DUTCH AND GINA: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE

by Monroe, Mallory

  And then she thought about the good Crader, and how much care and devotion he gave to her and to their child. And maybe, just maybe. . . But then she shook her head. No! She wasn’t sugarcoating it this time. She wasn’t pretending it was something it was not. Crader knew he had slept with Shannon Corcoran, but he wanted her around. Yes, Shannon was a good choice to be his chief of staff, and LaLa was sure some of that was the reason he had hired her. But another reason, LaLa was beginning to believe, was that she also happened to be very attractive to look at. So he conveniently forgot to mention that small fact to LaLa when he was telling her about his new chief of staff. That was the truth of it, LaLa felt. She was never going to be so blinded by love that she made herself blind too.

  That was why, as soon as the surge of self-pity and anguish and pain began to bubble up inside of her, she made up her mind. She wasn’t going to allow it to fester. She wasn’t going down that road of pain ever again! She left the West Wing. She had to talk to somebody. Somebody she knew would understand.

  She needed Dutch and Gina.

  She took the elevator to the third floor and made her way to the Residence. The usher at the door opened it for her. The president had given her and Crader carte blanche inside the Residence. They were the only people, outside of the First Family, with the privilege to come and go as they pleased.

  LaLa knew Gina had already left town, but Dutch was still around. “Is the president in?” she asked the young man.

  “No ma’am. And the First Lady has left for Newark.”

  “Yes, I know. I was hoping I could talk. . . Thank-you, John, that’ll be all,” she said and entered the Residence. She needed time alone and this was as good a place as any. She closed the door behind her.

  It was almost midnight by the time Dutch made it home. He looked in on Little Walt and his Nanny, both of whom were fast asleep, and then he made his way down the corridor to the presidential suite.

  But he heard the shower running in the guest room across the hall. Since he knew he had no guest, he went up to the door and knocked. When no one answered, he entered the room. Was Gina back already? But then why would she be in the guest bathroom, he thought.

  “Hello?” he asked as the shower continued to roar.

  Then he heard the sounds. At first the water was drowning it out, but then the crying was more apparent.

  And all Dutch could think about was Gina, and the fact that she was in that guest room to hide her tears.

  He hurried to the bathroom. The crying was now uncontrollably loud.

  “Gina?” he asked and hurried to the stall. “Gina?”

  Without hesitating, he pulled open the stall. No one was standing there. But LaLa, in the back corner of the stall, was seated on the floor naked, soaking wet, and crying her eyes out.

  Dutch’s heart rammed against his chest. He immediately turned off the water tap and hurried into the stall. He lifted her into his arms, and she sobbed in his arms. He desperately wanted to know what had happened, but she was too inconsolable for him to even ask.

  He, instead, just held her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  In Newark, at the Harber estate, Gina stretched her tired body and yawned. She and Roman had been at it all afternoon, going over every aspect of BBR’s success and areas in need of improvement, and both of them were well exhausted.

  They sat side by side at the conference table inside Gina’s home office, and documents covered the tabletop. Roman looked at Gina. She still remained his shining example of the woman of his dreams.

  “You know what you need?” he said with that sly, but infinitely charming smile. “You need a massage.”

  Gina smiled too. “Oh, really now?”

  “I’m not kidding, G.”

  “Oh yes you are if you think you’ll be giving me any massage.”

  “I give great massages! What’s wrong with me giving you one?”

  “Let me see,” Gina said. “Walter Harber, my husband, may just have a little problem with that.”

  Roman laughed. “You think?”

  “I think, yes.”

  Roman threw up his hands. “Can’t fault a brother for trying.”

  Gina pushed his arm playfully with her hand. “Back to work, brother,” she said.

  Roman nodded. He was actually pleased she wasn’t so easily lead. When that right time came, and Dutch Harber no longer had his hooks in her, he wanted to be able to trust her. He had to be able to know that she could be alone with a good looking man and not end up in bed with him. And she proved his trust once again tonight. That was why, he thought with great pride, she remained his very definition of perfection.

  “Back to work,” he agreed.

  And they got back to work.

  But it wasn’t thirty minutes later before Roman was finding Gina far too attractive not to give it yet another whirl.

  They had taken a ten minute break. During the tail end of the break, he walked over to the stereo system, pulled out a CD, and smiled.

  “What’s that?” Gina asked as she sat back down at the conference table. She had returned with a bottled water.

  “You’ll see,” he said. And just as he said it, Marvin Gaye singing Distant Lover blared on the stereo system, and even Gina had to smile.

  “I know that would do it!” Roman said with a clap and a laugh. “Remember that, Gina? Remember that?”

  Gina nodded her head. She remembered.

  “That’s our song,” he said, slow dragging with an imaginary partner. “We used to dance all night to that song.”

  Gina leaned back, her arms folded. “It does take you back, doesn’t it?”

  “Oh, yes,” Roman said, and then decided to go in for the kill. “Come on, girl,” he said, hurrying up to her and pulling her up by the hands.

  “Roman!” Gina shouted as he grabbed her. “We still have work to do!”

  “We can take a break!”

  “We just took a break.”

  “No, now, G, don’t play the prude on me. I want you to show me what you’ve got. You used to dance any female under any table. Show me what you’ve got!”

  Then he pulled her into his muscular arms. And that song, and his closeness, and the memories of a time they would never have again, made her feel heady. And she found herself in a dance with Roman Wilkes. She allowed him to lead her around the room in a sweet slow drag.

  But it didn’t feel soothing. It didn’t feel comforting. It felt strange. No man touched her like this, or held her this close, but Dutch. Roman was a good man, and her friend, but he was not Dutch. She pulled away from him.

  “Gina, please,” Roman said, feeling a lustfulness toward her deep within his loins.

  “No, Roman.”

  “Gina! It’s just a dance.”

  Gina looked him in the eye. “I know what it is,” she said. “And I said no. Now turn it off and let’s get back to work.”

  Roman was truly offended this time. He wanted to be able to trust her, but he also needed to be with her tonight. And he was almost there. He felt that he had been so close! He felt that he could have had her in bed this very night if she would not have thought too hard. She should have just went with it.

  But he knew he had to be patient. He loved Gina for years now and had been able to keep his feelings in check. Time was still his ally. He couldn’t strike out forever. He therefore turned off the music, and got back to work.

  LaLa was lying under the covers in the guest bedroom, and Dutch was sitting in a chair beside the bed. He was leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, as he calmly listened to her tell him exactly what happened. She was in an awful state when Dutch first found her in the shower stall, but now she was clear-eyed.

  “He thinks I’m overreacting,” she said.

  “Why would he think that?”

  “Because it happened before we got married, and I knew he had a problem with being faithful back then. But what hurt me most was that he didn’t mention her.”

 
“And he lied about it when he did.”

  LaLa looked at him. “You believe he lied?”

  “Of course he lied, Loretta. I know Shannon Corcoran. If you fucked her before, you’ll remember it. I’m sorry, but you would.”

  He spoke as if he had experience with Miss Corcoran himself. But LaLa didn’t go there. “That’s why it hurts,” she said. “I don’t see how I can ever trust him again.”

  LaLa waited for Dutch to defend Crader. He always defended Crader. But not this time.

  She looked at Dutch. “Did you know he slept with Shannon before?”

  “I did not,” Dutch said.

  “What would you do? If it was you, and you slept with some woman while you were engaged to Gina, would you have hired her on your staff?”

  Dutch didn’t have to think about that. “No.”

  “Then why did Crader do it?” LaLa sounded frustrated. “I know there are other females on the White House staff that he might have been intimate with before. But he had been with them before he ever knew me, and they were working here before he hooked up with me. I understand that situation. I knew when I married a man like Crader that there would be situations where I would be around some of his previous hook ups. But Shannon’s different. He slept with her while he was engaged to me and he hired her after he was married to me. Am I being unreasonable, Dutch? Is it wrong for me to feel like Crader still doesn’t get it?”

  Dutch sat there with that silent broodiness overtaking him. Who was he to condemn any man? But that damn Crader! Always hurting this wonderful person!

  “No, Loretta,” he said. “It’s not wrong for you to feel that way. Crader should not have hired her.”

  “I thought this kind of drama was behind us. I guess that’s why it hurt so much. After he had it out with Christian, and we worked through that, I honestly thought all of this kind of drama was over.”

  “It’s never over, my dear,” Dutch made clear. “With a man like Crader, with a man like me, it’s never completely over.”

  LaLa didn’t want to hear that. It all seemed so hopeless.

  “What am I going to do, Dutch?”

  “You’re going to have to decide if Crader is worth it.”

  LaLa hesitated. “Is he?”

  Dutch thought about it. “Unfortunately, yes,” he said.

  LaLa looked at him.

  “I say unfortunately,” he went on, “because it leaves you in a tough spot.”

  “So you’re saying I shouldn’t leave him?”

  “I can never tell you that. Whether or not you leave your husband is something only you can decide to do.”

  There was a long pause after that. Then LaLa looked at Dutch. “Can I ask you something personal?” she asked him.

  Dutch smiled. Everybody always wanted to go there. “You can ask,” he said.

  “If Gina had the kind of issues Crader has, would you still stay with her?”

  “Gina wouldn’t have those kind of issues.”

  “I know she wouldn’t. But if she did would you leave her?”

  The idea of leaving Gina caused Dutch discomfort just thinking about it. “No,” he admitted.

  “Why? Because you love her? Is that enough?”

  “Because she’s Gina.”

  “So I should stay with Crader because he’s Crader?”

  “If you decided to stay with him, I would think that should be the reason. Because he’s Crader. The good, the bad, the ugly. It’s all Crader. I make no excuses for him, and he doesn’t deserve you, La. He doesn’t. And if you divorce him you will be doing yourself a favor in the short run.”

  “But what about the long run?”

  Dutch paused. “I’m not so sure,” he admitted.

  “But you’re not positive he’ll change?”

  “No. Not even Crader’s positive, La. It’s a crapshoot staying with Crader. That’s the truth of it. And I hate that he’s put you in this position. But he has, gotdammit. He has.”

  Tears appeared in LaLa’s eyes. Dutch’s heart dropped and he moved to her. She lifted up and the covers dropped along her waist. Dutch pulled her in his arms.

  The next day, Crader entered the Oval Office with the feeling that he was entering a firing squad. Dutch had summoned him. He didn’t even have to ask what about.

  “Good morning,” he said as he entered.

  Dutch was seated behind his desk. Little Walt was seated on the sofa playing with his toys.

  “Hey, buddy!” Crader said as he walked by.

  “Hey, Uncle Crader. Mommy with you?”

  Crader smiled. “No, she’s not with me,” he said. “What are you doing?”

  “Playing with my toys.”

  “Having fun for me too?”

  Little Walt had to think about that. “I don’t think so,” he said.

  Crader laughed and walked around the desk to stand beside Dutch’s chair. Dutch leaned back.

  “Why do I feel like I’ve been summoned to the principal’s office?”

  Dutch didn’t smile. He remembered LaLa’s pain too vividly. “I was with your wife last night,” he said.

  “If those words would have been spoken by any other man on the face of this earth, I would have had a problem.”

  “What’s your problem, Crader?”

  “I didn’t think I had a problem.”

  Dutch didn’t dignify that answer with a response.

  Crader folded his arms. “It’s old news, Dutch. It happened before we were even married. I wasn’t thinking about that woman.”

  “Then why did you hire her?”

  Crader said nothing.

  “Is it because she’s a just in case?”

  “You know me better than that.”

  “I thought I did.”

  “Okay. Two can play this game,” Crader said and unfolded his arms. “Why did you hire Lee Perry? You and her had. . .” He glanced at Little Walt. “You’ve been intimate with her before. But you hired her at Harber Industries.”

  Dutch looked at him. “Are you serious? You truly see an equivalency here?”

  “You had her before, and she works for you.”

  “I hired her years before Gina was even my girlfriend. Gina wasn’t on the radar screen when Lenora Perry started working for me. What are you talking about?”

  “Did you tell Gina about your past with the gorgeous Miss Perry?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Crader was surprised by that. “You told her?”

  “Yes, I told her. Why you didn’t tell Loretta about Shannon is a mystery to me. She’s not stupid. She’ll get it. She knew you were a dog in heat day and night even when you were engaged to be married. She gets it. And she would have forgiven you and moved on. But you had to hire your piece on the side.”

  “Now wait a minute!”

  “Who went to the press with this information?” Dutch asked him.

  “Shan declares it wasn’t her. So I don’t know.”

  It was her, Dutch thought.

  “What difference does it make anyway? What can I do about it now?”

  “Get rid of Shannon.”

  Crader looked at Dutch. “Fire her?”

  “Accept her resignation. Immediately. Make a statement to the press denying the allegations and then let her make a statement herself saying she doesn’t want to be a distraction to the great work you’re doing, or something like that, and she therefore wishes to resign. And then give your wife some time and space to think about her marriage and to reach her own conclusions. You owe her that much.”

  Crader looked at Dutch. “She really respects your opinion, Dutch. You didn’t tell her to leave me. Did you?”

  “I should have.” Then Dutch hesitated. “But I didn’t.”

  Crader was relieved. Still concerned, but relieved. And then he left to take care of his clumsy problem.

  When he left, Dutch stared at his son playing so blissfully without a care in this world. And then he thought about his child’s mother.

 
He picked up his cell phone from his desk, and called her.

  “Hey,” she said when she picked up her phone and answered it. She was in the backseat of an SUV on her way to BBR. “What’s up?”

  “I was thinking about you.”

  “That sounds lovely. How’s our baby boy?”

  “Sitting right here in the Oval Office with me.”

  “Oh, Dutch, you could have let the Nanny do her job. You’re so busy.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m keeping my eyes on him.”

  Gina smiled. “Make sure that you do. I don’t care if some great world leader is in your office with you, don’t forget my baby.”

  “He’s my baby too, you know.”

  “I’ll give you about a twenty percent share.”

  Dutch laughed. “So,” he said, thinking about that luscious body of hers, “how did you rest last night?”

  “Good actually. I phoned but I didn’t get an answer. I assumed you were in meetings.”

  “I was. And then LaLa and I had a long conversation.”

  “LaLa?”

  “Yup. She spent the night in the Residence.”

  Gina frowned. “Why? What happened? What has Crader done this time?”

  “He was given a head’s up about a story coming out in today’s paper about him and his chief of staff.”

  “His chief of staff? Shannon Corcoran?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about him and Shannon?”

  “An affair.”

  “Oh, no, Dutch, not another one! Is it true?”

  “No. But they had something going on in the past.”

  “Before he met LaLa surely?”

  “After,” Dutch said. “But before they married.”

  “But didn’t he just hire her as his chief of staff?”

  “Yes. That’s the part Loretta can’t abide.”

  “What woman would?” Then Gina shook her head. “What is wrong with that man? He always finds a way to hurt La. Poor girl. I’d better call her.”

  “She can certainly use you right now.”

  “I’m glad you were there for her.”

  “I heard noise in the guest room. When I went in, I found her curled up in the shower stall naked and crying her eyes out. All I could think to do was pull her in my arms.”