Final Table by Dan Schorr

Author:Dan Schorr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SparkPress
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

25

WHY HAD she not slept?

Maybe because she had just been sliced up on national television in front of millions and then cast off and banned from future appearances. Maybe.

Or was it because the man who had taken advantage of her and then vilified her was waiting to see her in a few hours? Was it because she was completely incapable of quelling her mounting anxiety about the future while she endeavored to make sense of a violation for which there clearly would be no accountability?

And then it could be one of the issues that predated all of that—a failing business, serious financial problems, and ailing parents with out of control medical costs.

But an optimist could also credit the tantalizing excitement of a highly improbable but still possible $10 million payday. Would that solve all of her problems? Definitely not. Would it greatly help with many? Absolutely yes.

Before she worked at the White House, Maggie had never been a morning person. But she’d quickly gotten used to the early morning starts and long, merciless hours. After a few weeks there, 6:00 a.m. meetings weren’t shockingly early anymore—they were routine.

And now, unable to sleep, and agitated by uncertainty about what would transpire, she welcomed the crack-of-dawn appointment. The waiting was brutal.

After last night, it was very possible that she was finished, in every way. The real fallout, how the rest of her world would react to the events, was still unclear. Considering the prominence of the show, the low number of encouraging messages she received from friends afterwards was disheartening. They probably didn’t know what to say, and she understood. Plus, there was no follow-up text from Natalie this time.

She did take solace in one victory: even though unable to sleep all night, she had completely stayed off social media. She didn’t need to read a bunch of strangers calling her a pathetic, stupid bitch in order to feel low about herself and her life—she could handle that on her own.

At five minutes to six, she exited the Uber at the same park and bundled up again in the freezing DC winter, the streets and paths now cleanly shoveled and the snow covering the grass and painting the trees. In the distance, she saw Bryce, wrapped in his dark coat and blue scarf.

She trudged over the white lawn to reach him, just feet away from where her phone had landed as he fled the scene the day before.

“Good morning,” he said innocuously, as if it was a good morning, as if their last meeting hadn’t ended the way it had, as if he hadn’t had unprotected sex with her without her consent.

He silently extended his gloved hand toward her, palm up. She responsively reached into her bag, withdrew her phone, plugged in her passcode, and handed it to him. He took a quick look at the screen and then placed it in his jacket pocket.

“I’d appreciate it if you just hand it back to me this time,” she said.

“I promise,” he replied.

Another promise.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.