"Okay if there's nothing else you can go." Leo said,
as he was ending the morning staff meeting the next
morning.
"Leo, if you don't care, CJ and I have something to
say. It's of a more personal nature, so we decided to
wait until the end of the meeting."
"Go ahead."
"Josh, first of all you were right, Toby and I are
engaged." CJ said.
"I knew that from the ring CJ. It's nice to know I
was right." Josh said "Congratulations to both of
you.
"Hold on. Toby I asked you yesterday if you had any
good news to share and you said no." Sam said.
"No, I asked you why you thought I had good news to
share. And to be splitting hairs, it's not good news,
but great news." Toby replied.
"Okay." Sam said.
"CJ, Toby I just want to say that I'm happy for both
of you. I hope that you will be very happy." Leo
said.
"Thanks." CJ replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been nearly a week since CJ and Toby had
announced their engagement. The President had
requested that everyone stay late that night for a
staff party.
"How long do you think this thing will last?" Toby
asked.
"Oh, I don't know. Hopefully not that long." CJ
replied.
"Looks, like everyone else is gone. Which means we
are late. He's never going to let us hear the end of
this!" Toby said as they noticed that both Josh and
Sam were not in their offices.
"Great," CJ said, "he'll probably make us stay later
now."
"Yeah."
When they went into the Mural Room, they found
everyone else already there.
"Glad you two could finally make it." Jed told them.
"Of course, since no one told you this was an
engagement party for you, I'll excuse you for being
late. No one told you, right?"
"No, sir we didn't know." Toby said.
"Thank you everyone." CJ said.
"I'm glad we were actually able to pull this off. I
thought Josh or Sam would tell you." Abbey said.
"Hey, what would make you think I would talk?!" Josh
said.
"Maybe because you can't keep a secret, Josh." CJ
told him.
"I guess I have the same reputation." Sam said.
"Yes you do Princeton." Toby told him.
"Okay, strangely enough Josh and Sam are not the
reason we are here tonight. So why don't we focus our
attention back to CJ and Toby." Abbey said.
"I would like to propose a toast." Jed said. "CJ,
Toby everyone in this room is very happy for both of
you. We all know what you went through to be
together. And I think I speak for all of us, when I
say, that I hope you have a long, happy, and
successful marriage. I have one question, when is the
wedding?"
"Well, we thought about the Friday before Labor Day."
CJ answered.
"That would mean you would be back in time to work on
the fall campaign." Jed said.
"Yes, sir it would. We decided that would be the
last opportunity to get married until after the
inauguration. We didn't want to wait that long."
Toby said.
"You don't have very long to plan it, CJ." Abbey
said.
"I've already started."
"Where are you getting married?" Abbey asked.
"My parents own a vineyard in California. We're
going to be married there. Outdoors, if the weather
holds out."
"Hold on, you actually got Toby to agree to an
outdoor wedding?!" Sam exclaimed.
"Sam..." Toby said
"I'm just saying that your hatred of anything
outdoors is legendary." Sam said.
"If you must know we compromised. CJ wanted an
outdoor wedding, so the reception is indoors."
"I can't wait to see this." Sam said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ was sitting on the couch looking at magazine, and
talking on the phone when Toby got back from temple.
"What are you looking at?" Toby asked her.
"Nothing that you can see right now. I'm on hold."
"About what?"
"My wedding dress."
"I see. And I can't see it right?"
"Not until I'm walking down the aisle."
"You're certain."
"Yes," CJ said, as she was speaking to Toby, the
person on the other end of the phone came back. "I'm
still here. You do have it. Okay, I'll be by to look
at it in about an hour. Yes, thank you very much.
Goodbye."
"You were talking with some dress shop about the
dress you saw in the magazine. You know I could drive
you to the shop."
"Nice try, but I don't think so." CJ picked up her
car keys and walked to where Toby was sitting. She
leaned down and kissed him. "Love you."
"Love you too. You're certain you don't need me to
drive?"
"Yes, I'm certain. I'll see you later."
"Okay. Aren't you going to take this with you?" Toby
was holding the magazine she had been locking at.
"That might be a good idea." CJ said reaching for it.
Toby held the magazine out of her reach. "I don't
know if I should give this to you. I could look
through it. Betcha I could figure out which dress you
chose."
"Give me the magazine."
"Um... No."
"Toby..." CJ said while trying to reach behind him
where he put the magazine. "Give me the magazine."
Toby was holding the magazine in one hand, so he used
his free hand to pull her into his lap. "So, you want
this magazine back." He dropped the magazine into the
floor behind the chair. "No you're not getting up
yet."
"Why not?"
"Because I said so."
"That's not a good reason."
"Yes, it is." Toby said and then kissed her.
"I said I would be there in an hour." CJ said
between kisses.
"You're trying to say that I should let you go."
"I'm afraid so."
"Okay." Toby said moving his arms so CJ could get
up.
CJ walked behind the chair and picked up the
magazine.
"CJ"
"Yeah."
"Hurry back."
to be continued...