Like it’s trying to form an emotional callus but hasn’t quite managed it yet.
“Love you, baby,” he whispers. “You’re my boy.Always. Forlife. I’m never walking away from you, I promise.”
Like that, my pain drains away. “Love you, too, Sir.” I tip my face up for one more kiss before we settle in to sleep as long as we can.
I want to be…petty.
I want to remind Elliot it doesn’t have to be like this. That he could have Leoandhe could have me.
That he’s only hurting Leo by stretching the man we both love so thinly between us.
I know Elliot needs Leo.
I just wish Elliot wanted or needed me, too.
* * * *
After six years spent working in the White House, I have learned so many things and made so many connections that I could easily walk into any political consulting or lobbyist firm and walk out with a job making at least two hundred thousand a year.
Contacts are everything in this town, and I have a bunch. Knowledge is power.
I have that, too.
Contacts and knowledge aren’t just power in this town—they’re currency.
I have the respect of my peers. I have a man I love beyond reason…
And I have a sense of greater purpose. An expanded worldview that allows me to see the big picture in a way few can outside the theater of national and world politics.
We’re now in August of year two of President Samuels’ second term, and there’s still a lot to accomplish on her legislative agenda.
Elliot Woodley hasn’t officially declared yet, even though all signs point to that, including the man’s own actions.
Except…
That man I love beyond reason? That man I know loves me, and who wants to spend the rest of his life with me? That man who swears he will never walk away from me?
The man wholiterallyput himself between me and potential death without hesitation?
He loves Elliot Woodley beyond reason and logic.
Leo’s also flirting with full-on denial about Elliot declaring.
And after a lot of painful, secret soul-searching, and a long discussion with Kevin Markos…
I can no longer ignore the truth.
From what I’ve learned about DC and politics and politicians, there’s one thing I know with complete and absolute certainty: Elliot Woodley needs to be our next president.
Point number two? He can’t do it without Leo. Elliot needs Leo.
Leo will never walk away from Elliot, and he’ll never walk away from me, either.
And so, with a sad, quiet certainty that does nothing to ease my shattered heart, I do what I absolutely know is the right thing, in the grand scheme of things.
I make the decision to step aside so Elliot won’t have me as a distraction when he finally launches his campaign.
It’s painful, and it guts me, and even going against my better instincts and caving to Leo to give him an extra week to try to convince Elliot to give me a chance doesn’t help.
