"Give a girl a ride?"

I reach over and open the door.

"Hop in. How'd it go?"

"How do you think it went?"

When Ann says that she's got the cat that ate the canary smile. Scratch that. She's wearing a cat that ate the entire aviary smile.

"I think it went very well. Am I thinking correctly?"

"You would be right."

"I'm always right."

Ann hops in and closes the door with a firm grip. Her perfume lingers in the air and her aqua sweater makes her look more collegiate than pundit. I put the Aston Martin in drive.

"Okay..spill the details."

"I endorsed Hillary."

"Good girl! How about McCain?"

"He's blasted out of the water. Totally. In fact, he's so far from the water he would need to walk fifty miles to get back in it."

"Excellent. Did I ever tell you how sexy you are when you complete a mission?"

"I bet you say that to all your Tech girls.."

Ann grabs my thigh and gives it a quick pinch.

The phone in her Gucci purse rings. She pulls it out of the leather cell phone pocket eagerly.

"Hello?"

I look at her and she looks at me and smiles. I pick up speed and make a quick right at the McDonalds entrance. There are three cars ahead of us.

Ann plugs her phone into the speaker cradle mounted on the Aston's center console and suddenly the car's stereo speakers come to life.

"..and after your performance on Hannity and Colmes, I wanted to thank you. You do know that Obama will be my running mate?"

"Yes, I figured as much. He will open up a large demographic for you, but you better keep him an eye on him after you win."

"He's no worse than Bill. He'll be on a short leash."

I laugh out loud.

"Who's that? Is that Tech1?"

"Yes, Hello Hillary, Ann put you on speaker phone in the car, it's pretty noisy here. Congratulations on the debate, we're rooting for you."

"Thanks, ten box tickets to the inaugural will be your X-mas gift this year."

"I still haven't opened the case of Dom Perignon you sent me back in 1996. I wanted to thank you for that, and for keeping SDAI in the black budget."

"We both want what's best for America. Ann...I owe you a big one. Bill called me and was laughing so hard he started crying. I'm enroute to another campaign stop and need to catch a few winks, but I wanted to thank you again."

"It was my pleasure Hillary. Give Bill a big kiss from me."

I laugh again and hear Hillary laughing. Ann is laughing too.

The connection ends and Ann removes her phone from the speaker cradle and returns it to her purse.

As the car ahead of us pulls forward I ease the Aston up to the speaker.

"Hi, May I take your order?"

"Yes. we'd like two super size Diet cokes. Easy on the ice."

"Thank you that will be 3.73 at the next window."

The sun streams down through the windshield some of it reflecting off the red polished hood and catches Ann's aqua sweater, which glows in the light. I look at Ann and smile. Underneath her tough exterior lies the soft heart of a woman who is doing what she can for America. Ann looks back at me...and sees I'm thinking about her softer side.

"Did I ever tell you, you're brilliant?"

"Once or twice."

"Your plan was perfect. Hillary now loves you. Heck, Bill probably loves you."

"Ah but there is another..."

"I was getting around to that..."

She unfastens her seatbelt and slides on top of the center console...

"I'm parched."

I hand her the drink and she takes one big sip and sets it down in the chrome cupholder.

"I still am unquenched..."

I pull out of the McDonalds, holding my drink in one hand and steering with the other, Ann's behind is right beside me and I thank god it's still going to be a long time till the inauguration.

;-)