by Jason Letts
After flopping over on the map, Jane pushed herself up and get to the door. Through the peephole, it was difficult to see exactly who it was, but she had an idea from the black glasses and suit. When she opened the door, it was Dedan standing there with his hands clasped in front of him like he was standing alert at his station.
“Oh, hey, what’s going on?” she said. She’d been so preoccupied with her own situation and had divested herself of so much of her duties that she couldn’t even remember what Dedan's schedule looked like for the evening shift. Perhaps he’d decided to stop by on his own after work. She hadn’t been aware that he knew where she lived.
“Ms. Roe, please come with me,” he said as if they hadn’t seen each other a thousand times.
“You know you can call me Jane,” she said, but being expected to go out when she only had on some workout clothes bothered her more. Her first thought was that she was getting arrested for something, but being dragged back to headquarters to meet with the deputy director or some others seemed just as bad.
“Jane,” he said, some urgency in her voice. Whatever it was, she would have to find out.
“Yeah, let me just find something else to change into,” she said, trying to remember which of her boxes she’d stuffed her clothes.
“It’ll be alright. We should go now. Come on,” he said.
That he’d needed to tell her it would be alright made her more sure than ever that it wasn’t alright. Still, she knew better than most where resisting a member of the Uniformed Division led. At least she was able to grab her handbag with her phone before closing the door on her way out.
She followed Dedan along the hallway and down the stairs to the ground floor. New questions constantly appeared in her mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to say any of them to the man’s back.
Her building’s front doors gave way to the dark street, where lights reflected against the sleek roof of one of the Secret Service’s limos. Jane stopped, still trying to puzzle it out. Odds were they wouldn’t be carting her away to a holding center in this thing, but there weren’t too many people who could just drive them around taking people for rides here and there either.
Dedan stood by the vehicle and pulled open one of the rear doors. Laughing to herself, Jane thought she was being treated like a protectee for a moment.
“Thank you,” she said to Dedan as she got in.
The limo’s cab was otherwise unoccupied. As she sunk into the plush seating, she recalled that the last time she’d been in something like this was the time when she’d kissed Alex. It seemed like a distant memory, one that remained with her as the vehicle started to move.
She asked where they were going but got no response. Fortunately she knew the layout of D.C. well enough that she was able to quickly put together their destination. Somehow in this town all roads led to the White House, but she couldn’t sort out why she was going there. And why now?
Taking a deep breath, she started to put it together. The men in her detail had gotten wind that Vale had thrown the OIG report into the dustbin, and they were carting her down to their office at W-16 for a surprise celebration. It was good she’d waited on the ice cream, since they’d expect her to eat cake. Peering at the back of Dedan’s head through the tinted glass, she smirked. These were good guys to work with. She’d miss them.
Her theory only grew firmer as the limo eschewed the main gate for the special West Wing entrance, a narrow drive ending in a tight loop. Dedan opened her door once they’d come to a stop, and she was whisked into the building without so much as a sniff from any of the other agents at their stations.
But instead of dropping down the stairs, they led her past the press secretary’s room and around the cabinet room. The next thing she knew she was being nudged out into the Rose Garden. Dedan was no longer following her. They must’ve pulled some special favors if they were going to spring their surprise party on her here.
Scant light filtered through from inside the White House, just enough to allow her to see the blooming roses, true to season. Once her eyes adjusted, she spotted a shadowy figure lurking in the rear of the enchanting space. There would be no party, no celebration, no cake. This was something else.
Her heart skipped a beat. All of this was so that she could be brought to see President Alex Morrin.
15
The Rose Garden
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC
If Jane hadn’t been back and forth from the White House so many times in the course of her work, it may not have been so unexpected to bump into the president here. But she’d been brought here specifically, secretively to meet with him, and she could scarcely imagine the reason why. As tempting as he was, if he had called her over for his next one-night stand he was going to find himself disappointed. That wasn’t her shtick.
Slowly stepping forward along the manicured lawn beside the blooming pastel roses, she approached the man in the shadows, drawn to him but wary. His back was to her, but he had to know she was growing near as the grass crinkled under her feet. His dark suit, the dirty blonde hair, she could see it more clearly now. Jane was close enough to hear his heavy breathing.
All she could do was cross her arms and wait for him to come out with it. The powers of the presidency had compelled her to reach this point, but those powers only went so far. He wasn’t the type to dally or second-guess, so the longer they stood there the more Jane read into it that this was important. That it meant something to him.
“Jackie Kennedy planted these roses in 1962,” he said, reaching out to hold one and then letting it go.
“Your fascination with JFK appears again,” she said. If Alex had a predecessor in the young and handsome president department, JFK might have been the only logical choice, though Alex exceeded him handily in both. But Jane was sure Alex didn’t keep the 35th president top of mind to serve as a role model. It was the assassination that stayed with him, the need for a constant reminder that he was in danger from both lucid adversaries and fanatics who’d love to see him dead.
Alex shifted, turning to her and giving her sight of his face for the first time. He looked anguished, shaken, but his resolve seemed to grow stronger when he saw her.
“Does anyone know you’re here?”
“No.”
“Do you know what this is about?”
“Yes,” she said, reading it off of his face.
“What?”
“You need something.”
Hanging his head and laughing to himself, Alex then took a deep breath and stepped closer, giving her a better glimpse of his brown eyes, which were fixed on her.
“That’s true in a manner of speaking. Do you remember when you said that if I don’t like the news I should do something to change it?”
“I recall that, yes,” Jane said, though her guesses about his intentions grew murkier. Knowing when a man like him wanted a woman was easy, and she was prepared to accept the evidence on its face that he did want her, but there was something else to it that made her think the manner in which he wanted her wasn’t as usual as such things often were.
“I don’t know if I would’ve run if I’d known things would be like this. I wanted to be president, not fodder for gossip blogs and tabloids. I’m laughingstock of the Hill, my Family Benefits Plan is dead, and even my closest advisers tell me to expect things to get worse. They think there’s no way out of this trap, that there’s nothing I can do. They’re wrong. I need to do something,” he said, his chest rising and falling with each breath.
“Yes, you do,” Jane said, though she couldn’t have guessed why he was telling her any of this. It sounded like what he needed was a political mastermind, something she most pointedly was not.
“What I can do is restore confidence, restore stability, but I can’t do that alone. If I had just one person firmly on my side, someone people could look to and say, hey, she believes in him, that could change everything. The love and strength of that bond fo
r presidents spill over into everything they do and is magnified a million times over,” he said.
Jane looked at him strangely and in awe, at once beginning to see but also speechless about what he was beginning to get at. He took another glance at her and nodded.
“But I can’t afford to waste more time with breakups, hookups, or finding the right person when women see my job but not who I am. I can’t let my one shot at this get ruined by another embarrassing interview throwing me under the bus for her own attention-seeking. I need to get it right the first time and right now,” he said.
Jane was breathing heavily. She saw what he was leading up to and was terrified of it.
“Alex…”
“Jane, you are beautiful and unassuming and discreet and trustworthy. People would buy it if they saw us together. I need you to play this part. You said yourself that we are more than our jobs. It’s time for the real you to step forward so that we can move the country forward. The only catch is that no one can know about our arrangement,” he said.
Her heart was getting caught in her throat, and it took a few deep breaths to bat it back down. Was he really suggesting that they pretend to be in a relationship to shore up his standing as president? What would that even mean, and would it work? But as much as Alex had opened the door to something that seemed beyond belief, doubts and the truth she’d hidden from him ate away at her composure.
“I don’t think I’m the right person for this,” she said, stammering. He grew more pained when she didn’t immediately agree.
“What are you talking about? You’d be perfect. I need someone who can stick with me and support me, not undermine me by blabbing to reporters about anything. You were right when you said you could keep a secret. And from our rides I could tell that we’d get along well enough. There has to be something you want that you’d be able to get,” he said, and she could tell from how their eyes were locked that what she wanted most was him, but that wasn’t being offered in the terms.
“What I want?” Jane cried. “What about what you want? Don’t you want to actually be in a relationship with someone who cares about you? How am I supposed to go through the motions and act like I’m with someone who only wants me to help his reputation?”
Alex scratched his head and looked to the side.
“I mean, we kissed. I’m attracted to you and am impressed with how witty and clever you are. I realize this is unusual, jumping the gun and going straight into something like this, but I don’t have a choice.”
Jane sighed, the reasons why this could be a terrible idea only growing in number as she thought more about it.
“You know why it’s a bad idea to build a house with no foundation, right? What happens if you decide you don’t like me? You hardly know anything about me. What happens if I don’t like you?”
Everything she was saying echoed what she’d told Bethany Morrin before she left the White House. It was one thing for Jane to then tell Bethany should find ways to be content with her position even if the love and affection wasn’t there, but now that Jane was confronted with the same choice she didn’t know if she could do it either. At least Alex was adamant about his idea.
“Are you saying you don’t like me?” he asked.
“No,” she said, caught off-guard. She didn’t have time to think about what to say. It had to come from her heart. “You’re dedicated and optimistic. You believe in things and want to make the country better. You’re grounded and you believe in yourself. I think any woman would be proud to be with you, because it matters to you that you do the right thing.”
“Then why won’t you just say yes?”
Jane shut her eyes. All of this was heart-wrenching. A part of her wanted to just agree. There was an impulse to do whatever he wanted, but she couldn’t get over her doubts.
“Because I’m not the right person for you.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“I didn’t vote for you.”
The way he looked at her with his lips slightly parted and his eyes darting back and forth, studying her face, told her he’d been struck by what she said, something she knew deep down would happen. If she couldn’t do the simplest, most basic thing for him, there was no way he could expect her to do anything else. The buzzing, nervous energy she was feeling turned into a cold sweat. The chances of them finding a way to get onto the same track seemed to drop precipitously.
“What? Why?” he asked.
Jane dropped her head and kicked at the grass with her left foot, unable to look at him.
“I don’t know. I guess I thought former President Ainsley Walsh was the one I was working for and who I had to support. When I listened to your speeches, you said some interesting things, but it all seemed too good to be true. I couldn’t tell if you were being sincere,” she said.
It felt colder for a moment, and the awkward pause that followed made Jane feel like she’d seen the other side of something but had managed to pull herself back. So many others would’ve held their tongues and said whatever he wanted to hear to take him up on his offer, but she couldn’t do it unless it really all worked.
Alex was there next to her like he’d been on the rides, strong and alluring, but he shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Shifting slightly, it looked like he was about to turn his back on her and leave, but then he twisted back to her, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her against him.
He pressed his lips against hers, hard at first and then softer when she didn’t resist. His strong and overpowering presence felt right and seemed to clear away all of the clouds that had been hanging over them. Being wanted and being recognized had been what she was looking for. Setting aside what her support could do for him, maybe if he believed in her she could find a way to raise her voice and say something that mattered.
His smell, his taste, the feel of his hand against her back, she didn’t want any of it to stop. Jane was growing lightheaded and couldn’t think clearly, but she might’ve only been recognizing that she’d been that way the entire time since stepping into the garden. When he pulled away from her, all she could focus on were his lips and how she wanted more.
“Was that sincere?” he asked with a grin.
“Yes,” she said, taking a deep breath.
He furrowed his brow, some of the anguish from before their kiss creeping back onto his face.
“I know the job part can’t be completely separated, but I meant what I said before. I’m not asking you to work with me. I want you to be with me, and yes some of it will have to get figured out as we go along. But if you can just be there for me, there’s no telling what I’ll be able to do,” he said.
The precipice was there in front of her again, and with it came such a deep and unknowable abyss. The glare of the spotlight, the scrutiny, the people talking and saying things about her that they knew to be untrue, going from being the one who watched from the shadows to being the one others watched. But it wasn’t lost on her that she’d be tying her fate to his, and that his problems would become hers in a way she couldn’t control. More than ever she’d be at the mercy of pure chance and the way of the world.
But the giddy feeling and the tingling of her lips wiped away her concerns. Come what may. She would tackle it with Alex.
“Alright,” she said, and he did a double-take as if he couldn’t really believe that he’d managed to convince her.
“And maybe along the way I’ll persuade you to vote for me next time.”
Jane laughed loudly enough for it to echo throughout the garden.
“I’ll keep an open mind. That’s what I always try to do,” she said.
Even though her heart was beating fast, she began to realize the evening was getting colder. He noticed when she rubbed the sides of her arms. The workout clothes she wore were not nearly enough for a frosty spring night.
“Let’s get inside,” he said.
They walked through the garden side by side, and when they stepped
back into the White House Jane felt like she could already sense the difference. Being around Alex was disarming and empowering at the same time, but regardless of the arrangement they’d come to the moment would have to end sooner or later.
“We’ll see what the next step is. At least the ride back won’t be long. I’ll have to get used to riding in limos like these,” she said, glancing down the hallway that would take her back the way she came in.
But her attention got jerked away when Alex took her hand and gave it a tug.
“I don’t think so. If we’re going to do this, you’ve got to play the part.”
He pulled her in another direction, and as they passed the Roosevelt Room and the Presidential Dining Room, Jane began to gather where he was taking her. The stairwell was around the next corner, leading up to the Residence.
His warm hand sent her signals that he wasn’t finished after that kiss, and along the way they passed Secret Service agents she knew and had overseen one after the other. They would all know what was happening, what she and him were doing. She’d have to tell Vale that she’d found herself a new position after all.
The last agent standing outside the thick mahogany doors leading inside the Residence on the second floor was Evans. Jane had always been the type to keep her secrets, especially when it might make others uncomfortable, but part of the deal had to be coming to terms with how him and the other agents would hear every moan and grunt that came out of their mouths.
Evans was still as a statue when Jane gave him the slightest nod as Alex pulled her through the doorway.
On the other side, with the door shut, Jane marveled at what she was seeing. From the crystal chandeliers, the grand piano, the beautifully upholstered couches, and the generally tidy and tasteful decor, it was hard not to be swept away by arguably the most exclusive living space in the world. The stunning windows with their arched shape looked out over D.C. and the mall in a way that made it seem like it all belonged to him.
