She saw the recognition shine in her eyes.
“State Senator Maxwell is running for Congress.”
“Right. I know. I was at his press conference when he announced,” Liz said with a smile. She hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder.
“Oh,” she said, turning her head back to her photographer. “Well, he gave a speech about community outreach. It was pretty short and he didn’t allow any questions.”
“Is he still here?” Liz asked, glancing around the room again. Why hadn’t he told her about this earlier? It must have been scheduled in advance. She could have been there on time or at least seen him. Granted, she couldn’t miss Professor Mires’s class, but Liz might have gotten out of it if she told the professor it was for her project.
“Yeah. He went into a back room after the speech.”
“How long has he been scheduled here?” Liz asked.
“Rescheduled to Maxwell this morning after the other guy canceled,” Deb said, then turned away from Liz as if the conversation was over.
At least that made her feel a bit better. If it had been rescheduled this morning, then it made sense why his text came last-minute.
A flurry of activity on the other side of the room drew her attention. Brady materialized in the doorway, and Liz sighed softly to herself when she saw him. He was wearing a crisp navy suit with a gray button-down and his signature blue tie. The suit was clearly tailored, because it fit him better than she had ever seen a suit on someone else. It was just too perfect. And all she could think was how she wanted to get him out of it.
She automatically walked toward him and wished that they were the only ones in the room in that moment. He hadn’t seen her yet, and she waited for him to look up and feel her eyes on him. She stood at the periphery of the crowd as others shook his hand and some took pictures. He was as smooth as ever, his campaign mask firmly in place as he was introduced to person after person.
Knowing it would be a little while before she got any closer to him, she let her eyes roam. Heather was standing to his right, keeping a watchful eye on everything that was going on. Standing close behind her was that same man from the club who had been a total ass to Liz after Brady had sent a drink. He had been with Heather at the last event. Did he work for the campaign? They hadn’t met again since that night, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Maybe she would ask Brady about him next time they were alone…if she remembered anything at all when they were alone.
Brady moved through the crowd as much as he could, and then Heather whispered into his ear. He nodded and then addressed the crowd. “Thank you all so much for coming out. I can’t wait to come back and speak with you all again, but unfortunately, I’m being told that it’s my time to leave.”
The crowd dispersed almost immediately as Brady turned to go. Liz took this as her opportunity to get to talk him. “Senator, mind if I ask one question?” she asked, butting around a few people to get to him. She was already pulling her voice recorder out of her bag.
When his eyes found hers, she stopped moving. She couldn’t remember him ever looking at her like that. He hadn’t even dropped his campaign mask. He was looking at her as if she were another questioning constituent.
She didn’t expect him to look at her as though he had been sleeping with her for a couple weeks, but still she had expected something. But she didn’t even see a flicker of recognition cross his face. How was he capable of that?
“Sorry, we told the press no questions,” Heather said, stepping in between them. “Senator Maxwell’s time is very limited.”
“I understand,” she said with more emotion in her voice than she would have liked.
He turned his back on her without a word and walked through the doors. Heather smiled as brightly as ever and followed him, closing the door. Liz stood there for a minute with mixed feelings warring inside of her. She knew that he couldn’t act as if he knew her in public. She knew he was running for office and that he had made it plain what he wanted. First and foremost, he wanted to win the campaign.
But the other, irrational side of her was screaming. Why couldn’t he have even smiled at her…given her some secret nod as though he was glad that she was there? She had canceled her plans with Justin, however tenuous they were, to come over here just to get shunned. She had a life of her own, and he needed to respect that. He couldn’t have her come to every function he was at and not get to spend any time with him. It would break her.
Liz turned on her heel and walked to the door. She wasn’t paying attention when a voice cut through her anger.
“Liz! What a surprise to find you here,” Leslie Chester said with her overly dimpled chipmunk-cheek smile.
“Hey, Leslie, what’s up?” Liz said, continuing her walk toward the exit.
Leslie fell into step beside her. She was short, so she took an extra step for every one of Liz’s. “Not much. Lobbying Senator Maxwell. I might take an internship with his campaign,” she said. Liz tried not to roll her eyes. “I was surprised to find that you didn’t get an interview again this time.”
“Why is that surprising, when he said no questions from the press at this event?” Liz asked blankly. She couldn’t let emotion show in her voice. She needed to channel Brady’s campaign mask.
“Oh, I thought you knew Senator Maxwell,” she said, a bit too chirpy.
“Why would you think that?”
“He knew your name last time. Didn’t he call you Ms. Dougherty?” Leslie asked, all doe-eyed.
Liz bit the inside of her cheek. Why did Leslie remember every single detail? If Leslie weren’t in law school, Liz would be wondering if she herself was going into investigative reporting. “Yes, his press secretary set it up before the event. I wasn’t even aware of this one.”
“Oh, well,” she said with a shrug. “Next time maybe.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Liz said through gritted teeth. “I have a prior commitment to make. I’ve got to dash. Good seeing you again, Leslie.”
“You too, Liz. And if you need any help with the facts in your column, please feel free to call me,” Leslie said, clicking her modest heels across the crosswalk and to her Prius.
Liz puffed air out of her mouth in frustration as she found her Accord. She took a seat and turned the ignition, letting the cool air blast into her face. She rubbed her eyes and tried to calm down. She knew that she and Brady weren’t open about their relationship and that they couldn’t be. But she couldn’t deny that what he had done had hurt. Even though she had agreed to do this with him, it didn’t mean that she had agreed to get her feelings stomped on. He needed to take them into consideration before acting so brashly. She hadn’t even had any forewarning that he was going to turn his feelings off like a light switch.