Chapter Ten

Max poked his head into Kara’s office when he got in on Monday morning.

“Hey, do you have a minute to chat? I want to talk to you about something.”

Kara followed him into his office.

“Anything wrong, sir?”

He flicked the lights on and sat down behind his desk, coffee in hand. After . . . everything that had happened between him and Olivia after the hike, he ended up never sending that text to Kara, so he’d decided to wait to talk to her in person.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong, the opposite. I had an idea over the weekend. Well, actually, it wasn’t my idea—I was talking to a friend about the criminal justice reform bill and it was their idea.”

Not for the first time, he wanted to tell Kara about Olivia. Partly so he’d be able to actually give her credit for this idea, but also because Olivia was becoming a bigger and bigger part of his life, and it felt absurd that Kara didn’t know about her. Kara had been by his side for three years now—he either saw or talked to her almost every day, and the days they didn’t talk, they texted or emailed. She knew everything about him, almost. Except for this.

But no, he couldn’t tell her yet. It would be completely inappropriate for him to tell someone who worked for him about his new relationship. Besides, it wasn’t like this was the kind of thing they talked about; all he knew about her personal life was that she’d once brought her girlfriend to the office holiday party. He hoped he’d get to tell Kara about Olivia eventually, but that would be when he and Olivia were ready to go public, and they weren’t there yet. No matter how great things had been over the weekend (and they’d been really, phenomenally great)—that wasn’t in the plan for the immediate future.

“What was the idea, sir?” Kara asked.

Right, the idea.

“So I know you’ve been gently telling me for a while that the bill might not go anywhere. Well, my friend reminded me of something you and others here have also been trying to tell me: I can keep fighting for the bill, but I can do other things to help the cause of criminal justice reform. What if we had town halls in marginalized communities all around California—to find out what people most care about, to figure out other ways to help them, and so they know we’re listening to them and working for them, instead of just trying to fight a possibly losing battle? We might even try to get state legislators involved, see if we can change some California law in the process.”

Kara nodded slowly.

“Hmm. I like this idea, sir.” She flipped open her notebook and scrawled a few lines. “It’ll take a lot of work—from both the DC and local staffs, but I think everyone will be excited about it.”

Max rubbed his hands together. He couldn’t wait to tell Olivia this.

“Fantastic,” he said. “Maybe the first one could be in a few weeks? I could do one every Friday afternoon for the next few months!”

Kara laughed out loud.

“Excuse me, sir. I’m sorry, but no. A few weeks? This will take a great deal of planning and coordination; it’ll take closer to a few months for us to do this right.”

Sometimes he was happy that he had a staff who would tell it to him like it was and not jump to satisfy his every whim, even if those whims were ridiculous. But when they laughed at him like this . . . okay, fine, he was still happy about it, just less happy.

“Right, I didn’t think about that,” he said.

Kara flipped through her calendar.

“Plus, your schedule is pretty packed for the next few months, what with it being an election year and all. You have at least one fundraiser almost every week until I don’t know when.”

This was the problem with having someone on your staff whose literal job it was to schedule your time—he had no idea what was on his calendar from week to week.

“Nobody in Congress wants to vote for my bill, but they still want me at their fundraisers, huh?” he asked.

Kara looked up at him, a wry smile on her face.

“You know how this town works—you get a lot of headlines and buzz, so whether or not they want to vote for your bill, they still want you to make speeches to get people to throw dollars toward their campaigns.”

Kara made another note, then looked up at him.

“However, we could make this into a plan for the August recess. There will be lots of places that will be thrilled to have you, and some members of Congress, or Democratic challengers, who will be very happy to be on board.”

Kara stood up, notebook in one hand and calendar in the other.

“Let me call Andy, and then he can talk to the district offices and we’ll see if we can come up with a timetable.” She paused at his office door. “Good idea, sir. Please thank your friend for me.”

Max pulled out his phone to text Olivia as soon as Kara had closed the door behind her.

Chief of staff loves the town halls idea—told me to thank you for her. So thank you, from both me and her. Wish I could thank you in person right now, though.

Not for the first time, he wished Washington, DC, and L.A. were closer together. If only he could see Olivia again tonight.

“What have I gotten myself into?”

All week, as Olivia had done client work, written pitches for clients the firm hoped to get, and gone to lunches and coffees with law school friends and former colleagues to try to drum up business, that phrase had been drumming through her head. But not about the firm—about Max. How had she committed herself to him? And how did she miss him this goddamn much? Their weekend together had been so perfect, and she hated that because of the time difference and his job, all they had time for this week was occasional texts and a few quick phone calls.