D is for Donuts (Leo / Senior Staff)
The Meeting
Leo was fast losing patience. Thirty minutes earlier, the senior staff had started a meeting debating an issue that had now long since slipped out of his mind. They continued to debate, but the point of the argument was lost, amid a substantial amount of head crashing between Sam and Toby.
The reason behind the head crashing? Simple. Sam was in a 'can do, will do' mood, and Toby was in a 'its never gonna happen' one. Quite frankly, the resultant bickering was just plain tiresome, and apparently never ending.
To his left, Josh appeared to be attempting to look up Mandy's skirt. Normally Leo might have reprimanded him for it, but not that day. He didn't blame Josh for looking for a distraction, if he'd been a lesser man, he might have given it a go himself.
To his right, CJ was picking at a donut, apparently disinterested in the conversation that was going on. Again, there was no blame to be apportioned there. Suddenly though, she looked up, a metaphorical light bulb appearing over her head, leaving Leo to wonder if he might have underestimated her, even more so when she cut into Toby and Sam's sniping.
"Can I say something?" she asked Leo, a serious expression on her face.
He nodded, "Go right ahead."
She looked down at the donut and then over at Toby and Sam, "Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. One sees a donut and the other a hole. I have made this observation, I'm looking at you two, and that is all."
As CJ sat, an amused expression on her face, clearly inwardly laughing at her own joke, Leo could only fight the urge to groan. All the more so when Mandy piped up,
"That's pretty funny CJ. Is that Dr Zeuss?"
CJ beamed, "No. Oscar Wilde. And it IS funny. Don't you think Leo?"
Leo shook his head, not amused by CJ's class clown antics in the slightest. He eyed her disapprovingly, "No."
She pouted, childishly, "I thought it was funny. And cultured. The President would like it."
He rolled his eyes, "So go and tell him then." He turned to Toby and Sam, "And you two, why don't you go outside and beat each other to a pulp. And as for you," his gaze landed on Mandy who was now smiling at Josh flirtatiously, genuinely or not, Leo neither knew nor cared, "and you," he finished up looking at Josh, "get a room…"
They trailed out, looking like kicked puppies and he felt a slight stab of guilt. Then again, it was nothing they didn't deserve; sometimes, between the infighting, the lechery, and the bad jokes, it was like he was dealing with a group of 8th graders rather than the Senior Staff of the President of the United States. It was a miracle they ever got anything done.
With peace restored in his office he sat back and reached for the last donut from the plate in front of him. He held it up peering through the hole and started to laugh.
On reflection, CJ's contribution had been pretty witty after all.