Page 63 of Bi-Partisan

“No,” I say reflexively. “Well, yes, but…”

“It was more than that?” she teases.

I wrinkle my nose. “Ugh, it sounds gross when you say it. But yes, it was more than that. I didn’t go over there for that. I went over because he had a bad day and I wanted to be there for him. And nothing really happened until I was going to leave. We just watched TV and ate dinner. Okay, and we kind of cuddled, but that was it.”

“Cute.”

“Shut up.” I grab a stress ball off my desk and chuck it at her, which she catches with ease. “But then I was standing at the door about to leave and…”

“Then y’all hooked up.”

I roll my eyes. “Yes. But again, it was different.”

She smiles and tosses the stress ball back to me. “Well, of course it was. You’re both completely smitten with each other. Neither of you are good enough actors to fake the way you look at each other when you think the other isn’t watching.”

My cheeks heat, and I toss the ball back.

“So where does this leave you?” she asks.

“We talked this morning, and I convinced him to give this a real chance,” I say.

“You convinced him?”

“Kind of.” I shrug. “I mean, he admitted that he has feelings for me, but he’s…”

“Closed off?” she supplies, and I nod. “Yeah, Sophie told me how long it took for him to finally accept her invitation to hang out outside of work. And how even now, she feels like he holds himself back.”

“He’s just so used to people leaving.”

“And even though he likes you, he’s afraid you’ll be the same,” she guesses.

“Pretty much.”

“Well, it probably won’t take long for him to realize that there’s not much he can do to get rid of you. I’ve been trying to get rid of you for ten years and here we are.”

“You love me,” I argue.

“Yeah, I do.” She smiles and sets the ball back down on the desk. “And I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks.” I return her grin. “I’m actually really happy. I feel like a total cliche, but I quite literally woke up with a smile on my face.”

“Just be careful, okay? We’re less than four months away from Election Day and—”

“Yeah, I know. I can’t lose sight of the campaign,” I finish.

“No, you can’t. Speaking of, we should go get some coffee.” She stands and smoothes her pants.

My stomach sinks. “Polling numbers?”

“Yup.”

I all but hold my breath our entire walk to the coffee shop down the street. Mina didn’t say anything else while we were in my office because legally, she couldn’t. But I could tell by her tone the results aren’t good. I was having such a good morning, too, minus the not-quite-a-fight I had with Adrian. But apparently, what goes up, must immediately come down.

We get our coffees, then head back out to the street to walk so we can’t be as easily overheard. She goes to pull a folder out of her bag, but I wave her off.

“Just give me the spark notes,” I say, seeing as I have a meeting in forty minutes.

“You’re down by one.”

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