Just Play Along

One Hundred One & One Hundred Two

“I’ll miss your crazy ass,” Aston whispered, cupping my cheeks with his hand gently.

“I’ll miss yours too.”

“Thanks,” he giggled, leaning in and pressing a hot kiss against my lips.

“I love you,” I said through my tears, pulling away just enough so I could get the words out.

“Love you more,” Aston said, kissing me again.

After a series of several more kisses and lots more tears I was ushered out the door with a wave and a promise that the seven weeks would fly past. I actually hated saying goodbye to him.

Work went by slowly, things beginning to fall into place as I spoke to Jeremy and my father about the plans they’d been concocting. In a matter of only two weeks the office would be closing down, all of the staff sent to work with other MPs save Monica, who Jeremy had decided to bring on as a personal assistant and scheduler, something I could only guess had been done to please me.

Back home that night I slouched into the house, frowning at how silent it was.

“Just you and me house,” I sighed, wandering up the stairs to change out of my work clothes and into something more comfortable. Being a soppy mess, I selected a pair of Aston’s sweats and one of his tops; unable to accept the fact I wouldn’t be seeing him now for nearly two months.

Wandering back to the kitchen to make something to eat I spotted a huge bouquet of flowers on the counter, a note propped up against them.

‘Life is going to throw you all sorts of crazy situations that you’re going to have to figure out what to do with. Just do what I do… Just play along. Love you, A xx’

I grinned down at his note, those words something of a mantra for us. Just play along. He was right, the only thing you could do with the unpredictability of life was play along.

It was exactly upon reading the note that I made my decision.

And then of course, I burst into tears.

PART ONW HUNDRED TWO

*Jess’ POV*

I twisted in bed as my alarm clock went, sighing to myself as I leant up to turn it off, emptiness surrounding me. It was still weird not to hear Aston moaning at me to turn off the alarm. Or to not have him trying to grab me around the waist to keep me in bed a little longer.

“I hate this,” I muttered, crawling out of bed and stumbling towards the en suite for a wake up shower.

Two and a half weeks. That’s all it had been. I still had four and a half to go. What torture!

I got ready for work and then ate a quick breakfast, grabbing my things and heading to the bus. Instead of the usual ride to Parliament I was headed in the opposite direction, to a small block of offices that my Dad and Jeremy had rented out for the campaign. With my father stepping down from the House of Lords we’d had to clean out his office and move out, not allowed to stay there for the campaign.

I slumped down at my desk, in the corner of the big office we were using. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a small conference room and an office as well as a big open space for cubicles or something. I’d been given the back corner with the promise I’d eventually get cubicle walls for privacy, not that I really cared.

“Hey Jess, we’ve got that image consultant coming in later,” Jeremy told me was he walked in.

“I hadn’t forgotten.”

“She wants to meet with you for a bit.”

“Ok,” I replied, not sure what that really meant. Was it about the campaign? Or about me?