Chapter 4:
A potential "bedroom-gate"
White House. Inside the residence. That same night.
Kate Allen entered in the kitchen because she wanted some warm milk and she saw her daughter there having a tea. Mac startled and looked at her mother shocked because she would have swore everybody was sleeping. Trying to keep her voice down Mac said…
Mac- mom… what are you doing here?
Kate- what are you doing and why is Rod sleeping in the guest room?
Mac- mmmm… what did he say about that?
Kate- he said a lame excuse about he snoring and not wanting to disturb you that only Amy bought… and he also made us swear that we wouldn't tell anyone from outside the family that he is sleeping in a different bedroom…
Mac- well…
Kate- what's really going on?
Mac felt tears coming to her eyes again, but she was able to hold them and pull the "invincible woman" charade in front of her mother. Showing no emotions she said:
Mac- we just got separated for a while…She said it like it was no big deal and like it wasn't hurting her like her.
Kate- But why? Is it because of his new job?
Mac- partly yes… we've been having problems because of that for a while… but then something happened this morning…
Kate- oh… what happened?
Mac didn't want to say out loud what she had done ever again… but she had to talk to someone and she couldn't think in anyone better than her mother.
Mac- I kissed Jim Gardner…Kate was in shock… what she had just heard couldn't be true.
Kate- what?
Mac- I kissed Jim Gardner… well… he kissed me but I didn't stop him… well… I stopped him but not soon enough, and Rod saw us…
Kate- oh my God!
Mac- I know… is terrible …
Kate- no… if you had kissed any other man it would have been terrible… but you kissed Jim… so this is… terrible multiplied for 1000…
Now Mac couldn't hold her tears anymore.
Mac- I know mom! How could I let this happen? And with Jim… oh God! Rod was sooo angry at me… he must be hating me right now and I can't blame him…
Kate approached Mac to hold her tight while she cried a river…Mac- Rod hates me, mom… she looked at me and said: "you and me are done"… and it was entirely my fault… I did everything wrong…
Kate- No! Mac…He left… he left you alone…
Mac- because I refused to give him a position in the West Wing… I could have simply done that and everything would be fine… why didn't I do that? Was it really that hard to me? It was what he really wanted… Why couldn't I just give him that little thing?
Kate hated seeing her daughter like that.
Kate- honey… you can't keep punishing your self for that… or for what you did with Jim… we all make mistakes… you should forgive your self…
Mac- but Rod is not going to forgive me… he moved to another bedroom… he spends like 4 days a week here but he needs to spend then in a different bedroom… that's how much I hurt him.
Kate- but… what is going to happen now? Is he going to leave the House? Is he going to live in New York permanently?
Mac really didn't know. Rod told her he was willing to stay and fake a happy marriage for the sake of her presidency… But that idea caused Mac nauseas.
Mac- I don't know… he wants to stay and keep the appearances…
Kate nodded understanding that perfectly.
Kate- of course… that makes sense.
Mac shook her head, and Kate had never seen her daughter talking so seriously in private.
Mac- NOTHING of this makes sense, mom.
Kate- come on! I know you hate that kind of charades… but in this case pretending is mandatory…
Mac- I'm not so sure about that…
Kate tried to put some sense into her daughter's head.
Kate- look… I know I'm not a political expert… but if I were in your staff I would tell you that the WORST thing you could do during an election year is to prance around as a woman in the middle of a divorce.
Mac suddenly got pretty scared… she didn't want to acknowledge that her mother was right. In a serious tone she said…
Mac- First of all… I never "prance", second of all… you are not in my staff, and third of all… I'm not getting divorce… we are just separated… is temporary… we will fix this…
Kate- I hope so honey, I want you to be happy… but you have to prepare your self to accept that, after what happened, he might want the divorce… maybe not now… but eventually… after you win the elections he might ask you the divorce.
Mac felt like if somebody had slapped her on the face.
Mac- Don't say that! I know is true… but don't say that!
Kate- I just want you to be ready for everything…
Mac nodded. Her mother was right. She had to prepare her self for every possible scenario.
The next morning. Inside the Oval Office.
Mac was starting a new day. At that moment, Vince was talking to her about the next State Dinner.
Vince- it's been confirmed that the Prime Minister of England and her husband are arriving on Friday morning, Ma'am President.
England had a new Prime Minister, a woman called Christine Johnson, and she was about to do her first official visit to the United States in four days. Of course, after the Prime Minister's meeting with President Allen, there would be a very fancy State Dinner.
Mac- that's great Vince….
Vince- and you have to talk to Jim about the topics to be discussed in the meeting…. He will come to see you in an hour.
Mac looked worried for a few minutes. It would be her first moment alone with Jim since "The Incident". But she guessed that there would not be a problem. She made it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested in him and he would have to behave like a professional adult.
Mac- ok... and could you please tell Dickie that I need to talk to him? If he can come right now it would be great…
Vince- no problem, ma'am...
Vince went to get Dickie like the president asked. After giving it a lot of consideration, Mackenzie decided to talk to Dickie about her problem because she needed to know how it would affect her politically if it came out to the public light. She needed to be prepared for a possible scandal. And she knew she could trust Dickie because he wanted her to win the elections very badly… He wouldn't let her fall; it was a matter of professional pride. Finally, Dickie entered in the Oval Office.
Mac- Good morning, Dickie…
Dickie- Good morning, ma'am President.
He took a sit right in front of the President and she, as usual, went straight to the point.
Mac- you must be wondering why I needed to see you.
Dickie- yes, actually… Is something wrong?
Mac thought carefully her words…Mac- well… I have a problem… and I need you to tell me exactly how bad can it hurt me politically.
Dickie- What kind of problem?
Mac- the secret kind… it's a family problem…
Dickie was now concerned. He didn't want anything to ruin his boss's chances to win the elections after all they had done.
Dickie- Nothing serious, I hope.
But he knew it had to be serious. Otherwise Mackenzie Allen wouldn't bother in asking about the political repercussions of the problem.
Mac- Rod and I are separated… we are sleeping in different bedrooms.
Dickie- oh… I'm so sorry ma'am President… Are you getting divorced?
The truth was that she had not idea.
Mac- for now it's only a separation… nothing legal yet… How bad would it be if Rod and I got…?
She couldn't even say it. But she had to accept that possibility. Dickie understood what she was talking about.
Dickie- well… a regular Presidential Candidate getting divorce is bad… but the First Female president… well… it would be terrible… I'm sure there would be huge drop on the polls…
Mac was concerned….
Mac- how huge?
Dickie- I don't know… 5 or 6 points…
To Mac that wasn't a big deal…Mac- 5 points? We are talking about five stupid points? Dickie… I drop 5 points every time I get my period… 5 points is nothing… I can take it…
Dickie- but it could be more! It could be a lot more… I can't be sure… unless…
Mac- unless what?
Dickie- I could make a poll with hypothetical questions to see how people would react if you got divorce…
Mac nodded at first… but then she came back to her senses and shook her head.
Mac- no! I won't make a poll to ask if is ok for me to get divorce… it's not the American people's business!
Dickie put a face that clearly meant: "Come on! Get real!" But he said something else instead.
Dickie- with all due respect, ma'am… the American People have a funny way of deciding on their own what is their business…
Mac nodded. She knew he was right.
Mac- yes… but we are not discussing a divorce yet… It's just a separation…
Dickie- It doesn't make any difference…. It would be just as bad…
Mac- it's just… the idea of pretending…
Dickie- I know is not the best situation, Ma'am President, but as your advisor I must tell you that if the press finds out a Monday that you and your husband are sleeping in separate bedrooms, by Tusday everybody will be referring to you and Rod as "Rokenzie".
Mac understood with that just how just bad it would be. She would hate is if her love life got exposed like she was some kind of Hollywood celebrity… her whole life would be reduced to a love scandal. No one would notice anything else about her. She couldn't accept that…
Mac- Come on Dickie! This isn't L.A.
Dickie- no… ma'am this is Washington… What I'm trying to make you see is that getting divorce or people finding out you are separated it would be like giving Templeton the key of the Oval Office. You worked so hard to beat him in the polls… Do you what to throw that away and let Templeton win? Do you want your problem with Rod to be the reason he wins?
At that moment, Mac remembered something she told Nathan Templeton once: "Do you really want to make this where we draw our battle lines? Are you willing to die on this hill?" Now, she could picture in her head Nathan saying those words to her…. And she frankly didn't want to die in this hill. She didn't want to lose here presidency over a separation and a divorce she didn't even want.
Mac- no… I don't…
Dickie- ok… so we have to make sure it won't leak somehow… who knows about this?
Mac- only you, Rod, my mom and the kids…
Dickie- ma'am President… this is very difficult to say, but… is there a third person involved in your separation?
Mac got serious. There was Jim… but she couldn't say that.
Mac- a third person?
Dickie- yes… Are you or your husband having an affair?
It was a sensitive topic for Mac. She got very defensive.
Mac- NO! God… no…
Dickie- I'm not judging, Ma'am President; I just need to know is there is someone else who knows about this… I need to know exactly what we are dealing with here…
Mac realized that if she wanted Dickie's help she wanted to be honest with him…Mac- there is a guy… but nothing happened with him except for a kiss that HE initiated without my permission…
Dickie got dreadfully serious…
Dickie- Was it in the White House? Please, ma'am president, tell me it wasn't in the Oval Office.
Mac- does it really matter?
Dickie- I just want to calculate the chances of someone taking a picture of that kiss without you noticing it… and the chances of a security camera filming it… or if a Security Agent saw it… you have like 12 bodyguards… and that's just inside the White House.
Mac shook her head… Mac- it happened in my gym… no cameras, no bodyguards…Dickie was relieved.
Dickie- good… it happened in your own personal space… otherwise people could say you don't respect your workplace…
He was about to continue talking, but suddenly he stopped… a realization hitting him…Dickie- Oh God! It was Jim!
Mac was amazed that he figured it out…Mac- How… how did you know?
Dickie- well… there are only two men, other than Rod, who are close enough to you as to be alone with you in the gym… those men and Jim and Vince… but Vince is gay, so…
Mac- you just connected the dots… what do we do now?
Dickie- we try our best to keep it a secret… but I'll came out with a B plan just in case something goes wrong and we end up facing a "bedroomgate"…
In a tone that said: "please, lets not do that" the president asked…
Mac- Do we have to call it that?
Dickie- We don't have to… but the reporters surely will if they find out… or maybe they would call it "Gymgate" or the "Jimgate"…
Mac stood up finding everything too overwhelming, Dickie stood up as well.
Mac- ok… I talked enough about this for a day… thank you Dickie…
Dickie- you are welcome ma'am President… I promise that no one else will know about this and there will be no scandal, you can trust me on this…
Saying that he left. He couldn't believe the problem that Jim got the President into. What was Jim thinking?… Right outside the Oval Office he saw him…
Jim- hello Dickie…
Dickie shook his head and simply said to him...
Dickie- You are a moron…
To be continued…So… what do you think? Thanks for the wonderful reviews! I'm worried that I'm making Mac too weak and she might be a little out of character… but I figure that Mac must have her weakness and her sensitive side like any other person… after all… even Nathan Templeton is being sensitive this days (I love that Steven Broncho is making him more human).
By the way… I made up a British Prime Minister because I didn't want legal problems using a real person's name… and I don't know if I'll write about that State Dinner, I wrote that there would be a State Dinner just in case I want to write a scene in a party later on… but now I think I want to write about Mac's first birthday as a President… does anyone know for certain how old Mac is?
Well… thank you for reading this!
Lara