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“Right,” Leeza says, leaning forward slightly. “But on top of losing your husband in a tragic accident, you also found out along with the rest of the world that the President had a mistress, not to mention a child you’d never known about. How did that feel during a period that was supposed to be one of mourning? Were you angry?”
Ruby can feel the fury building inside of her and she wants to stand up and walk off the set. Actually, the first thing she wants to do is to push Leeza and her smug smile off of her chair, andthenshe wants to walk off the set. But she won’t, because she’s been groomed to be a First Lady, and she’ll be one until the end, whether she’s living in the White House or not.
“Well, Leeza,” Ruby says, the ice in her voice apparent to anyone with ears. “It felt like my heart had been stepped on and crushed into a million pieces. I didn’t know how to protect my children, and I didn’t know how to feel about any of it.” She pauses, eyes blazing as she watches Leeza’s face. “But I’ll tell you what: nearly every person who has ever lived has gone through something heart-wrenching and private that they don’t want to discuss.”
Leeza is nodding intently and squinting her eyes so that her face is set in the mask of a seasoned journalist. She looks like she thinks she’s Barbara Walters, but Ruby knows that Leeza isn’t even in the neighborhood of Barbara’s league in skill, technique, or humility.
Ruby leans forward in her chair so that she and Leeza appear to be going head to head, which—truth be told—they are. Ruby knows how to handle things with class and dignity, but Leeza has punched some buttons inside of her that she didn’t even know were there. “You know, Leeza, it’s kind of like when someone in the public eye finds out that their husband has spent nearly a million dollars acting as—wait, what’s that called when a man pays for much younger women to ‘keep him company’ or send him questionable photos?” Ruby turns to look at the audience and sees that every single woman in the studio is hanging on her words and doesn’t appear to be breathing for fear that she might miss whatever comes next. Ruby looks back at Leeza as she snaps her fingers. “That’s right, asugar daddy.”
Leeza opens and closes her mouth like the words have died on her tongue. She’s gone from looking hungry and ready to pounce to looking like a deflated balloon in a Donna Karan wrap dress.
“Anyhow,” Ruby goes on breezily, her reddened cheeks the only thing betraying her outward calm, “life can get extremely complicated, and now I’m doing my best to figure out how I want it to look going forward. It's time for me to start the next chapter of my life. So tothatend," Ruby says, her eyes grazing the front row of the audience. "I'm going to follow a lifelong passion of mine and open a bookstore."
Leeza blinks a few times and then tilts her head to the right like she's checking to see if she has water in her ear; it's clear that she hasn't fully accepted that Ruby Hudson just completely owned her on camera, and the stunned look on her face gives away the fact that she’s still reeling from being reminded of her own personal PR disaster right thereon her own show.
"That is amazing," Leeza says, tossing her hair as she crosses one leg over the other. Her eyes are glassy and her tone rings false, but she won’t deviate from the script again. “And where exactly can we shop for books and look forward to having our purchases rung up by former First Lady Ruby Hudson? Will there be multiple locations?"
Ruby smiles in a way that says she's holding back; they have now returned to the predetermined plan, and so long as Leeza stays the course, so will Ruby. "I'm still scouting around for a location—as in singular. I have a vision for my store," she says, "and I'll know the spot when I see it. But there will only be one, and it will be my pride and joy."
Leeza looks out at the crowd; everyone is listening intently. "Can you give us any hint at all? North? South? East? West?"
Ruby laughs coyly. "All I can say is that I'll never be shoveling snow in winter, and I'll end every day with a clap of thunder as the sun sets."
A tiny frown pierces Leeza's smooth forehead and she turns to look directly into the camera. "Hmmm, warm winters and thunder...put your thinking cap on, guys! The first viewer to email me the correct guess wins a five hundred dollar gift card to Ruby Hudson's mysterious new bookstore, and it’s on me!” Her jovial tone and even smile have returned, but Ruby knows from sitting this close to the host and watching her body language that Leeza is going to lock herself in her dressing room after they’re done and send angry texts to every underling on her show’s staff just to take out what she’s feeling right now on someone beneath her.
"It's feeling southern to me," Leeza says, putting her chin in her manicured hand as she looks at Ruby steadily, hoping for more. "I know there are lots of thunderstorms in Florida."
"You might be right," Ruby says. "But ending my day with a 'clap of thunder' is simply another way to say that I'll be ending it with a strong drink, which isdefinitelyon the itinerary in my new life.”
“I hear that,” Leeza says, giving Ruby a faux-playful wink to show the audience that they’re on the same team again. “And we can’t wait to find out what the future holds for you, Ruby Hudson. Thank you for stopping by to visit with us, and best of luck with your new bookstore!”
The crowd claps and hoots at this, and the cameraman signals a countdown till the next station break. When the red light flickers off and the woman in the headset from backstage gives them the all clear, Ruby turns to Leeza and leans in closer.
“Nickel’s worth of free advice, Leeza,” Ruby says quietly so that no one else can hear her. “In the future, be a girl’s girl, not a python in lipstick.”
Ruby stretches her legs and stands up, waving at the crowd with both hands once again as she walks back toward the orange velvet curtains and to the car waiting for her right outside the studio.
Athena
Athena is the eldest of Ruby’s two daughters, and for most of her life, her parents had joked that she was the lone adult in the family. When Ruby wanted to skip dinner and raid the fridge in the White House for ice cream and cookies, or when Harlow, Athena’s younger sister, went out at night as a teenager and got herself splashed all over the tabloids for one misdeed or another, Athena was always the one to calmly impart reason. She even knew how to talk her father—the President of the United States of America—down off the ledge with her patient, wise counsel. Most people would call Athena an “old soul,” but Athena just thinks of herself as someone with common sense.
“Mom,” she would say as a child, “Harlow and I need to eat better meals than just ice cream and cookies. You know that!” Or, “Harlow, you can’t just go out and get your bellybutton pierced at a street fair. You know that’s going to be photographed and show up online. How will that look for Dad?” She was so much like a mini-adult that Ruby used to joke about her joining Jack’s team of advisors when she was still in elementary school.
As for Jack, he was rarely carefree and childish, but on occasion, he might lose his cool over something small, and Athena would soothe him with her words like no one else could. “Daddy,” she might say. “Do you think you can afford to throw a tantrum when you’re talking to the president of Mexico? No, you cannot.” Far from angering him, her words would be like balm to his troubled soul. No matter if he was in the midst of a political impasse or if he was simply tired and rundown, Jack would crack a smile and look at his daughter with total adoration.
Athena has been the anchor of the family for twenty-three years.
Harlow Hudson is another story entirely. Harlow is everything that Athena is not: she is whimsical, spontaneous, wild, and untamed. That bellybutton-piercing-at-a-Brooklyn-street-fair scenario is anything but hypothetical; it happened, it was recorded and photographed for posterity, and when some random guy walked by and bent forward to kiss the bare belly of one of the First Daughters, every camera phone in the vicinity caught the moment and shared it widely. Then just a fifteen-year-old girl, Harlow had been more entertained than apologetic about the brouhaha caused by the Bellygate scandal, as Ruby called it, giving Jack one more reason to lose his temper, and Athena one more opportunity to swoop in and calm her father down.
Now, on her lunch break from her job as librarian of electronic resources at the Library of Congress, Athena takes a seat at a table by the window of a sandwich shop in Washington D.C. and pulls out her phone to text her sister.
She’s ordered a cup of tomato basil soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. When the harried looking waitress sweeps past and sets her tray down, Athena looks up at her with a grateful smile before returning to her phone.
Athena:I assume you’re aware that Mom has gone viral today.
Harlow:Of course! Ruby went so hard. It was epic. She’s trending on Twitter, and I’ve already seen like seven different stitches of it on TikTok.
Athena:Do you think she overdid it? I’m just worried about her image.
