What is this called? [Mayor blitz] Geebs

The small cafe was a solace in the madness of running for office. Tucked away in a corner near the beach, it had the best hot tea she ever had. They knew her order by heart, often already having it ready by the time she reached the front of the line. That was becoming more often as of late as she spent more time out in the district and less time with the kids at home.

However, her cup had long been drained as she poured over statistics of the district. She marked neighbors she had visited and color coded which candidate a household had announced they'd vote for.

"Althea Perch. It's nice to see you out and about. Feel up to a surf? I wouldn't mind teaching you?"

She froze, her small haven destroyed by Cover Merrick's voice. His hand touched her arm and it took everything within her power not to yank away from his touch.

He offered her coffee, and a conversation. She considered him for a moment, barefoot and suntanned, before finally agreeing.

"Sure, Cove. Let's talk."

Here we go.

Civil outside of the debates, as if they were chums beforehand. Cove ordered himself coffee, and Althea turned to the waitress and gave her a brief smile.

"Hot tea, please."

She looked back to the cafe companion, shuffling her papers into files seeing as she wouldn't be getting any work done now. Finally, Mr. Merrick's motive comes out.

"Work alongside?" she asked, caught off guard by the question. It sent a million thoughts flying through her head. Did Cove think he was going to lose and was begging for a job? Or did he think he was going to win and was extending an olive branch.

Honestly, the man was confounding.

"Cove, I'm afraid I don't understand," she said, her cold mask faltering. Her brow furrowed and she gave a nervous chuckle as she tried to process his words. "what exactly are you offering?"

The drinks arrived at just the right moment. Anger bloomed in mind at his words. The exact opposite. Her blood boiled as hot as her tea.

She grabbed the cup raising it to her lips. She closed her eyes taking in the soothing scent and letting the warm liquid pool on her tongue.

Calm down, Althea.

The woman gracefully sat the cup back down to the saucer and smiled at Cove.

Cove, Cove, Cove.

"Mr. Merrick, surely you see how insulting it is to insinuate that I am withdrawn from the public?" She refused to let her anger show on her face. Instead she only smiled, her eyes focused intently on his. She gripped her cup, lifting it from the table. "And even if that were true, one can become more talkative. It is significantly harder to figure out how to run a district."

Too mean, put a nice bit in there.

"But I'd be happy to try to teach you."

She smiled and took a sip of her tea.

She let the barb wash over her. Cove acted so sweet and nice, but he was full of passive aggressive bullshit. They didn't agree because Althea preferred to be straight forward with her opinions.

She put her cup down. As much as she wanted to keep her family away from Cove, she figured it was the safest point of conversation they could have without drawing blood.

"They're good. Growing up faster everyday," she said with a small smile. "Fabian is fine. Thankful for the peace lately. I almost feel bad for taking it away again."

Fabian had been a constant comforting presence these last couple of weeks. Every time she faltered he was there, wrapping her in his arms and soothing the stress building up in her chest.

He was sweet, she could never deny him that.

"What abut you? How's your family?"

Althea looked out the window at the small side street outside of the cafe. A few children rushed around the corner, laughing at some unheard joke.

"I'm running because life is unfair," she said, turning her gaze back to Cove. "My children have none of my strength, none of my drive or ambition. I'm afraid they're too soft for the world. I can't change them. I used to think I could but now I see, the only way I'll feel they're safe is, as trite as it sounds, to change the world instead."

She laughed, looking into her tea.

"As cold as I am I've always liked warm, soft things. Fabian, for instance. He's smooth and charming and everything I'm not. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't just see the world from my point of view anymore. I see it from people who didn't get to live like I did, and it looks so much harder than I thought. I want to fix it."