It was Christmas Eve, and she had invited a few
friends over for a dinner party. Everyone seemed to
be having a good time, including the hostess.

“Need any help with the food, Claudia Jean.” Josh
asked as her walked into her kitchen.

“No I think I have it under control. Well I guess
that you could take the salad out. There’s different
types of salad dressing in the refrigerator. You can
take those out too.”

“Okay”

Josh took the salad out, and came back into the
kitchen.

“I haven’t really had much of a chance to talk to you
lately. How are you doing?”

“Some days are easier than others. But I guess I’m
okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay, what do you mean by ‘I guess’?”

“Josh, I gave up someone who made me happy. Why, to
keep my job. I sometimes wonder if I did the right
thing.”

“What have you decided.”

“I love my job. So I guess I did the right thing.
That doesn’t help me when I wake up in the middle of
the night. Or when I hear a sad song on the radio and
cry. I’m doing better than I was. Of course it helps
that the tabloids have finally decided to leave me
alone. I guess they have decided I didn’t create
enough of a scandal.”

“Have you talked to Danny.”

“I don’t know where he went to. Even if I did, I
don’t think that he would talk to me. He was so angry
at me when he left. He said that he would never
return to the White House as long as I was Press
Secretary. So, I guess he never wants to see me
again. And I really don’t blame him. I could have
fought, but I didn’t.”

“Hold on, you couldn’t have fought Leo. He thought
it was a conflict of interest.”

“I know he was worried I was feeding stories to
Danny. But I wasn’t. He wouldn’t have taken a lead
from me. Josh, it is over now, and I HAVE to put it
behind me.”

“You could always make that your New Year’s
resolution.”

“Yeah, I could.”

***********************Present Day*****************

Danny walked into the office area outside of the
pressroom, after speaking with C.J. He sat down at
the cubicle where he had placed his laptop. Seeing
C.J., again had not been as awkward as he had thought
it would be. In the two years he had been away, much
of his anger at her had faded. He wondered if there
was anything there to salvage. Or, if she would even
want to try again.

“Hey, stranger, it’s been a long time.” He heard
someone say. He looked up, and saw it was Katie.

“Yeah, Katie I guess it has been. How are you?”

“Fine, you?”

“Fine”

“You know, I never thought I’d see you her again.”

“Neither did I. I had no choice. It was come back
or lose the job.”

“So, have you talked to her, yet?”

“Yeah.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did it go?”

“Not as bad as I expected. That’s all I really want
to say.

“Okay”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

C.J went back to her office after the briefing. The
day had not been as bad as she had expected it to be.
When she went in Josh was waiting for her.

“You’re the second person to be waiting for me
today.”

“Really, so who was the first?”

“Who do you think?”

“Danny.”

“Yeah.”

“How did it go?” Josh asked as C.J sat down on the
couch beside him.

“Well, we didn’t get into a shouting match. It
wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.”

“That’s good. I’ll talk to you later.”

"Okay"