Epilogue
Three years later…
Lee was laughing again, so Eli slowed his pacing, gnawing his fingernails to the quick. The book was not terribly long, but long enough and he knew Lee would still be hours finishing it.
Eli picked up the cover again, loving the artwork, a laughable cartoon man in a baking dish hearts circling his head as he gazed at the baker in his apron.
“Eli, get in here!”
They were at Lee’s cabin, which Eli had schemed with Mars to buy back for him. It had used most of the money he had left from that severance seven years earlier, but it was worth it. He was on vacation for real, and he didn’t have to say goodbye to Lee ever again.
Well, until the next G7 or important trip to another country, but they didn’t last long, and sometimes Eli could get away from work to join him.
He went into the living room from the kitchen and saw Lee smiling. He let out a long breath and asked, “It’s okay?”
“Are you kidding? It’s our story! It’s fucking amazing, and you wrote me…well, not great at first. Did you really hate me?”
“Yeah,” he said, sitting on the couch next to him. “But it was an invigorating hatred that led right into love.”
“Liar,” he accused laughing. “It’s okay, baby, I hated myself too.”
He closed the hardcover and ran a hand over the face. “I was His Dirty Little Secret or How to Bake a Husband from Scratch. The title and subtitle are as great as the book.”
“You really don’t mind? I mean, all your lawyers okayed it.”
“I know, Eli. I know. It’s another thing the country can learn about its president. I don’t mind a bit, and I love all those thoughts you had about me early on. Well, except the hatred ones.”
They’d been at the cabin a few days, and after two days, he’d given Lee the book to read, though he’d asked him to read it a hundred times before it was finished. Lee said no, that if he didn’t like something, he didn’t want to go back to that guy that would make him change something to hide himself. He wanted the world to know him and Eli.
“You know…I love you, Eli Madison.”
“I love you too, Mr. President.”