Page 69 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

Vernita turned to Leo with more intense energy than anyone at this hour. “Harlen Carruthers reached out to me, too.”

Leo almost dropped his coffee cup. “Harlen Carruthers?”

“He wants to endorse you.”

“Shit.” Leo took stunted steps around the kitchen, hands cupped over his mouth.

“Who’s Harlen Carruthers?” I asked like the political noob I was.

“Harlen was a beloved state senator in the ’90s,” Leo said.

“Now he’s like the godfather of Hudson Valley politics,” Vernita continued. “People love him. He fundraises like a champ. His endorsement carries a lot of weight around here.”

“Nice! Now he’s riding the Leo train.”

Like I did.

“It’s not a done deal. He might attend your debate against Rita this week. But so long as there are no more surprises, my hope is we can ride this momentum to the election.” Vernita tried to stay business, but the excitement broke across her eyes. “Mr. Mayor, get dressed because we have debate prep to do.”

Leo looked at me, and for a split second, it almost seemed like he wanted me to say something. “Duty calls.” He grabbed my arm and leaned into my ear as he passed. “We’ll talk later.”

He kissed my cheek and retreated upstairs. We would talk later. Maybe by then, I’d know what to say.

* * *

While Leoand Vernita were busy at his office doing debate prep, I made good use of my time. Rather than sit around and think about…things, I distracted myself by replacing the sagging shelves in the living room. I picked up wood from the hardware store in town, Throw a Wrench in It, then sanded and painted them so they matched the bookcase style. The books now stood in a straight line, and shelving no longer gave people a Joker-like smile.

Leo came back sometime in the afternoon, at which point I was knee-deep in a cable TV marathon of ’90s action flicks.

“Wow.” He glided a hand over the smooth wood of the shelves.

“No more sagging.”

“For starters.”

He took a step back to take in the whole project.

“Can you fix my fence next?” he asked, half-jokingly.

“I’ll add it to the list.”

He chuckled softly and then came the inevitable silence. I looked to him, and he looked to me, and together, we came up with zero words to say. I worried about saying the wrong thing. We were teetering on a cliff, and one wrong move could send our friendship toppling into the metaphorical sea.

I left it to Leo. He was better at words than me.

But he seemed stumped in that department, too.

And then, to my surprise, Leo broke out into a laugh that took over his whole face. His white teeth gleamed, and Adam's apple bobbed with pure, almost silly laughter.

The laughter barreled up my throat and out into the room, getting rid of all the anxious feelings I’d been carrying. The more I watched him lose it, the more I did, too. When was the last time I laughed this much? It really was good for the soul. It turned out to be the perfect response.

“Why are we laughing?” I asked.

Leo held onto the back of an armchair. “I don’t know. Better than weird silence.”

The laughter pricked pains in my stomach. “We had sex,” I said.

The sentence sounded weirder said aloud.

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