"If I don't have a woman every three days or so I get a terrible headache." President John F. Kennedy
Traffic was terrible. Paul had been stuck in bumper to bumper hell for over an hour, and it wasn't looking like it was going to break anytime soon. He sighed to himself running his hand through his brown hair. I need a haircut, he thought looking in the rearview mirror. He'd spent the last few weeks in charge of Congressman Nick DeMarco's group of volunteers and interns in Springtown. Living off room service and soda. It had been fantastic, and having a position, any position, in the Congressman's circle was a dream. But he'd worked himself to the bone and he was ready to be going home.
The radio was playing a keening pop star he hated, and he reached for the dial changing it to something calmer. Finally the cars in front of him started to move. He grabbed his phone and dialed. It rang once and went straight to voicemail. Again.
"Hi! This is Jenny. Leave a message."
Paul waited for the beep. "Hi baby, I'm still stuck in traffic, so I don't know what time I'm gonna get back. I think you'll probably be at the campaign headquarters so I'll just head there." Paul took a moment and then said, "I miss you. Haven't talked in awhile. Can't wait to see you."
He sighed to himself again. He knew that Jenny, his girlfriend of two years, was alright, but she'd seemed distant the past couple weeks. She was probably just busy, he thought. After all she was the personal assistant to the Congressman, and that was no small task. She was probably running all over the place doing all kinds of things for Nick DeMarco. Paul smiled as he envisioned their life in Washington as a power couple. Both of them intricate parts of the DeMarco machine.
Although there was something going on with her, Paul decided it wasn't a good idea to worry about it. After all he was going home, and that would set everything straight. She probably just missed him. And he missed her too. He missed her a lot. He couldn't wait to see her, and kiss her and maybe they'd go out to dinner and then he'd take her home and...oh god, Paul was so excited to see his girlfriend.
Finally the traffic started moving and he made his way towards Westville.
A couple hours later he pulled up in front of the campaign headquarters of Congressman Nick DeMarco, nicely situated right on the Westville town square. The large oak trees had shed their leaves as the end of fall was making way for winter. Paul parked his car and got out, stretching his legs and taking a deep breath of the cool autumn air. He checked out his reflection in the passenger window and, after fixing a few wisps of hair, he made his way towards the glass door bedazzled with large signs of 'Vote for DeMarco!'
The door opened with a friendly jingle and Paul was instantly greeted with a chorus of voices saying hi and welcoming him back. His friend Steve, tall and impossibly thin, ran up to him with a big smile on his face.
"There he is!" Steve yelled out. "The prodigal son returns!" Steve clapped Paul on the back. "So, how was it? The polling numbers in Springtown are looking good, man."
"Yeah," Paul answered, smiling tiredly at the exuberance of his friend. "It was good. Fun."
"Awesome, awesome. Well we've been crazy busy here getting ready for the primary."
"Yeah...yeah."
"You ok man? You look -"
"No," Paul said smiling, "I'm fine."
"Good 'cause I was gonna say, that picture is stupid. Just a paparazzi thing."
Paul looked up at Steve's awkward smile. "What picture?"
"I mean, obviously everybody here laughed at it, but the tabloids are always looking for an angle."
"What picture?" Paul repeated.
Steve looked over at a desk nearby and grabbed the Westville Daily. He turned through a couple pages and handed it to Paul. "I thought you'd seen it," Steve said laughing. "Like I said, it's a stupid tabloid thing man."
Paul looked at the picture and saw the Congressman looking dashing in a tuxedo. Next to him was a beautiful brunette. At first Paul didn't even recognize his girlfriend. She looked incredible. She looked like a movie star. She was wearing a deep red dress which showed off her body in all the right places. Her long shapely legs and piercing blue eyes. And her magnificent 32F breasts on full display looking as if they might topple out the front. Paul would've been turned on if it wasn't for the tagline.
'DeMarco's new lady?'
He skimmed through the article, which speculated that his girlfriend of two years was dating his boss. Paul smiled looking back at Steve. "That's amazing," he said laughing.
"You should see how hard I laughed when I saw that," Steve chuckled.
"Have you seen her?"
"Jenny? Yeah, she went in the Congressman's office awhile back...to make out."
Paul hit Steve with the newspaper and left him laughing as he made his way to the shuttered office of Nick DeMarco. He knocked twice.
After a moment he knocked again, a little louder and heard Nick DeMarco's deep voice, "Come in!"
Paul opened the door to find the Congressman sitting behind his desk beaming at him.
"Paul! Welcome back! Have a seat."
Paul sat opposite the congressman. And even though he was a major part of the campaign, and had just spent the past few weeks in charge of a whole group of volunteers, Paul still felt like a child next to Nick DeMarco. He was just so charming and tall and magnetic, everyone around him was instantly drawn in.
"Thanks Congressman."
"Come on man. Call me Nick. So how was your time in...?"
"Springtown. It was great," replied Paul. "I managed to recruit almost twenty volunteers and every day I would distribute them into groups for cold calling and house calls and mailings. They were really great and Steve just told me the polls in Springfield are looking good."
"Uh huh. Good. Yeah. That's really, really good. Keep going."
Paul was beaming at the Congressman's exuberance at his work. "And we managed to paper the district so the whole town basically reads 'Vote for DeMarco.' I mean there isn't a single street sign that doesn't have some poster or flier on it. Really Congressman, the whole town is like one giant banner for your campaign."
"Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, just awesome Paul."