Chapter Fourteen
Reagan
I left the office late on Friday afternoon and went home, but I couldn’t relax. I still had way too much paperwork to go through, and way too many ideas milling about in my head. I had a meeting planned with Ralph soon, and I wanted to present him with a solid plan. needed something to eat, but once again I had forgotten to go shopping. I had just been too busy these days, and keeping my fridge and kitchen cupboards full had been the last thing on my mind. Food, however, was on the forefront, and I groaned when I saw my options. I was just about to reach for the bowl of cereal when I changed my mind. I needed proper food. I gathered all my notes, stuffed them into my laptop bag, and headed straight to Dana’s.
“Working on a Friday?” she said when she saw my bag.
“Yeah. I think I’ll be working non-stop until the election is over. After that, there’ll be a whole different set of work, but at the moment things are a lot more urgent. Although who knows if I’ll even have a job after this. I was just hired to help with the campaign. I’m going to make sure I work so hard and do so well that they have no choice but to hire me afterward.”
“I like the way you think. They better hire you after this. They would be stupid not to.”
“I agree!” I said. “Oh, and I had nothing to eat in the house so figured I’d come here to work. No free tables?” I said and looked around at the busy café.
“It’s crazy busy today. I don’t know what is happening.”
“Your food is amazing. That’s what is happening.”
“Ah, and this is why we are best friends. Want to set up in the corner here? I know it’s not ideal, but it’s all I have open for now. And it gives you some privacy too.”
“Perfect,” I said and walked over to the corner of the bar to set up. I didn’t mind eating there. The bar curved and sitting in the corner meant that I didn’t have my back to everyone. I opened up my laptop while Dana brought me a glass of wine.
“I figured you needed it,” she said.
“As long as I just have one glass, I’m good. I always work well with one glass. Two and I stop wanting to work.”
“Maybe you should have two then,” she suggested.
I laughed. “No. I need to work. Oh, I have a gala to go to tomorrow. So that should be interesting. Josh told me that I had to attend. Bit annoying really. I mean, he just tells me that I have to go instead of asking me. I know he’s my boss, but that doesn’t give him the right to just do that. It’s a weekend too. What if I had plans for tomorrow night?”
“Do you?”
“No. But that’s not the point. He doesn’t need to know what a lame social life I have.”
“So, are you bringing a date with?”
I shook my head. “No. He didn’t say if I could or not. Anyway, who would I even bring? It’s not like my dating life has been good these days.”
“You work too hard to even have time for men,” she said. “Which, might I add, is not necessarily a good thing. You should be dating too.”
“There’s time for dating. Right now, work is far more important.”
“Sure you don’t want to be Josh’s date?” she teased.
“What would you say if I said I did wish to be his date?”
“I’d say you deserve to be with someone a lot nicer than him. You already know my thoughts on him. He’s way too arrogant to be dating my best friend. You deserve to be with an absolute sweetheart. Don’t tell me you want him?”
I groaned. “I don’t. I was just kidding. I’m messing with you. I know you don’t like him. But don’t worry, I definitely don’t want him.”
“You sure? Your mouth says one thing, but your eyes say another.”
I laughed. “You’re such a poet. No, I don’t like him. He’s too . . .”
“Cocky?”
“Yeah. He’s too cocky. He would drive me insane. He’d probably spend more time looking into the mirror than looking at me. No thank you.”
“I must say, though, even though I don’t like him, he did look good at the conference. That suit looked amazing on him. He cleans up well when he wants to. You did a good job with that suit. He still has that roughness about him that the other candidates don’t have, but it was softened in that suit. He seemed a lot more . . . approachable.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “You watched the conference?”
She chuckled. “Of course I did. You’re my best friend. I wouldn’t miss your very first conference. The cameras panned the room at one time, and I saw you sitting at the back. I got so excited I think I squealed,” she said.
“You’re amazing. That’s so nice of you. It must’ve been boring to watch for you, so I really appreciate you doing that. He did well up there, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know much about these things, but I must say, he definitely looked like he was killing it. In fact, I was kind of starting to like him near the end of it all.”
“Perfect. That’s exactly what we were hoping for. He has a lot of followers, but he has a lot of haters too. I think this conference softened him up a bit.”
“You did well. So, what is he really like, then? Is he the guy that I saw the first time on TV or is he the guy that I saw this time?”
“He’s a bit of both,” I said. Then I leaned in and whispered even though there was nobody sitting too close to me. “I hired a private investigator by the way.”
“You did? What for? Is there something going on?”
“No, nothing is going on. I hired him because of Josh. I wanted to know as much as I could about him,” I said. I explained to her how important it was for me to know more than everyone else and how that was the only way I could stay ahead of the game. “Take this Kason thing as an example. Josh had no idea, and that’s why the whole thing got blown out of proportion. If he had known, then he would’ve known how to handle the situation. Well, I need to know everything there is to know about both him and Kason in order to do my job right. Also, it helps having a private investigator as a friend.”
“Has he found anything out?”
I shook my head. “Turns out he’s squeaky clean so far. We’re still digging some more, just in case, but we haven’t found any skeletons in his closet.”
“I’m surprised,” Dana said.
I chuckled. “That’s what I said too. It’s not often that you meet someone in this line of work that isn’t hiding something. I’m hoping it stays that way. It will make my job a lot easier.”
“Does he know that you’re looking into him?”
“Are you kidding me? No way. Nobody knows. Well, except you of course.”
“You better not let him find out. I understand why you are doing it, but if he finds out, you might lose your job. I don’t think he’ll be happy.”
“Oh, trust me, I know. That’s why I’ve only told you. This can’t get out. Josh can never know.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said and zipped her mouth with her fingers.
I placed an order for something to eat while Dana got back to dealing with customers. While she was away, I started working again, taking notes that seemed to go on for days. I always worked well at Dana’s café. There was something about the busy environment that seemed to spark my brain with ideas.
I was head down in paperwork when Frank Hirshman walked through the doors. I didn’t see him coming, mostly because I was so busy with what I was doing, so I looked up in surprise when I saw him standing next to me.
“Do you ever not work?” he said.
“Do you ever not give me a fright?” I said and put a hand to my heart.
He laughed. “Sorry about that. I thought you heard me coming. I hope you don’t mind me being so blunt, but I wondered if you were interested in going out with me tomorrow night? I know you turned me down the last time, but I figured it couldn’t harm to ask again. You can’t say I don’t try.”
I chuckled. “Nothing wrong with that,” I said. “But I’m actually busy tomorrow night. Oh, were you asking me to the gala?” I asked as I realized that he would surely be there too.
He looked at me in surprise. “Yes. How did you know about that?”
“That’s where I’m going.”
“Oh. Well, that works out well then. Would you like to be my date?”
I blushed. “Thank you. That’s nice of you to ask. I’m working for Josh Maxwell, so it probably wouldn’t be the wisest thing for me to come by with his competitor on my arm.”
He laughed. “Are you sure? It would make for some good headlines.”
I rolled my eyes. “We definitely don’t need any more of those. Thank you, though, that’s very nice of you to ask me.”
“As I said, I believe in going after what I want. But, at least I know that I’ll still see you tomorrow. I’ll let you get back to your work. Oh, I just realized I don’t even know your name. I’m Frank Hirshman by the way.”
“I know your name. I’m Reagan Knead. It’s a pleasure to meet you again,” I said and shook his hand.
“See you tomorrow, Reagan.”
I watched as he found a table that had just opened up on the other side of the room and then quickly looked away so that he didn’t think I was watching him. Dana quickly walked over to me.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
“He asked me out again.”
“Again? Wow, the man must really like you. I like a man who doesn’t give up like that. I hope you said yes this time.”
“Dana! He’s the competition. Of course I said no. And anyway, he was asking me to be his date for the gala, which I’m already going to.”
“Ah, that’s a pity. I like Mr. Silver Fox.”
“And I’d like to keep my job,” I said.
She chuckled. “Maybe you should work for him instead.”
“Maybe you should bring me my meal,” I said, and we both laughed.
I imagined Josh’s face if I had to walk through the doors with Frank on my arm. He would not be impressed.