Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 40662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
I clear my throat. “Healthcare,” I say.
She raises an eyebrow. “Healthcare,” she repeats.
“I want you to focus on healthcare. Find out what people want, what problems we need to solve.”
“Still a big problem,” she muses, biting her lip.
“But possible?” I press.
“Yes,” she says, nodding. “I think we already have some data, too.”
I glance at Charles. He’s studiously pretending not to be studying this interaction very closely.
I know what he’s thinking, but fuck him.
I should’ve left him back at the Oval Office.
“What do you think?” I ask her. “Is it something I can push through? Reform, I mean.”
She shrugs. “I’m not sure, honestly. The country has been begging for real healthcare reform for a long time, but it’s so complicated and difficult and there are so many competing interests.” She shrugs again. “I really don’t know.”
“Guess,” I say.
She hesitates. “I hate guessing.”
“Give me an educated one, then.”
“Okay,” she says slowly. “I think you have a majority in the house and the senate. I think it’ll eat up all your good will right now, but… it’s possible.”
“Good.” I grin at her. I want to walk over and kiss her.
I’m fucking insane. I think I’m legitimately insane.
“Okay,” she repeats. “I’ll look into healthcare. Should I, uh, tell my boss?”
I hesitate. “Tell him you’re working for me directly now. I want you focused on this task exclusively. It’s going to be big, Maggie.”
She can’t help but smile at that. “I hope so,” she says.
I hesitate, looking at her, maybe longer than is necessary. I still have that insane urge to walk across the room and kiss her.
But I manage to tear myself away. “Report in soon,” I say as I leave.
Charles files out behind me. Security blends in all around us.
We walk in silence back to the Oval Office. Charles looks inscrutable, but I know he’s digesting that little impromptu meeting. I want to hear what he thinks, but I know I just have to be patient.
Charles is not the type to hold back.
We get to my office and head inside. I shut the door and tell my secretary, Susie, to keep everyone out.
Charles sits on a couch. I sit behind the Resolute desk.
“Why that girl?” he finally asks.
“Did you read her blog?”
He hesitates. “No,” he admits. “Couldn’t figure out how to make the damn thing work.”
I grin. “You really are old.”
“Don’t give me that,” he snaps. “Why that girl?”
“She’s smart, capable, and I think she has the pulse of what people want already in her blood. I think she can cut through the bullshit.”
He stares at me. “A million girls exist just like her. Why that one?”
I sit back, narrowing my eyes. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
He sighs. “Yes, you do. We don’t have to say it out loud if you don’t want, but I can already see it.”
“See what?” I’m getting angry, even though I know he’s right. Even though it’s obvious what I want from her.
“Listen, sir,” he says, standing. “People talk about you all the time in the media. They talk about you being single, about you being eligible. Your dating life is going to be scrutinized so closely it’ll scare you. There will be no privacy, not for you.”
I stare at him. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t date.”
“I know that,” he says softly. “But you’re still a man, and that’s a pretty girl.”
“I don’t like this implication.”
“I’m sure you don’t. Just keep yourself under control, Adam.”
I glare at him, but I know he’s right.
I’ve been thinking about Maggie. Picturing her body against mine, the way her moans sound, the way she writhes when she gets fucked. I want to taste her, smell her, bite her, take her.
I want that fucking girl, and that could be the end of me.
“You have a meeting in ten minutes,” Charles says, walking to the back door. “Just think about it.”
I look away, out the side window. I hear Charles leave quietly.
Being President means I have to put myself aside. I have to leave my wants and desires at home, every single day. I have to quarantine them, at least for four years.
Except that’s not what I want.
I’ve gone so long living life in a cold daze. I’ve taken women to bed but they’ve barely ever excited me, not like I feel right now just looking at Maggie.
It’s bizarre and terrifying. It’s the worst possible time to suddenly wake up to a woman.
My life has been in the past for so long. Even working for the future, I’ve been stuck in the past.
My wife, my child. I’ve been broken.
Hell, I still am broken.
But maybe I’m starting to mend. I’ll never be fixed, but maybe I can be patched together, just enough.
Just enough to feel again.
3
Maggie
I lean forward against the bar, sipping a weak gin and tonic, trying not to look around the room too much.