Building a Mystery

Isabel

 


"Oh, what a day," Sam groaned as he settled down on his couch to watch Will & Grace. "I can't believe she's gonna be working with me."

"Sam, just because you disagree with her point of view doesn't make Ainsley Hayes a bad person," Donna told him.

"Yes, it does."

"Are you just saying that because she kicked your butt all over town on TV?"

"I'll have you know that I am way above such petty grudges. I just think she's . . . bad."

"That's the best word you could come up with?"

"Staggeringly bad."

Donna laughed and joined him on the couch, handing him a cup of coffee. "It won't be a big deal, Sam. Just calm down. You sure you want me to stay over tonight?"

"Yeah, I feel like I haven't seen you at all this week. Hey, how do you think Josh would react to the fact that you bring me coffee?"

"We're not at work," she reminded him. "If you were my boss, I wouldn't bring you coffee at work. It's the principle of the thing, you see."

Sam grinned and slipped an arm around her, pulling her close. "Whatever you say."

During a commercial break, Sam went into the bathroom and Donna stood up, stretching her limbs. The phone rang.

"Donna, can you get it?"

"Sure." She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Donna?" It was Josh.

"Josh!" Her heart stopped beating. "Why are you calling me?"

"I'm calling Sam. Why are you at Sam's?"

"I'm not."

"I dialed Sam's number."

"No, you dialed my number. Why would I be at Sam's?"

"I don't know. Well, your number and his are next to each other on my speed dial. I must have hit the wrong one."

"Okay. See you tomorrow, Joshua."

"Bye, Donnatella."

She hung up the phone and fell back against the cushions, exhaling loudly. "Okay, I am never answering your phone again unless you have caller I.D."

Sam came around the couch and sat next to her. "Yeah, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Good thing you can bluff."

The phone rang again and Sam snatched it up on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sam, it's Josh."

"Hey, Josh, what's up?"

"Not much, I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to the Wizards-Knicks game on Saturday night."

"Oh . . . well, I actually already have plans."

"Oh."

"Sorry."

"No, that's okay. What are you doing?"

"I'm, um, going to a movie with a blind date."

"You have a blind date?"

"Yeah, someone my neighbor knows. Her name's Dana." 'Damn, that's the best I could of?'

"Okay, I guess I'll ask Donna or CJ."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"No problem. See you in the morning."

"Night, Josh."

Sam hung up the phone and looked at her. "This is getting fairly ridiculous. Maybe you should go to the game with him so he doesn't suspect anything."

"But you really wanted to see this movie."

"We can see the movie another time."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Now, come here and relax."

Donna grinned and came into his arms, content in the embrace of her boyfriend.

***
"I have to say, I'm really glad you asked me to go to this game, Josh."

"You like the seats?" Josh asked.

Donna grinned as she took a sip of her soda. "Courtside. Not bad."

"There are some perks to being the White House Deputy Chief of Staff."

"Now, are you going to get overzealous with the Knicks now that baseball season is over and your precious Mets -"

"Don't say it," he warned.

" - lost the World Series to the Yankees?" she finished.

"You're fired," he grumbled, taking some of her popcorn.

"Okay," she said with a laugh.

He looked at her for a long moment. "Donna?"

"Hmm?"

"What's gotten into you lately?"

"What do you mean?" she asked warily.

"You've just . . . for the last three or four months, you've just been smiling more often; you look happier."

"I am happier."

"Is it because of a local Gomer?"

"Josh, I hardly think that's your business."

"It is a local Gomer, isn't it?" he asked accusingly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought your level of interest in the revolving door of local Gomers I dated wasn't very significant."

"Yeah, but you've been seeing this guy for, what, three months?"

"Three and a half months," she said with a little smile.

"Name?"

"Shane."

"Shane? What the hell kind of name is Shane?"

"It's a good name," she defended.

"Is he in politics?"

Uh-oh. She couldn't say yes. Josh would find some way to track down Shane and figure out he doesn't exist.

"No, amazingly, he's not."

"So what does he do?"

"He's currently unemployed." Good. Nothing Josh could check up on.

"An unemployed Gomer?"

"Josh, if you say Gomer one more time -"

"Sorry. It's just, you should date someone who won't be like Dr. Freeride."

She clenched her teeth. "He is nothing like Dr. Freeride. I'll have you know that his family is very well off, and he is a very generous man. He doesn't need my money."

"When do I get to meet him?"

Her breath caught. "Hopefully never."

"You've been seeing this guy for three months and you didn't tell me about it? Really, Donna, I would have thought you were comfortable enough with me to tell me about Sean."

"Shane."

"Whatever."

"Look, Josh, I'm sorry. I just didn't think you'd care."

"Fair enough," Josh sighed as the tip-off approached. "C'mon Donnatella, let's watch the Knickerbockers kick some Wizard butt."

***
"So what does Shane look like?" Josh asked Monday morning as Donna handed him a stack of phone messages.

"Why are you so preoccupied with my boyfriend?" she asked defensively.

"I want to make sure he's good enough for you."

"Josh, I'm a big girl. I don't need my boss to judge the merits of my boyfriends."

"Just tell me what he looks like."

"He's half-Japanese." Good, be creative. "He's pretty tall, and he has nice eyes."

"What's his last name?"

"Josh, are you going to have the FBI run a background check on him?"

"Maybe."

"Josh!"

"Sam!"

"Sam?" Donna repeated alarmedly.

"Sam, c'mere."

Donna let out a breath as Sam walked into Josh's office. "Good morning to you, too, Josh."

"Yeah, whatever, Sam. Look, Donna won't tell me anything about her boyfriend. Doesn't Cathy tell you about her dates."

"Yes." Sam looked at his girlfriend nervously.

"Donna won't even tell me this guy's last name. It's Shane something, he's unemployed, and half-Japanese. I just want to make sure he doesn't have a criminal record or anything."

"I'm leaving," Donna proclaimed. "My love life is not your jurisdiction, Joshua. You should really know when someone wants to keep something private." She stormed out angrily, leaving Josh and Sam behind in a daze.

"Well, that went well," Josh said.

"Josh, why are you getting so curious about Donna's boyfriend? She can take care of herself, you know."

"You're my best friend - shouldn't you be taking my side?"

"Not on this. She's right, this is private."

"Do you know anything about this guy?"

"I just learned about Shane today." Hey, it was the truth. "Donna and I don't really talk that much unless you're the topic." Okay, that was a lie.

"Do you think Margaret or Cathy would know?"

"Josh, drop it."

"I'm just saying, I know she confides in Margaret. Maybe her roommate."

"You're going to call Shannon and ask her to reveal this guy's identity?"

"Who's Shannon?"

"Um, Donna's roommate."

"Why do you know Donna's roommate's name?"

"It came up in conversation once. I was saying how my cousin Shannon called, and she said that was her roommate's name also."

"I didn't know you had a cousin named Shannon."

"She's a second cousin." Blatant lie. There was nobody in Sam's family named Shannon.

"Maybe I'll call Shannon. Shannon her roommate, not Shannon your cousin."

"Thanks for the clarification, Josh."

"Look, I just want to make sure that Donna doesn't get hurt by this guy. I mean, she's one of my best friends, and she has this tendency to date idiot losers."

Sam frowned. "Maybe this guy isn't an idiot or a loser. Maybe he's a nice guy who really cares about Donna."

"Do you think he exists?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Maybe she's making this up so I won't feel sorry for her."

"Josh, that's insane. Look, don't you have actual work to do?"

"I guess so."

"Let Donna live her own life."

"So how was your blind date?"

Sam looked at him blankly. "My what?"

"Your blind date? With Dana, or whatever her name was."

"Oh. Oh, yeah, it was okay. She was a podiatrist."

"A podiatrist?"

"Yeah." Nice job on creativity, Sam. "She was nice, but I don't think I'll see her again."

"Why not?"

"She was a little flaky. Didn't know anything about politics, and I know nothing about feet, so the conversation got kind of mundane."

"I can't believe you went on a blind date."

"I'll say it again - don't you have actual work to do?"

"Okay, okay. See you later Sam."

"Bye, Josh."

Sam walked out of his best friend's office and shut the door. As he passed Donna they exchanged worried glances. This was getting hard to keep a secret. How much longer could they pull it off?

Meanwhile, in his office, Josh was looking out the window. "I'm going to find this Shane guy," he said to himself. "And I'm going to make sure he's good enough for Donna."

 

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