The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 12

“Prove it.”

MAGGIE

"You're looking exceptionally well today," Senator Quinn cheers as she joins us in the conference room. I see Austin grin out of the corner of my eye but I do not allow myself to look at him.

Even though I've been sneaking looks at him since he walked in because my mind won't quit the slide show of this morning.

The coffee and pastries and quick kiss hello.

The absolute rush on both our parts to get naked.

The first orgasm.

The sound of his voice behind me.

The second orgasm.

The mix of feelings afterwards of wanting him to stay in bed so I could cling to him and trail my nails up and down his back as we snuggled while also wanting to claw his eyes out.

Maybe I was a cat in a past life.

"Thank you, Senator," I say and leave it at that because what am I supposed to say? I got railed and it released a lot of my stress? That I'm counting down the hours until 7:00 tonight because that's when Austin is getting back in my pants?

Or pencil skirt as it were .

We practice a few debate questions and the AI Media answers are good. The senator knows how to adjust her rehearsed responses with the new lines she's given. Part of being in politics is performing and when you're a woman all eyes are on you, expecting nothing short of perfection.

The thought makes me question whether I really want to run for office. I'm not good at thinking on my toes. I get flustered and nervous and rarely experience the flow state I achieve when I'm writing. I’ve known this ever since I ran for student council.

I remember what my dad said when I told him I wanted to run and bring back after-school programs that had been cancelled because of budget cuts. He told me that I was the girl who could get it done and that the students could count on me.

Those sentiments stuck with me as my mom helped me make glitter paint campaign signs. I spent every spare moment I had figuring out how I would find the money for the programs.

“No one else was going to do it” became my motto.

By the end of the school year, I had secured enough funding to bring back all the original programs and add two more. And I was the first student to be invited to sit on the county-wide school board.

And thus, a future public servant was born.

I’ve been backing people and causes I believe in my entire adult life. That track record is part of why cooperating with the TMC team is especially difficult for me. I don’t believe in AI generated content being the future. I don’t think it’s smart to rely so heavily on technology. I understand the advantage of being an early adapter but shouldn’t we wait to see if the app works first?

Austin and his team leave after lunch and I barely get my butt in my desk chair when Sam starts.

"Who did you hook up with last night?"

"What?" I laugh and keep my eyes down at my desk fearful that she'll figure it out just by looking at me.

"C'mon Maggie, I know you were seeing that Mike guy but you were not this relaxed after your date with him."

"You're right, Mike is nice, like really nice, and I like talking with him, he's smart."

"Buuuut…" then Sam gasps. "Oh my god! Did you meet your SMS Connect friend?"

"Ha, no. He's still just writing incredible text messages every night."

"So, who turned you into this Sex On The Beach version of Maggie Collins today?"

"Can't say."

"Ew Maggie," Sam gags, "you hired an escort?!"

"NO!" I yell out and then, after double checking the door is closed, I whisper to confirm it, "No. I did not hire an escort. I know who it was but I'm not going to tell you who it was."

"Can I guess?"

"Sure, but I'm not going to give it away."

"You’ll just give it up!" Sam whoops and lifts her hands for a high five.

I laugh as I clap my hand with hers. It feels very locker room to high five over sex but since I feel like I unlocked the secret to my sanity I want to celebrate.

“Twenty questions style?” Sam asks.

“Sure,” I agree as I rearrange the items on my desk to avoid eye contact with her.

“Is he someone we know?”

“Yes.”

“Dang, that doesn’t narrow it down much. Umm,” she starts rolling her nails on the desktop. “I’m going to Guess Who this… do es he wear glasses?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” She readjusts in her seat, energized by her good guess. “Someone we know who wears glasses…”

I know that if I look at her she’ll somehow pick up on the name through telepathic channels. Instead I open one of my desk drawers and start thumbing through files.

“This is crazy but the only guy I can think of when you said glasses was Austin Thorne.”

I slam the drawer shut so forcefully that my pen cup topples over.

"No. Way." Sam says before she presses her lips together between her teeth and I see them starting to turn white. Her eyes double in size and I think they might explode.

"Sammy, breathe."

"Holy shit,” she exhales dramatically. “Austin Thorne? But you hate him? He hates you? Right? How did you pull this off?”

"It all started when we kissed a few days ago, and then I got your sex-as-a-stress-release idea in my head, and asked him to be my fuck buddy."

“Wait you kissed?!”

“Twice.” I grimace because maybe this is information I should have told my closest colleague slash only friend that’s forced to hang out with me because of our jobs.

“I don’t believe it.” Sam says, astonished.

“Well, believe it because, oh my god Sam, it was so worth it."

"Yeah?" Sam smiles slyly and leans forward towards my desk. I scootch forward too.

"He brought coffee and pastries but the coffee got cold while we got after it."

"And, it was good?"

"More than good. Like maybe the best I've ever had. I mean, I was so annoyed with him every time he spoke,” except when he was talking dirty, “but he met me stride for stride and it just, worked."

"But you're not dating right? I can't imagine that being good for either of you from a publicity standpoint."

"No, it's just sex, pre-arranged, and only until the election."

"This feels like such a good and bad idea all at the same time."

"I can't say I disagree."

"Wow, okay," Sam is quiet for a second as she leans back in her chair. "That's not what I expected when I came in here, but I like it.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I wanted to talk about the timeline of releasing the partnership statement."

"I'm still not convinced we should." I say as I flip open my notebook.

"Well, if the senator does really well at the debate because of the AI responses, I expect Austin will want the credit."

"I expect he will. But the whole point is that there isn't a way to tell if it's the AI or if it's the rehearsed statements we've been working on for months," I say as I flip aimlessly through my notes. "And, what if the AI answers are terrible and she tanks? I don't want anyone to know that we relied so heavily on this new technology."

"I guess we'll just have to see how it goes."

With that Sam stands and leaves me alone with my thoughts. It's difficult to concentrate knowing the hours are ticking down until my evening with Austin. I need to put him out of my mind so I can get some work done.

…

I was able to focus on work after Ben, our campaign manager, stopped in my office and asked for a speech for a newly scheduled stop in the morning. Senator Quinn is meeting with the new cohort of political science students at George Washington University and has been asked to talk about innovative solutions to age-old issues.

I got lost in writing about funding models that are successful in other democracies across the world. I researched team building theories so members of our federal government could see each other as allies more than enemies. It was an accident that I looked up and caught the clock thirty five minutes ago, instantly remembering Austin was meeting me at my place at 7:00.

I threw my things in my bag and rushed out to the Metro. Thankfully, I caught a train almost as soon as I descended to the platform.

I'm home for only a few minutes, enough time to drop my bag, kick my heels into the closet, and pee, before there's a knock at my door.

I open it and find Austin on the other side with a bouquet of flowers. He's changed out of his suit and has a pair of jeans and a navy blue t-shirt on.

"Have you had dinner yet?" He asks as he steps into my apartment and kisses my cheek again. I’m stunned into silence as I take the flowers from him, stare at them, and then up at his back moving into my kitchen.

“No, I just got home, have you?" I ask blinking a couple extra times in confusion. I'm new to the whole fuck buddies thing but wouldn't having dinner together be more like dating?

"No, not yet," he says as I step into the kitchen. He turns to me and crosses his arms over his chest. The material around his biceps strains and my insides clench but then I catch the look on his face. He’s frustrated.

"What?" I challenge and watch as his eyes flick down my body before meeting mine.

"I just can't believe you are doing everything in your power to thwart my business."

I laugh. "What are you talking about?"

"Why won't you approve the statement about the partnership? The senator says she's waiting for your approval."

"I'm doing what's best for the senator." I say as I set the bouquet down on the counter and cross my arms, mirroring him.

"No, you're doing what's best for you. You're so afraid of this technology you're not even willing to admit it works. That it could be helpful to you."

"Is this about work or is this about this ?" I ask, flicking a finger indicating the two of us. “Because if you’re expecting me to fess up—”

"No, believe me, I'm not telling anyone."

Ouch but, yes. My thoughts exactly. I decide on the spot that telling Sam doesn’t count because she essentially figured it out all on her own. I just added a couple details.

"I can't even begin to explain how bad it would be if the news of our arrangement got out while we're also not telling people about working together." I pull down a vase and put the flowers into it. My actions break the tether between us and the air shifts. Austin turns to my fridge and pulls out a beer. He wags it at me and I nod so he goes back for a second. I finish putting the flowers away as he walks back into my studio and leans against my desk, propping one leg over the other at the ankle.

"Okay," he takes a sip of his beer. "Tell me again why she can't go public? I feel like I'm missing something."

"You're missing the genitalia required to understand it."

He laughs as I take my beer and sit down in my preferred corner of the oversized chair. "So if I had tits I'd understand?"

"More or less," I answer with a smile as I take a sip. “Did you know that 75% of high school valedictorian’s are young women? And that most people getting bachelor degrees are women? So adjusting for that we should see at least 50% of the leaders in the country being women.

“But they’re not. Not by a long shot. It’s because work is designed for women to fail when they become mothers, and make it nearly impossible to succeed at work because school ends at 3:00. Senator Quinn got a bunch of flack for being a childless cat lady but part of me is convinced she wouldn’t have been as successful as a professional and a politician if she had a family.

“There are women who have made it work, probably by hiring other women to manage their children and household. And there is compelling data saying that companies under a woman's leadership grow faster and stronger than under a man's. Investment portfolios managed by women perform an average of 5% better.”

I can tell Austin is paying attention. His eyes are focused and with each new little fact I drop they widen slightly behind his frames. I know I’m bordering on unhinged but now that I’ve started I’m going to keep going. I’ve got a point to make. And if it means he walks away and we don’t hook up tonight then fine, I’ll at least have released some stress by ranting.

“There’s a feedback issue for these high performing women too. Like 75% of them receive negative feedback from their bosses when their male peers get like 2% and most of what they hear is about their personalities. Smile more, be more cooperative. That’s inactionable criticism which, news flash, demotivates them! And then they perform worse which, spoiler alert, leads to more negative feedback at their next review. So even though more women are in powerful positions in corporate America, it’s still not a great place to be.

“Now, in politics it's undeniably a man's world. Senator Quinn has the opportunity to do something unprecedented here and the negative side of things will be insane if people spin it like she's cheating. If there is any type of story line of she couldn't do this on her own , she needed AI or something, I'm not sure she'd come back from that."

"But wouldn't she be seen as innovative?"

"Maybe, but I'm more realistic about the general population's opinion of women."

I take another sip of my beer and wait for Austin to argue but he doesn't say anything.

"Let's say she was a 47 year old single man with the same career, credentials, voting history,"

"But no tits," Austin provides and I glare at him while laughter bubbles in my chest.

"Correct, no tits," I say and he smiles proudly for getting the answer right and a little laugh sneaks out of me. "If she were a man the trending headlines about him wouldn't be about his wardrobe, or his skincare routine, or his diet. It would be about policy, his vision. It has taken us months of consistent messaging to have the press focus on her policies first. It's still a delicate balance. I'm afraid of doing anything that could send the narrative off in a direction I can't control."

"I think you need to have a little more faith in the media and the general public. "

"Ugh! You would say that! Did you know that for every three articles or posts about her policies there are seventeen about her clothes, makeup and hair? You know as well as I do that reasonable headlines don't sell so media outlets spin things up to be sexier and in the world of the male gaze a woman's clothing choices are sexy."

I'm wound up. I have shifted forward in the chair and crossed my arms. Realization hits me that while Austin is in charge of this AI project he still works for a media company. I curl into myself a little more when I realize that he could turn around and report all of this to a gossip columnist at Thorne.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore," I say as I stand up and walk to the kitchen. I set my beer down and let my head hang as I brace both hands on the counter. It felt good to get all that off my chest but what good does it do?

I gasp quietly as I feel Austin slide up behind me and press his wide chest into my back.

"You're an incredibly sexy woman Maggie,” he whispers into the shell of my ear and my knees tingle in response, “and hearing your passion for your job, for your candidate, it makes me want to be on your team." His fingers squeeze to release my claw clip before he brushes my hair off my shoulder and lands his mouth there. My head lolls back to fall on his shoulder. "But you need to learn how to trust people,” he whispers against my skin.

"What? I trust people just fine," I protest and when I try to turn around he presses me into the counter harder. I can feel his cock on my ass through my skirt and his jeans.

"Prove it," he says quietly in my ear as his fingers pull the zipper of my pencil skirt down. He drags it down my legs and helps me step out of it while I'm still hooked at the hips against the counter. Both of his hands run up the back of my legs before he grips my thong and pulls that down too.

His hands on my hips twist me before he gently lifts me onto the counter. He pulls his glasses off and sets them right next to his beer. My stomach flutters with excitement. That little movement is a promise of what’s to come.

The windows are open behind him and I can see people walking down the street. "Austin, the window," I start before he kneels in front of me, runs his hands up my thighs to part my legs, and his mouth descends to my pussy.

The walls come crashing down around me as he works my center with his mouth. My heart was racing when I started to share my thoughts on women in politics. I believe women are more capable than men in most things. But right now, my heart beats wildly to fuel the blood sprinting through my veins because a mouth on me is not something I can do on my own.

Austin latches onto my clit which sends my body into a tailspin. My toes tingle and my stomach clenches as I grind down to meet the movements of his tongue. The sensation is moving up through my body. I am not ready to let go. He feels so good. How does he know exactly what I need? I come undone as he slides a finger in me and I incant his name in praise.

He lifts his head and licks his lips. His dark eyes connect with mine as he takes a sip of his beer and sets the bottle back down before he grabs his glasses and slides them onto his face. Every small movement of his sends heat to my core and radiates out to my already melted legs. I don’t know what to make of the look in his ashen eyes. I slide off the counter and start to think about how we're going to continue our activities when he just gives me a curt nod and walks to the door. He opens it and leaves without looking back and I'm left standing half naked feeling sexually satisfied but mentally frustrated .

This thing between us is just sex I remind myself. I shouldn't care about his feelings. Or his mood. Or why our encounter just now felt like a turning point.