“All right, Mr. Mayor.” Stuart cocks an eyebrow and smirks. “Just keep your face like that and we’re all good.”
Yeah. We’re all good.
If only it were as easy as a perfect fake smile.
“I think that was one of your best interviews to date.” Stuart chews a mouthful of his sandwich as we take a short break from discussing who I want to appoint to different city departments. One of my powers as mayor allows me to select who I wish to run as Commissioner for the Fire, Police, Education, Housing, and Transport Departments.
“Good. I’m glad I got my key points across.” I finish my lunch and throw the wrapper across the room, expertly landing it in the trash can.
“That was luck.” Stuart chuckles as I shrug my shoulders. Humble in victory. “But I’m glad you’re looking less like you just smelled a week-old shit. Whatever’s cheered you up since this morning has my extreme gratitude.”
I don’t tell him that it’s the gif Harley texted me earlier. One of a sleepy puppy that keeps almost dropping off, until finally, it lands face first in its dinner bowl. She’d written the words,‘This is me’underneath, and then sent another text immediately after saying,I’m sorry I’ve not been home. I miss sleeping in your arms. I miss finding you’ve stolen my shampoo again. I miss running my fingers through the hair at the nape of your neck. And I miss hearing you call me Angel. It’s been less than forty-eight hours and I miss you as if it’s been forty-eight years.
Her words brought a lump the size of Brooklyn to my throat, and I dialed her immediately and we had a few moments to talk before I let her go, hearing the exhaustion in her voice, and knowing she needed to nap while she could.
But it was enough.
It was enough to tide me over until tonight. Because there’s no fucking way I’m spending another night apart. I will camp on Griffin’s kitchen floor and feed Rosie every second, if that’s what it takes to be back with Harley again.
“You know what is going to cheer me up even more?” I ask Stuart as I pick up some paperwork from the desk. “Getting the men and women I want running these departments. The ones I know will put their heart into it, see it as a privilege to serve the people of this city, and do the role justice.”
“Amen to that.” Stuart grins, tossing his sandwich wrapper toward the trash can and smirking at me when it goes in. “Who’s first?”
“Okay. So, Lisette Gregson in housing. I want her to stay. She’s made some great decisions. She was one of Dennis Vincent’s smarter choices.”
Stuart snorts. I know what he’s thinking. She was the previous Mayor’sonlysmart choice. Turns out even jerks like Dennis get it right sometimes.
“But as for George Yates?”
“I know what you’re going to say.” Stuart grimaces. “And I agree. No doubt about it. He’s got to go.”
I nod as we decide the fate of the current Police Commissioner, who’s served two terms under Dennis Vincent. Two cockroaches sticking together. I had my suspicions even before Dennis leveraged his position to pardon a known drugs kingpin and got him off with a light warning and slap on the wrist. He would have had assistance inside the NYPD to help sink that shit. I can’t prove it. But I can do this.Bye-bye, George.
“See.” The corners of my mouth lift as I look at Stuart. “Told you this would cheer me up.”
An hour later and we’re heads down, discussing my final choice for the position of Deputy Mayor, when there’s a knock at the door. One of the campaign team pokes his head around the door.
“Sorry to interrupt, but you have a visitor.”
“Oh?” I rise from my chair, almost knocking it onto the floor with eagerness. My chest lifts as I hope to see Harley appear in the doorway.
“She said her name’s Bea.”
“Oh.” The sound falls from my lips like wet earth sliding off a churchyard shovel.
“What does she want?” Stuart echoes my exact thoughts, and I throw my pen down on the desk before I cross the room.
“I’ll speak to her. Give me five minutes, then we’ll get straight back to where we were.”
I walk out into the main office. Most of the team has gone now that the election is over. And the few that have stayed to help and will probably have roles once I officially take office in six weeks’ time are at lunch.
Bea stands in the center of the room in a royal blue dress, black heels that look like weapons, and a shiny, red-lipped smile that may as well be a poison apple. I find it hard to believe that we ever dated, however brief. I may not have had the most honorable intentions in my encounters with the opposite sex since our relationship ended, but none of the women I used to acquaint myself with shared the same hardness in their eyes that Bea does.
When I hit my low point all those years ago, she was the first one out the door. She realized she wasn’t engaged to an up-and-coming music producer, as she had allowed herself to believe, and that was that. She did me a favor. I’ve always hated break-up conversations. Finding her gone one day with a note that simply said, ‘We aren’t going to work. It’s over’, was the best luck I’d had in months.
Bea knows what she wants. And that’s her priority every time. She’s heartless and places value on her status rather than in her relationships. Her and Graham are a fine match.
“Bea. This is a surprise.” I keep my tone polite but clipped. Whatever she’s come to say, she can say fast. Stuart and I have a few more things to go over, and then I’m going home to see Harley. And no one, especially not Bea, is going to make me miss a second.