New Times, Old Habits
Donna sat in the car checking her email on her phone and tapping her foot impatiently.
She’d been sitting here for twenty minutes, which had already been an hour later than they should have been setting off.
She’d be mad at Josh for being so very late… except that he was on the phone with the British Prime Minister trying to talk him out of sending troops to the Falkland Islands. Which, as excuses went, was pretty good.
At least, it had been good and she hadn’t been mad at him, until fifteen minutes ago.
Twenty five minutes ago, Margaret had called her with a message from him saying that he’d be ten minutes more and that she should wait in the car.
Before then, she’d been in her office, where there were beverages, a computer, books and a television. Now she was out here with a choice between fiddling with her phone and staring at her shoes.
They were great shoes.
Josh had bought them for her as a surprise. Red Manolo Blahniks. High heeled, strappy bits of nothing that cost far too much for what they were. Damn, they looked good on her feet.
She’d give him five more minutes before she left without him.
Of course, Margaret would have been the one who actually picked out the shoes. After all those years as his assistant she knew better than anyone that, though the thought was often his, the execution tended to only work out if it was left in more organised hands.
Anyone else married to him might come to resent their presents being picked out by someone else, but truth was that she was fine with it. She just told Margaret what she wanted. He’d worked out, of course, that was what was going on. She’d overplayed her hand when she’d asked for skis last Christmas.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when the door opened. She recoiled as a garment bag was thrown at her head.
“Ow!” She exclaimed, moving it into her lap.
Josh popped his head into the car.
“I thought you’d gone already.” He winced apologetically.
“Someone told me to wait for him in the car.” She replied pointedly.
He winced again and climbed in. The doorman shut the door behind him.
“Sorry about that.” He said as he nodded to the driver. The car was started and slowly started to pull out of the White House drive.
“You’re also not dressed.” She pointed out as she handed him the garment bag.
“I was gonna get changed in the car.” He replied as he turned to her. He looked her up and down. “You look nice.” He grinned.
“Don’t change the subject!” She smiled, basking in his appreciative gaze. Her annoyance at him fell away.
He leant over and she leant forwards to meet him for a brief kiss.
“Now strip.” She said as she leant back, crossed her legs and folded her arms loosely over her chest.
He looked at her in amusement as he started loosening his tie.
“You’re just gonna sit there like that and watch me?” He asked.
“Mmmhmm.” She agreed.
He slowly pulled the tie off, looking steadily at her the whole time, then he threw it at her. She laughed as she caught it. He started shrugging out of his suit jacket.
“How’d the call go?” She asked.
He exhaled harshly and handed her the jacket, which she carefully folded and laid on the seat behind her.
“They’re holding back for now but, if the Argentines keep provoking them by sending ships to edge of their waters, I don’t know how long I can keep talking them down.”
“So we’re looking at another war over energy resources?” She frowned as she leant forward and helped him with unbuttoning his shirt.
“I wish it was just the gas reserves. We could work some kind of deal over that but they have this longstanding personal enmity.” He pushed the shirt off his shoulders.
“An ex-empire thing?” She unzipped the garment bag and handed him his dress shirt, taking his work shirt from him at the same time.
“Yeah.” He pulled on the shirt and started buttoning it.
“Tricky.” She mused as she put the shirt on the hanger, then added the suit jacket and hung it on the seat in front of her.
“Yeah.” He agreed.
Donna leant over to start undoing his pants. He froze and looked down at her. She stopped and looked up at him.
“Should we just go home instead?” He asked, his voice dropping.
She grinned.
“Zoey and Charlie will be upset if we don’t at least make an appearance at their engagement party.” She replied.
“Then you’d better let me do that myself.” He replied as he pointed towards his lap.
Donna smiled coyly as she took her hands back and sat up.
He bit his lip and tried not to meet her eyes as he finished undoing them and wriggled to get them off. When he looked up she was watching him; her face a mixture of lust and amusement. She held up his pants and handed them to him.
He leant forward, cupped her face and kissed her. Her hands went to his shoulders as she deepened the kiss.
After a couple of minutes, she leant back with a reluctant sigh. He moved back too, just as reluctantly.
“Oh!” She said as she looked at him. She leant forward again to wipe at his lips. “Lipstick.” She explained.
She reached down for her bag, pulled out lipstick and mirror, and started to re-apply.
“You should put your pants on.” She said, not looking at him.
He raised his eyebrows and licked his lips, watching her.
“Yeah.” He replied absently.
He snapped out of it and wriggled into his pants.
She snapped the compact closed and put it away, then scooped up his pants, folded them neatly and added them to the hanger with his suit jacket.
“Was black tie for this shindig her father’s idea by any chance?” Josh asked as he pulled the tie from the garment bag.
“It’s romantic.” Donna said as she took the strip of fabric from his hand.
He leant forward so that she could loop it around his neck. As he raised his head, they were face to face, inches apart, again.
“Yeah, it is.” He smiled, then sighed. “Well, it will be later. When I don’t need to worry about messing up your lipstick again.” His gaze flicked down to her lips, then back up to meet her eyes.
“We don’t have to stay long.” She replied softly.
He laughed wryly.
“We’re getting there late, they’ll never let us leave early! As soon as we walk through the door, President Bartlet will corner me to talk about the education bill, and Abbey will corner you to talk about the vaccination initiative. And that’s before Zoey starts on about wedding color schemes…”
“True.” She dead panned. “I know how she values your thoughts on such things.”
“Donna!” He exclaimed and she grinned.
“Be quiet now and let me tie this!” She said.
He snapped his mouth shut and she focused on tying it.
“There.” She said, tweaking it a little and then sitting back.
They looked at each other for a long moment. He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
“We’re nearly there, sir.” The driver said.
“Thank you.” Josh said to him, still looking at her.
Donna looked away bashfully and picked up his jacket. She handed it to him and he put it on.
The car came to a stop and the door was opened. Josh got out first and then held his hand out for Donna. He looked down at her feet as she stood up.
“Great shoes!” He said as he linked his arm through hers.
She smiled back at him as he looked back up at her face.
Then they walked into the party together.