Helen looks at her watch. Then whispers to me "Let's try to keep this meeting as short as possible. I'm not really that into decor stuff."
"I have a meeting with Ron Butterfield at noon, but I'd like to talk to him before Josh arrives," Helen raises her eyebrows but doesn't say anything. She's a good friend. "We can use that as an excuse if we need to. I'll just tell Gail that we only have about an hour."
Everyone is around the conference table in my office. Gail has catalogs open and a few rings of color swatches. When we sit down, Gail launches into a speech about how the First Lady's offices should be inviting and warm, an oasis of femininity in an otherwise domineering building. Helen rolls her eyes at me. I'll give Gail two more minutes to wrap up her introduction before I ask her to move on to the practical elements of this meeting.
"So Gail," I finally interrupt, "do you have some themes for us to choose between?"
"Yes, I do." She opens a sketch book.
"First- Cherry Blossoms. The walls would have large photos of the Cherry Blossoms in bloom around Washington, with pictures of the monuments in the background. We'll paint the walls a pale blue and the blue furniture that we have out there now can remain."
I see Helen is ready to agree and be done with this meeting. It does sound nice. But Gail is already pulling out another sketch.
"Second option- Photos from the Rose Garden. We'd paint the walls a paler shade of yellow. Of course, would want the florist's office to make sure there were constantly fresh roses in here.
"Do any of the options not require painting?" Helen asks.
"Well, no." Gail answers. "Those walls really do need to be freshened up. But if you really like the bright yellow, I can work something up that accommodates it. Maybe a Sunflower theme?"
"No, no. No need." Helen quickly interjects. "I'm sure we'll be able to choose from what you've already prepared."
"The last option is vintage patriotic. Muted tones of red and blue, with creams instead of white."
"All three of these designs use the furniture that is already out in the main office. I took the liberty basing my designs on what I thought were the best pieces of furniture that were in storage , and then I went ahead and had those sent up. But if you don't like these, we can start from scratch. I have a catalog of the furniture you could choose from."
"Oh no! That furniture is lovely." Helen quickly comments. I know she doesn't want to look at a catalog of furniture. Then she goes on "I like all three of those options. Unless anyone has any strong options against one of them. I think we should let Karen and Angela decide since they are spending the most time out in the main office." The office should really reflect Helen's taste, but if she doesn't care then I guess it doesn't matter who decides. Karen and Angela both look surprised. Angela quickly defers to Karen. "I like them all too."
That leaves it to Karen, who seems to take this task pretty seriously. She looks over all three designs again. Finally, she says- "If it's really up to me, I choose the Cherry Blossom design. I like the photos of Washington landmarks with the softness of the Cherry Blossoms in front of them. Plus I think the light pinks and blues are soothing." Gail nods her head in approval. I think that was her favorite too.
"Mrs. Santos, would you like me to carry that theme over into your personal office, or would you prefer to pick out something different?"
"Oh, please, carry it over."
"Yes, of course." Gail responds. I think she's picking up on the fact that Helen really couldn't care less.
"Well," Gail says. "I'd like to meet with each of you individually in your offices to discuss whether your furniture works for you. Obviously, this room needs a lot of work." She looks at me. I nod my head in agreement with her.
Just then we hear the buzzer to our suite. I stand up automatically, but Karen stands up at the same time. Ooops. Not my job to get the door. Karen smiles at me as she leaves the room.
"Can I go too?" Angela asks, "I'd like to get back to the blog."
"Yes. Why don't you each go back to your offices. Gail will be in shortly to meet with you."
As I'm speaking, Gail gets up and starts wandering through my office contemplating the space. Helen and I walk over to the fireplace to look at it with her.
"Oh that reminds me! Do you know if this is a working fireplace?" Gail looks it over.
"I think so. But we should check with building and maintenance. I don't think they allow fires in the fireplaces. There was an incident a few years ago."
I start to giggle. Helen and Gail both look at me.
"It was Josh and Sam. The heat was out and they decided to build a fire in the Mural Room. They used the decorative logs. Neither of them bothered to read the plaque that stated that the flue had been welded shut for a hundred years." I start giggling louder. "The President had to stand on the Truman balcony in his underwear!" Helen is laughing along with me. Probably imagining Matt in his underwear on the balcony. Suddenly, she stops.
"DONNA! What is that?!" She sounds horrified. I turn to look at her and see her pointing to my computer. The email is still open to the photo shopped picture of Josh and me. I shrug.
"I got another email today."
"Have you told Josh?"
I chuckle a bit. " I opened it just before you got here. Believe me, you'd know if I already told Josh."
"Did you forward it to Ron?"
"No, I sort of thought they were already getting these."
Helen hits the intercom button.
"Karen- This is Mrs. Santos. Get Ron Butterfield on the phone for me, please."
Gail looks a little taken back. I try to direct her attention back to my office.
"I'd like a sitting area over there. A couch, a couple chairs some end tables. I'm not picky. I'm sure whatever you pick will be lovely. If the Rose Garden decor would work in here that's fine. If not, whatever you choose. I'd also like at least one credenza with drawers for files. Perhaps against that wall?"
"Okay." Gail says. "I'll see what we have."
"Go ahead and meet with the others. I'm not sure what my availability is going to be for the rest of the day. As long as their needs can be met using furniture in storage, go ahead and implement it. But if any purchases need to be made, I want to discuss them first."
"Thank you, Mrs. Lyman." Gail says as she gathers her things and heads out to meet with Annabeth.
The intercom buzzes. "I have Ron Butterfield on line one."
Helen picks up the phone.
"Ron, this is Helen. Donna received another email. Should she forward it to you or do you want to come look at it?" Helen is in what I imagine is Mom-mode. No nonsense, taking care of her family. I find that I actually don't mind.
"It's another picture." She tells Ron.
"No, she hasn't told Josh." It's not like I've avoided telling him. I literally haven't had time. Not that I want to tell him. He has enough stress right now and way too much guilt over things that aren't his fault.
"Okay. We'll see you in a few minutes." Helen hangs up the phone.
"He's coming here. Are you okay?"
"Yes." I really am. The email took me off-guard but these still don't feel threatening. Sooner or later this guy's going to give up, right? I'm not going to let some loser dictate my life.
"Ron Butterfield is here." Karen announces over the intercom.
Well, that didn't take long.
"Please send him in." Helen stands up. "I'm going to leave you two alone and see if I can find something to do in my office."
"Okay. I'll stop in before I meet Josh at noon."
Ron greets Mrs. Santos as she leaves the office, then comes around behind my desk. He doesn't say anything as he looks over the email. It looks like he forwards it to someone. Then he scrolls through the inbox, looking for other emails, I suppose.
"Why didn't you call me when you first opened this?"
"Mrs. Santos had just arrived. I needed to do my job."
"I'm sure she would have understood, Donna."
"I'm not trying to keep it from you, Ron. I really would have followed up on it. We already had a meeting scheduled for noon. Plus, I thought your office was monitoring my email."
"We are, but that just means someone checks your email at the beginning and end of the day. Since he's using different computers and addresses every time, we can't just re-route the emails. The reason I want you to let me know immediately is that he's sending them from public locations. We might have a chance of catching him while he still there if we know about it immediately."
"Oh. I didn't realize that. I'm sorry. Next time I'll let you know."
"Since you're here now, let me give you my list." I hand it to him. "I'd like you to keep the last name from Josh."
Ron grimaces. I know I'm putting him in an awkward position.
"I think you'll understand once I explain."
I motion for Ron to take a seat at the conference table, and we both sit down.
"When I was nineteen I started dating an older man. I eventually dropped out of college and moved in with him. I worked and paid all our bills while he finished the last year of med school and completed his residency. We were going to get married but I eventually realized that was a bad idea. I left him and joined the Bartlet Campaign. Josh knows all that but doesn't know his name. I'd like to keep it that way. Josh just calls him Dr. Freeride."
"Well, you know, Josh has access to your FBI file. I'm sure that when you were vetted to work in the White House back in '98 you had to disclose all addresses and roommates from the last 10 years. That would include this information. Wouldn't it?" Ron looks at me intently for a few minutes.
"If Josh wanted to know this man's name- he could easily find out."
Ron's right. I guess in the back of my mind I've always known that. But it's different if I tell Josh. And there are things about that time in my life that I just want to leave in the past.
Ron interrupts my internal thoughts with another question.
"Donna, is there reason to think this man could be violent towards you?"
"Yes." I respond looking directly into Ron's eyes, but not offering any further information. In my mind, I'm begging Ron not to ask me for details.
"Donna, how do you think this is going to work without Josh finding out?"
"I'm hoping you look into it and can quickly determine that it wasn't Dr. Freeride and we never have to discuss it again. He's already consumed too much of my life. I don't want to give him even one more minute. He doesn't deserve to have someone like Josh spend even one moment of focus on him."
Ron looks at me sympathetically. But I don't really want sympathy. I've moved on with my life.
"If we have to talk about him, I'd appreciate it if you would call him Dr. Freeride. I don't like to hear or say his name outloud."
Ron puts a hand on top of mine.
"Donna, what did he do to you?"
"It just didn't work out. I haven't had any contact with him in the last 8 years. I'm sure he found a suitable wife and moved on with his life." I look at my watch and stand up. It's almost noon.
"I really don't think it's him, Ron. He wasn't one for subtlety. I'm sorry, I need to meet with Helen before our noon meeting. Can I just meet you back downstairs in a few minutes?"
Ron nods at me, and stands up then we both leave my office. It's only then that I realize that Ron didn't actually say yes to my request.