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“What is it?”
“Senator Sterling.”
Liv arched her eyebrow, trying not to reveal anything about her feelings for him.
“What is it?” she asked, keeping her voice neutral.
“It’s so hot,” Steph gushed. ‘I know you don’t have a great history with him and think he’s an arrogant asshole or whatever, but oh...my...god.”
Liv furrowed her brows. “What’s he doing? Shirtless push-ups or something?”
“No. What?” Ben said. “Why would your brain go there?”
“I, for one, wouldloveto see a shirtless pushup video. Damn, Liv - now I can’t get that out of my mind.”
“Ok. Moving on - the video is from the town hall earlier tonight,” Ben said.
“Oh,” Liv said, sitting closer to Ben so she could see his tablet. “What happened? I was going to check in on that. I wanted to go actually, but Speaker Miller needed me to do a few things that couldn’t wait and it required travel so I...”
“We get it,” Steph said. “Let’s watch it. I want to see it again.”
Ben pulled up the video. Someone in the audience had recorded the town hall on their phone.
“Wow,” Liv said. “The room is packed.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “Apparently, they had to turn people away. It was completely full.”
“That’s great. We need to put pressure on those holdouts in the Senate. The more public support they see; the better.”
“Especially when it’s coming from their own districts,” Ben added.
“That’s true,” Liv said. It had been her idea for Will to do a tour of the Midwest. He needed to be where people were most impacted, but he also needed to put pressure on the elected officials in these regions.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Steph said, leaning over Ben’s shoulder.
He clicked play. The camera panned the crowd. An elderly gentleman stood with a microphone.
“Senator Sterling,” he said, the crowd completely quiet as he spoke. “My name is Ron Garrison. I’ve lived here my whole life in this community. It’s hard for me to believe what is happening in my hometown. We have new people being diagnosed with cancer every day. My friends. My family members...”
His voice cracked. No one made a sound.
“Take your time,” Will said, softly. His eyes were focused on the man. Ron cleared his throat and continued. “It...it was never like this before. We want to know what the US government is going to do. We aren’t seeing any help. We need help.”
The crowd clapped.
Will stood up from his stool, a microphone in his hand. He was wearing perfectly tailored pants and a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Liv shivered a little watching him.
“Thank you for your question, Ron,” he said. “I have the same question. I’ve spent the last few weeks traveling around the country, hearing stories like yours everywhere I go. I want my colleagues to pay attention. I’m doing this tour because we need more votes. We’re close. We’re getting closer every day.”
Ron nodded.
“What you can do is contact your representatives. We need people around the country to call their Senators and ask them to vote for the Clean Water Bill. If they hear from enough of you, they’ll do it.”
“What a joke!” someone called from the crowd. “Sterling, you’re a joke and so is your brother. These people want to keep you afraid. They will make up anything to try to control you. It’s all lies.”
Will stopped talking and turned toward the heckler who started laughing, loudly.
“It’s not real,” the man continued, louder. “There’s no cancer. This is just a plot for government control.”
