“Don’t sweat it,” Lane said. “Gil is working on finding another firm. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Wow!” Billie didn’t hide how impressed she was. “That’s actually amazingly cool of him not to want me to be in a complicated position.”
“Don’t think too much of it,” Lane said. “That was just one consideration. Gil likes to get the job done. If he thought your firm was the only one to do it, he’ll just tell you to suck it up. I don’t think he likes some of the partners at your firm. He mentioned something about hating them since being classmates at Harvard Law.”
“So, who is he considering?” Billie asked.
“Well, that’s what I came to tell—”
Before Lane could finish his sentence, there was a knock on the door. It was Evelyn returning, but this time with a bouquet of flowers in her hands.
“These are for you,” she said in an excited voice as she laid them down on the desk.
The flowers were a beautiful mix of stark blue and white orchids.
“Here you go.” Evelyn handed Billie the card, before turning to Lane. “Gil wants to see you now. He’s been looking for you.”
“In a second,” Lane answered.
“Fine,” she said, “but he seemed pissed.”
Lane groaned, as if he’d already dealt with a pissed-off Gil that day. “I hate Mondays. Glad you’re here, though. We’ll talk later?”
“Sure.” Billie waved good-bye.
Evelyn followed him out of the office and closed the door behind her, but Billie didn’t think a closed door was a good look on a first day.
Before she got up to open it again, she opened the card. She was admittedly nervous. The last time she’d gotten a bouquet of flowers on her first day of work, they were from her ex-husband, Porter. It was just another passive-aggressive way of him letting her know he knew all about her life and he wasn’t going anywhere.
But the flowers weren’t from Porter. She didn’t know if this was much better, but she still smiled when she read it: Hope I get a third chance to make a first impression—Michael Johnson.
Erica had just taken her purse out of her desk drawer and was ready to lock everything up when Caroline sauntered out of her office and over to her desk. From the satisfied look on Caroline’s face, Erica knew the older woman was about to give her some shit. Erica wasn’t in the mood; she had something very important to get to.
“What are you doing?” Caroline asked.
“It’s five.” Erica pointed to the clock on the wall. “I’m going home.”
“Not today,” Caroline said. “We’ve got to prepare for the Bring Your Child to Work event. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” Erica said, standing up.
“You’ll do it when I say,” Caroline corrected, placing a skeletal hand on her hip. “I’ve been approved for overtime all week, so it’s really my say.”
Erica wasn’t about to get into it with this lady. How could she possibly have known that today, of all days, Erica couldn’t work late?
“Sorry, Caroline,” she said as politely as she could. “But my brother is coming in on the train tonight from New York. He’s been gone for a long time and I’m picking him up.”
“Last I checked,” Caroline interjected, “your brother was an adult.”
“Last time you checked?” Erica asked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Watch your tone with me,” Caroline warned, pointing a finger at Erica. “I’m your boss. I can write you up.”
Erica took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “Caroline, I can stay late the rest of the week, but not today.”
Today was too important. After Nate got involved with drugs last year, Erica, with Jonah’s help, was able to get him into the best rehab facility in the country. Unfortunately, that was in New York. After getting out, Nate had decided to stay with some friends he’d met in rehab. Erica wasn’t happy about it, but she needed a break from the difficult year they’d had. She knew that Nate wasn’t her baby brother anymore; he could do what he wanted.
Eventually he tired of New York and announced that he wanted to come home. A friend of his who ran an electronics store in the Friendship Heights neighborhood offered him a job when he got back, much to Erica’s delight. She was excited to have her brother, her only real family, back. And even though he’d already told her that his goal was to get his own place, he was moving back in with her for the time being. Things could be like they used to be. Well . . . almost.
“Your brother is a grown man,” Caroline said, with a stone expression on her face. “He can catch a cab. We’ll be here till nine, probably.”
Erica gasped as Caroline turned and started to walk away. Her blood began to boil over at this woman’s audacity. She’d had enough.
“I’m going to pick up my brother,” she stated in a very certain tone. “I’ll be in at nine tomorrow and will work late then.”
Caroline swung around, her face turning as red as wine. “How dare you? I told you that you have to stay. Do you want to keep your job?”
Now it was Erica’s turn to laugh. Her laughing only incensed Caroline more.
“That’s funny to you?” Caroline asked. “You’re in for it now. I’m writing you up. And if you walk out of here, you shouldn’t bother coming back.”
“Do you really expect me to believe you can fire me?” Erica asked. “Your poker face is awful, Caroline. I’m done playing along.”
“How dare you speak to me like that? I’m your boss!”
“I know what you’ve been up to,” Erica said. “You’ve been trying to get dirt on me to get rid of me. I never did one thing to you, but you’ve had it in for me ever since you showed up here.”
Caroline’s mouth was agape. “What are you afraid I’ll find out, Erica?”
“Nothing,” she said, “but I know what you’ve found out so far. You’ve found out that your power is bullshit here. You got your hand slapped for trying to screw me over and poke your nose where it doesn’t belong. But you didn’t think I knew, so you kept up this façade of having power over me.”
Caroline’s mouth flew open as if she wanted to say something, but it wouldn’t come out. She was clearly livid; Erica loved it.
“The truth is,” Erica continued, “you need to be thanking me. Because while you keep talking shit about getting me fired, I’m actually the one with the power here. If I wanted, I could snap my fingers and you’d be out of a job.”
“I have seniority here,” Caroline sneered between grinding teeth, her nose jutted in the air. “I have tenure. I’ve been here forever. People like me never get fired.”
“You’re still just administration,” Erica said. “You’re still replaceable. The people who keep slapping you down will do whatever I want, when I want. You think you’re powerful, Caroline? You have no idea what real power is. If you don’t stop fucking with me, you’re going to find out.”
Caroline stumbled back a bit as if she’d had the wind knocked out of her. She looked as if she was a minute away from having a heart attack.
“I’m going to pick my brother up from the train and we’re going out to dinner.” Erica leaned in, looking into Caroline’s astonished eyes. “And that’s the end of it.”
Caroline started vehemently shaking her head. Enraged, she yelled out, “No, it—it isn’t! I—I . . . This is not the last of it. You just . . . You just wait, Erica!”
With that, she turned and stormed off to her office, slamming the door behind her.
Erica sighed, realizing just then how tense her body was. She took a deep breath as what had just happened settled into her. She’d lost her temper and let it loose. What had she just done? In her mind, she quickly reheard everything she’d said. She gasped at how revealing it was. She knew she’d done something really wrong when she ended up feeling sorry for Caroline.
How could she be so mean? How could she so easily flaunt an influence she was supposed to be ashamed of and
wanted nothing to do with? Who was Erica turning into?
“Sherise.” Billie used the most calming voice she could manage over the phone. “You need to calm down. This stress isn’t good for the baby.”
“Are you listening to what I’m saying?” Sherise asked. “My husband thinks I got pregnant to trap him!”
As soon as Sherise had gotten home, she called her girls, but she had been unable to catch either of them. Billie finally called her back, and Sherise told her about the fight she and Justin had earlier that day. She was still sick over it as she lay in bed, waiting for him to come home and wondering what was next.
“He knows you,” Billie said. “I’m just being honest. You know I love you, and you know he loves you to death, but you play games, Sherise.”
“This is how you show your support?” Sherise asked. “I know I play games, but this is too much, Billie. I wouldn’t bring a baby into this world to trap him. Besides, I didn’t think trapping him was necessary.”
“It’s not,” Billie said. “Justin is yours, and you know it. If he was going to leave, he’d have done it by now. The only problem is, he wasn’t being as honest in therapy as you thought. He still has some trust issues, and this is just a shock to his system.”
“That’s what I thought,” Sherise said, “but the look on his face today. It was like he’d already decided why I’d done this and wasn’t even interested in hearing another explanation.”
“Or maybe he’s avoiding this because he loves you and doesn’t want you to hurt yourself or the baby.” Billie checked her watch. She loved Sherise and wanted to help her, but it wasn’t a great idea to spend her first day at work on the phone with her friends.
“Look,” Billie continued, “it’s just fear. He’s scared. Think about it. You know this man. He isn’t going anywhere.”
“It’s not just about him leaving me,” Sherise said. “It’s about him loving me and trusting me.”
“You doubt that he loves you?” Billie asked. “Come on, now.”
Sherise smiled. “I know he loves me, but I want everything to be right.”
“That takes time,” Billie said. “Clearly, more time than you thought. Sherise, you’re going to have to accept that you can’t have everything you want in the timeline that you want it.”
“And that little bitch working under him isn’t making things better.” Sherise made sure to mention Elena to Billie as well. “I know she heard us arguing. She’s going to use that.”
“You have no reason to believe she is after your husband,” Billie said. “Just because she’s a pretty girl working with him doesn’t mean she wants him. She might have a boyfriend or be after someone else—someone without a wife and all the trouble that comes with that.”
“Did you have reason to believe Claire was after Porter?” Sherise asked.
That hit hard. Billie would love to forget that her marriage fell apart after Porter had an affair with Claire, a younger associate at his law firm. He later moved her into the home she had once lived in with him and Tara, even though he was still sleeping with Billie. Office affairs were common, and her marriage wasn’t the first—and wouldn’t be the last—destroyed by coworkers who spent too much time together.
“You forget,” Billie assured her, “Porter is an asshole. He’s always been an asshole. Justin isn’t. Justin is a good guy who lost his way, and not completely from his own fault.”
This was true; it made Sherise feel a little better. One of the main reasons she married Justin—in addition to loving him and desiring the connections he had in D.C. politics and power—was that he was a genuinely good guy, one of those rare animals that seemed to be extinct. She’d never known a guy like Justin. Until she met him, she’d mostly known only thugs, playboys, betrayers, and abandoners. Justin wasn’t perfect, but he was the best man she’d ever known.
“Leave him alone about her,” Billie said. “You don’t need that extra stress between you two. Keep an eye on her, though. Use your contacts at the firm. You know Candy will tell you anything.”
“It’s just one more thing for me to be worried—”
Suddenly her phone made a pinging sound and a text came up. Sherise read it and was horrified: Urgent! Matthews picks J. Nolan as VP! Call me now! LaKeisha.
“Holy shit” was all Sherise could muster.
“What?” Billie asked. “What’s going on?”
Speaking into the earplug mic, Sherise repeated the text. She heard Billie gasp on the other end of the line.
“ ‘Holy shit’ is right,” Billie added.
“How could this be?” Sherise asked. “He wasn’t on any of the short lists. He was supposed to run for president after being promoted to secretary of defense. He’s not even a Republican! How is he running for VP on the Republican ticket?”
“It’s not that much of a stretch,” Billie said. “Matthews is weak on defense without Shaplin. Nolan is a defense icon and he’s supposed to be a pretty conservative Democrat. You didn’t suspect this even a little bit?”
“No!” Sherise yelled. “Do you think I would still be sane if I thought that we would be campaigning against Jonah Nolan? Do you think I would have even gotten into this game?”
“What are you going to do, Sherise?” Billie felt for her. The last thing she needed in her condition was more stress. This can’t be good for the baby, Billie thought.
“I’m going to kill myself,” she said. She was only joking; but in reality, this was a nightmare. “You have no idea how much I hate this man, how much of a threat he is to me.”
“But Erica won’t let him act on any of those threats,” Billie said. “As horrible as he is, he doesn’t want her cutting him out of her life. And now that he’s running for office, he won’t want to risk her revealing their . . . you know, their secret.”
“That’s not the secret I’m worried about,” Sherise said. “If he’s running, the press is going to pore over his personal life, hoping for a sex scandal. He has a reputation as being a ladies’ man. I can assure you, I wasn’t the first woman this man has cheated with, and I probably wasn’t the last. They’ll be looking for anything.”
Billie sighed. She didn’t know what to say. After all, if Erica’s boyfriend, Terrell, who was nothing more than a limo driver, could find out about their affair, couldn’t the press figure it out?
“Like you said,” Billie offered, “he’s probably slept around a lot. Your affair was really very short, basically nothing. He’s probably had longer affairs with more prominent women that the press would be more interested in.”
“More prominent than the chief of communications for the Democrat candidate for the presidency that he’s running against?”
Billie couldn’t deny her position made this worse. If found out, the discovery of the affair would be the worst possible outcome for many more people than just Sherise. If the connection could be made, she’d be a global household name for all the wrong reasons.
“For all the things that Jonah is,” Billie said, “he’s a man who works in his best interest. He has power and influence. I think he’d use all of that to assure he’d make it to the White House.”
“What if it’s not enough?” Sherise asked, feeling ready to throw up at just the thought of it. “What if even the great Jonah Nolan can’t stop the relentless press machine? Do you know what happens to me if this comes out? Everything is ruined—my marriage, my family, my reputation, my career . . . all of it! My life will be over.”
Billie was still reeling from her conversation with Sherise when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up, amazed to see Michael Johnson standing in the doorway. She had to laugh when she realized he was waving a small white handkerchief in his hand. He looked handsome and humble in a casual blue suit.
She waved him in, wondering what she looked like right now. She knew she’d looked professional and sharp when she’d started today. But it was almost six in the evening and she’d been rushing all day.
“I just
came from a meeting and thought I would risk it and drop by.” He pointed to the chair on the opposite side of her desk. “May I have a seat?”
“I promise I won’t bite you,” she answered, nodding. She told herself to behave.
He pointed to his flowers, which had been placed in a vase and now sat on the small windowsill of her office. “I’m glad to see they didn’t go straight into the garbage.”
“Why would they?” she asked. “They’re lovely.”
He sat back casually in the chair. “I know I didn’t make the best impression last week. I was still a little angry about the whole thing.”
“Don’t.” She held up her hand to stop him. “Neither of us was on his or her best behavior.”
“I have an idea,” he said. “Can we act as if our first meeting on the train was the only other time we’ve met?”
“That would be nice,” she said. “But you didn’t seem to like that encounter so much. I remember you believing I was too eager to get away from you.”
“I was a little disappointed,” he said. “I thought there was a . . . I don’t know, something. Then you turned away and never looked back. If you had, you would have seen a very pleased smile on my face. You were a bright light that morning.”
Billie felt her cheeks warm to his compliment. “What I was that morning was late and preoccupied. I actually enjoyed our brief, albeit clumsy, encounter.”
His expression lightened even more and his charming smile widened. Billie had to fight the urge to flirt with him, even though he didn’t seem to bother fighting the same urge. It wasn’t professional, was it?
“Don’t you find it odd?” he asked. “That we would meet on the train like that and then, a week later, have this . . . connection?”
“ ‘Connection’?” she asked.
“Maybe that’s the wrong word,” he said with a short laugh. “I’ve lived in D.C. for a decade and I don’t really believe in coincidence. I hardly ever ride the Metro. I usually drive or cab it, but my car was in the shop. Maybe there was a reason I was supposed to be on that train that day.”
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