She sat at the little diner, keeping an eye out for the car. She knew that Doreen would drag Danny here. She kept to the coffee bar though, not wanting to be seen by them. To extend the effect, she was wearing jeans and a loose shirt, reading over the newest script that Cosmic Nation had picked up to see how she could promote it.

Suddenly, she saw it. The beat up green civic, with two passengers inside. She smiled a bit to herself, and took another sip of her espresso. There was no such thing as "just a coffee" in California. It was all gourmet. But she didn't mind, she liked it better than the plain, bland coffee that the white house would serve.

She saw them walk in and get a table near her. She frowned slightly, but kept her eyes to her script, glancing over every now and then to see what was going on at the table so close to her, trying to get a glimpse of how the man she had wanted, the man she had given up, was fairing.

She noticed that he hadn't changed a whole lot. He still had the red hair, better cut now, more tailored, less teenagerish. He wasn't wearing the suspenders she remembered him wearing. Rather, he was wearing a blazer over a shirt, and a nice pair of pants. He had slimmed down a lot from when she had last seen him, now was just slightly stocky rather than bordering on rotund. And now, he had a whole lot more charisma then he had had when he was just the lowly white house reporter. He carried himself much better now, he had an air of authority, an aurora of "don't mess with me" about him.

There was no other way for her to describe other than, to put it short, he looked good. Now she was really beginning to hate herself for not going after him when she had the chance. Instead, she had wound up bouncing from relationship to relationship with various odd movie stars, directors, and producers, not caring about any of them. He was now an author, and according to that morning's Times, he had broken on to the bestselling list. She knew that he was good; she had picked up his books whenever she came across one. Now he was the man of her dreams, and she hated herself for letting her fish boy slip off the line.

She looked up and noticed that she'd have to go past their table to go to the bathroom. She was the one to set this up with Doreen, she had told the other woman to take Danny here for lunch. Just so she could see him again. Now she began to feel herself chickening out. She didn't want to have to put up with him again. She didn't want to endure all he tortured her, with how much she wanted him, how much he used to want her. As much as Doreen told her otherwise, she knew that he hadn't been celibate the entire time. Sure, he may still want her, but how could she know for sure?

The only way she could find out is if she made sure she was noticed. Then, as if by blind luck, she heard her cell phone go off rather loudly. She jumped as it broke her reverie, and flipped it open. "CJ." She responded as she moved towards the door out of common courtesy. She could feel Danny's eyes on her, and she noticed his jaw slack with amazement. "Yeah Rob?" she said, glad for her boss's interruption. She listened to the tenor, almost raspy voice on the other end of the line.

"CJ, can you come in now? We need all hands on deck."

"What's up Robbie?" She could picture him cringing. He hated being called Robbie, hated Rob as well, preferred Bob, or just his last name. But CJ and a few others could get away with calling him that. Mostly any high level executive or a close friend of his. And CJ could do no wrong in Robert's eyes.

"Well, our star can't finish our movie, and the rest of the crew is threatening to back out of this because we're short one John Goodman."

"What happened?"

"Well…" she could hear him take a sharp, deep breath. "He died, this morning, from a secondary heart attack." CJ cursed under her breath. But she couldn't help but feel sorry for her boss. He was just younger than she was, and he and John had gotten on so well.

"I'll be in as soon as I can, just need to pay for my coffee." She told him, and hung up, going back inside and paying her tab, almost forgetting about Danny. Almost being the operative word. As she was walking out, he accosted her and she found herself talking to him rather willingly.

"CJ?" he questioned, almost in disbelief.

"Danny?" she questioned back. "Daniel Concannon, former geeky white house reporter?" she checked.

"Did you really think me geeky?" she laughed, and he joined in.

"Yes, I did." she gave him a hug. "It's great to see you. What did your cousin have to do to drag you out here?"

"Threaten to bash my new rep as a best seller." All as they were talking, she was crossing the parking lot to her car.

"Hey, I have to go back to the studio, I'll catch you later?" She could see the disappointment in his eyes. "Not my fault Danny, our star just kicked the bucket." Danny nodded, but she could tell that it wasn't enough for him. "Tell ya what, how about you and me catch up on what we've been doing the past two years at the bar later? Work for you?" He nodded again. CJ pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled a number on it. "That's my cell, call me later, we can meet up." He grinned at that.

"It was great seeing you again Ceej." She smiled back.

"Great seeing you too." although she never showed it, she was quite apprehensive about what was to come later. She climbed into her car, and set off in the direction of the studio.