A Thousand Empty Yesterdays
"Well, I was Maid of Honor at her wedding, why not?" CJ Cregg threw a look at her fiance, but he wasn't about to meet her eye. Josh Lyman was intently watching his daughter work on her flip turn.
"It's not a problem or anything. I think she'd love it. I'm just surprised that you don't have someone from New York that you're closer to," he responded, still intently staring at Drea. "She's sluggish today. Her turns aren't crisp enough."
CJ scribbled something in her notebook and reached for his hand. "She's tired, Josh. Woody's been demanding a lot from her in the past few days."
"The Games are 34 days away! She's got to stay in shape," he countered.
"She's in impeccable shape and you know it. Joshua, if you burn her out, if you do anything to make her forget why she loves it, she'll never forgive you," CJ reprimanded gently.
He sighed deeply, drew her hand to his lips and kissed it. He knew that she was right. He had overheard CJ and Drea talking last night and Drea was so tired that she had started to cry. There was no way that she would make it to Italy that way.
"Let me take her somewhere this weekend," CJ pleaded.
"For what?"
"Practice seducing men."
"Where?"
"Bar hopping in New York."
"Seriously, Claudia Jean," he smirked, "you're a pill."
"I'm taking her to a spa in northern New York. It will be nice and relaxing for her and we'll get some girly bonding time in." Reaching for Josh's face and turning it towards her, pulling his eyes away from Drea for the first time since the practice began, she continued, "Will you trust me with your daughter, Josh? I promise I'll be careful with her and put her back where she belongs when I'm done playing."
"Our daughter," he smiled and pressed his lips to hers.
When she broke the kiss, CJ returned to her list. "So, now that we have a date and a place, we can officially start asking the wedding party. You'll call Sam tomorrow about best man and I'll call Donna about being my maid of honor."
"Matron."
"What?"
"When the woman's married, she's called the Matron of Honor," Josh replied absently. "Drea, darn it, flip your feet faster."
Ignoring his remark to Drea, CJ smirked, "How do you know about that?"
"The whole matron bit? Donna," he replied.
"Why do you know from Donna?"
"When we were at her and Jack's wedding, she was bugging me about the fact that I should make you her "Matron of Honor" instead of the "Maid of Honor" and that any unhappiness in your life was all my fault because I'm a putz," Josh explained.
"That was eight years ago."
"I know."
"You retain trivial knowledge for eight years?"
"When it's in any way connected to you? Yes."
"Eight years ago?"
"Actually," he turned towards her, "for almost thirteen years."
"Thirteen years?"
He smiled, "Since the night Drea was diagnosed."
She shook her head, "You've loved me for that long and you never said anything?"
Josh shook his finger at her, "Oh no, I said it. I said it in a thousand different ways. You just never listened."
"My heart listened. It was having problems convincing my head, though, until my ears confirmed," She smiled.
"Do your various organs agree with each other now?"
She playfully swatted at his shoulder, "Yes, you big dork." CJ quickly checked her watch, "Listen, I've got to jet to a meeting. I'll see you for dinner?" To make life easier on all of them, CJ had transferred to the San Diego office of her firm a few months back.
"Absolutely," Josh affirmed. After stealing one more kiss, he walked his beloved to the door.
"Dad!" Drea called from the water as he was taking his seat again.
"Yeah, Motor Mouse?"
"Can you tell Satan over here that normal people eat lunch at noon and that it's 12:30 and I'm hungry?" She whined, gesturing to Woody.
"Well, for starters, you're not normal, you're Drea. Second, what did Woody say?" Josh called back.
"I told her ten more and then an hour break before school," Wood contributed.
"You're whining about ten more, Drea?" She must be tired, Josh thought.
"Ten more is going to make 200 flip turns, Dad. It just seem a bit ridiculous when you can hear my stomach growling in East China!"
"Well, do the ten and then we'll feed you, ok?"
Sighing deeply, the way only a prepubescent girl can, Drea readjusted her goggles and started the set.
'34 more days,' Josh thought to himself, '34 more days.'
xxxxx
"Drea," CJ said to her future daughter as they flew to New York, "you know how I told your dad that we were doing the whole spa thing this weekend?"
"Yeah?"
"I lied."
"Oh," Drea's face fell and CJ felt horrible.
Reaching into her bag and pulling out a manila envelope, CJ quickly continued, "We're still going to a spa, it's just a day spa in New York City and we're still far away from a pool, we're just doing a bunch of other stuff, too." Pulling out two tickets, she handed them to Drea, "Here."
Examining them carefully, Drea's face broke out into a huge grin, "You're taking me to Broadway! You're taking me to a Broadway show? Ohmygosh, Mom!" Shrieking and throwing her arms around CJ for an awkward hug, Drea couldn't believe her luck. She had been begging her dad to take her to a show ever since she had seen Music Man on TV. But, due to Josh's belief that musicals were retarded and evil, her dream had never come true.
CJ felt her eyes fill with tears, She called me Mom! "Saturday night's performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We have orchestra seats, and I made sure that they're good ones."
"What else are we doing?" Drea asked, wide eyed.
"Well, today is Thursday," CJ muttered to herself as she scoured over their itinerary in her folder. "When we land, my friend Julia will pick us up and drive us to our hotel."
"Where are we staying?"
"The Plaza."
"The Plaza Hotel? I'm staying at the Plaza Hotel? Mom, how can we afford that with Italy coming up and…"
"Drea, I have a lot more money than even your dad knows about," CJ assured her. "Anyway, so tomorrow, we shop. Lots of shopping. I'm showing New York the way it's meant to be seen; with a credit card. I haven't decided what we're doing tomorrow night, but we have some options. We'll see how tired you are and how you're coming with your homework…"
"Mom," Drea interrupted, "please no homework. You said that we were getting away from everything this weekend and that you weren't going to let me anywhere near water except to shower and, well, I hate homework."
"Drea, I let you leave your algebra home because I can't help you with that, but we're doing your history and your English because I know what I'm talking about with them. I'm taking you to a fun-filled weekend away from Josh and Woody, would you like to complain or would you like to hear about it?"
"Hear about it," Drea sighed.
"Yeah, so, moving on. On Saturday, we're going to Wrap Sure, which is this amazing day spa I used to go to. We're getting the works: full body massages, make-overs, manicures, pedicures, everything they can do. Then, we'll do dinner somewhere fun and groovy and then we'll go to the show," smiling at Drea, CJ stuffed all of her papers back in to the folder and pried the tickets from Drea's fingers.
"A chlorine free weekend," Drea sighed in ecstasy.
Licking her lips and chuckling, CJ reached for her reading glasses, "Now, talk to me about the French Revolution." Groaning, Drea handed CJ her review sheet and began rattling off the facts that she had laboriously prepared. The nice part about being home-schooled is that Drea followed her own schedule. The horrible part was that her teachers were some of the most brilliant people in the world; Josh, CJ, Jed, Leo and Sam. There was no way that Drea could slack off at any of her subjects or maintain less than an A average. She had been really hoping that she could escape a bit this weekend, being that school went year-round for her, but it didn't look like it.
It just doesn't stop, does it? Must I always be proving myself? Can't I just exist for once in my life? Can't I just have a normal life? The questions that always consumed Drea's mind once again surfaced throughout the plane ride. Must I always be perfect?
xxxxx
"Donna!"
"What have I said about yelling, Joshua?"
"You don't like it?"
"That's right. Now, speak normally, like a good boy. What do you need?"
Josh sighed deeply and ran his hands over his face, "The catering menu."
Donna raised an eyebrow as she made her way to Josh's office from his kitchen. They had been working like this since right after Bartlet's administration ended. Josh had moved Drea to Southern California and had asked Donna if she wanted to come. Having nothing else to do and hoping to start college courses, Donna willingly followed and lived down the street from Josh and Drea until her marriage six years ago. "CJ is trusting you to choose the menu for her wedding?"
"It's my wedding, too, and yes she is, because she loves me," Josh argued his friend.
"Whatever. Anyway, how many days away is this thing?" Donna grabbed her binder marked "WEDDING" and settled herself in her usual chair.
"15 days. 15 days until I get married and 30 days until we leave for Italy."
"Ok, well, this morning, I confirmed the florist and the priest. You need to get a final guest list and menu to the caterers and the banquet hall and check in with the travel agent about your honeymoon, which I'm not doing because that's just wrong."
"Why?"
"Why is it wrong for your assistant to plan your honeymoon?" Donna raised her eyebrow skeptically, "Really, Joshua, I'm going to pretend that you didn't ask that."
"Why?"
"Well, Curious George, a honeymoon is a very personal thing and I'd really rather not make the arrangements."
Josh rolled his eyes, "Donnatella, you're ridiculous."
"And you love me."
"Always."
The two old friends shared a secret smile and then quickly went back to work.