Madame President - Tara Sue Me Page 0,78
her on the spot.
From there, he launches into a passionate plea for more research, more treatment options, and the absolute need for a cure. He is raw and real, and as he approaches the end of his speech, I doubt there’s a dry eye in the crowd.
“Lastly,” he says. “Life is uncertain and way too short not to squeeze every last drop of it possible from every day. Take some risks. Take some chances. Live. And never pass up an opportunity to say what needs to be said because none of us are promised tomorrow. Thank you, and goodnight.”
He nods as he walks past me. I’m up next to close the evening out, but what I really want to do is run after him. To ask him what he’s going to do and if he’s staying in DC. But my feet take me to the podium to do my job, even as his voice from months ago echoes in my head.
“You, Madame President, better learn you don’t know everything, nor do you have the right to know everything.”
He was correct then, and his words are still true now. And any right I might have had to know anything about him or his future, I lost the day I turned him away.
I thank everyone for coming and for what I know will be their generous donations. I thank Sunshine and the other survivors. To those who lost family and friends, I promise we will never give up looking for a cure. I end by thanking Navin, even though he seems to have left the room because I can’t see him anywhere.
After I step down, people surround me, but I excuse myself. There’s only one person I want to see, one person I need to talk with, and I can’t find him. I head to his family’s table. William and CeCe are talking with a Pediatric Oncologist from John Hopkins, but Sunshine is free and watching me with a peculiar look on her face.
“Are you looking for Navin?” she asks.
“Yes, do you know where he is?”
She nods. “He said if you were to ask, to tell you he’s in the library.”
I tilt my head at her curious word choice. “What if someone else were to ask?”
“Then I tell them he went to the restroom.”
I thank her and head toward the library. I don’t know what he’s going to say and even worse, I don’t know what I want him to say. Only the knowledge that I can’t keep going the way I currently am moves me toward him.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Him
The White House
Washington DC
I have no way to know if she’s going to come. Maybe I should have told more people than Sunshine about where I’d be. Everything in my head has been crazy the last few days, which means everything in my life has likewise been crazy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love having my parents in DC. With my work schedule being what it’s been the last few years in New York, I haven’t been able to take off and visit them as often as I’d like. This weekend with them in town is a perfect way to reconnect and I’ve treasured every second.
I hadn’t planned on my mom being able to see the truth between me and Anna so clearly. But she’s more intuitive than I’d thought. It’s either that or Anna and I are just obvious, but I don’t think that's the case. No one else has mentioned anything of the sort to me.
Footsteps sound in the hall, and I take a deep breath. This is it. This is when I put it all on the table.
She appears in the doorway. Following behind her by a few steps is her ever-present security detail. It’s comical in my head. Me, finally falling for someone, and she has a group of men following her everywhere she goes. I don’t laugh out loud, though, because I know she won’t share my mirth.
I wait while she speaks to them and then steps inside and closes the door so we’re alone.
Alone.
Such a rare place to find yourself. Especially in Washington DC. Yet, I’m here in this most public of all houses with a woman who is one of the most well known of all women. And we’re alone.
She moves toward me. “You left so quickly after your speech.”
“I needed some air.” I needed air then, but I think I need it now even more. “It was hard going back and remembering that dark time when we