From Diamond to Coal

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

At 27

The worst thing about any kind of state dinner was the awkwardness he felt at people looking at him. Underneath all those eyes, he wanted to run away. Instead he had to smile and remain calm and pretend that everything was perfectly fine.

At least he didn't have to pose with Alan for very long before he got sent to the head table. Alan had to walk around shaking hands while William was allowed to settle down and get a glass of wine.

If there was one thing he'd decided would take the edge off, it was alcohol.

"How's it going?"

William gave Moran a wry smile. "It's going about the way anyone would expect it to. We really just weren't prepared for any of this to happen. Our lives were pretty good before."

"He's doing an excellent job though." Moran gazed across the room at where Alan was laughing at something a woman in a red dress said. He looked completely natural; not as though he'd had the Presidency thrust upon him unexpectedly.

"He always does his best," William said, "no one can deny that. By the time he's out of office, he's going to have completely changed the world as we know it. Are you ready for that?"

"It's what I've been waiting for since I first started working for the Obama Administration ten years ago." Moran sighed. "I was getting tired of being disappointed, but I don't think I will be anymore."

"Yeah, he's pretty great." William turned back around and set his hands in his lap to hide their nervy twitching.

Chief of Staff Seth Moran wasn't a bad guy or anything, there was just something about him that rubbed William the wrong way. He just seemed plastic; his smile never looked real and there was something nearly vulture-like about his gaze.

William hated state events and he spent most of his time wishing that he could get away from them, but he was pretty much stuck. One of the "perks" of being the First Husband.

Putting on his blandest expression, he gazed at the table setting before him. He tried to appear occupied with his thoughts, which really wasn't all that hard considering his mind had been spinning for weeks on ideas for how he was supposed to miniaturize the sub-capacitors for the replicator matrix they were working on in the lab. It was a frustrating headache of a problem.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Alan settling into the chair next to him. It looked like all the hoopla was over and they could get down to the business of pretending they cared about what was going on.

As the table filled up around them, William drew in a deep breath and went about the duty of shmoozing the world leaders around him.

He really hated that this had become their life, but it was one of those things they'd accepted could happen when Alan accepted the role of VP.

No one ever thought he was going to end up as the President. It had completely blindsided everyone. Alan and William most of all.

* * *

When he'd been hired by the CyberAngel Corporation it was as a simple bodyguard, but somehow his duties had been expanded until he became William Neeley's personal assistant. Because of that he'd been forced to receive additional education and accept the fact that he was never going to be able to say he was "just a dumb guy" ever again.

Byron sat on the chaise lounge in the waiting room. Because there was a state dinner going on, he'd been forced to stay on duty. Not that he really minded. He didn't really have anything else to do.