Page 53 of Pursuit of Happiness

Stevie nodded. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if Erica hadn’tbeen there. She’s great under pressure, but all in all, I guess it was bound tohappen sometime. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

Meredith heard the echo of Jen’s words in Stevie’s pronouncement,and for a second she considered abandoning her quest to come clean. Maybeexposing their relationship was bound to happen, and at least now it was behindthem. She could have Gordon’s team draft some talking points, and they coulddevelop a strategy to make this whole revelation work for them instead of theother way around.

But if she was going to have a relationship with Stevie, itneeded to be based on trust, not on expediency, and that had to start bydispelling the notion that what had happened this morning wasn’t anyone’sfault. “I need to tell you something.”

Stevie placed a hand on her thigh. “Can it wait? Now that I knowyou’re okay, I just want to forget this ever happened.”

Meredith desperately wanted to say yes, but she knew she wouldn’tbe able to truly relax into Stevie’s embrace until she told her the truth. Sheplaced a hand over Stevie’s and eased gently away. “I wish it could wait, butit’s important.”

Stevie gazed into her eyes for a moment. “Okay.” She straightenedher robe and crossed her arms. “What’s up?”

“It was Jen,” Meredith blurted out the words quickly before shechanged her mind. She plowed ahead. “Jen told the press you’d be at myapartment and exactly when they could find you.” She looked into Stevie’s eyes,trying to read a reaction, but she got nothing, but a flat stare. “Please saysomething so I know you’re not mad.”

The silence was deafening, but she resisted the urge to talkthrough it, merely watching while Stevie stood and walked across the room.Stevie paced for a few moments, and Meredith could tell her mind was churning,but she didn’t have a read on her emotions until Stevie finally spoke.

“I brushed it off for your sake, because I didn’t want you tothink I couldn’t handle the stress of constant scrutiny that I know youexperience every single day since you’ve started your campaign.”

“And I appreciate that—” Meredith started to say, but Stevieraised a hand to cut her off, and she immediately shut up.

“So I brushed it off,” Stevie repeated. “But it was prettyhorrifying, not just to have to sneak out of your building in a maid’s uniform,but to see my name plastered all over the internet, not for some accomplishmentI achieved, but as fodder for all of the gossips who want to know who’ssleeping with the future president.” She paced some more. “I could get past allthat. Eventually.”

Meredith heart beat quicker at the idea of getting past this, butshe could tell there was more. “What would it take?”

“To be honest, I don’t know.” Stevie shook her head. “You’resaying Jen did this?”

“Yes. She just told me and I came straight here. It was her wayof trying to humanize me for the voters—show them I have a personal side. Iguess she thought since Gordon was against me making our relationship public,the only way to accomplish what she had in mind was to just get it out there.If anyone else had done this, I’d fire them on the spot. Although I’m sorry ithappened this way, but I have to say there’s a part of me that’s relieved thatwe don’t have to sneak around anymore. Like you said, it was bound to happen.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

Meredith did a mental replay. “I promise I’m not trying tominimize what you went through, but don’t you want this too?”

“‘This’ being a good solider for the campaign?” Stevie’s tone wasincredulous.

“No, of course that’s not what I meant.” Meredith waved a handbetween them. “I mean this, us. We’ll have to navigate this carefully, but nowthat things are out in the open, we can actually go to a restaurant or a moviewithout having to worry about what people will think.” She saw Stevie start tofrown. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just—”

“It’s just that there’s no room in your life for anything thatisn’t carefully crafted to garner more votes. I get it. Running for presidentis your life’s mission, but I want to be with someone who I can build a lifewith, not fit into someone else’s preordained plan. Right now, I’d just likeyou to go.”

Meredith stood, unable to believe how fast things had spiraledout of control. Less than twelve hours ago, she scored a major campaignvictory, she and Stevie had made love. She’d believed anything was possible—arelationship, the presidency, everything. Now, the news had completely shiftedaway from her big win and onto her personal life which was crashing down aroundher. She searched Stevie’s face for any sign they could get past this, but fornow anyway, Stevie was completely closed off, and she didn’t know how in theworld she was going to win her back.

* * *

Stevie watched the door shut behind Meredith and held on forseveral minutes before bursting into tears. The stress that had been growingsince she’d walked into the lobby of Meredith’s apartment building that morningbubbled up inside her. Not usually prone to tears, she gave in to the raw painof finding out the Meredith she thought she knew was as chameleon-like as anyother politician, and she let it wrack her with sobs until she was finallyspent.

An hour later, she washed her face, got dressed, and stood in themiddle of the hotel room, ready to go. The question was, where? Going homemeant fighting through a crowd of reporters, but staying here on Meredith’sdime was out of the question. She pulled out her phone and turned it on, halfexpecting to see a text from Meredith, half hoping she hadn’t given up soeasily, but the only notifications were from Hannah—three missed calls and achain of texts escalating from “are you okay?” to “CALL ME, 911.” No longercaring if anyone was tracking her calls, she called Hannah and waitedimpatiently for her to answer.

“Thank God. I’ve been trying to reach you for hours,” Hannahsaid. “Where are you?”

Stevie started to tell her, then stopped. “I’d rather not say,but I can’t stay where I am. What’s the office like?” she asked, hoping Hannahwould get the hint.

“There was a crowd earlier, but Joe shooed them all away, tellingthem you weren’t working today. I saw a couple hanging around though when Iwent out for lunch. MSNBC says there’s still a bunch at your house, so youdefinitely shouldn’t go there.”

“Damn.”

“I know a place you can stay. One of the proprietors makes a meanroast beef sandwich with horseradish.”

Stevie breathed a sigh of relief, but she hesitated to acceptHannah’s generous offer. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. If you can get to our favorite spot, I’ll pick youup there.”

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