And the good news was that after pulling an all nighter working on a project that Abernathy was supposed to finish, I was finally getting the day off to relax.
But I wanted to stop by Nicolas's office first.
I saw that Cliff was on duty when I turned the corner and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I didn't have to worry.
"Morning Cliff!" I said brightly, reaching for the door. I don't know how I had this much energy when I was, quite literally, dog tired. I felt like I could sleep all day.
He caught my hand halfway to the door and I looked back up at him. He jerked his head towards the door. "He's in a meeting."
"Oh. Okay." He said he didn't have any meetings this morning. That was the whole point of me coming here now.
Cliff shrugged. "You might wanna step to the other side of me."
I did as he said, leaning on the wall beside him and before I could even ask, the door flew open. It would've smacked Cliff in the face if he hadn't caught it. He knew it was coming.
And who walked out but our lovely First Lady?
I peeked my head around Cliff's frame to watch as she turned around in the doorway. "Nicolas, I swear to God if you leave this girl by herself or with some stranger, I will strangle you."
"Savannah. Be reasonable here." I heard Nic say.
"I'm not kidding. Take your daughter out. She clearly needs you." And she didn't hear anymore of the conversation as she walked away. And thankfully, she didn't see me.
Now I wasn't sure if the door was the reason Cliff told me to move or she was. Either way, I wasn't complaining.
He held the door open, raising an eyebrow at me. "You still wanna go in?"
I swallowed, but nodded. Okay, maybe this wasn't gonna be as smooth of a morning as I thought.
Nicolas was sitting on the edge of the couch, his hands to his head, fingers to his temples, rubbing what clearly had to be stress.
He looked up at me as I walked in and I can't lie, watching the smile form on his face gave me a confidence boost and fluttered the butterflies in my stomach.
"Park, hey. I figured you would be gone by now." He held his arms out to me and I walked into them willingly. I never had a partner that hugged me every time they saw me, but I liked it. Especially with him smelling the way he did.
"Well, I was just coming to see you before I headed out. Abernathy hasn't responded to any form of communication and Andrea doesn't have anything for me, so I figure I owe myself a break. At least until the next disaster happens."
He jokingly looked down at his watch. "You got about 20 more minutes."
"Tell me about it. Hopefully, he comes back tomorrow. Having his job is cool, but also, not having his job is cool." I flopped down on the couch, toying with a strand that had unraveled and laughing to myself. I always thought the room was ran over with a fine tooth comb, so finding something as simple as a thread coming out of the couch seemed like a gross oversight and tickled me.
I didn't want to be nosy.
That's what people said when they wanted to be nosy, and I did. But I still wanted to be respectful. I decided to ask anyway. "Is Isabella okay?"
He scrunched his eyebrows in. "Huh? Oh, you must've heard Savannah yelling on the way out." His hand searched for the back of his neck, squeezing and letting go. I stood up to walk around behind him and pushed his hand out the way. I don't know how good I am at massages, but they always felt better when someone else gave them.
I started with his shoulders and watched him melt in my hands. "You don't have to do that." He said, his voice just slightly out of breath.
I shrugged. "I know. So, she is okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, she's fine." He sucked his teeth. "Well, kind of. She's been really irritable lately. I'm assuming it's teenager stuff, but Savannah says it's because she misses me. And as much as I would love to hang out with her today, I really, really can't. But I don't know what to do because Savannah won't stay with her."
I nodded as I switched to the other side. "And she can't stay with a stranger."
"Right."
"I can hang out with her for a day."
As the words hung in the air, I wished I could take them back. I don't know what possessed me to say that, but it was too late.
He shifted from under my hands to look at me. "Park, there's no way I can let you do that. You're tired and that's a big responsibility."
Instead of backing out right here like a sane person, I doubled down. "Well, she just said a stranger. I'm not a stranger to you. I have some time off. I like kids." Most of the time. Isabella was a different category. "I'm going to have to interact with her at some point. And you can't do it. I can take her to the mall or something. Use it as a distraction. It makes sense." I shrugged. "Or if you don't feel comfortable, that's okay too."
I suppose it was kind of weird of me to come out of the blue trying to babysit.
He stood now. "No! No, of course not. I just don't want you to feel pressure to do anything."
"I volunteered."
"A volunteer you can take back, by the way."
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, I think I got it."
He reached a finger out to hook underneath my collar, dragging me close to his frame, leaving me breathless and kind of turned on. His head tilted the side, mocking me. "Is that an attitude I hear?"
I locked eyes with him, taunting him right back. "What are you gonna do about it?"
"Something tells me you're into punishments."
"I thought the whole idea that made them punishments was that you don't like them."
He caved first, lowering his head to laugh in my neck. "You're such a smart ass."
"You love it."
He pressed a lingering kiss into the crook of my neck. "I do." Another one. "Thank you for doing this by the way. If you need to tap out at any time-"
"You'll be the first one I call, I promise. Now, come on and introduce me properly." Maybe she wouldn't be such a brat this time.
I was so wrong.
Nicolas made the introduction and she barely looked up from her phone to say hello as she sat sucked into a chair. He apologized for not being able to be with her and she just waved him off. I could tell that that hurt him, but the whole situation just made me feel bad because I could tell it hurt her too.
"Can I speak to you for a moment before you leave?" I reached out to grab his arm by accident before letting my hand fall, making sure Isabella didn't see anything.
We shifted into the hallway and I pulled up the door enough to cause a noise barrier. "I know today isn't a good day for you, but she clearly misses you. I know you have a super busy schedule this week, so why don't you use our lunch on Thursday to take her out instead? I'm sure she'd really appreciate it."
"Wait, wait. I'm having dinner with them on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. That's our only time we have lunch."
"I know, but I really think she needs a girl dad date. Not with your wife. Just you and her. Besides, I'll see you throughout the day. Just not in private, which is probably a good thing." I teased, pointing a finger at him.
He raised an eyebrow. "Why? Because that way I can't do this?" I barely saw his hand before it was reaching around me to grab at my ass.
I swatted him away. "Hey, hey!"
He sighed. "You're right. About all of it. But I'm not happy about not getting to see you."
I wasn't happy about it either. But you know who would be? Isabella. And that was good enough for me. As much of a brat as she was, she was still a child. A teenager and in the public eye no less, probably frustrated and unsure of what to do with her emotions.
I leaned up and stole a quick kiss. "You'll make it up to me."
He held onto me as I tried to pull away, stealing another kiss and sending a tingle through my spine. "You know I will."
It amazed me how long she was able to ignore me. Every question I asked or every statement I made was met with deafening silence only cut by the sound of her tapping her phone screen.
I could no longer busy myself on my own phone so I tried again.
"Are you hungry?"
Her fingers paused so I was fully aware that she heard me, and yet, she still said nothing.
"Are you there?" I tried again.
She continued tapping. "I've been here for the past two hours."
"Could've fooled me." She finally looked up at me.
Yes, I knew she was a child and that I shouldn't be getting snappy with her, but what else was I supposed to do when she was giving absolutely zero effort? This was a strange situation for both of us.
But she was a child and all that was negated.
"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to do something nice."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, for me or for my dad?"
I shrugged. "Why not both?"
"Because you don't know me."
I straightened up in the chair that I was sitting in. Now we were getting somewhere.
"I don't have to know you to do something nice for you."
I noticed her phone screen go black, but she was still looking at me. "Yeah, but you do need to know someone to care about them."
I smiled. "No. No, you don't. You're right. I don't know you the same way you don't know me. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't care if you broke your arm right now. I would still be scared for you. I'm not a psycho."
The right side of her mouth lifted and I definitely noticed. "I'm sorry. Was that a smile?"
"No, you psycho." The small curve turned into a full blown smile and I beamed. One small step for her was one giant leap for me.
"Seriously though, are you hungry? Do you wanna go shopping or something? I have your dad's credit card."
Her eyes widened. "There's no way he gave you his card."
I reached into my pocket to pull it out, giving it a shake as I held it in the air. "Except he did."
She jumped up, acting completely different than she was ten minutes ago. "Well, why didn't you just say so? We could've left forever ago. I'm going to get dressed."
She left her phone in the chair on the way out.
I was leaning back in a chair in the food court, eating the last fry in a basket that Isabella and I were sharing. And then I was sad because I didn't have any fries left.
I wiped off the last bit of salt off my fingertips and looked around for Isabella. She claimed she was going to get a drink refill, but after turning around, I didn't see her in line.
Shit.
Shit.
Fucking shit.
I should've brought security.
Pause. Take a second. Look around Parker.
I scanned through the food court three times, but it started to feel more like a Where's Waldo picture to me.
And just as I was about to start back panicking, I found her. She was facing away from me, which explains why I probably missed her in my scans. She was leaning against the wall, drink in hand, and pulling her hair behind her sunglasses, all while talking to a young girl that I didn't know.
We were out in public. She knew that was against protocol.
The girl had black hair and looked to be the same age as Isabella, dressed in mom jeans and a T-shirt, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. She seemed harmless, but that wasn't the point.
As I walked up to them holding the shopping bags full of Isabella's clothes, the girl realized that I was, in fact, approaching them and paused, looking up at me expectantly. That's when Isabella turned around and saw me, proceeding to roll her eyes.
"I've literally been gone five minutes." She sighed.
"To do a task that should've only taken one." I said sternly. "Come on, we have to get back."
"Five more minutes."
"Isabella."
"Please." The desperation in her voice made me take pause.
"You get two and then we're leaving." I said in the most serious voice I could muster. I wasn't trying to scare the girl she was with, but I was also wasn't trying to downplay the severity of the situation.
I stepped back far enough to let them have a little privacy, but close enough that I could keep an eye on her. I even let her have an extra 30 seconds before approaching again.
Thankfully, Isabella saved me from having to do the awkward thing and break up the party by parting ways with the girl before I made it to her.
She started towards the main doors, not so much as looking at me. I was sure she was pissed and I could understand that. And while I was sad because I thought we were making such good progress, I couldn't be negligent in watching after her. If something happened to her on my watch, I didn't know what I would do.
We drove here in one of the company cars. I never liked these big, bulky SUVs, but the bulletproof windows were an added bonus that my car didn't have.
The silence in the air was thick when I finally climbed in and I took a few seconds to decide whether I was going to address it or not. I didn't want to take steps backward, but I also really did feel bad for the situation and I wanted her to know that.
"I know there's a lot of rules." I started.
"No, you don't." I looked over at her, but her eyes were dead set on staring out the window at something. "You don't know the half of it."
I nodded. "You're probably right. I shouldn't say that. But I can imagine how many there are and how sick of them you may be, but it really is for your own protection."
"I love my dad." A seemingly random interjection.
I sucked my teeth slowly. "I know."
"But sometimes I really hate his job."
I grimaced. "I really didn't want to stop you."
"Yeah, but it's not just that. It's not just you. It's not just today. It's every day and everybody. You know how hard it is to make friends when everyone has to be screened by Secret Service? Nobody wants to do all that. I can barely get a friend to come over, let alone a girlfriend." Her hand clamped to her mouth so fast, I almost didn't see it move.
She finally twisted to me. "Don't tell my dad."
"That's not my business to tell." I was serious. I wasn't going to go around dragging people out of the closet against their will. But I was curious as to why she only pointed out her father. "Does your mom know?"
"No, but I don't really care. She doesn't pay any attention anyway." I probably should've said something after that, but I was too shocked and too sad for her to make words come out of my mouth. It seemed like Isabella didn't like her mother either. "Anyway, we should probably get going. We told Secret Service three hours. Pretty soon I'm gonna be on a leash. I wanna stay on their good side for as long as I can."
She was probably right. We were lucky enough to go out alone, but the deeper we got into the presidency, the less likely that would be to happen again.
The least I could do was stop for ice cream on the way back.
Just laying down some groundwork in this chapter. Life is extremely hectic. I'm updating when I can, I promise. Please bear with me and drop a comment in the meantime.