10:02am in the West Wing,

"You brought Emily coffee? You never bring me coffee?" Seth asked Aaron.

They were speeding through the west wing, attempting to do damage control in time with the wiki-leaks dumps.

Aaron smirked in response, "Do some actual damage control and next time maybe I'll bring you some."

Seth rolled his eyes, "Come on man, what's going on with you guys anyways?"

Aaron's feet stopped at his words. He looked around before pulling Seth around the corner. The hallway was empty, and Aaron's intentions were becoming clear. Aaron just looked at him for a beat, his words catching in his throat.

"Look, I'm not blind. I see the way you two look at each other. You asked her out yet or what?" Seth responded, seeing the despondent look on his face.

"We had dinner. Once. It's not like either of us have much free time." He finally said, struggling to craft an appropriate response.

Seth just rolled his eyes again, not believing a word out of his mouth, "Dude, you're chief of staff. Make it happen."

With that Seth slapped his folder to Aarons chest, smirking as he walked off.

Aaron just stared back in response, not sure why that thought hadn't occurred himself before now. Aaron's lips tilted up in response. An idea was beginning to form, he knew exactly how he was going to make time.

9:56pm in the West Wing,

Emily quite literally ran into Aaron on her way back from Seth's office. Her hands came up in response to hitting the hard plains of his chest. She felt Aaron's hands grip her arms in response, steading her. Their eyes locked, neither of them rushing to pull away.

"Emily, I was just looking for you." It was Aaron who the broke the moment, taking a step back before anyone could walk in on them.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was walking. I just assumed everyone was gone by now." She replied, taking a small step back herself.

"I'm Chief of Staff, you really thought I wouldn't be here?" He laughed, his eyes crinkling around the edges from his smile.

Emily rolled her eyes, "I meant everyone besides us."

Of course, she knew Aaron was still there. She tended to be very aware whenever he was around.

"You finished for today?" He asked, suddenly out of nowhere.

To Emily the question seemed out of place but to Aaron the question had just escaped him. He was dying to know if she was free. His plan in mind was for her after all.

"I just need to put these away," She gestured towards the folders she was carrying, "and then I'm done."

Emily smiled up at Aaron, the stress of the day beginning to fade. It was moments like this, moments where the West Wing was quiet, and she got Aaron's undivided attention that made her day so much better.

"Good. You're not in a hurry to head home, are you? I wanted to show you something."

Her brow quirked at his question, making ones of her own run through her mind. "Not at all." Was her response. Her steady gaze never wavered from his own, a moment passing between them.

Instead of replying Aaron just smiled back at her. He grabbed the files from her hand and headed towards his office, Emily following in tow.

She had no idea what was going on. She was pretty sure that whatever was about to happen had nothing to do with business though. It wasn't often that Aaron Shore went out of his way but when he did she found that it was most likely for her. Her heart warmed at the thought. Lately more and more she had been seeing Aaron's soft side and it only made her fall a bit harder for him.

"Aaron, if this is about the Hazelton thing I already spoke to Kirkman. I even withdrew my resignation per his request—"

Aaron interrupted her, pulling her directly in front of his door. He stepped to the side, one hand on the doorknob and the other gently grabbing her own as if he was scared she would pull away.

"It's not about Hazelton. This is about you… for you." He said.

The air of mystery juxtaposed the look in his eyes only made Emily's heart beat faster. She had no idea what was about to show her, but she had a feeling it had been in the planning for a while.

"Open the door," She whispered as her grip on his hand tightened.

She could feel Aarons gaze on her, making her skin burn hot as he twisted the knob and the door opened. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the conference table. The end was full of candles, creating a glow around the food and wine set up for two. It didn't take long for Emily to notice that instead of some fancy three course meal it was Chinese that was laid out on the china. She also quickly noticed that the wine was her favorite, pinot noir.

Her gaze quickly flipped back to Aaron, an unconscious smile taking over her face, "—Aaron, wow."

His smile reached his eyes. He couldn't help but notice the way the candles were reflected on her face or the happiness that seemed to radiate off her. His chest expanded. He was glad that he not only managed to pull this off but that he made her happy as well. He did have a brief worry that this was going to blow up in his face.

"Dinner?" He asked.

Emily smiled up at once more before walking in. She let Aaron help her into her chair before taking a sip of her wine as he sat down across from her.

"This is amazing… so amazing Aaron, Thank you." Her heart felt like it was running a marathon. She wasn't an idiot, she realized that this was a date. The perfect date.

"You know, Seth said something earlier that got me thinking." He answered, his fingers twisting around his glass.

"Yeah?" Emily asked, hanging onto his every word.

"He asked me why I hadn't taken you on a date yet."

"Oh." Was all she could get out. Honestly, she had wondered the same thing.

"I blamed it on our jobs, that we see more of the West Wing than we do anywhere else… but he made he made me realize that, well, I'm the Chief of Staff and you're Special Advisor. Together we can make anything happen."

If Emily thought she had it bad for Aaron Shore before it wouldn't even hold a handle to her feelings for him in this moment. His words had pierced straight to her heart. She felt like her veins were on fire by how hard her heart was working.

Her brain was working overtime to come up with a good response. No words seemed good enough to match his own.

"I like that word, 'together.'" She finally settled on her, her nerves buzzing.

Aaron's smiled lit up the room, his heart rate matching her own. He let his gaze settle on hers for a moment before he reached across to grab chopsticks from the middle of the table. He handed Emily a pair and they both began to dig into their meal, smiles bright and hopes high. Maybe their demanding jobs didn't mean that they couldn't have each other after all.