A major fundraising event is a logistics nightmare. Thankfully, with the exception of securing the venue, I completely escaped the organisation of the event at the Mayflower Hotel in Austin. The Congressman's district office staff did the heavy lifting, meaning there was not much left to do when I arrived that morning.
I must admit I was wondering why they even bothered to fly me in as I stood watching the guests stream into the ballroom and congregate in little circles eating caviar and sipping Champagne when Russell slung his arm around my shoulder and said "Alright Alex. I've got a job for you." I gave him a wary look, but he ignored me and said, "You know Steven's darling daughter Andrea. I need you to tail her tonight and make sure she doesn't say something that might be hard to explain to one of our generous benefactors."
My expression had quickly morphed from wary to all-out panic. Russell gave my shoulder a firm pat and said "I think you understand the gravity of the situation. It's a shit job, but someone has to do it. And that someone is you because I don't want to. Now if you get into trouble, her mother used to say to just give her a good spanking and she'll quieten right down."
I stared at him and mouthed "What?"
Russell gave me a shrug, then pointed across the room and said "There she is. Get going" and gave me a small shove.
I curiously made my way over to where Andy was standing talking to an older couple whom I recognised from the bios as a local lawyer and his wife who was a well-known philanthropist. Andy was wearing a black velvet cocktail dress, with an open back held together with crossed-over cords like on the back of a corset, along with a pair of black knee-high boots with dangerous-looking heels. Her black hair had a bright pink streak in it that day, replacing the green one that she had had the last time I saw her. I lingered behind her, unsure what to do, then decided she would probably think I was staring at her butt so I stepped up beside her and smiled.
Andy gave me a look that you might give something you found on the bottom of your shoe, then returned to her conversation. I quickly worked out the topic was access to women's health services in rural communities. This was a particular focus of the wife's charity work so I figured we were on fairly safe ground and introduced myself.
The topic naturally exhausted itself and the couple excused themselves, leaving me standing alone beside Andy. She hissed out of the side of her mouth "What the fuck do you think you're playing at? It's bad enough that I have to see you again and now you're following me around. I know Russell has you watching me. You tell him he can go fuck himself. Or maybe I should tell him that you took a complete stranger and fucked her on his boss's desk. How about you just fuck off and we pretend this never happened?"
I smiled at the room in general and hissed back "Sorry Andy, I can't do that."
Andy made an exasperated noise and growled "You didn't get me pregnant or give me a disease by the way, thank God" then walked off. I followed her across the room as she grabbed a glass of Champagne off a tray and made her way towards a pair of middle-aged men in Stetsons who I recognised as oil executives. I followed in her wake feeling nervous.
My fear materialised pretty quickly. Andy introduced herself and then launched straight into a rant on climate change. The two executives started up the normal industry line of saying they believed in human-induced global warming, but that the response had to not reduce growth. I must admit Andy's response was exactly what I was thinking when she asked pointedly "How can you be happy to keep destroying the planet and killing children?"
I grabbed her by the arm and said "Andy, can we have a word in private?"
Andy glared daggers at me as I steered her down a corridor until I found a door, pulled it open, pushed her inside and closed it behind us. Andy was standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips and murder on her face. The moment the door closed she yelled "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
I put my hands up in front of me, trying to defuse her anger and said "I think you need to calm down. You can't say things like that to people. Those guys are serious donors."
Unsurprisingly in retrospect, this tactic did not work. Andy's nostrils flared and she growled "You don't tell me what I can and can't say. Those men are a scourge and you know it. The fact that my dad takes money from them is a disgrace." She walked straight at me and then brushed past me on her way to the door, saying "Fuck you" as she did.