When the event ended, Madeline shared a bottle of champagne with her staff and congratulated them all on a job well done. But the real work was just beginning, she told them. Now they had to focus on running the campaign and beating Officer Austin. There would be no rest until Election Day.
Madeline took a car back home. When she arrived, she could see the light on in her and Brandon’s bedroom, but the rest of the house was dark. Not even the outside lights were on, like they weren’t expecting anyone. Madeline bade goodnight to her driver and walked to her door in the dim shine from the streetlamps. She pulled off her shoes, silently placed them in the closet and tiptoed upstairs to the master bedroom.
When she opened the door, she saw Brandon lying in bed with his laptop open. His eyes were glued to the screen and he had his headphones over his ears. She stood silently for a moment, feeling like she was disturbing him, like she was entering his private space instead of their shared bedroom.
“Hey,” she finally said. He gave a “hey” back without looking up from the screen. “How’s Noah?” she asked. Jane had updated her earlier that he had been released from the hospital.
“He’s fine,” Brandon responded, his eyes still on the screen. “The doctors thought he should stay overnight, but he refused. Said he couldn’t sleep in that bed, even though he had been sleeping all afternoon. But the doctors agreed he could go home and gave us a prescription for pain medication. We’ll go in tomorrow so they can check him.”
“I’m glad he is OK,” she said. She slipped out of her suit and walked toward Brandon wearing just her bra and underwear. Madeline had hardly ever walked around their room in her undergarments, maybe it had happened a handful of times at the beginning of their relationship when she was still trying to find her passion for her husband. But she was doing it now, because she felt like she should. In fact, the event had oddly reminded her that she and Brandon hadn’t had sex in a couple weeks and that was at least a week too long. It was true their sex wasn’t full of passion or fireworks or anything that could be used to describe sex in romance novels or movies, but if their sex life was one thing, it was consistent. And that, thought Madeline, was probably a lot better than most people at their stage in life. She sat down on his side of the bed and slowly started to push the top of his laptop down.
“Madeline, what are you doing?” Brandon stopped her from closing his computer. “I need to get through these reports tonight.”
“I’m sure they can wait,” she said, leaning forward toward him.
“No, Madeline, they can’t. I’m tired. I didn’t work all day today, which means I’m way behind. I just want to finish this and go to sleep.” Madeline wasn’t sure what the thing she was feeling was called. Could it be rejection? She had never been rejected in any aspect of her life, most certainly not in her marriage with Brandon. She had expected Brandon to be delighted to see her coming to him in her underwear, to accept her with open arms and tell her how perfect she was and how much he loved her. It was what she needed after an evening with her supporters—just one more person to love and cherish her.
“Did I do something wrong?” She asked without leaving her spot on the edge of the bed.
“I don’t know, Madeline, did you?” Brandon himself now closed his laptop and looked at Madeline. “Do you want to tell me anything?”
“Well, I missed you at the event tonight,” she said. “It felt weird without you by my side.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said sarcastically.
“No, I know, you had to be with Noah.” She felt like she was tripping over her words, like she didn’t know what to say. If only she could have prepared a speech for this. “I’m just saying I missed you. Do you ever miss me?”
“What was that guy doing at the event?” Brandon responded. Madeline remembered that Jane had showed Brandon the speeches from the event and she wondered if he had seen Hunter’s as well.
“City councilman Hunter Williams?” She clarified.
“Oh come on, Madeline, he’s your ex-boyfriend for Christ sake. And maybe even more than that.”
“He was speaking because of the shooting in his district! It’s relevant for the SAVER Bill.” Madeline tried to snuggle down next to her husband. “You should have seen me tonight. I was wonderful.” She leaned over to kiss his neck.
“So convenient that your ex-boyfriend came to help you win the election.” Brandon ignored Madeline’s nibbles on his collarbone. “I really can’t do this tonight.”
Rejected, Madeline stood up from the bed as Brandon opened his laptop and continued to read on the screen. She covered herself with a bathrobe, feeling self-conscious of her body in a way she wasn’t used to. On her nightstand her phone lit up and Madeline jumped to see who it was. The top notification was a text message from Jane: Found Rhonda. Then next texts that came in included a phone number and
