“She said nothing for several moments. Then, rather thoughtfully, Bonai offered, ‘We must talk about this in more detail.’

‘Yes. When you visit Washington. Before the board meeting.’

She nodded. ‘Yes. Before the board meeting, certainly.’

Rashid felt delighted. I’m winning her over! he told himself.”

He grinned at her stone face. “Well, then, I’ll see you before the board meeting.”

“Okay.” Bonai turned and walked down the hall. Rashid followed her for a moment before she turned back towards him. “Do you need something else sir?”

“Uh – no. I think that’s it.”

“I’ll see you in Washington.”

“Yes.  Of course.” Rashid turned away and walked towards his own desk.  He tried to fight the smile that welled up inside of him.  His princess was going to meet with him, in Washington, and discuss their relationship.  This was a step forward.  Of course, Rashid wasn’t sure that Bonai knew they were going to discuss their relationship.  What was it he had said?  Something along the lines of “Bonai, things have been difficult, I’m sorry, I’d like to fix things.” Oh gosh, what if she thought they were going to talk about the botched campaign speech she wrote – or maybe that incident in Barbados?  He really should have been more specific.  Rashid looked down the hall, but she was gone.  Should he go to her office?  Tell her that he wanted to talk about repairing their relationship? 

“Rashid? Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but we have a major problem.” Sam was standing in front of Rashid, shifting his weight from side to side like an eight year old who had to pee.

“A problem?

“Yes, a problem.  I need you to come, right now sir.”

“Can you tell me what the problem is?”
“No, sir, I think it’s better if you just see for yourself.”

I followed Sam to a TV monitor.  On the monitor – no, it couldn’t be?  But it was, Bonai was on TV trash-talking the candidate. She explained that there was much sexual harassment on our team, and that Rashid, the campaign manager specifically, had asked her for sexual favors.  But that wasn’t true!  They had a three year long relationship long before they started working for the campaign. 

It wasn’t until Sam asked Rashid whether he was okay or not that Rashid realized he had collapsed in a heap on the floor with his hand over his face.  Rashid screamed “No! Would you be?” The entire office turned and stared.  One by one they came over and told him he would be okay, that they’d do the research and everyone would know that Rashid and Bonai had been in a relationship and recently broken up.

“Why would she do this?” Rashid asked, “It’s one thing to take me down, it’s another thing to ruin the whole democratic race for president.”

“Politics is a funny business,” Sam responded.

Rashid put his head in his hands and let out a soft wail.  No matter what the outcome of all of this, his life was ruined. No one would hire a campaign manager who couldn’t keep his team together and keep a personal life discrete.

***TBC***