Page 7 of Pursuit of Happiness

Meredith raised her glass and motioned for Addison to do thesame. “Here’s to your last lunch as a single woman.”

“You make it sound like I’ll never have a meal again. Is thatwhat married life is like?”

“How should I know?” Meredith delivered the casual words with acarefree tone, but the truth was she’d begun to grow tired of personalrelationships taking a back seat to everything else in her life. Addison Riley,the chief justice of the United States, was the last of her close group offriends to head to the altar, and the realization she was now the only singlemember of the group came with its own set of baggage.

“You might want to consider joining the club you know?”

Meredith nearly choked on her drink. “Of married couples? Not inthe cards, for a while anyway.”

“Why? Because of a presidential run you may or may not make inthe future? Seriously, Mere, you don’t have to choose between ambition andhappiness, and if you think you do, then it’s probably best to let the ambitionpart go.” Addison dropped her voice to a whisper. “But if you want to get theprofessional piece out of the way, there’s still time to get in the race thisgo-round.”

Echoes of Friday night’s dinner conversation about the samesubject rang in Meredith’s head. She hadn’t been able to get Stevie out of hermind since they’d parted. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on adate with someone who had been utterly unimpressed with her position, and ithad been refreshing. That Stevie was not only good-looking, but smart and articulatewas a bonus, but she told Addison the same thing she’d told Stevie. “It’s notmy time. Connie’s worked hard for this and she’s earned her spot. It’s alwayslike this in the primaries—everyone jockeying for position and wanting tochallenge the old guard. If Garrett had the chance to run again, he’d be facingthe same kind of opposition as Connie, and he’s got the highest favorables ofany second term president in history.”

“Then you might as well go ahead and start a family so when it isyour turn to run, you can check those boxes.”

What Addison said made sense on paper, but after survivingseveral grueling statewide elections, Meredith knew firsthand the toll runningfor office took on every aspect of a candidate’s life, and she had no desire toimpose the rigors of campaigning on anyone else, especially not a new loveinterest. Besides, she was absolutely committed to achieving her career goalsbefore focusing her interests elsewhere. “I’m in no hurry.”

“Well, neither was I, obviously, but here I am, a week away frombeing married to the most powerful woman in the country.” Addison raised herglass.

“I think a lot of people would argue that in a race between youand Julia for most powerful woman in the country, you’d finish in a dead heat.Frankly, I don’t know how you do it.”

“It’s not easy. I’d love to come home after work and discuss myday, but the president’s chief of staff isn’t a viable sounding board forSupreme Court gossip. We’ve learned to dance around certain topics at thedinner table. It’s not always easy, but I love her so much it’s totally worthit. This Saturday, when we say our I dos in front of all our friends andfamily, nothing will stand between us.”

Meredith pointed at Addison’s dreamy smile. “I’m going to get mesome of that someday. But not right now. Now, I’m going to keeping working fora better future, which means campaigning for Connie to win the election. I’llbe sitting in the front row when you swear in the first female president.”

“Here’s to that.” Addison took a drink and set her glass on thetable. “The wedding planner said you RSVP’d for one, but Julia told me to tellyou that she had an extra spot held. You know, in case you want to bringsomeone. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. It might be nice to have a wing woman.”

“Are you scared I’m going to get drunk and sappy about my lack ofa love life and ruin your special day?”

“Not hardly.” Addison reached a hand across the table andsqueezed Meredith’s arm. “I just want you to be happy. I’m the last person inthe world who thinks you need another person to make you happy, but let me bethe first to admit that it’s pretty fabulous when you do find someone.” Shepulled her hand back and smiled. “Bring someone, don’t bring someone. You’realways welcome with us.”

An hour later, Meredith was back at her office trying to keep hermind on her briefing, but Addison’s words kept cropping up and with them imagesof Stevie, dressed for a wedding. Would she wear a dress or a tux? Did she evenown formalwear? Meredith was so used to black tie affairs being part of her jobthat she rarely considered whether it was optional. As soon as her briefing wasover, she buzzed her secretary. “Do you happen to have a copy of the invite forJustice Riley’s wedding?”

A quick knock on the door and Kate stuck her head in, waving theinvite in her hand. “I loaded all the info to your phone. Pretty sure you’renot going to need the actual invite to get in.”

Meredith took the folded card stock. “I know, but I wanted tocheck the dress code,” she said distractedly.

“Your schedule’s pretty tight for the rest of the week. Do youneed me to have Neiman’s send over some dresses?”

“What? Oh no, I’m good.” Meredith stared hard at the invite untilshe finally located the note: black tie optional. She doubted many woulddeviate from the norm of long dresses and tuxes for the occasion, but the wordoptional gave her some flexibility. She handed the invite back to Kate. Katehad been with her since she’d run for the New York state legislature many yearsago, and she trusted her implicitly, but she wasn’t ready to share the planbrewing in the back of her brain. “Did you send that packet over to Ms. Palmerthis morning?”

“I did. Delivered by courier, like you asked. She called earlierto say she received it.”

Meredith paused as she considered whether to go with her gut orabandon this half-baked plan. “Thanks. Could you get me her office number?”

“I’ll get her on the line, but you have to be at the HartfordBuilding at four, so you have ten minutes tops,” Kate said, already on her wayback to her desk directly outside of Meredith’s office.

Meredith waited impatiently for Kate to connect the call. Sheprobably should’ve just texted Stevie or phoned on her cell instead of making apersonal call under the guise of a professional one. She hadn’t fully committedto what she was about to do, but she’d lead with the packet and go from there.

Her indecision was interrupted by Kate’s voice. “Please hold forSenator Mitchell.”

Meredith waited until she heard Kate click off the line.“Stevie?”

“I guess I have to call you Senator now.”

She heard a tiniest bit of an edge behind the otherwise friendlyvoice. “Sorry about that. Kate has a habit of being formal.”

“I get it. You probably have to do something to keep people at adistance or everyone would be beating down your doors asking for favors.”

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