Dinner came in a flash and they were all quick to commend Sam on his
culinary skills. They had watched him work his magic and still they had no idea how the Primavera sauce had come out
so scintillatingly. Moaning was a normal occurence at their table. The pasta seemed to melt on the tongue and
ease sensuously down the throat. The vegetable medley was tender and swamped the senses with exquisite flavor.
After the initial silence in respect for the food, conversation commenced full start.
"So, Zoey, I hear you're starting Georgetown this semester."
She wiped her mouth, careful not to put her fork down in case another craving hit.
"Yep. I'm so excited. My schedule's pretty great."
"What kind of class do you have?"
"I have Intro to Cinema, Economics, American History, and the dreaded Biology.
I'd rather die than take that class. I hated Biology in high school, I don't know why I thought that would go away."
"Biology isn't so bad."
"Not if you're a doctor. You're used to that stuff. I just
can't get any of it."
"I'll help you."
"Yeah?"
"Um hmm."
Zoey reached out and took her godmother's hand. "Thank you."
"It's nothing. Anyway, I take it your father's helping you with Economics?"
"Helping me. Aunt Abbey, he's already taught me so much that I could
teach my class."
"Not surprising," she looked to her old friend. "Your father's a great teacher."
"I know." Zoey got an idea and winked at her godsister, Denise. She
held up her glass of wine that Charlie had secreted to her. "To teachers, glorious teachers."
They smiled, but followed her ploy. "To teachers!" And they drank up.
"Don't think I didn't notice that you're drinking wine. Charlie, I know who
she got it from. Just for that, I am personally seeing to it that you two sleep in separate rooms. Friends, I
believe it is time for the bakers to make their presentation. LJ, could you help our esteemed confectionary artists
out?"
He rose. "Yes, sir."
A few minutes later a hush fell as a set of three pie were laid out before them.
Then, there was vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
"No one touch anything until they give the order." Mrs. Landingham stared
him down as he stood at the head of the table. "Oh," he sat down quickly and tucked his napkin into his lap. She
always managed to keep him minding his P's and Q's.
"Thank you, Mr. Man." It was Jed's turn to blush. Abbey laid an empathetic
hand on his arm. She smiled at him and he suddenly felt a lot better. "Are you all ready for dessert?" There
was a harmonious nodding of heads. "Then, if my partners agree," they nodded their ascent," feel free to dig in."
And dig in they did.
There was cherry pie, apple pie, and blueberry pie. Within the hour each pan
clattered with empty serving spoons, wiped clean by voracious appetites. Even Kelsey managed to get a bite off
Donna's slice of cherry pie. Donna had made a lifelong friend in her.
Once they retired to the living room, their quorum began to fall away. April
put Kelsey to bed and decided to turn in herself. Denise, Charlie and Zoey followed suit, all claiming busy days for
tomorrow.
"Separate rooms, Charlie."
"Daddy!" She glowered down at him.
"Don't give me that." A war of fierce stares began and they called a truce,
too content and tired to argue. "Good night, honey."
"Night, Daddy."
Their wide banter had simmered down to small talks among those still there and
awake. LJ had dozed off beside Mrs. Landingham. She covered him with an afghan and stroked his hair
from his forehead adoringly. How he reminded her of her Andrew and Simon. Much as his father did.
Her gaggle of exhausted, and slightly tipsy, assistants lagging behind her,
Mrs. Landingham wished Jed a good night. "Good night, Jed." He tried to stand to see them to the door, but she
waved him off. "Oh, sit down. We can find our own way out. Good night, Dr. McGarry."
"Good night, Mrs. Landingham."
Jed did eventually have to rise to call the car service to tow Donna and Josh
-- though more so Josh -- home. His delicate system had struck again.
Sam remained the sluggish portion of a heated debate over how best to make Senator
Rochester disappear from the face of the earth. Jed nixed that conversation fast with Abbey in such close proximity
and more lucid than the rest of them. She'd only had two glasses of red wine to their three bottles. He didn't
want to spoil a perfectly good evening with that crap.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be on dish duty tonight?" She blew a raspberry
at him, but went to her task nonetheless.
"Sam, I thought you were helping me." He nodded and attempted to stand, only
to end up on his ass again. Okay, maybe not with the helping. "Never mind, Sam. I can handle it."
Jed balanced on the back of the couch and listened as they restarted their plotting
with renewed vigor. He had to admit, they could be malicious when they put their collective minds to it. He had
to hold himself back from throwing in a few ideas. Just the implications of what Rochester and co. were saying could
knock them out of the park for reelection and could ruin each of them. Only he and Abbey knew the truth and even as
a man who valued honesty faithfully, he accepted that letting this slip now would be a mistake. They had managed thus
far to keep it quiet. It needed to stay quiet. Of course, the staff would need to be told. They deserved
the truth. After all, they had gottent the unelectable, elected.
"Guys, it's been a long night. Let's call it a day and take it up tomorrow.
I'm giving you guys a half hour waiver on a bad mood for hangovers. You can either take a guest room upstairs or there's
a car waiting outside for you. It'll take you wherever you want to go. In fact, you don't even have to go right
now, but you do need to drop this topic, because not everyone knows about it yet." He tipped his head towards the kitchen
where the water could still be heard running.
"Okay." CJ rolled her neck and yawned. "I'm gonna head home. Guys,
you wanna escort me. I'm taking the last car."
Toby put out his cigar and downed the dregs of his scotch. "I'll go with
you. Sam?" He only snored lightly in response. "Sam." He poked him in the shoulder. "Sam, we're
going home now. Get up, you can stay at my place."
He jerked upright suddenly, looking disoriented and slightly bewildered to even
be awake. He rubbed his eyes. "What?"
"Come on. It's time to go home. We've got a waiver on tomorrow's bad
mood so I may as well get started." Sam had drifted off again. Toby thunked his ear.
"Ouch! Toby, what the..." He rubbed his ear grumpily. "I'm awake.
Let's go already." They let out a collective yawn and jostled themselves awake.
They gathered their things from the closet and started to leave. "Good night,
Abbey," they shouted from the foyer.
"Good night and take care." They mumbled in kind and stumbled out to the car
idling at the end of the driveway. With a concerted effort, they strapped themselves in and the car disappeared safely
into the night. It relieved Jed to know that he'd be seeing them the next morning.
He closed the door and went to the kitchen to see whether Abbey could use some help.
"You need any help in here?"
"You can dry if you like."
"Sure." He took up the dishtowel and dried the dishes, automatically putting
them in their rightful places. The silence stretched comfortably between them as she handed off each clean dish for
his service. He soon noted that there were no more dishes coming his way. It was all done. "Hey, you're
finished."
"Yeah. Went a lot faster with your help." He inclined his chin
and leaned casually against the counter. She rested back on her elbows and gave him a half-hearted once over.
He smiled and shook his head. They flirted back and forth, never making too much of anything. They were friends,
but there had always been something more there. They'd never spoken of it before. They saw no reason to start
now.
"Tonight was fun."
"It was. It's always fun."
"True. But we can never help getting completely wasted."
"Only in the company of friends. We trust that no one will take advantage
of us, so we let our guards down when we're together."
"Yeah." She stood up straight and went toe to toe with him.
"What were you trying to stop me from hearing about tonight?" He dropped her
gaze and looked out into the his backyard. "Don't do that. You don't look away unless you're about to lie and
we don't do that. Don't lie to me, Jed." She reached up and touched his handsome face, turning it back to her.
"Tell me."
"Rochester said some things and Josh lost his temper."
"What did he say?"
"He talked about you and Leo."
"A few home truths, then?"
"A few." She nodded and turned her back to him.
"All true?"
"Mostly sensationalism, but he gained steam when Josh lost it. He's got friends
now and they've got more to say. They're not just limiting themselves to you two. They've brought their BS to
our offices. They're going after Toby's past, Sam's 'incident,' and before long, April. They want a fight that
we can't deny them."
"Maybe so, but you can deny them the satisfaction of seeing you sink down to their
level. I heard your little gaggle out here." He tried to defend their letting of drunken steam. "Don't.
I don't even want to hear it. Tell them what they need to know, Jed. But don't let them get that low."
She took his face in her hands and brushed her lips imperceptibly over his.
It was so swift and light that neither of them were sure if they'd touched at all. He then pulled her to him in a tight hug.
"Good night, Abbey."
"Good night, Jed." Then, she pulled away with undistinguishable emotion
in her eyes and was gone.
He touched his fingers to his lips. Good night indeed.
