Hi y'all! I know I promised you that this chapter was coming on Monday. As I was writing this chapter, it evolved into what you are about to read. There will be more than one part to this chapter, this I definitely know for sure. Enjoy Chapter 88!
"With all this talk about baby names, I think we forgot about something just as important, Liv." She was on top of me, her head on my chest. I think she was dozing off, because I had to repeat myself. "What are we forgetting about?" she asked following a big yawn, as she was waking up. "We need to go ring shopping. You don't have an engagement ring yet, Sweet Baby."
"Didn't you buy me a wardrobe of jewelry to go with all of those evening gowns not too long ago? I think I have a couple of rings in that collection, Fitz."
"I did buy you jewelry to go with the evening gowns I bought you, but that was a completely different situation. That jewelry is the equivalent of being costume jewelry, Liv. Those rings are not an engagement ring. I want you to have something that you would love to show off, and know that it's a sign of what our marriage will be like. I know that you love me and I love you. I just want to spoil you," I say kissing her forehead.
It has been about two and a half weeks since our romp in the White House bunker. I meant what I said, when I told her that I wanted to spoil her. In whatever off time I had while in the Oval Office, I spent looking at different cuts of engagement rings that I wanted Olivia to choose from. I kept looking at Livvie's left hand, for the past few days to see if I could decipher what size her finger was by looking. If I had to guess what size at the top of my head, I would have to say that I thought she was a size 6 or 7 in a ring.
Now as far as what style Olivia would like, I am trying to decide whether to ask her, or just decide myself and surprise her with the choice of ring that I would give her.
But I had another thing that was on my mind lately. I am seriously thinking about whether or not to change party affiliations when campaigning for my re-election. I have been a Republican since I was Governor of California. My party affiliation is Republican because of my father. My father wanted to mold me into his image for as long as I could remember. I couldn't stand my father, I hated him and what he represented. But if I was completely honest, a part of me wanted to be like him in the sense of political ambition and I wanted to be better than him. Even though he was Governor of California and a Senator, he was never President of The United States. It is because of the political legacy and pedigree that I was afforded by being the son of Fitzgerald Thomas Grant II, that I could go into politics the relatively easy way. When I say relatively easy, I mean doing a stint in the Navy being a pilot and then a few years later becoming Governor of California myself.
In saying all of this, even though my party affiliation is Republican because of my father, I consider myself Democratic in my way of thinking and my policy positions. On a national scale, there are very few African Americans being Republicans. African Americans were Republicans until the Kennedy vs Nixon election, when John F. Kennedy helped Martin Luther King Jr. be released from prison and as a result of this, it was the start of the massive wave or migration of the African American electorate going to the Democratic Party.
I think Olivia finding her biological parents and forming a strong relationship with them is not only a blessing for herself, but to a lesser degree, a blessing for myself as well. I had a bit of a time trying to get on Ambassador Scott's good graces, but I did have them by the time that Livvie ended her first impromptu reunion with her parents.
Olivia's mother Carolyn, reminded me so much of my own mother, I could cry. Olivia's father, Preston, is like my surrogate father; someone who I wished my own father would have been. But I could consider him my father too, just not by blood. He is my future father-in-law.
Before Liv and I left Houston to return to Washington DC, Preston and I did have time for a heart to heart conversation. I confided in him about me and my strained relationship with my father. I could tell that Preston could empathize with me. He told me that even though his father was not narcissistic like mine, he knew what it felt like to yearn for a relationship that was worth having. When he was sure that he could trust me, and I would continue to love his daughter more than life itself, he told me that I was free to come to him with anything, that I could feel free to call him, that he would try to be a father figure to me as well.
I never took the time to take up Olivia's father on his offer to call him and seek his advice. But with what I had on my mind as of late, I was going to take him up on this particular kindness.
I was nervous. I was about to call my fiancée's father for the first time. I was trying to dial down my nerves, telling myself to calm down. I had already met him and talked to him in person, and the overprotective father versus the doting boyfriend phase was behind us. So I did not have a reason to feel this way. However, this was another thing entirely.
I haven't talked to him in give or take, a few months, and not to mention that I was sitting on the secret that he was going to be a grandfather, and he has yet to find out this bit of information for himself. I balled my right hand into a fist and my fingernails dug into my palm. Before I lost my nerve, I dialed the mobile number with a Houston area code.
"Hello?" a voice asked, picking up on the third ring. It was Olivia's mother, Carolyn. I shouldn't have been nervous, but I could feel myself relaxing since she had answered the phone. For some reason, I couldn't seem to get my nerve to speak to Olivia's father just yet.
"Mrs. Scott? How are you? This is Fitz. I was calling to speak to your husband. Do I have the wrong number?" I asked, still feeling a little bit anxious.
"Fitz, hello. I'm fine thank you for asking. No, you have the correct number. Preston, left his phone on the kitchen island. He is out on the patio at the moment," she said just as jovially as I remembered her voice being.
"How have you and Olivia been lately? I don't think we have spoken since the two of you were here, when was it, August or September? And what is with this Mrs. Scott business? I really and truly appreciate you being polite to me Fitz, I do. But Mrs. Scott is my married name. Have I told you before you left, that if calling me Mom, isn't comfortable for you just yet, to call me Carolyn?" Carolyn was peppering me with questions as if she had known me for years, not a matter of months.
I listened to her, and I was wondering whether I wanted to laugh or cry. Maybe I wanted to do a combination of both. I wanted to laugh, not because I was laughing at her, but because the way she was going on her tangent, she reminded me so much of how my mom was; asking about how I was doing and playfully scolding me to break the ice and really talk to me.
"Yes ma'am. To answer your questions: Yes, Olivia and I are doing fine. We have news for you both that we can't wait to share. Yes, it has been a while since we have seen you all, but I hope that we can visit you again soon, hopefully either Christmas, New Years or both holidays."
"Or maybe Olivia's birthday?" Carolyn chimes in. "Olivia's birthday, is three weeks after Christmas, on January 17th. I can't tell you how much it would mean to both Preston and me, to finally have a chance to celebrate all of those holidays, but especially Olivia's birthday with you both."
The weight of what Carolyn was saying, crashed on me like a tsunami. All of the aforementioned holidays and so much more, are milestones that Olivia and her parents missed because of the devastation that Eli and Maya Pope put on them. I know that I can't rewind the clock, and undo what happened but I could do my best to assuage for such an injustice that was so personal.
Chapter 89 is coming up soon. Until next time...Taylor
