Charlotte had thirty minutes to kill before the motorcade would leave to take her to the press dinner.
I’d rather be water-boarded, she thought to herself.
She considered walking down the hall to say hello to Peter but didn’t have the energy for the charade. She was furious that Ralph had called him and ordered him to come. Charlotte hated to subject him to the same stupid jokes year after year about being “Mr. Charlotte Kramer.”
She thought about calling Roger, but he’d told her earlier in the day that Stephanie hadn’t taken the news about the trip very well. Charlotte didn’t want to complicate things any further for him.
She and Stephanie had been friends since Charlotte had arrived in Washington, but the relationship had cooled recently. Stephanie had turned down Charlotte’s last few invitations to Camp David, and she’d canceled a dinner date at the last minute the week before.
Charlotte figured Stephanie was drained from the breast-cancer scare or frustrated by the demands on Roger’s time, but she couldn’t imagine that there was anything she had done to put Stephanie off. She’d given Roger time off, sent her personal physician with Stephanie to the oncologist, and sent flowers, fruit baskets, books, and movies to Stephanie while she waited for the test results.
And when Roger had, at first, refused to come on the trip, she hadn’t pushed. But when he’d called her over the weekend with the news that he’d changed his mind, she’d been elated. He was the closest thing she had to a partner.
Charlotte looked out the window and saw the motorcade lining up on the driveway below. She stood and went into her dressing room to get ready. She’d had her makeup and hair done earlier. The dogs were out for a session with the trainer, and the house felt empty without them underfoot. She changed into the gown she’d had flown down from New York for the occasion and walked back toward the West Wing to discuss final details for the trip with Melanie before they left.
She stopped outside Peter’s suite of rooms on her way out. She heard the evening news on inside and proceeded toward the staircase without knocking.