Happy Thoughts
Part 6
"Hey Josh, can I get you to look at this for a moment?" Sam asked, walking into the office.
He had his coat in his hand and looked at the time. It was already 8:30 and he just wanted to go home. He sighed and took the paper from Sam. "What am I looking at?"
"Remarks for the President about the environment for the campaign. One of my staffers wrote it and I'm just worried it's a little too…"
"Incendiary?" Josh finished. "Yeah. It is. The President can't say this."
"I was worried about that." Sam sighed. "Everything they write is like this."
"Maybe it's time to fire them." Josh chuckled.
"Maybe." Sam agreed. "Hey, you want to grab dinner?"
"I can't." He shook his head. "I'm going home to have dinner with Donna."
"She could come with us."
"She is cooking and I don't want to miss it." He explained.
"How very domestic of you two." Sam smiled. "Ok, well enjoy. I can't remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal."
"You just need to get yourself a girlfriend like Donna." Josh chuckled.
"I can't even get my staffers to follow my orders, it's an election year and let's be honest that there aren't many women out there like Donna. But yeah, I'll get right on that." Sam laughed. "Have a good night."
"I intend to." He said before leaving.
Josh approached Donna's door and went in without knocking. He saw Donna with her back to him, bending to get something out of the oven and stood there watching for a moment.
"Please stop staring." She laughed as she closed the oven door. She put the tray on top of the oven and turned to face him.
"Never." He grinned.
"Dinner should be done in a moment." She explained, coming over to give him a kiss. "How was the rest of your day? Did Dakota find those polling files you were looking for?"
"Yeah, she did." He answered, going over and grabbing a beer from the fridge. "They were right where you said they would be."
"Imagine that." She smiled.
"What's for dinner?" He couldn't help but be curious. So far, all he knew was there were rolls.
"Nothing fancy. Just some baked chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and rolls." She replied.
"That's like a feast, Donna." He laughed. "You didn't have to go to all that trouble."
"It didn't take that long." She shrugged.
"Want some help?" He offered, feeling bad about her cooking so much. She ended up cooking for him about three times a week. She said it was alright—she had more free time in the evenings than he did. But still, he felt guilty for some reason. Maybe because the last time she cooked for him was when he was recovering from his gunshot wound.
"If you want you could start putting the food on the table."
"Consider it done." He took the rolls first, grabbing one and taking a huge bite out of it before plopping it onto his plate. Then he went back in for the mashed potatoes. "So how was your day?"
"Fine." She answered, focusing on the chicken instead of looking at him.
"Did you do anything interesting?" He wanted to see if she would tell him why she was in the Minority Leaders' office. He took the broccoli to the table and watched her.
"Um, not particularly."
She still wasn't looking at him or volunteering any information, instead she moved the chicken to the table before sitting down.
"So why were you at Tripplehorn's office today?" He realized a direct question would be harder for her to evade.
"Do we have to talk about this now?" She questioned. "We're getting ready to eat."
"We can talk while we eat." He pointed out, sitting down.
She started to pile food on her plate and he did the same thing. Once her plate was full she looked over at him.
"I went there to ask him a question." She explained. "And I think we both know what the question was."
"Ah, so they finally put you on the team." He guessed as much when they were on the phone earlier today. "I was wondering when that shoe would drop."
"They actually made me leader of the team." She corrected.
"Really?" He was surprised by that.
"Yeah." She nodded, beginning to eat her dinner.
"Why you?" The question came out before he could filter it or soften it so it came out harsher than he intended. He could tell by the look on Donna's face that she wasn't happy. "I mean…"
"I know exactly what you mean, Josh." She interrupted, staring at her plate while she continued eating.
He stayed quiet for a few moments. It seemed weird to him that they would make her the leader of the project since she had never headed up anything like this before, but he shouldn't have said anything because it was obviously a sore subject for her. "I only asked because I thought they already had a leader for the project."
"My boss decided to replace him since he wasn't making any progress." Donna replied, finally looking over at him. "But that might not have been entirely his fault since someone has been going around warning Congress not to listen to us."
"Gee, I wonder who that could be." He chuckled softly.
"Yeah, I wonder." She rolled her eyes.
"Donna, you have to know that it's my job to stop your group."
"I know that." She nodded. "I was only mad for a moment because I understand that you have a job to do. But you have to understand that I also have a job to do."
"Oh believe me, I am fully aware of that." He scoffed.
"I know you don't like my job. Can we just have a nice dinner together instead of talking about work and politics?" She asked.
"I'm simply taking an interest in your day."
"You're trying to get information about my project." She corrected him.
"And you aren't going to tell me anything?" He guessed.
"Nope." She shook her head.
"Alright." He decided to give up. The last thing he wanted to do was fight about this with her. Her meeting with Tripplehorn concerned him though. The Minority Leader wasn't happy with him or the President right now, and he wouldn't put it past the man to try and stick it to the administration by working with Donna on the amendment. This was something he would have to go to Leo about tomorrow.
But for tonight, he wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend.
It still felt weird calling Donna that after she had been his assistant for so long. It was a nice change, but still a change he was getting used to. He had never moved this quickly in a relationship with anyone. They started leaving clothes and stuff at each other's places almost immediately. They only spent a night apart if work dictated it. Hell, he even had a key to her place.
Things with Donna were good though. They worked as a couple and he tried not to think that they were moving too fast. He tried to remind himself that although they have been a couple for weeks, they have known each other for years. It still didn't do anything to keep him from periodically panicking about the fact that he was in love with her.
He couldn't pinpoint when it happened, when he realized that he was in love with her. It wasn't a sudden thing. In fact, he was fairly certain it just snuck up on him. Maybe it had always been there but he wasn't ready to acknowledge it. Either way, he was hopelessly in love with her and unsure what to do about it.
His relationships usually crashed and burned, with it normally being his fault. There was a song from the 70's called "Unlucky in Love" that he always figured was written about him. He didn't want this relationship with Donna to end badly. Honestly he didn't want it to end at all, but he was worried it would.
He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and focused on something else. "You know, my mother called me today."
He saw Donna's face soften and her eyes lit up at the prospect of a different conversation topic.
"How is she doing?"
"She's good." He nodded, taking a drink of his beer. "She's seeing this new guy, Mark."
"I take it you don't like Mark?" She chuckled.
"I don't know Mark." He shrugged.
"But judging by the way you said his name, you don't like him."
"No." He grinned. She knew him too well. "I don't."
"Your mother is a grown woman and she won't let herself be pushed around." Donna pointed out. "She will be fine."
"I know." He nodded. "She asked about you."
"Really? That's nice."
"Yeah." He paused for a moment. "She wondered why there was a different person answering my phones."
"You didn't tell her I quit?" Donna laughed.
"No." He answered.
"Why not?"
"It never came up."
"It's been several weeks." Donna pointed out. "How did it never come up?"
"This was the first time she called the office." He explained.
"So if you didn't tell her I quit, you probably didn't tell her we are dating either."
He could hear the hint of hurt feelings in her tone and frowned. "I hadn't gotten around to that either."
He watched as she continued to eat her dinner and felt bad. "I did tell her about it today. I told her everything about how you quit and we are dating and how we are super happy."
"Good." She replied, still not looking at him.
"We are super happy, right?" He chuckled nervously. That caused her to look over and glare at him.
"What about this face screams super happy to you?" She asked. "While I realize you don't have one of those overly-close relationships with your mother…"
"Which you should be glad about because you don't want to be with a mama's boy…" He interjected.
"I kind of figured that this was the type of news you would want to share with her." She finished her statement.
"Can I explain why I didn't tell her before today?"
"You can do whatever you want." She said, getting up with her now empty plate.
He followed her into the kitchen, trapping her up against the sink and gently turning her to face him. "I didn't tell her before because I didn't want to hear a lecture from her."
She looked at him like he had grown a second head. "A lecture? Honestly?"
"Yes." He nodded. "I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but you are considered a rockstar to my mother. She absolutely adores you. When I mentioned that you quit she screamed into the phone for a solid ten minutes that I needed to do whatever I could to get you to come back. I had to wait until she took a pause to breathe before I could tell her we were dating, which calmed her down until she realized she needed to give me another ten minute lecture about how I am under no circumstances allowed to break your heart."
"Well I guess that is a pretty good reason to put it off." She admitted.
"Why did you think I put it off?"
"It's stupid." She chuckled.
"No it isn't." He assured her. "Tell me."
"It just seemed like maybe you weren't telling her because you didn't want her knowing you were dating me. Like I said, it was stupid."
"Hey, I just didn't want to get lectured." He explained. "It had absolutely nothing to do with you. It was purely self-preservation."
"Ok." She nodded. "What's going on with us tonight?"
"What do you mean?" He questioned.
"We're not having a very good night." She explained.
"It's just an off night for us." He leaned in to give her a kiss. "Nothing more than that."
"Well I don't like it."
"Neither do I." He sighed. "So let's change it."
"How?" She asked.
"We can start with a little bit of this." He grinned before kissing her.
"Hey Margaret." He greeted as he approached Leo's office. "Does he have a minute?"
"Yes. He has exactly three minutes." Margaret nodded. "You can go on in."
He walked to the opened door and knocked on the door frame.
"Come in Josh." Leo greeted before going back to looking at some papers.
"So the Children's Literacy Group is spearheading their campaign with a new leader." He started. "Wanna guess who they chose?"
"Donna?" Leo sighed.
"The one and the same." He sighed too.
"Well we knew this was going to happen eventually." Leo postured. "You've gone to everyone though, right?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "It took a couple of weeks but I've talked to every member of Congress and told them in no uncertain terms that they are not to engage with them on this issue."
"So then what is the problem?" Leo asked, looking up from the papers.
"Donna had a meeting with Tripplehorn yesterday."
"And you are worried that he might…"
"I'm certain he is." Josh interrupted. "I didn't get confirmation from her but I know Tripplehorn's anger with us…"
"With you specifically." Leo pointed out.
"Yeah." He nodded. "And I think he's going to do this to hurt us."
"Well go talk to him." Leo instructed.
"And say what?" He laughed.
"Find something he wants and offer it to him. Do whatever you have to and get him to change his mind. I'm sure I don't have to remind you what will happen if we have to go up against Donna about this."
"No." He shook his head. "You don't have to remind me." If they had to fight against Donna it was going to get ugly and that was the last thing he wanted. "I'll do what I can."
"Is the Minority Leader in?" Josh asked the secretary.
"He is, but he is in a meeting." She answered.
"I can wait." He walked over to an empty chair and sat down. He was only sitting down for a few moments before the door to the office opened and Donna came out with Tripplehorn.
"Thank you." Donna told the man before turning and seeing Josh. The smile that had been on her face fell as she looked back to the Senator.
"Joshua." Tripplehorn greeted. "I can't say I'm surprised to see you."
"Am I becoming that predictable?" Josh joked, standing up and walking over to the two. He knew now for sure that Tripplehorn was helping Donna. There was no other reason for two meetings within two days' time.
"Donna, I'll be in touch."
"Thank you Senator." She smiled at the man before looking at Josh. "Always nice to see you."
"You too." He said as she walked away. He looked at the Minority Leader. "Do you have a moment to spare for me?"
"Of course." Tripplehorn stepped aside to let him in. "What can I do for you today?"
"You can stop helping Donna and the Children's Literacy Group with their amendment project. Involving yourself in this is only going to hurt you." He saw no reason to sugarcoat it.
Tripplehorn smirked. "And just how is it going to hurt me?"
"The White House is not going to let the group pass an amendment. It will get shot down and everyone involved is going to lose." Josh explained.
"Even your former assistant?"
"Even her." He replied, not liking the direction this conversation was going. He needed to course correct and quickly. "You have a couple of failing bridges in your state, isn't that right?"
"Yes." He nodded.
"And your state government has been hesitant to put up the money to fix them."
"Let me guess." Tripplehorn scoffed as he sat back in his chair. "You want to trade money for the bridges in exchange for me not helping Donna."
"In exchange for you not helping the Children's Literacy Group." He corrected the Congressman.
Tripplehorn was quiet for a moment. He thought maybe the man was going to take him up on his offer.
"No." The Congressman shook his head. "I'm going forward with this project."
"Senator…"
"You and the White House can do whatever you need to do. I'll do what I need to do. And we'll see who ends up victorious in the end."
"This is a mistake." Josh warned him.
"We'll see." The man smirked. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a meeting starting in a few minutes. Please see yourself out. Good day Josh."