"I'm out of here," Josh says, looking over to Donna who was sitting at her desk.
"You've got to see Sam." Donna tells him, secretly a little delighted that she might be making him a little late for his plans.
"I'm seeing Sam, and then I'm out of here." Josh corrects, turning the corner towards his office, with Donna tailing him.
"Are you going to behave yourself tonight?" Donna asks, concern seeping into the tone she was attempting to keep even.
"It's a bachelor party." Josh says by way of answer.
"I'm saying-" Donna starts, but Josh cuts her off.
"I can hold my liquor," Josh defends before she has to and Donna almost laughs.
"No you can't," she scoffs.
"I can drink with the best of them!" He argues.
"You can't drink with any of them, Josh."
"I'm in politics, okay? I can drink." Josh says, as if this convoluted reasoning makes sense.
"You have a very sensitive system." Donna reminds him.
"I wish you'd stop telling people that. It makes me sound like an idiot."
"You're gonna have two drinks and spend the rest of the weekend sleeping it off," Donna warns him gently.
"And this is the first time in a long time I've had the opportunity to spend the weekend doing anything but working, is my point."
"Are there going to be strippers?" Donna asks, almost pouting, although she tries not to.
"Nah," Josh assures her.
"Really?" Donna says, unconvinced.
"Yeah," Josh says.
"Tell me the truth."
"There aren't going to be strippers there. Men don't like that anymore."
"Men don't like naked women anymore?" Donna asks with a playful leer, emboldened by the emptiness of the bullpen.
"No, we still like naked women a lot," Josh smirks, pulling her into an embrace and daring to let his hands rest on her ass. He only chanced it for a moment, however, pulling away and adding "It's looking at them in a room full of your friends that makes you feel a little-"
"Sleazy?" Donna asked with a pointed glance.
"Uncomfortable," Josh agreed.
Donna left the boys to their shop-talk, but ran into them again just in time to hear Sam tell Josh about his meeting the next day
"You need to be here at ten tomorrow morning," she told him with a grin, hoping to dampen his night a little bit. So she didn't want him drunk and in strip clubs. Who could blame her?
"We have to be here at 10 tomorrow morning," Josh corrects her.
"Why me?" Donna asked with a pout.
"Cause you work for me," Josh answered succinctly.
"I have things to do tomorrow morning, Josh. It was my Saturday too!" The pout intensified.
"What things?" Josh asked, wondering what minutia of her life he could possibly not be privy to.
"I have to go shopping," she says, knowing it was a lame excuse even before the words tumbled carelessly out of her mouth.
"For what?"
"Whatever!" Donna countered weakly. "It's Saturday!"
"Ten minutes," Josh tells her. "When it's over, I'll buy you some shoes."
"Really?" Donna smiles, moving away before he could change his mind.
They were two of the only people left in the West Wing last night, and Donna left, trading Josh's promise to be safe for a quick kiss before she headed out the door. Josh must have left for the bachelor party, and caught up to the rest of his friends as far as drunkenness fairly quickly: she knew he had a sensitive system. Only two hours after she'd left the White House, her cell phone rang. Josh.
"Hey," She whispered into the phone line conspiratorially, as if she might be caught, although the only other person around was her roommate, who was surely asleep and wouldn't care even if she were awake.
"Hey," Josh said, a little bit impaired.
"You're drunk." Donna said, not a question.
"Yeah," Josh confirmed.
"You should go home and go to bed, Josh."
"Wanna go to bed with you," he slurred, somehow still sincere.
"A photographer is probably tailing you right now as it is. Do you really think coming to my place is the best idea?"
"I really, really love you, Donna." He said, majorly drunk and a little guilty.
It occurs to her that this is the first time he's said it; they've felt it, sure, understood it since the moment they locked eyes in a hotel in Manchester and somehow both knew that there was no waiting four or eight years, that they were inevitable, that they were drawn to each other like planets stuck in each other's orbits. It should probably be more romantic, she thinks, but this just fits the pattern they've established of heavy words lightly thrown and big moves in small spaces.
"That's not, uh." Josh interrupts her train of thought. "I won't take it back, but I had wanted to do it with a little more woo than that," He explains.
"I really, really love you too, Joshua."
"Yeah?" He says, not believing her, and she's surprised even though she knows she shouldn't be.
"Yeah," She tells him, smiling into the phone. "I'm gonna go to bed now. You should, too. I'll see you at the office in the morning."
"Goodnight, Donna."
"Goodnight, Josh."
Donna got to work an hour before their 10AM meeting, hoping to beat Josh to the office and get a little work done without the distraction of his neediness: it was a part of him that she loved, sure, but it made it hard to get work done. She put her bag and coat down on her desk and opened the door to Josh's office, heading in to clean up whatever mess Josh had left the night prior. Instead, the mess was propped in front of the desk, in the form of Josh himself, his clothes disgusting and wrinkling more and more by the second as he slept.
"Josh," she whispered to herself in disbelief. He snored in response. "Josh!" she said a little louder. He wakes with a jolt, looking up at her and revealing the red thong around his neck. Donna feels her stomach turn. He looks up at her, obviously too hungover to even muster up a grin.
"Hi," He says.
"What are you doing?" Donna asked incredulously.
"What?" Josh asked, wincing at her volume.
"Did you spend the night here?"
"No, just since a couple of hours ago." He clarified, wincing again and rubbing at his eyes.
"The party went to morning?" She asked, wondering what had happened after their phone call. Well, she could assume the new neck accessory was a part of it.
"Yup," he confirmed.
"Why didn't you go home?" Donna asked.
"What?" He asked in response.
"Why didn't you go home after the party?" She clarified.
"I couldn't find my keys, or remember where I lived."
"Josh," She complained as he pulled the panties off of his head.
"I think there might have been strippers there," he admits, looking up at her apologetically.
"Do you remember anything that happened last night?" She asked gently. He shook his head before standing up. "Josh!" She exclaimed.
"Donna," He said, so softly that it almost scared her. "You… you really want to speak very softly." Oh, she could hit him. She could hit him right now and not feel bad about it.
"How did you get like this?" She asked, looking over his suit in disbelief.
"People were pouring champagne over each other." Oh, so he remembers that, but he doesn't remember confessing his love for her? Typical man.
"And then wrestling in dirt?" She asked sardonically.
"I can't remember, but it's certainly not out of the question."
"You have a meeting," she informs him dryly.
"Yeah, I know. I'm not, you know. Uh, what was the meeting again?" He asked eloquently.
"Joey Lucas about O'Dwyer," She reminded him faithfully.
"Yes," He says, remembering.
"Josh," She says again.
"I'm fine," He tells her.
"You can't wear those clothes," She tells him in response, plugging her nose.
"I'm fine," He repeats, apparently not seeing her visceral reaction.
"Trust me." Donna begs.
"They're the only clothes I got." Josh says.
"I'll find some other clothes," Donna says, starting to walk off.
"Fine," Josh says.
"Are you going to listen to me from now on?" Donna seethes.
"I'm not even listening to you now." He mutters under his breath, but Donna hears him. She rolls her eyes before smiling wickedly and yelling back.
"I said are you going to listen-"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." Josh yells back, cringing at the pain in his head.
She smirks as she walks away, hearing the dull thud of his head making contact with his desk. She returns a little while later with the only fresh clothes she can find, and a cup of coffee.
"Josh," she says, more gently this time.
"Huh?"
"Here." She says, putting the bright yellow monstrosity on his desk.
"What's that?" He asks.
"It's Sam's foul weather gear. Drink this." She said, putting the mug on his desk as well.
"Coffee?" He asks.
"It's strong. Drink it all.
God, this woman is a saint, Josh thinks. He doesn't deserve her, he thinks as she walks out and he takes a sip of the coffee. The room temperature coffee. He nearly gags, and the coffee falls out of his mouth. Well, his shirt was already ruined anyways. That's more on par with what he'd deserved this morning.
"It's from yesterday, so it might not be hot anymore," Donna says calmly as she walks back in.
"I'm sorry about last night, Donna," Josh says, reaching for her hand. She allows him to take it.
"I warned you." She tells him softly.
"I know you did. I should have listened to you," he says, pulling her into his lap. She drapes the weather gear over him before she sits. She's not ruining her skirt with whatever was on his pants.
"Do you really not remember anything that happened last night?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Not even the strippers," he assured her, and she reminds herself to chuckle, because she knows he's making a joke, but the fact that he told her he loves her and he can't even remember it is all but breaking her heart. "What time is this person coming?" Josh asks.
"Forty minutes," Donna says, getting up from his lap. "Put this on," she says, handing him the rest of Sam's gear.
"I'm not wearing that," Josh protests.
"There's a one-hour cleaners on Connecticut." Donna explains.
"He's getting here in forty minutes," Josh reminds her.
"Zuzu will do it in half an hour," Donna says.
"Who's Zuzu?" Josh asks.
"The guy from the dry cleaners, Josh." Donna explains as if it were obvious. "Change your clothes!"
"His name is Zuzu?"
"Change your clothes!"
Zuzu was not able to do it within 30 minutes. Donna walked in on what seemed to be the tense beginnings of Josh's meeting with Joey Lucas, and a woman who she presumed to be his assistant? That was, until Josh introduced them properly and Donna realized that she was in fact a she, that she was deaf, and that Kenny was her interpreter. So, they'd fumbled a bit at the beginning, and poor Joey and Kenny got stuck in the midst of a national crisis. But they'd gotten back on track, Joey had gotten a fun little tour, and Donna got to spend the rest of her Saturday trying to forget that the man she loved had told her that he loved her too.