Donna:

It has been one of those days. I'm at the end of my rope with Josh and he's at the end of his with me. The day hadn't began like that. Of course, they usually never do. The day had actually been great at first. I had only had to call Josh once to wake him up and he got me a bagel from my favorite place on his way in. I had the files ready for him before he asked for them and I had managed to get him out of a meeting he didn't want or need to take. The bad part started when he was late for senior staff. Which was definitely not my fault. I can walk and talk with the best of them! It's not my fault Josh pulled me into his office to continue our debate on state versus federal taxes.

After the meeting he was pretty sour, taking the meeting out on poor little me at which point I accidentally forgot to tell them to leave off the pickles on his sandwich at lunch. We both knew I did it on purpose. Josh really hates pickles. I knew I was in trouble when all I heard from his office was "OH, game on sister!"

I found out about twenty minutes later that I couldn't find my gum and when I went to buy some from the vending machine it was sold out. I didn't think much of it until Josh kept making peppermint puns. He had bought all of my favorite gum not only from the closest vending machine but from the convenience store a block away. He's a madman!

I told him as much but my mistake had been not realising when I did so that he was on a conference call with the Secretary of the Treasury. Whoops. Then somehow we got back into the tax debate and he insulted my intelligence re: being from Wisconsin and I made a comment about his receding hairline.

We haven't spoken very much in the last hour of work.

But it's Thursday. And we always get drinks on Thursdays with CJ and Sam and Toby and a couple others who tag along every once in a while. For some reason, I feel nervous. It's not like we haven't had disagreements or bad days or done petty pranks to each other before. But something about Josh in the past few hours has seemed off.

"Hey, you and the idiot boy ready to go?" CJ asked. She'd already changed into jeans and a cute tank/jacket combo.

"I heard that!" Josh bellowed. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm just going to finish polishing up these notes and then go change and I'll be ready." I told CJ- and Josh as well, I knew he'd be listening.

"Leave em. Go get changed." Josh said, pulling his tie off and shrugging off his jacket as he came out of his office. Out of habit, I retrieved the tie and jacket from the floor of his office and hung them on the hanger in his officer.

"Trust me, you want me to polish these up." I say, sitting back down at the desk.

"Donna, for Christ's sake, I just wanna get a drink so let's go!" Josh's outburst was accompanied by him grabbing my bag from his office and tossing it to me.

"What's up your ass, Lyman?" CJ asked. Josh reached up and hit the door frame of his office.

"We ready?" Sam said jovially, not reading the room.

"If Donna would get a move on.."

"Joshua! You can go without me! CJ will wait with me! Go with Sam."

"Wait, seems like I'm getting the short end of the straw. I'll wait, CJ you can go with Josh." Sam said, picking up on the situation.

"No way, spanky! I get Donna, woman's prerogative." CJ replied. I smiled at Josh.

"We're all just gonna sit here and wait on Donna then!" Josh snapped.

"You're a real charmer, Josh." I told him rolling my eyes as I pushed him out of his office so I could change.

"I know, you'd think you'd invite me in ther-" I cut him off by shutting the door. Before I changed, I grabbed several sticky notes, writing "you're a dick" and hid them in places only Josh would see them tomorrow.

"Jesus, were you re painting the Mona Lisa from scratch in there? What took you so long?" Josh sniped as I came out. You'll know soon enough, Lyman.

Once at the bar with a drink in him, Josh seems to be getting along with everyone just fine again. Including me. He told me to check my purse and when I did, I found several packs of my favorite gum in there. I took this as his apology. I squeezed his knee and went to grab him another whiskey sour for my apology.

I knew something was off though. I thought I was just being overly suspicious but while waiting at the bar for our second round, I checked my voicemail. I had a message from Josh's mother.

"Hey Donna. This is Melanie. I just wanted to call and thank you for having Josh next weekend. Tell your folks how much I appreciate it. I was worried sick about it and well, now, I'll just miss him a little. If I don't talk to you before then, happy holidays!"

I squinted my eyes and listened to the message again. It didn't make any sense. Next weekend would be Christmas. I'm going back home for the week to Wisconsin for the annual Moss family hoorah while Josh would be going to West Palm Beach to celebrate with his mom for a few days of Hanukkah before going to Miami for some annual Democratic fundraiser thing. At least that's what has happened the past three years that we've known one another.

I thank the bartender for the drinks, letting her know we'll close our tabs soon. I don't go back to the table where we're all huddled. I catch Josh's eyes and signal him to meet me at a table near the back. He looks puzzled but I raise the drink and he shrugs.

Is this the wrong moment to appreciate how gorgeous he is? His top few buttons are undone and I can see a little bit of his chest hair. His hair is messy from a stressful day and his eyes bright from finally letting the tension out of his shoulders. Or at least some of it. Focus, Donnatella.

"Donna?" He asks when he's close enough. It's not very loud in this part of the bar so we can have a normal volume conversation.

"Josh… why did your mom call me telling me to thank my folks?" I ask him. His expression goes from lighthearted to busted pretty quick. I don't like causing that change.

"Listen, Donna…"

"Don't Listen Donna me. You only do that when you're going to blow me off." I accuse him.

"I don't blow you off!"

"Yes, you do, Joshua. Anyways, that's not what's relevant."

"And what is? And are you going to drink both of those yourself?" Josh asks, gesturing to both our drinks in my hands. I purse my lips and toss back the remainder of my wine- which is more than a bit. My two years at college taught me well. He looks thrown. I smirk and bring the whiskey sour up to my lips. He grabs the glass. His large hand covering mine should not be as much of a turn on as it is. "You hate whiskey. Also. Mine."

"Josh, just tell me what's going on!?" I ask him, giving him his drink. I watch him take a sip, clearly stalling. I don't mind too much because it gives me an excuse to stare at his lips.

"You're going to make a bigger deal out of this than it is. My mom is going to Oregon this year with her new boyfriend and it's fine. And Leo wants to send Bruno and his guys to the DNC thing instead. It's no big deal- don't look at me like that. It's just my mom was really worried about me so I don't why but I told her I was going with you to your family's ho down or whatever." He takes another long sip.

"Josh… Why didn't you just ask me?" For some reason, this doesn't seem to be the response he was expecting.

"Donna, I'm not going to impose on your family like that. Besides, it's a little weird, bringing your boss home to meet the whole family and farm." I don't bother with his farm comment.

I just dial my phone. He's looking at me suspiciously.

"Hi Mom!" Josh groans, tossing his head back. "I'm excited to see you too. Hey, you don't mind if Josh comes too, right?" Josh has started to bang his head on the high top. I pat his head just a tad condescendingly. "Great! I'll be sure to tell him!" He glares up at me.

"Donna… please for the love of my sanity!"

"Kath will be making the sweet potato casserole you love so much." His eyes light up then he takes a second and I can see him formulating his debate strategy.

"Really. I shouldn't. I doubt there are even flights…" Josh trails off. "And I was going to stay and catch up on work then watch the game with Toby."

"First of all, there are flights. There's always flights. It's Wisconsin. And second, Toby is going to Andy's family so let's not pretend you were going to do anything but sit on your ass drinking a beer and obsessing over not being able to reach any members of congress for at least a few days."

I can tell Josh knows he's been caught. I can tell he's reluctant. I can also tell that I'm apparently thirteen because I'm bringing someone home to meet my family and this time he's great man who I'm completely in love with! Who also happens to be my boss and sees me as his best pal. And for some reason, I, Donna Moss, an independent woman in her mid thirties, who works for the President of the United States, has butterflies.