Page 63 of Presidential Bargain
“I’d wait for you until kingdom come,Georgie.”
And then hehungup.
The daily phonecalls weshared were the only connection I had to Georgie while she figured things out in her mind. We rarely talked about the campaign. During these daily calls, we became Jameson and Georgie, the man and the woman in this relationship. I recalled what Sierra Simmons said to us during the photoshoot; that she wanted to know who we were as normal people. Now we were getting that chance, to know each other on anotherlevel.
“I’m going to put my condo in D.C. on the market,” I informed her the day after she berated me about socializing withescorts.
“Why?”
I could hear her moving around on the other end, making all kinds ofracket.
“Well, for one, there’s the White House. It’s not like I’ll need it once I’melected.”
“Sococky.”
“Damn straight. Plus, between the two of us, we have four properties. Do we needthatmany?”
“I’m considering selling the cabin.” More noise, followed by a crash in the background, had mecurious.
“Georgie, what in the hell are youdoing?”
“Cleaning.”
I rolled my eyes and we continued our conversation about selling the condo and the cabin. I wondered how quickly the properties could be unloaded because I wasn’t sure about the conflict of interest laws. Could I profit off the sale of my condo if I sold it during my presidency? This was a question for thelawyers.
Privately, I was working hard with my campaign on the best way to destroy Lamar Huntley without ruining my own shot at winning. Stories about his campaign’s complicit involvement in some of the malicious attacks on Georgie slowly started to leak out into the press. There was a good chance, at the final debate, my relationship with Georgie would once again be a hot topic. I didn’t want the information to be dumped all at once and of course, we were saving the best for last. I wanted to see the governorsquirm.
My lawyers definitely earned their pay during the last week or two because they were working overtime to kill the damned prostitution story. We filed a lawsuit against the woman who came forward with the information, the same woman who had been Tom Chapman’s escort during my last visit to the Capital. With the threat of a lawsuit looming over her, she quickly recanted herstory.
The only thing amiss in my life was Georgie. I still hadn’t managed to convince her to return to me. She left the cabin eventually, to make the appearances she agreed to, and I finally got her to stay with my parents. I hated the thought of her alone in the woods. And our daily conversationscontinued.
“I liked the dress you wore today.” That day, she had worn a long-sleeved dress that stopped mid-thigh and showed off a pair of impressively toned legs. The dress was a colorful geometric print, with a delicate collar and a bow that tied at the neck. She looked like a vintage dream come true, with her mane of golden hair teased andblownout.
“Thank you. I liked your tie today.” I looked down at the thin navy blue knit tie I still wore. It was more casual than normal, but it worked with the checked shirt and khakis I alsohadon.
I sighed into the receiver and stretched out my legs in front of me, settling my feet on the coffee table in front of me. I was in another empty hotel room and I was starting to climb the walls without her. Each bed felt colder and colder without her sleeping nexttome.
“Come back to me, Georgie,” I whispered. I let my feet fall off the coffee table and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. I pressed the phone against my ear and rested my head in myotherhand.
“I can’t take this anymore, Georgie. I know I said I wouldn’t pressure you, but dammit, I miss you so much. I’m going stir-crazy without you. We don’t have to miss each other anymore if you’d just let me come and get you. Just one night. Please, Georgie. I’mbeggingyou.”
“All right. Tomorrownight.”
I sat back, relieved. I would finally have her close again, finally have her sweet scent consume me. I closed my eyes and exhaledloudly.
“Icannotwait.”
I was in the middleof an interview when everything changed. My entire world was flipped upside down the moment Sean burst into the room, his eyes wild and completely filled withterror.
“We have a situation.” His voice, his expression, his body language, all told me that whatever was happening was the worst kind of shit imaginable. He wasn’t messing around with false pretenses, with hiding behindamask.
“Excuse me,” I said to the young journalist. He looked absolutely dumbfounded. The moment I stood up, his phone went off. I looked down at it. The call probably had something to do with the emergency that had Sean practically shitting his pants. “You might want totakethat.”
I walked out as calmly as possible toward Sean, who was sweating profusely and looked like he was about to puke. The last time I saw him like his, half of our convoy had beenambushed.
“Don’t freak out.” Those were the first words out of his mouth as soon as I cleared the doorway. Without a doubt, I was going tofreakout.
“It’sGeorgie.”
