Chapter 3:

The good, the bad and the ugly.

In the President's gym…

Jim's kiss took Mac completely off guard… she didn't expected so, at first, she didn't know how to react. She kissed him back for a few seconds… she responded to the kiss because it was exactly what she needed (even when she really needed it to come from Rod), but then she realized what she was doing and pushed him away…

Mac- no! Stop it, Jim!

It was then when they saw Rod. He was standing at the gym's door watching at them in shock. Rod looked at them in disbelief… and Mac looked at her husband feeling completely embarrassed and scared of what he might think and do… all she wanted was to fix the situation. "say something clever, say something clever" She thought… but she couldn't speak… the three of them were speechless… Mac kept thinking: "Just say something… it doesn't have to be clever… just break the silence". Rod looked at her as begging for an explanation… and Mac thought: "come on! Nothing you could say can make this worse… so just say something". Finally she managed to say…

Mac- Rod… I thought you were coming at 10…

Mac mentally kicked her self. Her nervousness made her say the worse thing she could have said. She thought: "yeah… I should have used my right to remain in silence". Rod, very sarcastically and angry said…

Rod- oh… that's right! I came earlier… I'm sorry… finish what you were doing, please!

Rod was about to storm out, but Mac, finally putting her self together, grabbed his arm and stopped him.

Mac- Rod… wait! I sear this is not what it looks like…

Rod continued his sarcasm.

Rod- oh... I'm so glad! Because it looked like you two were kissing…

Jim- I can explain everything…

Now Rod was really angry… he yelled at both of them…

Rod- COME ON! You two are supposed to be the smartest political minds in America… and that's all you can come up with! Stupid clichés? And the same day YOU accuse ME of cheating! There should be shame on you, Mackenzie!

And there was… she had never felt so embarrassed in her whole life. Jim was embarrassed too, he thought: "To hell with everything! I'm moving to another country"…

Jim- I'll give Vince those papers; ma'am President… and you will have my resignation later by the end of the day.

He took the papers and left them alone… Rod looked at Mac's eyes and very seriously and very disappointed he said…. Rod- really Mackenzie… an affair with JIM? Do you hate me THAT much?

Mac shook her head and tried to explain everything…

Mac- I'm not having an affair with him, Rod… I swear to God that there is nothing going on between Jim and me…

Rod- You were kissing! I saw you with my own eyes!

Mac saw the hurt expression in Rod's face and she felt the tears coming to her eyes.

Mac- what you saw is the only thing that has ever happened with Jim… I swear nothing like that has ever happened before… he just came to give me some papers to sign and kissed me… totally out of the blue.

Rod wanted to believe her, he really did, but he couldn't.

Rod- I can't believe it only happened once… Come on! Do you think I'm stupid? And even if he initiated it, I can't believe he would dare to do such a thing if you didn't give him any indications that he could…

Mac- I swear I didn't do anything… he just kissed me by surprise…and it really only happened once. Believe me Rod… I didn't want to kiss him… you saw me pushing him away and telling him to stop… you saw that… right?

Rod- yes, I saw you pushed him away… but after a while… you did respond to the kiss at first…

Mac didn't know how to respond to that, all she could come up with is to reply with the truth…

Mac- you are right… I did kiss him back for a few seconds… but that's it… I swear it meant nothing to me… Jim means nothing to me…

Rod hit the wall with his hand and very angry yelled.

Rod- But he meant enough for you to hurt me and ruin our marriage…

Mac couldn't help thinking that the marriage was already ruined because of Rod's new job. She simply broke in tears and said…

Mac- I'm so sorry, Rod… I shouldn't have let it happen. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me lately… I'm don't know why suddenly I'm not acting like my self… I hate this new me… I hate that I can't sleep… I hate that now I cry at nights… I hate that I cry at all… I never cried… I never was so lost, I never found my self like this… kissing men that I shouldn't be kissing, that I didn't want to be kissing… Oh God! I hate my self for doing this to you…

Rod realized that the kiss wasn't completely Mac's fault… It wasn't even Jim's fault… It was something that simply happened because of everything that was going wrong with his own relationship with Mac. He couldn't take it anymore…

Rod- we can't keep living like this…

Mac- no… we can't…

Rod nodded, knowing exactly what he had to do…

Rod- I'll move to the guest room.

Mac was shocked… she didn't expect this at all… she expected Rod to realize he made a mistake by leaving and come back home definitely.

Mac- what! To the guest-room?

Rod- yes…

Mac was completely confused and angry…

Mac- You want to sleep in different bedrooms? If you hate me that much why not leave the house and live in New York seven days a week?

Rod- Come on, Mac! I don't hate you… and I might be incredibly disappointed and incredibly mad at you… but I would never do anything that might ruin your Presidency….

Finally the coin dropped…

Mac- so… what you want is to fake our marriage… pretend that everything is fine.

She said that incredibly disappointed and with a tone of voice that reflected how sad she felt at that moment. Rod was also devastated… but he considered that what he said was the better option given the circumstances and given what just happened.

Rod- at least we wouldn't be fooling our selves like we have been doing these last months…

Mac- But Rod… I want to make our marriage work… I still love you…

Rod- I don't think I can forgive you for what I saw here… I'm sorry… in public I can keep the appearances but in private you and me are done…

Mac felt terrible, she never thought she would ever hear Rod saying those words. Then she felt sick when she thought about the idea of faking a happy marriage.

Mac- What if I don't want to keep the appearances? What if I want you to do what you really want, witch is leave?

Rod raised his arms defensibly.

Rod- that's your choice! It's your presidency the one that would be ruin… I mean… you can't afford another scandal with the elections coming up… it would be like giving Nathan Templeton the Oval Office in a plate…

The whole conversation still seemed surreal to Mac. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. She decided to ask what she desperately needed to know….

Mac- Rod, Do you still love me?

Rod looked down, not wanting to answer… he still loved her with all his heart. That's why it hurt him so much seeing her kissing Jim. But he couldn't admit it, instead he said weakly…

Rod- that's not the point…

Mac- let me tell you something… let's make it the point! Let's talk about our feelings… just to be original… Because I'm sure that worrying about Nathan Templeton taking over the Oval Office is what EVERY couple do when they are considering breaking up!

Rod didn't have time to response to that sarcasm because, in that moment, a secret service agent entered in the room.

Agent- sorry ma'am President, you are needed in the Oval Office for your Staff meeting… Mackenzie looked at the time… it was 9:00 am… She was already late. Mac- thank you…

The agent left and Mac explained to Rod.

Mac- Dickie is going to tell us the results of the first polls since I started the campaign for the reelection…

Rod- but we were in a middle of…

Mac interrupted him felling very upset.

Mac- I don't have time to discuss a fake marriage Rod… I have to take a shower, go to the Oval Office and pretend I'm the most powerful person in the world…

Half an hour later… The Oval Office. Just before Mackenzie Allen (Now recently showered and well dressed with a suit) entered in the Oval Office, Jim stopped her…

Jim- excuse me, Ma'am President… here you have my resignation letter and I'm very sorry for what I did…

Mac- but Jim…

Jim handed her a letter and interrupted her.

Jim- I just wanted to know what will you tell everybody about my resignation … and when… and don't worry, I won't tell anyone about… the incident.

Mac took the letter and broke it into little pieces.

Mac- There is nothing to tell Jim, nothing happened… nothing… we will continue working as usual and forget about the incident. Just don't let it happen again and we'll be ok… Did I explain my self clearly?

Jim was happy because he still had his job… but it hurt him that Mac wanted to forget everything and pretend it never happened.

Jim- yes ma'am… and thank you…

Mac and Jim entered in the Oval Office, Dickie, Kelly, Vince and like 10 other people who worked in the President's campaign were there. And, of course, the President's "runny buddy", Warren Keaton, was there too. They all stood up immediately and greeted her. Then she said…

Mac- Good Morning… you can take a sit… so… tell me something, Dickie, Do you have good news or bad news? Are our chances of wining incredibly bad?

Dickie looked at the others, who already knew the news and then she told them to the President.

Dickie- ma'am President… according to this polls we are going to win… this elections are ours.

Mac was stunned. She certainly didn't expect the first poll to go so well. Dickie handed her a list of all the States… it said who would win in each State (according to the poll) and how many electoral votes represented each states. Mac couldn't believe what she was reading…

Mac- is this a joke?

Dickie- no ma'am…

Mac looked at the list again… It was too good to be truth… no one would have guessed she would do this well so soon.

Mac- We have the 270 electoral votes we need…

Dickie- 279 actually… you are winning in California, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey… just to name the bigger ones… and Connecticut is a sure thing… of course… you can forget Texas and Florida…

Mac- of course... Templeton practically owns Florida…

Dickie- yeah… I don't think that State will cause problems this time.

But Mac didn't care... according to the poll she didn't need Florida to win. She was overjoyed… it looked like it was really going to happen… she could really win after all if those numbers didn't change. No more borrowed presidency… she would win the presidency in the elections. Vince, Jim, Kelly and Dickie were over the moon and started congratulating her and Warren.

Mac- Thank you… I would love to say a few words… this numbers… I couldn't have gotten them without all of you… this poll means that the American people think I'm doing a good job and that job couldn't have been done without this great staff… I'm proud to work with each of you… now... I must add what we all know: this is only the first poll and those numbers are going to be history by the day of the elections if we don't continue working really hard and doing what's best for this nation. So… congratulations for what we have accomplished so far… and good luck for the rest of the race… because we will need it…

Very late at night. In the residence.

After a long day of working, Mac had came back to the residence only to find out that she had missed dinner once again, that everybody was already sleep and that Rod had really moved to the guest room. She went to her own bedroom and tried to get some sleep her self, but she couldn't… one thing was sleeping alone when Rod was in New York, but sleeping alone having her husband, who was mad at her, in the next room was so much worse. She couldn't take it anymore. She got up and decided so walk around the residence. She checked that her kids were sleeping well and then she passed by the guest room were Rod was spending the night… She took a glimpse inside and saw him sleeping. She sighted and put her arms around her own body fighting the urge to step in the guest room, get into Rod's bed, make love with him and fall deep sleep right in his arms.

She decided to go to kitchen and have some tea. "What a day" she thought… Why was it that when one part of her life was going great the other one, inevitably, fell apart? It seemed that she would win the elections, but her marriage (after moths of going in freefall) hit the bottom. Why couldn't she have it all? Why was it that with the good came the bad and the ugly?

To be continued…

So…. What do you think! I hope you are enjoying this! Thank you for all the reviews I got so far… keep it up…

And I'm sorry I ruined the mystery… I didn't want people hating this story and stop reading it because they have a wrong idea… sorry! But I do have a planned something big for the ending… so… you have to continue reading to find out about that.

By the way… the twins will appear in chapter 5 and Amy's role in the play doesn't have a connection with Rod's housekeeper…

Well… thank you for reading and reviewing!

Lara