***
“Ok, let me do the talking when we get down there,” Matthew said as we walked to the cafeteria.
Meeting with Senator Masson seemed pretty damn important to Matthew and I wanted to support him as his assistant. But the truth was, I didn’t think he was prepared for the psychology that needed to happen with a man like Senator Masson.
“Yes, sir,” I said with a smile.
I would be happy to sit back and let Matthew discuss whatever it was that he needed to discuss.
“George, it’s so nice to see you,” Matthew said as he shook the elder senators hand.
“Hello, Mr. Masson,” I said sweetly.
My role was to be demure and shy and I could play that role with the best of the women in the world. But I was nothing like that in real life. But this wasn’t real life, this was politics.
“You must be the lovely Ms. Wilson that Marge raved about? It’s nice to meet you, young lady,” senator Masson said to me without even addressing Matthew.
“Yes, I am. It is such a pleasure to meet you. I could talk to you for hours about all the changes going on at the University,” I said with a sweet smile.
Matthew was absolutely pissed off and it took all my energy to not look at him. But out of the corner of my eyes I could see by the way he was fidgeting and moving about; he was not happy.
“Surely, that would be the delight of my week to sit and talk with you about U of I.”
“Mr. Masson, you know Mr. Storm?” I said in an effort to get the two men to talk.
“Yes, it’s nice to see you again Matthew.”
“You too George.”
The two seemed to know each other very well and I suspected there was some history between the two of them and that was why Senator Masson didn’t want to return any of Matthews calls.
But we were all sitting together now and that was all that mattered. I needed to do something to get them to talk. Otherwise, it was going to be a really long and silence lunch.
“Oh, hey, I see one of my friends. I’ll be right back,” I said as I took off down the hallway.
Of course, I didn’t actually have any friends there in D.C. yet, but it was a good way of getting out of the way so the big boys could talk. I didn’t need to be in on their conversation. I knew that I could get Matthew to discuss it later if I had to.
For over an hour, I peaked around the corner and watched the two men as they animatedly discussed whatever it is that had been the issue between them. I knew that Matthew wanted on the Arms Committee, but I couldn’t figure out why the two of them seemed to argue so much during their conversation.
Every time I was just about to come back to the table, one of the two of them would scream at the other and I sulked back away. I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of any of that.
Finally, as Senator Masson got up and shook Matthew’s hand, I made my way back over to the two of them.
“Wow, I’m so sorry that took so long. You know how us girls get when we start talking,” I said to Senator Masson.
“You are forgiven,” he said as he shook my hand. “I hope we can discuss our old school someday soon.
Senator Masson turned and walked away, without even saying goodbye to Matthew. I cringed as I turned toward him. Assuming that the meeting had gone horribly.
“I’m sorry your meeting didn’t go well.”
“What? It was fantastic. Exactly how I wanted it to go,” Matthew said as he took a step close to me. “Let’s get back to the office. I need to thank you.”
The look in his eyes was hard and tough, I knew if I agreed to go into his office again we would be fucking all afternoon long. I didn’t have the luxury of pissing off my co-workers, though, so I had to refuse.
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean?” Matthew said with a strange look on his face.
“I mean, I have other plans for my afternoon.”
His look was priceless, but only very brief. He wanted to know what I was doing with my afternoon, I could tell. But I wasn’t about to give up every detail of my life just because he wanted to know. I wasn’t his. I didn’t belong to him and I could spend my evenings however I wanted to.
“Come with me,” he said in a stern voice.
Matthew grabbed my wrist firmly and pulled me out of the lunch room. His grip was tight around my wrist, but it didn’t hurt me.
I had no idea where he was taking me, but I knew I didn’t want to deal with his anger at all. His eyes looked at me full of agitation and I felt like the second we got to a spot where we could be alone, that was when I was going to see the real Matthew.
“Where are we going?”
“My office,” he said firmly.
“Matthew, I said I can’t stay around this afternoon. I have plans.”
“Cancel them.”
His words hung in the air and I didn’t feel like I should argue with him at that moment. When we got to his office, I would have the privacy we needed to have the conversation about what he could and couldn’t control about my life.