Domestic Affairs Read Online Free PDF Page A

clicking noise?”
    On one road trip that was filled with painfully long and eminently annoying events, a Marks adviser brought along an old-school leaf blower that no longer worked. Sure enough, after the first day of events, Marks was near implosion, snapping at Jacob as soon as they ducked around any corner. To this day Jacob could picture the senator grabbing at his arm and asking if Jacob “planned on being useful at all.” Then, before the last event, where press would be observing, the staff took the senator to a conference room for an hour’s break. To Jacob’s surprise, out came the leaf blower.
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with it,” the adviser said, as if it were the most normal thing ever to have a huge, rusty old piece of lawn equipment cradled in her overnight bag.
    â€œLet me see that.”
    An hour later the leaf blower was in working order. Two hours later the senator gave one of his most acclaimed speeches and happily bought drinks for the staff afterward.
    For Governor Taylor, the key was pretty girls. Like all mood-changing secrets, it was never anything spoken aloud. But it was what it was—whenever a beautiful woman interested in what Taylor was saying was around, fewer people got yelled at, more events stayed on schedule, and speeches were better. There wasn’t a science to it, but as far as Jacob saw, it was a fact. Of all the vices Taylor could possess, Jacob thought, this wasn’t so bad. The governor was never inappropriate, and his wife, Aubrey, had a real hold on him. That was another mystery Jacob didn’t care to investigate too deeply, as it also worked for him as a campaign staffer: America loved the Aubrey-Landon romance. Use it, don’t excuse it was the philosophy Jacob had come to adopt over the years. While it sometimes felt odd to Jacob that he questioned the basis of their marriage so much, he had real reason to marvel. Why would Landon decide to love her? Sure, she was pretty in a way where you could see she was once beautiful, and Jacob could rationalize them as college sweethearts—she, the beloved Miss Georgia, and he, the brilliant,passionate quarterback who had the world knocking at his door. It all made sense in theory, but in reality, well, Jacob thought, she was just a bitch.
    Jacob knew Taylor saw her mean ways: He heard her scream at interns and staffers, saw her throw tantrums when a driver was one minute late. But aside from the rare moments when Jacob could watch her obvious disapproval cause the governor to almost twitch his eyes downward with what seemed like a pang of sadness, the governor really didn’t seem to mind at all.
    He’s too focused on the world to care , Jacob always thought. The two of them together could make an impact on society, and that is more important to both of them than love. It sounded weird even to say it in his head, but he knew it was true. He knew it because Taylor had practically said as much. It didn’t really make sense, but Jacob had come to accept that’s just how it was for Aubrey and Landon. And thankfully, the world bought in big-time. Aubrey and Landon were America’s version of royalty.
    So who cares if the attention of a pretty girl who thinks the world of the governor makes him feel better about things. Why not? Besides, in this case, the pretty girl was a friend and a fundraiser, two things Jacob sorely needed on the campaign.
    Jacob glanced at Lori, for once grateful that the governor didn’t know what an ass she truly was. Usually, Jacob would be annoyed at Taylor’s insistence on talking to people whom Jacob thought of as, quite frankly, a waste of blood. But today, when he had three meetings cancel and he had to fill their time with whomever he could get at a moment’s notice, the governor’s naïveté became fortunate. To his credit, the morning had been filled with great fundraising meetings, so really it wasn’t too bad