Chapter Two
I retreat to my hotel a block away and head to my tenth-floor room with the excuse that I need to return phone calls and e-mails in private.
The truth is, I need a few minutesalone. I want to poop in peace without having to use a public restroom, or worry about people trying to talk to me, or stick a cell phone under a bathroom stall to get a picture of me whileI’m doing it.
My house is outside Tallahassee, unfortunately. That’s a five-hour drive, at least, depending on traffic. It’s too far to drive there tonight after I finish filming my show. Anyway, I have to catch a flight from Tampa to Dulles at daybreak to be in the studio tomorrow.
But at least I can spend a few minutes alone.
I no sooner let the hotel room door swing shut behind me than mypersonal cell phone vibrates in my back pocket. When I pull it out and read the screen, I groan.
It’s my father.
Might as well get this over with, because I know that, no matter what, the old man will chew me out. Putting it off will only enrage him more and make him call my work cell.
“Yeah?” I answer as I loosen my tie with my other hand.
“What the hell wasthatshit? Since when do you fuckingtoss softballs at libs like that?”
Another reason I call Florida “home” is that it’snotWest Virginia, where Edwin Markos was reelected last night to his twelfth term as a congressman. Dad couldn’t get himself elected dog catcher here in the Sunshine State.
Floridian standards might be low and extremely fickle, but at least they kept him from trying to help fuck upthisstate.
State SenatorMarlene Samuels thoroughly spanked Dad’s ass the last time he tried to run for state office as a Floridian. During my first year of high school, and under extreme protest from me and Mom, Dad packed us up and moved us to West Virginia. There, his law firm,Ferrey, Jackson, Smith, and Rawlston, have a satellite office. Also, at that time, the US Congressional district had a gimpy Democrat embroiledin a nasty divorce with allegations of infidelity, a lawmaker who was sinking in the polls faster than the Titanic.
It’s why I chose to attend college in Florida, because Mom secretly arranged to keep residential status for me with her sister so I’d get the lower resident tuition rates. She knew I was miserable in West Virginia.
Hell, she was miserable there, too.
One of the bigger regretsin my life is that I didn’t push Mom harder to leave Dad once I truly understood what an asshole he is. Father or not, the man’s a jerk. After Mom died eight years ago, he began running through a string of women, none who would put up with him for more than a few months at a time.
From rumors passed along to me, he hasn’t been able to find a female companion in a couple of years.
When ShaeLynnSamuels first ran for and was elected to the US Senate, Dad made no secret about his hatred for her.
But he also doesn’t take being ignored well, which is why I am now stuck on this damn call. No matter what I say to him will be wrong, so this time, I opt to get chewed out over the truth.
“I wanted to start out on good footing with her after I fucked up that Taylor interview before he was elected.And she’s not a Democrat, she’s an Independent. She was registered GOP before that, and her father is big in state-level GOP politics.”
“Goddammit, Kev. That waseightfucking years ago. If they’re going to hold a grudge for something like that, then fuck them, and crucify their asses. Fucking snowflakes. And sheisa goddamned liberal, her and that Taylor, both. That state has really gone downthe shitter. Glad I don’t live there anymore.”
So was I.
Glad he doesn’t live here, I mean. It’s bad enough that he spends so much time in the DC area.
“I’m busy, Dad. If you only called to rant at me, I’m hanging up.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to say to my friends when they see that shit on TV, huh?”
“I don’t know. How about that you’re proud of me for being a journalist of integrity?That’s always a good place to start, you know. Or, how about maybe that I try to bring dignity and a broader scope to what is frequently an ugly, tribal topic?”
“Fuck integrity and dignity. Those don’t win elections, and you damn well know it.” He barely paused a breath. “And why thefuckdidn’t you demand the network let you comehereand covermyrace? That’s a US race, not a stupid state race.I won, by the way. Not like you give a shit about your father.”
I know he won because my work phone blew up with texts last night once his opponent conceded.
Obviously, I’d been secretly rooting for the Democrat to pull off aWand finally unseat his pompous ass, but I can’tsaythat. Not to his face.
Definitelynotto any of my coworkers, except Lauren, and it’s not like I have a significantother I can confide that to.
