Disclaimer – you know the drill, the characters are not mine, just the situations!
Here is the party chapter finally!Enjoy!
"So CJ, when are you and Toby going to admit you are perfect for each other!" Zoey asked, laughing at CJ's reflection in the mirror as she was putting her make up on. Zoey, Mallory, Donna and CJ were all getting ready for the party in Zoey's bedroom. Donna was sat on the bed painting her toenails, Mallory was blow-drying her hair in the bathroom, CJ was fussing over which shoes she should wear, and Zoey was sat at her dressing table putting on her make up.
"Toby is my oldest friend," CJ replied, looking completely unfazed by the questioning, "we are not meant for each other! Shouldn't we be asking that question to Donna about Josh!"
"Josh is my best friend," Donna said looking slightly flustered, "nothing more."
CJ opened her mouth to reply, but Zoey cut her off, "Ok you two, don't start. Mal, get in here will you?"
"What?" Mallory asked as she wandered into the bedroom, her reddish hair falling in gentle curls to her shoulders.
"Mal, you're my oldest friend in the world," Zoey began, hesitatingly, "will you be maid of honour?"
"Oh my god, Zoey, really!" Mallory exclaimed, "I'd be honoured!"
Zoey smiled, relief evident on her face, "And Donna, CJ, will you two be my bridesmaids?" The look on their faces gave her the answer that she needed.
"Yes of course!" they both said, giving her a huge hug.
"Well then now that's sorted, lets go and enjoy this party shall we?" Zoey asked, smiling happily, silently thanking God that she had such great friends.
The girls headed down to where the guests had already started to arrive and joined Charlie, Sam, Josh and Toby who were stood huddled in a little group in the corner.
"Wow boys, nice to see you are making an effort to mingle!" CJ said sarcastically, as she squeezed in the circle between Toby and Josh.
"We were just discussing the best way for Josh to avoid Amy." Sam replied, giving Mallory a kiss hello. Donna's head snapped back form glancing around the room to join in the conversation.
"Amy's here?" she asked, her blue eyes flashing in barely veiled disgust.
"Yeah, apparently she came as someone's date, I haven't found out whose yet so I can get Mrs Bartlett to throw their arses out of the party!" Josh replied, looking around worriedly as if Amy was about to jump out of a corner and surprise him.
"Don't worry Josh, I'll go talk to her," Zoey said, "Oh wait, I see Amy, Josh hide, quick, she's coming this way!" Josh quickly grabbed Donna's hand, and steered her in the opposite direction, pulling them through a doorway into a corridor that was evidently being used by the caterers.
"Who is that with her?" Sam asked Zoey, as the remaining three couples stood watching Amy Gardener's approach with a man trailing behind her like a faithful little dog.
"It's Andrew Strauss, he's an old friend of the family, I am so going to kill him!" Zoey replied, looking annoyed, "Of all the people to bring here, the idiot! My mum will have a fit when she sees Amy."
"Hey Sam," Amy smiled as she reached the group, "Where's J?"
"Josh is dancing with Donna I think, so why don't you just leave them alone!" Sam replied, with barely veiled contempt.
"So he's finally screwing his secretary!" Amy said, her contempt matching Sam's, "I always knew that would happen!" she added, not looking the least bit scared by the identical looks of anger on the faces of the 6 people she was standing with.
"First of all," Toby spat out venomously, "Donna was not Josh's secretary, she was his assistant. Second of all you are talking about the current White House Press Secretary, and the Chief of Staff, so let's show a little respect shall we. And thirdly, they are just friends, but I suppose you wouldn't know much about that would you Amy?" There was a stunned silence, before Amy turned around and stalked of, dragging her date behind her.
"Way to go Tobus!" CJ exclaimed, clearly surprised by the apparent feeling in Toby's words. Toby shrugged his shoulders,
"I was only saying what everyone was thinking!" he replied, "Zoey, I think now would be about a good time to get your mother to ask the Secret Service to throw their arses out of the party, before our plan gets ruined entirely, don't you?"
"Just leave it to me," Zoey replied, "By the way, speaking of the plan, did you guys and my parents get our little plan set up in the boathouse?"
"Yep," CJ replied, before Toby could open his mouth, "Everything is set up and one of the catering staff will go in there at 9.15 to light all of the candles and leave the champagne. And…….I have the key right here!" she pulled a small key out of her evening bag.
The group exchanged satisfied smiles before Zoey and Charlie headed off in search of her mother.
"We better find Josh and tell him the coast is clear," Sam said, looking around the room for him, finally spotting Donna's face peeking round a door in the corner. He waved at her and gave her a thumbs up and a couple of seconds later, Josh followed her back to the group, his hand pressed to the small of her back as he ushered her along, still looking left and right checking the coast was clear.
"Has she gone?" Josh asked hopefully,
"Yeah, and Zoey's just gone to arrange having her kicked out of the party!" CJ replied with a grin, "You know you guys never said whether you like our dresses!" she added, with a sideways glance at Toby.
"You all look very beautiful," Toby all but muttered, "Now if you will excuse me, I see a bottle of scotch over there with my name on it." And with that he shuffled off in the direction of the bar. CJ watched him go, with a slightly bemused smile on her face, and turned to Donna, "So shall we go and scout out some cute guys then?" she asked with a wink as Sam pulled Mallory onto the dance floor in the centre of the room. Donna looked sideways at Josh, who grinned and said, "I'm gonna go join Toby at the bar!"
"Be careful of your sensitive system!" Donna called after his retreating back, a gentle smile flashing across her face as he waved a hand at her without looking back and said something inaudible over the music.
"So are you nervous about later?" CJ asked as they wandered around the outside of the dance floor.
"I'm terrified!" Donna admitted with a small smile, "I mean whoever wrote that letter obviously has pretty strong feelings, and I don't want to hurt them. I mean what if they really aren't my type, what do I say to them?"
"Don't be silly, just be honest, you can't help the way you feel anymore than they can. And anyway, I'm sure it won't come to that, I bet it'll be your perfect guy waiting there for you!" CJ replied, smiling at the wistful and hopeful expression that crossed her friend's face at those words.
"Well," Donna sighed, "We shall see in about half an hour!"
"C'mon, don't think about it now, let's go drag Toby and Josh around the dance floor!"
Josh stood in the doorway to the boathouse in shock, looking at the decorations inside.
"Hello?" he called, a little uncertainly, confused by the lack of person there. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, glancing at his watch. It said 9.15, which meant that it was actually dead on 9.30, since his watch did actually suck, as Donna loved to remind him on a regular basis. He started to pace nervously as the minutes passed, getting more and more confused by the minute. Where was this girl? He wondered, had she just decided that he wasn't actually worth all the bother and decided not to show?
He looked around the boathouse a bit more, taking in all the candles, the bottle of champagne and small sofa in the corner, covered with a blanket, which gave a perfect view out of the window of the moonlit lake. He sat down on the sofa. Less than a minute later, he got up and resumed his pacing.
Donna glanced at her watch. It had just gone 9.30, so she excused herself from the group of people that she had been talking to and slipped quietly out of the room and started the short walk down to the boathouse. Her departure did not go unnoticed by Sam, Mallory, Zoey, Charlie, CJ, Toby, Abbey, or Jed and soon after they followed her out and snuck out behind her, being careful to stay quiet and in the shadows so they wouldn't get caught following her. Donna paused at the entrance to the boathouse, her hand resting on the door handle. She took a deep breath and opened the door…………
Josh looked up as the door opened and stopped his pacing dead in his tracks at the sight of Donna standing in the doorway, looking as beautiful as ever.
"Josh?"
"Donna?" they said simultaneously, surprise mirrored in their faces.
"What are you…" they started to say together, before trailing off looking a little sheepish. Josh smiled,
"You first" he said, ever the gentleman.
"Josh?" Donna said, her voice coming out in a whisper, "YOU sent me the letter?" Josh looked confused,
"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing." He replied, "It was you right? Who sent me that letter? Come to think of it, the scent that was on the letter was like your perfume."
"I didn't send you a letter!" Donna replied, looking bewildered, "You sent me one that smelt of your aftershave!" She took a step forward into the boathouse, and the door swung shut behind her. Unbeknownst to the pair, who were still trying to take in the weird situation that they had found themselves in, CJ had turned the key in the lock, and the group of conspirators were all huddled around the door trying to hear what was going on inside.
"I didn't!" Josh protested, his voice rising to an almost squeak in his surprise. "You sent me one!" Donna rolled her eyes at him, and went and sat on the sofa with a sigh.
"I knew it was too good to be true. I knew that no-one really felt that way about me!" she said, looking down at the floor in sadness. Josh shifted uncomfortably and then sat down beside her on the sofa, wrapping her up in a bear hug.
"They'd be a fool not too Donnatella." He said sincerely, stroking her hair with one hand as he held her. Donna pulled back suddenly,
"I'm gonna kill them!" she exclaimed suddenly. Josh looked confused,
"Who!" he asked.
"All of them!" she replied, "Sam, Mal, Charlie, Zoey, CJ, Toby. I bet you this was all their little set up, I mean the girls are always going on at me about you and I being the perfect couple. This has their fingerprints all over it." Josh frowned slightly,
"You are so right! C'mon, lets go give them hell!" he said, jumping up, grabbing her hand and heading towards the door. "Uhh Donna," he said, as he tried to open the door, "I think the doors locked!"
"Are you kidding me!" Donna said, sounding quite annoyed as she also started to tug on the door handle, with no success, "Uggh! I am so gonna kill them if we ever get out of here!" she half growled, although the truth of the matter was she wasn't that angry, more touched by their friends' concern for their happiness. "What are you doing?" she asked as Josh moved away from the door and started to examine the champagne bottle.
"Well, if you are right and they went to all this trouble to set this up, we may as well enjoy this very nice bottle of champagne that they left out for us!" he replied with a mischievous grin. Donna laughed, and nodded in agreement.
"Ok then, well pour me a glass why don't you, and come and sit on the sofa with me!" she said, deciding she may as well enjoy the time alone with one her best friends who she didn't see on a one to one basis that often anymore, due to the pressure of their jobs.
"Can anyone hear what they are saying?" Sam whispered, finally giving up trying to hear through the door as it was a little bit cramped with 8 people clustered around it.
"I think we've been found out," Charlie replied, "but they don't sound that mad, ooh wait, I just heard the champagne cork pop, looks like they are getting into the swing of things!"
"Ok, let's leave them to it for a while; you kids have a party to get back to!" Jed whispered, "It's not like they can go anywhere!"
The plotters all nodded their agreement and snuck quietly back up to the house to rejoin the party.
Back in the boathouse Josh and Donna had sat down on the sofa and were happily chatting and drinking the champagne. Donna had the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, but she was still shivering slightly.
"You cold?" Josh asked. She nodded her reply as she took a sip of her champagne.
"Come here!" Josh said, holding an arm out so she could put her head on his shoulder, "wanna share the blanket too?" Donna nodded and curled up next to Josh with her head on his shoulder and his arm around her. He shook out the blanket to its full size and wrapped it around them both.
"That's better!" Donna said with a smile, "Thanks."
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes listening to the music floating down from the house, both feeling completely relaxed and happy, before Donna looked up at Josh with a child-like look on her face and said,
"So why do you think they did it?" Josh looked down at her, his brown eyes meeting her blue ones,
"Maybe they see something we don't? Or," he hesitated, "something that we have both hidden from for so long that it we don't know how to face it." He felt her body stiffen slightly at his words as she moved her eyes away from his and looked down at the floor.
God she is so beautiful, he thought, and this feels so right, she's my best friend and I love her. Whoa! Where did that come from! He groaned as the realisation hit him, oh my God, it's true, I love her. Sam was right! I can't screw this up. Donna's soft voice startled him out of his reverie,
"Josh………Josh? Are you ok?"
He looked startled for a moment and then lifted her chin up with his hand so that he could look her in the eyes.
"Yeah," he whispered, clearing his throat, "I'm fine." Donna smiled up at him, completely relaxed in the intimate position they found themselves.
"Awww I love this song! Donna exclaimed, sitting up and smiling, as the sound of James Blunt's 'You're beautiful' drifted through the walls. She sat there mouthing the words, swaying slightly in her seat. Josh watched her, a gentle smile on his face,
"Donna?" he asked, "Would you like to dance?"
"Sure!" Donna smiled, as Josh stood up and took her hand, pulling her to her feet and into his arms. They stood there, swaying gently. This is nice, Donna thought, I've never felt this comfortable dancing before. She frowned slightly at path her thoughts were taking, then brushed them aside and lay her head on Josh's shoulder.
Josh smiled, as he felt her move almost imperceptibly closer. The music stopped and changed into a slightly more lively song, but Josh and Donna remained where they were, swaying together. After a couple of minutes, Josh pulled back slightly,
"Donna," he said, "the songs finished."
"I know," she replied, lifting her head slightly, and looked him in the eye, "it just feels nice, that's all." Josh held her gaze for a moment,
"Yeah it does," he whispered huskily, closing the distance between them and pressing his lips against hers.
TBC
Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think!