THE PRESIDENT 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

Gina had appointed him, as she had LaLa, to her White House staff.   Demps, as they called him, was her deputy press secretary.  
     
    They all had drinks, with Gina nursing a Gin and bitters, as they watched the snippets over and over.
     
    Finally LaLa had had enough.   “Stop torturing yourself,” she said as she grabbed the remote and turned the television off.   “I was there.   I know that’s not how it went down.”
     
    “They make it seem like I was just snapping at that reporter for no reason,” Gina said, her drink to her forehead as a low grain headache began to throb.  
     
    “The angry black woman,” LaLa said.   “Surprise, surprise.”
     
    “That’s why you can’t play into their hands,” Dempsey said.  
     
    LaLa looked at him.   “Play into their hands?   Who’s playing into their hands?”
     
    “What I’m saying is--”
     
    “No, I wanna know where you get off accusing G of playing into those assholes hands--”
     
    “LaLa,” Gina said, looking at her friend.   “Just cool it, all right?”
     
    “I’m sorry, G, but for him to say something like that.   What’s his problem?”
     
    “What’s your problem?” Dempsey wanted to know.
     
    “I don’t have a problem.”
     
    “And neither do I,” Dempsey proclaimed.  
     
    “Stop it,” Gina implored.   “Please!   I asked y’all to come to DC with me because you two are my closest friends and I knew y’all would have my back.   But ever since we’ve been in this crazy town we’ve become stressed and tensed and I don’t like what’s happening to us.   It’s like we came here, determined to change this town, but this town is changing us.”
     
    Dempsey shook his head.   “It’s so much crap we have to take, G.   You gave me the greatest job of my life, as your deputy press secretary, but the foolishness we have to respond to is unbelievable.”
     
    Gina agreed.   “I know.”
     
    “We get Freedom of Information requests all the time about you, from all kinds of organizations, but you wouldn’t believe the things they want.   They want proof of your deceased parents’ birth, as if they believe you never had any parents but was hatched from under some rock somewhere.    One group wanted to see your high school transcripts, you, an accomplished attorney, as if you might not have graduated high school.   It’s ludicrous!   And damned embarrassing too.”
     
    “You know what it’s about,” LaLa said.   “Their great white father has married a black mother and some of them can’t deal with that.”   Gina gave LaLa that look.   Everything, in LaLa’s world, seemed to trace back to race.   Some of it did, Gina was no idiot, but everything ?   “I’m sorry, G,” LaLa continued, “but even you know in this case it’s true.   So they bring on the dogs, sniffing for stuff.   Like that reporter over at that Center.   Now that’s a problem.”
     
    ‘It wouldn’t have been a problem if you would have done your job,” Dempsey said.
     
    LaLa looked at him.   “What’s that supposed to mean?”
     
    “You should have gotten her away from that reporter, kicking and screaming if you had to, as soon as she made that first comment.”
     
    “How could you say something like that?” LaLa asked as she stared at her longtime boyfriend.   She had always feared that DC would change Gina, but now she realized that her fear was misdirected.   She and Dempsey, who could not have been more in love and closer before they came to DC to work for Gina, were now growing miles apart.   “How could you fix your mouth to say something like that to me?”
     
    “I’m just pointing out the obvious, La,” Dempsey said.   “It’s your job to protect the First Lady from herself.”
     
    “Oh, I see.   And how exactly was I supposed to do that? Drag her away from that reporter?   Put her on my back and run down the road with her?”
     
    “You dropped the ball, La,” Dempsey made