Yes, Mr. President (ManxMan)

Chapter Four

It's a long one.

Andrea gave me so much work that I almost didn't have time to worry about dinner. And yet somehow, I still spent the entire day so tense that by the time six o'clock rolled around, my muscles were sore and my stomach was in knots.

I had to admit, lunch relaxed me a little bit. Lunch with Markus was a bright spot in my day always. He was the only friend I had in this whole building for the moment. But even he couldn't calm my nerves at lunch. He knew something was up, but I didn't tell him and he didn't press.

He was worried about me, but I assured him that everything was fine and that we would have lunch tomorrow and before I knew it, I was closing in on the doors of the Oval Office. Suddenly, all sorts of things began to pop into my head.

Were we going out or were we eating in his office?  Was he providing the food or was I supposed to be bringing my own food? Christ, this was too much. I leaned against the wall, trying to give myself a break, a second to breathe.

Eyes closed. In and out. In one and two, out three and four. Repeat.

Just like they taught me.

"You alright, Mr. Parker?" I opened my eyes to come face to face, well, face to chest really, with Cliff, who after further research (asking Markus), I found out was the President's head Secret Service agent. And with good reason. The man was built like a brick house and could probably tear one apart if you asked him to.

I smiled. "Yeah, I am. Thanks for asking."

He nodded. "The President sent me to find you." His eyes lifted to scan the corridor again. I wondered what actually went through an agent's head when they were constantly assessing their environments. Did they people watch the same way normal people did? Was he laughing internally at the employee walking around with makeup that was clearly too dark for them? Or did that completely phase out of their mind to the point where they were simply filing away faces in their brain?

Too much to think about right now.

I feigned disappointment. "Aw, and here I was hoping that you were just checking on me."

He glanced down at me again, his face stoic. "Are you ready?"

No dice today. Hey, that's fine. We're still working on it.

I didn't know the answer to his question. Was I ready? Ha. Hardly. "What are you instructed to do if I say no?"

He didn't hesitate. "Walk you to your car."

What?

The words tumbled out of my mouth. "Are you serious?"

He pursed his lips. "I'm hardly one to joke around for the fun of it."

Well, what else were you supposed to joke around for if not the fun of it?

My brain had a bad habit of focusing on the wrong thing when it was being overloaded. It had gotten me in trouble in more than a few meetings before. I started noticing people's speech patterns: saying, "um" way too many times, mispronouncing something ever so slightly, ticks, and patterns in speech. It helped sometimes when trying to assess if someone was lying or if something was off. It wasn't completely foolproof, but it worked a majority of the time. It was a blessing and a curse all at once. A pretty shitty superpower.

"Mr. Parker, are you ready?" Jeez, that's right.

Wait, he was really instructed to leave me alone if I said no. I was expecting him to take me whether I wanted to go or not.

He was giving me a chance to back out.

I should have taken it, but instead I nodded. "I'm ready."