Everything or Nothing by Michael Baron

Author:Michael Baron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Story Plant, The
Published: 2015-01-30T16:24:30+00:00

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A few nights later came one of the two fundraisers Annie had agreed to attend. She’d signed on for this months ago after a long, occasionally strained conversation with Maxwell and Mike about the expectations from spouses during a campaign, which turned out to be the last long conversation the three of them would have up to this point. Now, given the increased chilliness between Annie and Maxwell — her night out hadn’t provided the hinted thaw — he half expected her to find an excuse for backing out at the last minute. Just after Maxwell got home from work to change for the event, Joey slipped rounding a corner and got a rug burn on his right knee. Maxwell assumed that the crying that ensued would cause Annie to say that she couldn’t leave her son alone with a babysitter after such a trauma, but she chose not to take the opportunity.

An hour into the event, though, Maxwell had begun to wish she had. Annie looked beautiful — she always looked beautiful — in a black dress cut just above the knee. She’d always loved dressing up and she’d taken extreme care in doing so tonight. When they got to the catering hall, she started socializing instantly, toting her Champagne glass from one donor to another during cocktails. Maxwell should have noticed that she was drinking that Champagne rather quickly, and that she seemed to have the wait staff on speed-dial for refills. Suggesting that she slow down might have led to a tense exchange, but that still would have been better than what he was facing now.

“Oh, you should see him with Joey,” Annie was saying to an attractive forty-something woman and the slightly older man standing next to her. Maxwell couldn’t place either of them, but if they were in this room, they’d either paid handsomely or had already donated a considerable amount to the campaign. “He’s a great playmate for our son. But, really, Maxwell has always done his best work on all fours.”

Annie was speaking loudly enough for Maxwell to hear her clearly, even though he was twenty feet away and flanked by several executives from Content Algorithm, a media firm that had moved to Oldham less than two years earlier. Maxwell considered it something of a coup to get them to this event, since he’d been certain that Mayor Bruce had offered them significant considerations to convince them to bring their offices here. Maxwell found most conversation at events such as these to be banal, but he’d been in a fascinating talk with the CA people, getting a better sense of how they used their data mining techniques to find genuinely interested customers for their clients. When Annie’s words made their way to him, though, his attention shot in that direction.

“And he does try to show up for dinner once or twice a week, which I suppose is better than a lot of guys in his position. He’s passed out on the couch an hour later, but a girl can’t have everything now, can she? And he is a man on a mission.

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