Chapter Twenty-Five
When Caroline woke up from the divine sleepless night, there were only two things in her mind. One to see Jack on her side, lying next to her in his gorgeous manliness. The next is announcing to the world that she was going to get married. It wasn’t quite official yet, so she couldn’t tell the entire world about it. Only two people. Ella first and if she felt up to it, Alex.
Their passionate kissing had resulted in her uncontrollable urge, but was halted by Jack’s insistence not to have sex until it after he could propose to her officially.
“What difference does it make? I wanna be with you. Even if you hadn’t told me about your mother and asked me to marry you, I would have said yes.” Caroline had insisted.
“I love and respect you enough to save something special for when we can do it officially. You will have a couple of days to think about. We can visit mum together. I am actually going there tomorrow. I had promised to see her before the tournament this weekend. It just so happens to be in Chicago, which is where mum is staying to be close to Northwestern. Her specialist works there.”
“I will come with you,” Caroline said, determined not to let the moment pass.
They had made plans to travel together and cuddled to a deep sleep. When Caroline woke up, Jack was already up and trying to find his way in her kitchen.
“OMG! You won’t believe what happened!!” She sent the first text to Ella. They hadn’t spoken since the afternoon.
“Don’t tell me you slept with him!!”
Ella had teased her about how distracted she was during graduation and later found out about the dinner plans.
“Yes and no:-) He’s the sweetest man ever! I’ll have big news to share later!”
“Call me ASAP!”
Caroline felt some kind of relief in being able to share the news. The Senator had already left for D.C., and she had planned to have brunch with her mother. That will have to be canceled. She decided she would call and talk to her. She imagined her mother would be happy for her. And judging by how her father was behaving around Jack, it won’t be too difficult to convince him either. She would first have to lay the foundation before she broke the news.
“Alex, sorry we couldn’t hang out. It’s been crazy busy! Thank you for your understanding. I know I can always count on you as my brother and dearest friend. I’ve news to share. I’ll be leaving town for a couple of days, with Jack. Haven’t told dad yet. In case something comes up, thought you should know.”
Writing the message to Alex didn’t feel all that onerous. She was grateful they didn’t cross the line earlier in her moment of weakness, and that Alex valiantly tried to preserve their unique friendship by withdrawing himself before things went too far. She owed it to him to be transparent and lean on him for advice on how to deal with this development in her life.
Alex received the text message on his coffee stop at the Starbucks before he went to work. He stopped himself to read and reread the message a few times. It wasn’t just that it confirmed his fear of being friend-zoned for life, the thought that he might have destroyed a good friendship for not reading the clues was intolerable for him. He ached for taking advantage of Caroline in her weakened state.
Although the tone of the message consoled him, he knew in his heart it won’t be the same again with her. Can he pretend as if nothing happened? Can he be true to his own feelings knowing for a fleeting moment, there was a chemistry between them? Can he see any other woman the same way again let alone Caroline? He wasn’t sure he could.
In the meantime, he had a job he is paid to do. That was what connected him to the Senator to start with. He got his coffee and started walking to his office. He wasn’t going to respond to her right away. He has to act as if he is not obsessed with her.
The message also gave him a jolt of confidence about the path he had kicked off the night before, lying on the bed and consoling himself about Casey’s rejection. The benefit of being connected and knowing everything about the underbelly of the political establishment is you have information that has value. With the right connections, that value can be cashed on.
It was a fortuitous coincidence that the same political mentor who had been looking out for him would approach him with a proposal for a tell-all book he was writing. Scandalous information and juicy gossip about high rising politicians. A promised cut for tidbits of information was all that Alex needed to here to be enticed. He needed an independent means to support himself. Everything that had happened over the weekend had clarified his over-dependence on one source. He needed to diversify soon before a crisis hits. And the place to start was to make Casey pay for dumping him so nonchalantly and the poor choice she made to be with the latest hotshot Congressman.
Over at the media broadcast center, Nancy Smith began putting together the beginning of an all-out effort to dominate the news cycle for many days to come. The outlines of the story were clearly delineated. Alyson Crawford the girl. Her life and upbringing. The tension between family members. The impact it has on a teenager. Those were all one class of themes. The other is to deal with the campus life. Prevalence of promiscuity, drugs, and sex culture.
Nancy could tell that was going to be an instant hit. Everyone has an opinion about the topic. It is controversial and easy to provoke outrage pitting the Puritans against the extreme liberals. The third was the whodunit aspect of a murder investigation. Having laid out the background of the girl in question, this was going to be an ongoing fodder to the masses. Everyone will have an invested interest in seeing justice being served.
“I am glad we can all agree on these themes. Writers, get busy. We need to plan this out for weeks forward. It will be a tsunami that will overwhelm everything. Nancy, you know what to do,” Sally commandeered the group with such excitement. There was not a single shred of concern for the privacy of the family. Was Nancy willing to go with this kind of exploitative storyline?
“Absolutely! This is a home run! So super excited about this. I wanna do a feature from the location. I have already booked my ticket for this afternoon.” Katie said practically jumping out of her seat.
There it was. The clarity Nancy needed to take this assignment seriously. She had no time to debate the merits and demerits of the story or her role on the show. Every day that passed by is a reminder for her to keep herself relevant to the general public. That is all. She needs to do it to survive. She walked out of the meeting with a resolve to do her job. She owed it to Brandon not to be blindsided.
“Going with the story. Sorry, tried my best. Couldn’t stop it.”
Nancy texted on the way to her office. There were only a few hours before she goes live.
“Serious? Appreciate the heads up. Thank you for trying! Still on for the weekend?”
Brandon couldn’t help it. It was a wasted effort to try and keep the lead on the story that was soon going to be public knowledge. Plus the baggage he learned about the family was reason enough to seek to distance himself from the situation. It doesn’t help to be identified with a family with a predator. All he needed was the assurance from Alex that Caroline is clean of any implication in the situation.
“Seth, sorry to call this early.” The call was placed to the Crawford residence. One of the rules of politics Brandon believed in is a clean break is necessary before moving on. As he had done with ex-wife, ex-friends, ex-staffers, ex - every person he had ever come to depend on to get to where he was.
