Free Domestic Affairs by Bridget Siegel Page A

walking shoes with her.
    She looked at the clock. Seven fifteen. Shit. The first breakfast wasn’t until eight thirty but she really wanted to get there early and be über-prepared. She gathered up her binder and folder. Her type-A personality had gone over and above on this one. She had the governor’s schedule printed out along with extensive briefings for each of the six meetings. Each briefing had background info on the person’s business, family, and anything else she could find, as well as all the money they’d given to anyone ever. She actually liked doing the research; she’d been with the district attorney so long that his briefings lately consisted of her whispering a few key points to him as they walked into a meeting. She tried to skim through the pile of papers just to triple-check for mistakes as she left her building for a much-needed coffee.
    â€œWoo-hoo. Looking pretty there.” Harun, who held down the coffee cart outside her small walk-up brick building, was the cornerstone of her every morning. Not only did he provide the essential caffeination, but he always found something to compliment her on. Even when it was tough. “Looks like you’re working hard; good job, kiddo,” he’d say on particularly rough days.
    Her BlackBerry buzzed with a message from her sister: Good luck today.
    She knew that Marcy didn’t really want her getting into another campaign, but she was sweet enough to remember that this was a big moment for Olivia. Olivia also took the text as a warning: “I remember. Thus be prepared for a lecture or two to come on why political campaigns are bad for your health, ability to relate to the human race, and love prospects.”
    Thanks , Olivia wrote back, literally skipping down the subway steps. Nothing could deflate her glee on this day. She jumped through the open doors of the subway and chose to stand even though there were empty seats. She was too excited to sit. Olivia was the type of kid who always loved the first day of school, and this was that times ten.
    When she bounced out of the doors ten minutes later she wasn’t even fazed by the fact that she had gotten six new messages in ten minutes. She scrolled ahead to the two from Jacob.
    [email protected] : How’d the 7 am go?
    Olivia felt a stroke of panic as she grabbed for her schedule andswitched to the second message from him. Could she have read it wrong? Did she miss a meeting? The first meeting?
    [email protected] : Just kidding. Have fun today.
    Olivia let go of the death grip she had on her papers as the blood flowed back to her fingers.
    [email protected] : Soooo not funny. Almost had heart attack in subway.
    [email protected] : Sorry, but it was a little funny.

    Jacob cackled as he threw away the empty Domino’s boxes and made his bed down in Atlanta. He pictured Olivia having a nervous breakdown outside of the Brinmore. She became such a spastic freak when she was nervous. He probably shouldn’t have joked with her like that. But he was in such an outrageously good mood. Having her staff the day was a total coup.
    After two weeks of talking every night on the phone, Jacob had convinced Sophie to come down to Georgia and visit. With a friend, of course, since Sophie told him two weeks was not sufficient time to warrant a weekend alone despite his argument that in campaign time, that was equivalent to at least three months. She and her best friend, Jane, would come down on Jacob’s air miles, of which he had hundreds of thousands thanks to campaign travel and no time to use them himself thanks to campaign work. He needed at least a day to clean before she got here. Which he would, of course, cram into an hour. He looked at his TV, embarrassed that his cable had been turned off. Even if he were trying to be organized, he probably wouldn’t have caught the bill or the second and third notices with all the traveling. And he wasn’t trying. Every