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Laura sat there. This was a new one. A proposal stored as a message. At least the message center could have gotten down on one knee. She got Li on the screen. “You ask me to marry you on a machine?” Li thought she was angry.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. I love you.”

“Well, I should give you my answer in a message, so disconnect and let me leave you my decision.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No, disconnect.” The screen went blank and Laura called him back. Li’s face appeared in a recorded message.

“Hello, I am unable to talk to you now. Leave me the particulars and I will contact you.” A red light went on and Laura looked into the camera.

“Yes.”

Li called her back in thirty seconds. “Yes?”

“Yes.”

“You make me the happiest man in the world.”

“As you do me—woman—you know what I mean.”

“May I come over?”

“I wouldn’t sleep if you didn’t.”

“This is the happiest I have ever been.”

“Me, too.” And that was it. Laura Markum and Shen Li were engaged on a video link. It wasn’t so uncommon anymore; there were even marriages performed this way. It was just something that Laura had never imagined when she thought of how the perfect moments in her life were supposed to unfold. Then again, her first marriage proposal was perfect. The restaurant on the beach, a beautiful ring, a violin player, the very best champagne, and the marriage stunk. So maybe this was a good sign.

* * *

The President had had his share of arguments with his wife, but he couldn’t resolve this one. When Betsy was angry, she did not confront, she became passive aggressive. Her answers to questions were as few words as she could manage, and she didn’t ask anything about her husband’s day. If her husband had worked in a factory, that might have been understandable. But as president of the United States, his day was everyone’s day, so not to ask about it was clearly hostile. This went on for about a week, until one night the President let loose. “Goddamn it, I have the hardest fucking job in the world, and I don’t need the silent treatment in my own home.”

“It’s not your home. It’s the people’s home.”

“Oh, screw you. What did I do?”

“You told a woman you were in love with her, and it wasn’t me. Comprende?”

“In my sleep, Betsy. In my sleep.”

“If it was only that, I would try to let it go. But we haven’t been right for so long, that was just the icing. It took a long time to sink in, but I realize now that if it wasn’t her, it would be someone else.”

“That’s not true.”

“It isn’t? You treat me like a secretary, and not the cabinet kind. I didn’t run for this office. I serve as First Lady because you wanted to be president. I did this to support you. And now you seem to have left me behind. It feels bad. Can you understand that?”

“You have one of the most important jobs in the world.”

“I never wanted it!” And Betsy walked out of the sitting room, trying to hold back her tears. The President followed her.

“You don’t hate the job. Do you?”

“I wanted to be partners, Matthew. I’m all right with being a partner. Just like China. But if you’re no longer there, what am I doing?”

“I’m here.”

“No, you’re not. We both know that. When was the last time we were physical?”

“Oh, stop it. It’s hard to be physical in the White House.”

“You’re so full of shit.”

Bernstein knew what he had to do at that moment to smooth this whole thing out. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t fire Susanna Colbert. He would look foolish having three people in that position in his first term. And he loved Susanna. That was the real issue. His head was throbbing. The person he wanted to call at that moment was the reason this was all happening. There were times like this when he was jealous of the religious presidents. To be able to dump this in God’s lap would be such a luxury. But that wasn’t an option for him.

* * *

Brad Miller had to admit he was adjusting well to his surroundings. He’d gotten used to the food, he liked his new friends, and he was falling in love with Barbara. He also liked the fact that the ship only moved about three months out of the year. Many of the passengers