“Excellent,” Shawn said with a grin. “Also, I want this office empty on the Fourth. The mayor wants me and Christine to be with her when she’s out at events on the Fourth. The rest of you, she wants at each of these events. Boots on the ground. Making things happen.”
I gawked. “You want us to be out there?”
“Yep! And posting to social media about it!”
I nodded in surprise. Leslie must be desperate about the Reyes primary challenge if she wanted nearly all of her head campaign staff to actually be out in the field.
“Let everyone know,” Shawn said. “Hit our goal on the Fourth, and you all will get the weekend off. Light a fire under them.”
“I will let them all know.”
“I can always count on you, Lark.” He nodded his head at Sam. “Good to see you. Boots on the ground!”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
And then Shawn sauntered out.
I sighed. “Well, this is going to be interesting.”
“To say the least.” He grinned. “But hey, we used to do this every single day in Madison. It’ll be like old times.”
His smile was infectious.
“Maybe. I’d better get back to work if we’re going to hit that goal.”
“Sounds good, boss.” He winked at me as he walked backward toward the door. “Still on for after work?”
I nodded at him. “You convinced me.”
“Good. See you then.”
As much as I wanted to follow Sam back to his place, I had to run home and get clothes for the next morning. There was zero chance that I’d be coming back. And anyway, Sam had said that he could get dinner ready.
“Going somewhere?” English asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Date with Sam.”
“A sleepover?”
I laughed. “Yeah. I finally get to see his apartment.”
“Nice. That sounds like it’s getting more official.”
“I think so. Plus, our boss just said we could take the weekend after the Fourth off. I’m thinking we’ll get a whole lot of…”
“Wait, really?” she asked, suddenly excited.
“Uh…yeah. Why?”
“That’s when I have to be in the Hamptons for Court’s thing.” She waved her hand. “He’s doing that photo op. Some party. But you should come too! I can get all of us out there. Then I might not kill myself, being there with him alone.”
“Oh, the Kensington Cottage?” I said with a grin. “I love that place. I’ll ask Sam if he wants to go.”
“Thank you. Thank god,” she said.
“Is it really that horrible, working with Court?”
She shook her head and blew out a breath. “No, he’s fine. I just know that he’s purposely trying to make my job harder. He can be pleasant. He just isn’t.”
“Sounds right.”
“Well, have a good time,” English said. “I’m just waiting for Josh to call.”
“Have good phone sex,” I called as I headed for the door.
“I will!” she called back with a laugh.
I grabbed an Uber into Brooklyn, and it pulled up in front of a tiny brick apartment building. It was a cute, if not quite trendy, part of the city. This definitely wasn’t Williamsburg. I slung my bag over my shoulder and pressed the button for him to buzz me up. There was no elevator. So, I climbed the stairs to the third floor, glad that I’d opted for Nikes.
The door was unlocked, and I stepped into his apartment with wide eyes. All exposed brick and natural light with sparse furniture and a close, comfortable feel. A large stack of boxes took up the front left corner. An open door revealed the darkened bedroom. I was actually surprised how little there was in the space. It seemed the only real decorations, other than the blue curtains, were the little carvings on several surfaces. I knew from personal experience that Sam had a knack for woodworking.
“Hey, you found it,” Sam said with a wary smile. “What do you think?”
“It’s so adorable.” I closed the door behind me and hefted a bottle of red wine in front of me. “I brought wine.”
“Great. I have an opener here somewhere.”
He began to rummage through the drawers as I dropped my bag onto the couch. He triumphantly pulled out a corkscrew.
“Aha! I knew I hadn’t packed them both,” he said.
“Why are you all packed up anyway? Does your lease end soon?”
He hadn’t mentioned it, but I figured it must be up soon. Maybe by the end of the summer. Since he said he’d been here about a year.
“Oh, no.” He took the bottle from me and began to open it. “Well, yes. It is soon. Going to have to figure out what I’m going to do about that. But…I actually packed up all of Claire’s stuff.” He gestured off to the boxes after he pulled the cork out. “It was everywhere. And I was tired of looking at it. So, I did it after Court’s event. Hence…” He gestured around again.
My heart fluttered. He’d packed all of Claire’s stuff up. He hadn’t told me that before. I’d tried to tell myself that I wasn’t worried. But in some way, this felt more real than anything else he could have done. He’d said he had things to figure out…and then he’d actually figured them out. Here was the proof.
“I like it,” I told him.
“You’re just saying that.” He pulled two wineglasses out of a cabinet and poured us each a glass. “It’s nothing compared to what you’re used to.”
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t like it.”
“True,” he conceded. “It has charm.”
A buzzer sounded from the oven, and he hustled back over. He pulled out garlic bread wrapped in aluminum foil. He set it down on the stove and then began to stir something in a giant pot that smelled amazing.
“Need any help?” I asked.
“Uh, nope. You can take a seat, and I’ll dish us up some spaghetti.”
“All right.” I took my wine to the small table pressed against a wall just big enough for two.
A few minutes later, Sam brought two plates over full of spaghetti with a red sauce and garlic bread. My mouth watered at the sight.
“This smells amazing.”
“Thanks. It’s my mom’s recipe. She seemed surprised that I was making it in the city. I don’t remember the last time I had time to cook. Or more specifically, had the energy to cook.”
I laughed as I twirled my fork in the pasta. “I feel you. I’m glad that you did it for me.”
His smile was magnetic. “Me too.”
“So, now that we’re getting three days off…”
“Tentatively.”
I rolled my eyes. “Leslie will give them to us regardless if we hit the goal. She just wants this to be the big last push before the voter registration window closes. She’ll want us to be fresh for the last month before the primary. She’ll seem magnanimous. Or at least, it’s what I’d do.”
“True. It makes sense. Why is Shawn running her campaign and not you anyway?”
My cheeks flushed. “Shawn is more qualified.”