Off the Record

Chapter 15 LIKE A DREAM

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.

Liz pulled out her phone to text Justin that she was on her way, and she saw that she had missed a text. She opened it and saw the name Carmichael flash on the screen. Her heart skipped a beat. Brady didn’t have a lot of free time to text her, and it always made her excited to see his name, even if it was a code name.

Carrboro Town Hall in fifteen minutes.

That’s all it said. Nothing to say what was going on or if he was speaking. She checked the time on the text and saw that it was forty-five minutes ago. She was already thirty minutes late, and by the time she got to her car and drove the ten minutes to the outskirts of town she would be an hour late. She bit her lip and debated.

Go to her meeting with Justin or get the chance to see Brady. It was a no-brainer. She could reschedule.

Something came up. Can we reschedule? Liz jotted out to Justin.

We were supposed to meet in ten minutes…

Liz grumbled. She knew when they were supposed to meet. Yeah, sorry. It was an emergency. Same time tomorrow?

Just come to the party at Frat Court tonight, and we’ll talk there.

Liz rolled her eyes. How many more times could he ask her to go to his stupid parties before he got the hint?

I don’t know if I can make it. I’m swamped with work for the paper, but I’ll try. Tomorrow same place, same time, if I can’t make it?

Yeah. Whatever, Liz.

Liz sighed heavily. She could not lose her best AV person just because she didn’t go to his party. She knew that she was neglecting her work a bit to go see Brady, but Brady was also technically work, wasn’t he? Was she just rationalizing? This was ridiculous, and she couldn’t deal with it right now.

She put her phone away and tried not to think about it.

Liz parked across the street from Carrboro Town Hall, walked through the crosswalk, and rushed up the stairs into the building. A large group of people were still milling around the room, but it was obvious that whatever had been going on inside was over.

She sighed, disappointed, and searched the room for Brady. She didn’t see him and started circling, looking for someone familiar. Standing in a corner was a woman she recognized from Chapel Hill News. The local newspaper didn’t think very highly of the university paper, largely because of the editorial and opinion columns that took up the majority of the space. Liz didn’t blame them for it.

“Hey,” Liz said with an awkward wave as she broke into the conversation the woman was having with her photographer.

The woman looked at Liz as if she was trying to place her, then gave her a fake smile. “Hey, how are you?”

She clearly didn’t remember who Liz was. “I’m doing all right. I got the memo about this too late. I’m with the university press. What did I miss?”

She saw the recognition shine in her eyes.

“State Senator Maxwell is running for Congress.”

“Right. I know. I was at his press conference when he announced,” Liz said with a smile. She hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder.

“Oh,” she said, turning her head back to her photographer. “Well, he gave a speech about community outreach. It was pretty short and he didn’t allow any questions.”

“Is he still here?” Liz asked, glancing around the room again. Why hadn’t he told her about this earlier? It must have been scheduled in advance. She could have been there on time or at least seen him. Granted, she couldn’t miss Professor Mires’s class, but Liz might have gotten out of it if she told the professor it was for her project.

“Yeah. He went into a back room after the speech.”

“How long has he been scheduled here?” Liz asked.

“Rescheduled to Maxwell this morning after the other guy canceled,” Deb said, then turned away from Liz as if the conversation was over.

At least that made her feel a bit better. If it had been rescheduled this morning, then it made sense why his text came last-minute.

A flurry of activity on the other side of the room drew her attention. Brady materialized in the doorway, and Liz sighed softly to herself when she saw him. He was wearing a crisp navy suit with a gray button-down and his signature blue tie. The suit was clearly tailored, because it fit him better than she had ever seen a suit on someone else. It was just too perfect. And all she could think was how she wanted to get him out of it.

She automatically walked toward him and wished that they were the only ones in the room in that moment. He hadn’t seen her yet, and she waited for him to look up and feel her eyes on him. She stood at the periphery of the crowd as others shook his hand and some took pictures. He was as smooth as ever, his campaign mask firmly in place as he was introduced to person after person.

Knowing it would be a little while before she got any closer to him, she let her eyes roam. Heather was standing to his right, keeping a watchful eye on everything that was going on. Standing close behind her was that same man from the club who had been a total ass to Liz after Brady had sent a drink. He had been with Heather at the last event. Did he work for the campaign? They hadn’t met again since that night, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Maybe she would ask Brady about him next time they were alone…if she remembered anything at all when they were alone.

Brady moved through the crowd as much as he could, and then Heather whispered into his ear. He nodded and then addressed the crowd. “Thank you all so much for coming out. I can’t wait to come back and speak with you all again, but unfortunately, I’m being told that it’s my time to leave.”

The crowd dispersed almost immediately as Brady turned to go. Liz took this as her opportunity to get to talk him. “Senator, mind if I ask one question?” she asked, butting around a few people to get to him. She was already pulling her voice recorder out of her bag.

When his eyes found hers, she stopped moving. She couldn’t remember him ever looking at her like that. He hadn’t even dropped his campaign mask. He was looking at her as if she were another questioning constituent.

She didn’t expect him to look at her as though he had been sleeping with her for a couple weeks, but still she had expected something. But she didn’t even see a flicker of recognition cross his face. How was he capable of that?

“Sorry, we told the press no questions,” Heather said, stepping in between them. “Senator Maxwell’s time is very limited.”

“I understand,” she said with more emotion in her voice than she would have liked.

He turned his back on her without a word and walked through the doors. Heather smiled as brightly as ever and followed him, closing the door. Liz stood there for a minute with mixed feelings warring inside of her. She knew that he couldn’t act as if he knew her in public. She knew he was running for office and that he had made it plain what he wanted. First and foremost, he wanted to win the campaign.

But the other, irrational side of her was screaming. Why couldn’t he have even smiled at her…given her some secret nod as though he was glad that she was there? She had canceled her plans with Justin, however tenuous they were, to come over here just to get shunned. She had a life of her own, and he needed to respect that. He couldn’t have her come to every function he was at and not get to spend any time with him. It would break her.

Liz turned on her heel and walked to the door. She wasn’t paying attention when a voice cut through her anger.

“Liz! What a surprise to find you here,” Leslie Chester said with her overly dimpled chipmunk-cheek smile.

“Hey, Leslie, what’s up?” Liz said, continuing her walk toward the exit.

Leslie fell into step beside her. She was short, so she took an extra step for every one of Liz’s. “Not much. Lobbying Senator Maxwell. I might take an internship with his campaign,” she said. Liz tried not to roll her eyes. “I was surprised to find that you didn’t get an interview again this time.”

“Why is that surprising, when he said no questions from the press at this event?” Liz asked blankly. She couldn’t let emotion show in her voice. She needed to channel Brady’s campaign mask.

“Oh, I thought you knew Senator Maxwell,” she said, a bit too chirpy.

“Why would you think that?”

“He knew your name last time. Didn’t he call you Ms. Dougherty?” Leslie asked, all doe-eyed.

Liz bit the inside of her cheek. Why did Leslie remember every single detail? If Leslie weren’t in law school, Liz would be wondering if she herself was going into investigative reporting. “Yes, his press secretary set it up before the event. I wasn’t even aware of this one.”

“Oh, well,” she said with a shrug. “Next time maybe.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Liz said through gritted teeth. “I have a prior commitment to make. I’ve got to dash. Good seeing you again, Leslie.”

“You too, Liz. And if you need any help with the facts in your column, please feel free to call me,” Leslie said, clicking her modest heels across the crosswalk and to her Prius.

Liz puffed air out of her mouth in frustration as she found her Accord. She took a seat and turned the ignition, letting the cool air blast into her face. She rubbed her eyes and tried to calm down. She knew that she and Brady weren’t open about their relationship and that they couldn’t be. But she couldn’t deny that what he had done had hurt. Even though she had agreed to do this with him, it didn’t mean that she had agreed to get her feelings stomped on. He needed to take them into consideration before acting so brashly. She hadn’t even had any forewarning that he was going to turn his feelings off like a light switch.

Her phone buzzed in her purse and she perked up. Maybe that was him! Maybe he was going to apologize for acting like a jerk.

She pulled her phone out and shook her head when she saw it was Justin.

Here are the deets for the party tonight. See ya then.

The rest of the message listed the time, location, and party theme—one she would likely never follow. Who chose tacky Hawaiian as a party theme?

She finally put the car into drive and started to pull out of her spot, when she saw people exit the side of the Town Hall. Liz’s eyes narrowed when she spotted Heather walking purposefully out in front. Even from here, Liz could tell she was talking a million miles a minute. Next came the chubby asshole and then a slew of other people that she didn’t recognize, who all piled into black vans.

Last was Brady with another girl she didn’t recognize, with superstraight dark brown hair to her shoulders. She was wearing a pink blouse tucked into a high-waisted black skirt with black pumps. She was thin too, and cute…really cute. Liz’s eyes narrowed as she and Brady talked to each other briefly. Then Brady leaned down and kissed the girl on the cheek.

Liz’s heart stopped. After all that stuff about her not seeing anyone else…that he wanted her all to himself. She knew they couldn’t be together in public, but that didn’t mean he could be with someone else in public!

She swallowed back the rising bile in her throat and tried to push back the hurt crushing her chest. She just wanted to be angry. Anger was easier to deal with than pain.

The girl hopped into the car before him and Brady followed, closing the door and zooming away. Liz watched the car leave, letting the anger fuel her rash decisions. She stared back down at her phone.

Actually, I think I will make it. See you tonight, Liz texted Justin before throwing her phone into the passenger seat and going home to see if she had anything that could possibly resemble a tacky Hawaiian outfit.

No.

That was her general consensus on whether or not she had anything remotely Hawaiian-looking. People were walking around in oversize Hawaiian button-downs, fake grass skirts, coconut bra tops, cut-off jean shorts, foam visors, bathing suits, and leis everywhere.

Liz didn’t own any jean shorts or even a jean skirt, which apparently would have been acceptable. She had opted for a white skirt, hot pink bikini top, and flip-flops. It wasn’t tacky, but at least it was themed. She had even taken the time to dry her hair, so that it had beachy waves to it. No one seemed to care as long as they got to come up to her and yell, “Do you want to get lei’d?” Then they would throw a lei over her head and laugh maniacally while chugging beer.

Justin dragged her around the party, introducing her to all of his fraternity brothers and some of the girls they were fooling around with, though he didn’t always know their names. She wondered briefly whether people thought that she was fooling around with Justin, and drowned herself in hunch punch at the thought.

Her phone was glued to her side, but she had never heard from Brady. After two glasses of the hunch punch, she wasn’t thinking straight about anything. She rested her hand on Justin’s arm and laughed at a joke some girl had made that she would have normally never found funny. But for some reason right now, it was hysterical.

“What is in this stuff?” she asked, turning to face Justin and trying to stand up straight.

He laughed when he got a good look at her. “Fuck, you’re wasted. That is like vodka and Everclear with a hint of Kool-Aid for taste.”

“Are you kidding me?” she croaked. “I could die!”

“You’re not going to die,” he said, placing his hand on her waist to steady her. “You’ll be fine. Just loosen up a bit.”

“A bit? I’m falling over,” she said, as she did just that and started laughing again.

Justin reached down and helped her stand up once again. “You’re a mess. When was the last time you drank this much?”

Liz shook her head side to side really fast. “Never. No, once!”

“Maybe I should take you home,” he suggested. He rested her back against the wall of the fraternity house and leaned closer to her.

“I don’t know. I’m having such a good time, though,” she said, even though she knew that didn’t sound like her at all.

“You’re drunk, Liz. Let me take you home.”

“I’m drunk?” she asked, poking at his chest. “You’re drunk too!”

He shook his head. “No way. I haven’t had much at all. I can totally drive.”

“I’ll just take a cab.”

“Seriously, I can drive you.”

“Fine! Take me home then,” she said, letting him take her arm and guide her away from the house.

Warning alarms went off in her head as they got closer and closer to his car. She was suddenly not feeling well at all. Why was walking so difficult? Why was the entire universe spinning right now? That wasn’t a good sign, was it?

“Are you sure you can drive?” she asked, covering her mouth and trying to hold back the rising sickness in the pit of her stomach.

“Yeah, I’m fine. How are you feeling? You look a bit green.” He unlocked the passenger door and held it open for her.

“Ugh, yeah, I feel a bit green.”

“Are you going to make it all the way home?” he asked.

She nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth to speak. He walked around the car, sliding inside and pulling out of Frat Court. The car ride did not help. It really wasn’t a long drive. On the roads this late at night when few people were out, it was less than five minutes from her place to his, but it felt like an eternity. She wasn’t sure if her vision was blurring or if they were swerving. Were they swerving?

“Justin, are you drunk?” she asked as they crossed over Franklin Street as the light turned red. She heard tires screech to a halt as they coasted through the busiest intersection in Chapel Hill.

“I’m fine. We’re almost there,” he said, taking the first right onto Rosemary Street.

Then she saw it in her rearview mirror: blue lights.

“Fuck!” Justin cried as the police car pulled up behind his car.

“Shit, Justin,” Liz said, straightening in her seat and wishing she had a fucking shirt. She was in a car, getting pulled over by the police, in a miniskirt and bathing suit top. She felt ridiculous.

Justin pulled over to the side of the road, and the policeman came over to the window asking for his license and registration. Liz watched the next thirty minutes through a drunken haze. Justin was asked to step out of the car. He failed the sobriety tests with flying colors. The police officer informed him that he was being arrested for driving under the influence. Liz watched the officer escort Justin into the backseat of the police cruiser. He would have to spend the night in jail.

“Ma’am,” the officer said, coming up to her.

“Uh…yes, Officer?” she asked, sobering up.

“Do you have someone who could come pick you up, or do you need us to escort you home?”

“No, I live right around the corner. Only a block away.”

“It’s late. We can drive you if you need us to,” he offered.

“No, thank you, sir.”

“All right. Please drink more responsibly next time, ma’am.”

“Yes, sir,” she said as he walked back to his police car and drove off with Justin.

Liz placed her phone to her ear as she walked the short distance back to her house. She couldn’t believe that had happened only one block from her house. That was the unluckiest thing that she had ever witnessed.

“Senator Maxwell’s office,” a woman answered through the phone.

He had someone answering phones at all hours of the night. What a life…

“I need to speak with the Senator.” She was pretty sure her voice cracked.

“Who may I ask is speaking?”

“Sandy Carmichael,” she said, weakly turning the corner.

“One moment, Ms. Carmichael.”

Liz waited a couple minutes, and then Brady’s voice came through the line just as she walked through the front door.

“Liz?” he asked. He sounded surprised, or maybe she was making that up.

“Brady.” When she said his name, she broke down and the tears burst out of her eyes. The DUI had messed her up more than she had realized. What could have happened was scarier than what actually happened.

“Are you all right? What’s wrong?” he asked, clearly concerned this time.

Despite everything that happened, all she could get out was, “Who was the girl?”

“What?”

“The girl you were with at the town hall event?”

“Oh, Liz, did you see that?”

Was he confirming her fears? Was she one of many that he was doing this with?

“That was my sister, Savannah.”

Liz froze where she was standing. His sister. Well, that changed things. “Oh,” she said softly.

“She lives with my parents, and I picked her up and brought her to the event with me,” he said.

“I wish I’d known…” she said wistfully, feeling childish.

“Why?” he asked, his tone lowering.

“I went to a frat party.”

Brady was silent. Liz was pretty sure that was worse. She couldn’t handle his silence.

“A friend of mine was driving me home, and he got a DUI. I just walked home,” she said, her voice cracking again. She couldn’t believe Justin had gone to jail tonight. She would have to try to get ahold of him in the morning.

“Let me get this straight. You assumed I was with another woman. So you went and got trashed with some other guy who ended up endangering your life,” he said, his controlled tone damn near threatening Justin’s life at that moment.

“I’m not proud of myself!” she spat back in frustration.

“I don’t understand, Liz. I said from the beginning what this was. There are going to be aspects of the situation that you don’t like. You can’t go off and try to get fucked by some frat boy every time you get your feelings hurt,” he growled.

“I wasn’t trying to get fucked, all right?” she cried. “Justin is just a friend from school. He helps me at the paper.”

“Every guy at that fucking school wants to have sex with you. Every one.”

Liz ground her teeth in frustration. “You don’t know that.”

“I do, and you should too,” he said.

“Whatever. I’m drunk and sick and totally fucked up right now. I don’t need to be lectured,” she said, throwing his words back at him.

“You’re mouthy when you’re drunk,” he said, the words coming off more enticing than she expected.

“I’m always mouthy,” she said, flopping back on her bed. Big mistake. The world spun.

“Do I need to come over there and find that out firsthand?”

“Yes,” she said. She wanted nothing more than to see Brady, even if she was still angry with him. “Make up for staring at me like you didn’t know me by coming over and fucking me like you do.”

“Liz,” he said with a sigh, “are you going to be all right?” He lost the cocky tone for that briefest period of time, and the fire left her body. She felt sick to her stomach. Tears from the shock of the incident and her experience with Brady welled in her eyes, and she tried to blink them away.

“Yeah. Can I have some forewarning next time I’m not supposed to exist?” she asked weakly.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he responded sincerely. It was more than she ever expected. She didn’t know why, but she suspected it took a lot for someone like Brady Maxwell to apologize.

It seemed she owed him one in return. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”

Liz stared up at the ceiling and tried to get it to stop spinning. Brady sighed into the phone, and she wondered if he was still mad at her.

“Can I see you soon?” he asked, answering her thoughts.

“Tonight?” she whispered.

He sighed like he was debating. “All right.”

Liz broke into a smile. Tonight.

Twenty minutes later, Brady Maxwell was in her house…in her bed…stroking her hair and coaxing her to sleep. He planted kisses on her cheeks and hair and shoulders and held her close to him. It was like a dream all over again.