Chapter 30

Summer looked at me with something approaching confusion. Her eyes positively sparkled as my words cascaded over her. As totally taken with her as I was, this new look brought me up short. This wasn’t a look I wanted to see. The look I wanted to see was that look I got when her circuits blew back in bed. I was willing to do anything it took to continue to see her with this level of joy in her eyes.

Watching her reaction to my asking her to marry me was like discovering that you were a party of one. Summer simply didn’t send waves of joy toward me.

Somehow everything had changed.

The light that sparkled in her eyes turned alarmingly dim and then very sad.

It took all my will power to keep my face from showing the disappointment that rocked me as I realized that Summer had no intention of marrying me. How did I get that so wrong? It seemed impossible that I was THAT needy?

Accepting the inevitable made me move my head toward the future and that caused me to worry about it being an elaborate set-up to discredit Sam. If so, she was going to be sorely disappointed, because we wanted the news to cover our love affair without the stupid hiding, denying and nonsense that the press imposed on every non progressive in office. We planned to let this relationship occur in the open and deny the press the opportunity to pretend outrage and shock that people in high office are just like everyone else.

Then the other shoe dropped. In those few, pregnant moments, I came to realize that I would never have a long-term, stable, monogamous and loving relationship. It simply wasn’t in the cards. The universe moved not just the world around me, but me around the people in my world. That got me wondering if I caused Angela’s death by wanting to be with only her and threatening some plan that the universe had for the future.

As for the thought that this was all a set-up, the news that I like girls wasn’t going to hurt me, or Sam because that was going to be my reply if pressed by moronic reporters. My canned reply was going to clear and concise. “Yes. We are dating and enjoying every moment we get to spend getting to know one another. I’m single, young and enjoy my time with Summer Steele. Is that a problem?” If Summer, or her network cooked this up to attack us ... let them.

It was at that instant that I knew I would get over Summer Steel far faster than I got over losing Angela, Beth Ann, and Colleen. My heart was capable of breaking. It had been broken enough times to prove it. What was obvious was that my heart was capable of healing, recovering and moving on.

Summer watched my eyes as all of those thoughts processed through. She knew I’d be just fine. What she didn’t like was thinking that I was capable of getting over her that fast. “You have to know that I just can’t run off and marry the next Vice President. I’d lose my job. The network hates you people. Me falling in love with you and carrying on a very discreet affair is one thing. There is no way I’d survive committing this big a sin. They would trash me for the next thirty years.

“I thought we would be fine running in and out of remote cabins and exotic hide-a-ways. No way in hell will I be moving into the Vice Presidential Mansion and losing control of my work and schedule. Being at the mercy of the Secret Service doesn’t ring my bell, Thomas. My life and my career would be positively over, and it means way too much to me to throw it away by marrying you.”

The struggle for her was going to be figuring a way to gracefully exit without having to hate me to do it. I very much hoped that Summer’s personality wouldn’t require her to find a way to blame it on me, instead of accepting her decision to walk away. It would be interesting to see where she comes down on the subject.

Summer was ready to get back to work, and I had a campaign to return to, so we kissed and hugged like friends, not lovers, and parted.

Oh, well...

Sometimes you win and the rest of the time the universe uses you.

“IS VP IN WAITING CARRYING ON AFFAIR WITH NEWSWOMEN???”

“SECRET LOVE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL ENDS IN TEARS”

“DID MORRISON USE STEELE TO GET NETWORK TO GO EASY ON BROWNBOCK??”

“HOW CAN WE TRUST A V.P. THAT CAN’T KEEP HIS PANTS ZIPPED??”

“DOES BROWNBOCK HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MORRISON??”

“OPPONENT DEMANDS BROWNBOCK DUMP MORRISON”

Basically it came down to which news service could pretend to be more moral. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC ran nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the ‘crisis’ occurring within the party. You would think that the country went to convents and monasteries to find candidates. The outrage was particularly brutal towards Summer. The hypocrisy was so total that our supporters started to speak loud and often about the double standard the news community created and fostered. The retaliatory attacks on their honesty, integrity and moral authority to criticize me was so well received that their public support was hurt once again.

Summer decided to say very little and smile a lot. The network hypocrites couldn’t live with a target of their fury who refused to be a target, so they spent hours savaging everything about her. Nothing escaped their wrath. Summer’s looks, hairstyle, wardrobe and makeup were dissected, criticized and attacked. Her choice of eateries was chronically evaluated on the basis of everything from her calorie intake to her dietary carbon footprint.

While our people were open and outwardly happy about my love life when speaking with the press, about my shocking decision to not live like a hermit, or monk, the network chose to hunker down around Summer and refused to allow her to defend herself, or even comment very much on the scathing attacks against her.