rp for mutantwatch
When she asked for advice on the subject of dating, she had been told "practice makes perfect."
This seemed true enough, and would have worked fine if Martha wasn't too skiddish to go out and find someone to practice with. Instead, she has turned to her fellow senator from Kansas, who in the last year or so has proven to be perhaps her only true friend in this cutthroat, impersonal shell of a city. If she's going to practice on anyone, no pressure, it was going to be him. As always, Robert Kelly seems more than happy to help.
They chose a night when his wife was busy with their young son at one of those "Mommy and Me" classes that Martha herself had to miss out on with Clark. They had, of course, cleared the whole endeavor with her beforehand, otherwise Martha never would have felt comfortable stealing her husband away for an evening.
That day, she had spent nearly an hour on the phone with Lois trying to decide what to wear. Not that Lois was really the best person to ask about fashion. Platonic though the date was, the whole point was to practice for the real thing, and that meant looking at least somewhat presentable. Of course - and she should have predicted this - her meeting with the majority whip had run over and by the time she reached her apartment, she hardly had any time at all to mold herself into something attractive. Somehow she ends up in this, at the fervid insistence of Lois, who repeatedly - and crassly - notes that in order to get back up on that horse, she has to look like she really wants a ride. Though of course she feels enormously self-conscious and embarrassed doing so. But then, it's only Robert.
As if she wasn't late already, her car takes the opportunity to break down, for the first time since she arrived in Washington. And it's Friday night; impossible to get a cab in Dupont Circle. Thus, she wound up taking the underground Metro. Yes, a U.S. Senator on the subway.
Rushing toward the restaurant - a posh yet quiet little place just off M Street in Georgetown - she hopes to god she isn't too late as she steps inside and looks around for him.
This seemed true enough, and would have worked fine if Martha wasn't too skiddish to go out and find someone to practice with. Instead, she has turned to her fellow senator from Kansas, who in the last year or so has proven to be perhaps her only true friend in this cutthroat, impersonal shell of a city. If she's going to practice on anyone, no pressure, it was going to be him. As always, Robert Kelly seems more than happy to help.
They chose a night when his wife was busy with their young son at one of those "Mommy and Me" classes that Martha herself had to miss out on with Clark. They had, of course, cleared the whole endeavor with her beforehand, otherwise Martha never would have felt comfortable stealing her husband away for an evening.
That day, she had spent nearly an hour on the phone with Lois trying to decide what to wear. Not that Lois was really the best person to ask about fashion. Platonic though the date was, the whole point was to practice for the real thing, and that meant looking at least somewhat presentable. Of course - and she should have predicted this - her meeting with the majority whip had run over and by the time she reached her apartment, she hardly had any time at all to mold herself into something attractive. Somehow she ends up in this, at the fervid insistence of Lois, who repeatedly - and crassly - notes that in order to get back up on that horse, she has to look like she really wants a ride. Though of course she feels enormously self-conscious and embarrassed doing so. But then, it's only Robert.
As if she wasn't late already, her car takes the opportunity to break down, for the first time since she arrived in Washington. And it's Friday night; impossible to get a cab in Dupont Circle. Thus, she wound up taking the underground Metro. Yes, a U.S. Senator on the subway.
Rushing toward the restaurant - a posh yet quiet little place just off M Street in Georgetown - she hopes to god she isn't too late as she steps inside and looks around for him.