Sam had taken care of me. We’d walked back to my apartment. Me in my ridiculous ballgown. Him in a rumpled suit and messy hair.
Friends.
Or at least, sort of. Closer to that than anything else. Closer to that than we’d ever been.
I’d always thought we were either in love or we weren’t. There was no in-between for us. Especially not with him having a girlfriend. But last night, he’d been my friend when I needed one. Just like I had been Penn’s because he needed me. It had been a relief.
I hadn’t seen him today. I’d been stuck in this meeting since the dawn of time. I wondered if last night would stick for us too.
“That’s fine. That’s all fine, Christine,” Shawn said. “There’s another announcement. Leslie has brought on Jay Neville for strategic consulting after this.”
My ears perked. “He agreed?”
I knew that Leslie had been courting him for months now. That she’d wanted him last election too. He’d said he wanted to stay in Texas and remain near his family. But this Court situation must have been serious enough for him to finally get on board.
“He did,” Leslie said. “Which is wonderful. I think we need him. He’s working with his own pollsters to see how this will look. But we won’t know until the end of the week. In the meantime, I’m working on finding someone else to…handle Court full-time.”
“That’s smart,” Shawn said. “We should have had that last election.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Court tended to cause trouble wherever he went.
“Yes, well, nothing was this serious,” Leslie said. “I have a few people in mind. They’ll be another paid staff, and we’ll need to onboard them in the campaign and in Court’s lifestyle.” She turned to look at me. “I hate to put more on your plate, Lark, but do you think you can be in charge of that aspect once we find a person? I realize most people who were even trained in PR don’t quite get the Upper East Side like they do other celebrities.”
“Of course,” I agreed immediately. “I’d be happy to.”
“Great. Once we can get him a handler, we’re going to have to put together messaging for him joining the campaign in some capacity. I think it’s the easiest way to deescalate this situation at this point. Jay agrees with me.”
“We need him on message,” Shawn agreed.
Leslie nodded. “Yes, we’ll figure it out.”
I leaned forward as something clicked in my brain. “I know someone who is a fixer—Anna English. She’s a celebrity publicist in LA with Poise PR. She already knows Court and has some understanding of the Upper East Side. She’s the best in the business.”
Leslie arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Well, bring Anna out. We’ll interview her for the position.”
My smile broadened. This was perfect. English had just been complaining about her job. This might be the break she needed to get away from the less pleasant aspects.
“I’ll do that.”
“All right,” Leslie said, standing to her considerable height. “You all have your assignments. I can’t stay much longer. Still have a city to run. Let’s look at this as a small setback and not a death sentence. It will be fine. It’s far enough away from the election that we can manage this. We can still win. So, let’s go out there and do it.”
Everyone sat up a little straighter as she spoke. She had that effect. Like her words were almost a glamour. The force of her charisma pushing into us. It was one of the things that I loved about her.
We all stood up and stretched our aching muscles as Leslie walked out of the room. Back to City Hall to deal with her mayoral duties. Leaving us to try to pick up the mess of her son’s debacle.
I headed out of the conference room with my legal pad tucked up under my arm. I needed coffee. I’d barely gotten any sleep last night, and it was already catching up with me. I couldn’t pop over to Coffee Grounds with the media camped out front. So, I’d have to make do with the shitty break-room coffee.
The room was already full of everyone else who had decided on the same thing. There was a line ten people deep, and man, I could not deal with that today. I whirled around to head back to my office and die from exhaustion in peace. But when I got there, I found Aspen missing and Sam leaning against her desk instead.
“Hey,” I said in surprise. “What’s up? And where’s my assistant?”
“I told her to go grab her lunch. That I’d watch her desk.”
My eyes widened. “Oh god.”
He laughed. “It’s only been a few minutes.” He picked up a Coffee Grounds cup from the desk. “I brought you coffee in. She was going to take it to you in the meeting. But hey, now, you’re here.”
I looked at the coffee like a lifeline. “I don’t even want to know how you got in and out of here to bring this to me. I’d die for that coffee right now.”
“I can’t give away all my secrets.” He passed it over to me with a satisfied smile. “I figured after last night…you might need it.”
“You figured correctly.”
“So, what’s the scoop?” he asked, sitting back and sipping his own coffee.
I shrugged. “Court is under house arrest. We’re bringing Jay Neville on for consulting. I’m going to try to hire English to babysit Court. And otherwise, we’re kind of fucked right now.”
“Wait, Court is under house arrest?” he asked. “That doesn’t make sense. He didn’t even do anything.”
“Well, not official house arrest. But he was arrested, and it’s a fucking media circus out there. He can’t leave without making this all worse. So, we’re trying to find someone to deal with him before that happens.”
“Huh. That seems unfair to Court.”
I gave him a I’ve been up for way too long to pity Court look. “He’s fucking the entire campaign right now. If he has to sit in his multimillion-dollar penthouse for a few days, is he really suffering?”
Sam laughed softly. “I suppose not.”
“I appreciate this,” I said, nodding to the drink. “But I should probably get back to work. The world is ending. Didn’t you hear?”
He stood up from Aspen’s desk and nodded. “Ah, well, I think it’ll blow over. Just hang in there.” He headed back toward his own office before saying, “And get some sleep.”
I waved him off with a secret smile and then headed into my office. I would not overanalyze that conversation. I would not think obsessively about him bringing me coffee. I would not think about any of it.
Not even a little.
Okay. Maybe just a little.
13
Sam
Ever since the conversation with Lark, I’d been thinking about how Court Kensington had ended up on an unofficial house arrest. And how ridiculous it was that it was happening. That no one seemed to care that he was a grown-ass man and should deal with his own consequences or not.
But no, everyone was so focused on the campaign. No one was thinking about Court at all. It was their job to think about Leslie and how this would impact her. I seemed to be the only one wondering how Court was holding up.