Chapter 6
As Josh left Toby's office he was excited, pumped even! They could make college tuition more affordable, he just needed to figure out how to finance it. 'Hello' he heard as he turned to see Donna walking towards him. 'Hey' he replied. She looked amazing, he had no idea how given that she wouldn't have gone to bed until a few hours ago. He begun to tell her about the article he'd read but then he looked at her again, she deserved to know why he was doing this. It was because of his conversation with matt and the little prompt from Donna to help more people.
When Donna walked into the office she was ready. Ready to start the first day of getting over Josh. She would carry on as if nothing had happened and like she didn't want anything else to happen. She'd talked herself into this and she definitely wasn't going to be swayed. She walked down the hallway and before she could prepare herself, he was there. She took a breath before saying 'hello'. God she hadn't meant for that to be so...sultry. When he looked at her she tried to calm her nerves, the feelings wouldn't go away overnight but as they talked about the 'rock the vote' event she felt like things between them could just carry on without any weirdness.
They'd been sat by the bar in Boston when Josh suddenly got up and walked into the crowd of people listening to Aimee Mann. Donna followed him with her eyes before realising that he'd spotted Amy Gardner in the crowd. 'Nothing changes' she said to herself before drinking the rest of her beer. She was left behind while Josh went off chasing Amy. 'Hey I'm going to the bar, want another one of those?' Carol asked as she approached the table. 'Sure' Donna said, knowing she shouldn't have anymore as their flight home was in a couple of hours. Even though it was over between Amy and Josh, there was still that possibility that it could start up again at any point and Donna didn't think she could cope with that again. It was hard last time but she felt she'd covered herself well. Now that they'd shared a kiss and were trying to move on, having Amy back on a more permanent basis meant that she'd have to cover herself even more. She looked out at the crowd, spotting his crazy hair from afar to see he and Amy were talking. She knew he wasn't lying when he said he was busy, too busy for a relationship but she hoped that if he did have more time it wouldn't be Amy he'd look for. God, Donna thought 'I really need to get over him' as she looked around all the guys here either worked on the campaign or were 19. She needed to meet someone new, someone she could have a relationship with. As she spotted Carol on her way back from the bar she was determined to meet someone to take her mind off of Josh Lyman, maybe not here in a room full of college kids but back in D.C would be a good place to start.
He didn't want to look at Donna differently but he was. He had always thought she was beautiful but now he knew what it felt like to kiss her he had to work extra hard to not think about her. He had to walk away from her in the bar in Boston. He had needed to talk to Amy but he had to walk away coz her football knowledge astounded him and she made a lot sense when he thought about it. He walked away because he knew he'd end up kissing her again. In the middle of the bar in front of everyone.
As he and Sam boarded the plane home he saw Donna up ahead with Carol just about to take their seats. 'I need to talk to Donna' Josh said as Sam placed his bag in the overhead locker. 'Okay' he replied as he took the seat next to Toby.
Josh walked up to where Dona and Carol were standing as they started to put their backpacks into the lockers. 'Hey' he said, a little nervous. 'Hey' she replied, not looking at him as she struggled to close the locker. 'You're sitting next to me' he said. 'I know. I booked the seats' she said as she pushed the locker closed. 'I didn't know if you'd still want me to sit with you' he said quietly with trepidation. She turned to look at him before nodding and getting into the seat nearest the window. Carol was in the opposite aisle seat with C.J. Josh looked over to see they were looking through the airline magazine before he sat down next to Donna. 'I'm sorry I left pretty rapidly earlier' he said as she stared out of the window. 'It's fine' she said not turning around. 'I had to talk to Amy about Stackhouse ' he said as she finally turned to catch his eye. 'It's fine. Really'. He knew it hadn't been 'fine' but Donna would never want to admit it. 'You know that it's over between Amy and I? I'm not looking to get back with her' Josh asked, catching her eye. 'Yeah' she said as she buckled her seatbelt. Josh followed her lead and bucked his seatbelt. 'I just wanted you know that. In case you thought that's why I went to talk to her' he said. 'I didn't think that you were' Donna said, shaking her head. 'Good' he replied, exhaling loudly.
He lay his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes before remembering what he had wanted to tell Donna. 'Hey so we're trying to help out parents with college tuition' he said before taking the article out of his pocket and having it to Donna. He watched her as she read it quickly before looking up at him. 'That's amazing' she said with a huge smile on her face. 'Coz of Matt Kelley?' Donna asked. 'Partly, but also because of you'. 'Me? What did I do?' Donna asked. 'You said I should work on making things a little easier for people who work hard to provide for their families' he said, never taking his eyes off her. 'So I'm going to try' he added. She looked up at him, staring into his eyes before looking away. 'I'm glad that you took my advice' she said, fussing with the magazines in front. 'It was good advice' he replied. They watched as the flight attendants showed them the safety procedure before announcing they were ready to depart. Josh looked over at Donna as she stared out of the window, once the election was over he would talk to her but until then he had to stay focused. Easier said than done.