Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 174749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. There’s still pleasure running through my veins, and I won’t let reality ruin it. I won’t allow it. There’s plenty of time for self-loathing and worry… But now’s not the time.
Now’s the time to savor ecstasy. Sighing and feeling as if I were floating on Cloud 9, I throw myself back, lying across the carpeted floor with one of the widest smiles of my life. What did I do to deserve this? Liam and Carter in a matter of days…
Eat your heart out, ladies. I’m a lucky girl, what else can I say?
12
NEW YORK DAILY JOURNAL
S
ENATOR VIVIAN TO GOVERNOR AND MAYOR: THERE’S ENOUGH OF ME TO GO AROUND, BOYS!
F ROM THE DESK of Editor-at-Large, Michael Anders.
As Mayor of New York City, I have an unique insight. As the owner of
my paper, here are my thoughts…
F OR THE LASTtwo weeks since Senator Vivian Hawthorne inserted herself into the feud between Mayor Liam Jeffries of New Kingston and Governor Carter Andrews, there has been what politicians would like to call progress, but everyone else would call stagnation.
At this point, the negotiations are secret.
And with negotiations continuing in both Albany and New York City, rumors have started to circulate as to a possible relationship between the outspoken junior Senator from New York State with one or both the men on either side of the issue.
In perhaps a sign that this side story is taking on a life of its own, a Quinniapac/CNN poll was recently commissioned, which asked respondents whether Senator Vivian Hawthorne would be better off to be found romantically linked to either Governor Carter or Mayor Jeffries.
Respondents were split roughly equally, with 51% of responses saying they would favor that the Senator take up with the Governor while 49% of the responses indicated a connection with the Mayor would be seen as more favorable.
At the heart of this issue is which direction the Senator will lend her support—either for protecting the climate or preserving American jobs. The Governor has recently signed a signature piece of legislation that seeks to make New York State independent from foreign oil and resources as well as provide a cleaner and less polluted future. The Mayor of New Kingston however is looking to bring back the jobs that have decimated his town. In a surprise coup, he was able to secure the commitments to invest and open several ore processing and refining factories within the town, guaranteeing an increase of 10,000 jobs and a boost to the local economy.
However, the two paths forward are diametrically opposed to one another. The factories that the mayor secured from Boltiador Enterprises would run afoul of the new legislation. Into this feud the Senator has decided to weigh in as she gets into a complicated history between the two men. Supporting either side would all but kill the other side’s position and determine the course of the state’s domestic policy in regard to the environment and jobs for the next several years.
The romantic relationship that may or may not exist between the Senator and either of the men further complicates matters and brings a closer eye to what must be frenzied negotiations behind closed doors.
New Kingston residents who have seen the Mayor and the Senator are adamant in their belief that the two are involved romantically while those who know the Governor are speaking on the condition of anonymity that there have been intimate encounters between the two. Neither side is acknowledging the issue at this point, but photographs have shown her in a variety of close encounters with both men that have only furthered speculation.
To perhaps add an even stranger twist to the entire situation is the fact that the Communist Party representative who serves as the Mayor of Shanghai has been openly advocating for the Boltiador family to open their factories in China. Sources who are close to the situation describe a powder keg that is ready to explode with one wrong move. It will be up to the voters to the media to see who lights the first match.
13
LIAM
I
swear to fucking God I just want to throw this fucking tablet across the room and break it into a million different pieces.
I thought I’d take the morning to enjoy reading the newspaper
But what else is fucking new nowadays when I read the newspaper. The New York Daily Journal might as well be called the gossip column on me, that fucker Carter, and Vivian.
We’ve had four meetings in the last two weeks and each time I’ve tried to get close to Vivian, she puts her defenses up. Either the newspaper is right and she’s fucking Carter or she’s playing us both.
It almost wouldn't be so bad if Vivian wasn’t fucking Carter. You know, in addition to that one time she had sex with me. Oh, she hasn’t said anything to me about her and him at all, but fucking ‘well placed sources’ report that the fucking Governor is spending way too much time in Albany with his office door closed whenever Vivian Hawthorne is visiting.