***
I thought I would have woken up in time to go visit my father around dinner, but that didn’t happen. Instead, it was almost midnight when I awoke from my sleep deprived sex coma. I jumped into the shower and got dressed while I let Matthew sleep. There was no reason to wake him up, I was likely going to just go to the hospital and watch my father sleep.
When I arrived in my father’s room, the news station was on his television. It made me smile. My father did love to complain about everything that was going on in the world. There wasn’t a day that I had ever seen him watch the news and not complain.
I sat down next to him and we watched together. It was a story about Senator Masson and the evidence that had come out so far. The newscaster made it sound pretty definitive that Senator Masson had been involved in wrongdoing. It surprised me, though, he was a slimy Senator; but I didn’t peg him as the type of guy who would steal money. He seemed to have plenty of it and didn’t need to steal to get it.
“You abandoned me,” I heard Matthew say as he looked on from the door to the hospital room. He was wearing sweatpants and looked sexy as hell. I had never seen him so casually dressed, but I liked it.
“You were asleep,” I laughed.
“I’m awake now.”
Matthew pulled up a chair and came and sat next to me. He reached for my hand and held onto it. I looked at him and then at my father, but realized my father wasn’t going to tell anyone anything. My father was so sick. It was clear that this would be my last visit with him.
“What’s going on with Masson? Did he do it?” I asked.
I expected Matthew to come up with some type of bullshit answer that would deflect the question. He didn’t.
“Yes, I found out awhile ago.”
“So why did you put him into the Speaker of the House position? I don’t understand.”
“It’s a lot more publicity when he goes down.”
“So now you want the position?”
“Oh, hell now.”
“Matthew, I don’t get what’s going on.”
“It’s alright. All you need to know is that I love you and I’m happy as hell that I get to be here with you right now.”
Matthew pulled my hand up to his mouth and kissed it. He was good, damn good. I couldn’t even ask another question because I was so busy analyzing his ‘I love you’ statement. But I would find another time to ask him about his involvement in Senator Masson’s controversy.
By morning, it was time to head back to Washington. I was emotionally exhausted and after we had met with the doctors and my mother, I realized I couldn’t just sit there and watch my father die. I was extremely grateful my mother was there with him and I felt peace with my father that I hadn’t had in the entire 22 years of my life. He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was my father and I had the closure I needed.
“Thank you two for coming, I know your father is really happy he got to see you again Michaela.”
“Mom, you take care of yourself. I know you want to be here all the time, but you have to rest and eat right as well.”
“I know sweetheart. I’ll call you and keep you updated. Have a safe flight back to Washington.”
We gave each other hugs and kisses and then Matthew and I grabbed our things from the hotel and made our way to the airport. We had to wait in a loading area for the private jet to arrive and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get to the bottom of some of my questions. Matthew would throw an angry fit with all those people sitting around.
“So you planned for Senator Masson to get caught embezzling?” I asked.
“What? No. I can’t fort people to commit crimes, Kayla. He did that of his own free will.”
“But you made sure it came out so you could be rid of him. Why do you hate the guy so much?”
“First of all, I don’t hate him. Secondly, I’m not going to have this conversation here. We can talk about it when we get on the plane.”
“Actually, I’m fine with talking about it now. Did you set him up, Matthew?”
“No. And stop. We aren’t continuing this conversation,” Matthew said firmly.
But what Matthew didn’t understand was that I could continue the conversation just fine without him. He needed to give me some answers. I had started to feel like he was hiding way too much from me.
“Let me guess. You don’t want to be embarrassed in public? What do you think it feels like for me right now? I was the one going around that party telling everyone to vote for him. I was the one who almost slept with him. All at your request so you could manipulate him.”
“You almost slept with him?”
I got up and stormed off away from Matthew. He couldn’t play stupid with me. He knew damn well that Masson wanted to fuck me and Matthew just kept sending me back to the man to get closer and closer. Then it dawned on me. Matthew was probably being so nice to me because he knew this news was about to break and I was going to be pissed at him.
I sat down at the other end of the terminal and happened to notice a friend of mine from college. I used him as an out to avoid eye contact with Matthew.
“Jarrod?” I said as I looked at my friend.
“Oh, my God Michaela. What are you doing here?” He said with a look of surprise on his face.
I couldn’t blame him, though. I certainly didn’t belong in the private lounge of people waiting for their private jets.
“Oh, I’m just flying back to Washington with my boss. How about you? Your business is doing well I see.”
“Well not as well as a private jet would suggest. I’m actually flying to meet a potential client overseas and they are sending a plane for me.”
“That’s really exciting. I’m so happy for you.”
Then it happened. Matthew Storm barged right into the middle of our conversation and asserted his territory.
“Honey, our plane is here. Are you ready?” Matthew said as he wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek.
My entire face flushed red as I looked up at Matthew and then back to my friend. I had just finished telling him Matthew was my boss. Plus it was pretty obvious who Matthew was, almost everyone in Illinois knew him.
Jarrod hid the shock of the moment rather well.
“It was nice seeing you again Kayla. Keep in touch.”
“You too Jarrod,” I said as Matthew pulled me away.
As soon as we were outside of the building I pulled myself away from Matthews' arms and walked farther away from him. He just came out with our relationship without even bothering to talk to me about it. Luckily it was just one friend from Illinois. But Matthew clearly didn’t care what the ramifications would be for me if people knew I had been sleeping with my boss who happened to be the Senator from Illinois.
“Don’t do that Matthew,” I said as we sat down on the plane.
“Don’t do what?”
“You just threw it out there that we were dating. We agreed to keep it quiet. It’s not just your career that this is going to affect if people know.”
“Oh, stop. It’s just some kid who has a crush on you. It doesn’t really matter that much does it?”
“Let’s actually talk thinks over before you decide what information is public.”
I was starting to trust Matthew less and less as the days went on. I had known he wasn’t going to stop at anything to get his career goals, but I thought I could keep myself out of the carnage. I hoped that when we returned to Washington we could move forward with some normalcy.
We still didn’t know where the Vice President was and now Senator Masson had a huge political crisis going on. We were going to be really busy in the office and I needed to stay on my game as best as I could. I didn’t want to be distracted by Matthew and his agenda. I just wanted to do my job and do it well.
“I’m sorry. I’ll talk over things next time,” Matthew said as he apologized.
Two good things had come out of our trip to Illinois. I had the chance to see my father and get some closure with him. The second was that I realized Matthew did have the ability to apologize. He had done it several times in the past week and I had as well. It felt like we were actually having a real relationship. Although I wasn’t about, to announce it to the world.
Coming out and saying that I was sleeping with my boss would certainly ruin my political career in Washington. If it didn’t ruin it, well at the very least I would be considered a joke and not able to get another job with any credibility.
We both couldn’t sleep on the flight back to Washington and instead got ourselves updated on the two major news stories that were affecting Matthew politically. I wasn’t sure what exactly they were going to do about the Vice President being missing or the case against Senator Masson. But I knew one thing…Matthew seemed mixed up in both of those stories.
“We are approaching our final decline, please fasten your seatbelts,” the pilot said over the intercom.
When we landed, it seemed to take a lot longer than normal for us to be cleared to get off the plane. Not that I knew what ‘usual’ was; but it took well over twenty minutes after we landed.
I looked out the plane as we finally pulled into the hanger area and there were dozens of reporters standing around.
“Why are they here?” I asked Matthew.
“No idea.”
“Well don’t say anything to them. Just answer no comment until we can discuss things and figure out what is going on. You go ahead and get off the plane. I’ll wait until they are gone.”
“No. You’re my assistant. It’s fine.”
Matthew left the plane first and then I followed behind him. The cameras were all rolling and there were dozens of flash pictures being taken. I just couldn’t fathom why on earth they wanted to talk with Matthew so bad.
“Senator Storm. How do you feel about today’s appointment by the President?” I heard one report ask.
“I’m excited to continue serving my country,” Matthew responded.
I had no idea what he was saying, but I knew for a fact he had kept yet another secret from me. I wasn’t happy at all.
“Mr. Storm, there has been speculation that you know what happened with Vice President Howard. Do you know where he is?”
I froze still at the question.
What speculation? Who was speculating this? Why would they think that Matthew had anything to do with the disappearance of the Vice President?
“I have nothing to hide. I have had a meeting with the president and his advisors where I shared my whereabouts from the moment I left last weekend’s party until this very moment. I have nothing to hide.”
“Senator Storm, where were you the night of the party after it ended?”
“I was with my girlfriend Michaela Wilson,” Matthew said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to stand next to him.
My body went cold. Matthew had just thrown away my entire career.