Jackson wanted to kiss Park goodbye—instinctor habit told him he should—but suddenly that felt like too much. He hesitated before reaching for the door. Park closed the space between them and wrapped his arms around Jackson. Jackson hugged him back and pressed his cheek against Park’s forehead. They belonged this way, fit together this way. Leaving was the last thing he wanted to do, but he needed to before he got further entangled inthis situation. “I have to go,” he said, his voice strained.
“I know. Good night.”
Jackson kissed Park’s forehead and stepped toward the door. He put his hand on the doorknob so he couldn’t be talked out of leaving. “Good night.” Then he made himself leave.
* * *
After Jackson left, Park pressed his forehead against the door, feeling pathetic. He pushed himself away, chiding himselffor being melodramatic. He sat on the bed and was about to flip the TV back on when someone knocked at the adjoining door. When Park answered it, Martha’s eyes went wide.
“I went downstairs for coffee and wound up chatting with Sam and Ray for a bit. I came back up and asked Dee if he knew what you were up to, and he said you’d been meeting with Jackson, but he just left. Now you answer thedoor in a robe?”
Park fingered the lapel. “It’s not what you think.”
Martha pushed into the room. “Unmade bed, too? Come on, Park, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist. Your ex came over, and you had sex.”
“Still not what you think.” Park wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. He just wanted it to be a perfect moment he could remember later when everything inevitably went to shit.
Marthaspun on Park and held up a finger. “Don’t you dare lie to me, Parker Livingston.”
“I’m not. That is, yes, fine, I had sex with Jack, but it’s not like we’re getting back together. He came over to discuss some police reports, and then we got to talking and reminiscing, and one thing led to another. But it wasn’t a big thing. It was...for-old-time’s-sake sex.”
“I don’t think that’s a thing.”
He was failing miserably at playing this nonchalantly. Jackson’s pleas for him to get a new lawyer still rang in his head. So he dropped the ruse and said, “Can I just...have this?”
Martha looked at him and her anger seemed to dissipate. Her eyebrows rose in sympathy. “All right. Well. I got some poll numbers I want to go over.”
“Are you polling about the case?”
“Of course. I setJudith to work on Monday as soon as the news broke.” Judith was the pollster they used most frequently. She was a whiz with numbers and seemed to have a bit of a crush on Martha, so she was always willing to do a job for them. “Anyway, here are the basics so far.” She sat on the sofa and motioned for Park to do the same.
He was naked under his robe. “Hang on. Let me at least put on some decentclothes.”
Martha hummed theJeopardy!theme while Park stepped into the bathroom and slipped on a white T-shirt and jeans. When he rejoined her on the sofa, she had her laptop open and was scrolling through what looked like a tremendous amount of data.
“Here’s the gist,” she said. “First, as to your guilt, twenty-two percent think you did it, thirty-four percent think you didn’t, and forty-fourpercent don’t know.”
Park winced. “Twenty-two percent?”
“I know, but that will change once the real truth comes out. Next, in the election, you took a big hit from this, seven points as of this morning. That puts you and Thompson in basically a dead heat. He’s polling a point or two ahead, but that’s within the margin of error. So if we’re smart about controlling the image, we’ve stillgot this. Once this blows over, you do some strategic appearances and we put out some new TV ads. We’ll get those points back.”
“Okay.” Park felt sick about all of this. He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or offended that Martha had set all this up. He didn’t like knowing the odds. “Anything else?”
“Just this one thing. I set up one more poll, but I want you to know that I told Judithit was just hypothetical and also she couldn’t breathe a word to anyone that it was tied to our campaign.”
Park broke out in a cold sweat, sensing what was coming. “All right.”
“The question was basically, if a prominent Republican came out of the closet, would it affect your vote?”
“You didn’t.”
“Of Republicans, sixty percent said it would. Judith followed up with some and askedwhy. Most said because the politician lied. About half of Republicans and a third of Democrats said the gay thing itself was enough to turn them off that candidate, but most said a candidate’s sexuality wasn’t really an issue if they agreed on policy otherwise, and everyone else said they’d be more turned off by the lie than anything else.”
“Ugh, why are you telling me this? Just tell me notto get caught with Jackson so we can all move on. Remind me again how stupid I was to hire him. Then I’ll be more careful about who I spend time with and I’ll just... I don’t know. Become a monk and get a bigger closet.”
“No, actually, I want to tell you the opposite.”
Park looked up and met Martha’s gaze. “What?”
