The Longer The Fall by Aviva Gat (best new books to read txt) 📗

At that time, Madeline had already received a job offer from a top management consulting firm in New York. The offices were in Midtown, quite a trek from her apartment near Columbia. When her lease ended, she moved downtown into a three-bedroom apartment with two new friends she had met at events for the New York Young Republican National Federation. They were like her, young, ambitious and politically motivated to pave the way for women.

Hunter stayed living in Harlem with his mother and brothers. They needed him up there, about 100 blocks up from Madeline’s new place. He couldn’t move downtown, it was too far from his jobs and the community center where he worked. How could he change Harlem if he lived in Midtown? Even so, the couple made it work. They spent hours on the Subway going back and forth, sometimes even meeting halfway on the Upper East Side, despite the looks they got from elderly couples walking their poodles passed their door manned apartments and French cafes. They still welcomed each other into their different worlds. Hunter sometimes came down to midtown to meet Madeline and her colleagues for happy hours where they spent $10 on fancy cocktails and called that a deal. Hunter would hold a single beer the entire evening and smile as Madeline’s colleagues joked about the synergies they created for clients and complained about the limitations of analyzing data in Excel. On weekends Madeline traveled up to Harlem to visit the community center and listen to Hunter’s brother’s new rap tracks, while holding herself back from correcting his grammar. She tried to stay updated on the kids’ lives, remembering to ask about their parents, siblings and the drama they were having with friends. She only occasionally confused the stories of two different kids, who would chalk her confusion up to “White girl” brain, which they believed made it harder for her to understand their world.

It worked, there was no reason it wouldn’t for two people who were so in love. They tried to spend as many nights together as they could, even if for Hunter it meant getting up before dawn and commuting uptown for his early morning landscaping jobs. Madeline couldn’t stay at his place, there was no room there in the bed he shared with two brothers. When Madeline slept alone, she missed him. She missed his strong arm wrapped around her body and cupping her breasts. She missed the rhythm of his breath, which masked the sounds from the street below. She missed the feeling of his naked body pressed against hers, and the sweat they generated together, even in her apartment with a working air conditioning unit.

For that first year after Madeline graduated, everything was perfect. Madeline got her first promotion to Senior Consultant and she became more active in the YRNF. Instead of just attending events, she became part of the committee that planned them. She became closer with the leadership of the New York chapter and was even invited to a few exclusive meetings with prominent republican leaders. During these meetings, Madeline was always outspoken and shone bright among her peers who were more likely than her to spend time listening rather than speaking out. Soon, the New York Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and elderly white-haired man who had weekly calls with the party’s leadership, knew Madeline by name and often asked her opinions on specific policies and events that were important for the party. Madeline did well in the spotlight, so well, that she was invited into the inner circle of New York’s Republican leaders. At the age of 23, she was sitting in lounges, drinking scotch and discussing line items in the federal budget with fat men in ties. They liked her ideas and began discussing her future in the party. She’d run for New York Chairman of the YRNF next year, they decided. From there, she’d move on to run for office, in the state senate or the Federal House of Representatives. These were tough goals for a Republican in New York, a mostly democratic state, but Madeline was just what the country needed to see that Republicans weren’t all just old white men.

Hunter was proud of Madeline as her future in the Republican Party began to take shape. In the meantime, he also became more interested in politics and started reading more about the platforms of the republicans and democrats. While he had previously always felt that there was truth in the things Madeline believed, he started to find himself leaning more toward the Democratic platform, more social services, universal healthcare, and liberty for all. Didn’t Madeline believe in these things?

“Of course I do,” she’d respond. “But I don’t believe the federal government should be responsible for them. Why should I pay higher taxes because I work harder? I’m being punished for my hard work! Why do my earnings go to people who aren’t even trying to get jobs? And if we agree that these people do need help, the government is completely inefficient in providing that help. Let’s privatize social services. Privatize all healthcare. The government should do as little as possible and let corporations be in charge. Corporations live with balanced budgets and competition, making them much more efficient. Give them the power to help people in need.”

Hunter didn’t agree, but he kept his mouth shut. Maybe Madeline understood things he didn’t. After all, she had a degree in political science from Columbia University. Not to mention, she’d already spent years studying political issues while Hunter was just starting to learn about these things himself for the very first time.

Sometime that second year after Madeline graduated, the New York Republican leadership invited her to a social event. At this event, they wouldn’t be discussing legislation or policy, unless of course it came up organically, which it inevitably would!