If It Was Meant to Be

13

Barron POV
The lights of the mid afternoon sun walking off the plane is practically blinding, couple that with the flash from the cameras and your pretty much begging to lose your sight. And it doesn't help that I am still the tiniest bit tipsy. I don't know what angle Brookes is trying to play with us holding hands but I think it's her way of somewhat accepting my apology but you never know with that girl. She says that she wants to kill the scandal but then holds my hand? I could spend a lot of time contemplating this but I am brought back down to reality when a reporter is almost falling out of the barricade trying to get a comment. Brooke is looking dead ahead but I decided what's the rush? So I slightly pull her towards him and as soon as we get close to him all the reporters start hammering questions.
"One at a time, one at a time." I say in a gentle but commanding voice
"Can you confirm that you and Vice President Jake Ballerd daughter Brooke Ballerd are dating?" I take a pause before I answer which is probably not good since now this reporter is like a dog with a bone
"You have had a nice dinner with someone, right?" He looks a little taken aback by the question but answers.
"Yes"
"Then you know an IHOP is not where you take a date." With that everyone laughs respectively as I try to redirect us to the motorcade. And I hear Brooke whisper ever so gently I might add.
"What? The. Hell?!"
"It's fine calm down." I can tell she wants to continue this conversation but we are interrupted  when an agent opens the motorcade doors. I was expecting to see my parents at the very minimum my mom but I guess they were too busy because we met with Mrs Ballerd or as she is better known in this town the infamous Olivia Pope. She is pretty and she looks kinda like Brooke but there are definitely some key differences like the fact that unlike Brookes unruly curls her mom has straight hair with slight side bangs. Anyway as soon as we buckle up the car starts up and the conversation begins.
"Mother." Brooke says with a sweet voice with obvious condescending undertones
"Brooke" Olivia says with the exact same tone. I can feel some tension but I know it's because of our little... incident. But it's weird because it's like they are carbon copies of each other. It's almost scary.
"Brave stunt you two pulled out there. I'm guessing this is your doing." Olivia finishes looking directly at Brooke.
"Just taking a page out of you and Fitz's book." She says smiling coldly. I know I have a look of shock on my face because I genuinely can't believe she said that. The 'Fitz' she's referring to was the last republican president before my father. Pre Obama administration. Before Brooke and I were born Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III announced that he was having an affair with Olivia Pope in the White House while he was married to his wife Mellie. As a result they got a divorce and Olivia became the 'first girlfriend' of sorts. It didn't end well and on his last day at the White House they shared a kiss in front of all the press. Of course this all happened before she met Jake. The rest of the drive is silent. And I realize I have no idea where I'm going, but the car stops in front of a tall building with the letters 'OPA' at the front. As we are getting out it takes me a minute to decipher what that means... it's a the tip of my tongue when all of us step out of the elevator into the main office when Olivia says
"Welcome to Olivia Pope and Associates. A crisis management firm that has a 99% success rate and you are the newest clients."
"Let's hope we're not the one percent" I say to Brooke in a low voice. We are told to sit down while a red headed woman in her late 30's puts up sticky paper with pictures on the glass while Olivia talks.
"So as you know the White House came to me for a favor regarding you two because the PR team is already stretched pretty thin trying to market your father as palatable to the people that voted for him. So I decided why not kill two birds with one stone-"
"What?" I say unconditionally
"Don't worry this will make sense in a minute. Where I... oh yes. When polled the first family has a historically low approval rating. This is mostly due to your siblings, but when polled individually you came out the highest. This is in contrast to the second family because my husband worked in the Obama administration. Anyway what I'm saying is America loves a love story. There is an old proverb that says 'the heart and the head were never meant to coexist' we see that in the media books a great example is the Clintons, American was willing to forgive Bill for Monica because of his interview with Hillary-"
"Mom, where are you going with this?"
"Instead of killing the scandal, use it. Make it so that when you're done the people have no choice but to rally behind you. It will soften the White House image and give us time to take care of things domestically." Before I have a chance to answer or even think Brooke gets up.
"No!" She practically yells she says as she starts walking out. But the red haired women blocks the door. Forcing her to stay inside.
"Brooke let's talk about this, you know I wouldn't suggest this if I haven't exhausted ever option." Olivia say calmly.
"The thing is that you would. You would screw even your own daughter to get ahead." She says keeping her previous tone.
"Brooke-" Olivia continues
"No! I will not go on national TV and say that the moment I saw him I had hearts in my eyes because it's simply not true." Brooke finishes looking mentally worn out.
"Your not being reasonable, your letting emotions cloud your judgement I didn't raise you to be so mediocre-" Olivia looks like she's not done but she's interrupted by a phone call, I see the caller ID briefly and it looks like the White House. She picks up and we all get quiet. The person on the other end seems to be yelling. She calms them down and puts the phone to her chest momentarily to say
"I have to go. Abby can you handle this?" She says as she directly at the red headed woman who had been putting pictures behind Olivia to end emphasizes her point. She turned her face to us and thoroughly the plan while me and Brooke sat there and listened begrudgingly.