THE PRESIDENT'S GIRLFRIEND by Mallory Monroe

life would be like under the microscope.  She, after all, lobbied Congress enough to have some idea about life in DC.  But now he was beginning to wonder if she had even grasped the general notion.  She had intellectually, he was confident that she understood theoretically.  But on an emotional level, he wasn’t so sure.
     He placed her glass on the back table and moved closer to her.  He put his arm across her shoulder and pulled her to him.  “Let me hold you,” he said, wrapping her into a bear hug.  He closed his eyes as he held her, as he thought about how badly he wanted her, maybe even needed her, and he thought about how tough this journey would be for her, for both of them. 
     He pulled back slightly, and looked at her.  She opened her closed eyes too, and looked at him.  His breath caught at the beauty, the humanity he saw in her eyes.
     “You can run now, you know,” he said with a smile that seemed to Gina to be more regretful than joyous.
     “I know,” she said.
     “You can tell me now that this is not for you and I’ll leave you alone forever, Gina, I promise you I will.”
     Her throat almost constricted at the thought of never feeling his touch again, of never seeing his face or those lines on the side of his eyes up close and personal again.  “I know,” she said.
     “It will be brutal, honey, you understand that?”
     Why was he harping on that again, she wondered, and looking so concerned about it?  “I told you I did, Dutch.”
     “They may bring up your time as a public defender, and the fact that you were fired.”  He looked her squarely in the eye.  “Including what happened that led to the firing, and who you may have been with.”
     Gina’s heart dropped.  “But how will they know, about who I was with that night I mean?  You didn’t tell anyone?”
     Dutch frowned.  “Of course I didn’t tell anyone.  But the scrutiny is the point, Gina.”
     “And I’ll deal with the scrutiny.  I was fired, yes, I was.  But I don’t see why anybody would judge me based on what happened a decade ago.”
     He rubbed her hair, and her back.  “I know, sweetie, I know,” he said.  “I’ll never judge you, not ever.” He exhaled.  “But I just want you prepared when others do.  And they will, I don’t care how trivial, because people can be vicious, Gina.  They can tear you down with glee in their eyes.  They can’t take it, nobody really can, but they can easily dish it.”
     Gina leaned her head against the arm he had around her shoulder and he looked at her.  T he droopiness of one of her eyes made her look so sexy to Dutch at that very moment that he felt as if she was his already.  But he contained himself. 
     “You take it, Dutch,” she said.  “All of that crap they write about you, I mean.”
     “I take it, yes, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.  I’m still a human being, I have a thick skin, but I’m still a human being.  And some people are so judgmental and hateful that it’ll stun you just like it stunned me when I first entered politics.  I mean they are vicious .  They know what’s right and how it’s done and everybody else is a fool, that’s how they think.  Of course they’re the real fools for being so absolute about another human being, but I just want to prepare you.”  As if anybody could be prepared for what she could face, he thought.  And again the ever-growing guilt that always came whenever he thought about the fact that he was about to thrust her into the blinding lights with him, gnawed at him.
     Gina saw the guilt in his eyes.  She ran her fingers through his soft, black hair.  “Don’t worry about me,” she said with a wry smile, “I can take care of myself.  Been doing it since I was fifteen, matter of fact.”
     “Oh, yeah,” Dutch said, staring into her eyes, lifting