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‘I’m only half-listening, and Toby’s question
catches me. ‘Who?’ ‘President Bartlet. You know. The
guy in the next-door office. The most powerful…' ‘I don’t know, Toby. What are we planning for his
birthday?’Again, everyone looks at me. I know I’m in a bad mood.
At least only I know why. After the party, I called
Jen. Yeah, it’s been over a year. Yeah, there was no
reason to think she would even talk to me. And yeah, I
was pissed as Hell when the housekeeper told me she
was out for the evening. Housekeeper. When did that
happen? We let Ruth go when we split up. And although
it’s been two days, she hasn’t called me back. I’m not
calling again. I’ll wait.
‘Margaret!’ My assistant rushes in from her desk, slightly breathless. Either she’s dangerously unfit, or… 'Margaret, why are you out of breath?’ ‘I’m not, Leo.’ ‘Yeah, you are. It’s only a couple of steps, but every time you come in here, you look like you ran a mile.’ ‘Er, you…when you…’ Margaret looks uncomfortably at the floor, stammering over her reply. Irritated, I cut her off. ‘I want to send Jen some flowers. Roses. Red. A dozen. Send ‘em to the house.’ ‘Okay. Any note?’ ‘Yeah. Happy birthday.’ Margaret does that ‘looking uncomfortable’ thing again, then I hear her say: ‘Okay.’ And she’s gone.
‘You ready?’ Sam looks up, and smiles. ‘Almost. Where we going?’ I shrug. ‘The mess?’ Sam shakes his head. ‘Nah, get something in and we can talk.’ I smile then. If we’re lucky, we’ll manage fifteen minutes before Cathy or Donna or Leo or someone else interrupts us. But that’s okay. It’s not often we get any time together during the day. My money’s on Leo today. He’s been in a foul temper all morning, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he interrupted us over nothing important, just because he can. Then Sam’s ‘phone rings and I leave to get the food. The afternoon is wasted as I sit in a meeting about missiles in the Philippines and it’s almost four when I manage to get back to my desk. As usual, the files are piled up, sorted into some kind of order by Margaret. She hears me on the ‘phone and stands in the doorway of my office until I’m done. ‘Yeah?’ ‘Jennifer called. She said to thank you for the flowers.’ ‘Did she say anything else?’ ‘No.’ ‘Okay.’ After Margaret leaves, and if I could be bothered to pick them all up afterwards, I contemplate throwing everything off my desk onto the floor. But everyone’s worrying about Josh’s mental health and the President’s physical health, so I figure I probably wouldn’t get much attention if I did crack. So I just move into my armchair and pick up the newspaper, folding it until just the crossword and the few surrounding inches are visible. I only just get to read the first clue when the door opens.
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