The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 21

From Bad to Worse

MAGGIE

"And I anticipate four years of prosperity and…and?"

"Growth?" Sam suggests with a shrug.

"That's the same as prosperity." I say as I rub my face before remembering I’ve got makeup on. My fingertips come back brown with eyebrow pencil and sparkly from my eyeshadow.

"True, okay, umm, peace?"

"We can't promise that."

"Right," Sam mutters as she lays with her legs propped over the arm of the sofa. We're in the Senator's hotel suite on election day. She jumped on the plane to make one last appearance in Dayton, Ohio and Sam and I stayed back to finalize her acceptance speech. The concession speech has been done for weeks. It's not considered a bad omen to have that one ready plus it's short and sweet to write. "Thank you, I've learned so much, enjoyed the process, and look forward to the future under president blah blah blah."

In order to avoid all manner of tempting fate, the acceptance speech cannot be written before election day. It definitely cannot be read by the candidate before the results are in. So in-line with tradition Sam and I are drafting it now .

My pen taps incessantly on the top of my notepad. The thump, thump, thump, doing little to calm the chaos in my mind.

"Why is this so hard?" I grumble as I toss my things on the coffee table between us in frustration.

"That's what she said."

"Lame." I deadpan but I can't help how I smile anyway at the dumb joke.

"Let's take a walk and let the physical movement shake some words out of us." Sam suggests as she swings her legs around and sits up.

"Alright, where to?"

"Wanna go check out the ballroom?"

"Okay, and then get a coffee on the way back up."

"Sounds like a plan.”

◆◆◆

The walk, the flurry of party preparations, the coffee, none of it worked. We ended up with a different line in the speech. I have a feeling prosperity and is going to keep me up at night.

The sun set hours ago and we’re now in the suite together with the senator's family, close friends, and the entire team.

Including Austin.

I’m using my spidey sense that’s tuned into his frequency to avoid him. If he walks into the dining area where I've been writing at the table, I stand up and move to the sitting area. If he walks closer to the kitchenette that dead-ends into the wall, I make a beeline for the second bedroom in the suite that has an alternative exit through the bathroom. I'm like an undercover agent always scouting out the closest escape route.

I have tried to push last Tuesday night so far out of my mind that the pressure of keeping it tucked away takes up more mental energy than just feeling the horribleness of it. Anytime I try to figure out what I’m feeling about being stood up by DCFox it morphs into the frustration of seeing Austin instead. How his presence doubled the pain of the moment. That I was escaping the challenges of my professional life by going all in on personal endeavors only to get burned. So here I remain, holding hands and skipping down the sidewalk with denial, trying to focus on the election results as they come in.

At this point in the evening we are waiting on results from Ohio and Arizona. If one of those goes our way along with a few other states that we expect to fall for us then we've done it. If not, then we haven't.

It's humbling. After the countless hours of work, the months of analyzing every word choice, and reviewing countless data sets, it still feels like a game of roulette. We're just spinning around and around waiting to see where we'll fall.

"I got a heads up from the news director at Thorne Media Corp, he said they're about to call Ohio and he expects the other networks are going to call it soon too." Someone shouts out.

"Change it to TMC." Ben shouts above the chatter.

I watch as Austin slides backwards into the crowd. He's never used the fact that his father owns the largest media company in the country to his advantage, in this arena, or any that I can think of. He's never mentioned it, he's never once tried to use his connection to the senator with the AIM contract to promote any of the TMC brands.

It's either highly suspicious or highly demonstrative of his superior character.

I laugh at myself because there isn't much evidence of that superior character anywhere. None that I can see, nor care to find. Especially when my failed date at Lapis comes to mind. I hate that he was there, I hate that I engaged in conversation with him.

Moreover, I hate that in the moment I liked talking to him. I always do. But as soon as I step back and take in the full picture I’m reminded that he is driven to succeed. He only cares about the bottom line.

The few blips when he put me first, or showed me kindness, and seemed to be a caring and compassionate man flash in my memory but I dismiss them. Remembering the few moments he’s been the man I think he can be will not help me stay firmly in the I Hate Austin Thorne camp.

With a shake of my head to dislodge the thoughts of Austin actually being a nice guy, I turn my focus to the TV. The anchors are sitting in a wide semicircle, there are six of them. Two hosts and then two commentators on each side because balance and fairness are the themes of the night.

"TMC's election data team is ready to make a call on Ohio," the first anchor says.

"That's right, and they’re calling it for Senator Quinn."

The whole room erupts in cheers and hugs and high fives and claps and fist bumps. Joy. Simply put, the room explodes with joy.

I hug Sam, I hug Ben, my smile is so wide it almost hurts.

Then my eyes shift to Austin who is standing in the back and smiling at me. Just watching me. Our eyes lock and instead of the hurt and anger I was expecting to feel, his graphite eyes are soft and comforting. And I feel, well, loved.

The activity and jubilation in the room fades as I connect with him. We don’t need words. We did it. He breaks eye contact first when someone steps up next to him for a congratulatory handshake and I snap out of my trance. I blink heavily and try to decipher if my heart is racing because of the results or that interaction with Austin.

Sam calls me over to the table to make sure we get the speech loaded into the teleprompter correctly and to do one final pass through.

When we're satisfied we tell Ben that it's good to go and sit back to wait for the confirmation from Illinois and Minnesota before sending the senator out on stage.

◆◆◆

"And so, it is with immense pride and an overwhelming sense of relief that I accept the position of President of the United States. I look forward to four years of prosperity and stability. I believe we can accomplish a great deal together and I cannot wait to get started."

I'm clapping from just off stage with a smile pasted on my face because there are cameras everywhere but I'm furious.

That wasn't my speech.

I don't know who wrote it but it wasn’t mine. Sam has a look of confusion on her face next to me which tells me she is just as surprised as I am.

"What the hell was that?" She whispers out of the side of her mouth as she continues to clap.

"I have no idea." I admit with a shrug as I also continue to smile and clap. We might look deranged.

I look past the senator and the crowd on stage and see Austin standing in the wings directly across from me. He's leaning over an iPad with Tyler and they're both nodding. When he looks up his eyes catch mine and I want to rip those glasses off and stomp on them .

He smiles, shrugs, and slips his hands into his pockets.

So it was an AI Media speech.

Fuck my life.