Page 8 of Endless First Kisses
Chapter Three
The emergency phone call to Alex Cochran had arrived at 9 PM the night before. A report from a security guard indicating they had lost track of Caroline McKenzie.
“How the fuck do you lose her? That is your only job.”
He had seen her in the morning for coffee. For his own private time to deliver his carefully expressed congratulatory remarks. The two of them alone surrounded by unsuspecting coffee shop customers, away from Harvard Square. Consummating a long lasting friendship with a cup of coffee and culminating with a comment from Caroline, “I wish I had a big brother like you.”
“I’m sorry, sir. We are searching, and we will keep you up-to-date.” The security head spoke with trepidation. He was sure this blunder was going to cost him his job. If he had any hope of landing another job, he had better succeed sooner than later.
Alex had tried to go back to sleep and failed miserably. Instead of staring at the ceiling and wondering whether this was one of the practical jokes Caroline liked to play. As the most trusted senior assistant to Senator McKenzie, he knew everything about the Senator, his family, politics, and anything else. He had been an ace operative whose stars had risen along with the career of the politician rumored to become the President of the United States someday.
Having dropped out of college and roamed through frozen Iowa wearing those ridiculous orange Deaniac hats, he had come back home in Albany, New York, from the failed election disillusioned and frustrated with politics. He had loved the energy of being with people who believed in a common goal. The revolution that wasn’t to be had left in him a thirst for the rough and tumble of politics. Instead of staying away, he had sought to work for a politician in his state and showed up at the office of then State Senator Brandon McKenzie unannounced and started helping out. In the Senator, he had seen the charismatic passion and vigor he instinctively knew a good politician needed. Something like Bill Clinton, a reference he could relate to than the customary comparison to JFK.
Before anyone realized Alex was around, he had made himself useful and indispensable doing whatever needed to get done in the campaign office. He would soon become a body man to the Senator and ride on the rocket ship to Washington D.C. becoming an invaluable aide along the way.
When he showed up at the campaign office, he had no idea that the Senator had a daughter of his age (more or less) from a previous marriage. He didn't know that she would turn out to be the most attractive girl he had ever seen. And, most important, he had no clue that he would find himself in the impossible position of being tempted by her friendly and bubbly manners. She was the untouchable and ultimate forbidden fruit. She was the girl in a different class. He was merely a body man. Out of his league, leaving him burning with passion from both sides of his candle. He dreamed endlessly about her. Going on long walks together, holding hands. He had woken up time and again before he could kiss her in the dreams.
Alex had watched her from afar for years. Allowing himself to be treated like a brother when the opportunity presented itself to interact with her. As a dear friend she could turn to for anything… Someone who could understand her… A go-between to counter the intransigence of her father and her 21st-century world. He had kept his own feelings bottled the whole time. For years.
Now to hear that she was missing was the worst news. Fortunately, she had done it enough times to ease the shock. More than enough times to be the prime example for the cry wolf fable. But to be missing on the weekend of her graduation from college? Maybe doing something wild? A rite of passage thing he would eventually hear about? As if he were a shrink providing his services pro bono.
The call to her phone went unanswered. There wasn’t even a ring before her voicemail greeting kicked in. Such high energy and infectious voice. He could picture her, restless and anxious to get to the next thing.
“Caroline, look, I know you are about to graduate and are probably having fun somewhere… Still, the guys are looking for you. They are there for your safety. Call me back. Alright?”
He suspected she would probably not listen to the message. It won’t be the first time, he thought. It was the kind of message he was accustomed to leaving her. He had wondered in the past if she actually listened to him. If she could tell at all in the intonation of his voice about how much he cared. Every time he had been tempted to say something more, he had held himself back knowing what it would mean for his career. He had come so far to screw it up when he was at the door of the pearly gates.
Wherever Caroline was, this wasn’t the kind of news he would share with the Senator. A man of deep love for his precious only daughter and a strong preference for good news. It was Alex’s responsibility to find her. He opened his phone again to skim through the last set of messages he received from her. Bubbly and excited about the impending graduation. The anxiety about the future. Whether the choice she made to join a prestigious consulting firm was the right one or not. Whether she truly earned the spot or if it was her father’s influence that got her the job. How much she missed him and home and everyone else…
That last message alone had almost given him a heart attack when he read the first four words: Miss you so much. Then, that qualifier that nullified every hope he had. And everyone else. Was she that indiscriminate about how she affectionately embraced the world? He had wondered in between his grueling schedule, working for Senator McKenzie.
Right there in the thick of the peoples’ business. Seeing a government of the people, by the people, and for the people coming into action. Making a difference more than he ever thought he did knocking on doors and freezing his ass, burning with passion and screaming slogans. He saw how politics was practiced up close. From the state to the national level. Seeing the progression and learning to adapt every step of the way. Seeing the money involved grow exponentially. The media exposure exploding by the instant. From the local to global. Instant at the click of a button.
In all the stressful nights and work, fueled by pizza and stale coffee at cheap motels as he canvased the state to get every possible vote out for his boss, Caroline had lodged herself in the parts of his brain and heart that were yet to be hardened by the ugly side of politics. The random pictures she sent him had fueled his unlikely hope, always smiling, and always with others. As if there was a perpetual band of admirers that cling to her. He was jealous of them all. Jealous for missing out on the college experience. Jealous for not being there having fun instead of pulling all-nighters working on thankless jobs the Senator would likely never hear about. All that was secondary to continuing to earn the trust of the one man to whom he owed everything and for whom he had absolute loyalty.
The updates he received every thirty minutes were still indicating there was no news. He paced around in the downtown hotel anxiously. The Senator was seventeen floors above and probably five blocks away from the modest three-star hotel, where the traveling staff members were staying. At least supposed to be. In one of the executive suites reserved for the high caliber celebrities. Caroline’s mother was occupying a separate room a floor above him. Under her explicit requirement and instructions to make their daughter’s graduation a success, the Senator’s current wife hadn’t set foot in the city.
“Isn’t enough you’re fucking a girl of your daughter's age?”
In one pointed question from the mother, the matter was put to rest. That was the gist of the mother’s anger. As it has always been the case since she caught the Senator sleeping in her very own bed with the bimbo, then an assistant at the ripe age of twenty. Giggling uncontrollably and doing all the favors the insatiable Senator needed to get through his grueling schedule canvassing the state.
Alex had made it a point to ignore the current wife for all practical purposes. It was none of his business who the Senator slept with, but he disliked and disapproved how she controlled him. All to no avail. The Senator was smitten and energized by her. Being the loyal servant he was, all he could do was serve them both in the best capacity he knew how. It had made it easier for him to accomplish this goal in part because of the snotty ways the current wife behaved around anyone else other than the Senator and his peers. Overcompensating for lack of education and refinement and looking down on any and everyone on the staff, Alex was sure that was the crux of the matter. On the extreme opposite end of Caroline, who was affable and gregarious by all measures.
What if she is actually missing? The question featured more prominently in his head as he continued pacing around the hotel room. What if she won’t come back as she had done so in the past? He made the executive decision to not bother the Senator, who was enjoying the time away from home as far as he could tell. A bit of freedom to entertain and be entertained.
Alex had spent the rest of the night not daring to take a wink of sleep and frantically calling Alyson’s phone and the guards who were still out there looking for her. Per his request, three men from the Senator’s security detail were assigned to help with the task.
He was partially dozing off on the firm and awkwardly built one-seater in the hotel room when his phone buzzed. His worst fear had been realized.
“I am afraid it is bad news,” the head of the Senator’s security detail said.
“What is it? Is the Senator OK?”
“It is about Caroline, sir. One of her friends was found unconscious inside an off-campus apartment.” The message was communicated without the gravity of the emotion it demanded.
He grasped at the edge of the chair. This was always the fear. That he would hear something bad about her. That she would take an unnecessary risk and be taken advantage of…
“Caroline is unconscious?” Alex said. He didn’t catch the qualification about her friend.