Chapter 6
Josh
"Rose!!" I looked down at my sandwich.
"Yes, Josh." She stepped into my office.
"Rose, I've sworn to you how much I hate roast beef haven't I?" I asked her, trying to maintain my cool.
"Yes, repeatedly."
"Then why is there a roast beef sandwich on my desk?" I asked. I could feel my nerves tighten.
"OhmyGod! I must have mixed it up with Ed's sandwich. I'm sorry I'll switch them right away." She turned out of the office. I picked up my sandwich and called after her. She came running back and took it from me and then ran off again. It's been a long week, and we are finally done with it, the budget is signed, the trade negotiations are signed, the DNC speech delivered and all I want is a damn turkey sandwich. I shouldn't really complain about Rose because she does a fine job. But she doesn't know me! She doesn't know what kind of beer to stock the fridge with, she doesn't know that I don't like to walk around with purple folders, that I prefer them brown or manila, and she definitely doesn't know that I hate roast beef! Trying to calm down I sat back down and started reading the Post.
"Josh."
"Hey Toby." Toby leaned against my door.
"You got plans tonight?"
"Nah, what's goin' on?"
"CJ wants to grab a drink."
"Sounds good." I agreed.
"She asked Donna to come along too."
"Okay."
"Are you guys getting along better?"
"Yeah." I said. "Why?"
"Well you were pretty pissed there for a while."
"I'm over it."
"Good."
"She didn't leave because of me." I tried to explain.
"I'll see you tonight." He left to his office.
Donna
"Donna, this isn't a double date." CJ said to me dryly. I put my lipstick back in my purse.
"I know that. It's just lipstick. Besides, the bartender might be cute." I replied. She looked at wryly and snorted. I blushed and started giggling. We were freshening up in the Ladies room, about to meet Toby and Josh in the lobby.
"I feel like we should have invited Will." She said looking disappointed.
"Yeah, invite Toby's Vice-Rival, that spells romance." I snorted.
"Who said anything about romance?" She looked at me questioningly. I decided to lay it out for her.
"You and Toby, Toby and you. It's gonna happen CJ, so I'm just helping it along." I explained. She looked surprised but I knew she wasn't. She's very smart, I know she knows this is a set up.
"This was your idea? This morning you came to my office saying you wanted to get out tonight and I suggested a drink and you suggested inviting some people and I suggested Toby and he asked Josh to come along and you had planned for that to happen all along. My, my, Donnatella, you are quite the fox." She lowered her eyes at me. I grinned as we walked out of the ladies room and saw the guys in the lobby.
"Would you like to cancel?" I whispered. She nudged me with her elbow and I took that as a no.
"Isn't that Agent Casper?" I pointed to a group of about four men sitting at a table not far from us. We had just finished our first round and the topic was now how to deal with the President's son-in-law running for Senate without the President's endorsement.
"Oh, yeah, and that's Yates, Andrews, and Marshall." Josh answered.
"The problem is going to be Elizabeth, she's going to try to get to the staff and then hit up the President again." CJ said, still on topic.
"Say no to her once and a while CJ and then she'll leave the staff alone." Toby suggested. I smiled across the table at Josh. He grinned back. I think he's actually enjoying himself. I offered to get the next round. As soon as I stood up, so did Toby and Josh and right away Josh tried to hand me money.
"Hey, I got this." I smiled and walked to the bar. I saw Agent Casper make his way over too and said hi.
"You look lovely as usual Donna." He smiled and then we reached the bar and he called over to the bartender.
"Thank you, on duty tonight?" I asked.
"Fortunately not." He smiled. The bartender came over and I ordered three beers and a grasshopper for CJ. Mike grabbed a round of beers for himself.
"You sure you can handle all that." He asked.
"You'd be surprised by what I can handle." I smiled coyly, he laughed and went back to his table.
"Okay, time for me to go." I got up from the table. Josh looked sleepy but Toby and CJ were still playing pool. I walked up to them and pointed to Josh and told them I was going to go home and drop him off. He had his head leaning on his hand and looked like he was gonna fall asleep any minute. CJ smiled and nodded. Toby waved me away calling me a lightweight. I reminded him that it was Josh who was sleepy. Not me. But then again it is 1:30 am.
"C'mon, Josh." I helped him put his coat on and we walked out of the bar. I hailed a cab as he rubbed his face and tried to wake up.
"So I'm done now right? No more matchmaker crap for me." Josh said once we got into the cab. He was quite pleased with himself. I rolled my eyes. When the cab came to my stop I got out and Josh followed me out.
"Josh, your going to lose your . ." Just then the cab drove off. I looked at him and he just shrugged.
"I'll get another one."
"At this hour? In this cold? Come up and I'll call you another one." I unlocked the door and we walked up to my apartment.
"I can't believe you Josh." I said as I took my coat off and draped it over a chair.
"I always walk you to your door, I'm a full service date. I didn't know he was gonna take off."
"A full service date wouldn't require me to call him a cab." I searched through my cell phone for the cab company we usually used. After about five minutes of negotiating with the guy and practically bribing him because it so late, I looked over to the couch and saw a passed out Josh. Great. Just great. I called the cab company back and cancelled. He looks so peaceful sleeping, almost like a little boy. I gotta say that I have yet to meet someone who makes me want to take care of them as much as I want to take care of Josh. There is just something about him that makes me want to look after him because I know he won't look after himself. It's different with the President because there are so many of us that take care of him and constantly make sure he's doing alright. But with Josh, it feels like I'm the only one and I gotta say, that's a special feeling.
Josh
I have a headache. A horrible headache and the sun is in my face and there is a cushion slipping out from under me. Where the hell . . ? Donna. I'm at Donna's.
"Donna!" I call out as I try and sit up.
"Yeah." I can hear her in her kitchen.
"What time is it?" I rubbed my face and realized I didn't have any shoes on and my tie was on the coffee table.
"It's eight."
"Okay. Where are my shoes and my tie, and my jacket." I stood up and started searching around the living room.
"I put them in the closet." She walked in with two coffee cups in her hands and handed one to me.
"Did you take them off me?"
"No, my neighbor did. He's a big guy, but he liked you."
"Oh, I don't need that this early."
"Something about you having the cutest ass in professional politics." She continued.
"Donna."
"I took them off and hung up you jacket, big deal." She sighed and sat down. She searched a bit and found the remote and flipped the tv on.
We sat there for a bit just watching MSNBC and drinking coffee. She's wearing jeans with a grey sweater and boots already on.
"Are you going into the office today?" I asked after a while.
"Yeah, some catch up work, but only for a few hours. I'm determined to do my Christmas shopping today."
"What are you going to get me?" I asked and smiled over at her.
"Nothing, you're not my boss anymore." She answered without even looking over at me.
"I just spent the night at your apartment and you're not even going to get me anything for Christmas?"
"You crashed on my couch, Josh. Some full service date you are. And you don't even celebrate Christmas!" She countered.
"Donna!"
"Oh don't be a baby, I'm going to get you something." She laughed.
"And by the way, you're not such a full service date either. Where is my breakfast?" I joked. She got up and walked to the kitchen, grabbed something and then tossed it to me.
"A muffin?"
"Well since all you did was snore that's all you deserve." She smiled sweetly. I got up and tossed the muffin back to her and got my stuff out of the closet and started to put it on.
"Why don't you take as shower first?" She suggested as she put the muffin on the coffee table and started to help me adjust my tie.
"I will, later today." I said.
"Seriously, go home and take a shower."
"I thought you were offering me yours." I smiled slyly.
"I don't want you wasting my hot water." She said coyly. She loves doing this, setting me up and then knocking me down. See? This is the kind of thing I can't do with Rose, who probably won't even be into the office until ten.
"Donna." She was standing close to me, trying to brush lint off my jacket. She stopped and for a second I felt a heat between us. A slow, but intense heat.
"Maybe you should . ." I started to say but I couldn't find the words to finish the sentence. She looked at me thoughtfully.
"Should what?" she asked softly, hands still on my shoulders. I was speechless and I couldn't figure why. I leaned toward her slowly. I don't really know what I was expecting to happen but she leaned too and I can't believe how much I glad that she did.
"RING!! RING!!!!" And there goes my phone. My fucking phone!!!
Donna stepped back and picked it up off the coffee table and handed to me with a sheepish smile. I answered it right away.
Donna
"Good Morning Charlie." I smiled brightly as I passed Charlie. It's a bright Monday morning and Charlie looks a little mischievous
"Good Morning Donna." He smiled. He looked at me like he knew something about me that amused him.
"What?" I asked.
"Special Agent Casper was just in here and he asked about you."
"Oh, that's nice. What did he say?" I asked as I settled into my desk.
"Just asked when you usually take your lunch." He smiled again.
"Hi Donna."
"Hi Agent Casper." I smiled. He walked in hesitantly to the office.
"Call me John." He smiled. He asked me out to lunch and since I had no plans I accepted.
Josh
"Hey Charlie." I walked into outer office. "Where's Donna?" He smiled.
"Out to lunch."
"Oh, okay, tell her I came by." I turned to leave.
"It's a good thing you didn't ask who she was out to lunch with." He said looking back at his computer screen. I stopped and turned around.
"Who'd she go to lunch with?" I asked, suddenly getting a knot in my stomach.
"Because I would of hated to tell you." He went on as if not hearing me.
"Charlie, who'd she go to lunch with?" I asked again.
"Special Agent Casper." Charlie tried to hide a smirk.
"Why would I care? They're friends, we're friends. Every bodys friends!" I got a little heated with one. Charlie just smiled. The President stepped out of his office just then.
"Hello Josh."
"Hello Mr. President."
"You know Special Agent Casper took our little Donna out to lunch today." He smiled knowingly.
"Yeah, well I wouldn't think to much of it if I were you Mr. President."
"Trust me I don't Josh."
"Just because Casper the friendly agent is taking Donna to lunch shouldn't mean anything sir."
"I'm sure it doesn't." He smiled as he read over a file that Charlie had handed to him.
"Thank you sir." I left back to my bullpen are and walked into my office and slammed the door.
I sat in my chair and fumed for a second. At least I like Casper. He's not some Republican gomer that will just annoy me to no end. He's a good guy, so why shouldn't he go out with Donna. I could think of about a million reasons why not but none of them sounded sane.
Donna
"Donna!" CJ called out for me as I came into the foyer.
"Hi CJ."
"Hi, I need to talk to you. For a second. Right now." She sounded serious, so I followed her back to her office.
"What's up?" I asked after she shut her door.
"Who did you go to lunch with?"
"Special Agent Casper. Why? Does this have to do with him?" A sudden alarm went off in my head.
"No. I was just asking." I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at her seriously.
"CJ, what's going on?" I asked firmly.
"When you and Josh left Toby and I alone the other night, some things came up." She said slowly. I smiled.
"Like what?"
"Like some past feelings."
"Okay, CJ, your gonna have to give me more than that." I coaxed.
"He has had feelings for me in the past. He told me this and he was not drunk, he'd only had four or five and he's not Josh so I know he wasn't drunk." CJ went on.
"Well, what do you think of that? I mean it's good right?"
"Yeah, but he kept stressing how they were in the past. It was almost like he found it funny that he USED to have a crush on me."
"How did this all come up?"
"Funny you should ask." CJ looked up and smiled. I got a strange feeling that I wouldn't think it was funny at all.
"We started talking about how lucky Josh was that you came back to work for him after you quit the first time. Then he said he thought you had a little crush on Josh when you first came back. Then he mentioned, kind of offhand, that he had a little crush on me back then too. It was right after his divorce with Andi was finalized." CJ told me.
"I did not have a crush on Josh."
"Not the point, Donna."
"Okay, so what did you say then?"
"I asked why he never acted on it and he said it was too soon after the divorce and we were right in the middle of the campaign and yadda yadda yadda."
"So what now? Are you going to tell him how you feel?" I asked. CJ straightened.
"Hell no."
"CJ . ." I argued.
"No, I just need . . . I need some more time."
"So why did you tell me all of this if you wanted more time? You know I would push you to seize the day now!" I pointed out.
"Okay, you can go."
"You just wanted to tell someone didn't you?" I giggled. CJ smiled and I felt like I was in high school. "Tell him." I pressed.
"Good-bye."
"Bye." I got up and left.
Josh
"Rose!!" I looked down at my sandwich.
"Yes, Josh." She stepped into my office.
"Rose, I've sworn to you how much I hate roast beef haven't I?" I asked her, trying to maintain my cool.
"Yes, repeatedly."
"Then why is there a roast beef sandwich on my desk?" I asked. I could feel my nerves tighten.
"OhmyGod! I must have mixed it up with Ed's sandwich. I'm sorry I'll switch them right away." She turned out of the office. I picked up my sandwich and called after her. She came running back and took it from me and then ran off again. It's been a long week, and we are finally done with it, the budget is signed, the trade negotiations are signed, the DNC speech delivered and all I want is a damn turkey sandwich. I shouldn't really complain about Rose because she does a fine job. But she doesn't know me! She doesn't know what kind of beer to stock the fridge with, she doesn't know that I don't like to walk around with purple folders, that I prefer them brown or manila, and she definitely doesn't know that I hate roast beef! Trying to calm down I sat back down and started reading the Post.
"Josh."
"Hey Toby." Toby leaned against my door.
"You got plans tonight?"
"Nah, what's goin' on?"
"CJ wants to grab a drink."
"Sounds good." I agreed.
"She asked Donna to come along too."
"Okay."
"Are you guys getting along better?"
"Yeah." I said. "Why?"
"Well you were pretty pissed there for a while."
"I'm over it."
"Good."
"She didn't leave because of me." I tried to explain.
"I'll see you tonight." He left to his office.
Donna
"Donna, this isn't a double date." CJ said to me dryly. I put my lipstick back in my purse.
"I know that. It's just lipstick. Besides, the bartender might be cute." I replied. She looked at wryly and snorted. I blushed and started giggling. We were freshening up in the Ladies room, about to meet Toby and Josh in the lobby.
"I feel like we should have invited Will." She said looking disappointed.
"Yeah, invite Toby's Vice-Rival, that spells romance." I snorted.
"Who said anything about romance?" She looked at me questioningly. I decided to lay it out for her.
"You and Toby, Toby and you. It's gonna happen CJ, so I'm just helping it along." I explained. She looked surprised but I knew she wasn't. She's very smart, I know she knows this is a set up.
"This was your idea? This morning you came to my office saying you wanted to get out tonight and I suggested a drink and you suggested inviting some people and I suggested Toby and he asked Josh to come along and you had planned for that to happen all along. My, my, Donnatella, you are quite the fox." She lowered her eyes at me. I grinned as we walked out of the ladies room and saw the guys in the lobby.
"Would you like to cancel?" I whispered. She nudged me with her elbow and I took that as a no.
"Isn't that Agent Casper?" I pointed to a group of about four men sitting at a table not far from us. We had just finished our first round and the topic was now how to deal with the President's son-in-law running for Senate without the President's endorsement.
"Oh, yeah, and that's Yates, Andrews, and Marshall." Josh answered.
"The problem is going to be Elizabeth, she's going to try to get to the staff and then hit up the President again." CJ said, still on topic.
"Say no to her once and a while CJ and then she'll leave the staff alone." Toby suggested. I smiled across the table at Josh. He grinned back. I think he's actually enjoying himself. I offered to get the next round. As soon as I stood up, so did Toby and Josh and right away Josh tried to hand me money.
"Hey, I got this." I smiled and walked to the bar. I saw Agent Casper make his way over too and said hi.
"You look lovely as usual Donna." He smiled and then we reached the bar and he called over to the bartender.
"Thank you, on duty tonight?" I asked.
"Fortunately not." He smiled. The bartender came over and I ordered three beers and a grasshopper for CJ. Mike grabbed a round of beers for himself.
"You sure you can handle all that." He asked.
"You'd be surprised by what I can handle." I smiled coyly, he laughed and went back to his table.
"Okay, time for me to go." I got up from the table. Josh looked sleepy but Toby and CJ were still playing pool. I walked up to them and pointed to Josh and told them I was going to go home and drop him off. He had his head leaning on his hand and looked like he was gonna fall asleep any minute. CJ smiled and nodded. Toby waved me away calling me a lightweight. I reminded him that it was Josh who was sleepy. Not me. But then again it is 1:30 am.
"C'mon, Josh." I helped him put his coat on and we walked out of the bar. I hailed a cab as he rubbed his face and tried to wake up.
"So I'm done now right? No more matchmaker crap for me." Josh said once we got into the cab. He was quite pleased with himself. I rolled my eyes. When the cab came to my stop I got out and Josh followed me out.
"Josh, your going to lose your . ." Just then the cab drove off. I looked at him and he just shrugged.
"I'll get another one."
"At this hour? In this cold? Come up and I'll call you another one." I unlocked the door and we walked up to my apartment.
"I can't believe you Josh." I said as I took my coat off and draped it over a chair.
"I always walk you to your door, I'm a full service date. I didn't know he was gonna take off."
"A full service date wouldn't require me to call him a cab." I searched through my cell phone for the cab company we usually used. After about five minutes of negotiating with the guy and practically bribing him because it so late, I looked over to the couch and saw a passed out Josh. Great. Just great. I called the cab company back and cancelled. He looks so peaceful sleeping, almost like a little boy. I gotta say that I have yet to meet someone who makes me want to take care of them as much as I want to take care of Josh. There is just something about him that makes me want to look after him because I know he won't look after himself. It's different with the President because there are so many of us that take care of him and constantly make sure he's doing alright. But with Josh, it feels like I'm the only one and I gotta say, that's a special feeling.
Josh
I have a headache. A horrible headache and the sun is in my face and there is a cushion slipping out from under me. Where the hell . . ? Donna. I'm at Donna's.
"Donna!" I call out as I try and sit up.
"Yeah." I can hear her in her kitchen.
"What time is it?" I rubbed my face and realized I didn't have any shoes on and my tie was on the coffee table.
"It's eight."
"Okay. Where are my shoes and my tie, and my jacket." I stood up and started searching around the living room.
"I put them in the closet." She walked in with two coffee cups in her hands and handed one to me.
"Did you take them off me?"
"No, my neighbor did. He's a big guy, but he liked you."
"Oh, I don't need that this early."
"Something about you having the cutest ass in professional politics." She continued.
"Donna."
"I took them off and hung up you jacket, big deal." She sighed and sat down. She searched a bit and found the remote and flipped the tv on.
We sat there for a bit just watching MSNBC and drinking coffee. She's wearing jeans with a grey sweater and boots already on.
"Are you going into the office today?" I asked after a while.
"Yeah, some catch up work, but only for a few hours. I'm determined to do my Christmas shopping today."
"What are you going to get me?" I asked and smiled over at her.
"Nothing, you're not my boss anymore." She answered without even looking over at me.
"I just spent the night at your apartment and you're not even going to get me anything for Christmas?"
"You crashed on my couch, Josh. Some full service date you are. And you don't even celebrate Christmas!" She countered.
"Donna!"
"Oh don't be a baby, I'm going to get you something." She laughed.
"And by the way, you're not such a full service date either. Where is my breakfast?" I joked. She got up and walked to the kitchen, grabbed something and then tossed it to me.
"A muffin?"
"Well since all you did was snore that's all you deserve." She smiled sweetly. I got up and tossed the muffin back to her and got my stuff out of the closet and started to put it on.
"Why don't you take as shower first?" She suggested as she put the muffin on the coffee table and started to help me adjust my tie.
"I will, later today." I said.
"Seriously, go home and take a shower."
"I thought you were offering me yours." I smiled slyly.
"I don't want you wasting my hot water." She said coyly. She loves doing this, setting me up and then knocking me down. See? This is the kind of thing I can't do with Rose, who probably won't even be into the office until ten.
"Donna." She was standing close to me, trying to brush lint off my jacket. She stopped and for a second I felt a heat between us. A slow, but intense heat.
"Maybe you should . ." I started to say but I couldn't find the words to finish the sentence. She looked at me thoughtfully.
"Should what?" she asked softly, hands still on my shoulders. I was speechless and I couldn't figure why. I leaned toward her slowly. I don't really know what I was expecting to happen but she leaned too and I can't believe how much I glad that she did.
"RING!! RING!!!!" And there goes my phone. My fucking phone!!!
Donna stepped back and picked it up off the coffee table and handed to me with a sheepish smile. I answered it right away.
Donna
"Good Morning Charlie." I smiled brightly as I passed Charlie. It's a bright Monday morning and Charlie looks a little mischievous
"Good Morning Donna." He smiled. He looked at me like he knew something about me that amused him.
"What?" I asked.
"Special Agent Casper was just in here and he asked about you."
"Oh, that's nice. What did he say?" I asked as I settled into my desk.
"Just asked when you usually take your lunch." He smiled again.
"Hi Donna."
"Hi Agent Casper." I smiled. He walked in hesitantly to the office.
"Call me John." He smiled. He asked me out to lunch and since I had no plans I accepted.
Josh
"Hey Charlie." I walked into outer office. "Where's Donna?" He smiled.
"Out to lunch."
"Oh, okay, tell her I came by." I turned to leave.
"It's a good thing you didn't ask who she was out to lunch with." He said looking back at his computer screen. I stopped and turned around.
"Who'd she go to lunch with?" I asked, suddenly getting a knot in my stomach.
"Because I would of hated to tell you." He went on as if not hearing me.
"Charlie, who'd she go to lunch with?" I asked again.
"Special Agent Casper." Charlie tried to hide a smirk.
"Why would I care? They're friends, we're friends. Every bodys friends!" I got a little heated with one. Charlie just smiled. The President stepped out of his office just then.
"Hello Josh."
"Hello Mr. President."
"You know Special Agent Casper took our little Donna out to lunch today." He smiled knowingly.
"Yeah, well I wouldn't think to much of it if I were you Mr. President."
"Trust me I don't Josh."
"Just because Casper the friendly agent is taking Donna to lunch shouldn't mean anything sir."
"I'm sure it doesn't." He smiled as he read over a file that Charlie had handed to him.
"Thank you sir." I left back to my bullpen are and walked into my office and slammed the door.
I sat in my chair and fumed for a second. At least I like Casper. He's not some Republican gomer that will just annoy me to no end. He's a good guy, so why shouldn't he go out with Donna. I could think of about a million reasons why not but none of them sounded sane.
Donna
"Donna!" CJ called out for me as I came into the foyer.
"Hi CJ."
"Hi, I need to talk to you. For a second. Right now." She sounded serious, so I followed her back to her office.
"What's up?" I asked after she shut her door.
"Who did you go to lunch with?"
"Special Agent Casper. Why? Does this have to do with him?" A sudden alarm went off in my head.
"No. I was just asking." I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at her seriously.
"CJ, what's going on?" I asked firmly.
"When you and Josh left Toby and I alone the other night, some things came up." She said slowly. I smiled.
"Like what?"
"Like some past feelings."
"Okay, CJ, your gonna have to give me more than that." I coaxed.
"He has had feelings for me in the past. He told me this and he was not drunk, he'd only had four or five and he's not Josh so I know he wasn't drunk." CJ went on.
"Well, what do you think of that? I mean it's good right?"
"Yeah, but he kept stressing how they were in the past. It was almost like he found it funny that he USED to have a crush on me."
"How did this all come up?"
"Funny you should ask." CJ looked up and smiled. I got a strange feeling that I wouldn't think it was funny at all.
"We started talking about how lucky Josh was that you came back to work for him after you quit the first time. Then he said he thought you had a little crush on Josh when you first came back. Then he mentioned, kind of offhand, that he had a little crush on me back then too. It was right after his divorce with Andi was finalized." CJ told me.
"I did not have a crush on Josh."
"Not the point, Donna."
"Okay, so what did you say then?"
"I asked why he never acted on it and he said it was too soon after the divorce and we were right in the middle of the campaign and yadda yadda yadda."
"So what now? Are you going to tell him how you feel?" I asked. CJ straightened.
"Hell no."
"CJ . ." I argued.
"No, I just need . . . I need some more time."
"So why did you tell me all of this if you wanted more time? You know I would push you to seize the day now!" I pointed out.
"Okay, you can go."
"You just wanted to tell someone didn't you?" I giggled. CJ smiled and I felt like I was in high school. "Tell him." I pressed.
"Good-bye."
"Bye." I got up and left.