K. Linde - Off the Record

“Sounds perfect,” she said, leaning forward and kissing him again.

They docked the Jet Skis back in their ports and toweled off. Plates of food were sitting on the deck table when they returned. Brady peeled back the covering to show her a cheese and bread plate, a fruit plate loaded down with fresh strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, and melon, and another tray with finger food that they picked at as the afternoon sun faded into evening.

Liz sat down next to Brady on the outdoor bench with her feet tucked underneath her and her head on his shoulder. She yawned, the rush of the day and overexposure to the sun catching up with her, but she wouldn’t dare slip away when she had so little time left with him.

“So, what else do you have planned for the summer?” Liz asked. It was nice knowing that she was asking not for work, but for personal benefit. Though she worried it might come across that way. “I mean when can I see you again?”

“Those are two very different questions.” At least he didn’t tense.

“I meant them the same,” she said.

“Well, to the first one, I try to take each day at a time and let my staff plan the rest out. I have to win the primary in August, and that’s where I’m looking. And in answer to the second, as soon as I can next get away.”

She hoped that meant sooner rather than later. She didn’t know how much she could handle this waiting game. She would wait for him. She knew that she would, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to go weeks without him in her life. In fact, she wanted to spend all of her time with him. And that was a scary thought.

“What about you? What are your big summer plans?” he asked.

Liz smiled. She liked this. It felt comfortable, sitting watching the sunset, discussing the future. She had never been a big one to talk about the future with guys…not that this was that kind of talk.

“Working on a portfolio for my journalism class and running a campaign column,” she told him. The thought of how much work she had got her all flustered.

“Busy.”

“Very. I don’t know how I’ll find time to keep seeing this guy,” she said flippantly.

“You’re seeing a guy?” he asked, turning to face her. She wasn’t sure whether he was serious or joking. She couldn’t read him as well as she thought.

“Well, I don’t know if you would call it that,” she said.

He narrowed his eyes. “If you’re talking about anyone other than me, I’m not going to be pleased,” he said, grasping her chin and pulling her in for a heated kiss.

Liz blinked a few times to try to regain composure when he released her. “How could there be anyone else but you?”

And in the summer-heated night, wrapped up in his arms, lost to his touch, she really believed that. Brady had taken over her world. He captured her thoughts, revealed her hidden desires, and made her feel as if she was actually living. In that moment, there was no one else other than Brady.

“I’m having a banquet near the end of the summer, right before the primary. It won’t be in any of the websites you’ve been scraping to track campaign schedules,” he said with a laugh. “I assume you’re doing that?”

Liz bit her lip.

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a chuckle. “I can give you a schedule if it makes it easier.”

“Then it feels like I’m not doing my job.”

“It feels a bit like you’re stalking me.”

“That is part of my job,” she said with a cheeky grin.

“Well, you won’t stalk me to this event without a ticket,” Brady told her. “I’d like you to be there.”

She wanted to ask whether she was going to be going with him, but she didn’t. She couldn’t ask that. If he said no, she wouldn’t be able to keep the hurt off of her face. They’d had such a nice day together that she wouldn’t want to ruin anything.

“All right. I’d like to go,” she told him.

“In the meantime, will you do me a favor?”

“Sure,” she said, offering him the world and more.

“Don’t get your picture in the paper.”

“What?” she asked, surprised. “Why would I get my picture in the paper?” Liz immediately started looking around the lakefront, as if she were expecting photographers to appear around every corner.

“In your paper. Don’t let anyone convince you that you need to have your pretty face next to your name,” he said, running his hand down her cheek.

“Why?” she asked suspiciously.

“You’re pretty anonymous, right?”

She definitely was. She had been saying not too long ago that everyone knew Calleigh when she was in her position, but no one knew who Liz was. It was probably her own doing. Calleigh liked to be in the spotlight, and Liz preferred the background. Slowly she nodded her affirmation.

“Stay that way.”

She didn’t understand what that had to do with anything, and it must have shown on her face.

“Right now, you’re Liz Dougherty on paper. You’ve written some articles that are unfavorable to me, but no one knows who you are. If you start showing up at all my events, and people already know your face, then your cover as Sandy is ruined…”

Liz started putting the pieces together. That made much more sense. He was protecting her identity and at the same time securing himself a little bit more. So, no pictures in the paper. That was fine by her. She would rather be anonymous than lose out on time with Brady.

“What about your press secretary? Doesn’t she know who I am?” she asked, wanting to cover all the bases.

“Heather? No, she knows you’re a reporter, but she doesn’t know you by face, just by name. And I’ll deal with Heather so she doesn’t put the pieces together,” he told Liz confidently.

“Well…I still don’t have an answer to my second question,” she said, nudging him with her elbow. “When do I get to see you again? I’m not going to have to wait another three weeks, am I?”

“Baby, I never want to make you wait again,” he said, picking her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and carrying her back up the stairs to the bedroom.

Liz returned to her house the next morning bright and early. They had spent all night at the lake house and she hadn’t gotten much sleep, but it was worth it. She would do it all over again if she had the chance. It felt surreal to come back like this and have everything else be the same…when she felt so different.

She wanted to sleep, but life was still moving on all around her. Her world with Brady felt like something out of a dream, and then she woke up to reality.

The entire week felt like that. She turned in another assignment: The one she had been working on during the drive to the lake house. Today was the day she found out whether she had done any better. Overall, she had thought it was a better paper. Maybe Brady was rubbing off on her.

Well, in her opinion, he wasn’t rubbing off on her enough. She had managed to see him twice this week at various hotels—once for a pretty spectacular hour and once on Saturday morning before he had to go to work. They had started talking nearly every day, though. She wanted more, but she was already getting more from him than he had said when they had first agreed to do this.

She felt as if they were dating. Maybe they were. Yet their relationship was a complete secret, and not one person knew it was going on besides the driver who had taken her to the lake house. But when they were together, the world slipped away, and he consumed so much of her thoughts.

And still, despite their blossoming relationship, if she could even call it that, her daily life remained the same. She went into the paper every day and submitted articles to be printed, went to class, and resumed her tennis sessions with Tana. Sometimes she even found time to go to the local pool and work on her tan.

Today she had agreed to meet up with Justin after her class. He wanted to talk to her about the AV work he was doing for her for the summer. She was sure he was going to try to get more money out of her. She didn’t even have access to the meager funds, and paying him freelance was too much as it was. She was going to have to cut him loose and find someone else to do it if he wouldn’t cooperate.

Liz shoved her laptop into her bag and walked up to Professor Mires’s podium. “Great lecture today.”

“Why, thank you, Liz.”

“I was seeing if you had my paper graded,” she said with a smile.

“Ah. I actually did get a chance to read yours. I’m a bit behind with the rest of the class, unfortunately.” She pulled a paper out of her bag and handed it to Liz. “Good work. This is more on track.”

Liz opened the paper to the back and found a B+ circled in red. Well, a B+ wasn’t an A, but it was closer. She had enough weeks to bring this grade up. At least, she hoped so.

“I know it’s not what you wanted, Liz, but it’s getting there. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll really start to see improvement. In my notes, I suggest broadening your scope and not focusing so much on each individual politician. Maybe work with them all together or look at it more long term or even historically. The reader should be able to relate to your arguments even if they’ve never heard of the politician. I think you’ll figure it out.”

“Thank you, Professor Mires,” she said, mustering a smile.

She walked out of the classroom with a sigh and veered toward the Pit, where she was planning to meet Justin. She pushed her hair off of her neck as the summer heat beat down on her. It had gone from comfortable to unbearable in the span of a week, and she was really missing the lake house. She knew it was for more than the cool water.