Pt. 8

41 minutes. In 41 minutes, I managed to get home, shower, change into a clean suit, shave, brush my teeth, get bagels, and get back here. It might have been a bit presumptuous, but I also packed a duffel bag with clothes for tomorrow and some bathroom stuff. I’m just saying, she said I could hold her while she sleeps anytime I want, so I thought ahead. Now, I just need to find a parking spot and we can move onto the kissing portion of the day.

Not to put any pressure on myself, but this has got to be some kiss. Let’s face it; I blew it big time this morning. I woke up holding the love of my life, told her I wanted to be with her forever, then got up and left. Not smooth; not smooth at all.

To make up for this colossal mistake, I need romance. Not to worry, I’ve got a plan. I’m going to take Donna to the little park down the street from her apartment. It’s not big, but there’s a huge willow tree in the center of it, and when you stand under it, all these limbs surround you and you’re basically invisible to the outside world. I’m going to pick up Donna and take her there, and then I’m going to kiss the hell out of her under the willow tree. That’s really the best I can do with only 41 minutes of prep time.

I finally find a parking spot but leave the car running with the air on, due to the disgustingly hot August weather, and then run up the three flights to Donna’s apartment, taking two to three steps at a time. I knock when I get to her apartment and I’m almost glad that it takes her a minute to get to the door, because I’m out of breath from the running and tripping. Did I mention that I tripped about half way up the steps and hit my knee really hard? No? Well, I did and it hurts.

When I hear her turning the lock, my stomach starts to get butterflies. When she opens the door I lose all ability to think, and I drop the bagels, push her walker out of the way, grab her around the waist, pulling her close to me and kiss her. So much for the willow tree.

**********

Oh, wow. Josh is kissing me. I mean really kissing me. His lips are soft and strong and ohh…he just licked my bottom lip. That was nice. Now his tongue is kind of dancing with mine and it’s slow and warm and …amazing. This is the most astonishing kiss of my life. His hands are, hell I don’t know where. I think one is on my cheek, and mine are… well, I’m not sure about that either. I can’t really feel any part of my body except my lips and tongue and I’m a bit lightheaded, and I’m hoping this is never going to end.

Ok, now I feel his hands. They’re in my hair and he’s kind of massaging my scalp and running his thumbs over my cheeks. And he’s doing something new with the kiss too. Oh, I like this. He’s sucking on my bottom lip, and using his teeth ever so gently to kind of chew on me. It’s very…man I wish I were running at full capacity. My hands have found their way to his chest, and I’m just kind of tugging on his shirt, trying to pull him closer to me. I’ve also decided that there is a new number one on the Letterman list.

Oh my goodness, I could faint. He’s moved away from my lips now, and at first I was disappointed, but now he’s doing that nibbling thing on my ear and I’m not so steady. Someone is making these tiny little moans and sighs, and I think it might be me, but I’m not sure. Now he’s moved on to my neck, which is ticklish, and wait, now he’s back to my mouth and the very tip of his tongue is swirling around mine, and I need to sit down, or maybe just lean into him a bit more. Yeah, I like the leaning thing.

Finally, yet all too soon, he pulls away. My lips kind of chase after him and he kisses the corner of my mouth once, twice, and then his lips are gone. I open my eyes to see my front door wide open and my eighty-year old upstairs neighbor walking down the stairs shaking her head and smiling. Come to think of it, I’m smiling too.

“Good morning.”

I can’t really speak, so I just nod and sigh and he pulls me close and kisses me again. This is going to be a good day.

**********

It takes several tries to get out of Donna’s apartment this morning. After the first kiss, which is nothing less than spectacular, I let go of her and find the bagels on the floor and we go into the kitchen to eat, but once we get in there and she’s facing away from me, I become fascinated with kissing her neck. She turns towards me and we kiss for quite a while and then we stop again. This time, we actually get the coffee poured into one of the coffee mugs, and by we I mean me, before we have to break and kiss some more. We stop again to notice that we’re now running late, so I let her go and get her stuff and the bagels to take to the car. I make it all the way to the front door before I have to turn around and kiss her some more, then I finally leave. When I get back upstairs to help her down, she’s pouting a level one pout and saying that she missed me. Well, what can I to do? I already told you I have no power over her pout, so I kiss her again, you know, for several minutes. We make it down two flights of stairs before we kiss again, and then to the front step of her building. That kiss takes a while. When I open her car door and help her inside, there are a few quick kisses, but when I get in on my side, there’s a good five-minute make-out session. On the way to the office, we get honked at three separate times for sitting through lights because we’re too busy kissing to notice that they’ve turned green. Then, when we get to the White House, there’s one more lingering kiss before she wipes the lipstick off me, we put on our professional faces and go inside. How am I going to make it through the day?

**********

When we get into the office, which wasn’t as easy as most mornings, there's a message on my desk from Carol. Josh’s meeting with CJ and Leo is set for 8:30, just before senior staff. I know that CJ's going to give him a hard time, and I feel like I should warn him or at lest feel bad for him. However, instead of feeling bad, I’m just wishing I could be there to watch it. CJ passes me on her way to Leo’s office a few minutes later and winks. Josh comes out of his office right after her, holding the bagels.

“I thought you bought those for me.” I’m absolutely amazed that I can speak to him without mauling him right here on my desk, but somehow I’ve switched into assistant mode. And as Josh’s assistant, I would never maul him. Now, the second I’m out of this place… In fact, maybe we should go out for lunch.

“I’m meeting with Leo and CJ and I thought I should bring bagels.” He looks a little nervous.

I, of course, act innocent. “What’s the meeting about?”

“It’s about…you know.” His eyes get big and he waves his hand between us.

I’m trying hard not to laugh. “What if you don’t come back alive?”

“Well, I’ve left everything to you, so you’re going to have to take care of my mom,” he says, then winks and walks off, leaving me in shock with my mouth hanging open. He’s kidding right? He doesn’t sound like he’s kidding, but he must be kidding. Right?

He takes four or five steps then comes back, pulls a bagel out of the bag and puts it on my desk before smiling and leaving again. I’m still sitting in shock. Kidding, right?

**********

I walk into Leo’s office, and CJ’s already sitting on the couch waiting for me. I notice right away that the door to the oval office is open. I’m guessing Leo’s going to want to close that in a minute so he can yell at me.

“Josh, come in. What the hell do you want?” Oh man, he’s in a bad mood too.

I put the bag of bagels on his desk and answer weakly, “I brought bagels.”

“Oh, hell. What did you do?” CJ laughs from her spot on the couch. Damn, I can’t catch a break.

“Nothing. Well, something, but it’s nothing really, except that it’s everything and I can’t and won’t change it now, so we’re going to have to deal with it but it’s not going to be a big deal because CJ’s a genius and we’re midway into the second term and no one really gives a shit about me anyway, and everyone loves her right now because of the accident and she can’t do anything wrong so now’s the time to do it when no one can bash her and therefore they can’t bash me and you know my dad would be thrilled, so as his friend you should be thrilled for me and we all know she’s going to be the boss and run me like she does here at work, so CJ should be happy too and if you have to transfer her you can but my work would suffer and you know it and it’s not like anything’s changed, I’ve always felt this way I’ve just never told her until now so there’s no reason to think we’re going to act any differently at work…” I finally stop because I’m going to faint if I don’t breathe. Where did all that come from?

Leo looks at CJ and then at me. “Josh, you better not be telling me what I think you’re telling me.”

I look to CJ for help, but she’s giving me an evil eye. “You sent me there Leo, you knew.”

“I knew how you felt, I didn’t know you’d act on it. Josh, you work for the President!”

“I didn’t act on it,” I say. Then I add weakly, “not then.”

“Not then?” He’s yelling now, just as I suspected. I walk over to shut the door to the Oval Office, but President Bartlet walks in before I have the chance. Oh, please no.

“What’s going on?” He asks with a smile as CJ stands up next to me. “Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

Leo looks straight at me and gives me a ‘you’re about to be killed’ smile. “Why don’t you tell the President what you just told us, Josh?”

I’m horrified. Please tell me this isn’t happening. I have to tell the president of the United States that I’m in love with my assistant? This can’t be happening. “I don’t think I can. I was kind of…”

“Rambling like an idiot?” CJ picks now to talk?

“On a roll is what I was going to say, CJ.”

“You talked so long your face turned purple.”

The President interrupts us. “Someone tell me what’s going on.”

Leo looks at me expectantly. I look over at CJ, pleading for help, but she shakes her head. Finally, I look up at the President and say in the most casual voice I can manage, “Donna and I have discovered that we…would like to…what I mean is…I have feelings, strong feelings, very strong, and she’s not totally unaffected by me either, so we talked because Sam said we had to, and we would like to, I mean we’re going to begin to…outside of the office of course, we’re going to…well we’re not going to…you know…until she’s running at semi-full capacity, but we’re going to…see each other in a non boss-assistant like manner.” They’re all looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, which I can’t fault them for considering how high and fast my voice got at the end.

Finally, the President speaks. “What the hell are you talking about?” I can’t really fault him for that either. What I just said didn’t make any sense at all.

“I’m in love with Donna sir, and she’s in love with me. Well, that won’t be confirmed for another week, but I’m pretty sure.”

“What? Never mind. I got the love part. What I didn’t get was the semi-full capacity part.” CJ starts coughing when he says that and Leo looks down at a file on his desk. They obviously know what I was talking about and are as mortified as I am that I now have to explain it to the leader of the free world.

“That was, umm…referring to her…current physical limitations.”

“What do her physical limitations have to do with anything?” he asks.

“Well, Mr. President, I was saying, and I never should have mentioned it, but I was saying that we aren’t going to…” I can’t say this. I can’t.

“You’re not going to what?”

“Make…please Sir.” I’m begging him not to make me say it.

“Make what?”

I look at the ground. “We aren’t going to…make love…until she’s feeling better. That’s what I was saying.”

“Now Josh, why would you tell us something like that? That’s none of our business.” And then it happens. CJ starts it and the others join in. They laugh. And they’re not just laughing; they’re laughing hysterically. CJ is crying she’s laughing so hard, and Leo is slapping his desk. As for the president, he doesn’t laugh, but he’s got that gleam that he gets when he knows he’s won.

I look at them and I know they’ve got me. I shake my head and sigh in relief. “Having fun with my humiliation, Mr. President.”

“Don’t I always?” CJ’s now laughing so hard that she’s holding on to my shoulder so she doesn’t fall.

“But…I’m dating Donna. Don’t any of you care?”

Leo looks at me and smiles. “No, not really, we just wanted to make you sweat.”

“You don’t care?”

“CJ, do we care?” he asks CJ.

“I’ve got a plan Sir. It’s not going to be a problem.”

He seems ready for this answer, but I am dumbfounded. She has a plan? “You have a plan?”

“Like I didn’t know this was going to come up some day? Of course I have a plan.”

“But, you aren’t shocked? At all?”

“No.”

“No? Leo?”

“No.”

”Mr. President?” Surely he’s shocked.

“Leo told me about it an hour ago. I just wanted in on the fun.”

“The fun? You call this fun?”

“Yes, don’t you?”

“No Sir, this isn’t fun at all.”

“Really? It’s fun for me.”

“Me too,” adds CJ. Leo just nods.

“Wait a minute. An hour ago? How did you know an hour ago? This didn’t even happen until 5:45 this morning.”

“Oh,” says CJ. “I called Donna this morning after I talked to you.”

“And she told you?” My voice is doing the octave thing again. My girlfriend of less than three hours has already sold me out? Not that I can blame her, I would’ve done the same thing to her. We pick on each other; it’s what we do. But just three hours after we…whatever we did?

“Let’s just say I did some investigating and found out the truth.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Josh,” says Leo. “I’d think you’d be happy that we’re ok with this.”

“I am. I really am. I just…” I look back at CJ and narrow my eyes at her. “What do you know?”

“You don’t really want to discuss that here, in front of everybody, do you?” she replies with a smirk.

My rub my face with my hands. “No, I guess not.”

“I didn’t think so, cuddle boy.”