good for him,” he tells me.
As horrible as thinking about Trevor makes me feel, it’s not the reason I’m upset. It’s not the reason I’m running away.
“Dad, I need to stay here for a while,” I sniff.
“Of course, sweetie…” He hesitates. “Is there something else you want to tell me about? What’s wrong?”
It’s all I can do to hold back a flood of tears. “Everything.”
He takes me into the living room, a comforting sight. My dad presses a mug of hot peppermint tea into my hands and lets me curl up with a blanket.
David probably figured out I’m missing pretty quickly. I sent all the Secret Service members to stand guard outside my rooms, demanding privacy. My complaints had never made them follow my orders before, but something in my face this time must have alerted them to the fact I was serious.
Unfortunately for them, this was the one time I’ve planned on causing trouble.
Slipping outside was a challenge, but I had time on my side. My Secret Service agents might have been vigilant, but they are only human. The second they were distracted, I slipped away.
I didn’t employ fancy techniques or anything like that. I just held my head high and walked away like I was meant to.
When I got to the guard post at the gates, I didn’t even bother waiting for them to ask my business. “You know who I am,” I said, striding through without stopping.
It really shouldn’t have worked. Someone, at some point, should have stopped me.
But I guess the one advantage to being the President’s fiancée is that nobody wants to question you.
And then I hopped on the first flight back home. Six hours on a plane was grueling, but my thoughts kept me preoccupied enough.
“What happened to your thing with the President?” my dad asks, clearly concerned. “Aren’t you meant to be pretending to be engaged?”
I sip my peppermint tea silently. I want to talk to Dad, I really do. But how am I supposed to tell him about what happened?
About what caused David to turn his back on me?
“I know that look,” Dad says at last.
I blink. “You do?”
“It’s the look every girl has,” he continues, “when she’s developed feelings. True and real feelings.”
I nearly drop my hot mug. “You think that I…” I gasp. “No, no way.”
My dad sighs. “This is awkward to talk about. We both know I’m not the best at emotions and all that stuff.”
“Dad…”
“But your mom isn’t here, Veronica, so I’m going to say it.” He looks me in the eye. “Are you really telling me that you don’t find the President of our nation attractive?”
I squirm in my seat. He could have asked me whether I find… I don’t know, Ryan Gosling, attractive and I still would feel weird about it. It’s my dad I’m talking to, after all. There are some things that are just not meant to be said in front of one’s parents, and talking about having the hots for the leader of the free world is one of them.
But of course I find him hot. Just the memory of his lips on mine makes a violent shiver run down my spine. The man is like a Greek god dressed up in a business suit.
“Sure,” I say finally, wondering if drowning myself in the peppermint tea is an option. “He’s attractive. Who doesn’t think that?”
“Do you get on well?” Dad continues, eyeing me up.
I think back. Talking with David is like… nothing I’ve ever experienced before. He’s a man quite unlike any other, but then I suppose he’s one of a kind.
He makes me nervous, naturally. Talking to the President is the kind of thing that should rightfully make anyone nervous.
But he’s… kind. Intelligent and sharp, as I quickly learned. And sometimes even funny. He hadn’t held back from teasing me.
In a regular guy, I guess those… might have been the kinds of qualities that I could find attractive. A big reason that I’d ever gone out with Trevor was that he could be funny, sometimes. He used to send me funny Facebook posts he found on the internet for years.
The feelings I get from being around David… I’d never felt them with Trevor. They’re new and fresh and I have no idea how to control them.
Horror dawns upon me like an anvil falling from the sky.
“I like the President,” I whisper.
The realization doesn’t make anything any better. If anything, the hurt I’ve felt for the last day is amplified a million times