Andy is Trying - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Andy makes the Headlines

“Crown’s dirty secrets… Starting his campaign for Governor with a Bang!

And another one bites the dust.

We had many choices for a pun to use as the headline for this article.

Since we went with the softest of our options, allow me to share a title that had the favor of our editorial team for a while: “A tail as old as time”.

Is it not funny?

Maybe not, but at the very least, it is true.

Who is still surprised to learn that a conservative man hides many naked guys, or hides himself, in the closet?

A Republican politician campaigning for office (in this case, for governor of our very own Pennsylvania) getting caught fooling around with a younger man, it seems like the story was already written before our journalists started investigating.

Yet, with a scandalous male-on-male affair right before the most celebrated religious holiday in our country, Christmas, inside his campaign office, and virtually in plain sight, the self-proclaimed Christian man really pushed his luck, apparently forgetting all about the holy matrimony.

His influent wife and campaign manager Rebecca Crown was not invited to the after-hour party.

You see, the all-about-the-looks failed candidate for mayor of Philly is apparently not bothered by contradiction.

Just check his most recent YouTube video “Crown for Governor of Penn – Everything will change in 2026” and his stance on gay marriage for instance.

David Crown enjoys having a fellow gentleman on his knees, but he does not seem too keen on guaranteeing that gay marriage should be an inalienable right for the American citizens.

“I don’t think we should unmarry gay couples, that being said, I don’t think we should promote the LGBT lifestyle either.”

Sweet irony.

Was he not promoting LGBT lifestyle by performing a sodomy in front of his bay window, for the whole city to see?

Some may say that we are overstepping our role with the image we have chosen to illustrate this piece.

These people have certainly not seen the rest of the documents that were sent to our staff.

Hundreds of evidences of at least half a dozen sexcapades in his office.

At the very least, our potential future governor knows how to mix business with pleasure.

We can give him that.

The good news is that, if elected, Crown will certainly not have the balls (another pun, - you will grant us that one) to follow his party policy and cut back on employee work breaks, since he most certainly enjoys them himself.

We, at the Daily Philly News, have always been in favor of work breaks and sexual freedom between consenting adults.

We are therefore glad to see a potential Republican candidate opening the path to more acceptance!

Although, we are not sure his constituents and his party will align with our position. They rarely do.

In the meantime, Alicia Jan can sleep tight.

Between MAGA Broadhall who has clearly lost touch with reality, and pretty-looking cheater Crown who cannot keep it in his pants, the democratic party seemed to have a long life ahead in our State.

See, there is always a silver lining to the indecency of our politicians.

Journalist: Adrian Park.”

*

The Daily Philly News was a progressive newspaper which had made a name for itself for his irreverence.

Or at the very least, that was how the journal was describing itself.

The reality was that it was closer to the most outlandish British tabloids than anything else.

Whomever had sent the scandalous pictures to them had knocked at the right door.

The good thing for me was that the piece did not linger on whoever this other man, sucking David Crown’s cock, could be.

The bad news was absolutely everything else.

“Oh my God, it’s you!”

It was me and I was mortified that my boyfriend would find out this way.

“Darius… I… I can explain.”

The look of disappointment in his eyes was killing me.

He was so confused, so gutted too.

“Explain what, Andy?! You’re fucking with your boss!”

“No!”

Darius pointed towards the newspaper.

“The proof is right there! What the fuck?! John had, at least, the decency to own up to it when I caught him and I didn’t have actual pictures!”

“What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with your ex.”

“You’re cheating on me! It’s the same story, all over again.”

“I’m not! I swear, I’m not.”

“So, you’re telling me it’s not you on that picture?”

Damn, I was going at it all wrong.

What was I supposed to say?

“It is me. But it’s all over. I’ve never cheated on you, we weren’t together.”

“Andy, there are Christmas lights on the photo. It wasn’t that long ago! And we… We’ve been dating since then.”

“No! We’ve started dating at New Year. Remember?”

He laughed.

But that was not funny.

For a split second there, Darius even scared me.

“You think I don’t remember? You won’t gaslight me, Andy. We’ve seen each other before New Year and this has been taken right before Christmas, and… Oh my God, I don’t even know what I’m trying to prove here. You lied to me! You… You’ve never told me about this.”

“Babe, we… We’ve seen each other before New Year but… We weren’t together, I mean… You weren’t ready for a relationship at that time.”

I was not crying.

The shock was too big.

The tears and break-down would come later.

“Guys, please, calm down. Just take a moment and…” Cody intervened.

He seemed overwhelmed as well.

I had forgotten he was there.

But then, I made another mistake.

“Cody! Tell him! Tell him that it stopped at Christmas, that I’ve never cheated on Darius! Never!”

“Andy, I cannot be put in the middle of this.”

“But Cody, you know the truth!”

Darius talked over us.

“Hold on!”

He stared at Cody. 

When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper.

“You knew? You’ve known all this time and you let me date him. No, you didn’t just let me, you encouraged this! Fuck, Cody, you knew how John hurt me and you told me your roommate was a decent…”

He stopped talking in the middle of his sentence.

It was too much for Darius and I could tell that he was holding back his tears.

Fuck.

And now, I had hurt a friendship. I was the worst.

“Darius, please, don’t react this way. I understand, this is a lot to take in but Andy… He did tell me about this, and obviously I couldn’t tell anyone, but as he’s told you, it’s not like it lasted or that he cheated…”

“At least a half dozen of sexcapades. That’s in the article.” Darius replied coldly.

I tried to hold his arm.

“Please, babe, just…”

He pushed me away.

Not violently, but he did not let me touch him.

“Don’t call me, babe.”

“I know what happened with Jonathan but I swear this has nothing to do with that.”

“Okay, Andy. Let’s say you didn’t cheat on me. Let’s say you didn’t have to tell me about what happened with your boss. What did that tell us about you? That picture, what you did!”

I looked at the floor.

He insisted.

“Now, really. Tell me. Answer this. What kind of people are you? Because I thought I knew you, but the Andy I know would not fuck with a married man. For Christ’s sake, you’re working for his wife! You tell me about her all the damn time. So much so that it’s annoying… And you do this! They have a son together. It’s… LOOK AT ME!”

He howled the last words.

I did what he said. I looked up, ashamed.

Cody next to me had faded in the background.

This was a disaster of epic proportions and it was not even the main event.

As I listened to Darius telling me how much of a piece of shit I had been, - and maybe still was -, I started thinking about what may have been happening in the Crown’s family, what people must have been saying about this at work, and then, in the streets and online.

This argument with my boyfriend was only the tip of the iceberg about to crash onto me.

“How long did it take, Andy, before you started blowing your boss? We literally met the week you arrived in Philly, were you already getting fucked by him, from day one? Is he the reason you came here?!”

I swallowed my saliva but I said nothing.

“That’s enough, Darius.” Cody intervened.

“Yes, I agree. That is enough.”

Once again, I looked away when he left.

I did not notice at first but he took the necklace he had offered me with him. I did not deserve it anymore.

I was not angry at Darius.

All that he had said was fair.

I had not cheated on him but I had not been true to who I was, a pathetic home wrecker.

But God damn it, this was before I fell in love with him!

Shit.

Now, I would never get to tell Darius how I felt…

“Are you okay, Andy?” Cody asked timidly.

“Yes… I… I’m worried about work.”

Amongst the hundreds other things which were worrying me.

My roommate did the sweetest thing.

He came behind me and he held me tightly.

“It must feel like everything is imploding right now, but I swear it’s not and I swear that in some time, what you’re going through in this moment will not feel this important.”

I was glad that Cody was not wearing any clothes aside from his underwear.

Not because I was turned on or anything, - clearly, my libido had reached zero at that very moment -, but because I could feel his warmth all over me.

And I needed that.

He was not rejecting me, he was still here.

“Thank you, Cody. I… I’m sorry that I told Darius that you knew. I didn’t think that it would…”

“That’s all right.”

“You can blame everything on me, tell that you knew only part of the truth. I don’t want your friendship to break because of that. That’d be too silly.”

“Darius just needs to calm down.”

He was still holding me tight.

Finally, the tears started coming and flooding my face.

“I’m scared, Cody.”

“I know.”

“I’m scared to look at my phone. I’m scared about what it means for everybody else’s job. I’m scared for Laurie. I’ve made such a mess. My life’s been going so well lately, I ruined everything.”

“Listen, you fucked with your boss three months ago, that was messed up but first of all, he’s the one running for office and the one being married; Second of all, yes, the boat might be rocked for a little while but you’ll get through it.”

“How?”

“This, you have to figure out yourself, roomie. And maybe it starts by picking up your phone and facing the wave.”

I squeezed his hand even tighter.

I took two long deep breaths.

“You’re right. I’ve made a big mistake and now, I have to own up to it.”

I wiped the tears from my face and as I reached for my phone, the intercom rang.

Cody went to pick it up.

“Oh… It’s you. Come up… Yes, I know… We’ll talk about it upstairs.”

“Who is it?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“It’s Laurie.”

“Okay. Good.”

My roommate looked at me from head to toes.

“Andy, do you want to put some pants on?”

“Yeah…”

He smiled.

“Go take a shower and change. I’ll talk to Laurie first.”

“Okay. But should we… Should we not tell her that you knew? I don’t this to impact your relationship.”

“I’ll tell her everything I knew and I’ll explain why I didn’t say anything to her. You’ll fill the blanks when you’ll come back from your shower… If she’s not too mad at me.”

My stomach ached.

I had not even considered this could affect their relationship.

It was getting worse and worse.

But at every step, Cody was being perfect.

I have to write it down here because I do not think I ever thanked my roommate enough for the way he handled the situation.

Just having him talk to Laurie first while I collected myself was a smart idea.

I did as I was told.

I heard Laurie coming in as I walked inside the bathroom, took off my underwear and stared at my naked body in the mirror.

Funny how I had been more okay with how I looked lately.

Because Darius enjoyed my body so much, I finally started to like it too.

But it was like all this progress had been erased.

In that moment, I found myself ugly. Most of all, I hated my distinctive ginger hair. They had betrayed me!

I thought about my mother whom I had inherited the ginger gene from and another thought popped up which almost made me dizzy.

What if the scandal reached the Arkansas, reached Fort Pleasance, my hometown, my parents?

I went under the shower.

Just like Cody’s arms, I needed the water to be very warm, to almost burn me.

I cried.

It was a big ugly cry but it was one that I had accepted.

I gave myself ten minutes to let it all out, to break, to be mad, angry, enraged even.

Then, I would have to be strong and to face the situation.

I joined Laurie and Cody in the living room about fifteen minutes later.

I put my brave face on.

“Andy. O.M.G!”

Laurie’s first reaction summed it all up nicely.

OMG, indeed.

“I guess you’ve read today’s paper.”

“You little dirty minx!” She came at me and punched my arm.

It was not aggressive but rather playful.

“You can insult me, I’m ready.” I told her.

“And I thought you were so innocent! I was like, God, he deserves to meet someone, I’ve been trying to convince you to put yourself out there, to date more, and you… Well, you clearly didn’t need me to have some!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lie to you.”

“You’ve been fucking with David! How did not I see that?! It was right under my eyes.”

“To be fair, we tried to be discreet…”

“You’re sure? Cause they were no blinds on that damn window!”

I sat on the couch.

“I suppose we weren’t that smart. Are you mad at me?”

“No. I mean, yeah. A little! But I’m mostly shocked. Cody tried to explain but I need all the details.”

“Hey, I did my best!”

Cody was eating his breakfast on the kitchen’s counter.

Laurie ignored him.

“How did it start? How long did it last? Cody told me that it was over but now, you can really tell me everything.”

“It is over. That’s true. It’s been over since I’m with Darius, well, it stopped right before Christmas. The picture on the newspaper must be dating from the very last time we had sex, or the one before that.”

“So, there were many times!”

“Yes…”

“But how?!”

I sighed.

“The first week I started working…”

She cut me off.

“FIRST WEEK?! Damn, how horny were you?! Oh my God, men, they’re all the same.”

“Don’t include me in this!” Cody intervened on the side.

“We’ll talk about your case later and how you didn’t tell me anything!”

She was seemingly angry but I could tell that she was not really.

“Please, don’t be mad at him, I made Cody promise. He couldn’t say a word, we didn’t want to put you in an awkward position at work.”

“Whatever. How did it happen?”

“If you really want to know, you have to let me talk.”

“Sorry.”

“It didn’t start on the first week. Not that it makes anything better but as I was about to say, the first Thursday night, I stayed late and David was there… And he wasn’t alone. A guy came out of his office in just his briefs. His name was Galvin.”

“Oh! That’s interesting! I mean, there were rumors but you can never be too sure. There’s always a gay rumor running around with attractive politicians.”

“Laurie, mind your words there. Do I need to remind you that you have a very attractive boyfriend?”

It was kind of funny to see Cody whining and jumping in from time to time while listening to the conversation.

“Come on, Cody. David’s hot, that’s just a fact.” Laurie said.

“He is.” I confirmed. “So, I thought I was going to lose my job for catching him but the next day, instead of being mad or even, being awkward, David sort of… How to say that? Opened a door.”

“He fucked you?”

“God no, Laurie! Well, not yet. He told me that if I were to be interested, he’d be willing to… To fool around with me.”

“The dirty motherfucker!”

“After that, we started meeting, every Thursday night or so.”

“Wow, every time Rebecca has dinner with her father… Classy.”

She was hiding it well, and clearly, she was excited by the gossip, but in that instant, I saw the disappointment, and maybe even some disgust in her expression.

Laurie was sitting on the first row to see that Rebecca had given me this job while I was not the most experienced, and then, to witness how we had been working side by side for months.

I had betrayed a woman who had been nothing but gracious and loyal to me.

“I’m not proud of it. At all.”

“Have you seen her text? Rebecca’s told everyone not to come to work today, there’re journalists in front of the building.”

“Oh God… Laurie, I’m so sorry if that impacts the team or even you in any way.”

“If? Andy, there’s no way David will continue his campaign. Rebecca is probably… Well, I don’t know how she could react to such a news”

“She already knew though.”

“WHAAAAT?!”

Laurie almost fell down from the couch.

I chuckled nervously.

“Yes. She caught us.”

“Andy! But wait… I… I’m confused. She knew and she let you come back to work?! She… Is this some kind of weird threesomes? Are you fucking with her too?!”

“No! Again, I’m not proud of it but Rebecca finding out was the main reason we stopped doing anything with David. It was the wake-up call I needed. She caught us two days before Christmas. Remember? That’s why I didn’t come to work the day before New Year’s Eve, I thought I didn’t have a job anymore.”

Laurie turned towards Cody.

“And you told me that Andy had the flu!”

“We’ve gone through this, honey… I tried to…”

“I made him say that. Actually, Rebecca made us say that. She came here one morning and we had a chat. Trust me, Laurie, it was the most surreal conversation of my life. She went on about how she knew her husband was gay, how marriage was not about love, how the only thing that mattered was that this story was kept under wrap.”

“Well, that’s heavily compromised now.”

“Yes… It is.”

“God. I have so many more questions but… How are you holding on?”

“I lost my job, my boyfriend and my reputation in the last thirty minutes but I… I’m gonna be fine.”

“For now, nobody has lost their job. And don’t get me worried about that! As for your boyfriend, Cody told me that Darius had been the one bringing in the news. If you have really never cheated on him, maybe…”

“I haven’t! It’s just… He thinks I’m a slut.”

“I mean, you were single and David Crown is probably the hottest man alive so…”

“Hey, Laurie! Seriously! Stop that. He’s not that good looking!”

Cody’s concerns made me laugh and that felt good.

“Anyway, as far as your reputation is concerned, nobody aside from the inner circle should know that you’re the second man on that picture.”

“For now.”

“Yes, for now. But you’ll cross that bridge if you have to cross it.”

“Thanks, Laurie, for not hating me.”

She hugged me.

“What do you want to do now?”

“I’ll try to call Rebecca. Or David. Probably both.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“I can’t believe someone was photographing us. I feel so…”

“Violated?”

“Yes.”

“It’s probably someone from Broadhall’s team.”

“Really? Why would he do that?”

“Andy, how naïve are you? Because the Convention is coming very soon and the only serious opponent that he had was David. Broadhall has the party nomination in the bag now.”

“Asshole!”

I went in my bedroom to make some calls.

I was of course dreading each of them but I had to do something. Anything.

Unfortunately, nobody picked up their phones. Not Rebecca. Not David. Not even Thompson who was in charge of the communication.

Only about an hour later, I had a text from Rebecca inviting me to a crisis meeting at 9 p.m., at an address I didn’t know.

I immediately replied that I would be there.

The text also mentioned:

“Do not try to do anything in the meantime. Most importantly, do not give a single interview, nothing.”

As if I would give an interview!

The idea sounded absurd until I received an email from Adrian Park. The name rang a bell but I did not remember who he was straight away.

When I read his email, it became pretty clear though.

He was the journalist who had written the paper and just like Rebecca had predicted, he was asking me for an interview and at least for a call, ensuring that my anonymity would be preserved.

I ignored the email, sitting with a sick feeling in a pit of my stomach.

Honestly, thank Goodness Laurie and Cody spent the day with me or I would have gone insane.

Well, more insane than I already was.

Of course, we spent hours dissecting what had really happened between David and I, and following how quickly the story went viral online.

In the afternoon, “Crown” was trending nationwide on Twitter.

The sick feeling inside of me grew.

Laurie did not receive the text inviting her to the crisis meeting but I begged her to come with me.

She agreed, I think partly to be there for me, and partly because the gossip was just too good to pass on.

After a whole day of pacing around and trying not to lose my mind completely, Cody made me eat something at 8 p.m. before Laurie and I left for the meeting.

I wanted to puke.

I had had no news from Darius and although I wanted to explain myself to him so bad, I knew it was too soon.

In the public transportation, I felt like everybody was watching me, like the whole world already knows that I was the cock-sucker, fucking with a married Christian family man.

For now, though, my name had not come up.

Laurie had set up a google alert if it were, and so far, nothing.

“I feel like I’m going to a secret meeting with James Bond or something.” Laurie said as we walked towards the address we had been given.

It was in a rather shabby three-story building in the north of the city.

“Great for you. I feel like I’m going to the morality police and I’m about to be sent to prison.”

“The situation is bad enough at it is, you don’t need to dramatize it in your head, Andy.”

“You think they’re bringing me here to kill me?”

“What a way not to dramatize… If they are, then, I guess we’ll die together.”

We walked in and, fortunately, nobody was waiting for us with riffles.

Four people were sitting across a table in a poorly lighted and upkept meeting room.

They looked tense.

David and Rebecca were both there, sitting on each end of the table, and side by side in the middle, Robert Thompson and Bradley Philips were typing on their laptops.

“Good evening, Andy, Hello Laurie.” David greeted us solemnly when we arrived.

“Hello everyone. I… I asked Laurie to come, she knows everything so I thought...”

“Hi, guys.” Laurie told politely.

I bet she was regretting to have agreed to come with me.

The vibe was definitely off.

Rebecca bit her lips.

“Just sit down you two.”

We hastily obliged.

“Can we get to the point now?” Thompson grunted.

I wondered how long he had been sitting there.

I also wondered how much he was hating me right now.

David ignored him and turned towards me. His hair was slightly less combed than usual.

He was still very classy but you could tell that it had already been a long day.

“How are you feeling, Andy? The day was not too overwhelming?”

“I… I’m fine.” I lied.

“I’ve already established that I’m fully responsible for what has happened. Nobody’s here to judge you. I wanna start with that.”

I swallowed my saliva.

My palms were sweaty and my hands were slightly trembling.

“White, I assume that you followed my request and didn’t give any interview?” Rebecca asked me.

She was way harsher than her husband, but that was the normal dynamic.

“Of course. Why would I even want to…”

“Money. Expect this, they’ll probably offer you a lot to talk. For now, Park hasn’t revealed your name because he knows you could sue him. David is a public personality, we could sue for violation of his personal life but that would be a tough fight, you, on the other hand, are a private citizen, you could go after them.”

“The journalist has already contacted me earlier today.”

“Of course, he has, this cockroach! He waited for the release of the article to get in contact, he wanted to be sure we would be surprised, and now, those pieces of trash from the Daily Philly News will harass you to get the exclusive interview.”

“And since they won’t get it, do you think they could take the risk of revealing my name or publishing more pictures?”

“They could, or another paper might, who knew what those liberals are capable of? They have no notion of decency or morality.”

I glanced at David.

I could have said something about the irony of that statement but obviously, I kept my mouth shut.

“These pictures are dating from months ago; I had no idea…”

“We’re aware, White. Broadhall has probably been keeping them in his back pocket. He waited for the proper time to release them. He tried to kill us right before the Convention, the fool thought we wouldn’t have time to spin this in just three weeks.”

“Spin this?” It was Bradley who talked for the first time.

“Yes. Spin this. This is a political assassination attempt and I’ll be damned if I let Broadhall allies himself with liberal freaks to get us down! Not after everything we’ve done! We’ve worked way too hard. And trust me, he went so low because he knew we would get him otherwise!”

“Rebecca, please…”

David was the only one in the room calling her by her first name.

She sighed.

“Apparently, my husband here has a slightly different opinion on the matter.”

“This is not a political assassination attempt; this is downright murder. It’s over. I’m over.”

Rebecca stood up.

I had never seen her angry, - even after she had caught me getting fucked from behind by David -, but there she was.

“YOU ARE WEAK, DAVID. YOU’RE A WEAK MAN.”

He held his wife’s gaze.

He did not seem impressed.

“I am. I’m driven by my urges. I’m not capable of setting my emotions aside. I’m not you, Rebecca. I don’t want to try to come back from this. I want to disappear from the public eye, I want to think about Zachary first.”

“Don’t mention Zach here. Not in front of your lover!”

Under the table, Laurie grabbed my hand and she held tight.

I hated being referred to like that but what could have I said?

“Bob, I want you to come up with a statement, short and simple, not going into any detail, saying that I withdraw from the race. I’ll post it on all my social media first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

The instructions from David were clear but not good enough for his wife.

“Thompson, you do not write anything. Not until we come up with a better plan.”

“Madam?”

“I’m your boss, is that clear? You’ve never taken your instructions from David and this is not starting today.”

“Rebecca!”

The poor Thompson looked terrorized, torn between the two.

“What’s your problem, David?”

“You cannot make me go on with this race without my consent. Do you understand that?”

Rebecca was still standing up; she had never looked that intimidating.

“You wanna quit, David? Then, quit! You know what? I think this is the only solution. You don’t have it in you and you’ve never had. We’ve made one crucial mistake since the very beginning.”

“And what would that mistake be according to you?”

“Thinking that you’d be more able than me to win this thing!”

The tension in the room was so high that I did not understand how no one was full-on crying.

We were probably all under a deep state of sideration.

There was a moment of silence.

“What’s your plan, then?” David asked.

Rebecca turned towards me.

Oh no, I did not like that, I did not want to talk anymore, I wanted to be invisible, to vanish.

“White, what was David’s biggest issue according to the latest surveys?”

“Uh… I…”

“It’s a simple question. It’s not a trap.”

“I… I’m not sure, the difficulty to please both the party leaders and the potential voters.”

“Something else.”

“His lack of notoriety amongst the larger public.”

She smashed her hand on the table.

“That’s it! Exactly! But today, everyone’s talking about the Crown name. We’re trending! David, you’re probably much more famous than Broadhall right now.”

“But for what reasons, Rebecca? At what cost?!”

“Who cares about the reasons? Any press is good press when nobody knows about you!”

“Really?”

“If we play our cards right, we could have the attention from the medias nationwide. Do you know how rare it is for a State campaign?! Just think of how much traction and visibility an interview from one of us would get in these circumstances? When everything you see is a crisis, I see an opportunity! And I’ll tell you what, this is why I’m better than you, this is why I’m meant to do this.”

“Ms. Crown, I’m not sure I’m following, you want to… You want to continue?” Thompson asked feverishly.

Once again, she addressed me.

Oh God, why me?!

I just wanted to be left alone, forgotten.

“White, do you remember what you told me in a mediocre coffee shop, while we were drinking a mediocre coffee the morning before New Year’s Eve?”

“I… I’m not sure, Ms. Crown.”

“Let me refresh your memories then. You asked me why I had not run instead of my husband. Well, this was a very good question. Broadhall should not have let me twenty days before the convention to deal with that bomb shell because believe me, I’m going to make the best of each hour leading us to this. He wants to disqualify David, be it! I’ll run in his place.”

“Ms. Crown, you want to run for office? To seriously be a candidate?”

Thompson’s expression was the definition of flabbergasted.

Next to him, Bradley seemed almost excited.

Laurie and I exchanged a look. We had expected many things but not this.

“Don’t make that face Thompson, you’re the head of communication, you’re supposed to know how to deal with a communication crisis. And look, I’m making this easy on you, we don’t even have to change the banner. It’s still Crown for Governor and you all, you still have a job.”

Rebecca sat back down.

There was a heavy silence in the room.

I could feel Laurie’s body still tensing up next to mine.

My mind was racing.

And finally, after a long minute, David talked.

He had his normal and smooth tone of voice.

“You’re right Rebecca. You should have been the one running and you should go for it now. The State election is in 20 months, the primary, – if it happens -, would be in 8 months, you have time to make this work. You should have been on the posters, from day one.”

I felt like an intruder in a family reunion.

“Do I have your support, David?”

“My full support, as well as, I’m sure, the support of every member of this team who’s gotten the chance to work with you in the past year.”

Rebecca smiled in an expression of rapture, she looked at each one of us individually.

“All right, then. We have a new plan. Let’s get to work!”

[Since I will be taking a short break next week, Chapter 19 will be available in two weeks! I hope you're enjoying the story, the twists and turns are only getting started.]