Audrey was great, but as an E.R. nurse whose hours were dictated by a Nurse Ratched-like woman who took glee in denying her underlings' vacation requests, our schedules didn’t often sync up. And my parents hated to travel, which meant I was the one who visited them.
“I'm not fishing for sympathy or anything. I’ve always been fine with the way things are." A lie.
But with Sebastian suddenly back in my life, I was remembering what it felt like to have someone. And now I was realizing how much I'd been settling for fine instead of trying to actually be happy. "But yeah, I’ve got some shit to figure out.”
I pushed my chair back from the table. The conversation had become heavier than I liked—touched on things I tried not to think about too often—and I felt myself wanting to retreat. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I always do.”
Sebastian's gaze followed me as I gathered up our empty dishes, and I could feel him trying to decide whether to push or let it go.
Thankfully, he didn’t push.
CHAPTER 14
SEBASTIAN
A pieceof paper rested on Taylor’s pillow, his handwriting sprawling across it in loose script.
Gone for a workout. Be back by 9. Coffee machine is prepped and ready to go.
I rolled onto my side, pressing my face into his pillow. It smelled like cedar and mint from his grocery-store shampoo.
I’d become addicted to that scent over the past week. Inhaling one last pull of it, I rolled onto my back and stared up at the beams crisscrossing the ceiling, a content smile spreading across my face.
The pragmatic part of my brain told me this was the honeymoon phase, the giddy period where everything in a new relationship felt easy and possible before reality reasserted itself. I knew better than to let myself get swept up in the fantasy of what this could be.
Except I wasalreadyswept up. Had been since Vegas.
But it was more than that, too.
From the moment Taylor and I first met, I’d been drawn to him in a way I’d never been drawn to anyone ever before. Instantly, I knew that we were supposed to be in each other’s lives.
Being here with him now, living in his space, sharing these weeks together, those old feelings were back with a vengeance. The comfort. The certainty. The bone-deep knowledge that Taylor and I were connected.
I scrubbed a hand over my face and forced myself out of bed, forcing myself to think practically. I wanted more, but didn’t know how to ask for it. Not when I couldn’t see how that would work.
Which meant maybe I didn’t have the right to ask for it at all.
Downstairs, I hit the button on the coffee machine as Taylor had instructed, waiting for it to gurgle to life. A few minutes later, coffee in hand, I set up my laptop on the island, determined to get some work done before Taylor got home.
It was no surprise that my inbox was a disaster, filled with emails I’d been ignoring, messages from my assistant about calls I needed to return, and a dozen “fires” that didn’t actually need my attention but wouldn’t be resolved until I weighed in. I was halfway through drafting a response to one of these when a new message appeared at the top of my inbox, its subject line catching my attention: "Meeting in Portland?"
Curious, I abandoned the note I was drafting.
Sebastian,
We met briefly at the Convention in ‘24—you probably don’t remember, but I certainly do. Your early work on the campaign was masterful, even if things didn’t ultimately go our way.
Word on the street is you’re in Maine for a few weeks. I don’t know if you’re following the Bancroft campaign for Senate, but we could use someone with your expertise. Any chance you’d be willing to sit down for a conversation? Even just an hour of your time would be invaluable.
Best,
Michael Chen, Chairman
Maine Democratic Party
Was I familiar with Kendra Bancroft’s campaign? Absolutely. But probably not for any reasons Michael Chen wanted to hear.
Bluntly put, it was a fucking disaster.
