Matthew
“Please take a bow,” the President said as he looked over at Kayla and I.
There was no doubt in my mind that Kayla was going to be angry that the President knew I had proposed to her. She was also going to be upset that I hadn’t corrected him when he congratulated us on our upcoming wedding. But I couldn’t tell him that Kayla had actually said no, it was embarrassing and I was pretty sure Kayla was going to change her mind much sooner than three months.
I raised Kayla’s hand up into the air and made sure that the press could get a good picture of her ring. It was exciting that she hadn’t actually taken the ring off; I couldn’t have planned it any better.
I let the moment linger and fed myself and Kayla to the press. They loved it, the controversy, the excitement, it was all going to get them more viewers and sell them newspapers. That was what was important to the press. They no longer cared about a dead Vice President, that wasn’t going to sell their papers. The story about the new one was exactly what they wanted.
My story wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it was interesting enough to get their attention. Of course, I expected that they were going to bring up some aspects of my past, there was nothing I could do about that. I had to hope that the new public relations team that I was hiring would be able to keep my public spin looking positive.
The truth was I had not been convicted of any crimes, ever. The past investigation into the disappearance of my intern should play no real role in my press coverage. I was never even considered a prime suspect. But I knew how the world worked and I knew her time in my office and the circumstances surrounding her death were bound to be important to some news stations.
I could deal with that negativity, though, I could deal with it rather easy because it was in the past. The past was a tricky ally in a politician’s life. Once something had been reported as a story once, and cycled through the system; it was easier to dismiss the story in the future. I could simply make a statement saying, “I complied with all investigations and was horribly saddened by the loss of a young brilliant life.” Or I would say whatever else my public relations team decided was appropriate.
The true trouble would come from dealing with the immediate press. I was in fact engaged to my previous employee. If one of the newspapers decided to get a bug in their ear about improper relations, I was going to have to deal with it in the press. Not even the best of public relations firms was going to be able to keep the press away from me if they thought I used my power in my office to gain a sexual relationship with Kayla. I needed her to marry me.
Our relationship legitimacy could only be established if we were married. Obviously, I hoped that just by being engaged we were establishing some sort of legitimacy, but marriage was the real goal.
Kayla pulled her hand gently away from me and slid it behind her back as I made my way up to the podium. The crowd wasn’t too large; mainly just white house press staff who had been pre-approved to participate in the press conference. They were press that knew their position was precarious and they had to be respectful. It wasn’t likely I would receive any inappropriate questions from this group because they feared losing their coveted spot on the white house press corp.
I paused as I pulled out my short speech and then looked back at Kayla for effect. She smiled at me and nodded her head perfectly; she seemed to know right away how she was supposed to act even when she was angry with me.
As I turned to the press corp to start my speech, I took in the moment and realized it was the last moment I was going to be just a normal guy. From that moment forward I would be known as the Vice President of the United States of America. It was an enormously accomplished feeling.
“Today, it is with sadness that I have been asked to take over this position. There is no way I can fill the shoes of Vice President Howard. He was a great friend, politician, husband, and father. My only hope is that I will live up to the standards he set and make my leader and my country proud,” I said as I paused for applause.
There wasn’t anything more that I really needed to add. Although I had written another paragraph for my speech, I decided to step back from the podium and keep my remarks shorter than originally planned. Nothing that I said at that moment was going to matter anyways, the press wouldn’t run my words and were only going to concentrate on my history and my personal life.
As the press conference concluded, I walked off stage with Kayla and she held my hand until we got behind the stage. I knew, by the way, she looked at me that I needed to get her to a private room very quickly so we could discuss her anger without everyone around us.
“Just wait, we can talk in a minute,” I said as I held her hand tightly.
She nodded and then looked away from me. Her anger obvious to me, but I wasn’t sure it was visible to anyone else. As people came up and congratulated me, she was responsive and kind to everyone who wanted to talk to her. She shook their hands and smiled at them. It was at that moment that I knew she would be the perfect wife for me. Sure she was going to be angry with me in private, but she understood the political ramifications of showing herself as an angry woman in public and she held herself back.
That kind of self-control couldn’t be taught, it was something a woman had to have deep down. Kayla had exactly what I needed and I wasn’t about to let her run away from her destiny with me.