They couldn't avoid meeting up with Ron Ehrlich, much as Jed would have wanted to. It wasn't that he actually disliked the man – and there was no doubt about his obvious talent for fiscal and monetary policy – but he had never quite been able to get over the twinge of jealousy that Ron had been Abbey's first real boyfriend.
It didn't help that Abbey and Ron had remained friends over the years and now she greeted him with a warm smile. "Ron! It's good to see you again!"
"You too, Abbey – and still as beautiful as ever!"
As Ron leant forward to kiss Abbey's cheek, Jed felt his jaw tightening but quickly put on his public face. "Ron, hello!" he said, holding out his hand to the other man. "What brings you to Brussels?"
Ron turned to shake his hand. "I've had a few days of talks at the ECB in Frankfurt, and I have meetings with some of the Ecofin members here over the weekend."
Jed nodded. "Yeah, of course – I read something about that in EuroVoice today – you've been looking at the inflation and growth differentials in the Euro areas?"
"That's right. They're interested in our adjustment mechanisms–"
Abbey interrupted. "Sorry, you two – but if you're gonna talk economics, I am going to find another drink, then the girls and then the buffet table – in that order!"
"Think we'd better leave it for now, Ron," Jed said, with a quick smile at Abbey.
"Yes, of course. But you will save a dance for me, won't you, Abbey?"
"Of course I will – see you later, Ron."
"Over my dead body," Jed muttered as he and Abbey made their way to the drinks table.
Abbey glanced round at him, her eyes wide. "I just don't believe you!" she said.
"What don't you believe?"
"Jed, how long have we been married?"
He looked at her. "Thirty eight years – why?"
"Yeah, and we were together for two years before that – so don't you think that kinda cancels out the six months when Ron was my boyfriend?"
"Nine months," Jed said darkly.
"Oh, for heavens' sake, let's not go through that again!" She started laughing as she caught hold of his hand.
He looked round at her, giving her a small grin. "Okay, I'm a jackass, right?"
"Yes, you are." Then she squeezed his hand. "But if it's any consolation, you are my favourite jackass."
"Good." Jed smiled at her again, then gripped her hand and held it so that his was by the slit in her skirt, the back of his hand moving surreptitiously against her thigh.
"Jed–" she started to protest.
"Mr President, Mrs Bartlet, so good to see you again!" They were waylaid by the French ambassador and his wife and after they'd shaken hands and were chatting, Abbey caught hold of Jed's hand again and pulled it against her thigh. She smiled inwardly as tried to pull away as he talked to the ambassador, and kept his hand against her leg.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" he asked as they moved on.
"Trying to show you that that forty years beats six months any day."
"Nine months," he said.
Abbey laughed. "You really are a jackass!"
They reached the drinks table and Jed handed her a glass of white wine. "I know, I know," he said, his eyes meeting hers. "It's totally stupid and illogical – but I can't help it."
Abbey smiled softly. "And it's one of the reasons I love you so much," she said.
"Yeah?" Then he leant towards her and whispered in her ear. "So can we go back to the hotel now? Because I just want–"
"Me too – but we gotta hang in here a while longer."
Jed sighed. "Yeah, I guess so." He looked around. "Where are the girls?"
"Liz is in some deep conversation with Congressman Palmer – Zoey looks like she's flirting with one of the Embassy attaches – and Ellie is over there with the staff."
"Ellie doesn't like this sort of thing, does she?"
"Not really, but she's better than she used to be. She's comfortable with the familiar – and she's known Sam and some of the staff for years, so she'll be fine with that."
"Okay." He looked at her. "You're not really gonna dance with Ron, are you?"
Abbey threw him an exasperated look that was mingled with love and then said airily, "Yeah, why not? I'm gonna dance with him all night – and then elope with him at the end of the night for some steamy sex in the hot-tub!"
Jed grinned. "Now I know you're sassing me!" Then he drew in a deep breath. "That hot-tub is reserved for you and me, babe – and don't you forget it."
Their eyes met and Abbey's mouth twitched. "You bet, boyfriend!"
Sam, overhearing the last part of the conversation as he came up behind them at the drinks table, suppressed a small grin. So the First Couple still had the hots for each other, he thought. Not that that was any surprise. The upper echelons of the West Wing staff – and probably others too – had all known about the 'barbecuing' schedule – and then of course there had been those highly embarrassing few minutes when he had interrupted them on re-election night…
"Sam!" Abbey said, turning from the table and seeing him there. "I heard that you got my youngest daughter drunk last night!"
Sam had the grace to blush slightly. "Well, not exactly drunk, ma'am – but she did insist on trying the Bush Amber which is pretty strong stuff. I tried to warn her that she would probably have a headache this morning!"
"You were right about that – and I see she's drinking iced water tonight!"
"No, ma'am – that's genever in her glass," Sam replied, following Abbey's glance across at Zoey who was still chatting to the attaché. "Juniper gin," he added.
"Okay, so I can only hope there's also some tonic water in that glass as well!"
"I hope so too," Sam grinned.
Abbey saw that Peter Rosen had come across to talk to Jed, and so she drew Sam to one side, away from them. "Tell me, Sam, has Zoey mentioned Charlie to you at all?" As Sam hesitated, she went on, "I know that Jed was trying to do a little fence-mending between them last week, but Zoey's not mentioned him – and I've been a little reluctant to ask her. I was waiting for her to say something first."
Sam smiled. "Well, without wanting to betray any confidences, I think it's probably safe to say that at least the fence posts may be in position again."
Abbey smiled back at him. "Very diplomatically put, Sam – thank you! I guess we'll make a politician out of you yet! And talking of which, when are you going to run for Congress again?"
"After the beating I took in Orange County? I'm not sure I want to go through that again."
"Oh, come on, Sam – the timing was all wrong on that one, and you know it – first Horton Wilde and then the tax plan – anyway, Orange County's always been Republican. Next time you'll go for a safe Democratic seat and get your feet wet – and then you'll be on the roll that will take you to the Oval Office."
Sam blinked a few times. "The President once said–"
"Yes, I know – and he'll be there campaigning for you, take my word for it. So – you've got eight years to get some experience in Congress or the Senate."
"And you really think the country would go for a Democrat again?"
"If it's the right man, yes. And if Jed thinks you're the right man, Sam, then that's good enough for me." She studied him for a moment. "The same determination, the same passion, the same idealism–"
"I'm sorry?"
Abbey smiled. "Just something I heard this last week. But think about it, Sam."
Sam nodded slowly. "Yes – yes, I will." Then his boyish grin was back. "Though I think Josh would probably kill me if he knew!"
Abbey nodded. "You'll need to find yourself another Chief of Staff, Sam – Josh is gonna burn himself out as COS for Matt Santos."
"You think so?"
Jed, watching her from the far end of the table as she talked to Sam and then turned to greet the Swedish ambassador and his wife, marvelled at how totally natural she was with everyone she met, her eyes full of warmth, taking in everything that was said and responding with interest and with smiles that were genuine, not the false plastered-on smiles that he had encountered so many times in his political career.
And he marvelled again that this beautiful, intelligent, feisty, challenging, sometimes unpredictable and – yes, this wonderfully loving and sexy woman – had chosen him as her man. He knew that he was the envy of many men – he'd seen it in their eyes as they'd looked at her – and he'd felt a sense of almost proprietary pride, knowing that she was his – and had been his for forty years. So why, he thought, did Ron Ehrlich somehow have this power to reduce him to the gauche student that he had once been, head-over-heels in love with Abbey right from the first time he'd met her and desperately jealous of Ron who was her boyfriend at the time?
John Marbury tapped his shoulder. "Penny for them, Mr President," he said.
Jed turned, then shook his head slightly and smiled. "Sorry, I was miles away – or rather years away."
"You were looking at your beautiful wife," John said.
"Yes, I was," Jed admitted.
"You are a very fortunate man."
Jed inclined his head. "I know."
"Every man here would love to have an Abigail in their lives – but the one over there is all yours."
Jed looked across at Abbey again, nodding slowly and permitting himself a small smile. "Yes," he said quietly then turned back to the other man. "Thank you, John."
Absently, Lord John picked up two glasses of wine and handed one of them to Jed. "Last year, when I was being made painfully aware of my own mortality, one quotation kept coming back to me – 'Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans' – and I started wondering if John Lennon would revise that now to 'Life and death are what happen while you're making other plans.' We so rarely live for the moment, do we?"
Jed frowned slightly. "What are you trying to say, John?"
John glanced towards Abbey. "I think that what I'm saying is that you now need to cherish and treasure her and simply be with her, Jed – because for the last eight years she has had to share you with the world."
From any other man, Jed would have resented any advice on how to treat his wife. But his friendship with John Marbury went back almost four decades and he could accept it. "Yes, you're right. For the last eight years I've been serving two mistresses–" He stopped, remembering how he'd said that to CJ.
"One mistress – your country and the world," John said. "The other was not your mistress."
Jed nodded. "That's true."
"Your wife is a truly remarkable woman."
"Yes, she is."
"And you won't challenge me to pistols at dawn if I ask her to dance with me?" John said, reverting now to his outward jovial self after the few moments of intensely personal talk.
Jed took the cue. "John, I wouldn't know what the hell to do with a pistol even if someone handed it to me fully loaded!"
"Good lord! Your education really has been sadly lacking, sir."
Jed laughed. "Yeah – well, they didn't teach things like that in economics classes!"
"Well, no, I suppose not. But – ah, I see the buffet has finally opened – and I could eat the proverbial horse, now that I finally have my appetite back." As they started to walk together towards the buffet tables in the next room, John went on, "So tell me about Kazakhstan – your new President has been doing some saber-rattling there, I believe–"
Jed caught only glimpses of Abbey in the next hour. They were both used to mingling separately at events like this but tonight, even as he chatted to various ambassadors and embassy officials, Jed ached to be next to her, with his arm round her waist or her shoulders, or his hand firmly gripping hers. He wasn't sure why he felt it so strongly tonight – whether it was just because of Ron Ehrlich, or whether it was simply that she looked so stunning in that beautiful gown, with those dark curls framing her face – or whether, after a week of having her all to himself, that ache inside him was because he'd had to release her to the world again.
John's words were ringing in his head – 'we so rarely live for the moment' – 'she has had to share you with the world' – 'cherish and treasure her and simply be with her' – and he knew that John was so absolutely right…
TBC