Running Shoes and Smitten Kittens
At 8:00AM sharp, there was a sharp rap on Juliana's door. It continued with three more knocks, a little less forceful. It was a week since Juliana's gastrointestinal problems at Josh's and the soreness had completely dissipated. Juliana, however, was having trouble pulling on a shoe and hopped towards the door on one foot as she tried to force her shoe onto her foot.
"Just a minute." Juliana yelled at the door as she hopped to it. She stopped trying to force the shoe on her foot and opened the door without looking through the peep hole. The door opened to reveal CJ, decked out in athletic gear.
"You should really ask who it is or something. You never know who is going to be on the other side of the door." CJ scolded as she entered Juliana's home.
"Good morning to you too, CJ!" Juliana said, being overly cheerful. "I knew it was you, there was no reason to double check. Who else would be knocking at my door at exactly 8AM?"
CJ let out a hearty chuckle. "You still getting ready?"
"Naw. Just getting my shoe on. Are we running today, or do I need to bring money for Starbucks?" In the last few weeks that Juliana and CJ had been running together, Juliana found that more often than not she and CJ ended up at Starbucks or some other coffee shop instead of running a full five miles.
"Tuck some money in your bra, you never know where we'll end up." CJ smiled as she talked to Juliana.
Juliana pulled on her shoe and found the sweatshirt that she planned to wear. After pulling her sweatshirt over her head, Jules double checked her hair in the living room mirror and declared herself ready to go.
CJ and Juliana emerged from Juliana's building and began running. It was a few short blocks to the mall and when they reached it, it was a wonderful feeling to be jogging through the monuments, tourists and outdoors. During their run, CJ and Juliana talked off and on, but mostly they just enjoyed each other's company and the run itself. Finally, about 4 miles into the run CJ dropped her pace back to a quick walk. Juliana stopped running and waited for CJ to catch up.
"Okay. This is it. I'm finished for today." CJ said between breaths.
"Did the coffee shop down the street play into your decision at all?" Juliana questioned with a smile spreading across her face. She wasn't about to admit it, but she was more than happy to stop running.
"Okay. Maybe just a little bit." CJ paused to gauge Juliana's reaction. When she could tell that Juliana didn't mind, she continued. "Come on, let's go. The first muffin's on me."
The coffee shop was quite a bit smaller than their usual Starbucks, but it's cozy warmth was a welcome change to the cold day outside. CJ and Juliana ordered their usual drinks, a large regular coffee and an even larger mocha latte with lots of whipped cream. Juliana had wrangled two large armchairs away from a young girl with a laptop by promising to forward her email complaints on to the Speaker of the House and CJ and Juliana quickly settled in to drink their coffee.
"You know, I'm not too sure, but what you promised that girl could quite possibly be unethical." CJ teased.
"Are you going to turn me into the house ethics committee?" Juliana asked before taking a bit of her large muffin.
"No. I like my chair too much."
"Yeah, I thought so."
Both CJ and Juliana were careful to steer their conversations away from job related topics, unless it was something trivial like gossiping about a certain senator's bad clothing choices. CJ, however, had been dying to bring up something a little partisan, so she took advantage a moment when Juliana had her mouth full of muffin to bring it up.
"So, Jules, I may be completely out of line here, but I wanted to bring something up. If I didn't know any better, and it's possible that I don't, I'd say that Josh Lyman is smitten with you." CJ paused and watched Juliana for a response. CJ believed that she and Juliana were pretty good friends, but this might push the limits. CJ watched as Juliana almost choked on her muffin, swallowed with considerable effort and then washed it all down with a gulp of mocha.
"Really?" Juliana croaked out.
"It's not like we sit around all day and talk about our crushes or anything, it's just something I've picked up on. I'm very intuitive in that way." CJ smiled and looked back over to Juliana for more of a reaction. So far, Juliana seemed to be shrinking into her chair and turning a few different shades of crimson.
"I'm surprised he didn't try to get the secret service to make me disappear or something after the hemorrhoid cream." Juliana said with a smile, emerging from her chair a little more.
"If anything I think he liked you even more after that. It was right up his alley. A little embarrassing, but he deserved it. Anyway, I think he's smitten. A smitten kitten. I'm no expert. It's just a hunch."
Juliana smiled. She didn't know if Josh was smitten with her per se, but she knew that there was something more to their relationship that just friendship. Juliana wanted more than anything to confirm CJ's hunch about her and Josh, but she thought better of it.
"Well, Josh has been showing me around Washington." Juliana confirmed for CJ. "He's been really nice, making sure that I know my way around. You know, showing me the good restaurants and some of the sights. It's not like either of us have a lot of time. But, Josh has been really nice."
CJ couldn't conceal her smile. "Aw. That's kind of sweet. Who knew that Josh had it in him. Though I thought Sam would be showing you around town."
"Sam's been a little busy." Juliana countered.
There was a lull in the conversation and Juliana took the opportunity to drink more of her latte. CJ started up a conversation about a new hobby called "letter boxing" that she was thinking of picking up in the rare free time that she ever had and Juliana let the topic of Josh slide. As Juliana listened to CJ talk, she smiled at the idea that Josh was a 'smitten kitten' as CJ put it, and that he was smitten with her.