Page 98 of Bi-Partisan

I can’t wait to see you <3

I sit in the corner of the hotel ballroom we rented for an election night headquarters and watch the three bubbles dance as he types for a few moments. Then they stop and my stomach sinks. Things have been like this for weeks—since the debate. I knew something was wrong. I knew that night, but I dismissed it because I trusted that if something was wrong, Adrian would tell me. And now I feel a little like an idiot because I was clearly wrong about that.

He’s pulling away. Not completely because he still answers my texts. He still sounds happy to hear from me when we get to talk on the phone or FaceTime. But there’s this… hesitation. It reminds me of before we got together and he hadn’t quite trusted whether he could depend on me. I thought I was getting somewhere on that front. I thought he was opening up, letting me in. I mean, he switched around his work schedule and hopped on a train because he thought I needed him.

And then, barely twenty-four hours later, it was like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world but there. And I can’t make sense of it. I’m just hoping that at some point tonight I’ll be able to pull him aside and figure it out—apologize if I did something without realizing it. I’ll grovel if I need to. I don’t really care if it makes me seem desperate. I don’t want to lose him.

The only silver lining to this problem with Adrian is that it’s keeping me from hyper focusing on election results coming in. My staff and volunteers are hard at work. Ben and Riley have barely stopped moving since the polls opened, coordinating with precinct captains and making sure the phone banks are running smoothly. Mina has been on the phone for most of the day, monitoring social media and engaging with supporters. It seems to be going well, but I’m still jumpy—restless because there isn’t really anything I can do other than sit, wait, and hope that my team has put in enough work to pull this off.

God, I can’t wait until Adrian gets here.

It’s been three hours since the polls closed—five and a half since Adrian arrived—and I haven’t gotten any concrete news on either front.

The first batch of results came in almost immediately after 7:30 p.m., just like last time. Between early voters and mail-in ballots, something close to 80 percent of the votes in the district were counted by the time polls closed. But unlike last election, the results were too close to instill any sort of hope that I might win. I’m in the lead, but that’s always the case for Democratic candidates and early voting. It’s on election day that things start to skew red. I’m still carrying a marginal lead, but with only 87 percent of the votes, it’s apparently still too close to call.

I also haven’t been able to get Adrian alone all night. It’s been a perfect storm of distractions, almost to where I’m thinking the universe is out to get me. I tried to talk to him when he first got here, but then my parents arrived only a few minutes later and insisted we get something to eat before the true madness started. And since the polls closed, every time I think “maybe now's my chance,” either he’s found some excuse to escape, or I’ve been called away for updates from the precincts or to work on my concession speech. Mina refused to write it before now, not wanting to jinx something by writing at the same time as my victory speech—which we finished last week. She didn’t even want to start writing it tonight, but I want to be prepared, just in case.

Finally, I manage to break away from the latest interruption and make a beeline to the back corner where I last left Adrian. I breathe out a sigh of relief when he’s still there—because I really don’t want to waste precious time by having to look for him.

He’s sitting at a small table with Julie, a deck of cards spread on the table between them. Although I still have no idea if I ever want children, I can’t help smiling at the sight.

“Do you have any threes?” Julie asks.

I walk up behind Adrian and rest my hands on his shoulders as he checks his cards.

“Go fish,” he says before tilting his head back to look at me. “Everything okay?”

I nod, then look at Julie. “Do you mind if I steal your Go Fish partner for a minute?”

“Go ahead, Mr. Montgomery,” she says.

“Thank you,” I say, smiling. I help pull Adrian’s chair out so he can stand, then offer my hand to him.

“Do you need me for something?” he asks as I lead him through the room in search of a quiet place to talk.

“I haven’t gotten a moment alone with you since you got here.” My eyes lock on the stairwell, and I start toward it.

“It’s okay,” he says quickly. “I understand. I knew it would be a hectic day for you.”

“It is, but I was really hoping we could talk—”

“Mr. Montgomery!”

I barely hold back my groan as Daniel calls my name across the room. Taking a second to neutralize my face, I turn around to see him jogging toward me. “What is it?”

“Ben wants you,” he says.

“Did he say what for?” I ask.

“He thinks it’s over.”

Adrian’s hand tightens around mine, and any of the annoyance I had at being interrupted again dissipates immediately. I turn back to Adrian, and he gives me what I’m sure is supposed to be an encouraging smile, but turns out more like a grimace.

“Can you come with me?” I ask, my eyes pleading. No matter where we’re at right now in terms of our relationship, if I’m about to find out if I won or lost, I want him next to me.

“Of course,” he says, his voice suddenly tight.

Daniel leads the way to a smaller room off the ballroom, where Ben, Mina, Riley, and my parents are already congregated.

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