Page 13 (1/2)

"No," she said, blushing furiously

"Oh really?"

"I’m not!" she told him

"Fine" He planted a kiss on her red cheeks "But you didn’t answerno one else knows"

"That’s all That’s the only thing no one else knows abouther lip

"You don’t have any secrets?"

"You’re my only secret"

"I’ll keep that one," he told her

Chapter 9

THE AFTERMATH

Life after Brady was like watching a film in black and white It was really quite beautiful, but it felt like so

Liz went about her daily life--class, newspaper, sleep It was all important, but it suddenly felt entirely too dull without hiet easily attached, and she found that she didn’t understand her feelings toward him They had spoken only twice, and for rather brief periods of tione back to his hotel rooirl When it came down to it, she couldn’t decide whether she actually liked Brady or it was simply infatuation

Either way, she didn’t care She just wanted more of him

Instead she was stuck in her journalis, and she absolutely loved the professor She’d had her the previous se the class Professor Mires was particularly flexible around the su Liz to use her experience on the paper as her project for the seave Liz a lot more ti, and she had taken to obsessing over caht election season, picking up ferocity right around the tiain in the fall But since Senator Abbot and Representative Huntington had announced their retire up like wildflowers She was concentrating her efforts on the House can, and then would move on to the Senate Three main candidates appeared on each side of the aisle for the House race, and Liz had opened her column with a daily focus on each of the the best for last

She stared down at the picture she had chosen of Brady out of the shots Hayden had taken at the Raleigh press conference Brady’s charised to look serious Liz wondered when this picture had been taken He looked as if he were staring straight through her She squir hts had been shut off except for Hayden’s office, which she had confiscated for the su a kink out of her neck It was lad she had the all-access key

Liz shut down her laptop and stuffed it into her backpack She had been working too hard, trying to drown out the inexplicable feeling of longing that had taken residence in her body With Victoria gone for the su at the office to escape the quiet

She took one last glance around the office toand leaving She fuht switch on the wall to illuminate the open office space Just when she found it, she heard the phone ring in Hayden’s office

No one ever rang the paper this late Turning back into the office, she grabbed the phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Hello, I’herty, please," a woh the line

Liz’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion That was even stranger People asked for a specific reporter only under rare circumstances Hayden was asked for frequently, because everyone on campus kneho he was Usually it was in relation to an article the reporter had written or requesting a follow up or, as with most of them, a friend who couldn’t reach the person on their cell phone But Liz had never been asked for by na? It is after hours," she reh how she couldn’t know that it was ton, chief press secretary with State Senator Brady Maxwell"

Liz’s mouth dropped open Was she serious? When she had left Brady’s hotel room last weekend, she had been certain it was the last she would hear froh he said he would reach out to her again, she hadn’t really believed hiherty, are you still there?" Heather asked

Liz snapped out of her daydreaton?"