Giant Waffles and Tree Sloths by Bramble
Rating: PG
Summary: The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach.
Spoilers: Slight reference to Galileo (guess which one?)
Disclaimers: Aaron Sorkin is their daddy...
Feedback: Yes, please. I'm thinking possible series here --
I dunno. I worry about my attention span though...
Archive: Sure, let me know!
Notes: Just a little something while I try to get them some birth
control in the other fic I'm working on. :)
BTW: Chat was fun last night, glad I could finally make it to one!!
Also, hey look: http://bramble4.tripod.com/index.html
***
Midnight can really blow.
I mean, if it's a Wednesday night and you're awake but conscious and
fully aware of the time and you're still at work and your feet are
killing you, it certainly does.
It blows hard.
I'm sitting on the floor by my desk writing index cards on the
history of the Endangered Species Act and how species are placed on
it. That's important, it really is, it's even interesting -- the
Endangered Species Act is a good, good thing. But it's 12:10 in the
damn morning and I have been here since 6:30.
I mean, normally, that wouldn't be a big deal but this is the third
day in a row I've had these work hours and on top of that I am
completely PMS-y.
There's a bill up for a vote soon that would change the way
endangered species get put on the list, a bill that would pretty
much gut the ESA -- that would be a bad, bad thing.
We don't want that to happen -- thus the late-night research.
Normally, I would suck it up for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher
and happily do my part to help save him and all of his endangered
little friends but today has been so unbelievably long.
Josh has been even more impossible than usual -- pissing off not
one but two journalists and a senator for good measure. Add to that,
the fact that the mess ran out of pasta primavera
before I got down there for lunch at 2:30 -- I had to eat a tuna
sandwich instead -- and you'll understand my mood a bit better.
Oh yeah, all of the damn chocolate frozen yogurt was gone too.
I groan under my breath as I open my desk drawer and start
munching on my secret stash of Hershey's kisses.
"Donna"
"What?"
"Donna?"
"What?" I say a little louder.
"Donnaaaaaa?"
"Whaaaaaaaaatttt?" I yell back. I hate yelling.
"There you are." Josh says from his office door, making eye contact
with me by walking around the side of my desk so we can see each
other unobstructed. He's got his tie all loosened and
he looks sexy and rumpled in the way that he usually does late at
night. I mean, I can see how one might think he looks sexy; I don't
though, I am impervious to his charms.
"Yes, here I am, making notecards, researching, hating you," I
answer, looking back down at the cards in my lap.
"Hating me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I'm tired, I want to go home."
"Are you done?"
"No."
"Sorry, we need....."
"I want to go home and go to bed, maybe take a hot bath first and
listen to the new Kristin Hersh CD, do anything that does not involve
index cards. I'm exhausted."
"I thought you were impervious."
"I am imperviously exhausted."
"That makes hardly any sense at all."
"Bite me."
"Donna!" He says in a shocked tone; I can't tell if he's being
serious or not.
"What?"
"Do you think it's appropriate to tell your boss to bite you."
"It is if my boss is you," I snicker.
"Does Mrs. Landingham tell the President to bite her?"
"She might...you know, actually, I could maybe see that."
He pauses and adds, "Yeah, I think I could too," with a little
dimple-showing grin.
Jerk. Like I'm going to melt just because the dimples make an
appearance.
"Did you have dinner?"
I throw a kiss at him.
"This was dinner?" He asks, catching it in his hands.
"Well, no, not that one."
"Donna, you should eat."
"Did you eat?"
"Yeah, Sam and I got something during that meeting on the hill."
I stare a him in disbelief. "You didn't bring me back anything?"
"It was a dinner meeting with four Republican congressmen. What am I
going to do, order something to go to bring back for my assistant?"
"Yes." I answer back incredulously.
"Okay, I didn't know that."
I roll my eyes as I grab another kiss and mutter "that doesn't
surprise me.." under my breath.
"Besides, they would have made fun of me. It's hard to bitch slap
old, white, Republican men and then turn around and order a caesar
chicken salad or something to bring back for the 'little woman' at
the office."
I decide to ignore the 'little woman' comment for now.
"Oh, that's a good reason. Bringing me dinner would have undermined
your masculinity and made you look whipped in front of people you
don't even like?"
"No, I actually didn't even think of it then; I'm just saying that
now in retrospect." He stops talking when he realizes the glare I am
giving him.
"Do you want something now?" He walks a little closer to me.
"You're offering to go out and get me food?" I snort.
"Would that be that hard to believe?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because, if you got me food, it would denote a sort of, oh, I don't
know, recognition of someone else's needs on your part."
"I recognize other people's needs."
I make a another grunting noise as I pop another kiss in my mouth.
"I might go out to get you food, maybe even take you out to get some
dinner."
"Josh, it's midnight, nothing is open."
"Well, there's that 24 hour diner on Massachusetts.."
"Porky's Pancake House?"
"Yeah.."
"You'd take me to Porky's Pancake House?"
"Well, it's midnight, what do you want?"
"To not get food poisoning.."
"I doubt you'd get food poisoning, besides, the waffles there are
good."
"Eww.."
"Okay, the drive thru at Wendy's is still open."
"You'd go get me something from there?" I ask hopefully.
"Maybe.." He starts. Maybe? Jerk.
"What? I thought you were suddenly all about my needs? Now you're
going to make me barter for it?"
He considers this. I can actually see the invisible wheels spinning
away in his head. Scary.
"Well, what would you give me if I went out and got you food?"
"What would you like?" I shoot back, knowing this is probably a bad
idea when I am this tired and hungry.
He moves closer to me and his crotch is in now in my eye line.
"Josh, I'm not doing any late-night stamp collecting for a crappy
fast food burger. Now, if you threw in a frosty..." I joke
suggestively, trying hard not to laugh.
Hey, I get a little punchy after working for nearly eighteen hours
straight with only a lousy tuna sandwich and twenty cups of
coffee for sustenance.
"Donna! I was just, I mean, I wasn't.. " He jumps back so fast he
almost falls over.
"Fellatio is fun, Josh, oh wait, I meant philately..." I crack myself
up sometimes.
"Umm, okay, we need to get you some food."
"Ya think?"
"I'll be back in a few minutes."
"I'll be here, baby.."
****
About twenty minutes later I hear footsteps approaching.
"I don't smell Wendy's.." I don't even look up.
"That's comforting, I didn't go to Wendy's.
"Figures."
"I went to Emile's."
"Emile's?" I try to recollect that name, "wait, is that the little
fancy coffeehouse in Georgetown? With the pastries and stuff?"
He's standing by me with a huge take-out bag and a matching grin.
It's a very fancy take-out bag which I am convinced holds many
gourmet food items.
"Yeah, it's open late."
"Really?" I jump up excitedly and grab the bag from him. "What'd
you get me?"
I manage to set the offering on my desk before ripping into it.
"I wasn't sure what you wanted so I got a couple of things."
I pull out two paper boxes and set them on my desk.
"You got me two things?" I look at them admiringly. They're wrapped
up so nicely -- it's just like Christmas.
"Well, one's for me, but you can pick first." He steps up behind
me so that he's almost touching my back, I can practically feel his
body heat behind me. It's a good thing I'm so hungry that I'm just
thinking about the tasty snacks in front of me instead of the tasty
snack behind me.
He reaches around my arm as he points to one box, "This one is
smoked salmon on herb foccacia with arugula and roma tomatoes, this
one is grilled chicken on sourdough with a pesto mayonnaise
and grilled red peppers".
"Mmmmm.... they both sound good." I think my eyes are glazing over.
"You can't have both, I get one."
"Whose needs are you thinking about now?" I ask as I turn around to
face him.
"I'm thinking of your needs Donna, I'm just accommodating my own as
well. It's nice that I can do both at the same time." He smirks.
We're face-to-face and I swear if I wasn't so hungry I would be
slightly intrigued by the possible sub-text happening here, but, for
now, gluttony is winning out over lust.
"I see," I move to the side a bit so that we're standing next to
each other now, "why don't we split?"
"Okay. I got some Odwalla too."
"Mango Tango!" I cry out, reaching in the bag and claiming a
smoothie.
"I know, you like mango tango -- see I listen to you."
"Well, you are just all over my needs tonight, aren't you Josh," I
even bat my eyelashes at him for good measure.
He answers by giving me a, well, if I didn't know better, I would
say almost a shy look.
This is interesting.
We set up a little picnic on the floor by my desk and eat dinner
while we discuss baby three-toed tree sloths and their plight. My
culinary joy spreads as I discover two little, single-serving
containers of haagen-dazs hazelnut gelato at the bottom of the bag.
I rip the cover off of mine with a small squeal of glee.
Later, with a happy, full stomach, I am acutely aware of Josh's
proximity and what it's doing to me.
Truth be told, I kind of like working late with him. Especially when
it's just us and we have this casual vibe that we don't always have
during the day.
"I love it when you're not being you.." I say, leaning back against
the desk and looking over at him in time to see him roll his eyes at
me and smile.
"So, philately aside," he starts with a smirk, "what would you have
given me for Wendy's take-out?"
"Why? You didn't go to Wendy's."
"No, I didn't, this is better. So, whatever you we're going to give
me, you should give me something better now, to reflect the upgrade
in food."
"Oh really?" I ask, meeting his smug smile with my own.
"Yes."
"I was going to give you a kiss."
"Another chocolate kiss?" He asks without missing a beat.
"Yes."
He inches closer to me so that our stretched out legs are touching
side-by-side now, as we face each other in some sort of bizarre
flirty stand-off.
"So maybe I should get a Donna-kiss now."
"You think so?" I feel my face light up and I know I'm not playing
this as cool as I should be.
"Mango-tango, Donnatella..." He voice trails off as his eyes search
mine out.
I smile as I lean my face in slowly, he meets me half way, and our
mouths meet tentatively.
Wow.
His lips are so soft and I think I make a little moan just as
he opens his mouth and nips lightly at my lower lip with his teeth,
before slowly sliding his tongue gently past my lips. He's all warm
and I taste a delicious mix of fruit smoothie and Josh; this feels so
good that I forget where we are for a minute.
Unfortunately, I don't forget for long enough. I think we both
remember at the same time because, just like the start of the kiss,
we are equal partners in ending it.
"Hi." I say, suddenly at a loss for words.
"Hi." He's looking at me intently like he wants to say something
else.
"This was good."
"The food? Yeah..." He looks down at the empty container and
starts to collect the garbage into the take-out bag.
"The food was good *too*, Josh.."
"Why don't you go home? You can finish this up tomorrow." He says
ignoring my meaning, while concentrating very hard on picking up all
of the little Hershey's kisses wrappers from the floor around us.
"Are you leaving now?" I ask.
Josh is up now and back in the doorway of his office, like nothing
even happened. This really doesn't surprise me because I can tell he
doesn't quite know how to process we just did.
Honestly, neither do I.
"No, I'm going to be about another hour, then I'm leaving."
"Okay, you shouldn't stay late; you should leave by 2:00.
No later." I shake my finger at him to stress my point.
"Yes, mom."
"You really want to call me that now?" I ask with a grin.
"No... I'll leave by 2:00. Donna," he answers back, running his hand
along the doorframe.
I really wish I was the doorframe right now.
"Okay, I'll just get going then."
"Are you okay getting home?"
"Yeah."
"Will you call me?"
"Tomorrow morning?" I ask, as I grab my bag and start to walk away
from my desk.
"No, um.. when you get home. Just so I know you made it okay," he
pauses and adds quickly, "you live in a crappy neighborhood, Donna."
I bite back a comment about not being paid enough to live somewhere
better and answer, "Sure, I'll call you."
As I walk past him he reaches out and grabs my hand, bringing me to
a stop beside him. I look into his face and see a softness there I
know he rarely reveals.
"Thanks for staying tonight," he says quietly.
I give his hand a squeeze as I pass by, "Thanks for dinner, Joshua."
Our fingers slide against each other as I walk away until we're no
longer touching.
Well, this is very interesting indeed.
***
"Josh."
"Yeah."
"I'm home," I say into the phone as I start to unbutton my blouse
and kick my shoes off.
"Good. You going to sleep now?"
"Well, it is almost 1:30.."
"You should go to sleep."
"You should too. Go home, Josh." Oh thank god, no more panty hose,
I think I sigh after I slide them off.
"Yeah..I know, what are you doing?"
"Excuse me?"
"You made a noise."
"Oh, I'm getting ready for bed."
"Now?"
"Yes.." Oh hell, I'm talking to Josh in my underwear.
"Okay." His voice sounds funny.
"You're not going to ask me what I'm wearing, are you?" I stifle a
small sleep-deprived giggle -- I thought it, I might as well say it
out loud.
"Would you tell me?"
"Maybe.." I tease evilly.
"Okay, I should go now."
"Okay."
Neither of us hangs up.
"Josh?"
"Yeah?"
"I should go." I say, twirling the phone cord around my finger and
looking down at my underwear.
"Okay."
"Okay, one of us needs to hang up," I say softly.
"Okay."
"On three."
"One.." I start.
"Two.." He replies.
"Three.." We say together.
I fight the urge to stay on and quietly put the phone back in its
cradle. I'm half hoping he calls back so we can start all over
again. I wait a few minutes staring at the phone before getting into
my pajamas and crawling into bed. It's probably a good thing I'm too
tired to do anything but fall into an almost immediate sleep.
I dream about giant waffles and tree sloths.
***
I was going to call her back. I had the phone in my hand after just
pressing down on the receiver following our mutually spoken "three".
I fought the urge to stay on; I hope she didn't either because I
wouldn't have wanted to hang up on her.
I started to dial her number but stopped as I remembered where I was
and came to the conclusion that calling my assistant back to ask her
what she's wearing might not be the best idea.
I lay my head down on my desk.
Of course kissing her on the floor by her desk wasn't a great idea
either.
I have absolutely *no* idea what I'm doing.
Donna's right, I need to go home and get some sleep.
***