Hi y'all, Happy Leap Day Eve! I'm back with another chapter. I wasn't sure that I would be able to get this chapter up tonight. I hope you enjoy Chapter 90!
"I wanted to talk to him about a couple of things actually. I wanted his permission to ask for Olivia's hand in marriage. I also wanted his advice about engagement rings. The other thing, I wanted to discuss with him is a bit more complex. I'm thinking about changing my party affiliation from Republican to Democratic, as I seek re-election. And I also wanted yours and his opinions about reparations for the descendants of slaves," I admitted honestly.
"I know that Preston will be thrilled that you are asking for his blessing for Olivia's hand in marriage. If I know my husband as well as I think I do, I am absolutely sure that he will give you his blessing. Now, where did the idea of changing your political affiliation come from? Or would a better question be, why did you become a Republican in the first place?" Carolyn asked me, cutting right to the chase.
"Now, I know where Liv gets her quick wit and her ability to ask tough questions from," I say with a laugh. "Anyway, the question would be why did I become a Republican in the first place? It is a long, boring story Carolyn," I say almost somberly. "You're being modest. I have time to listen. And in the short time that I have gotten to know you, I highly doubt anything about you would be boring, Fitz.
I didn't know what to say. I was speechless. I was getting over my shock, when I heard a screen door open on Carolyn's end of the phone. "Preston just walked in, Fitz. I'm going to put you on speaker," Carolyn announced before I could get a word in edgewise.
The nervousness and awkwardness that I felt, before I dialed this phone number 90 minutes ago, increased substantially. I felt like I was a teenager again, mortified to be talking to my girlfriend's parents, but especially scared to talk to her father. I know it was probably a physiological reaction, but I thought I was starting to sweat.
"Hello son," Preston was just as jovial as Carolyn was when she answered the phone. "Hello sir," I responded brightly in spite of the nervousness that I was feeling. "Now what are you and Carolyn talking about? Seeing that Carey is on my phone, I can assume you are taking up my offer to talk to me, correct?"
"Well, I want to talk to you about a few things actually. I have been looking at engagement rings for awhile now. I wanted your input on how you and Carolyn became engaged, to pick your brain so to speak. I want to know how your love story came to be. I want you both to be incorporated in the ring somehow, like the design of it, something like that; maybe have a replica of Carolyn's ring be made for Olivia. I also want to ask your blessing to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage," I said, waiting for his response.
If I listened hard enough, I could hear a pin drop. There was total silence. If I was nervous before, I was absolutely petrified at this moment. I know that Preston and Carolyn were still on the line; I didn't hear a dial tone, signaling that they had hung the phone up. If I could have been more eloquent in how I felt at this moment, I would describe that, I felt like I was alternating between walking on a high wire and walking on eggshells.
"Hello? Did I lose you?" I said, breaking the silence, hoping that either of them would say something to me. I don't think they were rejecting me, I think they were in shock. They never experienced this before. They just reunited with their daughter, they were seperated from, for 36 almost 37 years, not even 6 months ago. Not only that, but their formerly long-lost daughter's boyfriend was asking for permission to marry said daughter. If I were in their shoes, I would think I would be speechless too.
Fitz has been in the Oval Office for over two hours, and it was after his schedule for the day had ended. That's not to say that being President of The United States, has a set amount of work hours like a regular nine to five job. He is the leader of the free world all hours of the day and anything can happen whether it is on his schedule or not. Having said that, he would have told me he was going to be late.
While I was waiting for Fitz, I was playing a game of cards with Daniel. Daniel was the secret service agent that was in the Oval Office with Fitz, when he summoned me there, and I told Fitz to earn me, the day of Mellie's BNC interview subtly outing his relationship with me.
We were playing Go Fish. I liked card games, but I want to learn how to play Bid Whist, but that particular game has a minimum of four players. So Daniel and I couldn't play Bid Whist yet. "Do you have any threes, ma'am?" Daniel asked me, still being in professional mode. I was trying to get him to call me by my first name. I would wear him down eventually. It took me a while to get Tom and Jack to call me Olivia.
"No, I don't have threes. Go Fish," I said, while trying to think of what card I would ask him for. "Do you have any spades?" I asked him. Daniel looks at me with a slight disappointed look. He had spades. I could tell. We played four games of Go Fish. Whenever Daniel had a card that I asked for he would look disappointed, like he didn't want to give me the card.
"Hand it over, Harper," I teased him addressing Daniel by his last name. He silently handed me his card. "You know that you can talk to me right? I keep telling you, that you can call me by my name," I tell him yet again. We have been in the Residence for over two hours, and Daniel couldn't bring himself to address me by my first name. He kept calling me Ma'am.
I wanted to be annoyed by that, but I understood. He has been a secret service agent for a while now; and this situation was new. Being on a first name basis with the President's girlfriend was something to get used to, to be respectful yet not cross a line. It was like walking on a high wire, hundreds of feet in the air.
I needed to take a chill pill, literally. I sat down in the chair behind my desk, rubbing my temples. I was still on the phone with Livvie's parents. I had sent Tom out the other day to the health food store to get ashwagandha for me; the other name for the herb is Indian Ginseng. I would consider myself a fairly calm person, but I was stressing out because of the pressure I felt to ask for Preston and Carolyn's blessing to marry Olivia. I popped two of the ashwagandha pills in my mouth and gulped a couple of swallows of water.
I took a deep breath before I spoke. "I'm sorry. Maybe I went about this the wrong way. You don't know me that well, I am virtually a stranger to you. You have just reunited with Olivia not too long ago. You both just want to get to know her, and here I come asking to marry her. I should ask you in person, not over the phone."
"Fitz, we were in shock. It's not that you were being disrespectful to us. You are not. Carolyn and I truly appreciate you being there for our baby girl and asking our permission to marry her. You are right. We just reunited with Olivia, and our relationship with her is still fresh. We want to get to know her but we want to get to know you better too. You are her significant other. This whole situation is new for all of us. I would like to see you in person, but I also know that you are President of the United States, and you can't just leave on a whim. You have to run the country," Preston said to me in an understanding tone of voice.
So what did you think of this chapter? I hope to have the next part of the chapter, before the weekend is over. Until next time...Taylor
