An Appetite for Passion Read Online Free PDF

down-to-earth. It made her all the more willing to put in long hours for Larrimore.
    Clearly, she wasn’t in a volunteer job for the money, nor was she in it for thanks. But it was nice to be appreciated, and she instinctively felt Jeff wasn’t the kind to take her for granted. Moreover, he was nice . If you’re going to work for no compensation, you want to at least be working with nice people.
    Jeff gave her an index card to fill out: Name, address, phone, business affiliation, hours available, special talents, previous political experience. She filled in all the blanks, and imagined handing prospective lovers a similar form. What would the blanks be she’d want them to fill in? Name, address, phone, occupation, likes, dislikes, favorite topics of conversation, favorite forms of recreation, favorite kinds of sex. Could she have a blank for “minutes of staying power?” She giggled.
    “What’s so funny?” Jeff asked. She blushed. “Never mind,” Jeff said discreetly. But his trademark grin widened.
    He took her around the storefront headquarters, introducing her to the others who were present. As he did, he chatted to her about a mix of campaign related details and computer oriented chatter. The headquarters had just gotten a new computer, this one a Mac, unlike the PC it was replacing, and he was very excited about it. He was the proud possessor of a Mac himself, and when he learned that Kari, too, had a Mac at home, he really took off at high speed on the subject.
    Jeff, when he was excited about what he was talking about, had a tendency to talk with his hands, to punctuate with body motions, and to use his face to mirror his words. He raised his eyebrows—sometimes just one at a time—moved his mouth as if it was made of Silly Putty, jutted his jaw, or cocked his head to one side in an attitude of thoughtfulness. There was something about him that put Kari right at ease, as if he were an old friend she had known for years. Though, in fact, she decided she had never known anyone quite like him before.
    When she’d made the rounds of the storefront and Jeff had briefed her on the candidate’s positions, he asked her to be back by 1:00. It was now noon. The sensible thing would have been to grab a bite nearby, but Kari raced home to see if there was any email from Max. Logging on, she found letters from two other online friends, but nothing from Max...who, after all, had said he wouldn’t likely log on till 6:00. Disappointed, Kari made a salami sandwich, grabbed some cookies and a banana, and took it all with her to eat in the car while she drove back to campaign headquarters.
    “Good—I didn’t scare you off this morning.” Jeff grinned at her when she showed up. “Here—grab a bunch of flyers,” he said. Then he put his forefinger on her chin and made a brushing motion. “Crumb,” he explained casually. Kari felt self-conscious. Normally fastidious, she wasn’t used to walking around with crumbs on her chin, but then she didn’t usually eat lunch on the drive-while-you-gulp plan.
    They took their respective cars to the Southdale Centre. Jeff huddled with her for a quick orientation, then turned her loose, impressed with how much she already knew about the candidate. “I can tell you read more than just the supermarket tabloids,” he laughed.
    “Actually, I never touch those.” She wrinkled her nose up in mock disgust.
    “That’s what they all say.”
    “Go on. Ask me about Elvis, Oprah, the latest scandals. I won’t know the answer. That should prove my innocence.”
    “Then how come you know what the topics are?”
    “They glare at you while you’re waiting in line to check out. If we could rent that space and post headlines about our candidate there, we’d have a captive audience, a better informed electorate, and no question about winning the election.”
    “Hey, lady, I like the way you think.” He gave her a mock salute.
    Saluting him back, she went off to accost the populace