Gina T

Marrying a polarizing congressman-elect would be a tall task for anyone. Marrying a polarizing congressman-elect who doesn’t have legs is an entirely different story.

The night Gina met Mason, she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road.  He was 13 White Claw’s in at the local Sam Hunt concert and he wouldn’t stop singing Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”.   It also didn’t help that he was smacking the ass of every man and woman that walked by him, young and old.

When they made eye contact, he drunkenly waved her to the bar.  She was buzzed and in urgent need of another drink and didn’t think twice about walking over.

“Who are you here with?” Mason said, making fists bumps in the air while he spun around in his wheelchair.

Gina turned around and pointed to her boyfriend Gary, who was glaring at them from a table beside the mechanical bull.  Gary was 5’4 and sold headphones at Radio Shack.  He was wearing a pink Old Navy polo with the collar popped and hadn’t had a haircut in over 2 months.  He also hadn’t shaved in 12 days.  No secret about it, she was out of his league but it didn’t matter to Gina because he treated her with respect. On top of the respect Gary gave her, she was guaranteed a dinner at Applebees every other Saturday and was crazy about the mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers.  Applebees was Gary’s happy place and sometimes he’d have a virgin Miami Vice if he had worked overtime and had the extra cash.  If he was feeling really good, he’d even tip the server a 5 spot.

When she looked back at Mason, he was holding a kamikaze shot in one hand and a vodka tonic in the other.  “Drink up, you’re coming home with me tonight” Mason said, checking out the ass on the older man beside of her.

She didn’t go home with Mason that night, but within 2 weeks, Gary was an afterthought.

Mason was handsome and ambitious.  Gary was unattractive, unambitious and had a horrible case of erectile dysfunction that he was unable to get checked out because he didn’t have health insurance.

Unbeknownst to Gina, Mason had been prepping a run for Congress the last 9 months and needed a hot and consistent piece of ass beside him at campaign events.   She was perfect for that role.

Chuck Stevens was a tall and overweight bald man of about 50 who had been hired as Mason’s campaign manager.  Chuck only had experience in small and local county races but Mason didn’t give a shit because he was cheap and knew how to keep his mouth shut.  After all, it was Mason Cochran running for Congress, not Chuck Stevens.  Chuck’s job was to book events and get Mason to those events—that was it.  Mason’s nickname for Chuck was ‘No Luck Chuck’ because every time they’d stop for a piss, Chuck always bought a scratcher and never hit. Mason always laughed at this. Turns out ‘No Luck Chuck’ had a very serious gambling problem.

Gina cared about two things:  Old people and her image.  When she wasn’t pulling doubles at the hospital, she was conditioning her body at Soul CrossFit.  Gary always questioned the amount of time she spent at the gym, but Mason encouraged the hell out of it.  Between campaign meetings, he’d spin down to the gym to get a couple reps in on the bench.  “Gotta get that ass ready for the big stage baby,” he’d tell her while he checked out the talent in the circuit circle.

Gina’s relationship with Mason quickly brought local and national exposure. That exposure drove her Instagram follower count from 500 to over 50000, and it happened almost overnight.  The first thing Gina did when she opened her eyes every morning was check her like and comment count.  The dopamine rush became so intense that her body no longer required coffee in the morning and she started dedicating the first 15 minutes of her day to taking selfies.  She loved playing around with poses and wouldn’t hesitate to post multiple pictures at a time.  One day she got a little carried away and took 600 selfies and her phone overheated and blacked out.  Panicked, she ran to her bedroom, laid down on her bed and took 7 deep breaths.  She opened her eyes and looked down at the cross that was tattooed on her forearm and knew the Lord would make a way.  Turns out he made a way quickly, and when she looked at her phone it was back on and wouldn’t stop flashing from all the likes and comments she was getting on her latest post.  She quickly jumped out of bed and ran back into the bathroom and took another selfie. She took 140 more selfies that day.

Mason had to make a decision about his future with Gina and it needed to happen ASAP.  It was either get married or lead her on for a couple more months until he was in office and drop her.  The latter was more attractive because there were a few boys around town that he had his eyes on and a trainer at the gym named Pamela that he couldn’t stop thinking about.  There were times when he even fantasized about putting them all together in a hotel suite in Vegas for a weekend.   Unfortunately, Mason’s mom wouldn’t let him take the last option and his hand was forced.  He had Chuck go online the next day and find the best looking 5 carat cubic zirconia he could find and had it overnighted to his campaign office. Two days later, Mason crossed his fingers and nearly fell out of his wheelchair when he asked for Gina’s hand in marriage.

12 months later, Gina was out of Mason’s picture and Mason was out of Gina’s selfies.