For this prompt: "Oh my god! You're in love with her!"
"Good morning!" Mike swept into the inner office with his briefcase, a coffee, and an almost manic energy.
"We'll fix that really fast," Elizabeth grumbled.
"Uh-oh. Did you start a crisis already? Before you've even eaten breakfast?" He tossed his briefcase on the couch and flopped down next to it.
"It started brewing last night and it wasn't my fault."
"If it wasn't your fault, then why am I here?"
"I need something I can leverage against Italy. And you know, right this moment, I think the more important question isn't why you're here, but why you're so happy."
"Is it cramping your style?"
"Yeah, a little, not gonna lie."
He shrugged. "I'll dial it down just for you."
"It's just weird. All of this feels weird," she said, gesturing at him. "You're being weird."
"I'm not allowed to be happy?"
"Sure you're allowed, you just never are. Smug, yes. Evilly gleeful, any day. But just... plain happy?" She looked at him suspiciously. "I don't buy it."
Mike rolled his eyes. "I never thought I'd say this, but your cynicism is a touch out of control."
"What?"
"I said it!"
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "Is this all because you're still railing my Chief of Staff? Because I've gotta say, I don't know if I like it. Either part."
"You're just crabby because Henry's been out of the country all week and you're getting horny."
"Shut up," she muttered.
"And anyway, you don't have to like it. In fact, I'd prefer it if you never thought about Nadine and I in that way ever again. It's dirty."
"Uh-huh."
"And I can neither confirm nor deny—"
"Sure, Mike."
"That's what she told me to say, anyway."
Elizabeth was still scrutinizing him. "It's not just that, though, it... it can't be just that." Now, she sounded more as if she was talking to herself than to him. "I'll tell you what you look like. You look exactly like you did twenty years ago when you showed up my door all excited to tell me that Julia was your—" Elizabeth stopped abruptly mid-sentence. Her eyes widened. "Oh my god," she said.
"What?"
"Oh my god!"
"Bess, what—"
"You're in love with her!"
He looked confused. "Julia?"
"Nadine."
He blinked. His mouth opened and closed. "I—"
"Before you say anything, know that I'll know if you're lying," she warned. When he chose to say nothing, Elizabeth leaned heavily her desk, propped up on her hands. "Oh no. Mike."
"Stop, you're getting ahead of yourself. It isn't... it isn't like that."
"It is so like that!"
"Bess..."
"How could you let this happen?"
"It's nothing," he insisted.
"It's not nothing, you let yourself..." She inhaled sharply through her nose. "You know she's no good for you."
"Well. Uh, that's... that's not what I was expecting you to say."
"Look, don't get me wrong; my respect for her is monumental. But she... she's not exactly emotionally available, is she?" Elizabeth said carefully. "She doesn't want what you want."
He sighed. He tilted his head back, studied the stucco on the ceiling. "Yeah," he said finally. "I know that."
"And?"
"And I think it's going to be a problem for me."
Elizabeth looked at him pityingly.
/
At dinner, Mike listened as Nadine went on about the Senate education bill, and all the mountains she'd moved today to leverage the votes she'd needed. He was content simply to listen, to watch her talk. The candle flickered between them on the table and suffused her in a warm glow.
He reached across the table to tangle his fingers through hers just because he could. Just because she let him. He smiled, knowing he was being indulgent, knowing that later she'd tease him relentlessly for being such a sap. But he didn't care. He liked touching her, and looking at her, and being with her.
When he failed to respond to her question, still smiling at her like an idiot, Nadine eyed him with amusement. "What are you staring at?" she said.
"Nothing," he said. "I'm just so—" in love with you. "...happy."
He couldn't say the thing he wanted to say because he knew it would scare her off. She enjoyed his company, but she didn't love him back. She wasn't in love with him the way that he was in love with her. And he was okay with that, but... he knew that sooner or later, he'd have to think really hard about what he was doing here.
Elizabeth had advised him to walk away. He would get hurt, she'd said, if he didn't.
Nadine smiled back at him just as indulgently, just as sweetly. "I'm happy too," she said, and squeezed his hand. And God, he never really stood a chance, did he? He was going to get hurt no matter what.
Maybe it would be worth it.
What was that aphorism again? To have loved and lost...
He was an idiot.