AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ll make sure I don’t screw it up?”
“You won’t need me to do that. You’ve got this, Freddie.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. I need it.”
“Which is why we’re giving you the chance to build your confidence. You know what to do. You’ve been training for this moment for years now.”
“I had no idea this moment would arrive so soon.”
“Sam is thrusting you out of the nest and making you spread your wings.”
“You think she’s okay?”
“She will be. In time.”
After the kidsleft for school and Nick went downstairs to work, Sam wasn’t sure what to do with herself. The White House staff took such good care of everything for them that there wasn’t laundry to fold or any other mundane tasks to keep her mind busy.
Her closet could use straightening, but she didn’t feel like tackling that project today.
So she poured another cup of coffee, took it to the sofa and turned on the TV to see what was going on with the Joint Chiefs story.
Former Secretary of State Martin Ruskin was doing an interview on one of the morning shows.
“If you ask me,” he said, “the Joint Chiefs have done a patriotic thing by trying to force a special election.”
“You would say that,” Sam said, “after Nick fired you for cavorting with Iranian bimbos.”
“How we find ourselves in this situation is unfathomable,” Ruskin said. “That a man only elected once to the Senate now holds the most powerful position on earth is something that should terrify every American.”
Sam wanted to throw things at the TV.
“An argument could be made that President Cappuano has every right to hold the office after the Senate confirmed him to be vice president,” the female commentator pushed back. “If President Nelson and the Senate had faith in him, shouldn’t that be enough for us?”
“It’s not enough,” Ruskin said, sputtering with outrage. “The American people deserve better.”
“How does the fact that he fired you as secretary of State play into your animosity toward him?”
Ruskin gave her an incredulous, how-dare-you-ask-me-that look. “That has nothing to do with it.”
“Right,” Sam said. “Sure it doesn’t.”
“The man is incompetent and has no business serving as president.”
“Recent polls show that more than fifty-five percent of Americans approve of the job he’s doing as president, an approval rating that’s somewhat unprecedented in modern polling. What would you say to them?”
“I’d tell them to look behind the curtain,” Ruskin said. “He’s got a polished exterior, I’ll give him that, but underneath the surface, is anything there? I don’t want to wait until one of our enemies is attacking us to find out he doesn’t have the chops.”
Sam was outraged listening to him. She found the BlackBerry and texted Nick.Ruskin is going off on you. Someone needs to shut him up.
He texted back a few minutes later.We’re working on a statement to tell the public how and why he was released from his SoS duties. We haven’t spelled out the details yet. Gonna do that now.
Good call. I’m glad you’re on it.
Don’t worry about me, babe. I can handle the heat.
I do worry about you, and I hate people. Especially Ruskin.
Haha, down, girl. What are you up to?
