Welcome to White House Rhapsody – The romance that just keeps on going. We’ll start with Season 7 next week. But to bring everyone as up to date as possible, here’s are the synopses for the previous six seasons. All six are available as ebooks at many of your favorite retailers.
Season One
Shortly after the inauguration of Mark Jerguessen as President of the United States, Sharon Wheatly arrived in Washington, DC, having abandoned a promising career as an executive specializing in multi-national business to enter public service. She moved into her best friend Carla’s Georgetown townhouse – vacant at the moment since Carla had taken a job in Nigeria- and started sending out resumes to the State Department and others.
Meanwhile, Mark Jerguessen, young and still single, was finding out the hard way that being president had some challenges he didn’t expect, particularly the isolation of the position. But at the same time, he needed to complete his Advisory Panel with a World Affairs Advisor and had his Chief of Staff, Johnnie Washington, collect resumes from the State Department
At the State Department, Deputy Secretary Wallace was perturbed to find that Sharon Wheatly’s resume had been sent to the White House for the Advisory Panel position. Not only that, the White House wanted to interview her.
Sharon was excited that Kent Jeffries, at the White House, wanted to interview her for a job and shocked when she arrived and found out that Jeffries was the President’s secretary and that the interview was with the President.
Mark was startled when he realized he was ogling Sharon, then even more pleased when she nailed the interview. Sharon, still recovering from her shock, eased into things, while realizing that she was definitely attracted to Mark. Still reeling, she called her friend Niecy in India, and concluded that she couldn’t afford to take a job working for, or worse yet, fall in love with a man whose life was so very public.
While sharing breakfast with his sister June, Mark debated hiring Sharon. June had already noticed that Mark seemed attracted to somebody, even if she didn’t know who. Both knew that if June had noticed, there was another who had, as well, and who was determined to hurt anyone that got close to Mark. Johnnie, however, pushed for Mark to hire Sharon.
Mark called Sharon to the Oval Office for a private meeting where they both confronted their attraction to each other, agreeing to attempt to remain merely friends.
In New York City, Sharon’s brother, rock star Michael Wheatly, and his life partner Inez Santiago were arriving back from an extended trip to start the next phase of their relationship: living together. Inez, also Michael’s manager, was worried. Michael tried to pretend he wasn’t.
Sharon started her first day at the White House running into fellow advisor Karen Tanaka and getting hit by a snowball thrown by fellow advisor and Mark’s best friend, Eddie Cooper. In her new office, she found a welcome gift from Mark of a special coffee grinder and some beans and a coffee machine. Her staff, including assistant Julie, met her and seemed to accept her.
Shortly after, Karen Tanaka arrived to take Sharon to the cafeteria and then to her first Advisory Panel meeting. Karen explained about how the panel worked – there was lots of joking and game playing as a way to ease the tension and prevent egos from flaring. The members were all experts in different disciplines and dedicated to providing the President with as much accurate information and analysis as possible.
At the first meeting, Sharon was given the nickname Wheaties, and impressed the group with presenting her first report. She also emailed Niecy and Carla her new work email.
But work was paramount and with the French Foreign Minister coming to Washington, Sharon had her hands full. Thanks to her friendship with Niecy – the education minister in India – Sharon asked her staff to confirm information about the French minister’s health, then sent the information to June, who did much of the hostessing work at the White House.
Impressed, June went to see Sharon and found her quite likeable. June invited Sharon to go out shopping some time. June, a fashion designer with a successful business, called it research. Later, Sharon set up a meeting with Johnnie, who was also another long-time friend of Mark’s.
Johnnie confirmed that Mark seemed to be having a little trouble with the isolation caused by his position. Sharon agreed that fame could be difficult, mentioning that her brother was pretty famous. Johnnie guessed that her brother was Michael Wheatly and recognized Sharon from a video she had made when she was 15 in which she played a prostitute. Sharon explained that at the time, it had been difficult for her so she never talked about the video. Johnnie agreed not to mention it and Sharon thought about ways she and her colleagues on the Advisory Panel could help Mark feel less isolated.
But the visit from the French Foreign Minister took precedence. Sharon, realizing that she would have to attend the State Department cocktail party, rushed out to buy an appropriate dress. When she got to the party, she was horrified to find June wearing the exact dress in a different color.
Sharon also discovered a bad habit of Mark’s – he tore the buttons off his sleeves when he was tense. After pulling him from the party and sewing the button back on, he left and Sharon found herself face to face with June. June laughed off the dress situation and the two became closer friends.
Back in Mark’s home state of Minnesota, his nephew Matt Jerguessen was having a tough time. He didn’t want to play basketball, but was expected to by his parents. His coach confronted him and suggested that Matt find a creative way to connect with his uncle in spite of his mother’s efforts to keep her son from contacting Mark.
Sharon realized that Carla’s townhouse had a secret entrance in the basement and got permission to outfit the basement as a bar.
Shortly after the visit with the French foreign minister, June asked Sharon and Karen to go shopping. Karen, being something of a clothes horse, found herself getting measured by June for a new outfit. June often made clothes for her friends and came up with a great idea for Karen.
Sharon was also doing some other shopping – outfitting the basement as a secure party place so that Mark could come out with his friends for a drink after work. The new venue was named the PFZ or Protocol Free Zone. After the opening party, Mark stayed behind to help Sharon clean up and ended up cooking a quick dinner with her. But the evening ended awkwardly as neither wanted to follow their feelings.
Out on the West Coast, in Pasadena, Jodi Wheatly, Michael’s daughter, waited with her friend Tiffany Sheppledorf and Jodi’s older sister Toby for their mother to pick them up. Toby was busy pushing her mother, Cameron’s, buttons and Jodi was disgusted by it. She was also embarrassed by her older sister. Tiffany, however, warned her to relax.
Back in Washington, rumors began circulating that Mark was seeing a lobbyist named Carrie Martindale. Mark refused to make any comment either to deny or confirm it. Privately, he told Sharon that he wasn’t even sure he knew Martindale. Sharon got a little snarky and asked if Mark was seeing anyone, and he told her he wasn’t.
It didn’t help that night at the PFZ when a chance remark that Sharon overheard got Sharon and Mark arguing. But the argument wasn’t the worst part. Both were feeling the tension of unresolved feelings between each other, as well. But better judgment prevailed again.
June, however, saw ongoing trouble and came up with a plan to keep rumors about Mark’s love life to a minimum. She set up a group of women for Mark to officially date whenever he needed to go to a function where one would be expected. Secretary of State Daniel Friedman pushed for Sharon to be the designated date when Mark had an embassy function. June knew it would not be easy to make happen.
At the same time, in Minnesota, Rose Jerguessen, the President’s mother, was not happy that the rumor tizzy over Carrie Martindale had blown over. She was determined that her son Mark should only date the right women and would see to it, one way or another.
Karen Tanaka had some hi-jinks of her own to plan. Having noticed that several members of the Advisory panel were musically inclined, she convinced Eddie Cooper to set up a Panel band for the fun of it.
June was moving forward with her idea to get Sharon on board with embassy dates with Mark. First, on a Saturday, she helped Sharon decorate her office. Then while the two went to the upstairs resident to the studio Mark had set up for June, June convinced Sharon that appearing as Mark’s “official” date would make her less of a target for rumors, especially since she’d be there as part of her job as World Affairs Advisor. Mark visited the studio to ask June about their nephew Matt, and after Mark left, June told Sharon about her family’s difficult history and how that was affecting Matt.
In New York, Inez was having trouble with her family, who wanted her to get back together with her ex-husband. Michael was trying to console her, but was frustrated because it seemed as though the two were fighting more than usual. But once they settled it, Michael shared his latest composition, written for his sister Susan, called Sparrow Without Wings.
Eddie set up an outing at the National Press Club – a private venue that the Secret Service okayed so that Mark could join the rest of the Advisory Board for lunch. There, while waiting to leave, Sharon and Karen met reporter Max Epstein, who decided to do a feature on Sharon, and got invited to an embassy reception.
The evening of the reception, Sharon got her hair and makeup done by Douglas Lee, a high-end stylist and friend of June’s. While Sharon went on to the embassy, June and Douglas watched a movie together. At the embassy, Sharon made quite the splash, especially with the press corps outside. Mark noticed how well she handled herself, and asked her why she wanted to avoid being famous so much. Sharon didn’t entirely have a good reason.
The next day, Max interviewed her. When the story ran, Sharon’s colleagues teased her. She also got a threatening email, and decided to ignore it. There was also the problem that Sharon was getting the wrong kind of attention from the popular culture because she and Mark looked so good together at the embassy. Sharon called Max and arranged a date with him in a public place.
But before that could happen, June asked Sharon to intercede with the White House Chef, Yasmine Sollette, popularly known as Solly, and the Chief Usher, Major Wills, who could get prickly if June talked to the staff. Solly was furious that ingredients that she’d been saving in the upstairs kitchen were going missing. Sharon realized that Mark had brought over some of the missing ingredients to make dinner with her a couple evenings before. Once Solly found out who was stealing her ingredients, she invited Mark to make dinner with her, and added Sharon to the party.
In Minnesota, Matt Jerguessen was asked by his mother and some schoolmates to support another schoolmate who had been arrested for selling drugs. Matt refused, and his mother Shawna became even more worried about him.
Season Two
Sharon’s personal email account was deluged with abusive emails, all containing the same mean-spirited message. Sharon got help from the. Advisory Board technology expert Gwendolyn McKelvey only to find that she was the focus of the attack. Sharon changed her email address, then thought nothing more of the event. Besides, despite warnings from her other board colleague, Media Expert Gus Guerrero, Sharon had a date with Max Epstein, which did not go well.
In California, Toby Wheatly was fighting with her mother Cameron Dykstra. Toby had gotten an audition with the New York High School of the Performing Arts, and Cameron did not want her to act. Toby called her father, Michael, who agreed to talk to his ex-wife about Toby going to live with him in New York. While asking Inez about whether she was okay with Toby living with them, Inez confessed that she wanted a baby, to Michael’s discomfort. The next day, Michael convinced Cameron that Toby should live with him.
Thanks to all the jokes about Sharon’s appearance rather than smarts, Press Secretary Jean Bouyer and Gus Guerrero convinced Sharon to do some political talk shows, which she did, but unhappily.
June met with psychologist Shanetta Williams to confront her worst issues mostly so that she could have a relationship with Douglas Lee.
Later that week, Sharon, Michael and Inez flew into the Los Angeles area, partly to celebrate Jodi’s birthday, but also to be there for the unveiling of Madeleine Wheatly’s latest sculpture. In Washington, Solly got approached by someone wanting to spy on Mark. Back in California, June arranged a spa day as a treat for Sharon, her sisters, and her nieces, and for Karen’s daughters, Kira and Allie Watanabe, who were in Los Angeles visiting their father.
Sharon found out that Kira’s father had been berating then ignoring his daughters. At the same time, Jodi and Tiffany made friends with the girls. Then Jodi, after talking with June, found a way for Matt, June’s nephew, to get around the restrictions Shawna had put on him so that Matt could email and connect with Mark. June attended the unveiling and the party afterward, where she realized that Sharon’s mother had “adopted” her.
Sharon gave Mark the special phone that would ring through to Matt’s phone. Mark was reluctant to go behind his sister-in-law’s back, but decided he had little choice if he was going to talk to his nephew.
In New York, Toby did her audition for School of Performing Arts, but had to return to Los Angeles for the rest of the school year.
The larger issue for Sharon was the president’s first foreign trip – a visit to Mexico.While the Mexican officials had been positive about the trip, the Mexican president got nasty, then began ogling Sharon. Mark got unnerved, and Sharon had to talk severely to him. Later, after the Mexican president got handsy with Sharon, Mark confronted him.
In Los Angeles, Susan Wheatly, who used a wheelchair after a devastating accident robbed her of the ability to walk, faced off with her younger sister Sarah over Susan’s sleeping around.
Sharon’s plans for a weekend reading got interrupted when June asked her to join Mark’s friend, Reverend Roy Hodgkiss , and Roy’s wife Melody Hodgkiss, a professor of theology. Sharon also played her guitar for some children as part of the party. Roy teased Mark about his feelings for Sharon.
The next day, the Moral Americans caucus made an issue of the fact that Gus Guerrero was gay. Mark responded, but as he and Gus commiserated over the meanness, Solly got an idea to cause the Moral Americans some trouble.
Sharon had her hands full when it turned out that the Nigerian Ambassador was not Christian, but Muslim. She got the plans for the reception changed in time, but it caused more conflict between Solly and Major Wills.
In emails, Matt and Tiffany were building a relationship – one they were determined to be mature about.
Season Three
Sharon went on a second date with Max, which she did not enjoy. Then rumors started about Mark dating Beauty Queen Ashley Whitcomb.
In Los Angeles, Cameron was upset, but didn’t want to tell anyone. Jodi told Michael about it as he got ready to tape a Celebrity Dance Off show, featuring his next new song – which was about Sharon and her tendency to avoid love. But the accompanying dance would not come together. Desperate, Michael called Susan, who was a dancer. Susan was angry, then went to work on the project and found that she could still choreograph from her wheelchair.
During a trip to Israel for a conference, Mark met Ashely Whitcomb, who was not very bright. Nonetheless, Mark invited her to join the group of “official” dates. Then the Dance Off episode aired and Sharon invited all her friends, who were amazed when they saw that Susan had choreographed the dance.
Mark went on his date with Ashley, who refused her briefing. The date was a complete disaster, with Ashley making a fuss in front of the press.
Matt, Kira, Jodi, Tiffany and Eddie’s oldest daughter Rebecca, began video chatting and decided to start a news site for teens. Joining them was another teen, Tony Garces, who Roy and Mark had been helping.
A photo of Mark hugging Karen circulated, and Rose decided to attack her by arranging for a custody battle between Karen and her ex-husband, George Watanabe over their daughters, Kira and Allie. Kira refused to visit her father and with the help of the other teens, started making plans to run away.
Mark found out that Sharon didn’t know how to drive and arranged for driving lessons for her, Kira and Rebecca Cooper. Lessons that ended in disaster when Sharon drove and the car ran over a piece of sharp metal on the runway where they were practicing.
Matt’s mother, Shawna, discovered the work arounds that Jodi had set up, and cut him off again. Matt, in desperation, ran away using the plan he’d helped Kira develop.
Saturday, Mark decided to heck with it, and pulled Sharon into a one-on-one game of basketball, only to find himself kissing her. Both agreed that it was not a good time for them to get together, but that it was getting harder not to. Worse yet, Sharon was about to get even more involved in Mark’s life.
Shawna called Mark about Matt several days after the boy went missing. Thanks to her niece, Sharon found out where Matt was and offered to go get him and bring him to the White House. Mark agreed. Once Sharon had Matt safe, Mark grounded him. After getting no response from either Shawna or his brother Harold, Harold finally arrived in Washington. Sharon went to pick him up with her colleague Military Advisor Al Eddington, who had just found out that his wife had lung cancer.
Harold’s visit was short and he brought papers allowing Mark to keep Matt in Washington. Harold also refused to visit Matt. As he left, June arrived back at the White House from a trip to the West Coast, and Harold demanded a hug. Later, Mark relaxed with Sharon, who agreed that the very unpleasant Harold Jerguessen was something of a disincentive to being Mark’s girlfriend.
Season Four
President Mark Jerguessen was off on another trip, this time to Columbia, World Affairs Advisor Sharon Wheatly and his nephew Matt included. After a successful first day, Sharon and Mark gave in to a romantic moment in the garden of the Columbian Presidential Palace, only to realize that they needed to pull away from each other once more.
During an assassination attempt on the Columbian president, Mark got shoved back into his limo, and flattened Sharon. Mark was unharmed, but Sharon lost consciousness, so they were taken to the nearest hospital, where Matt, who was also in the limo, accidentally gave the wrong person the impression that Sharon had been killed. Mark contacted Sharon’s parents, then worked on getting the correct story out.
Susan Wheatly, Sharon’s middle sister, was in Los Angeles, and only agreed to go to a hospital fundraiser because George Watanabe would be there. Watanabe was the father of Kira and Allie, the daughters of Sharon’s Advisory Board colleague Karen Tanaka. The girls were also friends with Sharon and Susan’s nieces Jodi and Tiffany, and embroiled in a custody suit filed by their father. Kira had refused to go spend the summer with her father. At the fundraiser, Susan talked briefly with Watanabe, who agreed to let her keep his daughters and gave Susan an open-ended permission slip.
Sharon, having returned to where she was living in Washington, DC, was getting restless with staying in bed. June Jerguessen, the president’s sister, came to visit, but suddenly left when Matt brought in lunch. Both Sharon and Matt had noticed that June wasn’t eating, and Sharon was fairly sure that June was dealing with a relapse of anorexia nervosa.
Michael Wheatly, Jodi Wheatly’s father and Sharon’s brother, got into trouble right before the big custody hearing between Watanabe and Karen, by mentioning Jodi’s name on the air of a television talk show covering the hearing. With his ex-wife, Cameron, planning on going with Tiffany’s mother on a sabbatical, Michael was looking forward to having Jodi and Tiffany living with him. However, after the talk show, Cameron decided that Jodi would go to boarding school with Tiffany in Washington, DC.
June and Sharon joined Karen in Los Angeles for the custody hearing that would decide where the girls would live. The judge put a gag order on the parents, but Kira held a press conference to share why she would not live with her father, using data that Jodi and Tiffany had found. The judge, noting Kira’s deep anger at her father, decided to give Karen custody.
June ate at the hearing, but the next time Sharon saw her, she’d stopped. Worse yet, Mark’s friend, Roy Hodgkiss, also noticed that June was avoiding food. With June getting worse, Karen and Sharon decided to do an intervention. They set the event up during a trip to India, where Sharon’s friends Niecy Baghda and Carla Danford joined them. It was a long night, but June not only faced her problem, she realized what had triggered her relapse, and immediately called her psychologist, Dr. Williams.
After the conference, Matt held a little surprise party for June, and brought four dogs to the White House, including a toy poodle and a Pomeranian that bonded with Mark, to everyone’s amusement. A few days later, Matt decided to play football with his new high school, where he’d be boarding that fall, meeting Paul Marley and DeShawn Colley. Paul initially liked Matt, glad that the new kid would take over playing quarterback for him. But when Matt left the team after a misunderstanding with the coach, Paul decided to get Matt back.
The reason Matt left the team was to go with his uncle on a trip to Africa. Just before the president’s party left, however, Carla Danford turned up missing in Lagos, Nigeria, where she’d been working. Sharon and June got taken in by an embassy employee and agreed to spirit Carla onto Air Force One, even though Mark had told Sharon the situation was under control. Once Mark found out what Sharon had done, he got angry with Sharon and the two fought, only resolving their issue once the party had arrived in Kenya.
At home, Sharon got depressed, and suddenly realized it was the anniversary of her sister Susan’s devastating accident. While consoling Sharon, June accidentally let it slip that her oldest brother, Harold, had sexually abused her when they were children, and that Mark still didn’t know what had happened.
Then Jodi and Tiffany arrived in Washington, and Jodi’s older sister Toby met the president, only to develop a crush on him. The next weekend, Mark roped Sharon and several others into helping cater a fundraiser for a home for foster children when the catering company originally hired suddenly went out of business. Sharon brought with her a special set of knives that were among the very few things that she owned. She quietly agreed to cover the education expenses for one of the teens who was about to turn 18. To help the young woman trust her, Sharon gave her the specials knives as Mark watched and wondered.
June thought that she and her friend Douglas Lee were getting closer to a full relationship, only to have Doug dump her. Shortly after, Sharon’s colleague on the Advisory Board, Military Advisor Al Eddington, was widowed, and Sharon caught him in a moment of weakness.
Then Paul Marley got his revenge by setting Matt up to look like he’d been shoplifting. Mark got the mess straightened out and befriended Paul. Paul’s mother, Senator Janet Marley, thanked Mark and Sharon witnessed the moment from a distance and got jealous.
Susan had arrived in Washington to choreograph a dance for the Artists With Disabilities Festival, and while fussing over the first rehearsal in a bar, ran into reporter Max Epstein. The two unexpectedly connected, and Max even found a way to help Susan with the dance.
Season Five
Al Eddington did not deal well with his wife’s death and turned his anger on Sharon. Mark confronted Al about the situation, but got only minimal cooperation. Sharon, for her part, stayed focused on her family’s arrival in Washington, and getting Susan ready for the debut of her dance at the Americans With Disabilities Festival. Susan attended as Mark’s “official” date, and the dance was a success. But Susan slipped away at the hotel and went home with Max Epstein.
Sharon alerted Mark to a series of attacks by vandals on American embassies around the world, which occurred on American holidays. Then June and Karen convinced Sharon to drive them wine tasting as an incentive to help her learn to drive. When a tree fell on Karen’s car, they all agreed to let Sharon give up driving.
Rose Jerguessen suddenly announced that she would visit Mark, right on top of a teen party that Sharon was setting up to honor the new German ambassador, who did not want a formal reception. June decided to leave the White House while her mother was there, and while telling Mark, finally told him that their older brother Harold had sexually abused her. Mark, feeling very angry, was even more angry with Sharon when he realized that June had told her first.
When Rose arrived, she changed all of the plans for the teen party. Rose couldn’t change the guest list. Still, she insisted on a formal dinner menu and an orchestra for entertainment. Mark told Sharon not to worry about his mother and change the plans back, but Sharon tried to be as accommodating as possible. The evening was a success, and the next day, Rose warned Sharon that she did not want Rose as an enemy.
The president’s party left for a trip to Europe that would supposedly be the “easy” one and turned out to be anything but. There was a misunderstanding with the Italians over one of Mark’s official dates. In Germany, after beauty queen Ashley Whitcomb told the world that Mark didn’t like children, the Germans got upset about a planned visit to an orhpanage for refugee children. Then Sharon, whose mother was from Belgium, had to acknowledge the Belgian king and queen, which got Mark into trouble over her dual-citizenship.
In France, the French president, who had become friends with both Mark and Sharon, albeit separately, joined the conspiracy to get Mark and Sharon together. At a special birthday party for Sharon, Mark gave her a new set of the special knives she’d given away the previous month. The two were sent to the top of the Eiffel Tower and provided with a cold bottle of Champagne. Touched, Sharon confessed to Mark that she could no longer hold back, and the two returned quietly to the embassy and let their passion happen.
But when Mark got up to back to his room, he began feeling guilty. He shared his worry with Sharon, who pointed out that it would be up to both of them to figure out how to handle their relationship.
The next stop was London and during a big dinner with the British Royal Family, Mark found unexpected cover. Lady Beverly, a lesser royal, wanted a distraction from being criticized for her weight, and decided that an apparent scandal with the American president would be just the thing. Later, as Mark and Sharon flew home, they spent a few minutes trying to set the parameters for their relationship.
Season Six
As Mark and Sharon settled in with their new relationship, they had to get ready for Halloween and the party being held by Mark’s best friend and Sharon’s colleague on the Advisory Board, Eddie Cooper. And several American embassies were splashed with red paint that morning. After the party, Mark stayed over at Sharon’s and she woke in the middle of the night to see him watching out the window, thinking about an important piece of legislation on education that he wanted to go through.
Sharon’s youngest sister, Sarah, was surprised to get a letter from the White House, only to find that it was a request for a proposal for the official presidential portrait. When she called, she found out it was because she’d been named as the best portrait artist in the country by a leading luxury lifestyle magazine. In spite of more commissions than she could handle, she agreed to submit the proposal, but neglected to mention Sharon, or to tell her sister.
Mark came under fire when it was announced that the U.S. court had decided to extradite a citizen who had been accused of the murder of a Nicaraguan in that country. Mark’s predecessor had spoken out against extraditing the man, but Mark felt he had to uphold the court’s decision. Sharon was also adamant that not extraditing the man would, however when she said so during the Advisory Board meeting, Al Eddington, the military advisor, jumped down her throat.
When the prisoner was killed on the tarmac in Nicaragua, Mark dealt with even more criticism, and also felt guilty. He spent the night with Sharon, and she woke up to see him watching out the window again.
Sarah was feeling overwhelmed, but when the son of a wealthy industrialist showed up on her doorstep, she agreed to do a quick drawing of him, since she didn’t have time to do the portrait that was requested.
Sharon went to lunch with her sister Susan, who was not only doing well after her dance’s big debut, she was in a new relationship with reporter Max Epstein. Since Sharon had briefly dated Max, Susan was worried that Sharon might feel awkward about the situation. However, Sharon was happy for her sister, and tempted to tell her about her own secret relationship with Mark.
Later, Sharon told Mark about the lunch, including that she thought about telling Susan. Mark got very upset, and the two fought. Mark had to help Sharon understand just how difficult his childhood had been, as well as his mother’s obsession with hurting his girlfriends. He remained worried that Sharon would find it too much and leave him. Sharon knew better than to promise she wouldn’t, and the two decided to keep their relationship to themselves.
Their resolve, however, became strained when Mark’s education legislation came up for a major vote in the Senate. It passed, but then there was the House vote, which was even closer. The legislation passed, and during the celebrations, Mark and Sharon realized that they missed each other.
Mark’s nephew Matt called him some days later to discuss a ticklish topic. Matt had developed strong feelings for his friend Tiffany, and it was getting difficult not to give in to them. Mark advised the teen as best he could, then went to Sharon’s to spend the weekend. While considering going public, Sharon told Mark about appearing in her brother’s video when she was a young teen, and how humiliating it had been. Since that time, she’d had no desire to be a public figure, further strengthening keeping her relationship a secret.
Sharon went with her famous rock star brother and the rest of their immediate family to Wisconsin to visit with their father’s family for the Thanksgiving holiday. But she got call after call as American embassies all over the world were splashed with red paint. Sharon’s cousin was jealous and got snarky. But another cousin pointed out that the red paint reminded him of animal activists. Sharon called another colleague with ties to the CIA, and they found the group responsible for the embassy vandalism.
At Thanksgiving dinner, Mark called. Sharon tried to excuse herself, but Mark offered to talk to the entire family one by one. Sharon’s cousin was impressed. The only problem was when Sharon got to talk to the president alone, she and Mark realized that they were miserable being apart from each other. But they had no answer to whether or not they should go public.