Page 3 of Screwed (Dad Bod Contracting 4)
“My point is,” Laurel says, rolling her eyes at me, “that I see through the tough -act you put on.”
I laugh and smile at Laurel. “Okay, just don’t tell anyone,” I joke, “I’ve got a reputation to maintain.”
Another knowing smile. “Yeah, hon, about that—we all see through it, you know. We’re just waiting for you to get over yourself and trust us a bit.” She pats me on the arm. “Anyway. Continue with your story.”
“I…um.” I sigh. “Well, jumping to the juicy bits, I suppose…I met a guy named Landon Price my sophomore year at Brown. He was a senior. We met at a rally for some bigwig from the DNC, discovered we went to the same school and started hanging out, going to parties together. It started like that, but then we started sleeping together, and that turned into spending the night together, and things just sort of progressed from there without us ever really putting a label on it. We were just together all the time.”
“What was he like?” Laurel asks.
I grin. “Six-three, blond hair, blue eyes, fit, beautiful…he was your classic boy next door, All-American, Tommy Hilfiger model specimen of male beauty. He really was a Hilfiger model, too, in high school. As he liked to put it, he ‘dabbled’ in modeling, but once he got into Brown he put it behind him to focus on politics. By his senior year he was already interning with one of the DNC’s rising stars, a young senator from Massachusetts with a lot of controversial views, a shitload of charm and charisma, and big plans for the future. Landon was positioning himself to ride the senator’s coattails up the ladder until he was ready to run for senate himself. And let me tell you, that was hot as hell for me. Landon got me an internship with the senator, and by the time I graduated Landon and I were just about running the reelection campaign ourselves. We were definitely the top aides. It was…exciting.”
“So how does this lead you to sobbing about a wedding at my breakfast table at three in the morning?” Laurel asks.
I laugh. “Oh, keep listening. It gets gnarly, I promise.” I push away the old emotions and focus on just telling the story, because I haven’t spoken of this to anyone…pretty much ever, and I’m ready to unload it. “So, I met Landon sophomore year, and we dated through graduation. He proposed my junior year, I accepted, and we agreed we wanted to wait until after I graduated to get married, and for him to get a bit more settled and established in the political scene in DC. So after graduation, I just sort of started planning the wedding. Coming up with the overall theme, picking the dress with my girlfriends, finding the perfect church and venue for the reception. Only…I could never get Landon to agree on a date. He kept just putting it off. Saying the timing wasn’t right, let’s get through the midterm elections, blah blah blah.”
“Uh-oh. Sounds like a case of commitment-itis.”
I laugh. “I wish it had been that simple. I loved him, but I got the sense he was sort of intimidated by me, or jealous of me, or resentful, or something. He started interning for Senator Calhoun before I did, and he got me the job with him, but I sort of stole Calhoun’s favor. I was smarter than him—I had better grades, I had better ideas, and Calhoun listened to me more, favored me. Which, in hindsight, was as much because of these”—I cup my boobs—“as this,” I say tapping my temple.
“Regardless, Landon was jealous.”
“Right.” I take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly. “So, this is where things began to change. I always knew the senator was…well, attracted to me, you might say. I never acknowledged it, never did anything about it—I was with Landon, for one thing, and Calhoun was married with kids, for another. So it was just sort of this unspoken thing where I avoided being alone with Calhoun to avoid any weirdness or potential impropriety. I also knew he was somewhat prone to…well…straying, I guess. He had me do some fixing for him, if you want the dirty truth. Handing checks to mistresses to keep them quiet about his indiscretions.”
“Yuck,” Laurel says.
I keep my voice neutral and focus on just relating the facts. “His wife knew about it, to be fair. It was one of those marriages of convenience, appearance, and political maneuvering rather than love, and we all knew she had her own side action going on. It was just another one of those dirty political messes, you know? I just did my job and tried to distance myself from his private life. The truth is Calhoun was going places, and I stood to gain by sticking with him until a better offer came along.”
