Page 107 of Innocent

Chapter Twenty-Three

Returning to the White House feels…disorienting, in some ways. As we head inside, I see plenty of familiar faces, as well as some new ones. I’ve packed Elliot a change of clothes for tonight’s event, so we don’t have to return to his residence. It’ll save us a little time.

Elliot calls in Doug, his chief of staff, and Suzanne, his administrative assistant, and informs them of the new world order. Fortunately, I know both of them, even though I didn’t work closely with them before.

“He’s my Leo,” Elliot adds. “He answers directly to me and has seniority over junior staff the way Leo does. All access, scheduling, and speeches will now go through Jordan for his final approval before anything’s brought to me.”

Doug looks relieved. “Thank god.” He shakes with me. “Glad to have you on the team. I was seriously considering strangling him if he didn’t hire a body man before officially kicking off his campaign. No way Kevin Markos or President Samuels will let Leo get away anytime soon.”

I force a smile. “Glad to be back. Looking forward to working with you.”

Suzanne offers me a kind smile and shakes with me. “Welcome back to Hell’s Happy Acres. I’ll pass the word to staff that there’s a new sheriff in town.”

“Thanks. Can you please call across the street for me to Personnel and IT and let them know I’m on my way? I need to redo my HR paperwork and get an official phone, laptop, tablet, all of that.” I indicate my badge. “His head agent brought my new badge over last night, so at least that’s covered.”

“Of course, sir. And I’ll get your desk cleared off.” She heads out to do it.

Wow, that feels…weird. I don’t know how to explain it. Suzanne is at least Elliot’s age, maybe older.

I’m way higher on the food chain now than I used to be, that’s for sure. Suzanne and I will work in tandem for many things. But while I’ll be focused on Elliot the man, she’ll be handling the office of the vice president.

My desk is in the outer office, where Suzanne’s desk is located. Right now, it’s a catch-all desk holding piles of folders, binders of briefing materials, and two flower arrangements.

Once Elliot’s settled, I have a thought and head over to the White House residence. At the top of the stairs, I speak with the agent on duty there, and he waves me in.

This is stupid, maybe, but there’s someone else I missed like hell and want to say hello to right away.

I stop by the private family kitchen, snag a piece of romaine lettuce out of the crisper, and then walk into the small room next to the kitchen.

There’s my buddy. “Hey, Pecan. How you doing?”

At the sound of my voice, the tortoise’s head slowly rises, where he’s lounging in his specially made pen, and he makes his way over to me.

I choke back a tearful laugh and hold the romaine out for him.

He immediately takes a bite of it, and I continue holding it for him while he munches. As he does, I reach over with my other hand and stroke the top of his head. “Missed you, too, buddy.”

I really did. He was part of my daily routine, before. With the First Family traveling, Secret Service, along with aides from Chris’ office, makes sure that Pecan gets fed, gets his roaming time in every night, and is safely returned to his pen in the residence in the morning before the public is allowed in for tours.

Damn, did I miss this little guy. I loved making costumes for him, and setting up Instagram postings.

I couldn’t even bare to look at IG while I was gone. I tried, and it made me ugly cry. How sad is it that a selfie of me and Pecan in his Santa outfit is my lock screen image on my phone?

Which is still shut off.

With that reunion managed, I wash my hands and then head across the street to the EEOB, spend an hour handling paperwork, get my new phone, laptop, and tablet, reactivate my old government e-mail account, get my new network user ID and password, and deal with other security info, arrange for my desk phone line to be activated this afternoon, order business cards—yeah, that one’s pretty cool—and realize that the newPersonal Aide to the Vice Presidenttitle under my name is…

Wow.

Maybe I should mail one of these to my parents.

Using official White House stationery.

Nah, that’d be too petty. Not to mention, it could be a violation of ethics rules.

But I’ll think of something.

I’ll need to get the contact info for Elliot’s detail entered into my new work phone. One of my tasks this afternoon is sending them the shopping list I compiled this morning, so they can have the kitchen stocked by tonight. I’ll also need his valet, head housekeeper—all of those contacts. I will now be coordinating all of their activities and their schedule on his behalf.