It's late; on the cusp of 1 AM by the clock's apathetic count, and the city throbs in Technicolor. Olivia is not yet sober. A bottle of red from the 60s nearly two hours earlier and she still feels its warm cloak slow down her actions.
"Beautiful night," Mellie says. Beside her, Olivia chuckles. They're out on the terrace, the summer breeze cutting through the heat. The fixer is barefoot, small feet curled under her. She gazes at the DC view, then back at Mellie.
"Beautiful view," she says, staring at Mellie who stares back unflinchingly. She breaks their gaze, and sighs. "Why am I here Mellie?"
It's Mellie's turn to sigh as she rises. She places her hands on the balcony railing, feels the cool metal under her palms. "Fitz is in Japan for another week. I get so lonely and I figured -"
"Figured what?"
"That you must get lonely too. Are you lonely Olivia?"
"Lonely," Olivia echoes, the word like a bitter lozenge on her tongue. She considers it. It tires her, being lonely, it dampens her spirits, makes it hard to rise in the mornings. It aches. She wonders if Mellie knows the ache. She must, sleeping next to a stranger most nights. Fitz is a stranger to her. He can touch her, hold her, fuck her like he's knows her, like husband is supposed to but he is absent.
"Seems we're both chasing a ghost," she says, in lieu of answering the question they both know the answer to. She stares at Mellie's back wanting another cool breeze to slice through her slacks, to chill her, make her aware of her own pulse. "Got anymore wine?"
And Mellie laughs, her slightly drunken country girl laugh that brings a small smile to the fixer's plump lips. The first lady turns to her, still giggling. Her hair is long, down, and pushed behind her ears. She looks younger when she smiles. Olivia tells her so.
"I feel centuries old," Mellie replies and joins her on the couch again. They are close, close enough to feel each other's warmth and apprehension. "Chasing ghosts is a tiresome business, isn't it? I say we stop and chase something else."
Something else. Purposefully ambiguous. Olivia knows Mellie is choosing her words carefully even in her half-drunken state and Olivia expects nothing less.
Mellie is ruthless, a political animal created by pride and suffering and back door promises and oaths written in the reddest of blood. She can bring grown men to their knees, reduce women to weeping shells. Olivia knows this. She's seen it. But she is also a mother, a daughter, and tonight she looks like something just hatched. Olivia wonders if Mellie prays, if she believes in a power greater than her husband's own rein. If she even wants to.
"What kind of something else?" she asks, meeting Mellie's eyes. Time is slower here. Wherever they are now. They've gone from not-quite enemies to allies to something neither of them can name but want to touch.
Mellie shrugs, feigning aloofness though her heart pounds almost audibly behind her ribcage. "Trade in the ghosts for something with a heart beat." And bravely, because she's so close she brings her hand to Olivia's chest, in between her breasts to feel her heart pound.
Olivia freezes, unsure and painfully torn. Mellie's eyes close, focusing on the small, rapid thudding of the other one's chest while Olivia dumbly stares.
Outside of them, DC continues moving along. Car horns sound then fade, lights wink, people move. Only they are unmoving, singular, hearts beating nervously and in tandem.
"Mellie." Her voices trembles. Her throat is dry. "Mellie please."
They're bot unsure of what she is asking. But Mellie's hand leaves her chest, travels languidly up to the back of her neck. Her eyes open, dark and wanting.
"No more ghosts," there's a question in her voice, a plead. She's near tears now, Olivia's dark face hazy in her vision.
They both think of Fitz, his hands touching them, betraying them. His mouth and his hips and his golden boy smile and his hair, his promises whispered like prayers in the dark. They think of how they loved him, how they still do. But they love themselves more now, as they should.
"No more ghosts," Olivia says and closes the gap between them.
…
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