“Yes,” I said, thinking quickly and trying to recall the city code, “but according to the bylaws, as we have now officially begun the first town hall meeting after the previous mayor’s resignation, any applications for mayor would have needed to be submitted by five p.m. today, which was two hours ago.”
“My application has been submitted,” Hunter said.
“You bastard.”
Hunter looked mildly shocked.
“Is this why you were being nice to me?” I shrieked at him, not caring that I sounded unhinged. “Is this why you were trying to get me to move in with you and buttering me up and making promises about how you were going to be there for me forever?You’re such a lying slimeball.”
Hunter’s mouth was a thin line.
“I do care about you,” he said stubbornly. “But I’m also trying to do right by our city.”
“Bullshit,” I spat at him. “You and your brothers want to finish killing our city so you can lord over the corpse.”
“That’s graphic, Meg. There are children present.” Hunter had slipped into his lawyer persona.
“Fine,” I said, trying to calm my breathing. “Fine. We will have an election.”
“Who becomes mayor if we all win the same amount of votes?” Ida piped up from the front row.
Hunter’s eyes widened in shock.
I just laughed.
“I threw my name in the ring,” Ida said, jumping up. “Got my signed forms here and everything. No hard feelings, Meg,” she said, hustling up to the front of the room. “But you weren’t buying into my healthy Harrogate platform. Naked yoga in the park. Organic food options. This is what Harrogate needs to stay competitive!”
“Does that mean no alcohol?” a concerned townsperson asked.
“There’s healthy alcohol and unhealthy alcohol,” Ida explained. “If you just drink straight scotch, that’s good for you. It’s all those sugar additives that will knock out your pancreas.”
The older woman turned to me and Hunter, who looked like he still hadn’t made it past naked yoga in the park.
“Dukes up, you two. Let me tell you. I was around in the seventies. You ain’t seen nothing as ugly as a good ol’ fashioned small-town political showdown!”
8
Hunter
“Look, Meg,” I begged after she adjourned the meeting.
“Get away from me,” she warned, her hands clenched.
I reached for her, but she threw me off.
“Just hear me out.”
“You have nothing to say that I want to hear.”
“I’m sorry,” I pleaded.
“I said I don’t want to hear it.”
“It wasn’t personal,” I assured her. “It was just—”
“Business?” She shook her head. “Yeah, I know. That’s how you go through life, after all. Everything is about money to you, and people are pawns that you can manipulate.”
“I know it looks bad, but I didn’t even want to be mayor.”
