City Drive

I didn’t really have time to react to Badger’s suggestion before I found myself in the back of her SUV, shoved between her and Greg. There was a driver car and a big bulky guy in the passenger seat I assumed was her bodyguard. He had apparently been down the hall outside my apartment the day she came to knock on my door, but I didn’t know that until much later. She ignored me at first, passing files back and forth with Greg as if I wasn’t there in between them. I remember the way her leg pressed up on mine. I could pull back, but I didn’t. I remember my breath was hitched as well.

Eventually she turned to me.

-OK, so, she began, slapping my knee, U, was it, right? What is it you wanted to see me for?

I blanked for a moment, hearing my name pass her lips, as if it were a secret activation phrase, then I got lost in her eyes. I supposed that was how she mesmerized a crowd.

-You, you arrested my friends at that phony open house, I spit out finally.

-Now, that’s not very fair. The police arrested them. Do you know why?

-Because you don’t like them, and you didn’t want them to spoil your real open house.

-Is that what they told you?

-I’m not an idiot, I can put two and two together.

-Jeff, she said, tapping the bodyguard on the shoulder. What were the arrests after last week’s open house for?

Jeff let out a breath that sounded something between a hiccup and a burp and rattled off a litany of charges. Possession of explosives and possession of unregistered firearms stuck out to me. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I guess I assumed they’d be trumped up charges, like drugs.

-I don’t believe that, I said.

-I have a feeling the jury will. You know, they don’t file those kinds of charges unless they’re sure.

At that moment, I wasn’t sure of anything

-It still feels like entrapment, I finally said after what felt like an eternity.

-How? No one asked them to bring contraband with it. That wasn’t on the flyer.

I wanted to ask her about that flyer, and why I didn’t get invited to the same open house my friends did, but something stopped me. I brought it up much later, after our romance began, and she denied it, even saying she’d have blamed Greg but he never messes up. She said I had to have gotten it wrong. I knew I hadn’t, but by that point I didn’t have the flyer anymore to show her.

I must have been staring at her for a while when she said: Was that it?

I thought I had so much more to say, but I took what she said about my friends at face value. She looked at me with what seemed like a mix of pity and intrigue.

-I think your politics are all wrong, I finally blurted out.

-Yeah, you keep saying that, but then you’re not really offering much of a response are you? Tell me, she continued after a pause, do I intimidate you?

It had not occurred to me until then that yeah, in fact she did intimidate me. I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat.

-I don’t understand you, I mumbled. But I want to.

-Sure you do, she said, it seemed warmly enough, before tapping the driver on the shoulder. Right here is fine, she told him as he pulled up to an apartment building downtown She grabbed the packages from Greg, then Jeff opened the door for her and the two disappeared into the apartment entrance. I scooted over to get a look through the window. It seemed like someone on the fifth floor of the apartment was looking at the SUV through the curtains. I felt unsettled so I turned to Greg to get to know him.

-What is it you do for the Councilmember, Greg?

-I’m a constituent services staffer.

-What’s that mean?

-When Councilwoman Badger’s constituents have trouble with the city, or need something from it, I’m supposed to help.

-Like if someone had their water shut off, I asked somewhat hopefully.

-More like if a business needs more police to clear the street in front of them.

-Did you grow up here Greg?

-No, U. I grew up on the West coast. I went to college here and then stuck around. It could be a nice city, you know.

-It is a nice city, I scoffed, and turned back to look through the window. An elderly woman was selling flowers and fruit on the corner, and a couple of kids were running down the street. I looked up, and got the distinct sense again someone was looking through those curtains.

-What’s the Councilmember doing here?, I asked Greg.

-None of your business, the driver shot back, then continued: How far from here do you live?

At that moment, Jeff and Kendra emerged from the apartment building entrance, and Kendra was back in the SUV before the driver could demand an answer from me. I decided to avoid it.

-What’d you have to do in there? I asked Badger as casually as I could muster.

She chuckled before looking around the SUV to decide whether to answer. They all knew but me.

-Might as well tell you now, to break up with my boyfriend.

I didn’t know she had a boyfriend, nobody did. He hadn’t appeared once on the campaign trail when she was running for city council. This was the first time I realized how private she had to keep her private life. Male councilmembers didn’t seem to have that issue as much, they were either married or had girlfriends who would usually go campaign on their behalf in front of women’s groups.

I had the clarity of thought not to blurt out that I didn’t know that—after all, why should I? Instead, I asked her how long they’d been together. The other men in the SUV stared at me as if I had committed a faux pas and they wanted to hurl me out of the vehicle.

-For a couple of years actually, she said somewhat wistfully. But it was never very serious. Are you seeing anyone she asked, almost as an afterthought.

The question came as a surprise, as if bringing the whole weight of the conversation down on me. No, I muttered.

The next thing I knew the driver stops the car: You did say you live pretty close to here right?

I looked through the window, I was just a few blocks from home. Sure, I guess, I said absentmindedly.

-Let him out here, the driver said to Jeff, and then I was back on the street.

I thought I saw Badger mouth “until next time” before the SUV pulled away.