Part Two
Standard Disclaimers Apply
December 23, 2000
6:45 a.m.
*Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose*
Josh quickly hit the snooze button on his clock radio.
Josh slowly blinked his eyes open. His head was
killing him. Maybe Donna was right...maybe he did have
a sensitive system. But probably not.
He let his eyes close again. It hurt too much to keep
them open. He rolled over and let his arm fall onto
the bed. At least it should've been the bed. But what
his hand was touching...it didn't feel like the
blanket, the sheets, or the mattress. It felt like
skin. It felt like a body.
"Oh damn..." He had no idea what happened the night
before. All he knew was that it apparently had
resulted in crawling into bed with a naked person. He
could fill in some of the blanks with that
information. Now he had to open his eyes, pain or not.
"Oh my God! Donna!" he yelped as he jumped out of bed.
Donna's head eased up from her pillow. Josh noted that
she didn't look surprised. "What?"
"What happened last night? I don't remember a thing!"
Donna wasn't surprised that he couldn't remember the
previous night. She was surprised that he seemed so
horrified by the idea of them sleeping together.
Especially since he had seemed so eager last night.
<But he doesn't remember last night> she reminded
herself. <He was drunk.>
But she had known full well that he was drunk last
night when she fell into bed with him. And she had had
a feeling that he wouldn't remember the evening well.
But, somehow, Donna had thought he'd be happy to find
her next to him. She thought that maybe he was as
crazy about her as she was about him. Obviously, she
had been wrong. Or at least she guessed that by the
dismayed look on his face that she had been wrong.
Very wrong.
And she had ruined everything. She could've left him
last night. She could've walked away. He wouldn't even
remember anything. Yes, she could've walked away. But
she didn't. She couldn't. Because she loved him.
But it was becoming extremely obvious he didn't feel
the same way.
"Do you remember anything, Donna?" Josh asked
pleadingly.
"No," Donna offered, trying to seem as freaked out as
Josh was. "No! I have no idea what happened. Well, I
can guess..."
"Oh God! I can't believe this happened!" Josh began to
pace. He then noticed he was still naked...and walking
around in front of his naked assistant. "Ah! I'm going
to go take a shower and get dressed," he said before
hurrying out of the room.
Donna sighed heavily as she began to find her own
clothes, which were strewn about the room. <This is
going to be more awkward than I can possibly guess.>
---
7:03 a.m.
Donna was about to make her escape when Josh's voice
stopped her.
"Donnatella," he said softly. "I think we should
talk."
She turned around. "Sure. It's probably best."
"I'm sorry about my reaction back there. I'm sorry
about whatever happened last night."
"You don't need to apologize."
"I do. And I think it's best if we forget it. I mean,
neither of us remember it anyway," he said with a
slight smile.
"Yes. It's best we just put it behind us."
"It was just a drunken mistake."
She had to hold her tongue to keep from disagreeing
with him. "Yes. A mistake. It's already one for the
history books. I mean, in the sense that it's history.
Not the sense that it's a momentous occasion," she
rambled. "Because it wasn't a momentous occasion. But
it is history. Ancient history."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"You seem nervous. Well, it's normal to feel a little
nervous. It's not every day we..." He didn't finish
the sentence, leaving the words hanging heavily in the
air.
<But I wish it did happen every day.> Donna thought.
<I have to get out of here. Maybe if I leave I'll be
able to stop thinking about him naked. Probably not.
But a maybe.> "Josh, I'll see you later. At the
office," she said in a rushed manner.
"Okay, Donna. I'll see you there."
Donna rushed out, happy to be out of an awkward
situation. Sad to be walking out on the man she loved.
The man who didn't love her back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7:35 a.m.
Donna entered her apartment to find Celia sitting on
the couch, eating a bowl of cereal, and watching Matt
Lauer.
"Good morning, Celia," Donna said, trying to sound
nonchalant.
Celia took in her wrinkled clothes and tired
appearance, then raised an eyebrow. "Where were you
all night? I didn't think White House Christmas
parties were rollicking all-night affairs."
"Don't be so surprised. Our President is quite a party
animal," Donna said with a halfhearted smile.
"Are you okay, Donna?" she asked, concerned. "What
happened last night?"
"Oh, nothing. I just had sex with my boss."
"What?!?"
Donna told Celia the whole story. The mistletoe, the
sex, Josh's reaction.
"And I'm certain that I love him, Celia. I thought I
did before, but now I know it. Kissing him was the
most incredible thing I've ever experienced. And when
he woke up and saw me...his reaction...it broke my
heart. I don't know what to do."
"Well, you could just try to let things go back to
normal. He doesn't remember anything..."
"But I remember."
"Well, you could try to push it under the rug. I've
managed to forget a lot of the guys I've slept with."
Donna sighed. Somehow, that piece of information
didn't make her feel better. "I'll try. Things could
go back to normal," she said hopefully.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9:02 a.m.
Josh arrived to find Donna sitting at her desk. She
was typing away at her computer. She looked normal
enough, he supposed. Everything would go back to the
way it was supposed to be.
"Good morning, Donnatella," he said brightly.
"Morning, Josh," she replied.
<She didn't call me Joshua> he thought, surprised at
both the fact that she hadn't called him Joshua and
the fact that he cared. "Do I have any meetings for
today?"
"You have a pretty light day. I guess because it's so
close to Christmas. Soon we'll all get some time away
from this place," she said with a strange mix of
wistfulness and irritation.
"Okay, then. Hey, weren't you supposed to pick up your
brother last night?"
Donna's eyes narrowed. "He couldn't make it, Josh."
"Okay."
The rest of the day didn't flow in the 'normal' way
Josh had envisioned. Sure, they didn't have any
knockdown, drag-out fights. But there was still
awkwardness to their interactions. He also noticed she
ran away in horror from any mistletoe. That was
irrelevant, though.
Point was, things had been altered.
Josh needed help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11:22 a.m.
Josh burst into Sam's office and quickly shut the door
behind him.
"Sam, I need help," Josh said in a pleading voice.
"What are you wearing?"
"What's the big deal?" Sam said in confusion.
"You have *antlers* and a *red nose*."
"So? I'm spreading Christmas cheer."
"We had a Christmas party last night. Can't we stop
spreading Christmas cheer already?"
"We may have had a Christmas party, but Christmas
itself is still two days away," Sam pointed out. "And
I'm flying out to see my parents tomorrow, so I
decided I will spread as much Christmas cheer
throughout the White House as I can while I'm here."
"Okay, whatever. I came in here for a reason." He
stared at Sam, not able to concentrate. "Could you
please take off the antlers and the nose, please? I
have something serious to say."
"Okay." Sam complied, taking off his festive wear.
"What's going on?"
"How much of last night do you remember?"
"A good bit of it. Why?"
"What happened right before I left?"
"Donna came in. I called her 'mom' a couple of times.
It was funny at the time I guess. Then she drove you
home. Why? You didn't vomit on her, did you? Because I
have to pay for it."
Josh gave him a strange look. "No."
"Good. What's wrong, then?"
"Well, me and Donna...we kind've...sort've...slept
together last night."
"Please tell me you don't mean what I think you mean."
"I do. We woke up in bed together. Naked. We don't
remember a thing. I thought that would help us. You
know, since we don't remember it, we could just go
back to normal and bypass the awkward stuff. But it's
awkward. Our entire flow is off."
"Flow?"
"We have a flow! And it's off!" Josh said, beginning
to panic.
"I don't know what to tell you."
"You have to know! I can't tell this to everyone in
the White House."
"All I know is, know of this would've happened if you
had listened to Donna."
"No. None of this would've happened if you hadn't
broken your agreement with Donna to look after me,"
Josh shot back.
"Last night you said, and I quote: 'I don't need
someone to look after me.'"
"Why do people only listen to me when it will end up
harming me?" Josh said with irritation.
Sam sighed heavily. "Okay, let's both take a step back
here." Pause. "Did you talk to Donna about this?"
"Yeah. We agreed we'd forget about it."
"Oh, that's a mistake. You can't just say 'let's
forget about it' and expect her to forget about it."
"What am I supposed to say then?"
"Just talk to her. Talk like rational adults. I'm sure
if you get this all out in the open, the awkwardness
will melt away." He put his antlers and nose back on.
"Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to try and make Toby
see the joy of the holidays." He squeezed his nose and
it started to glow.
That was the moment Josh second-guessed taking advice
from Sam. But Josh couldn't come up with a better
solution on his own. So, he decided to use it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11:57 a.m.
"No, Margaret. I don't think I'm interested."
"C'mon, Donna," Margaret insisted. "It'll be fun."
"No, caroling throughout the west wing does not sound
like fun to me."
"Of course it will be. Can't you imagine Toby's face
when we assault him a rendition of 'Grandma Got Run
Over By a Reindeer'?"
Donna managed a small smile. "I guess it could be
amusing. But I'm not really in the mood. You know,
with my brother having to cancel and everything."
"I understand," Margaret said. "I've got a Santa hat
waiting for you if you change your mind."
"Okay."
Margaret left and Josh sidled up to Donna. "We need to
talk," Josh whispered.
"Not now," she replied.
"Why not?"
"I'm not in the mood to talk. I'll talk to you later."
She was dreading discussing what happened the night
before.
"When?" he asked anxiously, eager to get the talk
over. After the talk, the flow could resume.
"Um...in three hours," she blurted out.
"Three hours, then," he replied, satisfied. "Be there
or be square." He happily skipped away into his
office.
<Christmas sucks> Donna thought with distaste.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3:09 p.m.
Donna slinked into Josh's office. She carefully closed
the door behind her. "So, you wanted to talk
about...it."
Josh looked at his watch. "Donna, you're early."
"Actually, I'm technically about ten minutes late."
"No you're not. It's only a quarter after two."
Donna looked at her watch. "It's 3:09, Josh. Your
watch sucks."
"Okay. So...Why don't you sit down?" he said
awkwardly. This talking thing was going to be more
difficult than he'd thought.
Donna sat down. "I guess this is about last night."
"Yeah," Josh said. "How do we make this better?"
"How do we make this better? I thought it was over and
we don't have to discuss it anymore," she replied
sharply.
"We have to talk about it, Donna. Our flow is off!"
"What?"
"We have a flow! It's off!"
"Maybe we just need time..." Donna said.
"No! It's not about time. We need to discuss this."
"Well, what are we supposed to say?"
Josh thought for a moment. "I don't know."
Donna sighed heavily and stood up. "Well, I don't know
what you want from me, then."
"Donnatella." Josh stood up to keep her from leaving.
He walked over and placed his hands on her shoulders.
Donna could hardly breathe with him so close to her.
It reminded of last night.
"You're my friend, Donna. You're not just my
assistant. You're my friend. I can't lose that because
of a drunken stumble."
She was able to breathe again. But she didn't know
what to say.
The door of Josh's office flung open. Josh quickly
dropped his hands from Donna's shoulders.
At the door were Carol, Margaret, Cathy, and Ginger
singing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas.' They all wore
Santa hats and wide smiles.
"Can't we do this some other time?" Josh yelled at the
singing women.
They stopped singing and froze, aware of the tension
present in the room.
"Um, sure," Margaret said weakly. "We'll see you guys
later."
The carolers filed out of the office. Margaret quietly
shut the door behind them.
There was a moment of silence before Josh spoke again.
"Listen, Donna. I can sense you've been uncomfortable
around me all day. I just need to know what to do to
change that."
Donna stared at her shoes. "Can you make me not love
you?" she asked him quietly.
Josh stared at her, completely stunned. "Excuse me?"
"Did it occur to you that I wasn't drunk last night? I
didn't have a drop of alcohol last night. I slept with
you last night because I'm in love with you. I've been
in love with you for a long time. And last night, you
looked at me...you looked at me as if you found me
attractive. And I couldn't stop myself from giving
into what I've wanted for a long while. Even with the
chance you wouldn't remember it." She lifted up her
head to look him in the eye. "And that's why I feel
uncomfortable around you. Because I'm in love with
you. And you're not in love with me. Do you know how
hard that is?"
Josh was silent for a long while. "I don't know what
to say to this, Donna."
"Well, why don't you think about it, then? I'll see
you in the New Year." Donna grabbed her things and
fled the office.
And Josh had no idea what just happened, or where they
were going to go from there.
End Part 2/3