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Toni Jennings, private citizen, sat by the phone. She didn't think Jeb Bush would call.
As Florida's lieutenant governor told the story this week, she had voiced interest in replacing Frank Brogan last year as Gov. Bush's No. 2, subject to conditions. She did it through an intermediary - Sally Bradshaw, a Bush confidante.
Then, nothing. Only news stories mentioning other Republicans for the job.
"I'd pretty much decided that he was in some other place," Jennings said.
He did call, and she accepted. Now, after being part of the power structure for the past 14 months, Florida's first female lieutenant governor wants to be Florida's first female governor.
"The answer is yes. I'd like to be governor," Jennings told a questioner who asked if she wants the job.
It was a candid, spur-of-the-moment answer to a question she did not seem to expect. The crowd of 75 professional women applauded, and it was in the papers and on the wire the next day.
The Accenture Women's Leadership Forum at the cozy Governor's Club was, frankly, a Toni Jennings kind of crowd - politically active women who have succeeded in a political world dominated by men.
But Jennings didn't declare "I will run." And wanting to be governor and deciding to run are two different things.
Two other Republicans, Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, already have begun positioning themselves to run for governor in 2006.
It's only a few steps from the office of the "LG," as the job is known, to the governor's office on the Capitol's first floor. But they are worlds apart.
While Bush makes weighty policy decisions or flies off to Washington to see his brother, the president, Jennings is likely to be greeting a delegation from the Plant City Chamber of Commerce.
Bush said Friday his top political priority is getting his brother re-elected as president of the United States. He reiterated his view that talk about the 2006 governor's race should wait until after November.
"Discussions about future ambitions for her, and quite frankly for others, it's probably best to ask them afterwards," Bush said.
If Jennings ran, she would face very tough competition, and despite her relationship with Bush, her past positions might strike some primary voters as a little too centrist for their taste.
She advocated smaller classes before the amendment passed. She got along well with Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. She sought campaign finance reforms and limits on corrosive "soft money."
Some people are selling Jennings short because she abandoned a statewide race for treasurer in 2000. She admitted she didn't have the fire in the belly.
But consider her biography: Orlando native. Former school teacher. Successful manager of a family construction business. Two-term Senate president. Lieutenant governor. Trusted ally of Jeb Bush. Proven ability to work with people in both parties.
The more Jennings talked Wednesday, the more she relaxed. She was funny, joking about how, single at age 55, she's still looking for Mr. Right.
The day Jennings went for her interview with Bush, she said, she tiptoed into the second-floor press office to avoid drawing attention.
It didn't work. Standing there: The Times' Lucy Morgan. "I fabricated something. I danced around it," said Jennings, who quickly made up a cover story about her real reason for being there.
Women, she said, simply have to be better prepared than men.
"You go into a room, and half the time, you know you've got to be better versed than anybody else in the room, just for the mere fact that you're a woman," she said, adding: "Fortunately, that's not too hard."
Better not let Jeb Bush hear that.
- Steve Bousquet is the Times' deputy capital bureau chief in Tallahassee.