WatermelonMartini2

Author: L

iza C.

Title:

hanks to the

Watermelon

Martini

ack to:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Not surprisingly, it was Josh who caved and spoke first.

For the first time in the evening, his voice betrayed

anger and his jaw was tight. "I've given you more

responsibility than any other White House assistant has

received."

"True, no other assistant in the West Wing dresses her

boss."

"That's not what I meant."

"Yet, it's one of the things I did as your assistant."

"And you used to like it. What changed?" Now his voice

was quiet; he studied the beer bottle as he spoke.

"I grew. It hasn't been enough for me for a long time."

A vein in his forehead swelled prominently as his stress

level rose.

"I told you how I was feeling back before Gaza," she

challenged after a moment had passed.

"Yes, you did, but even then, had you forgotten all you'd

done? You were in last year's budget meetings-"

"Just because you weren't and I was the only other

person in the department who knew the budget!"

"Exactly, you knew it. You were chosen because you

knew the budget. You knew an incredibly complicated

document, inside and out, and that happened while you

were working as my assistant." When she was silent, he

continued, "During the shutdown you made the save on

Social Security-"

"Which you likened to rookie luck, and pretty well

accused me of trying to hog your glory with that Wilt

Chamberlain story-"

He ignored that dig. "I gave you pardons; last January

you did the bulk of the work on them-"

"Just because at the time they were throwaway! You

didn't want to bother with them-"

"And pardons ended up with top billing at the State of

the Union," he shot back. He continued when she failed

to rebut that. "You were instrumental in the trade bill-"

"Yet I wasn't invited to Brussels to see it through.

Besides, all that was pre-Codel."

"And the Codel was a sincere attempt on my part to give

you an opportunity." His voice shot up at least an octave

"You sent me on the Codel to shut me-"

"I sent you to Gaza AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!"

They were both startled into silence by his shout.

A tear stung the back of her eye, but she quickly blinked

it away. "What happened to me in Gaza is not your

fault."

"Are you sure? Because I'm the one who sent you

there."

"Yes, I'm sure it's not your fault. God, you blame

yourself for everything. I knew eventually you'd find a

way to blame yourself for this."

"You don't blame me?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Of course not."

"If you don't blame me, why have you shut me out since

the moment you got back?"

"I… I… I haven't done that."

"I've felt an awful lot of anger directed at me over the

last few months, and I haven't been exactly sure of

where it's coming from."

"I don't blame you for what happened."

"Then why are you so pissed at me?"

"Maybe because you kept me as your assistant when you

know I could be so much more, just so you wouldn't be

inconvenienced!"

"That's not fair. You could have-"

She didn't allow him to finish. "Maybe it's because I have

tried to talk to you about this numerous times, and you

ignored me and put me off every time. Six lunches,

Josh. Seven including Monday, eight if you count

Tuesday. You cancelled eight lunches! What was the

problem? Am I so disgusting to you that you can't even

bear the thought of eating lunch with me?!"

"You know that's not true." His voice was low, but his

anxiety level had started to climb.

"Do I? Then why, Josh? Why did you ignore me?" This

time she couldn't stop the tear from forming, and it was

now balanced precariously on her lower eyelid, already

causing her mascara to run. "Why cancel ALL the

lunches? Even then… even if I wasn't important enough

to you to warrant the time for a full lunch, why wouldn't

you at least give me the five minutes I'd asked for in

your office Monday afternoon? You want to know why I’

m angry!? I want to know why, after eight years

together, you had so little respect for me!"

"Because I was terrified of you leaving!" Once the words

were out of his mouth, he had the uncontrollable desire

to reel them back in, but he couldn't. It was if they were

in a cartoon bubble, hanging over his head for all

eternity. He'd said them, and there was no way to

reverse it.

"Well, I’m gone now, so how did that plan work out for

you?"

Shock rocketed through him at that response. He was

still for a few seconds before standing abruptly. "I really

don't know you anymore."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

His voice was devoid of anger and filled with sadness

when he spoke. "You don't give a damn about me, do

you?"

Now it was Donna's turned to look shocked. "I… uh…"

She tried to refute his statement, but no words came.

"I thought you knew me better than anyone in the

world." He started walking towards her living room.

"I do," was her choked response.

He paused at the entrance to the living room and looked

back to her. "What is the one thing I fear, Donna? What

keeps me up at night? Losing people that I care about.

You were one of those people, if not the person, and

even knowing that, you just walked out on me. With,

apparently, no remorse, and without a second of notice.

I felt devastated when I realized you were really gone…

but leaving me obviously hasn't affected you at all. I

came here tonight… God, I don't know why I came here

tonight. I shouldn’t have come."

"Wait." She jumped to her feet.

But he didn't stop walking. When he got to the front

door he fumbled for his coat, but didn't bother to put it

on. He just reached for the doorknob; he just wanted to

get out of there as quickly as possible. The door had

opened just a crack before Donna's hand landed

powerfully on it, forcing it back shut. "I said wait!"

"What?" He asked without turning back to her.

"I'm sorry I said that." Several plump tears finally rolled

down her cheeks unchecked. "I'm furious at you, but

you don't deserve for me to ever say something like

that. Of course I give a damn about you, and if the

thought of leaving you left me unaffected, I would have

done it years ago."

Swallowing hard, he slowly faced her. Their eyes met.

Josh's heart clenched at the tear streaks down her face.

His voice was soft when he spoke. "I'm furious at you,

too."

"I know." She sniffed.

"I'm just better at hiding it."

Nodding, she took him by the wrist and led him over to

the couch. They plopped down next to each other.

"What are we going to do?" he asked gently.

"I don't know."

"I don't like being furious with you."

"I don't like being furious with you, either."

After a minute of silence, Josh finally said, "If you came

back, I promise-"

She quickly interrupted him. "I can never be your

assistant ever again. Never mind that the reason I left is

to find career advancement; a boss and assistant should

never need to have an argument like the one we just

had… are having."

"No." He sighed deeply. "They probably shouldn’t."

"I know you, Josh," she replied after a heavy silence.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I knew that my leaving would hurt you, but I

couldn't get your attention and I felt I had no choice. I

felt like you had given me no choice. But I knew it

would hurt you and I did it anyway. I'm sorry for that."

He soaked that in and then furrowed his brow. "I'm not

sure I know you."

"Of course you do."

"No… yesterday, there was a temp sitting in your chair."

"Marla Whorisky."

Josh laughed humorlessly. Of course Donna would know

and remember all the details. "When I asked where you

were, she said you had a new job, but that you'd left a

cell number. Which she proceeded to write." He leaned

back on the couch in order to dig the crumpled note out

of his pocket. "On this sticky note." Donna took the note

from him and stared at it. "She handed me your damn

number on a sticky note like I didn't know it, like we

didn't know each other at all."

"That doesn't mean-"

He silenced her with a shake of his head. "It's true. I

haven't known what's been going on with you since you

got back from Germany. Part of that is my fault and part

of it's yours. You shut me out; I didn't push. At times I

was a thoughtless jerk-- like I've been so many times in

the past-- but instead of being amused by me and

laughing and putting me in my place, you just got

angrier. The rules changed between us and I didn't

know what to do, so I did nothing."

"Josh…" There was a slight, husky change in her voice,

but Josh didn't pick up on it.

"What?"

When she failed to answer, he turned towards her, and

that's when she pounced. Before he knew what had

happened, she was kissing him. Donna's warm, supple

mouth was pressed sensuously against his own, and it

only took several seconds for him to process the

situation before he began kissing her back in earnest.

Parted lips moved in passionate unison, and their

tongues began dancing a delicious and seemingly endless

tango. After some time, drunk on the kiss, each other,

and in Donna's case, a watermelon martini, they

somehow rolled off the couch and toppled to the floor in

a fully-clothed, yet newly erotic, heap. It most likely

occurred when Josh attempted to pull her towards him

and onto his lap for better leverage, and she lost her

balance. Since neither was willing to break their new

and exhilarating connection, Josh had no choice but to

instinctively tumble down after her.

On the floor, they lay side by side, sort of, their limbs

entangled as hands and fingers and even boot- and shoe-

covered feet explored and touched every inch of the

other. And through it all, their lips never lost the

powerful physical connection that had ignited such a

passionate embrace in the first place. Almost half an

hour after the kiss began, their lips finally parted. Now

panting, they lay on the floor, still wound together,

gazing at each other through heavy-lidded eyes.

A quick check of their state of being would have told

them that Josh's shirt was untucked and now missing

several buttons, and his pants were undone, though no

straining body part—and something was straining-- had

found its way into the open. Mostly. As for Donna, her

unhooked bra was now swimming loosely under her tight

sweater, which was itself twisted, exposing expanses of

the smooth pale skin of both her tummy and back. Her

skirt was hiked up and over her hips so her legs could

more freely tangle with his, and her hair was as tousled

and unkempt as it probably had ever been. Josh's would

have been just as mussed for all the times Donna had

run her hands through it during the last 30 minutes, did

it not already naturally look like someone had taken a

weedwacker to it.

"What was that?" He finally asked in a hoarse, breathless

whisper. A smile played at the line of his mouth as he

searched her eyes for answers.

"Just trying to see if that might fix any of our problems."

"Did it work?" He asked as his fingers idly stroked the

smooth skin of her exposed back.

"Well I'm feeling much less furious. What about you?"

"I'm currently experiencing a furor, but it's of the non-

angry variety."

They continued to lie on the floor as Donna brought a

hand up to cup his cheek, letting her thumb trace the

indentation of his dimple. Finally, she spoke. "You're

right, I did change the rules… but things weren't easy for

me when I got back."

Josh breathed in and out several times, feeling himself

switch gears from passion back to their serious

conversation. "I know they weren't… why didn't you let

me help you?"

"Lots of reasons... some had everything to do with you,

some nothing," she replied, thinking back to that fateful

conversation she'd had with CJ during the lockdown.

"Do you want to tell me about any of them?"

She thought about it and answered truthfully, "Someday

maybe, but for now I think we just cured a lot of my…

issues."

"Well my lips been known to have amazing restorative

pow-"

She silenced his egotistical musing with a second kiss.

When they broke this time, he smiled smugly at her, and

then twisted his neck so he could survey the room and

their current disheveled position in it. "Hey, when did

we fall on the floor?"

"I have no idea," she answered honestly.

"We should probably get up?" He raised an eyebrow at

her in question.

"I kind of like it down here." She pressed her hips

suggestively against his.

"Yeah?" Josh groaned, so aroused he couldn't even

manage a smirk.

"Yeah," she replied as she curled her top leg even tighter

around his.

Josh leaned in, finding a sensitive hollow of her neck,

and was pleased to hear her moan in response. After a

few minutes of tender exploring, he asked between soft

kisses, "So you wanted to solve problems, but what

possessed you to do that right at that moment? One

minute you were furious, and the next you were sucking

my face off. I'm not complaining." He licked a path up

her jaw so he could whisper in her ear. "But I have to

say I honestly wasn't expecting it. Were you just so

turned on, you couldn't wait another minute?"

Donna's eyes had been closed, enjoying the sensations

he was creating with his lips and tongue on her skin, but

at that question, her eyes popped open. Josh, however,

didn't stop his ministrations on the skin beneath her ear;

thusly her speech was husky and peppered with the

occasional squeak or moan. "I was so damn tired of not

doing it. Of tap-dancing around something that we both

wanted. Besides, after I quit there didn't seem to be

much reason not to. Oh… and the watermelon martini

didn't hurt."

"Well, then, special thanks are owed to that watermelon

martini." He leaned back in order to wag his brow at

her. "So you've wanted to kiss me for a long time, eh?

Can't say I blame you, I'm-"

"Okay, that's enough." Before he could go any further,

she interrupted him. "Now it's your turn to say

something nice."

"Something nice?" He crinkled his forehead in question.

"Yes, something nice."

"I like that you kissed me. You're an excellent kisser."

"Okay, that was nice. But not what I meant. Something

a bit more… emotional, maybe?"

"Right," he sighed. "Emotional… um… okay. On Monday,

when we thought the world might be ending…"

"Yeah?" Donna asked almost eagerly.

"The guy. The NASA guy, he lamented to me that he'd

loved a man once and never told him. You know what

my first reaction to that was?"

She shook her head as her heart began to pick up the

pace.

"Well actually, the first thing I thought was that he had

just chosen to come out of the closet to me, and that

made me slightly uncomfortable as I'm completely ill-

equipped to deal with such a situation. But the second

thing I thought about was whether or not I had people I

hadn't told things to that I should… you know… if it really

were the end."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"What?" He raised his eyebrows in question. "Oh, that's

the end of the story."

For that, she maneuvered so she could punch him lightly

in the stomach.

"Ouch." He faked injury by hunching slightly, but didn't

get very far, as they were still very much wrapped

together. After he was through acting, he met her eye

and asked sincerely, "Are you sure you won't come back

to work?"

"I'm sure."

"Positive?"

"We just made out. Even if it had been an option, which

it wasn't, it probably shouldn't be anymore," she

countered practically.

"Well…" He took a fortifying breath. "Then I can tell you

that moments after I found out the world wasn't ending,

I found out that you'd left… and your leaving was a much

worse feeling. Your leaving felt like the end of my

world. And so if it were really the end, I'd want you to

know how much you mean to me… how much I care

about you."

She blinked several times. "Okay, that was pretty good."

"Does it qualify as me saying something nice?"

"I, uh… definitely think it qualifies as nice."

With the back of his hand, he traced the side of her

face. "I'm so sorry I put off our lunches; I guess I

thought I could put off the inevitable. You have no idea

how sorry I am that I made you feel like you weren't

worth my time… although if you making out with me is

the consequence of that, it's getting easier to live with."

He bent forward slightly so he could nuzzle her cheek

again, pressing soft kisses across her jaw towards her

ear.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked almost shyly,

as he continued nibbling on her ear.

With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, he

sighed into her skin. "I'm not sure, but I think we should

make falling on the floor together without realizing it a

regular occurrence."

"Me, too," she agreed breathlessly. With that, he happily

rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. Neither

one knew what the future held, but both felt excited at

the prospect of holding on to one another. Of course,

neither of them had any idea that at the same time, a

Congressman in Houston was diligently reading and re-

reading a certain nine-point plan, while the Vice

President's newly-minted campaign manager pored over

Donna's resume, determined to bring her on board at all

costs.

The End