, although it would most likely be about Dominique—and she wanted to know every last thing about how she was feeling today. But more than that, Margot rejoiced in the look on Claire’s face when she’d received that phone call from Steph—who hadn’t called her in a long time. She was back in.
As for Claire’s silly plan of infiltrating the Socialists, Margot would have surely put her foot down and nixed it.
Claire hung up and sat back down. “I think Steph’s almost as nervous as you.” She picked up her coffee cup and stared at Margot over the rim. Margot knew that look. She was gathering her thoughts and trying to come up with a plan. “She believes Rivière and Sybille might copy her and Dominique’s coming-out video from the previous election.”
“What?” Margot leaned back in her chair. As soon as they’d both woken they’d scoured the online Sunday papers for any scoops on the candidates, but all they had found were articles looking forward to tonight’s debate—and plenty of people having their say about Aurore’s video. “No way. That would just be… utterly despicable.”
“Nothing’s out of bounds when your campaign manager is Sybille and you’re in love with her to the point that you’ve relinquished control. She’s already persuaded Rivière to leak Aurore’s porn video.”
“There are always boundaries. What do they think this election is? A soap opera in which the highest stakes are drama? Does nobody take politics seriously anymore?” That was what Margot admired most about Dominique as president. Amidst all the shenanigans, she always remained dignified. That alone made her the better candidate. As far as Margot was concerned, Rivière had just dug her own political grave. Pity that most of her compatriots didn’t share Margot’s beliefs.
“Everyone working for Dominique takes it dead seriously. Me included.” Claire sat there beaming.
“I presume you’ll be out all day?” Margot asked.
“Steph asked me to come over.
”
“Are you going to the TV studio tonight?”
“I’m not sure… how ‘back in’ I am yet. But they might ask me to be there, if only to destabilise Sybille.” Claire cocked her head. “Would you like to join me?”
Margot shook her head. “Heavens no. I’ll go watch at Inez’ place. I can’t bear to watch it on my own.”
“Don’t worry, babe,” Claire said. “Dominique has got this.”
“To think she considered not running.” Margot rolled her eyes. “I understand why she wouldn’t have now.”
“All of that’s water under the bridge now.” Claire shot up again. “I’ll keep you posted on anything that happens throughout the day.” With that, she quickly kissed Margot goodbye and dashed out of the door.
Claire
Claire revelled in the nervous energy that hung thickly in the halls of the Elysée. She inhaled deeply, wanting to make up for all the months of campaigning she’d missed. She’d known all along that she wasn’t exactly housewife material—that was what had made her approach Aurore in the first place. Being back in the thick of it was so thrilling, she wished the campaign was just starting instead of reaching its climax.
She was the only one on the campaign team with any stamina left. Solange was the best at hiding her trepidation. No matter what happened, she kept her spine straight and her shoulders squared. Not even her partner starring in a porn video seemed to rattle her.
Juliette, on the other hand, looked rather shaken since the visit to Sybille. Or perhaps she had looked like that for months and Claire simply hadn’t been around to witness it. She used to only need the subtlest of hints to know that something was up with Jules.
“Tomorrow, we’re in Nantes, Rennes, and Le Havre,” Solange said.
Dominique gave a curt nod while she sipped from a cup of coffee and skimmed a piece of paper. Claire felt like a fly on the wall. These people weren’t used to having her around anymore, nor were they in the habit of asking her for anything.
Juliette was hunched over her phone, scrolling with a fast-flicking thumb.
When Steph arrived, Dominique looked up briefly, then went back to scanning the piece of paper she was holding.
Steph beckoned Claire to follow her. She led her into an adjacent room. Juliette entered the room a few seconds later.
“Dominique has asked me to drop it,” Steph said. “But I refuse to believe this is over.” Steph seemed to be most wired of all. “They must have something else up their sleeve.”
When Juliette didn’t say anything, Claire cleared her throat.
“You have to let her do her thing now, Steph.” She slid her hands into her pockets. “You have to trust Dominique and forget about the others. You have to trust that she’s better.”
“The better candidate doesn’t always win.” Steph glanced nervously around the room. “We’re in PR. We know this better than anyone.”
“While that may be true, today is debate day. Whatever happens next, happens. And we’ll deal with it when it does. Today, we have to be there for Dominique and make sure she gives the best performance she can.”
“I just have this….” Steph put her hand on her stomach. “Massively uneasy feeling right here.”
“It’s nerves.” Juliette finally said something.
“I wasn’t nervous like this last time,” Steph said.
“You’re not the same person you were last time,” Claire said.
Despite Steph’s nerves and Juliette’s distractedness, it felt right for the three of them to be in this room together, thinking out loud.
“I just need to do something, you know.”
“I’ll talk to Leah,” Juliette said. “See if she has been able to find out anything else from her contact at Johnson.”
“Who’s Leah?” Claire asked.
“Someone new at Barbier & Cyr,” Steph said matter-of-factly.
“My replacement?” Claire drew up her eyebrows.
“Hardly,” Juliette said. “But whether you like it or not, your work wasn’t magically going to do itself after you left. We needed another pair of hands.”
“Fair enough.” Claire felt a pang of jealousy course through her regardless. “Has she delivered?”
“She’s great,” Steph said. “She used to work with Sybille, which is one of the reasons she didn’t want to work at Johnson anymore.”
A knock came on the door.
“The president has asked to see you,” an aide said to Steph.
Steph followed him immediately, leaving Claire alone with Jules in the room.
“She’s so nervous. I’ve hardly ever seen her like this,” Claire said.
Juliette just nodded.
“Are you okay, Jules?” Claire kept herself from stepping closer.
“Steph’s deadly nervous and I’m holding on by a thread,” Juliette said. “And there’s something that I would like to clear up.” She pulled back a chair and sat. “You still haven’t properly explained why you betrayed us.”
“Do you really want to do this now?” Claire realised she sounded a little defensive. She hadn’t expected the question and she hadn’t pondered the answer in quite some time.
“As you just said to Steph, there isn’t much we can do right now. We just have to wait for the debate to start and be on hand for any fires that need putting out.” She fixed Claire with an icy stare. “So yes, I really do want to do this now.”
Claire pulled up a chair as well. She needed some time to gather her thoughts—and she needed to duck away from Juliette’s glare. “I made a mistake, Jules. I’ve made many in my life, and what I did that day will always be one of the big ones. One that might very well have led to a lifetime of regret.”
“Except that you’re not really the regretting kind.”
“I am, Jules. I had so much time to reflect. I know I hurt you and there were times when I believed that it would be irreparable. But then I remembered our friendship and the foundation of it. And I knew we could come back from this.” Claire summoned the courage to look Juliette in the eye. “Does your forgiving me hinge on my explanation? On the reasons I give?”
Juliette sighed. “I know why you did it, Claire. You’re hardly a mystery to me. I know you like the back of my hand.”
Claire nodded. “Despite the circumstances, I really appreciate being back.”
“I’m never doing an election campaign again.” Juliette looked around the room. “In fact, I will give you that in writing here and now. If only I could find a piece of paper.”
“You telling me is enough.”
“It was hard doing it without you.” Juliette rubbed her palms on her trousers. “It was hard to grieve for our friendship while trying to focus on this.”
“I’m sorry,” Claire said.
“I want you to come back.” Juliette looked at her. Her glance was different, softer—more resigned. “After the election, I’m going to take a very long holiday. Perhaps even a leave of absence of my own.”
“I’ll be there, Jules.” Claire’s heart beat hard in her throat.
“And after that, we’re finally doing the thirty-hour week experiment, whether you like it or not.”
Claire’s instinct was to protest, but now was not the time. “Whatever you say, Jules.”
“I’m not sure,” Juliette said, “when I’ll be able to say that I forgive you. I may never be able to say the words, but, right now, a hug seems like a pretty good idea.”
Claire rose. So did Juliette. They took a step towards each other and Claire opened her arms wide. When Juliette stepped into her embrace, it felt like she had finally come home after a long and arduous journey.
“Now let’s go be there for Steph. I think she’s the one who needs us the most today,” Juliette said.
“She’s worried that the article about Le Noir might resurface,” Claire said. “I’ll make some more calls, but I think I have it contained.”
“Claire,” Juliette said. “Welcome back.”
Claire bit back a tear. This was no time for sentimental crying over the ups and downs of their friendship. This was the time to grab her career back by the horns and make herself indispensable.
Dominique
Dominique’s nerves had transformed into extreme focus. She knew Rivière was strong on social issues, but Dominique wasn’t half bad on those either. And she had the benefit of experience. Moreover, Rivière was distracted. Dominique couldn’t care less about her opponent’s personal life, but she did acknowledge that it must be taking some kind of toll on her. Dominique wouldn’t hesitate to use that to her advantage.
Most of all, she just wanted to remind the nation one last time of why she was a good president. She would do so using the best weapon she had.
“Crush her,” Steph whispered in her ear, and squeezed her shoulder.
The candidates had been kept in separate green rooms before the broadcast started and Dominique had yet to catch a glimpse of Rivière or her entourage. Nothing else had been leaked or tweeted. Steph’s doom scenario of a video of Rivière and Sybille declaring their undying love hadn’t materialised yet—and Dominique believed it never would.
Dominique took a deep breath. From the corner of her eye, she saw Rivière for the first time that day. She gave a curt nod and walked onto the set.
The spotlight had always done something to her. Ever since she’d stood next to her father when he’d won his first election as leader of the MLR, she’d known that, just like him, she was born for occasions like this.
She had urged her parents to follow the debate at home. Television studios had a special kind of energy that could play tricks on people’s minds—and they weren’t getting any younger.
Dominique waved at the audience. Then she met Rivière in the middle of the set and shook her hand. She took the opportunity to gauge her opponent. Rivière was dressed in a bright red trouser suit. How subtle. Her lipstick matched the colour of her clothing. Rivière’s handshake was firm. She looked poised and, as their palms met, she narrowed her eyes slightly. She was ready.