Chapter 57
After a couple of hours at the bookstore’s Manhattan-themed party, Dot found a moment to excuse herself. She headed to the Jankowskis’ back office with her phone. She held her breath and logged onto the dating app to see how it was landing.
“Oh my gosh,” she said. The profile was on fire with tens of thousands of likes and comments. And it had only been a couple of hours. Dot refreshed the screen, and a thousand more likes appeared.
A text from Kitty was in her inbox. “Dot—it’s absolutely blowing up.
And it’s almost all positive! The Republicans will be spitting mad.
We beat them to the punch!” She followed up with another message, “Call me tomorrow—we’ll debrief.
And thank you. This is incredible!” For a woman who rarely used exclamation points, it was clear to Dot that Kitty was excited and pleased.
Dot scrolled down and quickly scanned messages sent to Lopez’s new dating profile:
I love this!
You’re amazing.
You’ve got my vote!
You’re hot.
It’s a date, Madame President!
You’re my role model!
I have a Havanese, too.
Let’s do this, Democrats!
The positive reactions went on and on.
“Fletcher!” Dot called out toward the main room. He came running.
“What’s up? Is something wrong?” He looked worried.
“It worked!” She handed him her phone. His face changed as he realized what he was looking at.
“Dot. It’s totally going viral. You did it!” He hugged her and they did a little tap dance of excitement.
Dot blinked back tears. She felt so much relief that her idea hadn’t backfired. “It’s so great! I can’t wait to see what happens next.” Fletcher put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. She threw and arm around his waist and beamed up at him.
Just then she turned to see Danny walking through the door, a surprised look on his face.
“Oh, I was just looking for you, Dot. Sorry to interrupt,” he said, starting to backpedal as if he’d caught her and Fletcher in some awkward moment.
Dot rushed over and hugged him. “It’s okay! Remember the work thing I did in the car? My idea worked. I’m so happy!”
“Oh, that’s great,” Danny said, lacking enthusiasm.
Dot caught the tension in his answer. She wasn’t sure if the downshift in his mood was because he really didn’t want the Democratic party to win the election, or if he thought there was something between her and Fletcher that went beyond a work friendship.
Fletcher didn’t pick up on the vibe. “Yeah, Dot just amped up the Lopez campaign. Big-time.”
Thinking fast to save the evening, Dot realized she had to counteract what Danny thought he’d seen when she and Fletcher were celebrating.
She transitioned into a more work-like posture to prevent Danny from thinking she had any attraction to Fletcher.
She’d never told him about the bee incident. Maybe she should have.
“Thanks, Fletcher—I’ll catch up with you at the office.” She nodded at him and then cocked her head a little toward the door. It was subtle, but both Danny and Fletcher got the message.
“Yeah, uh, yep. I’ll just be going now. See you tomorrow, Dot.” Fletcher saw himself out.
“Come. I want to share this moment with you!” Dot reached for Danny’s hand and lifted her chin for a kiss. Danny couldn’t help but meet her lips. But after a moment, he pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Danny hesitated a beat. “Dot, you know I really like you, right?”
“Yes, I think so. Why?”
“Anything ever happen between you and Fletcher? You two seem awfully close.”
“Oh, no. I swear.”
“You’re sure? I’d understand. . . . I just need to know because . . .” Danny didn’t finish his sentence.
“I’m sure,” Dot said, looking him straight in the eye. “I promise.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and got as close as she could to him. She felt the tension release from his shoulders.
“All right. May I ask you to come back to my house tonight?” He leaned down and whispered to her, deciding it was finally time to fully jump into this relationship.
A wave of warmth rippled through her at the thought of going home with him.
Danny lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around him. “It sounds like another great idea.”
And that was the permission he needed. He gently set her down, took her hand, and they snuck out through the back door without saying goodbye.
IN THE MORNING, the sun’s first rays of the day fell across Dot’s eyes. Her blond hair was strewn across Danny’s pillow. She opened her eyes and stretched like a cat. Danny was lying on his side, the covers pulled up to his waist, watching her.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning.”
“I have an important question.”
“Wow, already? What time is it?” She tried to make light of the moment but dreaded what was coming. His dark eyes looked so serious. She took a deep breath. “Okay. Ask me anything.”
“How do you take your coffee in the morning?”
Relief flooded her brain. She smiled with her full face.
“A bit of milk—real milk.” She didn’t want to trigger his almond “milk” sermon.
“No sugar, right?” he asked and she nodded.
“Right.”
“Be right back.” Danny scooted off the bed to go get the coffee.
Dot sat up and pulled his white T-shirt over her head. It smelled like him: a mix of Old Spice and Ivory soap. She put the collar of the shirt up to her nose and breathed deeply.
Danny was back a couple of minutes later.
“Here you go,” he said, handing her a steaming mug of coffee.
Then he opened the blinds of the large window and twisted the handle to open it, letting in the fresh morning air.
Birds were singing and she could hear a leaf blower in the distance.
There were no sirens or honking horns. It sounded like suburbia. And Dot realized she kind of liked it.
She sat up and leaned against the headboard.
He climbed back into bed and said, “Cheers” and clinked his mug against hers.
“So . . .” Dot said.
“So . . .” He returned her serve.
“That was . . . lovely.”
“It was.” He ran his fingers over her forearm.
“What do you have on your schedule today?” she asked.
“Nothing.” She actually had a thousand things to do for the campaign. They needed to keep the momentum going with the dating profile. But she shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind, determined to focus on Danny instead of work for at least another hour.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing,” he said, and then he raised his eyebrows at her. “Unless there was something you wanted to do.”
“Hmmmm. Let me think.”
“I think that you should stop thinking so much.” He set his mug down on his nightstand and gently took hers and put it next to his.
“You’re probably right,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re right.”
“Oh, I heard you,” Danny said. “I just wanted to hear you say it again.”
That made her laugh, and they laughed as they greeted the day with their unexpected plans.
A couple of hours later, Dot started to make a move to head home. She picked up her phone.
“Wait. You can’t go before the second cup,” he said, grabbing her hand.
“Why?”
“The second cup is when all the good stuff happens. Where you learn all the secrets. At least, that’s what my mom always said.”
“Well then, let’s have a second cup.” She set her phone down. This was the longest she’d gone without looking at her phone in ages.
She realized that she really didn’t miss it.