Bound by Love

Chapter 1

            The ring of the phone startled her, drawing her concentration from the stack of papers before her. She knew that ringtone, hearing it repeat as she considered whether to answer.

“Hello Cyrus,” she knew he would only continue to call if she didn’t answer the first time.

“Liv,” the man sounded out of breath, exasperated.

“Cy, I’m busy. What is it?” her own irritation boiled to the surface.

“Meet me at our spot. Thirty minutes,” he disregarded the tone of her voice.

            Before she could respond the line went dead and a loud sigh replaced her planned rejoinder. She glanced back at the document she had been reading, knowing full well that she wouldn’t comprehend another word until she met with Cyrus.

XXX

            Olivia perused her email while she waited on a bench. She remembered the first time she and Cyrus met there, just after she resigned from the Grant administration, and the last time, just a month prior when President Grant was narrowing down his choices to replace Andrew Nichols as Vice President. The benches, the people, the trees, they all held the last 5 years enshrouded in their branches and their cracks and the whoosh of their coats. She contemplated the time, where it had gone and how it had changed them. They had started out as a team and now they were adversaries, barely acquaintances in the political climate of D.C.

“I hope you still take yours with cream and sugar,” Cyrus’ voice wrenched her from her memories.

“I do,” she couldn’t help smiling at the man who would just as soon decimate her career as help her.

            She didn’t speak, sipping her coffee, looking out at passersby as they hurried along. He had called this meeting, she had no idea why, and she wouldn’t tip her hand or venture a guess.

“He knows having the wedding at the White House was your idea,” Cyrus didn’t look at her, keeping his gaze set upon some far off object.

“Did he say no?” Olivia finally looked in his direction. She would always have a soft spot for Cyrus. He was her mentor in many ways, a former colleague who was bonded to her through deceit and election fraud, and sometimes a friend. She saw the joy when he and James brought Ella home then the epic depths of pain when James was taken from them by Jake Ballard’s bullet. They were both survivors, both burying their pain in work, both sacrificing so much of themselves for what her father so nobly called “The Republic”

“He isn’t happy,” Cyrus hedged.  

“So you want me to go see him?” Olivia filled in the blanks.

            The tension in Cyrus’ shoulders visibly dissolved before he breathed, “It might help.” He didn’t quite meet her eyes, well aware of exactly what he was asking of her.

XXX

            Olivia smoothed the imaginary wrinkles from her skirt, fidgeting with the clip on the White House pass that hung from her purse, sliding her heel in and out of her favorite Louboutin. She stood outside the door to the Oval Office trying to think of any reason not to turn the knob and enter. Her palms were moist and her breaths weren’t coming easily. She needed a drink, not the coffee she had finished on the way in, but her wine or his scotch.

“You can go right in Ms. Pope,” Lauren encouraged from behind her desk. She was seeing less of Olivia these days and had never known her to be anything but completely poised. Something about her appearance was off and her hands trembled almost imperceptibly.