Life With Nia | ONC 2020

Chapter 9 | Part I

September 25th, 2019

Five months into the campaign, I can't remember the names of most of the Harris staffers. Ever since some of the more well-known candidates started dropping out, we've gotten an influx of aides and volunteers. The biggest surge came after Congresswoman Scott exited the race last week. A few weeks ago, that would have come as a surprise, but with the death of her husband last month, it was simply a matter of when she would gracefully bow out to grieve in peace.

When she announced the suspension of her campaign on Thursday, she endorsed Senator Harris and left 800 staffers looking for work in the aftermath. As far as I know, 40 of them have joined the Harris campaign thus far. I've met some of them, but there was no one whose name I didn't forget five minutes later until I met one of the new hires at the D.C. headquarters this afternoon.

I was heading to the senator's office, making my way down one of several aisles of cubicles. I had a folder in my hand, and I was trying to read the draft of the speech I had inside, but I kept moving my eyes to the floor – don't you remember what you almost stepped on last week?

I wouldn't have looked up and noticed him if I hadn't gotten frustrated with myself and paused next to his desk to read the last line of the speech. I saw him moving out of the corner of my eye, and I glanced over to find him getting tangled up in the cables on his desktop. His left hand and part of his arm was tied up in an HDMI cord, and he was using his right hand, which he'd managed to wrap up in the power cable, to search for something on the Internet. It was a complete mess, the epitome of confusion, but his expression was one of intense concentration.

"Darnell," I said.

He lost focus and got himself tangled up some more. I covered my mouth to muffle my laughter, but there was no use.

"Nia," he said. He tried to look annoyed, but he broke as soon as he saw my face, and he started laughing, too. "Can you give me a hand?"

We got him untied within a minute or two. Then, I helped him put the cables back where they belonged.

"Nia James, you saved me from myself," he said, once we got the computer working correctly. He turned to me and smiled. "How can I ever repay you?"

"I like food," I said, jokingly, without realizing what I was insinuating.

"Tacos?" He leaned against the desk.

It was then that I realized I'd sounded like I was asking him to ask me on a date. "Wait, Darnell, I didn't—."

"Relax, Nia." He chuckled. "I'm not asking you on a date." He jabbed his thumb at the cubicle to his left, where I saw a young woman staring at her computer screen; she was on the Harris campaign site. "Ronnie was an IT strategist on the Scott campaign. She would host these weekly get-togethers for the staffers, and she's having one tonight. I thought you might like to be there, to get to know them outside of work."

No, you wouldn't, I told myself. They're going to be doing things you don't like, and then you'll leave, and they won't like you. But even though my head said no, my gut said yes. "When and where?"

"Ronnie's apartment. Nine o'clock."

"Okay, text me the address. Whether or not I show depends on this—." I held up the folder with the senator's speech inside. "—getting the okay from the senator."

We ended up working on the speech much longer than I'd anticipated, but I still managed to leave the office in time to get to Ronnie's apartment. I was still in my work clothes, and normally I'd want to go home and change because who wears slacks and a button-up to a party, but I told myself that getting there late would increase the chances of me encountering something I don't like.