A/N: I promise… it will start to feel more like the show! Stick with me! (For like the next 10 chapters… I promise it'll be worth it!)

It had been quite a month for Elizabeth. Starting off with her divorce, followed by three weeks of learning to cope with that, then a weekend of moving Ali into college and being accused of murdering a diplomat.

It was Monday morning and no one likes Mondays, but she welcomed the possibility that today, this week, or even this month would just be slightly better than the last. She would always have her children, her work, her heart, and hope.

She couldn't believe how warm it was. It was the end of August but she didn't expect heat like this so early in the morning. She grabbed her blazer to wear if absolutely necessary in meetings later that day, grabbed her coffee off the counter and headed out to her motorcade.

"Morning Blake!" She greeted her assistant who was already in the car waiting for her.

"Good morning, ma'am." He responded immediately, not showing any emotion.

"Why the sad face bud? I thought I was the one who was supposed to be mopey." She said to him, acknowledging his not pleasant but not upset tone.

"There was a delivery for you this morning at the state building…" he began. Her mind began to wonder… what could have possibly ended up at the state building. She couldn't think of any accidental amazon purchases which meant it could only be bad. "It's not bad, don't worry! Just large and unexpected."

"Did someone send me a live animal? It's always flattering but not really practical." She joked with him. Well, partially joked.

"No ma'am." He answered still emotionless.

"Well I guess you're going to be no fun in this guessing game." She joked again as her motorcade pulled up to it's appropriate stop.

Blake just shot her a look and continued to look at his phone for their elevator trip up to the seventh floor.

The doors opened with a high pitch ding, one that she had come to hate because it meant her few seconds of peace were likely over for a bit. As the doors opened further, she saw members of her staff waiting for her.

"That's never a good sign." She told them in greeting as she walked past them and towards her office.

"Good morning ma'am…" Daisy began, trying to walk fast enough to keep up with her boss. "We may need to set aside a little time this afternoon for you to put out a statement."

"About what?" Elizabeth asked, not taking her focus off her office door that she was opening.

As she opened the door she saw her desk and easily a quarter of her office full of pink and white flowers. The arrangements were full of light pink hydrangeas, one of her favorites, and white calla lilies, her other favorites. There were perfectly placed hydrangeas, peonies, and calla lilies filling her office with an equally as beautiful and powerful floral scent.

Her jaw slowly and slightly dropped as she scanned the room. She had never been one for flowers, sure they were beautiful and she loved to receive them but rarely did they take her breath away and mesmerize her like these did.

She quickly turned around to her staff "who sent these?" She questions, obviously in shock.

"At about 5:45AM the secret service received a message from a Mr. J. Madison Dominick regarding a floral delivery for you." Nadine answered.

"Dominick… why do I know that name?" She questioned to her staff as she walked into her office in awe.

"Mr. Dominick was the sustainable bottling CEO you were trying to fit into your schedule at the UNGA." Blake told her.

It was slowly coming back to her. "Oh yea, his company makes and distributes plastic water bins to tribes around the world. They're made out of old shoes aren't they?" She was partially thinking out loud, partially waiting on confirmation.

"Yes ma'am. They've been working on partnering with the UN for some time now." Blake reassured her that she was correct.

"Can you get me Mr. Dominick on the phone? I'd like to personally… thank him!" She had finally made her way behind her desk and was still in shock at the flowers around her. "Let's all meet in the conference room in 10 minutes."

With that her staff left her office and she began attempting to rework the placement of the many vases in attempt to get to her desk. She got just enough of them off to be able to see her computer keyboard and her phone when her phone rang.

"Yes Blake." She answered after seeing his name on her phone.

"I have Mr. Dominick ready for you." He waited for her inaudible agreement to take the call. "Sending him over now."

A couple seconds later Elizabeth began to greet the person on the other end of the phone. "Mr. Dominick! Happy Monday morning!"

"Yes, happy Monday morning to you as well, Madam Secretary! Did your special delivery happen to brighten your day?"

"Yes, it did, thank you so much, Mr. Dominick!" She responded.

"Please, call me Jake!" He instructed her happily.

"Yes, Jake, thank you so much for the flowers! They are stunning!" She wasn't exactly sure how to have this conversation. Gifts from her office had only been delivered by her ex husband or other heads of state with an obvious intention. This was unchartered territory for her.

"I wish we could have met at the UNGA." He told her. He genuinely meant it and she could tell just by the sound of his voice.

"I do too! I'm so sorry, that whole time got a little crazy, as I'm sure you saw!"

"I did! I couldn't help but imagine how hard today was going to be. You had quite the weekend and really quite the month. I understand your divorce was finalized last month and I just wanted you to know, I know how that feels, and if you ever need anything I've been in your shoes." He was incredibly sweet, there was a gentle kindness to his voice.

"Thank you so much, Jake." She wasn't sure how else to respond. They had never actually met, though they had communicated often over the past few months.

"I'm going to be in town Wednesday and Thursday, I was wondering if you might be free to grab dinner?" Elizabeth was a bit shocked, she obviously was not ready to date just a month after her divorce and didn't really know what to say.

He could tell she was a little shocked so he quickly chimed in again "it's not a date! Just two people with personal investments in ensuring others have clean drinking water, getting dinner."

She was silent for another few seconds. In all reality, what did she have to lose? "Ah… ok!" She was surprised that she responded with a smile.

"Great! What night works better? I can even stay until Friday if that would be better." She didn't realize he wasn't one of those people that would tell her 'his people would work with her people.'

"Thursday actually works great! Will your staff be contacting mine?" They were already thinking alike.

"If that's what's easiest for you, I can do that!" She didn't have to know that he would be the one contacting her staff.

"Yea that would be great! They know my schedule and have all the info that the secret service is going to be wanting from you too. Hope you don't mind a little quiet company at dinner!" She figured he knew the secret service would be with them but wanted to make it clear.

"Great! I'll just reach out to Blake and get it worked out! I'll see you on Thursday, Madam Secretary."

She felt her heart skip a beat.

"I'll see you on Thursday, Jake!"

She hung up the phone, leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. She wasn't dating yet, this wasn't dating, this was a business dinner.

But it felt like a date, and she was shockingly excited that it felt like a date.

As Elizabeth got her head together in her office, Blake was busy getting the details from Jake about their date.

"Yes sir, it looks like 7:00PM on Thursday would work from a work schedule standpoint. Let me clear it with the secretary." Blake told the man on the other end of the phone.

"Oh I just spoke with her! That's perfectly fine!"

"Yes I'll just confirm it with her again. Can I put you through to her secret service detail? They'll want to get more information, run your background check, all of those details." Blake asked even though he wasn't really asking, he was telling.

"Yea that's fine! I actually have a quick question first…" this caught Blake by surprise. "Would it be too much to bring her flowers to dinner, too?"

Blake really didn't know how to answer… mainly because he wasn't sure her opinion on multiple, sure to be lavish, floral arrangements from someone other than her ex husband. "I think she would be happy without the flowers."

"Ok thank you!" Jake responded on the other line before Blake quickly put him through to her secret service, without warning.

He took a second to gather his thoughts before getting up from his desk and walking into the secretary's. He rationalized going into her office rather than calling her because he thought she might need help with the flowers, at least that's what he told himself. He just wanted to actually see that she wanted to go through with this.

"Ma'am." Blake said while knocking on her cracked office door.

"Yes, Blake?" She answered while looking up from her computer. He was shocked to see that she had cleared all the flowers off her desk and made a walking path through the ones placed next to it.

"Mr. Dominick did confirm dinner on Thursday at 7:00PM, I wanted to make sure that worked for you?" He was ready to observe exactly how she gave her answer. He was going to dissect it completely whether it was that deep or not.

"Yea, that's fine!" She answered with a bit of a smile.

Blake was just as shocked as she was, but maybe she needed some positive shocking moments in her life.