The Phoenix Candidate(36)
Just like Jared suggested.
Somehow he knows what’s happening, where I am, the fact that I’m minutes away from one of the biggest events I’ve ever done. And he’s right here with me, even though he’s somewhere else.
In Florida with Rivera? In Missouri with Conover? Or in Dallas or Duluth or Denver with his family? Stop it, Grace. You don’t know if he has a family. You don’t know anything about him.
“Let’s get set up.” Lauren beckons me to a sound tech, who wires each of us with lavaliere lapel microphones. We sound-check and then my phone trills. I guiltily fish it out of my pocket and Jared’s number shows on the screen.
I don’t want to talk to him right now, but my fingers ignore my brain and accept the call.
“What are you wearing?” he growls.
God damn, I missed that sexy voice. Rich and deep, a powerful sense memory that makes my stomach lift like airplane turbulence.
“Ha. I’m not falling for that, Jared. Now’s hardly the time and place.” I glance around at the other people in the green room swarming around Oprah and Lauren.
“I’m serious, Grace. What are you wearing?”
“I’m still mad at you,” I hiss.
“Tell me what I don’t know. I expect it. I encourage it.” He pauses. “And the only reason I’m asking about what you’re wearing is because I want to make sure it’s going to look good on camera.”
The only reason? Well, shit. I guess I’d hoped he had ulterior motives. “The navy suit and the dark gold blouse.”
“And what’s she wearing?”
“Who? Oprah?”
“No.” His scorn radiates through the phone. “She’s not running for office. Lauren practically is. She’s wearing white, isn’t she?”
“How’d you know?”
“Lucky guess. Look, Grace, you can’t trust her. She’ll—”
“Two minutes, ladies!” the stage manager alerts us from the doorway.
“I have to go.”
“Grace, trust me on this—”
“You just said not to trust her. But you know what? She’s been nothing but nice to me. You, on the other hand, have treated me like crap.” I blink back the sting in my eyes, painfully aware of how much his silence hurt.
How much it forced me to question our connection, and whether anything between us has been real.
“Grace, I’m sorry. I never meant to—”
“Showtime!” The stage manager motions to me to wrap up my call.
“Don’t tell me you’re sorry, Jared. Show me, or leave me the hell alone.”
Before he has a chance to answer I click off my phone and throw it in my bag. On cue from another black-clad stagehand, we take the stage to overwhelming applause.
They’re all clapping for Oprah. Of course. Hell, I want to clap for Oprah right now and it’s surreal that I’m taking the stage behind her, then taking a seat beside her like a guest on her talk show.
But a tiny little part of me hopes that a few people are clapping for me.
Me. The future vice president?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Oprah’s keynote pumps up the audience, and then she hands it off to a moderator for a Q&A on women, leadership, and policy.
“Balancing work and family is a perennial question for women, so I’d like to hear from each of you about what we can do to make it easier for women to thrive in leadership roles.”
The moderator, a Princeton professor of women’s studies with a mile-long résumé in issues activism, nods to Lauren first.
“Well, of course my family comes first,” Lauren beams. “Three children kept me incredibly busy during my husband’s term as California governor. But I think it’s a matter of choices. We all have twenty-four hours in our day, and there’s got to be some personal accountability in terms of how we choose to balance work and family life. I think we can all agree that women in leadership positions have to make sacrifices, but nothing worth doing is going to be easy.”
Lauren gets a nice round of applause. For what, I’m not sure. She didn’t even answer the question.
“Congresswoman Colton?”
“Did you know that the U.S. is the only high-income country—and one of only four countries in the world—with zero paid maternity leave?” I pause to let this sink in, and I hear a rustle from the audience. “Many countries pay a year or more of parental leave, giving mothers and fathers time away from work to spend with a newborn or adopted child. I think legislating paid time off for new parents is a clear, specific step we could take to enable women in leadership roles.”