K. Linde - Off the Record

“Really, Hayden? How many women does he need to be photographed with for you to believe that the guy is dating multiple women while running for office?”

“The campaign came right out and said that he had no personal relationships with those women, and they were just friends,” Hayden reminded her.

“Convenient,” Calleigh said dismissively. “The campaign will make a statement in whatever way is most favorable to them. Whether the campaign wants to admit it or not, it just makes him look like a player.”

Hayden shrugged. “Probably. What do you think, Liz?” he asked, trying to include her.

Liz’s mouth had gone dry. Of all the days for that shit to surface, it had to be the couple days before the primary that she had refused to watch the news. The only thing she didn’t know was whether or not her involvement had surfaced. Someone surely would have said something if it had, right?

“Brady’s bachelor status is known, as well as the various dates he brings to functions. I don’t know why it’s being brought up now except as a desperate attempt by his opponent to throw off those who favor more traditional family values,” Liz told them, speaking more confidently than she felt.

“Maybe,” Calleigh said nonchalantly. “I don’t know how they explain away the woman he’s secretly seeing.”

“What woman?” Liz asked, sure that her voice gave her away. Her hands were shaking and she clenched them into fists at her sides so they weren’t visible. She could feel her heart rate picking up. No. They couldn’t know.

“There are claims that he’s having a secret affair,” Calleigh nearly whispered, as if she were telling them a secret, but her eyes stared straight through Liz. Could she possibly know?

“Isn’t that all speculation?” Hayden asked. “There really isn’t any proof. Or at least, if the competition has it, it hasn’t surfaced yet.”

Calleigh shrugged. “We’ll see. I bet if he wins, it will surface.”

Liz found herself nodding, because Calleigh was right. If the competition had any proof of this “anonymous” woman, then it would surely come to light in the coming months. How many times had she been with Brady in a public place where people could have photographed them…videotaped them together? She listed them off in her head—gala event, lake house, Fourth of July, second gala event, his house, the cabana, not to mention the time she ran into Clay at Hilton Head, after Brady had told her not to be seen in public…

Fuck. Too many places. She had thought they had been so careful, but now looking back on it, it all seemed so reckless. Anything unexpected in politics could hurt a career, especially with a race as close as Brady’s. They had been sleeping together in private for months. It all came back to what Victoria had said, “A guy who wants to keep secrets from other people…is going to be okay keeping secrets from you.” Brady’s opponents could paint this so easily as deception, and people would be asking what else he was hiding for the rest of the election. Not to mention that her hard-earned objectivity would go down the drain. She and Brady had been gambling their careers, and now it could all blow up in their faces.

The room fell silent again, and Liz was sure people could hear her thoughts. She forced herself to look away from Calleigh’s questioning stare. She didn’t know how much Calleigh knew or if, as Hayden had said, it was all speculation. Either way it wasn’t comforting.

“We heard that we should be having the final results for the Fourth District over there in the Triangle area of North Carolina any minute now. What do you think about this race, Stacy?” the commentator asked his female coanchor.

“Well, it’s really a toss-up, Ryan,” Stacy said, furrowing her brow. “There’s been so much speculation going around about State Senator Maxwell’s bachelor status and the number of women he has been seen with. The question people are asking is ‘Who is Senator Maxwell dating?’ We’ve seen him with a North Carolina state beauty queen, an environmental lobbyist, and a swimsuit model. How many women is this politician dating at once? The campaign has come out and officially made a statement. You can see it here on the left.”

A clip of a campaign’s statement appeared on the screen, and Liz skimmed it quickly as the woman read over it aloud.

“‘State Senator Maxwell has had no official relationships with any of the women that he has been photographed with. They are simply friends who agreed to accompany him to events. He is, as ever, focused on the election.’ Now, that seems pretty straightforward to me, but I wonder how many more women will surface if he wins this primary. There has already been some talk about him having relations with yet another woman.”

“That’s right, Stacy,” Ryan cut in. “Who is this mystery woman? And will more evidence turn up regarding this situation? If it does, this could look bad for Senator Maxwell if he wins the primary today and moves on to the general election.”

Liz felt as if all of the color had drained out of her face. It was all hearsay. Someone had started a rumor that had bloomed into something with the potential to cause chaos. But still, she hadn’t heard about any swimsuit model from Brady. Was that just gossip as well? And why was the news even reporting on this?

She knew why even if it was infuriating at the moment. The race was as much selling a person as it was selling a platform…maybe more so. People could rally behind a compelling candidate like Brady, but with a potential mishap like this, how far would it set him back?

“Oh, it looks like the results are finally in,” Stacy said with a smile.

Liz watched the screen along with the rest of the crowd. She was solely focused on what was about to happen. Brady was going to win. He had to win. This was his dream.

“And it looks like in an incredibly close race with a win by only a thousand votes,” Stacy cheered, “State Senator Brady Maxwell has won the primary. Congratulations, Senator.”

The room erupted into applause. People were screaming, clapping, hugging one another, dancing with strangers—Liz could even see one lady crying on her friend’s shoulder. And all she did was stand there and stare.

Brady won. He had actually won. He had beaten a very qualified candidate, someone who had been working in politics two or three times longer than him. Yet, he had come out on top.

Liz had known deep down that he would win, but still the magnitude of what had just happened washed over her all at once. He had two and a half more months of the campaign to find out whether he won his seat in Congress, but at this point, he had surpassed expectations. If he won his seat in November, he would be the youngest sitting representative. She was so proud of him.

Actually standing there, knowing that Brady was the nominee for the House of Representatives, changed everything. Everything.

He wasn’t just a chance. A hope. He was a sure thing.

And it was in that moment Liz knew that Brady had been wrong the other day. He had been wrong to say that there was never a choice. No matter how stubborn he was in wanting both the campaign and her, there was always a choice. Always.

But the choice wasn’t his. It was hers.

The whole time Liz had been acting as if she didn’t have a choice in what happened between her and Brady. That things would work out or they wouldn’t. That he was the one who would make the ultimate decision to pull the plug. He had set the rules from the beginning in that little diner, and he had been setting them ever since. Brady decided when and where and even who could know that they had a relationship at all. Brady had decided the risks they would take.

Liz had simply acted like a passenger, letting him guide the car wherever it might go. She had been active and even demanding at times, but she never really pushed the limits. She never did anything drastic enough to make him say enough was enough.

But she knew now that she had to make the choice; otherwise Brady was going to keep making it for her. He had been making decisions for her long enough.

What it came down to was that she loved him and he loved her. It was an inevitable, impossible existence where they stood currently. Their feelings bore down on them with a hopeless, crushing desire, with a need that bordered on addiction. It would forever be that need that she felt, that craving to be with him, to be around him because they were never allowed the opportunity to let their feelings bloom and grow. At this standstill, they couldn’t truly develop their relationship.

And the biggest problem. The one above all else was that Brady wouldn’t let her love him.

Plain and simple.

So the choice wasn’t her or the campaign. The choice was whether or not he would let her love him.

And that answer scared her, terrified her.

Because Liz knew that if it was her decision, she would choose his happiness over hers any day.

Brady stared out across the sea of people. The ballroom was full to the brim with his supporters chanting his name, cheering his victory, and waiting for him to give his acceptance speech. He had won the nomination to run for the House of Representatives in his party. He had won.

All of the time, energy, planning, strategizing…everything he had given up had been worth it. The people in his district had voted, and here he was preparing to step up to the podium to accept the nomination. It was surreal to finally have within arm’s reach what he had been working toward all this time.

Yates’s dropping out of the race had helped the situation. He had been a more formidable contender than Hardy, though still Brady had beaten him by only a thousand votes. He wished he knew how much of his success rested on the name his father had given him compared to the amount of effort he had put in himself.

In the end, it didn’t matter. He was still here, exactly where he wanted to be.

“Congratulations!” Heather cried, rushing toward him with a giant smile plastered on her face. It was the first real smile he had seen from her in a while. She had been even more stressed than he was these last couple weeks.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him into a hug, the way she used to when they had been running in smaller races. She didn’t even touch him anymore; she was too worried about appearances.

Brady patted her on the back and Heather released him, looking a bit flustered.

“I knew you could do it,” she said, straightening diplomatically. Even here, right after they had won their greatest feat to date, she still couldn’t be herself. Sometimes he missed the old Heather.

“Thanks,” Brady said, for once not knowing what else to say.

“How does it feel?” she asked. Her delight was written all over her body. Most other people might not have noticed, since she wasn’t skipping around the room and bouncing up and down, but Brady noticed the little things—like the way she gripped her hands together, the set of her shoulders, and her easy breaths. They had been in this business together too long already.

“It feels damn good.”

“Don’t go saying that to the press,” Heather said cheekily.

“Would I ever?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Heather leaned in closer and checked to make sure no one was listening. Everyone was milling around them, but they all seemed too engrossed in their own excitement to pay him too much attention. It was a bit ironic.

“Fuck, Brady. We actually did it. We beat the odds. We beat Yates and Hardy. Despite you messing around with that reporter, and the press having a field day, we still made it through. We can win.” Her voice was tight with emotion. “We can win.”

And there it was. It always came back to Liz. All of the dates that Heather had put on his arm had shown up in the news in a negative light, but it didn’t matter. Because to Heather, he had slipped up, he had fucked Liz, and he had carried on an illicit relationship behind Heather’s back. Even though he wasn’t dating someone else, or married, or had kids…it still always came back to that.

Brady wondered whether Heather even noticed how irritated that made him.

“Yes, I believe we can win,” he said curtly. “Excuse me, Heather, I need a minute alone before I go onstage.”

“Of course,” she said. “Congratulations again. Alex said for you to take two days off, and then we were going to sit down and plot strategy. I know that we already have the skeleton in place, but now that we have the nomination, he wants it all finalized.”