20. Jamie

I'm just finishing tying my tie when there's a knock on my door.

"Yes?" I call, and within seconds, Mina's head pops through the door.

"Do you have a minute?" she asks.

"Yeah, come on—"

She practically barges the rest of the way in, shuts the door, and levels me with a knowing look. "Spill."

"What?"

She sighs and walks a few feet to drop into an armchair. "Something clearly happened with Adrian, so—" she gestures at me. "Spill."

My mouth falls open a little. "How—"

"You came in later than usual, which means you either overslept or had somewhere else to be this morning. But since you texted Daniel at 6:00 a.m., I know it wasn't the former," she explains. "You were wearing jeans when you came in and had Daniel bring your dry cleaning to the office, so you probably weren't at home to get dressed, which means you woke up somewhere else. You also have ‘I just got laid' written all over your face, and I know you'd never cheat, even on a fake significant other. Therefore, something happened between you and Adrian."

I blink for a moment. "You know, sometimes you're a little scary."

"And that's why you love me," she says with a grin. "So spill."

"We—" I try to hide my stupid grin, but can't. "Well, we're not exactly fake anymore."

"Fucking finally," she exclaims.

"Mina," I scold in a hushed tone. "We're not the only ones in this office right now."

She grimaces and glances at the door before lowering her voice. "Sorry. But seriously, tell me everything."

"He called me yesterday evening—texted me, actually, but then I called him because for once I actually had a free evening. Anyway, he sounded upset and had clearly called to talk about whatever it was, but then he thought against it, I guess, and hung up on me. So—"

"Let me guess, you dropped everything and showed up unannounced," she says with a smirk. "Classic Jamie."

"I brought over my mom's frozen lasagna and one thing led to another and he asked me to stay," I say carefully.

"Y'all hooked up."

"No," I say reflexively. "Well, yes, but…"

"It was more than that?" she teases.

I wrinkle my nose. "Ugh, it sounds gross when you say it. But yes, it was more than that. I didn't go over there for that. I went over because he had a bad day and I wanted to be there for him. And nothing really happened until I was going to leave. We just watched TV and ate dinner. Okay, and we kind of cuddled, but that was it."

"Cute."

"Shut up." I grab a stress ball off my desk and chuck it at her, which she catches with ease. "But then I was standing at the door about to leave and…"

"Then y'all hooked up."

I roll my eyes. "Yes. But again, it was different."

She smiles and tosses the stress ball back to me. "Well, of course it was. You're both completely smitten with each other. Neither of you are good enough actors to fake the way you look at each other when you think the other isn't watching."

My cheeks heat, and I toss the ball back.

"So where does this leave you?" she asks.

"We talked this morning, and I convinced him to give this a real chance," I say.

"You convinced him?"

"Kind of." I shrug. "I mean, he admitted that he has feelings for me, but he's…"

"Closed off?" she supplies, and I nod. "Yeah, Sophie told me how long it took for him to finally accept her invitation to hang out outside of work. And how even now, she feels like he holds himself back."

"He's just so used to people leaving."

"And even though he likes you, he's afraid you'll be the same," she guesses.

"Pretty much."

"Well, it probably won't take long for him to realize that there's not much he can do to get rid of you. I've been trying to get rid of you for ten years and here we are."

"You love me," I argue.

"Yeah, I do." She smiles and sets the ball back down on the desk. "And I'm happy for you."

"Thanks." I return her grin. "I'm actually really happy. I feel like a total cliche, but I quite literally woke up with a smile on my face."

"Just be careful, okay? We're less than four months away from Election Day and—"

"Yeah, I know. I can't lose sight of the campaign," I finish.

"No, you can't. Speaking of, we should go get some coffee." She stands and smoothes her pants.

My stomach sinks. "Polling numbers?"

"Yup."

I all but hold my breath our entire walk to the coffee shop down the street. Mina didn't say anything else while we were in my office because legally, she couldn't. But I could tell by her tone the results aren't good. I was having such a good morning, too, minus the not-quite-a-fight I had with Adrian. But apparently, what goes up, must immediately come down.

We get our coffees, then head back out to the street to walk so we can't be as easily overheard. She goes to pull a folder out of her bag, but I wave her off.

"Just give me the spark notes," I say, seeing as I have a meeting in forty minutes.

"You're down by one."

"But I was just ahead by two."

She takes a sip of her iced coffee. "You were, but both results are within the margin of error, so really, all this tells us is that it's tight. And Mitchell gave a speech at a charity event, which got him some good press."

"Oh, God, what did he say this time?" I groan.

"Nothing new, but he doubled down on his whole ‘Montgomery doesn't have anything tying him to this district. I'm from here. My family lives here. My opponent spends all his time in Washington going to clubs.' nonsense." She rolls her eyes.

"My family is in that district, too," I argue. "I'm from there. My parents are there. And I haven't been back to that club in months! Yes, I spend a lot of my time in Washington, but that's because I'm already in Congress. I'm fighting for laws that will better the people in my district."

"I know that, and your supporters know that. But the people in the middle are easily swayed." She pauses with a grimace. "But also, that isn't the kind of family he was talking about."

"So this is about Adrian." I scowl. "God, this is so fucking frustrating. People like Mitchell are exactly why spending more of my time in DC is more appealing in the first place! He's just hiding his homophobia behind southern passive aggression. How the fuck am I supposed to fight against that without looking defensive?"

"You can't, at least not directly."

I sigh and take a drink from my iced herbal tea. "So what do I do? Do I go home for a visit? Would that honestly fix things?"

She shrugs. "You'd be surprised. You've got the break coming up. It would be smart to spend a good chunk of it back home."

"Yeah, you're right. And I was thinking about it," I admit. "But I was also looking forward to spending some more time with Adrian, especially now that we've decided to try this out for real."

"Bring him," she says as if it's simple. "That will look even better to your constituents who are falling for Mitchell's rhetoric that you're not serious about family. Nothing says serious like bringing your boyfriend home."

The idea of bringing Adrian home with me is appealing. Showing him around to all of my favorite places, introducing him to my parents. But I don't like the idea of using him to rank better in polls.

"How is that any different from what you've already been doing?" Mina asks when I say as much out loud.

"It's not, and that's my point. If I'm going to convince him that I'm not going anywhere and that he can let me in, I need to make sure he knows I'm not with him because it makes it easier for me to get re-elected, even if that's how this started out," I explain.

"Then keep the focus on wanting to show him around your home," she says, as if it's really that simple.

"And if he says no?"

"He won't."

"He might."

"Then you go home by yourself. But you won't know unless you ask."

It takes about a week before I get the courage to ask Adrian to come home to North Carolina with me. I wanted to have all the details of my campaign schedule for the month figured out before approaching him with it. It took a little arguing with Mina and Ben, but I managed to organize for me to be completely free the long weekend at the beginning of the break—no meetings, no campaigning, nothing. Then that Monday, I have a visit scheduled at Mills Family Farm, a rescue goat farm I helped save from going out of business last year. I figured it would be the perfect campaign trail stop to bring my veterinarian boyfriend to—just a tour of the changes the farm's been able to make with the grant I helped them get and a photo op with some goats.

But that's the only one I'm going to ask him to be there for. While Mina had a point that the foundation of my arrangement with Adrian was to use him to save my image, it doesn't sit right now that we're actually dating. Plus, even before we became real, I promised him that I would do everything I could to keep him out of the public eye. Posting a few carefully curated pictures on social media and talking about him in my coming out interview is one thing, but parading him around a campaign trail for a week is another. Plus, I don't want to take him away from work or his fur babies for too long.

Now I just have to see if he agrees to it. I really hope he does, and not because I think a photo of us with some goats would be equal parts good press and adorable. But I want to introduce him to this part of my life. He's only ever seen the DC version of me—the congressman that works long hours and doesn't know how to relax. I want him to see the North Carolina me—the Jamie that drives with the windows down, spends Saturdays at the flea market with my mom looking for weird shit, and loves barbecue.

My phone pinging with Adrian's "I'm here" text pulls me out of my thoughts. I glance around my apartment one last time to make sure everything is in its place, then jog down the stairs to let him in. I unlock and pull the outer door open, grinning once I lay eyes on him, still wearing his teal scrubs from the shift he just finished with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. It's only been two days since I last saw him for a quick dinner between late meetings, but now I get him all to myself for the next twenty-four hours, and I couldn't be more happy about it.

"Hey, sweetheart," I say as I take his hand and pull him inside. The entryway is only barely less swamp-like than outside, so I decide to save a proper hug for once we're inside the air-conditioned confines of my apartment. But I still lean in for a kiss.

His hand squeezes mine as he sighs against my lips. "Hi," he murmurs as he pulls away.

"Come on." I lead him upstairs, then smile as I gesture around the living room. "Welcome to my DC apartment."

He lets go of my hand and slips off his shoes before venturing further into my open-concept living space. "It looks surprisingly homey for you only being in your first term."

"That would be my mom," I say with a small smile. "She and my dad helped me move up here, and she's big into home decor. She said something about wanting it to remind me of my North Carolina apartment so I wouldn't get homesick."

"That was nice of her." He turns back to face me.

"I can show you to my bedroom, so you can put your stuff down and change out of your scrubs," I offer.

"Actually, would you mind if I use your shower? I kind of smell like animal," he says with a slight grimace.

"Yeah, of course. I can order dinner while you're in there," I suggest.

He smiles. "That sounds perfect."

Forty minutes later, we're cuddled up on my couch in lounge clothes with Chinese takeout containers spread out on the coffee table.

"What do you want to watch?" he asks as he portions chicken fried rice into a bowl.

I take a deep breath and hold it. Might as well get this out of the way. "Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about something," I say carefully.

His body immediately goes tense, and I mentally curse myself.

That sounded a bit ominous. "Something good, I promise—at least, I hope you think it is," I add quickly.

He relaxes a little and pivots to face me, abandoning his food for a moment. "What is it?"

"Well, it's about next month's break," I start, and he nods to continue. "I initially wanted to try to spend at least a few days here, maybe a week, so we could actually spend some time together, seeing as I won't be in session. But I dropped a bit in the polls, so I kind of have to go home for all of August."

His shoulders slump a little. "Oh. Do you know why you dropped in the polls?"

"Mina thinks it's because of the rhetoric Mitchell keeps spewing about my loyalty to the district," I say, semi-reluctantly because I know he'll probably read between the lines and realize it's about him. "But both poll results were within the margin of error, so really it could be any number of things. No matter the reason, the race is close, and since there's only four months until the election, I need to start putting a lot of focus on campaigning—events, meeting with constituents, making sure people are registered to vote."

He nods. "I understand. When would you be leaving?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," I say, smiling. "I was hoping that maybe you could come with me for a few days."

"You want me to go home with you?"

I nod. "If you can get the time off work. I know your schedule might already be set."

"It is, but I can try to trade shifts with one of the other doctors, depending on how long."

"Well, it would actually be more like the end of July—the 28th through August 2nd. So Thursday through Tuesday."

"Would this be for campaign purposes?" he asks tentatively.

"Yes and no. Mostly, I just want to show you around Raleigh. I blocked off Friday through Sunday and told both Ben and Mina to consider me unreachable unless it's an emergency. If it's alright with you, there is one campaign thing I'd want you to go to with me." I reach out to briefly brush our fingers together. "But I'm not going to force you to go, so if you don't want to, all you have to do is say so. I still have to go, obviously. But if you wanted to venture around Raleigh by yourself while I'm at the farm, or even head back to DC that morning before I go, that would be fine."

"The farm?"

"Yeah, it's a tour and photo-op at a rescue goat farm I helped apply for a federal grant for last year. But I kinda thought that out of all the campaign trail things I could bring you along for, that would appeal to you the most," I explain.

His face softens in the way I've come to notice it always does when he talks about animals or his job. "I don't think I've been to a farm since my large-animal rotation in vet school."

"Does that mean you want to go?" I ask, barely keeping the hope out of my voice.

"Well, I agreed to go to things like that when we started this charade, even if things are a little different now," he points out.

"Yes, but I also promised that you wouldn't have to do anything that was out of your comfort zone," I counter. "I know how things started out between us, but now that we're real, whatever agreement we had in the beginning is effectively null for me. From here on out, we can just pretend we started dating like two normal people, and you can be involved as much or as little as you want."

"Except you're still a politician, Jamie. Even if we'd started dating under more normal circumstances, wouldn't there still be an expectation that I make public appearances?"

"Fuck expectations," I say, even though I know he has a point.

"How big of an event is it?" he asks.

"It would just be us, the farm owners and staff, and a reporter—oh, and the goats, of course," I add with a grin.

"Of course," he says with a chuckle. Then he takes a deep, steadying breath. "Okay, I'll go."

"Are you sure, darlin'? Like, absolutely sure?" I ask with emphasis.

He furrows his brow. "Are you trying to convince me out of it?"

I sigh and shake my head. "No, but I don't want you to think you have to do this—any of it. The trip home, meeting my parents, the press event. I don't want you to agree because you think you have an obligation to."

"I'm not. I'm agreeing because I want to support—" He stops short, and his eyes widen. "Wait, did you say meeting your parents?"

"Yeah, did I—sorry, I thought it was kind of implied."

Shit, I'm going to scare him off. We only made things real between us a week ago, and I'm already talking about introducing him to my parents. Sure, I met his, but that was different. It was for show. This would be very, very real.

My leg starts to bounce restlessly. "It's just—well, I never told my parents we weren't a real couple. I didn't think they'd understand, so it was easier to tell them the cover story, which means they think we've been together for nearly nine months now. And they've been asking about when they'll get to meet you. If that would be too much given that we've really only been together a week, I'd understand. I can just tell them the truth and say it's too early for—"

"Jamie," he says firmly, making me stop and take a breath.

"Sorry," I say sheepishly.

"It's alright. I understand." He hesitates for a moment, then rests his hand on top of mine in my lap.

A small bit of tension seems out of me as I flip my hand to lace our fingers together.

"It's up to you whether you want to tell your parents the truth," he says as he squeezes my hand. "As for meeting them, I think I'm okay with it. I mean, you've met mine, so I guess it's only fair."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Can you please stop asking me that?" he asks with an annoyed sigh. "I'm not, but I'm never sure about anything. It's part of having anxiety. I want to go home with you, though, even if I'm a little uncertain and nervous about it."

I nod in understanding. "Is there anything I can do to help you be less nervous about it?"

He hesitates, then shakes his head. "I'll let you know if there is, though."

"Sounds good," I say before smiling and leaning in to kiss his cheek.