Slowly, she turned in a 180 degree arc. They were rapturous for her, that was clear.

Jennifer beamed as it finally sunk in for her. The trip had, after all the fears and worries on her part, been a success.

All those late nights working on scripts. The long caffeine infused days in the office with Greg and Sean, running over the options and finally making decisions on the way they might phrase certain things.

Leaving just enough ambiguity to give them wriggle room later, whilst being strong enough to withstand even the closest scrutiny from the media.

There were over a thousand people in the room. Mostly the smiles on their faces were as broad as her own. Here and there she saw a frown, but she felt that was more due to something irrelevant to the rally. A spilt coffee, maybe. Or an urgent text of some sort. No-one in their right minds would be concerned about the presentation she had just pulled off.

Even though she felt it herself – and who, after all, was she to judge – deep down, it had gone very well indeed.

There was only a certain length of time she could accept their applause, but she had a few minutes to wait yet, for they were still going strong. Flowers were now being brought on and, she reflected, she would prefer a stiff martini right now. Elated that it was over, this keynote of all keynotes to get that ball rolling again.

Eventually, she was able to escape, through the audience, of course, for there was still a lot of palm pressing to do. Many of the people present had made the donations that had gotten her where she was on that balmy evening in Detroit.

That evening to complete the tour of States that had been entirely whistle-stop and that was now the success it seemed it would be when they started, despite the hand-wringing over the minutiae that had kept them all up so often.

Or not quite complete. For there was one last, and vital show to round off the travels.

But that was tomorrow and thinking about that could wait, important though it was, for tonight was one night to celebrate. The last big night before the votes would take place.

***

Up until that night, Jennifer had been quite virtuous in her behaviours on the road. She appreciated that the hard work she was putting in – and God, it had been hard – required full focus at all times.

She was, despite the challenges of the last few months, quite a homely girl and driven though she was as every modern politician must be, she loved nothing more than an early night and a good book.

Back home in Boston, cold winter nights, a blazing log fire and hot chocolate would be the way to sum up a dream evening for Jennifer McLaughlin. And Jim, of course, there to hold her hand when tough got too tough and she needed a hug or two.

But tonight, the last night – at least in real terms – of the long energy-sapping coast to coast, Jennifer made a mistake that she was going to undo all the good that she and the team had put in. For tonight, Jennifer decided to stay with the party and have some fun.

The conference center was set close to downtown and their hotel for the night was barely a walk. But Presidential candidates did not walk far, unless the media team deemed it was valuable, so the cavalcade made its way up the street quickly and the key players disembarked.

The guys on the team rarely partied either, but after the adrenaline of that night, they were on the home run, that’s for sure, so they were ready for the bar.

Because of the nature of the people present, the hotel had been delighted to provide some private facilities in the shape of a large meeting room set up as a bar.

There was a little light music playing and a small, select number of attendees from the presentation made their way there too. Perfect for a wedding reception perhaps, on any other evening.

Normally, Jennifer would eschew such events, partly because of her penchant for quiet nights in, but also because she got a bit fed up of meeting and greeting. The rictus smile on her face wasn’t natural, she had to work at it.

But tonight, she felt that they were there; job done, despite that final meeting tomorrow, so she decided to show up herself.

Now, there were times when she felt that her presence might intimidate her people simply by being there, but she decided to get over that and have a little fun with them.

She wouldn’t stay long.

***

What caused her to feel that way, she would never know. It simply came over her unexpectedly, two martinis in. She didn’t feel ill, or groggy, or even elated, but she did sense that all of a sudden her inhibitions were slipping away.

There was only one occasions where Jennifer could recall feeling this way and that was on one memorable night in college, over 20 years ago, which had not ended at all well.

Not for Eliot, anyway. For the next morning, her was found floating, face down in the nearby lake. And Jennifer knew how he got there too.

So as that sense of irresponsibility poured into her, Jennifer’s strong sense of awareness should – and normally would – have kicked in.

But for some reason that is not clear to this day, all that Jennifer wanted was to party some more, which was not only out of keeping with her personal desires, but also not exactly what would be expected of someone in her position of fragility and sensitivity in that very moment in her career.

Moments later, she found herself on the dance floor. No one in her party knew who the guy was who dragged her there, but for all to see, Jennifer was really enjoying herself with him.

Security was, as might be imagined, high for such a figure as Jennifer and on an evening like this, with so many people present outside the normal circle, they were very alert indeed.

So, as she was cavorting in a rather sensual manner on the dance floor with her new partner, there were a lot of eyes on Jennifer and many of them were not enjoying what they saw.

There was the concern over her wellbeing to take into account, but this was split in several directions.

The security detail were concerned about the unknown guy who was now rather more than flirting with Jennifer. The media team were more concerned about who might be sharing the evening with the world via their iPhones. The strategy team were concerned about what the ‘next day’ implications might be.

Husband Jim wasn’t happy either.

Earlier that day he’d finally felt that he was surplus to requirements on the team. Normally, he was pretty laid back about being second fiddle, but on this occasion, he had been pushed a little too far and despite discussions including Jennifer, he had felt shunned and disrespected.

Now she was slithering closer and closer to this unknown man who was, quite frankly beginning to irritate him.

***

Suddenly, the couple on whom so many eyes had rested were missing. Gone. It was like the floor had opened up beneath them. They had disappeared in the melee of flickering lights from the disco and no-one could see them.

Suddenly, the place was in pandemonium, as any number of vested interests sought Jennifer and the mystery man out.

But they were nowhere to be found.

The search widened and for two hours, no-one had any idea of what had happened to that highest of high profiles in the country right now.

Not until they studied the CCTV outputs very carefully, were they able to discern what happened to Jennifer McLaughlin that night.

And it wasn’t good.

***

But Jennifer McLaughlin knew where she was two hours later alright. She was in another part of town in the good hands of Eliot, who she last saw face down in a lake near her college dorm, all those years ago.

Despite all the promise of what was to come, on this night of all nights, Jennifer had taken off with the love of her life, who had, unbelievably shown up after all this time.

In her shock and surprise, she had more – much more – than forgotten herself and all she stood for.

And run off with him.

She would stay with Eliot. Now and forever and simply drift away from her life to the one she desired all that time ago and thought she had lost forever.

Her people could do what they liked with the shattered remains of a million dreams and she quit.

What would they do? Now, in the arms of her long-lost lover, she didn’t care at all.

She knew, of course that they would track her down and come after her, for so much was tied up in the future that Jenifer held for them all, but she would resist. She and Eliot would resist, together and as for her commitments, well, they would just have to work through it.

Not least in the vital meeting the next day with Mr President.

Maybe they would lie for her. Tell him she had a sore throat. Or maybe, if one of then were brave enough, tell him that she had quit, and run off with a long-lost lover.

Or maybe not.