I took my time wrapping it, hoping she likes it. Hoping they all like me. In Bayside, you usually know the family before the first date. This feels different. Significant.
“Ready to go over next week’s schedule?” Anika asks, popping into my office later that afternoon.
I already know she has another brutal week planned. I’m still recovering from this one—five events, endless handshakes, and smiling until my cheeks hurt. She’s a whirlwind of efficiency. My sister-in-arms.
“Sure, come in.”
“We’ve got the meeting with the waterfront union and debate prep,” she says before she’s even fully seated. “Think you can squeeze in a sit-down with the Ward 2 captains tomorrow?”
“If it’s before ten. I’m heading to Chicago for the weekend.”
“The Aqua Spa again?” Her eyebrows lift, teasing.
“No.” I get up and close the door, then sit back down. Facing her narrowed gaze, I prepare myself to give her the truth. If this blows up, she’ll be the one catching shrapnel right alongside me. “I need to tell you something.”
“Oh?” She folds her arms, bracing for bad news.
“You were right to be suspicious about Dakarai and me. I’ve been seeing him quietly for over a month. I went away with him when I said I was at the spa. And this weekend…” I exhale. “I’m going home to meet his family.”
The silence that follows is thick enough to choke on. Her mouth presses into a hard line. “You know this is insane, right?”
“Yes.” I nod. “But I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been. We’re falling in love.”
She dismisses the romance with one sharp look. “Do you think you’ll still be happy if you lose this election? Is he worth that?” She shakes her head. “I cannot believe thatyou—the woman who didn’t date for over a year because she didn’t want the distraction or scrutiny—is secretly involved with heropponent’s strategist. I’m beyond shook, Rayne. I thought you two were just flirting. But this…”
Her eyes meet mine. She doesn’t look at me like I’m the girl from high school she painted her nails with on my bedroom floor while we planned how to run the country. She doesn’t look at me like I’m the candidate she joined without hesitation because she believed in my vision.
She looks at me like she doesn’t recognize who I am.
“I understand you’re upset, Anika. I kept this from you, and I’m sorry. You put your faith and energy into me. I should have given you the respect of honesty.” I swallow. “Can we move forward from this?”
“I don’t know,” she replies, her voice uncharacteristically cold. “I need time to decide if the risk you’re taking is one I’m willing to take with you. Because if this leaks, it’s my reputation on the line too.”
She stands, pressing her iPad to her chest like armor, and without waiting for my response, walks out. Though she leaves the door open behind her, the room feels emptier than if she’d slammed it shut.
I bury my face in my hands. Everyone seems to think this should be a binary choice—him or my campaign?
I understand he’s the man standing on the other side. But that doesn’t change my vision. It doesn’t change what I believe in.
Anika asked if DK is worth the risk.
But why is that question?
Why should politics have any dictate on who I love?
Chapter Thirty-Six
DK
Iwatch for her.
It’s another first that belongs to Luna. Even as a teenager, I didn’t bring girls home. I rarely dated, usually keeping my nose buried in schoolwork and my focus locked on getting straight A’s. I was seventeen when I lost my virginity to a girl in my English class. She picked me up in her mom’s white minivan, and as she drove us past the manicured lawns of Skokie, the Trig test I was supposed to be studying for pressed on my mind. But when she parked at the bluffs and suggested we get in the back, where the seats folded flat like a bed, I decided a couple missed hours of study time wouldn’t kill me.
It was quick, sweaty, and graceless. Still, I remember the crushing B-minus more than I remember the girl.
Until Luna, I wasn’t sure I had the capacity for real emotional connection, for falling in love or making space for someone else in my carefully controlled plans. I had a few close calls over the years, but college came first. Then work. Then my own survival.
Now, she’s my number one. My heart. My peace. My obsession.
