28: Late Night at the Oasis

Eventually they stumbled across a pleasant little late night coffee joint, the Coffee Oasis. Donna looked around at the palm fronds and bright photographs adorning the walls with some delight.

"And you say I never take you anywhere tropical," smiled Josh. He slipped his jacket over the back of the nearest chair. "Listen, I've gotta just hit the men's room, if you want to go order-"

"Nice try, Joshua."

"Huh?"

"You're not tricking me into bringing you coffee, Josh. Order it yourself."

"Hang on. You won't even get coffee that you didn't have to make, somebody else will bring to our table, and I'm going to pay for?"

"It's the principle of the thing, Josh."

Josh ordered them both coffees, and the friendly if tired-looking waitress didn't show the slightest sign of recognising him as she took their order. For once, Josh didn't seem at all put out by that. Donna also felt more relaxed than she had in days.

Here we are. For once, we're not the Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant. We're just Josh and Donna, drinking coffee.

There seemed to be a whole lot more 'Josh and Donna' time now that she was a vampire slayer. She met Josh's eyes across the table, and they shared a smile. Silent smiling; when had they started doing that? She had always loved bantering with Josh more than anything else... but these new comfortable silences were even better.

They talked about everything, and nothing in particular. For once there was no mention of Republicans, or meetings or reporters or votes or national emergencies. They just chatted, with all the quirkiness of their usual banter but a more relaxed, mellow atmosphere. Josh ordered a slice of cheesecake and they shared it with two forks. At one point her heart almost stopped beating as he casually reached across to wipe a smudge of it from her cheek.

Apparently their waitress hadn't missed the aura of warmth that had settled over the two of them as they sat sipping coffee together. "You guys look pretty cosy; big date tonight?" she asked as she rang up their bill.

"We're on our honeymoon," said Josh, and they both giggled.


Josh arrived at her house the following morning to give her a lift to work. Her car was still behaving erratically, and for some reason she just couldn't make herself care about getting it fixed.

CJ fixed them both with a stern gaze as they arrived together. "You two were out late last night," she said in a very neutral tone.

"Josh got tired from all the driving. We stopped for coffee," Donna explained.

From the knowing look CJ gave her, she wondered if the significance of coffee was maybe not such a private joke as she'd once thought.

She was almost not surprised when the assistant brigade cornered her at the coffee machine. It was becoming a regular fix for them. Tune in now for the latest installment of the Josh and Donna show!

"What now?" she asked breezily as she found her favourite mug.

"What d'you mean?" asked Cathy fake-innocently.

"Oh, come on, you've all got the look. So 'fess up. What little bit of hot gossip am I starring in this week?"

"My, somebody's cheerful this morning," smirked Ginger. "Got anything to do with, I don't know, a certain trip to LA? I hear a certain somebody took you to see a movie." They leaned in close to get her reply.

Good God, do these people know everything? Somebody on the senior staff had to be keeping them informed. Her money was on Sam.

"Actually, I took him," she said smugly. "I wasn't about to spend my one day in LA going over the latest tax figures."

"And I still didn't get to go," grumbled Margaret good-naturedly. They were all too busy gleefully digging for details to get jealous.

"I heard you went to see that new romantic comedy. You know, the one about the restaurant owners," prompted Bonnie. Donna was startled. How could anyone have known which movie they saw, unless...?

Josh has been talking to Sam. She tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a smile. Josh has been telling Sam all about that 'sappy girly movie' he didn't want to watch with me.

"We did. It was good." She tried to school her face into a more professional expression. "Josh complained because there were no exploding cars."

Nobody was fooled. "It all sounds so ro-man-tic," drawled Cathy. Donna shrugged nonchalantly.

"Would have been even better on DVD," she said enigmatically, and swept away.