Life, Liberty, & Something Like Happiness

By Greg Howard Jr

Rory Dexter looks for love in all the wrong places, will working on a Presidential campaign change his luck or is all fair in love and politics?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Howard Jr
• Release date: Oct 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223618041

Book preview

LIfe, Liberty, & Something like happiness is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Your Life: The Mixtape Media LLC ™ is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

A Your Life: The Mixtape Media LLC ™ Publication

Copyright © 2023 Your Life: The Mixtape Media LLC ™

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

To Anyone Who Ever Took a Chance on Love

January

Bumper1Bumper2Bumper3Bumper4Bumper5Bumper6Bumper7Bumper8

RORY WAS, IN fact, pacing. Anyone who’s known him longer than ten minutes will tell you that when he’s anxious or upset he’ll pace.

Rory wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. He’s experienced the entire range of human emotions in less than two hours. Rage keeps bubbling up to the top of the heap. He keeps pushing it back down until it sits right in the middle of his chest.

He’s got heartburn now. He could blame it on the pizza he was eating just before Hayes ended their two-year relationship via text message, but he knows that’s not the

case. He’s the type of person who keeps their emotions bottled up and then has a good cry about everything in a few weeks when he’s got some alone time.

He’s got the alone time right now, but he doesn’t have enough time to get all of his emotions out and be at Piedmont Park in time to meet the crew to set up for their event. He wonders if anyone else ponders the practicality of having a full-on emotional meltdown hours before what could be the biggest endeavor of his career.

He’s still pacing.

2

04:30 AM - Atlanta, Georgia

It is entirely too cold for this shit, Kimora says stepping out of her black Maserati. There’s little-to-no traffic on Tenth Street this early in the morning so she can open the car door without worrying about being sideswiped.

It’s too early for this shit, comes from Liberty as she exits the passenger side. And this car is too damn small!

Rory greets them with a smile from the sidewalk, bouncing on the balls of his feet, balancing a drink carrier holding three coffees in one hand. It’s gas station coffee, probably only good for taking paint off buildings but at three in the morning you take what you can get. It’s gonna be a great day.

Kimora pulls Rory into a one-armed hug, snagging one of the coffees from the drink carrier. Rory’s warning of Be careful that’s hot is ignored as she takes a long pull from the cup without a flinch. How are you holding up?

I’m good. Better than good. Hayes and I are over, what’s done is done, and my entire focus now can be on this campaign. Now that you’ve been updated on my emotional well-being, let’s get to work!

Rory leads them to where the crew is setting up the stage, pointing out all the areas where supporters will be, where the press is supposed to go to check in, what the agenda is for the rest of go to check in, and what the agenda for the rest of their day looks like.

Liberty surveys the park. Taking in the crew and interns as the hurry back and forth across the lawn. How long, exactly, have you been here?

About an hour, he replies. One of us had to meet the crew and get the interns started.

The weather was, thankfully, supposed to be relatively mild that day. It had been much colder when Rory arrived at Piedmont Park in the wee hours of the morning to supervise the final details for the official kickoff of Georgia Senator Adhira Joseph’s campaign for the Presidency of the United States. In the week since Senator Joseph announced her candidacy live on Rise & Shine America, the trio of senior advisers to the Senator had been working nonstop to make this hometown kickoff happen. Camera crews from every major network would be arriving soon for the Senator’s 09:00 AM speech so everything had to be perfect. They were running on fumes but knew that for the next year and a half, should all things go well, there would be no breaks.

Now the three stood huddled together in the cold of the morning watching as a crew runs a final check on the stage where Senator Joseph would speak, barricades had been set up the day before, and their interns buzzed around them like flies securing bunting to anything that would hold still long enough.

Remind me again why we didn’t just do all this last night instead of having to be up at bullshit o’clock in the morning? Liberty says over the top of her coffee cup.

Rory rolls his eyes. Because there was an event in the park last night so we couldn’t start set up until they were out of the way. Plus, you had a date last night and didn’t want to be bothered. How did that go by the way? I didn’t interrupt anything did I?

She doesn’t get the chance to respond. A loud crash from behind them interrupts their conversation. They turn to see a young man surrounded by metal folding chairs looking around helplessly as a female intern tries to help him make some sense of the mess. She tucks her hair behind her ear and bats her eyelashes a little too often for her intentions not to be noticed.

Who do those interns belong to? Kimora sighs.

Liberty squints at the scene before them. They’re mine. One of them’s a new kid. Name’s Mason or Myron or Milton, I think? I did a friend a favor.

Rory and Kimora share a look. Your puppies, your responsibility.

Liberty huffs a sigh, walking towards her interns, raising a middle finger salute to her colleagues as she goes.

Kimora pulls her phone from her coat pocket. Seventy-five new applicants for campaign jobs. Volunteer sign-up is out the roof.

That’s good though, right? Rory takes a sip of his coffee. That’s got to at least be enough to get us started.

Yes and no. Seventy-five is a good starting number. Especially since we’re going to be sending most of them all over the country. On the flip side, though, that is assuming any of them are qualified to do what needs to be done.

If they aren’t? Qualified, I mean. What does that mean for us?

It means we might have to offer some of these interns jobs.

But not Liberty’s interns though right? Rory nods towards where Liberty is directing her interns.

Because wow!

Oh, dear god, no, Kimora laughs. I love her to death, but that’s why I’m in charge of hiring. No offense.

Absolutely none taken. Rory looks out across the park. Shit, incoming.

Liberty’s male intern, Mason or Myron or Milton, comes jogging towards them. He skids to a stop across the wet grass. Uh, Miss Patton said I was gonna be with you today, Mr. Rory.

Over the man’s shoulder, Rory sees Liberty smiling and waving at him. He schools his face for the sake of friendship and professionalism. Right, so what was your name?

Oh, I’m Myles. Myles Ramos. I’m originally from Arizona. Miss Patton and my mom are friends from college and —

Easy tiger, Rory cuts him off. I don’t need the hard sell. You’re already on the team. There’s not a whole lot that we can do right now so at this moment the best thing you can do is go back over there and help set up the chairs. I’ll come grab you when I’ve got something.

Cool. Myles gives Rory and Kimora an awkward thumbs-up before jogging back to where he came from.

He passes Liberty on the way. Myles raises his hand for a high five but is rebutted.

You think I can get a preemptive pardon just in case I murder one of them? Liberty sighs, rejoining her colleagues.

First rule of any post-Bill Clinton presidential campaign is to not lay a finger on the interns, a man’s voice startles the trio. Charlie Schroeder, husband of Senator Joseph, steps out of the early morning fog.

Kimora appraises the senator’s husband. It’s a little cold out for shorts isn’t it Chuck?

She’s the only one who can get away with him ‘Chuck’. They went to law school together and she’s the reason he met Senator Joseph. Rory practically grew up in this man’s house and to this day is afraid to call him anything other than Uncle Charlie.

It’s not so bad out here if you keep moving, he ignores the name. Just came by to see how things were going down here.

You mean the Senator sent you to make sure we hadn’t burned the park to the ground, Rory corrects.

Charlie shrugs. Yeah, maybe a bit of that too.

How’s she holding up? Liberty whispers as if somehow Senator Joseph might hear her from her hotel room two blocks away.

She’s —

"She is holding up just fine. The woman of the hour has joined them. Senator Adhira Joseph. Nicknamed The Queen of Dragons by Senate pages that are terrified of her. At nearly 04:30 in the morning standing in Piedmont Park in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, she is anything but terrifying. She’s in jeans, a peacoat, and Chuck Taylor high tops. Her shoulder-length hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail. I couldn’t wait for Charlie to get back with a report so I had the hotel call a car. So where are we at?"

Right on cue there is another crash of metal against metal. Liberty sighs for what seems like the hundredth time that morning.

Matthew!

His name is Myles, Rory laughs.

Whatever his name is he’s on my last nerve this morning.

Let me go see if I can give them a hand, Charlie says, already jogging off to where the interns have found themselves amongst another pile of folding chairs.

So those are our new interns? Senator Joseph asks. There’s a look on her face that Rory knows all too well. It says ‘This won’t do’ and ‘It will be alright’ all at the same time.

It’s their first day, Rory offers, ever the optimist. I doubt they thought they’d have to do anything other than answer phones and go on coffee runs.

Speaking of coffee, the Senator doesn’t get a chance to finish.

Myles! Rory calls the intern that Liberty has pawned off