Josh stood on the steps of Donna's apartment, staring at the door. He had a paper grocery bag cradled in each arm and another bag in each fist. The new kid at the deli had put everything in as many bags as possible. He jabbed at the buzzer with his knuckles. The metal was cold and he was losing his grip on the small bag in his right hand, the one from the pharmacy.

"Hello?" Donna's voice, thick and sleepy, came crackling through the speaker.

"It's me." Josh said. "Let me in."

The pharmacy bag ripped. A box of cold medicine tumbled down the steps. "Shit!"

He carefully set the other bags down and rescued the bruised box from the bottom step. At least it hadn't fallen directly into the snow. He slid the box into his coat pocket and bent down to pick up the other bags.

One of the deli bags was unbalanced and started to lean slowly to one side. "No no no no!" Before he got a hold of it, it tipped onto one side. A container of soup popped open and a puddle of broth spread across the concrete. "Dammit!"

"Josh?" Donna's voice crackled through the speaker. "Door's open. Come on up."

He looked around. He hoped the puddle of soup wouldn't freeze. He gathered the bags and climbed the steps to her 4th floor walk up.

"Hi." He said breathlessly when she opened the door. "So, good news is I brought us food. Bad news is I dropped half of it."

Donna sighed. "You got my drugs, right?"

He set his bags down on the table then pulled the dented box of cold medicine from his pocket.

Donna eyed it suspiciously. "Did you buy this or steal it from a street corner?"

Josh took his coat off and laid it on a chair. "I dropped that too, but I didn't smuggle it. I promise." He unloaded the other bags. More medicine, tissues, sandwiches and another container of soup. "How are you feeling?"

"I have an ear infection like I'm 8 years old." She whined. She wandered into the living and came back with a Bugs Bunny coffee mug with a tangle of tea bags hanging on the edge. "I went to the doctor this morning. He looked in my ears and said 'yikes'. Yikes, Josh."

Josh grimaced. "Yuck." He tossed her another medicine bottle. "Here." They moved seamlessly around each other. She took her medicine. He went to the kitchen for plates.

Donna curled up on the couch with her bare feet tucked under her. Her eyes and nose were red and she wore sweats and a faded University of Wisconsin soccer tee.

"I didn't know you played soccer." He said.

She looked down at her shirt. "Not me. An ex."

"Dr. Freeride?"

"No, guy before that. A summer thing right after I graduated high school."
"Oh." He said. "And you kept the shirt?"

"It's soft." She said. He handed her part of a sandwich and a mug of soup. "I have bowls."

He sat down at the other end of the couch with his own food and kicked his shoes off. "You don't eat soup out of coffee cups when you're sick?" he said.

She took a bite of her soup and shook her head. "No." She said. "Is that a thing?"

Josh smiled a little, revealing deep dimples. "When I was a kid, we always did soup in mugs when we were sick because then we could drink the soup juice. Broth, uh, I called it 'soup juice'."

Donna giggled. "That's adorable." She said. "Thank you, by the way. I haven't said that yet."

"Of course. No problem."

"Are you being nice to Jason?" She asked.

Josh rolled his eyes and recounted the day's misadventures. Another full night of work awaited him after dinner.

"Sorry, I didn't warn him that part of the job includes keeping your foot out of your mouth."

"You were only 22 when you came to work for me, right?" he rubbed his eyes. "You had other annoying qualities, but you weren't incompetent."

"You can be a pill to work for." She said. "You're lucky I'm so used to your quirks."

He started to defend himself but his phone rang. "This is Josh Lyman. What's going on?"

"Where the fresh hell are you?" Leo bellowed.

"I, uh, I took a dinner break. I'll be back soon."

"Get here now." he said. "Your NEA negotiations were supposed to start ten minutes ago. I've got-"

"No, no, Leo, they're at 6."

"Tell that to all the nice people who were here at 5."

Josh stuffed his feet into his shoes. "I'm on my way." He snapped his phone shut.

"What's the matter?" Donna looked up from her half-eaten food.

"I've gotta go fire Jason." He jumped up and pulled his coat on.

"Oh, Josh, he's young." Donna said. "You've just gotta be patient with him."

"Leo's not in the mood to be patient with me!" He said. "I've got a roomful of pissed off teachers ready to give me detention for being tardy."

"Break out that boyish charm."

"My actual detention record says teachers are immune to that." He picked up his backpack, leaving a mess of take-out wrappers and soup bowls on her kitchen table.

"Sorry I can't help." She said as he opened the door. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Hell no you won't." He turned around. "You're no good to me dead."

She leaned her head back against the couch. "We work for the president. World keeps spinning."

"Get some sleep!" Josh called as he slammed the door shut behind him.

XXXXXX

Thanks for all the love so far! I'm new to posting here, but not at all new to writing. I used to be pretty active on a Jonas Brothers fanfic site way back in 2009-10ish. (Plus I just graduated college with an English degree!) Probably one more chapter to this one. Also check out my other Josh short! -Em