Chapter 1
Jana was lost. She was lost and indignant. Her autopilot, that part of the brain that makes all the right turns while you daydream, had malfunctioned somewhere between her apartment and… where ever she was now. The fact that she was forced to use her phone’s map app to get to the same building she had worked in for the last three months was outrageous, and every time its computerized voice called out from where she had balanced it on her thigh she gritted her teeth before obeying the instruction.
She reached the office half an hour late and still lacking an explanation as to how she got lost in the first place. The building was one of the taller ones in Gravewater, a proper office building. The campaign was on the second floor, with some insurance company above them and a dentist’s office below. Jana walked quickly across the parking lot, happy that the office dress code was casual enough for her to wear pants and boots, as they were much better protection against the cold winter wind than the skirt and high heels she had worn in the fall. She made it to the glass front doors of the building and, entering, was greeted by the familiar scent of antiseptic and the whine of a drill working its way through some poor person’s molar. She grimaced and hurried up the stairs.
Jana entered the office with her head held high, she knew that rushing or trying to avoid notice would only draw extra attention to her lateness. She walked to her chair without incident and unpacked her bag before turning to Rob, the other occupant of her cubicle.
“Did Rebecca ask about me, why I wasn’t here?” She said, whispering just loud enough for him to hear.
Rob looked over his shoulder then stopped, eyebrows drawing together. He spun his chair around to stare, frowning at Jana before answering.
“I… No. She’s uh, he’s been in with Bryce and James since I got here.”
“Bryce is here?” Jana asked, pushing some excitement into the question. She wondered why Rob was being so conserved, the mayor didn’t stop by very often. He was usually too busy fundraising or going door to door, trying to get support for his gubernatorial bid, to actually visit his campaign headquarters.
“Uh. Yeah. He got here just after I did.”
Jana waited for Rob to elaborate, but he stayed silent, squinting slightly as he stared at her face.
“I’m sorry if this is rude, but, do I know you?”
Jana’s mouth dropped open and she was, momentarily, speechless. Rob filled the silence hastily.
“Sorry! I feel like I definitely recognize you. Were you part of the street team, did they just move you to the office?” He gestured helpfully to the surrounding room.
“Rob!” Jana finally found her voice, “I’ve been working four feet from you for the last three months! How can you not know who I am?” She lowered her voice and leaned forward out of her chair, “We’ve…” She stopped, suddenly unsure of what she had intended to say. She had a feeling that, whatever it was, was something she didn’t want the rest of the office to overhear. Had they… no. That must have been a dream or something, right? Her eyes snapped back to Rob as she abandoned the train of thought.
“Rob, you know me. Jana! You know me.”
“Oh! Jana, of course!” He tried to smile but Jana could see that it was forced, his eyes a little too wide. “Good to, uh, see you again. Listen,” He said, standing up from his chair quickly enough to send it rolling backwards, “I’ve got to hit the bathroom, be back in a minute.” And he walked out of the cubicle, disappearing through the door to the hallway.
What the hell? Jana thought. Is he playing some kind of a prank on me? Is that the kind of thing Rob would do? She… she honestly didn’t know. Her feeling that she should know a lot about him wasn’t translating very well into actual information.
She tried to ignore his weird behavior, and her weird gaps in knowledge, and to think about something else. She turned back to her desk and logged in to the computer. She opened a browser window and entered gibberish into the address bar, deleting the string of characters and replacing it with another a couple times before giving up and throwing her head back with a loud sigh.
What. The. Hell. How could he not know who she was? Jana knew she was good enough at reading people to be pretty sure that he wasn’t playing some kind of practical joke on her, he legitimately seemed to not know who she was.
She pushed hard on her desk, rolling away from it and spinning to face the cubicle’s exit. She stood up and walked out, heading straight for the desk at the front of the office.
“Meredith!” Jana said, a little louder than she meant to. “You know who I am, right?”
Meredith glanced up with a look of confusion that said all Jana needed to know. “Umm, I’m sorry, I don’t think so. Do you have an appointment?” She turned to her computer, opening a window with a full-screen calendar.
“Meredith.” Jana put her hands on the short desk, leaning forward and putting weight onto her arms until her elbows locked back. “You know who I am. I’ve walked past this desk everyday since before you started working here.”
Meredith leaned back slightly as Jana’s face approached her own. She swallowed before giving a pursed lip smile and responding. “Ma’am, if you’ll just wait on one of those chairs there, I can ring up whoever you’re here to see and I’m sure they’ll be right out.”
Jana resisted the urge to scream and stalked back into the office, walking past her desk and going down the hall to the bathrooms. She went into the ladies’ room and stood in front of one of the sinks, staring at the mirror as she concentrated on controlling her breathing. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of her chest rising and falling, of air moving in through her nose and out through her mouth. Slowly, her mind quieted. Jana opened her eyes to look again at her reflection. Her hair, dark and curly, looked even more wild than usual as it hung in front of her face. She fixed it and watched the red fade from her face as the tension continued to flow out of her body. The ability to focus so completely on her breath was something she had learned in college, when a therapist had suggested meditation as a way to deal with her panic attacks. After years of practice she could clear her mind within seconds, filling it with the sensation of breathing. And it usually worked. Usually.
She took a few more deep breaths, splashing water on her hands and wrists in lieu of her face, as her arms had no mascara on them. She left the bathroom and walked back towards her desk, freezing when she saw the two men standing in front of the opening to her cubicle.
Bryce Valtameri had presence. Physically, he wasn’t particularly remarkable. He was attractive, everyone agreed on that, but not so much that it was intimidating or distracting. It was something about the way he carried himself, or maybe it was the way his eyes seemed to be able to take in the whole room at once. Jana considered herself a student of body language, of the countless tiny things that people used, consciously or not, to communicate, and even she was unable to explain Bryce’s ability to bend the focus of any group onto him. His magnetism was a bigger factor than Jana would like to admit in her choice to move back to Gravewater, to work on his campaign for governor.
James Moon was Bryce’s polar opposite. As campaign manager, he was never more than a step behind Bryce, but often went unnoticed, overshadowed by the taller man’s abundant charisma. His clothes were always a little wrinkled and his eyes were always covered by weird dark sunglasses, though Jana was almost positive he wasn’t blind.
Jana smiled as genuinely as she could manage, her gaze sweeping over James’s glasses for a second before meeting Bryce’s eyes.
“Mr. Valtameri. It’s good to see you, how are you?”
“I’m well. Jana, is it?” He said, shaking her hand and wearing his best fundraiser smile.
Jana’s eyes widened, “Yes. Sir I… I’ve been working here since the beginning of your campaign. We’ve met before.”
“Yes. I’m sure we have.” He started walking forwards, away from the cubicle. He put a light hand at Jana’s back to prompt her to move in the same direction.
“Listen, Jana, I think it’s best that you head home now. Should I call you a taxi?”
“A… No, I… I have a car, but, sir I…” Jana’s head was spinning. Bryce didn’t recognize her either? What the hell was going on? She looked back over her shoulder to where James was standing, desperate for someone to help her, to confirm that she wasn’t crazy. But he was as inscrutable as ever, his eyes hidden by the dark lenses, his face immobile. Why was everyone treating her like this? She knew these people. Or, at least, she thought she did. The office, usually inviting and familiar, if at times stressful, felt alien and hostile. Populated with people who didn’t remember her and refused to listen to her protests.
She broke away from Bryce, striding the final steps to the door faster than he could get there to open it for her. Jana resisted the urge to run down the stairs and out of the building. She strode out of the front doors and barely noticed the bitter cold as she got in her car and started it up, accelerating out of the parking lot so fast that her tires squealed. She didn’t know where she was going yet, but she knew that she need to get away from that office. She needed to move, to take action, to have control.