After Afterall

40

Derek walks into the room, pinning his American flag pin to his lapel, just as I get off the phone. He gives me a look. "It's early for a phone call. Was that the hospital?"

"No." It's a big day and I know he's already stressed. I don't want to add to his stress, but his big day is about to get a lot bigger. "That was Wendy." Derek stops and stares at me. "She said they'd make a decision today."

"Today?" he asks and I can tell he's frantic at the thought.

I nod and stand up. "I know it's a bad day for it—"

"No. No. It'll be fine."

"Derek."

He sighs. "Fine, it's kind of a bad day, but we've been waiting for weeks. Might as well get all the big stuff done today, right?"

I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his waist. He's tense, but he instantly relaxes and wraps his arms around me. I look up at him. "We've done everything we can for the election and for Zola. If you lose today, you did your best. And for Zola, if they don't sign off on her becoming ours, they're crazy. We're her parents whether we passed their test or not."

Derek runs his hand up and down my back. "They're going to sign the papers. She's going to be ours."

"And you're going to get another four years."

Derek leans down to kiss me. With all the chaos in my mind and all around us, I kind of want to throw up, or hide in bed all day, or just drink and drink. But today is not the day for that. Today is the election for Derek's second term and we might officially become Zola's parents. We've had her for months now, but the process has been long to qualify to be her parents. Hopefully the months of care and the fact that she's absolutely bonded to us will make the decision easy for the judge.

As for Derek's campaign, he's been focused and driven during this election season. The other guy is not a politician and is not qualified and I hope the American people see that. Derek's approval rating has been great the last few weeks, so I have complete faith that he'll earn a second term.

When we started to talk about his next four years not long as we married, the conversation felt difficult. I've always tried to be supportive of Derek, but I've also wanted my privacy. Another four years would mean another four years of media coverage and being in the spotlight. It hasn't always been easy, especially with trying to create a family together, but it's been better than I'd initially thought.

At the end of the day, Derek and I are a team. He needed me to step up and after a lot of consideration, I decided four more years is a small amount of time to give for him to create the legacy he's worked so hard on. It's like when Derek wanted me to switch my hours down to twenty-five a week so I could be the First Lady, but then realized I'm better suited for doing the job I worked tirelessly for. Plus, I met Zola at work and Derek fell in love with her when he visited me one day. That might not have happened if I had cut down my hours.

Either way, I decided I didn't want to take those next four years away from my husband. We'll make four more years work and really, at the end of the day, I sort of love living in the White House and don't really want to go anywhere else. I'm allowed to be a little selfish.

Beside the bed, the baby monitor comes to life with Zola's cries. I then hear her babbling to herself. Any day now I think she might start talking, so I listen intently, but she starts crying again. Derek drops his arms. "I'll get her," he says and walks into the adjacent room.

For the moment he's gone, I slip into my shoes and look myself over in the mirror. Normally I'd just be in jeans and a t-shirt off to work, but the voting polls are open and Derek and I are expected by 9am for him to vote.