She leaned over to kiss him. He pulled her in close, but she pushed him away. “I’ll work fast.”
Chapter 71
The night before Lucy Lopez was finally due to visit Cedar Falls at the apple festival, Kitty Bell came to town and brought a couple of For the Win’s donors with her. She’d organized a dinner off Main Street and invited Dot, Fletcher, and Rose to attend. They knew they weren’t just invited for a meal. They were to sing for their supper by showcasing how FTW’s work was going to flip Wisconsin from red to blue. Kitty needed those contribution checks to keep coming.
Even though Dot and Fletcher pled their case with the D.C.-based campaign for a rally in Cedar Falls, the politicos at Lopez-Stone headquarters kept making excuses for why it couldn’t happen. This was despite the candidate herself saying she needed to go—she’d been pushing her team for it ever since she got the request directly from Dot. Her campaign kept blaming the schedule, though Dot and Fletcher knew it was because they didn’t think it was worth it.
“They think we’re stupid,” Fletcher had said. “If they’d get out of Washington and touch some grass, they’d see we’re right about this.”
“And this is one instance when I don’t want to say ‘I told you so’—we have to get them to change their minds and get this on the schedule. Soon. We are this close.” Dot held her index finger and thumb a millimeter apart.
Kitty had been helpful in aggressively pushing for the Lopez visit, and the candidate herself had put her foot down. She was going to the apple festival. Her campaign relented.
“It’s on,” Kitty had texted the thread.
“LFG!” Fletcher wrote back.
Dot sent a thumbs-up and immediately felt stressed. Now that they’d gotten their way, the pressure was real.
So that night, on the way to dinner at the Golden Grate, Dot, Fletcher, and Rose brainstormed their best points to prove that the FTW money was being spent wisely. By the time they arrived, each knew their part—Dot was on messaging and media, Fletcher on turnout and social, and Rose on volunteers. It was go time.
When they walked in, Kitty was already there. Ofcourseshe was. She air-kissed each of them and then turned to introduce them to her guests, a young tech-rich couple named Michael and Iris Vale.
Dot did a double take. The wealthy donor was someone she knew. And someone she’d hoped never to see again. It was her horrible client, Stanford Michael, who’d berated her when she was at the firm because she’d not been able to book him for a cable news hit. He of “who’s the boss of you” fame.
“Dot Clark?” he asked, incredulous. “What the hell areyoudoing here?”
“Wait. You two know each other?” Kitty was confused.
Dot felt herself shrink. Why did this man sap her confidence?
“Hi, Michael,” she managed, while weakly shaking hands with him and his wife. Then to Kitty she said, “We used to work together. When I was in New York. He was a client at the PR firm.”
“So, you didn’t go on to some great job, I see,” he said. “You left New York forthis?” He gestured around dismissively at Cedar Falls. “I can’t believe you’re working on the most important campaign in our lifetime. I thought For the Win was a serious outfit, Kitty.”
Kitty flinched. Fletcher stepped in. “Whoa, buddy. We haven’t met. I’m Fletcher Abbott. It’s good to meet you. Listen, I’m not sure where you got that impression of Dot. I’ve never known anyone with instincts as good as hers—and she can execute a plan like no one else.”
Dot was grateful for the defense. She stood a little taller.
“I doubt that,” Stanford Michael scoffed.
His wife placed a hand on his forearm. “Honey, maybe this is a waste of time.”
“We’re already here, Iris. Might as well eat, even if this place is a little tooMidwestfor my taste.” He had an annoying habit of emphasizing words to drive home insults.
“Well, Kitty, I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said. “I’m not in the habit of wasting money.”
Dot smirked. All the guy did was waste money on ego-driven publicity stunts. And now he was trying to get involved in politics, too. The party had too many of these rich people mucking things up.
Kitty suggested they move to their table, her face frozen in an icy smile. Rose picked up the conversation and asked the Vales about their trip from California and told them about the local weather forecast. Safe topics.
Fletcher held back and tapped Dot on the shoulder. “Are you okay? That guy’s a jerk.”
“I’ll tell you the whole story tomorrow. Looking back, it’s silly. But basically, he’s the reason I decided to leave the PR firm.”
“I know his type. They’re crawling all over the Bay Area. They think they’re so tough, but they’re just insecure asses.”
She laughed. “Well, thanks for sticking up for me. You didn’t have to do that.”