Chapter One
Now
“We’ve been thinking about this, Senator Samuels,” the young female staffer whose name I cannotfor thelifeof me remember says. “And we’d like to float an item past you.”
I lean back in my chair. This ought to be good. “Yes?”
The woman looks at the guy with her—I think his name is Brad, or Bob, or something—and forges ahead. “We’d like to know if you andyour husband would mind if we refer to Mr. Bruunt as FOTUS instead of FGOTUS.”
“FOTUS? Why?”
“To shorten it,” she says. “FLOTUS works well as-is, but there’s just something…oddabout FGOTUS.”
“We scrapped GOTUS,” adds Brad, or Ben, or Buddy, or whatever the hell his name is. “Too…weird.”
I can see why. Let the goat jokes fly.
I’d be getting spanked damn near every night if we used that. Iwouldn’t be able to resist teasing the sadist.
“And if we get ahead of this now, Senator Samuels,” the woman adds, “we can train the press.”
I toss my pen on my desk in frustration as I realize I’m not getting anything done until this is addressed to their satisfaction. “Have you asked Christopher about this? Because, honestly, it’s his call.”
“We thought protocol dictates we clear it withyou first, ma’am,” she says.
I would burst out laughing—and so would Chris and Kev, if they were here with me. Protocols are Chris’ specialty, even though only the three of us know certain aspects of that little factoid about him.
Wherearethose two rat bastards, anyway?
These two staffers are Kev’s responsibility. They’re transition staff who will be working in the White House as aides ordeputies or gophers or something come January, once I take office.
Meanwhile, I’m still a sitting US senator, until January third, when London Childers is sworn in as the newest senator from Florida and takes over my seat. She’s an Independent who’s a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, and I personally stumped for her. She’s thirty-one, has a doctorate in political science, and is thedaughter of two attorneys. Her father is also currently serving his second term on the Hillsborough County Commission.
Today, I’m actually in my Senate office,tryingto get a little work done.
Tryingbeing the operative word, in more ways than one.
I’ve been here ever since I took my PDB as president-elect from intelligence officials at seven thirty this morning. Because that’s been my routinelately as I try to get shit finished.
Meaningeveryoneknows where I am and is stopping in with transition business I asked them to hold until this evening, when I could focus on it. I want to finish clearing the decks of these other items before December fourteenth, if at all possible. Only Kev, Chris, Lauren, and Leo are supposed to be coming in to interrupt me.
I’ve been president-elect forless than, what, three weeks, and my already high-speed life has shifted from what now feels like second gear to light-speed.
I’m whiplashed, even though I knew what to expect.
Or, IthoughtI knew.
Youneverknow, it turns out.
To his credit, Fullmer’s office is fully cooperating with my transition team and getting them up to speed. I’d worried about partisan bullshit taking place, but they’vebeen consummate professionals, which I will make sure gets talked about. Hopefully, it’ll help drag our government another step toward a return to true bipartisanship. I’ve asked my people to keep me posted if there’s any bullshit on Fullmer’s part, but so far, there hasn’t been.
In public, of course, I have nothing but kind words for my predecessor, no matter what. Public face for unity, andall that. I’ve also told my team that I willnottolerate anyone talking badly about Fullmer and his transition team during this process. That if there’s a problem, it gets brought to me or Kev to deal with.
Already this has earned me brownie points with more than a few moderate GOP lawmakers, several of whom have privately approached me and Kev and indicated they are open to sitting down withme to discuss common ground.
Plenty of screaming and gnashing of teeth from my Senate colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle, but they’ll just have to suck it up and deal. I want to see good, solid legislation cross my desk. In both houses, once they swear in the newly elected members, there is now a large enough Independent and third-party contingent of lawmakers thatbothmajor partieswill have to play nice if they hope to court votes to help push agendas through.
Everyonewill have to work together to get anything done, or voters will rebel in the mid-terms and send incumbents home.
