“Hey!” Stephanie exclaimed. “What are you looking at? You’re supposed to be shaving.” Suddenly self-conscious, she wrapped herself in her towel as if it were a strapless minidress.

Initially embarrassed about being caught as a voyeur, Daniel quickly regained his equanimity. He put down his razor and stepped over to Stephanie. He gripped her shoulders and stared into her liquid-onyx eyes. “I just couldn’t help but notice how sexy and absolutely alluring you look.”

Stephanie tilted her head to the side to get a view of Daniel from a slightly different perspective. “Are you all right?”

Daniel laughed. “I’m fine.”

“Did you slip back to the sitting room and polish off that bottle of champagne?”

“I’m being serious.”

“You haven’t said anything like that for months.”

“To say I’ve been preoccupied would be putting it mildly. When I had the idea of founding the company, I had no idea that fund-raising was going to occupy one hundred and ten percent of my efforts. And now on top of it comes this political menace, threatening to destroy the whole operation.”

“I understand,” Stephanie said. “Truly I do, and I haven’t taken it personally.”

“Has it really been months?”

“Trust me,” Stephanie said, nodding her head for emphasis.

“I apologize,” Daniel said. “And to show my remorse, I’d like to make a motion to change the evening’s schedule. I propose that we move up the lovemaking and put the dinner plans on hold. Do I hear a second?”

As Daniel tried to lean down to give Stephanie a playful kiss, she pushed his still-lathered face back with just the tip of her index finger on his nose. Her expression suggested she was touching something remarkably distasteful, especially as she wiped the bit of lather from her finger onto his shoulder. “Parliamentary rules are not going to maneuver this lady out of a good dinner,” she remarked. “It took some effort to get those reservations, so the evening’s plans hold as previously voted on and passed. Now back to shaving!” She gave him a spirited shove toward the sink, then stepped to the neighboring sink to dry her hair.

“Kidding aside,” Daniel yelled over the sound of the hair dryer when he’d finished shaving. “You do look fantastic. Sometimes I wonder what you see in an old man like me.” He patted his cheeks with aftershave lotion.

“Fifty-two is hardly old,” Stephanie yelled back. “Particularly as active as you are. Actually, you’re pretty sexy yourself.”

Daniel regarded himself in the mirror. He thought he didn’t look too bad, although he wasn’t going to fool himself by imagining he was in any way sexy. Long ago, he’d reconciled himself to the fact that he was on the nerdy side of the equation of life, having grown up as a science prodigy since the sixth grade. Stephanie was just trying to be nice. He’d always had a thin face, so at least there was no problem with developing jowls or even wrinkles, save for some mild crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes when he smiled. He’d stayed active physically, although not so much over the previous several months, due to the time constraints of fund-raising. As a faculty member at Harvard, he’d taken full advantage of the athletic facilities, using the squash and handball courts regularly, as well as the rowing opportunities on the Charles River. His only real appearance problem as he saw it was the retreating hairline at the upper corners of his forehead and the thinning area of his crown, plus the salt-and-pepper silvering of his otherwise brown hair along the sides of his head, but there wasn’t much he could do about all that.

After both of them had finished primping, dressing, and donning their coats, they left the hotel armed with simple directions to the restaurant obtained from the concierge. Arm in arm, they strolled several blocks west along M Street, passing a potpourri of art galleries, bookshops, and antiques stores. The night was crisp but not too cold, with a canopy of stars visible despite the city lights.

The maître d’ at the restaurant led them to a table off to the side that afforded a degree of privacy in the busy establishment. They ordered food and a bottle of wine, and settled back for a romantic dinner. By the time the entrees had been served and they both had had fun remembering their mutual attraction prior to their ever having dated, they lapsed into a contented silence. Unfortunately Daniel broke it.

“I probably shouldn’t bring this up…” Daniel began.

“Then don’t,” Stephanie interjected, having an immediate inclination of where Daniel was heading.

“But I should,” Daniel said. “In fact, I have to, and this is a better time than later. Several days ago, you said you were going to research our tormentor, Senator Ashley Butler, with the idea of possibly giving me some help for tomorrow’s hearing. I know you looked into it, but you didn’t say anything. How come?”

“My recollection is that you agreed to forget about the hearing for tonight.”

“I agreed to try to forget about the hearing,” Daniel corrected. “I haven’t been totally successful. Did you not bring up what you learned because you didn’t find anything helpful or what? Help me here, and then we can put it all aside for the rest of the night.”

Stephanie looked off for a few beats to organize her thoughts. “What do you want to know?”

Daniel let out a short, exasperated laugh. “You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be. To be truthful, I don’t know what I want to know, because I don’t know enough to even ask questions.”

“He’s not going to be easy.”

“We already had that impression.”

“He’s been in the senate since 1972, and his seniority gives him significant clout.”

“I’d assumed as much, since he’s the chairman of the subcommittee,” Daniel said. “What I need to know is what makes him tick.”

“My impression is he’s a rather typical, old-fashioned Southern demagogue.”

“A demagogue, huh?” Daniel questioned. He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. “I suppose I have to admit to my stupidity here. I’ve heard the word demagogue before, but to tell you the truth, I don’t really know exactly what it means other than its pejorative sense.”

“It refers to a politician who makes use of popular prejudices and fears to gain and hold power.”

“You mean, in this instance, like the public’s concern about biotechnology in general.”

“Exactly,” Stephanie admitted. “Especially when the biotechnology involves words like embryo and cloning.”

“Meaning embryo farms and Frankenstein scenarios.”

“Precisely,” Stephanie said. “He plays on people’s ignorance and worst fears. And in the Senate, he’s an obstructionist. It’s always easier to be against issues than for issues. He’s made a career of it, even bucking his own party on numerous occasions.”

“It doesn’t sound good for us.” Daniel moaned. “It rules out trying to convince him with any kind of rational argument.”

“Unfortunately, that’s my take as well. That’s why I haven’t told you what I’d learned about him. It’s depressing someone like Butler is even in the Senate, much less having the seniority and power he has. Senators are supposed to be leaders, not people who are there for power’s sake.”

“What’s depressing is that this dimwit has the power to block my creative and promising science.”

“I don’t have the feeling he’s a dimwit,” Stephanie corrected. “Quite the contrary. He’s been very creative in his own right. I’d even have to say Machiavellian.”

“What are some of his other issues?”

“The usual fundamentalist, conservative ones. States’ rights, of course. That’s a biggie. But also he’s against things like pornography, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and that sort of thing. And, oh yeah, he’s against abortion.”

“Abortion?” Daniel questioned with surprise. “He’s a Democrat and not pro-choice? He’s starting to sound like a member of the Republican hard right.”