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“Shouldn’t you be up there with her, too?” I ask.
“Me? No.” He smiles, his eyes fixed on her, and only her. “No, she’s got this.”
“Would you—oh!”
I nearly flinch in the dark as another person suddenly appears on my other side. It’s Paige. She’s made her way to the back of the ballroom with a half-empty baggie of campaign buttons. Her eyes just barely lock on mine as she realizes who she’s run into, but then quickly abandon me to focus on Kingston instead.
“Hello, Mr. B!” she happily greets him with a wide smile.
“Good evening, Paige,” he says with a quick bow of his head. “Great job on the ballroom tonight. I believe this was your doing?”
“Thank you, sir. Yes, but I had some help, of course.” She exhales to show she’s tired, but still fully committed to doing her best. “I’m always happy to assist. You know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
She holds up the open bag. “Campaign button?” she offers.
Kingston reaches inside. “Don’t mind if I do,” he says as he takes two; one he slips into his pocket, the other he clips onto his lapel.
She pivots in my direction next, looking stiffly at me with a helpful smile. I grab a button for myself and turn it over in my fingers to read the logo.
Fiona 2022.
The future is gold.
“Thank you,” I say to her.
She murmurs a quiet pleasantry before moving on toward the next batch of possible voters lingering in the back.
“So, Graham tells me you’re going on the road tomorrow for the first time,” Kingston says once she’s gone.
I tear my gaze away from Paige. “Yes, sir,” I answer.
“Company Liaison is a big job,” he says, looking me right in the eye. “An important job.”
I try not to appear as nervous as I am. “Yes, sir,” I repeat.
“You’ll do fine.” He gives me a nod of reassurance. “You know the work. Just follow the manual and stick to your gut for everything else.”
“I will,” I say, relaxing a bit. “Thank you again, sir. For the opportunity. I won’t let you down.”
“I wouldn’t have promoted you if I thought you would.”
“Any other advice?” I ask. “You were CEO for a decade and change. You’ve got to have something for me that Graham didn’t.”
Kingston bites his cheek, his eyes once again straying to the woman in the center of the stage. “Find a woman whose dreams matter more to you than your own,” he says.
I cant my head. “Well, I sort of meant work-related advice...”
“It is,” he says, turning off the wall to face me. “Money. Power. Ambition. None of it means a single damn thing without someone to share it with you. All the money in the world can’t make you happy, Oli. The love of a good woman can, and the only way to win the heart of a good woman is by being a good man. Don’t forget that.”
I nod politely. Not exactly what I was I looking for, but I guess I’ll take it.
“I’ll remember,” I say.
Kingston admires me with fatherly eyes. It feels nice, truthfully. He’s always been a father figure to me. Fiona, a mother. The Botsfords, brothers that I’d be nowhere without.
“I’m proud of you, Oli,” he says. “You’ve come a long way.”
