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Disclaimer, Rating, Summary on Introduction/Chapter 1 Changes Chapter 5
The next morning, Donna wasn't surprised that Josh wasn't in yet. 'Back to normal I guess,' she thought, sighing to herself. She checked her phone messages, fired up her computer and walked down to get Josh's overnight packages and faxes. As she walked back though, her arms overloaded with mail, she bumped into Josh. He smiled at her. "On, now you've ruined it. I was going to surprise you with coffee again, but you're always where I least expect you to be." Donna noticed two coffee's in a tray in Josh's hand, as well as a bakery bag. "You brought me coffee again?" she asked, stunned that Josh had brought her coffee for the second day in a row. "Yep, but since you're milling about the halls aimlessly, you've ruined the surprise," he teased, noticing the numerous bundles Donna was handling with grace and ease. "Aimlessly wandering the halls, hmmm? How hot is that coffee?" she asked, menacingly holding her free hand under the tray Josh was holding. "Hey! Hey!" he said laughing, backing away from her. "You don't want me to dump our breakfast all over the floor, do you?" He took a few steps ahead of her and walked into his office. Putting the tray down on his desk, along with the bag, he noticed Donna hadn't followed him in. "Donnatella! Are you going to eat breakfast with me or not?" Donna had veered into the bullpen to grab Josh's schedule. "You don't have to yell. I'm right here," she said, as she entered his office, dumping the mail onto his back table and seating herself in her usual chair in front of his desk. Her eyes lit up as she studied the bag on his desk. "So, what'd you bring us?" Josh handed her a cup of coffee while snagging the bag. "I got myself a double chocolate cream cheese muffing," he said, dramatically pulling the muffin out of the bag and waving it in front of her face. Donna wrinkled her nose. "How can you eat that this early in the morning?" "Very easily," he answered, ripping into the muffing and closing his eyes. "Mmmmmmm..." She watched him pop the muffin into his mouth. "So?" He opened his eyes to look at her."So?" Donna let out a sigh, but smiled expectantly at him. "So, what did you bring me?" "For you, Donnatella, we have a low-fat cinnamon crumb muffin," he said, making another dramatic swoop through the air with the muffin. Donna's eyes widened at the generosity of his gift. "They are always out of those by the time I get there. How'd you snag one?" she asked, pulling the wrapper off the bottom of the muffin. "Well, I had to body block a little old lady, but I figured you were worth it," he answered, enjoying the flush that crept up Donna's face. "Thank you," Donna said quietly, ducking her head. "You're welcome," Josh said, watching her quietly. Then he asked, "What are you doing to that muffin?" Donna had separated the bottom of the muffin from the top and was eating the bottom only. She looked up at him. "I'm eating the bottom." "I can see that. Why do you eat the bottom first?" "The top of a muffin is the best part. It's got all the cinnamon on it. I always save it for last." "And where did you pick up this nifty tip?" Josh asked, settling back in his chair, eating all parts of his muffin equally. "From Felicia Martin in 3rd grade. It's how we would eat the birthday cupcakes our classmates brought in." Josh, who could stand the suspense no longer about what happened at dinner last night with Byron, said, "Ah, another school friend rears their head." "I guess," said Donna enigmatically with a smile, sipping her coffee. "I'm going to assume by your artful dodge of my question and your smile that dinner with Byron was nice last evening?" asked Josh, his stomach already clenching at the thought of her having dinner with Byron. Donna parried back. "Artful dodge? I think not. If you wanted to know how my dinner was, why don't you just ask?" She titled her head and regarded him. "I thought I just did," said Josh. Donna smiled. "It was fine." "Just fine." "Yeah." "You don't want to say anything more than that?" asked Josh, feeling a sense of déjà vu with this conversation. Donna smiled at him, remembering the time when their words were similar, but their roles were reversed. "I don't Josh. And the way you know that I don't, is that I'm not." "But this is our special time together," responded Josh, laughing as he sipped his coffee. "Okay, enough with the déjà vu," said Donna starting to eat the top part of her muffin. "It was fine. We caught up. We ate dinner. End of the story." She tried to keep herself from smiling as she said it though, but she didn't do a good enough job. `Damn,' thought Josh. `She likes him.' "Uh huh," he said teasingly. "Stop it, Josh. It wasn't like that. We're old friends. We caught up. I'm sure I won't hear from him again." "Okay," he said, not really wanting to have a conversation with her about a potential boyfriend. Instead, he reached for the top of her muffin that she had left sitting on his desk. She laid her hand flat on top of his. "What part of, this is my muffin, do you not understand?" she asked, laughing. "Um, no part of it?" he answered back, reveling in the soft touch of her hand on his. Realizing she was practically holding his hand, Donna moved her hand away and reached for his schedule. She bit her lip and said, "Want to know what you're doing today?" Enjoying watching her flush, Josh settled back in his chair again. "If I must," he sighed dramatically. As he listened, he stared at Donna's face and wondered what it would be like to see her face every morning and every night, not just for the 10 hours or so they worked together. His revelry was interrupted when Donna stood up and started collecting her stuff. Realizing he hadn't heard a word she said, he hoped he didn't have any meetings in the next hour before he could get a peek at his calendar when she left her desk. "Thanks Donna." "You're welcome Josh. Thanks for breakfast." "You're welcome," he smiled back, all thoughts of his schedule gone from his mind.
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