THE PRESIDENT'S GIRLFRIEND (16 page)

     “What are you thinking?” Christian asked her.  He somehow felt a sense of comradeship with Gina.  He’d seen women come and go at the White House, but he’d never seen the same woman come as many times as Dutch had Gina coming.  Which pleased him mightily.  Of all of Dutch’s females, there was something about this one that seemed so promising to him. 

     “I was just realizing an awful truth,” Gina replied.

     Christian looked at her.  “What awful truth?”

     “That I’ve been so concerned about the future viability of BBR, that it’s commanded almost all of her time.  Now that we have more donors and we’re turning that corner, I feel as if a burden’s been lifted and I can now get on with my life.  Sounds crazy?”

     “No, ma’am, not at all.”

     “Christian, why do you call me ma’am?  How old are you?”

     “Twenty-five, ma’am.”

     “Well I’m only thirty-five so it’s not like I’m ancient either.”

     “I understand that, ma’am, I mean. . . The president would be highly upset if I treated you with any less respect.”

     Gina looked at Christian.  This may be a unique chance to get a better read on Dutch.  “The way you describe him he seem so stern and rigid.  Is he really like that?”

     “No, ma’am, but, I mean, he’s the president.”  He said this as if that explained it all, and then looked, once again, out of the window. 

     Gina leaned back.  Dutch had warned her that this was another world she would be stepping into, and she had better understand that.  But now she wondered if she understood a thing about this new world.

     The limo stopped at a side portico at the White House and Gina prepared to get out.  She wore a sleek aqua and white dress, black stilettos with just a splash of aqua, and a gold scarf around her neck.  Her braids were in an up-do that highlighted the beautiful contours of her face.  When Christian first saw her he thought she looked angelic, and told her so.  When the door to the limo opened and, to her surprise, she didn’t have to get out because Dutch got in, she could see that same admiring look in his eyes that she had seen in Chris’s.

     As soon as Christian got out of the limo and the doors were closed, Dutch pulled her into his arms, kissing her as he did.  He was literally moaning as he kissed her, and Gina wondered more than once if the driver could hear him.   When they separated, although he kept her in his arms, he looked at her, at her hair and her face, and smiled.  “You’re a wonderful addiction, lady, you know that?”

     “You’ve mentioned it before,” Gina said with a smile of her own, taking her hand and touching the lines on the side of his gorgeous green eyes.  He looked tired and drained to her, but exuberant too.  As if he was going to take this break from all of his worries and make the absolute most of it.

     And they were off, driving to Mirth, a restaurant not that far from Washington Avenue, and one she’d never ventured into.  She didn’t realize they were a part of a convoy of cars and SUVs until she and Dutch stepped out.  There were no cameras waiting to flash, because this was not an officially announced event for the president, causing the press to have to scramble.  But it was clear to Gina when they entered by a back entrance at the restaurant that the secret service had done its job.  An entire private section of Mirth had been condoned off just for the two of them.

     After a wonderful meal and great Champagne, they made their way back to the White House residence.  To Gina’s delight, he didn’t take her to his “love shack” or whatever bedroom name he had for it, but into another large bedroom that looked more lived-in, more comfortable than the previous room.

     “What’s this?” Gina asked him as they entered the large room.  “The infamous Lincoln bedroom?”

     “No, it’s my bedroom,” Dutch said, closing the door.  “At least while I occupy this residence.”  He sat on the bed, removing his shoes. 

     “So that bedroom I slept in before, the one I thought was yours, wasn’t?”  She asked this as she walked leisurely around the room, running her hand along the furniture as she walked.  She already knew the answer, but she needed to hear what he had to say. 

     Dutch considered her.  Christian had told him how much the fact that she had not slept in his bed had hurt her.  “No,” he said, unloosening his tie.  “It wasn’t.”  Then he added:  “No woman has ever slept in this room with me.”

     Gina leaned against the dresser, folding her arms.  “Not even Kate
Marris
,” she said. 

     Dutch hesitated, surprised that she even knew about his ex.  “How would you know about that?” he asked her.

     “Google, my brother,” Gina said.

     Dutch snorted.  “I hope
Google
also told you that we’re no longer together.  But yes, not even her.”  After he removed his tie, his arms kind of fell down to his lap in an exhaustive flap-down, and his body leaned slightly forward.

     “Whoa,” Gina said, hurrying to his side.  “Are you all right?”

     “I’m okay,” he said, nodding.  Gina sat beside him, her hand on his strong shoulder that was now slumped.  He smiled at her, but the tiredness in his eyes told a different story.

     “You work too hard,” she said.  “And then to have to take me to dinner when we could have just as easily stayed here and let me cook you a meal.”

     Dutch couldn’t help it.  He didn’t have the energy for laughing, but he laughed anyway.

     “Why you laughing?” Gina asked, trying to conceal her own smile.

     “The idea of eating another one of those meals of yours,” Dutch said, shaking his head, “I’m sorry, honey, but that’s laughable.”

     Gina grabbed one of his pillows off of his bed and clobbered him with it.  “That is so not funny,” she said, as he fell back on the bed laughing. 

     He looked so gorgeous to her at that very moment, with his silky black hair all tousled and dropped down into his gorgeous face, that she found herself staring at him. 

     His laughter died when he realized she was looking at him so lovingly.  He’d seen it before, many times before, from various females that had come and gone in his life.  But with them, when they gave him that
he’ll do nicely
look, he felt burdened.  With Gina, he felt honored.

     He took her by the arm and pulled her down beside him, laying her head on his chest.  He closed his eyes.  There was no human being on earth he would rather be with than Gina, and the thought of it, that his feelings for her were intensifying, gave him some pause.  When he lost his fiancée in that plane crash, and his father, he found love to be a disagreeable, unreliable nuisance that caught you at your highest peak and lowered you to your lowest depths.  Love, to him, became too risky and he had vowed to never bother with it again.  Not all-out the way he had loved Caroline, the way he had loved his father.

     And now Gina comes along.  Young, vibrant, smart and wonderful.  Everything he wanted and, if truth be told, needed.  And he cared about her in a way that was beginning to disturb him.  He had so much going on, too much already, and to fall in love right smack in the middle of his presidency, when Republicans were doing all they could to tear that presidency down and Democrats were sitting on their lazy rears doing nothing to prop it up, would be insanity. 

     And the idea of putting Gina through this, he thought, as he began rubbing her soft, braided hair.  He wasn’t at all sure if she could handle this.  He kissed her forehead, prompting her to look those big brown eyes he loved, absolutely adored, up to him.  And just by that look in those eyes, he knew she, too, had been wondering down the same road.

     Only she hesitated before talking, as if she was unsure if she should go there, but she went there anyway.  “I could fall in love with you,” she admitted, her hand resting on his flat, ribbed-lined stomach.   “You know that, right?”

     Dutch continued to rub her hair, continued to look into her eyes.  “Yes,” he said. 

     She hesitated again, unsure what to make of his one-word answer.  “Do you recommend it?” she asked and waited for his response.

     Dutch pulled her closer against him.  “It’s going to be tough, Regina,” he said, and then looked down at her. “And I’m not sure if you understand just how tough.”  Then he tightened his jaw and stiffened his resolve.  He couldn’t be selfish with her, not as his feelings for her were beginning to intensify to a point he knew could quickly lead to no return.  “I wouldn’t recommend it,” he said.

     Gina’s heart dropped, and she lay her head back down on his chest.  She understood why he wouldn’t recommend it.  She understood that he dreaded getting her caught up in that fishbowl life he talked about.  But what he didn’t understand was that turning back now for her just might not be an option.  It would be like un-breaking a heart.  She would eventually fall out of love with him, yes, but the damage would have already been done.

     She closed her eyes, refused to think about that now.   “Why is it called Mirth?”  she asked him.

     At first Dutch was thrown. 
What
, he wanted to say.  Then he decided some things, some thoughts, were better left unsaid.  He moved on, too.  “Mirth means whimsical, happy, cheerful.  It doesn’t take itself seriously.  It’s everything Washington is not.  That’s why it’s my favorite restaurant in DC.  When I was a lowly bachelor US Senator, I ate many meals there.”

     “And now you’re a lowly bachelor president,” Gina said, “and still eating meals there.”

     Dutch didn’t smile the way Gina thought he would.  He, instead, closed his eyes too.  “Yes,” he said, pulling  her closer still.  “But not for long,” he added.

     For him to say that, the man who wouldn’t even recommend she fall in love with him, confused more than elated Gina.  And she decided that he was as terrified of their relationship as she was, and they both therefore needed to just chill. 

     She closed her eyes, he kept his closed, and they chilled.

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Early the next morning, Christian made his way inside the residence to awaken Gina and whisk her away before the press office cranked up.  But when he opened the bedroom door, and saw the bed not only empty, but completely undisturbed, he panicked.  And hurried to the president’s bedroom. 

     When he opened the door, ever so slowly in case he was still asleep, he was pleasantly surprised to see Gina asleep in the president’s arms.  And the president held her so protectively, Christian thought, his arms encircling her, her obviously naked body pinned tightly against his.  And it was an amazing sight to see.  In all of Christian’s time in service at the White House, in all the times he had ushered so many different women in and out, he had never arrived to find one of them in the president’s own bed.  Not ever. 

     Until now, he thought with a satisfied smile, as he backed back out, and closed the door.

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