Chapter 24
“Hey, that was short.” Julie laughed as she took another sip from her glass of her
champagne before handing Brian his.
“He had another call waiting. He sends his best wishes.” Brian faked a smile.
“See? I told you it would be fine.” Julie leaned in and in her slightly buzzed state, missed
Brian’s wince.
“Yeah, right again.” Brian rewarded her with a lingering kiss. “How about your father?”
“Thrilled. He was especially touched that you took the time to ask him for my hand.” Julie’
s expression turned menacing. “What century are we in here?”
“You and I? The 21st. Your father? A little further back than that.” Brian pointed out.
“Look, he’s only met me a handful of times and I wanted him to be comfortable with all
this too.”
“It was entirely chauvinistic and completely unnecessary.” Julie told him. “But it was
sweet and it meant a lot to my dad…so I’m going to overlook it this one time.” She
punctuated her decision with a kiss before she offered him a sip of her champagne
which he took without breaking eye contact with her. “So what has the great Josh Lyman
got planned for spinning this?” she teased.
“We didn’t get into it. He had another call, remember? Besides, we don’t have to do
anything with it right away. We could just keep it private for awhile.” Brian suggested
while he massaged her back and shoulders.
“Mmmmm-hmmmm….private is good. Private is excellent.” Julie murmured then groaned
when her cell rang.
Afraid it might be Josh, Brian urged her to ignore it. “It’s Donna. I’d better pick it up.” Julie
decided. “Hi, Donna.”
“Hi, Donna? You get engaged and I get a ‘Hi, Donna’?”
“I take it Josh shared our news?” Julie laughed.
“He…sure did.” Donna hedged. “That’s wonderful, we’re so happy for you both.”
“Thanks, Donna. We appreciate it.” Brian hugged Julie to him while she spoke, unsure
what was coming next.
“Hold on, Julie, let me put you on speaker…Okay, now you’ve got Ben, Ally and I on the
phone.” Donna announced.
Julie likewise adjusted her phone to speaker. “And you’ve got Brian and me.”
“Congratulations!” Ben told them and it made Julie feel relieved to hear the genuine
happiness in his voice.
“Thanks, tiger.” Brian answered.
“Thanks Ben.” Julie echoed.
“Are you coming here to get married?” Ally asked. “Can we come?”
“You better come!” Julie replied. “But we haven’t picked a date or a place yet. We’ll have
to let you know.”
“What kind of cake are you going to have?” Pragmatic Ben asked.
“We should probably make that decision first, huh?” Brian teased.
“Yeah! It has to be chocolate. Girls like other kinds sometimes but everyone else likes
chocolate.” Ben opined.
“And by everyone else you mean boys?” Julie pretended to be insulted. “Are you boys
trying to gang up on me here?”
“I like chocolate too.” Ally offered.
“Enough, you two.” Donna cut them off. “When you get married you can decide on the
cake. This is Brian and Julie’s wedding.”
“We’ll keep the chocolate thing in mind.” Brian promised and shared an amused glance
with his new fiancé.
“We just wanted to say congratulations and tell you how thrilled we are about your news.
I’m not sure if that came across in your earlier conversation with Josh.” Donna said
subtly. Julie gave Brian a frown.
“Things are busy there; don’t worry about it.” Brian added quickly.
“Uh-huh. Ben, Ally, say goodbye.” Donna instructed. Both kids followed her direction and
Julie could hear them running out of the room. “Brian, Josh didn’t-“
“Hold on, Donna.” Brian requested and tried to take the phone to change it back to a
private conversation. Julie pulled it back from him. “Julie, this is Lyman consulting
business.”
“And I’ve hired Lyman consulting to run my campaign.” She retorted.
“But this doesn’t have anything to do with your campaign.” Brian argued.
“How do you know WHAT this is about?” Julie questioned and thought it through. “What
exactly did Josh say during your phone call, Brian?”
“Maybe we should touch base later, Brian.” Donna suggested sensing she’d stepped
into something bad.
“I’d like to hear this Donna. Since my fiancé has lost his ability to speak, maybe you can
fill me in on this phone call earlier.” Julie never lost eye contact with Brian and she could
see the sadness in his eyes.
“I wasn’t part of the call, Julie, and I don’t know the specifics, but I got the impression that
Josh may have been…less than enthusiastic.” Donna trod very carefully.
“Then Brian can enlighten us on the specifics.” Julie said pointedly.
Brian took a deep breath. “He seemed distracted when I called. When I told him, he was
concerned about our personal news overshadowing the start of the general election.”
“That sounds more like you than like Josh.” Donna noted. “Word for word please, Brian.”
“I didn’t memorize the conversation!” Brian nearly shouted in frustration. “He wasn’t
happy about the timing, okay? Given the circumstances, maybe he has a point.”
Julie looked at Brian in amazement, all the lovely buzz from their champagne toast
completed evaporated. “So what does that mean?”
“Nothing, Julie. Josh is…having some personal issues. It means absolutely nothing.”
Donna assured them both.
“It means something.” Julie argued. “What does it mean, Brian?”
“It means that I’ll be tendering my resignation tomorrow morning.” Brian replied simply
still holding eye contact with Julie.
“Brian, that is completely unnecessary.” Donna jumped in.
“I don’t quite see it that way. Josh and I have been butting heads a lot lately. I think it’s
time to make the break.”
“Brian, slow down and give this some time. Josh has been…under a lot of pressure
lately, but I swear to you he admires and respects the job you’ve done for this team.”
Donna hastened to add.
“Thanks, I appreciate that Donna.” Brian said sincerely.
“It’s not meant to be- please don’t do anything rash. You’ve had an incredible day; both
of you. Please just let everything…this is a special night. Don’t let anything, or anyone,
ruin it. We’ll tomorrow night when we’ve all got a better handle on this, okay?” Donna
paused. “Okay? Anyone there?”
“Yeah, okay.” Brian said resignedly. “This wasn’t Donna’s fault and he didn’t want her
upset by it. This was between him and Josh.
“Good. I’ll talk to you soon. Congratulations again.” Donna told them. “Finding someone
you love and want to spend your life with is an amazing gift. Enjoy every second of this.”
“Thanks Donna. Bye.” Julie replied and disconnected the call.
“How pissed are you?” Brian asked his fiancé while he stared at his toes.
“Not pissed at all.” Julie answered and watched as Brian’s surprised face shot up to meet
hers.
“Not at all?”
Julie shook her head ‘no’.
“But I…” Brian wanted to make sure they were on the same page, but didn’t want to dig
himself in any deeper either.
“…kept the details of your conversation to yourself?” Julie finished.
“Yes?” Brian answered tentatively.
“Yes.” Julie agreed.
“But yet you are not at all pissed?” Brian confirmed.
“Would you prefer that I was?”
“NO! No, not at all.” Brian was quick to respond. Julie chuckled, picked up their
champagne glasses and handed Brian his. “I’d just like to be clear on why you’re not at
all pissed…you know, for future reference.”
“For future reference, hmmm?” Julie took a sip of her drink. “You weren’t really keeping
anything from me. There’s no way you could keep this from me. I think you chose not to
say anything TONIGHT, because we have a more important, more personal issue to
celebrate. I have no doubt, that come morning, you would have leveled with me about
your discussion with Josh and we’d decide what to do about it tomorrow, right?”
“Yes! Yes, that’s right. But now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak, are we going to
have that discussion now?”
“I certainly hope not.” Julie finished her glass of champagne and set it aside before
taking her new fiancé’s mouth in a seductive kiss. “Tomorrow is soon enough, don’t you
think?”
“Uh-huh.” Brian responded mindlessly while helping himself to more of Julie’s body.
*******************************************************
Donna was still upset about the fight she’d had with Josh, so she did what she always
does when she’s upset; clean and organize. She was like a tornado tearing through
room after room. She hesitated before going into their home office, unsure whether
organizing ‘their space’ would make her feel better or worse. Finally she decided that
since it was in the greatest need of her skills, she shouldn’t ignore it.
It took over an hour, but she finally got their partner desk cleared off into neatly
organized piles; specific campaign materials, polling data, and personal papers. She
opened Josh’s bottom drawer to find that the files she’d painstakingly set up for him were
in tragic disarray. Determined to start over, she pulled them all out and laid them across
the now clean desk. She put them all back in order again and was about to replace them
when she saw a group of papers on the bottom of the drawer.
Curious, she pulled them out to see where they belonged. She was halfway through the
first page when her heart stopped. By the time she’d finished the report she was in
shock. She must have sat there in that chair with the papers in her hand for ages. When
she finally put them back in the drawer, she had a plan
“Liz, it’s Donna. I’m sorry to bother you so late. Can you set up a senior staff conference
call for tomorrow at 9 our time? I know it is rather late notice, but it’s important. Thanks
so much. No, I’ll email the agenda out overnight. Thanks again, Liz, goodnight.”
Donna got off the phone knowing she was doing the right thing, for Josh and for the
team that made up their company. Then why, she wondered, did it feel so much like a
betrayal?