Page 10 of See You Next Tuesday

“I like this a lot.” Toby nodded slowly. “Jenna has been frustrated all year that our polling told her not to talk about women’s issues. This could be our in.”

Anya felt a roar of victory. She couldn’t help throwing a smug little smile in Gabe’s direction.

“Are you sure this is the right move?” Gabe asked Toby. “It’s a pretty big strategy shift five days before the election. No offense, Anya, but we’ve been on the ground a lot longer than you have.”

“I’ve been on the ground longer than any of you.” Toby’s tone left no room for further debate. “I need to take this to Jenna, but she’s gonna love it.”

Toby started pulling on his coat; he obviously meant to go talk to the candidate right away.

“Will you tell her I want to do an op-ed from her tomorrow?” Dawn asked. “Maybe we can get the Dispatch to run it opposite Murphy’s column, make him look like a total sleaze.”

“Absolutely,” Toby confirmed. “Start drafting now so we can get it to her ASAP.”

“You need anything from me?” Anya asked Dawn.

“Second set of eyes would be great. I’ll have a draft for you in an hour.”

“You got it.” An hour was perfect; it’d give Anya plenty of time to draft that Wisconsin report for Lev.

“Gabe, you good?” Toby asked. “Do you need something?”

“Oh, that.” Gabe looked distressed. “I had thirty canvassers scheduled to be here in an hour, but their bus broke down. It’s our last canvass in South Charleston before Monday, and our numbers came up short last weekend—”

“Pull people off the phone bank. Doors are more important,” Toby ordered. “If you need anything else, I’ll be on my cell.”

As Toby rushed out, Dawn rubbed Gabe’s shoulder reassuringly. “I need to get going on this op-ed, but you can take my team to canvass, okay?”

“Are you sure?” Gabe looked relieved. “That would be so clutch.”

“I can take a shift too,” Anya offered.

“You have time for that?” Dawn asked.

“Sure.” Anya shrugged. “I need to do a report for the DC people, but this is more important. And Dawn, I’ll look at your op-ed on my phone as soon as you have it.”

“You’re gonna canvass?” Gabe looked dubious.

“You think I can’t handle two hours on doors?” Anya snapped, and Dawn snorted. Gabe shot her a look.

“Sorry, um—op-ed.” Dawn hurried out of the room.

“I don’t know.” Gabe took a step toward Anya and cast a meaningful glance at her feet. “I wouldn’t want you to break a heel.”

Anya glanced down at her boots. She was surprised he’d noticed her shoes at all. She put her hands on her hips and tried to look as tall as possible.

“Just because you can’t canvass in heels doesn’t mean I can’t.”

He looked down at her long enough that she noticed his light brown eyes were tinged with hints of olive.

“My mistake,” he said. “Packets are on the table up front.”

“I know. And you’re welcome.”

Anya marched past him, not bothering to turn around.

“Can you believe this?!” Toby stood on the bar, his pint of beer (easily his twelfth) hoisted high above his head. “JENNA SALDITCH IS GOING TO CONGRESS!”

“YEAH!” the staff roared, everyone lifting their beers toward Toby. After the cheating allegations backfired spectacularly, the campaign’s get-out-the-vote efforts had gone gangbusters, leading to record turnout. Salditch ended up winning by nearly four points. It wasn’t even close.