Chapter Fourteen
The four of them surrounded the coffee table with the two pizza boxes that still contained a few untouched slices. They had planned a family lunch in Diane's campaign office, but Will had been delayed in court and wasn't likely to show up anymore. And since Eli had to leave, Diane invited his daughter, Marissa, to join her, Emma and Nat for lunch.
The girls had only been introduced to each other this week, but they seemed to be on really good terms already. Diane hadn't seen Emma this cheerful in the campaign offices before, which made her question if forcing her daughter to help out with the campaign had been the best idea.
"Mom, can Marissa and I hang out together after lunch?" Emma's question confirmed that things were definitely speeding up between her and her new friend, who was only a little older, so Diane saw no harm in letting them bond. Marissa seemed a lot more independent, probably due to her parents' divorce, and Diane wouldn't have minded if Emma had learnt something from her on that front.
"If it's okay with Marissa," she glanced at Eli's daughter, making sure she was up for it too and it wasn't just Emma's wish.
"Of course, I wouldn't have offered otherwise," the brunette reassured her with a smile that was a lot like her father's, not that Diane was able to see it that often on the campaign manager's face.
"All right," Diane gave her permission with a nod. "Where are you going?" she looked from one girl to the other, while Emma turned to Marissa, leaving the answer to her.
"To the movies, probably," she responded, although she didn't sound too convincing.
"As long as the movie has the proper rating," she reminded the girl that unlike her, Emma was not yet eighteen.
"We'll make sure of that," Marissa promised and since she had one of those innocent faces and her dad was working for Diane she decided to trust her, for now.
In fact she was glad Emma was making plans with someone other than Eric for a change, which was the whole point of having her work on the campaign.
"And how are you spending the afternoon?" Diane addressed her son who had been unusually silent.
"I have practice," he mumbled barely looking at her, which Diane didn't really understand.
"For what it's worth, I'd trade with both of you," she chuckled, thinking of her afternoon plans that involved meetings with potential supporters.
Diane's phone began to ring, with Will's name flashing on the screen.
"It's your dad," she informed the kids before she answered the call. "Hey."
"Hey, we're finally in recess, but I assume you've already had lunch." Judging from the background noises Diane could tell that he was still in the courtroom. He must have called her right away when the session ended.
"Yeah, I'm sorry we couldn't wait any longer, we're almost done." She wished he could have joined them, but they also had a pleasant lunch without him, only Nat didn't seem to enjoy it that much for some reason.
"I'm sorry I couldn't make it, maybe we can try again tomorrow," he offered and he indeed sounded sorry, not that he had a real reason to.
"We will, don't worry about it," she reassured him, it was just a few slices of pizza after all, he didn't miss anything important.
"Tell the kids I'm sorry," he added, and his adorable guilt made Diane smile.
"Will do. What are you having for lunch?" she asked to make sure he didn't skip lunch altogether, since she wasn't there to make sure of that in person anymore.
"We'll probably get some burgers." The use of 'we' caught Diane a little off guard, not that it should have.
"Sounds good," she responded, trying not to be bothered by who her husband was having lunch with.
"We'll talk later," he bid her goodbye in a soft voice.
"Of course, bye," she hang up. "Dad won't be able to make it, he said to tell you he's sorry," she forwarded Will's message, not that it was a really big deal to the kids.
"I haven't heard my parents talk that civil in forever, you're lucky," Marissa commented with a mild-smile.
"I'm sorry," Diane smiled back at the girl sympathetically.
"It's okay, there are advantages to being a child of divorce. I get double the allowance," Marissa joked and it suited her well. Diane had only seen her cheerful so far.
"It's good that you can see the bright side," she noted, wondering if anything was hiding behind her smile.
It must have been hard for her to get used to her parents parting ways while she had still been a kid. Diane was aware of the statistics, that more and more marriages ended in divorce, which only made her feel more proud of their marriage with Will. Emma and Nat would hopefully never have to know what it felt like to be children of divorce.
"More pizza, anyone?" Diane offered, shaking off the negative thoughts.
Nat took another slice without a word, but both girls sad no. In fact they asked her permission to leave now that they were done with lunch, and she let them go, reminding Emma what time she was supposed to be home tonight.
When Diane was left alone with her son she decided to try to find out why he'd been so quiet. "Is everything okay?"
"Sure, the pizza was good," he finished the piece in his hand.
"There's more," Diane opened the box to offer him another slice.
"I'm good," he declined. "I'll go back to my computer," he stood up, obviously not up for a conversation.
"Don't you want to go home yet?" she inquired, even though she didn't mind that he spent more time in there than necessary. He clearly enjoyed the work there and even Eli was satisfied with him, which was the best compliment he could collect, not that he had said it to the boy's face.
"I need to finish something, I promised Mr. Gold," he replied, making Diane wish Emma had been half as responsible as her younger brother.
"All right," she let him leave with a smile. She couldn't help feeling proud of her son and she wished Will could have been there to share this feeling with her, but she made a mental note to tell him about it tonight.
o-o-o
Diane's day ended earlier than planned, the meetings had proven to be rather successful, except for one, who had turned out to be Victoria Adler's supporter. Eli was just as surprised as Diane, it had been a mistake not to factor in the recent change in the race. Still Diane had finished the day with the promise of more endorsements, so it had been a success after all.
Diane still polled in first place out of the four democratic candidates, if the primary had been this weekend, she would probably have won it. But there was another month to go, which meant more meetings like this, even more speeches and a debate among the candidates towards the end.
She was actually looking forward to facing Vicky even before the debate. She believed that it was easier to tell people's intentions by looking them in the eye, and she wanted nothing more than to figure out why the woman who had once been her friend decided to challenge her in this race last minute.
When Nat arrived home from practice Diane was almost finished preparing their dinner, while half of their family was still missing. She called to check on Emma, but she didn't pick up, so Diane phoned Will instead who reassured her that he would be home in twenty minutes.
When ten minutes later Emma still didn't pick up Diane began to worry slightly, even if the girl was only five minutes late. But another ten minutes passed without any call from her and when the key turned in the lock, it was Will and not Emma who arrived home.
"Have you heard from Emma?" Diane basically attacked her husband at the door, who clearly had no clue about what was go on.
"No, should I have?" he asked, eyeing her confused.
"She wanted to spend the afternoon with Eli's daughter, they went to the movies, I told her to be home by seven," Diane jabbered, feeling the worry take over her completely now that she had someone to share it with. Suddenly she remembered Eli addressing his daughter as a troublemaker and regretted allowing Emma to spend time with her who knows where.
"Do you have the girl's number?" Will asked calmly, not letting Diane's state of mind get to him and she was grateful for his composure.
"No, maybe I should call Eli…" She was willing to leave the decision to him, she feared she wasn't able to think clearly anymore.
"Let me try to reach Em first." Will took out his phone to call his daughter, while Nat appeared from upstairs.
"Have you heard from Emma? She should be home by now," Diane turned to her son.
"No, but I can check her twitter or facebook," Nat offered and took out his phone, while Diane waited impatiently.
"She tweeted a half an hour ago from the mall, she was having fun, she even posted a selfie with Marissa," he reported, but it only made Diane angry.
"Why isn't she home yet?" she looked at Will who didn't succeed in getting through to her either.
"Maybe one of us should go to the mall?" he suggested.
"I tweeted her, maybe she'll reply," Nat interfered and Will stepped next to Diane to squeeze her shoulder supportively.
"I'm sure she's on her way home," he whispered with the calmness still audible in his voice.
"She'd better be," Diane replied jumpily.
Emma should have answered her phone or called to tell them she was running late, she should have known she would worry. She had never once missed her curfew when she was out with her boyfriend, who would have thought spending time with a girl her age could result in something like this.
"Let's wait ten more minutes, if we still don't hear from her you'll call Eli," Will suggested and Diane nodded. They all took a seat on the couch in the living room and the silence made it possible for her to hear every tick of the clock on the wall, reminding them of the time that was passing by quickly.
When Nat's phone vibrated a few minutes later it startled them all.
"Is it her?" Diane asked hastily.
"It's a tweet from Marissa, she says Emma's running late and I should cover for her. Guess it's too late for that now," he shrugged.
"Your sister better get home in one piece," Diane warned him, not that he had anything to do with why she was angry. She just wanted Emma to get home so she could ground her for the rest of the week for causing them to worry about her.
She reached for Will's hand who still seemed rather calm, but when her eyes met his she saw the worry in his brown orbs as well. She could only hope that they were both worried for nothing.