“I think maybe my head is going to explode.” I admit.
“Maybe we should take a walk or something. Try to de-stress a little before the
next numbers come out…Want to take a walk…or something?” I look up at her
suggestion and see the spark of desire there. It's like someone flipped a switch
or something. I know exactly what I want to do.
“Yeah…I do. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I rush out of the war room, my
fingers already dialing the phone as I hit the door. When I returned 20 minutes
later, Donna is giving me the cold shoulder. I try to get her attention twice and
she insists she is too busy to spare me the time. What the hell? We were fine
just a few minutes ago…okay closer to a half hour ago, but still. All women are
puzzles, but Donnatella Moss is a complete enigma. I rack my brain and try to
figure out where I hopped the tracks. We were talking about stress and
numbers and I thought she was propositioning me, but then I- Got it!
“Donna, I wasn’t blowing you off before.” I begin.
“760 verbal and the best you can come up with is ‘I wasn’t blowing you off’?”
she replies without looking at me.
“I wasn’t!” I ignore her dig since it is somewhat justified. “I left because of you!”
Okay, that came out wrong. “I left to do something to show you how much you
mean to me.” She actually rolls her eyes at me and walks over to the fax
machine to pick up the faxes. I follow her because I can NOT screw this up 24
hours into our new relationship, especially considering the limb I had just
climbed out on.
“Donna, you were right, the stress was getting to me, and then I thought about
what the President said, and I knew what to do…and…why are you walking
away from me again?”
“Josh, relax, we have a lot going on today and you’re very distracted. I
shouldn’t have tried to…just forget about it okay?” She walks further away
from me and starts asking a group of interns about monitoring various Internet
sites. Convinced that she’d just walk away from me again, I decide to shout at
her from where I am standing.
“No, I will not forget about it, Donna Moss. I have been waiting for 8 years to tell
you I am completely in love with you, so you have to know that I don’t want to
screw this up now, but you’re going to have to help me here because you know
I don’t have a clue.”
The whole room goes silent, but I finally get her undivided attention.
“Josh, I think you’ve gone ‘round the bend. You need to take a break.”
“Ahhkay, but you come with me.” Someone snickers. “We’re going to take a
drive downtown; get your minds out of the gutter. Come on Donna, I’ve got a
cab waiting.” She hesitates for a second, but then she takes my hand and I pull
her along with me before she changes her mind. I toss my blackberry to Lou.
“You’re in charge for now. Children, listen to Mommy while I’m gone.” I
admonish as I close the door behind us.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nearly an hour and a half later, I bust open the door to the war room to see all
my busy bees hard at work. I guess Donna was right; nothing fell apart while we
were gone. Lou notices my entrance and starts giving me updates. When she
finishes her spiel, I smile at her.
“Lou you are one gigantic pain in the ass, but you do know your stuff.” I
acknowledge.
“Right back at you.” She cracks a smile. “Where’s Donna?”
“Handling spin on MSNBC.” I nod over at the TV screen where Donna is deftly
handling questions about Latino turnout.
“Eight years, huh?” she enquires without looking away from the screen.
“Eight very long years.” I confirm.
“You’re an idiot.” She pronounces and goes in search of Otto to add yet more
criteria to the Congressman’s speech no doubt. I have someone else I need to
talk to.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Leo, open the damn door.” I holler. “It’s not like you can play possum with the
secret service out here.”
“I’m an old man, Josh.” He tells me as he opens the door and lets me in. “It’s
going to be a very late night. I need some sleep.”
“Old man, my ass. You’ve been an old man for the last 50 years. You might
have even been born old now that I think about it.” I walk over to the mini-bar
and pour us both a drink…just soda, people. “I take it you’ve got your phones
off the hook.”
“I think I mentioned I was trying to sleep.” He grouses and I just smile. “Wait a
second. You’re smiling…you’re down here in my suite sipping soda and
smiling…in the middle of an election day… What did you do?”
“I married Donna.” I beam.
Leo spits out his soda. “Excuse me?”
“We just got back from city hall. If you’d had either of your phones on you
would have heard about it from the President. I needed his help to waive these
bogus requirements for the marriage license. They have a 72 hour waiting
period and required couples counseling. I guess the President was able to
convince them this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision.”
“It wasn’t? Cause I noticed you’ve had a few of those lately.” Now Leo beams
with me. “Your Mother is going to kill you.”
“I made Donna call her. She loves Donna. We had to promise a reception for
everyone after the election.”
“Congratulations, son. It’s about damn time.”
“Thanks, Leo; for everything. If you hadn’t sent me to Nashua…I don’t know
what my life would be like right now, but I know it would never have held the
richness of friends, the meaningful contributions, or the amazing wife that I
have now. I owe you everything.”
“Don’t be stupid. What you have now, you’ve earned. I opened a door, that’s
all.” Leo’s voice turns rough with emotion.
“That’s not all…that’s not even within driving distance of all; and we both know
it. I just want you to know, especially today, how much I…how much you mean
to me.”
Leo just nods over the lump in his throat.
“Take your nap. We’re going to need you on air later tonight.”
“Where’s your bride?”
“Whipping Republican ass on MSNBC.”
“That’s our girl. Why don’t you two come up later and have dinner with me?
Unless that’s not going to work with your romantic plans.” He smirks at me.
“Romantic plans are going to have to wait until after the election is called. We’d
love to join you for dinner.” I give him an awkward hug and go in search of my
wife.
She had just got off the air when I find her. She was taking her mic off and
sharing a joke with one the techs and I just stare at her. My wife. She looks up
and smiles at me; her face shining.
“You forgot to mention the rally in Sacramento.” I tease.
“I guess my mind was on other things.”
“If you can’t focus, I’m going to have to pull you off spin and promote Bram.”
Donna turns on the pout and I melt. “Did you talk to Leo?”
“He wants us to have dinner with him. I told him that was fine, but then I realized
I should’ve asked you first.” I take her left hand in mine and finger the new ring
she’s sporting on her fourth finger. “Sorry?”
“That’s fine. I’d love to have dinner with Leo. My bigger concern is that you
won’t be able to sit still through an entire meal while election returns come in.”
“MY bigger concern is that I won’t be able to keep my hands off you through an
entire meal.” Already my hands are snaking up her arm to rest on her shoulder
and play with the ends of her hair.
“I have faith in you.” She leans in to reward me with a kiss.
“Some good news come in?” Lou asks as she passes by us.
I simply rest my forehead against Donna’s and ignore her. It’s going to be a
very long night.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Before I go out and make my official victory speech, I have some people that
I’d like to thank.” The room quiets down to listen to the President-elect who is
flanked by Leo and Helen. “Clearly, I would not be going out to make the
speech to the nation tonight without the hard work and dedication of each and
every one of you. I, we, can’t thank you enough for giving up food, sleep, and
huge chunks of your time to help put me in office.” Good natured applause and
whoops of victory sounds throughout the room.
“There is one individual here who is more responsible for this moment than any
other. Almost a year ago, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman came
knocking on my door in Houston with this crazy 9 point plan to put me in the
White House…as President. Helen and I laughed him out of town, although
Helen laughed quite a bit more than I did, come to think of it. Honey, why was
that again?”
“Because I couldn’t imagine anyone who would vote for you for President,
Matt.” Helen replies.
“She keeps me humble…Anyway, after giving this 9 point plan careful
consideration, I told Josh I would do it, if he came with me and ran the thing.
Now, I won’t lie to you, the early days were a bit rocky; we both had very
specific ideas about how we wanted to run the campaign and they weren’t
always in sync, but eventually we got our sea legs and managed to win the
Democratic nomination.” The President-elect looks over to where I'm standing
next to Donna. “I couldn’t possibly come up with a suitable way to repay you for
your vision, your confidence in me, and the talent and abilities you provided to
this campaign.” I nod in acknowledgement.
“I do, however, want to extend my sympathies to Donna. I understand Josh
kidnapped her for an impromptu wedding over lunch.” Now there are gasps of
surprise all around us. “We all know how these two are prone to unplanned
expressions of happiness, but Donna if you change your mind, I know people
at city hall and I can make all the paperwork disappear.”
“Thank you, sir, but I think I’ll keep him.” Thinks? She ‘thinks’ she’ll keep me.
“I do think getting married on Election Day was ingenious Josh. You’ll never
forget your Anniversary.” Helen throws in.
“I’m pretty good at remembering Anniversaries, right Donna?” Again with the
eye rolling. What? I am good with Anniversaries!
“Seriously, thanks for coming to Houston, Josh, for leaving the White House
and believing in this when I had doubts myself. Thank you everyone. Enjoy the
party tonight and take tomorrow off.” The President and Vice-President elect
exits with Helen between them to take the stage for their address.
I turn to Donna who is still receiving congratulations and having her ring
fawned over.
“We need to get going.” I tell her and she nods. We’ve got plane tickets for the
Cayman Islands in the morning and we both need to do some packing. After a
few more minutes we are able to extricate ourselves from the crowd and head
out.
When all the hustle of last minute travel is done and we’re sitting calmly in our
first class seats waiting to take off, I look down at where my wife is resting her
head on my shoulder. It occurs to me that we’ve flown like this hundreds of
times before; one of us resting on the other, but we’ve never before had the
luxury of being able to show our feelings for each other when we did.
Another thought occurs to me and I pull out my Blackberry.
“Joshua, you promised no work calls while we were gone.” Donna reminds me
without opening her eyes or moving her head from my shoulder. She is simply
amazing.
“Yeah, but we haven’t actually left yet; we’re still on the ground.” I argues.
“You are such a politician.” She complains.
“Besides, it’s really more of a social call.” I continue to dial. “Sam Seaborn
please…Sam! Hey, thanks…Yeah we’re all pretty pumped…I’m calling because
we’re taking a short vacation and I wanted to stop and see you on the way
back…Very funny, but I don’t think CNN actually EVER reports on the
temperature in Hell…Right…Anyway, we’ll be there Wednesday afternoon. Can
you clear your social schedule for me?...Great! We’ll see you then…I’ve got
some good news to share with you…Oh, and I emailed you some stuff you’re
going to need to get up to speed on...Because I’m the Chief of Staff elect and
I’m going to need my Deputy Chief of Staff to brief me on these things when I
get back…I know you already have a job, but it’s not like it’s a very good
one…Oh, sorry Sam, you’re starting to break up. We’ll see you on
Wednesday…Who’s we?...Me and my wife. Bye Sam!”
Donna shakes her head. “He’s going to kill you.” She tells me as she holds her
hand out for my phone. I give it to her without pause since it is already vibrating
with a return call from Sam. She powers it down and slips it into her bag.
“Good news! Sam is going to be my Deputy.” I grin at her.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, it’s not like I didn’t offer it to you first.”
“That was a joke! That would never have worked and you know it. I think we’ll
both be far better off with me serving as the First Lady’s Chief of Staff.”
“That’s debatable. It’s a whole different wing of the White House, Donna. What
if I need you during the day?”
“Then you’ll call me on the telephone.” She sighs. I’m guessing it’s because
we’ve covered this territory already…several times.
“That sounds awfully inconvenient, Donna. Maybe we could move your office
closer to mine in the West Wing.”
“Maybe we could move your office INTO mine, seeing as it’s so much bigger
than yours.” Ouch! The woman knows just where to strike. “Or, we could
concentrate on the fact that for the next 6 days I will be right next to you; day
and night. You won’t need to use a telephone, an intercom, or even bellow
when you need me.”
“Okay, that is good news.” I kiss her to prove the point. “Very good news.”
Fin.
“Maybe we should take a walk or something. Try to de-stress a little before the
next numbers come out…Want to take a walk…or something?” I look up at her
suggestion and see the spark of desire there. It's like someone flipped a switch
or something. I know exactly what I want to do.
“Yeah…I do. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I rush out of the war room, my
fingers already dialing the phone as I hit the door. When I returned 20 minutes
later, Donna is giving me the cold shoulder. I try to get her attention twice and
she insists she is too busy to spare me the time. What the hell? We were fine
just a few minutes ago…okay closer to a half hour ago, but still. All women are
puzzles, but Donnatella Moss is a complete enigma. I rack my brain and try to
figure out where I hopped the tracks. We were talking about stress and
numbers and I thought she was propositioning me, but then I- Got it!
“Donna, I wasn’t blowing you off before.” I begin.
“760 verbal and the best you can come up with is ‘I wasn’t blowing you off’?”
she replies without looking at me.
“I wasn’t!” I ignore her dig since it is somewhat justified. “I left because of you!”
Okay, that came out wrong. “I left to do something to show you how much you
mean to me.” She actually rolls her eyes at me and walks over to the fax
machine to pick up the faxes. I follow her because I can NOT screw this up 24
hours into our new relationship, especially considering the limb I had just
climbed out on.
“Donna, you were right, the stress was getting to me, and then I thought about
what the President said, and I knew what to do…and…why are you walking
away from me again?”
“Josh, relax, we have a lot going on today and you’re very distracted. I
shouldn’t have tried to…just forget about it okay?” She walks further away
from me and starts asking a group of interns about monitoring various Internet
sites. Convinced that she’d just walk away from me again, I decide to shout at
her from where I am standing.
“No, I will not forget about it, Donna Moss. I have been waiting for 8 years to tell
you I am completely in love with you, so you have to know that I don’t want to
screw this up now, but you’re going to have to help me here because you know
I don’t have a clue.”
The whole room goes silent, but I finally get her undivided attention.
“Josh, I think you’ve gone ‘round the bend. You need to take a break.”
“Ahhkay, but you come with me.” Someone snickers. “We’re going to take a
drive downtown; get your minds out of the gutter. Come on Donna, I’ve got a
cab waiting.” She hesitates for a second, but then she takes my hand and I pull
her along with me before she changes her mind. I toss my blackberry to Lou.
“You’re in charge for now. Children, listen to Mommy while I’m gone.” I
admonish as I close the door behind us.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nearly an hour and a half later, I bust open the door to the war room to see all
my busy bees hard at work. I guess Donna was right; nothing fell apart while we
were gone. Lou notices my entrance and starts giving me updates. When she
finishes her spiel, I smile at her.
“Lou you are one gigantic pain in the ass, but you do know your stuff.” I
acknowledge.
“Right back at you.” She cracks a smile. “Where’s Donna?”
“Handling spin on MSNBC.” I nod over at the TV screen where Donna is deftly
handling questions about Latino turnout.
“Eight years, huh?” she enquires without looking away from the screen.
“Eight very long years.” I confirm.
“You’re an idiot.” She pronounces and goes in search of Otto to add yet more
criteria to the Congressman’s speech no doubt. I have someone else I need to
talk to.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Leo, open the damn door.” I holler. “It’s not like you can play possum with the
secret service out here.”
“I’m an old man, Josh.” He tells me as he opens the door and lets me in. “It’s
going to be a very late night. I need some sleep.”
“Old man, my ass. You’ve been an old man for the last 50 years. You might
have even been born old now that I think about it.” I walk over to the mini-bar
and pour us both a drink…just soda, people. “I take it you’ve got your phones
off the hook.”
“I think I mentioned I was trying to sleep.” He grouses and I just smile. “Wait a
second. You’re smiling…you’re down here in my suite sipping soda and
smiling…in the middle of an election day… What did you do?”
“I married Donna.” I beam.
Leo spits out his soda. “Excuse me?”
“We just got back from city hall. If you’d had either of your phones on you
would have heard about it from the President. I needed his help to waive these
bogus requirements for the marriage license. They have a 72 hour waiting
period and required couples counseling. I guess the President was able to
convince them this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision.”
“It wasn’t? Cause I noticed you’ve had a few of those lately.” Now Leo beams
with me. “Your Mother is going to kill you.”
“I made Donna call her. She loves Donna. We had to promise a reception for
everyone after the election.”
“Congratulations, son. It’s about damn time.”
“Thanks, Leo; for everything. If you hadn’t sent me to Nashua…I don’t know
what my life would be like right now, but I know it would never have held the
richness of friends, the meaningful contributions, or the amazing wife that I
have now. I owe you everything.”
“Don’t be stupid. What you have now, you’ve earned. I opened a door, that’s
all.” Leo’s voice turns rough with emotion.
“That’s not all…that’s not even within driving distance of all; and we both know
it. I just want you to know, especially today, how much I…how much you mean
to me.”
Leo just nods over the lump in his throat.
“Take your nap. We’re going to need you on air later tonight.”
“Where’s your bride?”
“Whipping Republican ass on MSNBC.”
“That’s our girl. Why don’t you two come up later and have dinner with me?
Unless that’s not going to work with your romantic plans.” He smirks at me.
“Romantic plans are going to have to wait until after the election is called. We’d
love to join you for dinner.” I give him an awkward hug and go in search of my
wife.
She had just got off the air when I find her. She was taking her mic off and
sharing a joke with one the techs and I just stare at her. My wife. She looks up
and smiles at me; her face shining.
“You forgot to mention the rally in Sacramento.” I tease.
“I guess my mind was on other things.”
“If you can’t focus, I’m going to have to pull you off spin and promote Bram.”
Donna turns on the pout and I melt. “Did you talk to Leo?”
“He wants us to have dinner with him. I told him that was fine, but then I realized
I should’ve asked you first.” I take her left hand in mine and finger the new ring
she’s sporting on her fourth finger. “Sorry?”
“That’s fine. I’d love to have dinner with Leo. My bigger concern is that you
won’t be able to sit still through an entire meal while election returns come in.”
“MY bigger concern is that I won’t be able to keep my hands off you through an
entire meal.” Already my hands are snaking up her arm to rest on her shoulder
and play with the ends of her hair.
“I have faith in you.” She leans in to reward me with a kiss.
“Some good news come in?” Lou asks as she passes by us.
I simply rest my forehead against Donna’s and ignore her. It’s going to be a
very long night.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Before I go out and make my official victory speech, I have some people that
I’d like to thank.” The room quiets down to listen to the President-elect who is
flanked by Leo and Helen. “Clearly, I would not be going out to make the
speech to the nation tonight without the hard work and dedication of each and
every one of you. I, we, can’t thank you enough for giving up food, sleep, and
huge chunks of your time to help put me in office.” Good natured applause and
whoops of victory sounds throughout the room.
“There is one individual here who is more responsible for this moment than any
other. Almost a year ago, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman came
knocking on my door in Houston with this crazy 9 point plan to put me in the
White House…as President. Helen and I laughed him out of town, although
Helen laughed quite a bit more than I did, come to think of it. Honey, why was
that again?”
“Because I couldn’t imagine anyone who would vote for you for President,
Matt.” Helen replies.
“She keeps me humble…Anyway, after giving this 9 point plan careful
consideration, I told Josh I would do it, if he came with me and ran the thing.
Now, I won’t lie to you, the early days were a bit rocky; we both had very
specific ideas about how we wanted to run the campaign and they weren’t
always in sync, but eventually we got our sea legs and managed to win the
Democratic nomination.” The President-elect looks over to where I'm standing
next to Donna. “I couldn’t possibly come up with a suitable way to repay you for
your vision, your confidence in me, and the talent and abilities you provided to
this campaign.” I nod in acknowledgement.
“I do, however, want to extend my sympathies to Donna. I understand Josh
kidnapped her for an impromptu wedding over lunch.” Now there are gasps of
surprise all around us. “We all know how these two are prone to unplanned
expressions of happiness, but Donna if you change your mind, I know people
at city hall and I can make all the paperwork disappear.”
“Thank you, sir, but I think I’ll keep him.” Thinks? She ‘thinks’ she’ll keep me.
“I do think getting married on Election Day was ingenious Josh. You’ll never
forget your Anniversary.” Helen throws in.
“I’m pretty good at remembering Anniversaries, right Donna?” Again with the
eye rolling. What? I am good with Anniversaries!
“Seriously, thanks for coming to Houston, Josh, for leaving the White House
and believing in this when I had doubts myself. Thank you everyone. Enjoy the
party tonight and take tomorrow off.” The President and Vice-President elect
exits with Helen between them to take the stage for their address.
I turn to Donna who is still receiving congratulations and having her ring
fawned over.
“We need to get going.” I tell her and she nods. We’ve got plane tickets for the
Cayman Islands in the morning and we both need to do some packing. After a
few more minutes we are able to extricate ourselves from the crowd and head
out.
When all the hustle of last minute travel is done and we’re sitting calmly in our
first class seats waiting to take off, I look down at where my wife is resting her
head on my shoulder. It occurs to me that we’ve flown like this hundreds of
times before; one of us resting on the other, but we’ve never before had the
luxury of being able to show our feelings for each other when we did.
Another thought occurs to me and I pull out my Blackberry.
“Joshua, you promised no work calls while we were gone.” Donna reminds me
without opening her eyes or moving her head from my shoulder. She is simply
amazing.
“Yeah, but we haven’t actually left yet; we’re still on the ground.” I argues.
“You are such a politician.” She complains.
“Besides, it’s really more of a social call.” I continue to dial. “Sam Seaborn
please…Sam! Hey, thanks…Yeah we’re all pretty pumped…I’m calling because
we’re taking a short vacation and I wanted to stop and see you on the way
back…Very funny, but I don’t think CNN actually EVER reports on the
temperature in Hell…Right…Anyway, we’ll be there Wednesday afternoon. Can
you clear your social schedule for me?...Great! We’ll see you then…I’ve got
some good news to share with you…Oh, and I emailed you some stuff you’re
going to need to get up to speed on...Because I’m the Chief of Staff elect and
I’m going to need my Deputy Chief of Staff to brief me on these things when I
get back…I know you already have a job, but it’s not like it’s a very good
one…Oh, sorry Sam, you’re starting to break up. We’ll see you on
Wednesday…Who’s we?...Me and my wife. Bye Sam!”
Donna shakes her head. “He’s going to kill you.” She tells me as she holds her
hand out for my phone. I give it to her without pause since it is already vibrating
with a return call from Sam. She powers it down and slips it into her bag.
“Good news! Sam is going to be my Deputy.” I grin at her.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, it’s not like I didn’t offer it to you first.”
“That was a joke! That would never have worked and you know it. I think we’ll
both be far better off with me serving as the First Lady’s Chief of Staff.”
“That’s debatable. It’s a whole different wing of the White House, Donna. What
if I need you during the day?”
“Then you’ll call me on the telephone.” She sighs. I’m guessing it’s because
we’ve covered this territory already…several times.
“That sounds awfully inconvenient, Donna. Maybe we could move your office
closer to mine in the West Wing.”
“Maybe we could move your office INTO mine, seeing as it’s so much bigger
than yours.” Ouch! The woman knows just where to strike. “Or, we could
concentrate on the fact that for the next 6 days I will be right next to you; day
and night. You won’t need to use a telephone, an intercom, or even bellow
when you need me.”
“Okay, that is good news.” I kiss her to prove the point. “Very good news.”
Fin.
Good News Part 3
