THE BIRTHDAY
Thirty-Eight. No, it's true, it wasn't exactly a milestone birthday, but it was the last one Emily would spend as White House Chief of Staff. They had finally started their last year of mandate, and every single day was a last day for something. It felt good, but it felt weird in the meantime. Three days ago, they had held their last Correspondents' Dinner, almost a month ago, they had their last Easter Egg Roll.
It was little "lasts", but still, when you spend seven years in the same building, working days and nights with the same persons, all these lasts mean something. And though they had never really celebrated birthdays of staffers, they had decided to celebrate every one of the senior advisers' birthdays in this last year. It had started with Seth, in January, Emily was next in April, and it would continue with Kendra in August, Aaron in November and Lyor in December.
For these days of celebrations, they had set rules: First, they would eat lunch together. If possible, they would try and make it to the Italian restaurant at the corner of the street, and if they couldn't they would just eat at the cafeteria of the White House. Second, buying presents was not allowed. Third, they would talk about their first memories with the staffer who was celebrating their birthday, about what they would imagine he or she could do after the White House, and what was the most stupid thing he or she had done in all these years in the West Wing. it had gone pretty well with Seth, they had all laughed, shamed him a little, and given him their ideas about what the future may hold for him.
Recently, as the rhythm had been a little bit less hectic, Emily and Aaron were managing to go to work in the same time most of the days. This morning was a one of these mornings. Emily woke up later than Aaron, and before she could realize that her husband was not in their bed, the nice smell of coffee was filling the room.
"Breakfast in bed, every birthday should start off on the right foot" Aaron said.
Emily stretched out and smiled as Aaron was putting a tray full of delicious food on their bed. As she sat up, he leaned to kiss her.
"Happy birthday honey"
"Thanks babe. Did you wake up earlier to do all that?" Emily asked.
"Not that early, don't worry for me."
"Are the girls still asleep?"
"Apparently, I can't hear anyone, so I guess…"
"Well, stay in bed with me then, for once we don't have an emergency at the White House, let's just enjoy this morning."
Aaron smiled and sat next to his wife, who gave him a piece of her pancakes. They ate breakfast together, laughing and cuddling, enjoying a nice morning. It was fore sure early, the sun had barely come up, but it was still better than being woken up by an emergency at the White House. After their breakfast, Emily pushed the tray on the side and they continued cuddling and kissing. Things were starting to heat up, they were kissing eagerly and their hands were roaming on each other's bodies when they heard a little voice in the other room.
"Mommy! Papá!"
Both Emily and Aaron laughed.
"I knew it…" Aaron said. "I don't even know how I imagined we would have time for that before their wake-ups…"
Aaron stood up and went to Cami's bedroom to pick her up from her bed. She wasn't yet getting out of her bed alone, Aaron and Emily were trying to push back as much as they could the day they would buy her a toddler bed, but they knew it would come soon. They weren't ready for it. It had already been a huge step when they had gotten that new bed for Inez, and they couldn't quite believe Cami would have hers soon too. Aaron came back to their bedroom with Cami in his arms and he murmured something to her ear before letting her jump on her parents' bed.
"Happy birthday Mommy!"
Cami jumped in Emily's arms and kissed her cheek, held tight by her mom. Suddenly, a little sleepyhead appeared at the doorway of their bedroom, her cuddly toy in her hand. Rubbing her eyes and not really awake, the little girl was trying to shove her long dark curls away from her face and cuddled against her father. He murmured something to her ear too, and still groggy, she walked to her mom and climbed on the bed and cuddled her.
"Happy birthday Mommy!"
Emily's heart was full. Her day couldn't have started in a better way. She stayed in bed, cuddling with her daughters while Aaron was preparing breakfast for the girls, and in that moment she knew her life was perfect.
An hour later, Emily and Aaron were on their way to the White House after having dropped their daughters to daycare, and for whatever reason, Emily was jumped over by several colleagues who wished her a happy birthday. She was surprised, she didn't even know they knew when her birthday was, but it felt good knowing that despite the job, the building and the institution, the White House felt like another family. Yes, it was hard to work all these long hours, but they had bonded in a way that they never thought would be possible.
At lunchtime, the five senior advisers managed to leave the West Wing to go to the Italian place. They were all laughing and chatting when they started their turns of saying things about the birthday girl, just like they had done three months ago with Seth.
"Okay, I'm starting." Seth said. "My first memory with you goes back to the night of the bombing I think. I remember seeing you in the West Wing, completely lost and trying to find Kirkman. I remember that you were still calling him Tom… Something that has not happened in the last seven years or so… And I was wondering who you were, because you were so freaked out, like most of us I guess, but you were really showing it, and I actually wondered if you would make it here. What about you Lyor?"
"Oh my!" Lyor exclaimed. "My first memory of Emily Rhodes… That was my Senior year at Georgetown, you were a freshman but you were already taking 300-level classes in political science. I remember that cause on the first day of class, the professor asked which year we were, and you were, not really surprisingly, the only freshman. And everybody turned around to look at you, and you were so shy with your glasses and your ponytail, freakout out with the attention…"
The five colleagues laughed at the confession. No, Emily wasn't really shy, so imagining an 18-year-old Emily arriving at Georgetown was quite something.
"I think you've always impressed me Emily…" Kendra continued. "I don't know, my first meeting with you, I was still working for the Senate Homeland Committee, that's my very first memory of you. You were sitting right opposite me, right by Aaron, and you were just so sure of yourself… It's almost as if everything was easy for you."
"So, the total opposite of my first memory then?" Lyor teased, making them laugh.
"What about you Aaron, your first memory of the woman that became your wife…" Seth asked.
Aaron chuckled, thinking about it.
"It was when she started working for Kirkman at HUD. She was already fierce and tenacious. I think it was ten years ago maybe? It seems like a long time ago. I had started working for Langdon something like two weeks before, and I wasn't even Deputy Chief of Staff yet, I was deputy to the deputy." Aaron rolled his eyes. "And so, one day Keller was sick, so I replaced him and went with Langdon to this meeting between Richmond and Kirkman, and Emily was there. She was biting like a bulldog, and even before I could say something to her, she glanced at me with this look she has, trying to show me that she wouldn't let anyone step on her toes. And it made me laugh, because the girl didn't even know me, but she already hated me…"
"I didn't hate you!" Emily defended herself.
Aaron raised an eyebrow.
"Em… I'm sure you did. I don't know what you were thinking about me, but you didn't like me…"
"Okay, yeah. That's right…"
"What was the first word that came to your mind when you met Aaron?" Kendra asked.
"Obnoxious…" Emily admitted.
"Are you serious?" Aaron exclaimed, shocked and making their colleagues laugh.
"Well, maybe I was a little harsh, but you weren't the nicest guy on the planet with me…" Emily said.
The discussion continued like that, they were still chatting about Emily, her days at the White House, and the rest. And then, they were at the point where they were supposed to tell the stupidest thing they had done at the White House. Everyone of them taking turn, they were shaming Emily for leaking information to the press, or for arriving at work early in a morning and still hangover from the night before. And when it was Aaron's turn to speak, he shared a knowing look with Emily, they both you know what was the stupidest thing they had done in the White House, but they couldn't share it.
"Firing these staffers, when you were pregnant with Inez. I think that wasn't your smartest move…" Aaron said, finding something else to share.
"Wait, wait!" Seth exclaimed. "That's not what you wanted to say. I'm not buying it. You shared that look with Emily, you wanted to say something, you smirked, you both know what you wanted to say, but you didn't say it…"
"What? No!" Emily reacted a little too quickly.
"What makes you say that?" Aaron asked, trying to keep a good poker face.
"I know that look. I've seen you sharing that look many times in all these years. It's always when you have these inside jokes and things that only you two can get…" Seth continued.
"Oh! My! God!" Kendra suddenly exclaimed. "I know what Aaron wanted to say! Ewwww! Why did you do that?" she continued with a look of disgust.
And then, it clicked for Lyor and Seth too.
"No way… You didn't…" Seth said, shaming them.
"Ok, tell me exactly where you did that, because I do not want to sit there ever again…" Lyor continued, disgusted.
And though Aaron was really making efforts to play dumb, Emily started blushing, completely losing her composure. They knew their cover was over.
"When? Do you do that often?" Seth continued.
"And I thought that a certain former president had taught us all something…." Lyor said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Lyor! Let them answer… I wanna know where I cannot sit anymore."
Aaron and Emily shared a look, wondering which one of them should tell the truth. They were so ashamed they just wanted to dig a hole and hide forever.
"It happened once. I promise it happened only once" Emily said. "It was late at night, nobody was there except for Aaron and I…"
"Where?" Seth asked again, cutting her short.
"On my desk…" she admitted, covering her face with her hand.
"I will never see that desk the same way, ever again…" Kendra said.
"So you're telling us that you persuaded Aaron to have sex, on your desk, in the West Wing, one day late at night?" Seth asked, raising an eyebrow.
Emily looked at Aaron, wanting him to help her, but he raised his hands in protestation.
"Hey! You could support me here!" she exclaimed.
"You know very well it's all your fault…" Aaron answered, leaving her to her fate.
Emily put her hand on her face, so ashamed, she didn't know what to say and it was making everybody laugh.
"We want the whole story now Em…" Seth said.
"Well, maybe not the whole story… but…" Lyor corrected.
"It was a long time ago, before we got married. And I had this fantasy, it kept popping in my head, I don't even know why. And we had this deal to stay professional in the White House, but one night, I mean it had been a very long day, so for whatever reason we had drunk a glass of scotch in my office. Aaron knew about this fantasy that I had, and so, I think we were a little tipsy, and I just convinced him to do this…"
"You're kinda embellishing the story here Em…" Aaron said.
"Thanks for throwing me under the bus…" Emily answered with a death glare.
"So, what's the real story?" Kendra asked, now curious too.
"She was sitting in her chair and I was sitting on the edge of her desk, and she literally started undressing me just like that. I didn't even have the time to react or say no. And it was at the beginning of her relation, so I mean, even if we had this deal to stay professional, when you have your girlfriend undressing you right here right now and you know it's her fantasy and you know that nobody is in the building anymore…"
"Yeah, cause you always say it's my fault, but I didn't need much to convince you…" Emily said, trying to shame him.
"Anyway" Aaron said, changing the subject while everybody was laughing. "We got very close to getting caught by the janitor, like I don't know, 15 seconds close maybe, we were finishing getting dressed when she knocked and opened the door."
The five colleagues started laughing even more.
Yes, thirty-eight wasn't really a milestone, but it definitely was a birthday Emily would not forget.
