Senator

The markings in blue are changes made since the original postings. I will continue to make changes here as I make them in my document, probably in new colors each time, until I'm sure I like the first chapter. Right now, I'm sitting at just over 2,000 words and just over 4 full pages which will be further expanded. - >*.*<>

“Oh yes,” she lied, splaying her fingers above her bosom with a sigh, amazed at how easily the words poured out of her cinnamon painted lips, “I’m thoroughly addicted to torrid love affairs, you know, because I always fall in love with men that are soon to be wed, and just before the wedding he tells her that it’s over because he loves me and we can run off and live happily ever after.” Antoinette closed her fingers around her thin silver chain, twirling the locket with her thumb. She fluttered her eyelashes and smiled, even if she wasn’t sure if she liked the purr of her voice. It rolled well off her tongue, even if she was being facetious, but sounded strangely fitting coming out of her mouth. She focused her attention back on her companion instead of the imaginary future, unconsciously curling her lips into a sneer. “Yea, well, that’s bullshit. That’s not how it happens here, even if this place acts like Middle England. You soon as well get over it, cause the world doesn’t give a damn.” Antoinette Marie Duke smiled cynically; raising the dark plain shot glass poised in her fingertips in a silent salute before swallowing the amber contents in a quick gulp. The liquid scorched its way down her throat and settled the little flutter of nerves that arose the moment Chase had lit up the door way to her favorite hole-in-the-wall hide out. That felt better: contemptuous and mocking were a much better fit. As usual, she hid within her mocking approach rather than appear vulnerable. Weak was the last thing she wanted to show Chase Brighton now that she had groveled once before. She looked around the dimly lit bar for something, anything to look at instead of the impeccably clean Senator. Not even the twisting swirls of the mahogany bar counter held her attention against his brightness.

“You know, not much will ever be accomplished if you always keep that attitude about it.” Calmly, surely, Chase he took a sip of the foamy gold mixture in front of him. It wasn’t his usual drink, but the stale beer would suffice until he could get out of this dive bar and back to the 35th story office he had left to meet with her. Toni cocked her head to the side and stared at him through cracked eyes. Slowly her tongue slipped out to rub over her dry lips as she weighed her word choice carefully, her upper lip nearly curling back into the sneer he could feel forming.

“What attitude? You can’t believe that just hoping my issue will disappear will make it pull some kind of David Copperfield shit and poof it’s gone just like that. Just snap your tan manicured fingers and it’s not a problem anymore.” She ran her tongue across her teeth and pulled her lips apart with a loud smack. “Your money won’t buy your way out of this one Chase, it doesn’t matter who you pay off. They still know. They always know.”

“Don’t condescend me, Toni. You were the one that decided to barge into my office and demand that we talk. I didn’t make you fall in love with me, nor did I lead you to believe we would have any kind of future. You know I have to marry a debutante. I’m a politician, that’s how this works. You know that.” Senator Chase Anthony Brighton set his beer mug on the lacquered wooden table and motioned for the waitress. She nodded in response and turned to ring up his tab. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe that she could be a debutante, but she believed in marriage for love and he saw political gain. She was an activist, not a quiet society woman. She had proved that by boycotting her own family’s main factory and raising enough money until they revamped their entire factory into a cleaner, greener, and he had to admit, ultimately more efficient affair.

“Don’t you, Toni me. . .” Antoinette sputtered. “You’re right; you didn’t make me fall in love with you. I don’t love you. This is NOT about me. I don’t want you to call off anything to elope with me you arrogant bastard. I don’t even care who you marry or what your job is. The fact is, you know I’m about to have your child.” Chase opened his mouth as if to object. Toni could feel the ire rising in her body. He wouldn’t dare suggest it wasn’t his child. “No, shut UP! You know it’s yours. I had an amnio, remember? They had to make sure my child was okay. You could commit suicide tomorrow for all I care about your sorry ass. I just want a trust fund set up for this baby because I can’t live on my salary alone and care for an infant, she’ll need a part time nanny. So, either you pay up. . .”

“I won’t just give you money.” He handed the waitress a ten dollar bill in the same motion that he cut Antoinette off, startling her for a moment, but she retreated quickly when she realized she wasn’t his target. Toni watched her scurry away and silently wished she could do the same so easily. “How do I know you won’t have an abortion and keep the money for yourself?.”

Flames leapt to life in her eyes as she swung her head to face his accusations head on. “AN ABORTION?! Who the hell do you think you’re dealing with? Do you not realize just how far along I am? Do you not see the freaking baby belly I’m beginning to sport here? Or did you always look at me as fat?” Toni narrowed her eyes at Chase and glared with every ounce of anger she could muster. When she spoke again, she had pulled control of her voice and the barest cold whisper flowed out of her clinched teeth. “I was about to say, in the baby’s name. I don’t want your money for myself, because if it was just me by myself, I would have walked out of your life completely a long time ago, so get over yourself, jerk. There was a reason I hadn’t called for three months. I wouldn’t have called at all if I hadn’t needed you to take that stupid blood test.” Toni looked away again, wishing she wouldn’t have called him this time. She was sure she could have figured out some way to continue her work and take care of the baby as well, but her shrewd mother was convinced that Chase should pay for her special nanny. The benevolent woman was aging, but she had been Toni’s most favored guardian and tutor and she would be perfect for raising the next generation of the Duke family.

“I’m sorry.” Chase mumbled, not so sure why he had said that. He reasoned that it was a legitimate accusation, but in truth he just wanted to see her reaction to the thought, although he should have been happy with an option where he didn’t pay for a child. He wasn’t sure why he had apologized either, but he suspected it was a moot point. She had reacted how he some part of him hoped and actually expected she would, but he didn’t know why he cared. “I know that we both know women like that. I just got carried away. Please forgive me.”

“Oh bite me. That’s the politician talking again. You don’t need to soothe things over with me about that.” She moved her hand through the air as if to soothe out the tension in it. It didn’t seem to be helping in the least, so she returned her hand to her lap. Somehow they would have to get along for the sake of the child. Her mother insisted that she mend fences with the young Senator now that her step-father had decided to support his reelection campaign. Now was as good a time as any to start. Toni wasn’t sure when she had decided that Chase should be a part of the child’s life, she could only remember the cold looks her mother had given the man she had learned was her father and decided her own child should never see something so cruel. She didn’t hate Chase: she didn’t love him, but she didn’t hate him either, and if they were at least friends, it would be a much better environment than she had grown to know. Toni loved and adored her step-father, but her child would be given the option to know a caring real father.

“Look, I’ll set up the account, just give me a couple of days to get everything in order and get rid of my name.” Chase flinched at the look of hatred that passed through Antoinette’s eyes. Not perceptively of course, she couldn’t know that he was affected by her in any way, just as she blinked to hide her own response, but couldn’t cover it as quickly as he knew she wished to. “Toni, you of all people know that if the press got a hold of this, they’d have a field day. We know all about ‘they,’ and ‘they’ know all about us. Remember?” Chase leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his locked fingers, throwing her earlier words back at her.

“Fine, do what you must. I plan to disappear until after the baby’s born anyway.” It hadn’t been her original plans, but her mother had been driving her so crazy lately with her ideas about Toni and Chase that Antoinette decided that she would have to escape in one way or another. Since her youngest sister, Bridget would be too busy to be around, vacation seemed like the best option. “I think an island vacation is just the thing I need to escape reporters for a while.” Antoinette sighed and sipped the glass of water that had lay untouched next to her upside down shot glass. “Have you had any problems with the press now that Daddy’s going to sponsor your run? I know you didn’t want it to give the wrong idea, but I think he’s right in saying it will show that there isn’t any hard feelings between our families.”

“You do that. As a matter of fact, stop by the office tomorrow and I’ll give you the keys to the villa on Kythria. It’s quiet and I can reach you, or you me, should anything happen. Your father has been most gracious in this campaign and I would hate to leave you renting some place.” Chase smiled as his memory supplied snippets of the week they had spent on the beaches near the villa. If he had to go back and pinpoint a date, he guessed the baby had been conceived sometime during those lazy summer weeks, but exactly when would be harder to trace. It didn’t matter. She was going to have a baby. His baby. That alone should have scared him out of his wits, but remarkably, he thought Toni would be beautiful with a full rounded baby tummy. She wasn’t one of those blond stick figures, but her rounded curves easily supported her growing bump and the glowing skin that accompanied it. He closed his eyes and pictured her as she had been that week. It had only been barely four full months since then, but his fingers still itched for the warmth of her skin. It was easy for Chase’s imagination to supply an overflowing stomach underneath her cotton summer dress. He pushed the smile away with a tight grimace. Those times were over and while pleasurable, he had no reason to think of revisiting them. He had returned to get married as his station demanded and Antoinette would not be that woman.

“The villa? Are we talking about the same villa that this whole mess started at? Chase, I can’t go there.” She didn’t mention that she didn’t want to stir up old feelings and memories. “I’m just going to head to the summer home on Tahiti. My sisters should be in Europe until May, so my parents will spend the winter in Los Angeles. Kaitlin’s show is supposed to be in January, so she and Bridget will spend the months until then tweaking the line and organizing the shows in Paris before the tour.” Toni sipped her water again, well aware of her need to stop social drinking, if not for her health, then for the baby’s. Mentally she cursed. Her smoking would have to stop for the baby’s sake as well, but her cigarettes were a bit harder to put down than the tequila bottle. She had cut back dramatically to only a few a week, but hadn’t been able to go cold turkey. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend any great amount of time in the villa.”